Chapter 379 Selection

Chapter 379 Selection

Chapter 379 Selection
at the same time.

Thousands of kilometers away from Shantou and the United States in the northwest.

The city in the sky above Minqin County.

This behemoth, which has been suspended in the air for several years, has stopped plans for further expansion, but its role is still very important.

Apart from the insignificant tourist open area, the aerospace zone previously used to launch carrier rockets completed the laying of annular electromagnetic pipelines as early as the beginning of last year.

In other words, Minqin Sky City also has the ability to launch spacecraft into outer space through electromagnetic acceleration.

This is also one of the backups for the Sun Chaser Sky City in Borneo.

In addition, a sky city is also being built in the vast desert in the central interior of Australia, which is also a special site used as a spacecraft launch center.

The reason for building three sky cities for aerospace purposes.

On the one hand, it is to increase the scale of transportation of materials to outer space.

On the other hand, it is for safety reasons.

Although at this stage the strength of the Asian Union has completely crushed the North Atlantic Union and the Southern Alliance.

But there is still huge uncertainty about the future.

There is a saying that makes a lot of sense.

That is, those who love war will perish, and those who forget war will suffer sorrow.

The world is currently in a stage of mutation with undercurrents. It seems that under the suppression of the Asian Union, other forces are relatively restrained, or are willing to swallow their anger.

But if we simply think that the future will be peaceful, it would be a big mistake.

This is why Wang Lifeng and others have been tirelessly promoting the research and development of weapons and equipment in the Asian Union, in order to enhance deterrence and at the same time leave enough cards for possible crises in the future.

The three sky cities currently within the Asian Commonwealth are also the products of project planning based on this general background.

Among them, Minqin Sky City belongs exclusively to Blue Whale Aerospace, but it also accepts cooperation from other related companies.

The Sun Chaser Sky City in Borneo is a cooperative project between Blue Whale Aerospace and China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation.

Australia's blue sky city has nothing to do with Blue Whale Aerospace. The core operators of this sky city are the Asian Space Agency and China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation.

Therefore, as the behind-the-scenes boss of Blue Whale Aerospace, Hailufeng Group's related aerospace projects are basically in Minqin County and Zhuri City.

For example, the astronaut training base of Blue Whale Aerospace is located in Minqin County.

Looking out the window at the "dark clouds" floating above the blue sky, Fang Yalin leaned back in his chair and cleared his mind of all distracting thoughts.

"What are you thinking about?" A bottle of energy drink was placed on his desk.

Fang Yalin turned his head slightly, a smile on his face: "Captain, are you done with the training?"

The visitor sat directly opposite him, holding a stainless steel lunch box in his hand.

As Li Kangxuan opened the lunch box, he asked casually, "The New Year is coming soon, don't you plan to go home?"

"No, after my parents passed away, I seldom went back. The county town where I grew up is being relocated in recent years, and I guess not many people are left in the village." Fang Yalin smiled and shook his head.

Li Kangxuan picked up a piece of pork chop with chopsticks, and then advised: "Okay! But you should go back and take a look when you have a chance!"

In fact, Fang Yalin also heard the captain's implication.

They were the first group of selected members of the Venus expedition, totaling 500 people.

After a series of training and screening, there are currently 277 people left.

These people had actually been screened before being selected for the Venus Expeditionary Force Training Camp, and the criteria for that screening were to select people who were in good health and had simple family relationships as much as possible.

For example, Fang Yalin whose parents have passed away, or Li Kangxuan whose parents have multiple children.

After all, the destination of these prospective astronauts is Venus.

When Venus is relatively close to the Earth, it is about 3800 million kilometers away; when it is farthest away, when it is separated by the Sun, the distance between the two planets reaches about 2.61 million kilometers.

The current cruising speed of the Venus expedition spacecraft is about 11 kilometers per second, which is approximately 3.96 kilometers per hour.

Calculated at the closest distance, it takes about 959.6 hours, or about 40 days, to travel from Earth to Venus.

If calculated based on the average distance of 1.495 million kilometers, it would take about 3775 hours, or about 157 days, to travel from Earth to Venus.

This is just a one-way trip.

If you need to go back and forth, the total time may exceed 300 days.

