Great Power Heavy Industry: Rise

Chapter 328 Moon landing
The Luanniao aerospace plane is flying at high speed along a parabolic orbit connecting the earth and the moon.

At this time, Zhong Cheng and Ye Wenxin could no longer feel the gravity of the earth.

A reminder came from the box that passengers can now leave their seats and move about freely, but it is best not to take off the hood.

Ye Wenxin happily experienced the feeling of weightlessness in the box, Zhong Cheng just stared at the blue planet getting smaller and smaller in sight.

The earth that originally overflowed the portholes, but as the Luanniao aerospace plane moved away, the portholes finally accommodated the entire earth.

Compared with the spectacular scenery seen from low-Earth orbit, it is another kind of scenery at this time.

Ye Wenxin leaned on Zhong Cheng, looked at the earth in front of him, and sighed: "It took human beings thousands of years to walk out of the earth, and we only took one hour."

Zhong Cheng said: "If you can see the earth from outside the solar system, then this life will be worth living!"

"You!"

Ye Wenxin looked at Zhong Cheng helplessly, not knowing what to say.

He is always setting extremely difficult goals for himself, and it's not just talking.

At 12:[-] noon, the Luanniao aerospace plane flew over the moon. At this time, the moon had filled the entire porthole, and the craters all over the surface were already visible to the naked eye.

After humans invented the telescope, humans began to observe the moon high in the sky, and discovered some surface features of the moon, such as lunar seas, mountains, craters, and radiation patterns.

But it is a pity that the lunar sea is not a sea. It was originally mistaken for a liquid ocean when human cognition was still unclear.

It was later discovered that it was a very flat plain filled with depressions of lava and volcanic ash. The reason why it is still called the lunar sea is just a continuation of the previous name.

There are many mountains on the moon that are more spectacular than those on the earth. The highest mountain range is near the south pole of the moon, which is 9000 meters higher than Mount Everest.

Many lunar craters have central peaks, and some craters are on older craters. There are especially many craters on the moon, with more than 100 million craters with a diameter of more than 100 meters.

There are also a lot of radiation patterns on the moon, which are band-shaped characteristic landforms with relatively obvious colors extending in all directions with volcanoes and craters as the center.

The brightness and length of the radiation patterns are different, and the longest one is thousands of kilometers. For example, there is a 1800-kilometer-long radiation pattern on the Tycho crater on the moon.

The brightness takes the moon as an example. The radiation pattern of Tycho crater is the brightest when the moon is full. The radiation patterns on other planets or satellites may not be as obvious as those on the moon and Mercury due to factors such as illumination and their own geology.

Observing the radiation pattern from a distance seems to extend straight to the distance, and the specific reason for the formation of the radiation pattern is still unclear.

However, there are several possibilities, such as geological activities, volcanic eruptions, and meteorite impacts.

……

At a distance of 1000 kilometers from the lunar surface, the three nuclear fusion engines of the Luanniao aerospace plane stopped ejecting charged ions, and [-] recoil large Zhurong electric thrusters started to slow down.

Ten minutes later, the Luanniao aerospace plane successfully completed the "space brake", and the speed dropped to 10 kilometers per second. It was captured by the moon and entered a lunar orbit about 2.35 kilometers from the surface of the moon. The brake was successful in recent months.

Near-moon braking is a key orbit control during the flight of the lunar probe.

When flying near the moon, the probe decelerates and brakes to make its relative speed lower than the moon’s escape velocity, thus being captured by the moon’s gravity.

The Luanniao aerospace plane will also fly in orbit around the moon for a few minutes, adjust the altitude and inclination of the orbit around the moon, and communicate with the lunar relay satellite and the lunar surface navigation station to ensure that the plane can finally enter the scheduled landing area, and implement it at an appropriate time. Soft landing on the