After all, we cannot only consider the short window period of the shortest distance, but also the longer distance.

In the future, when Venus is colonized on a large scale and the scale of launch increases, some time periods outside the window period will also need to be utilized.

As to why not consider faster spacecraft.

The answer is very simple.

Just three words: cost-effectiveness.

It's not that the spacecraft launched into outer space by humans cannot continue to increase their speed, but as the speed increases, the fuel consumed in the acceleration process also soars.

Moreover, the issues that a spacecraft needs to consider are not only acceleration, but also deceleration.

If the acceleration is too high in the early stage, more fuel will be needed to brake when arriving near the destination in the later stage to reduce the speed of the spacecraft to a level that can be captured by the target planet.

Therefore, after years of practical experience, the current travel speed of interstellar spacecraft within the solar system is approximately between 11 kilometers per second and 15 kilometers per second.

Among them, the route speed of 11 kilometers per second has a better cost-effectiveness ratio, and this is also a relatively common speed range chosen by major forces in interstellar voyages.

However, spaceships like those in science fiction movies are basically impossible to realize at this stage, or the cost-effectiveness is not high.

Projects like gravity spaceships, force field spaceships, and wormhole spaceships are basically fanciful. Even if there are scientific research institutions conducting research on them, they are only doing some theoretical research.

After all, humans haven't even worked out the technical theories to realize these projects, so don't daydream and just build a prototype first.

Since there is an upper limit to the speed at which a spacecraft can travel.

That means that once they go to Venus, the number of times these astronauts can return to Earth in their lifetime will be very limited.

No matter how humane and considerate Blue Whale Aerospace is, it is impossible for it to allow an astronaut who has been trained for several years to go to Venus to work for a few months and then return to Earth on a spacecraft.

The cost of doing so is too high.

It also conflicts with the original intention of the Venus exploration plan.

According to the plan of Blue Whale Space and the Asian Space Agency, the first group of astronauts going to Venus will stay on Venus for at least two years before returning to Earth on a spacecraft.

Including the time for round trip, these astronauts need to work in outer space and on Venus for a total of about 3 to 4 years. This is a long period of work.

At the same time, considering the various risks during the mission, those who dare to sign up for the selection can basically be said to be courageous.

After opening the energy drink and taking a sip, Fang Yalin changed the subject: "Captain, have you thought about that project?"

"Which project?" Li Kangxuan, who was eating, paused.

"It's about the artificial baby?"

"Oh, about this!" Li Kangxuan scooped a spoonful of seafood risotto, but his movements slowed down.

Looking at Li Kangxuan's expression, Fang Yalin could see that the captain was also struggling.

"I plan to accept it and use my own reproductive cells to breed two children, one boy and one girl."

Li Kangxuan put down the spoon gently, with a look of surprise on his face: "Yalin, are you sure? You have to think things through carefully!"

"I've thought it over. I'm too lazy to date. After all, it's too much trouble. Plus, as astronauts of the Venus Expedition, if everything goes well, we'll be going to Venus the year after next. I don't want to hold others back, nor do I want to be cuckolded."

Fang Yalin spoke out his inner thoughts.

Hearing this, Li Kangxuan also fell silent.

Although the Asian Federation has a protection program similar to military marriages for practitioners of this special profession, Fang Yalin's idea is not wrong.

After all, their Venus expedition force is even worse off than those cargo ship employees engaged in international trade. Those who work on the ships can come back at least once every few months, but after they go to Venus, they only come back once every three or four years.

This is also why, when selecting astronauts for the Venus expedition, they are required to be single. At the same time, the psychological counselors at the training center constantly remind them that if they want to get married, it is best to choose women who are also astronauts.

Entering the interstellar age, long-term separation will become a common problem due to the limitations of distance and spacecraft speed.

If a couple, one on Earth and the other on Venus, no matter how good their relationship is, sooner or later problems will arise as time goes by.

It was because Fang Yalin had figured this out that he planned to complete reproduction on Earth as quickly as possible and leave behind two offspring.

Anyway, the group will provide special subsidies for their work. Fang Yalin and others have also taken time to investigate the official social support model, and found it to be pretty good overall.

At least better than those ordinary parents.

After the test of time, many people nowadays actually have little desire to get married.

Their training center also has the benefit of specially customized companion robots. Fang Yalin has a special companion robot to meet his physiological needs, which has caused his desire to get married to further decrease.

When they were consulted at the training center as to whether they wanted to leave a successor to their genes through artificial insemination before their long voyage, about 24% of the astronauts directly agreed.

After hesitating for more than a month, Fang Yalin decided to agree.

The reason why Li Kangxuan was hesitant was that his girlfriend was an astronaut at the training center. If they got married, Blue Whale Aerospace would arrange for them to travel to Venus on the same spacecraft.

"Captain, you can actually discuss your relationship with Tian Hui with her. I see you've been thinking about it alone these days. Since you're in a relationship, you should ask each other what they think."

Hearing this, Li Kangxuan also came back to his senses and nodded: "I neglected it. I will talk to Xiaohui about this issue tonight."

Fang Yalin drank the drink in the bottle, then smiled and reminded: "In fact, according to my opinion, even if you want to have children, you can also use artificial insemination. There is no need for natural reproduction."

"I will talk this matter over with Xiaohui."

"And you have to be clear about one thing."

"Ya Lin, what do you mean?"

"Captain, if you marry Tian Hui, the company will arrange for you and your spouse to take the same spaceship. To put it bluntly, if something goes wrong with the spaceship, you will be at a huge disadvantage."

This statement awakened Li Kangxuan, and he began to think about this possibility. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that his previous thoughts were too simple.

Just as Fang Yalin said.

If an accident happens to the spacecraft midway, the couple will be on the same spacecraft and will perish together in outer space.

"Huh...thanks for the reminder. I'll talk to Xiaohui about this tonight. Before we sail away, we'll try to provide as many offspring as possible through artificial babies."

At this time, Li Kangxuan no longer thought about natural reproduction.

After all, his girlfriend Tian Hui is also an astronaut. If they want to reproduce naturally, once she becomes pregnant, subsequent training will be greatly delayed and she may even be eliminated.

There is no point in those two getting married.

In this era, if two people have reached the stage of discussing marriage, it is likely that they are in true love.

After all, due to the advancement of various technologies, many people now just want to have fun and don’t consider getting married at all. If they want to have children, they will consider providing artificial babies to leave offspring.

The older generation has also begun to accept this kind of thing.

After all, many elderly people just want grandchildren. If their sons or daughters do not get married and have legal channels to have their own children, they will not force their sons and daughters to get married.

Especially in Jiangxi Province, many parents used to spend all their life savings, or even go into debt, for the sake of their sons' marriage, all in the hope that their sons could carry on the family line.

Now they can directly skip the artificial infancy method to have offspring, which they feel is great. They no longer need to worry about their son’s marriage.

This is a disruptive social change.

It not only changed many people's views on marriage, but also made many bad habits break down, but it also could not change the social model.

Nowadays, many young people, if they see someone they like, will register for a romantic relationship, then play around with it for a few months. If they feel it’s okay, they will continue the relationship; if they feel it’s not suitable, both parties will part ways amicably.

Of course, some people like natural persons, and there is also a group that likes companion robots.

For example, the majority of otakus and housegirls are more socially anxious, so they don’t like to go out and play, and they are also worried about messing around and getting sick.

Although medical technology is becoming more and more advanced, many diseases can be well treated.

For example, AIDS, which used to make people shudder with fear, can now be cured by taking an immunization vaccine, which allows the body to obtain permanent AIDS antibodies.

However, this treatment method has a more troublesome disadvantage, which is that the HIV virus can still lurk in the body of an immune person, and if an infected person comes into contact with the immune person, there is still a chance of being infected.

Therefore, people who like to mess around outside generally go to the hospital to get the AIDS vaccine and take precautions in advance.

As for the self-disciplined otakus and housegirls, they take companion robots as their other half. In order to deal with their parents, they generally consider promoting artificial child technology to have offspring.

As the times change, people's concepts are being reshaped by technology unconsciously.

With the changes being forced by technology, even the most conservative people will find it difficult to reverse the trend.

Astronauts like Fang Yalin are actually just some of the people in the world who are influenced by new things.

Everyone is changing and adapting to the new era.

(End of this chapter)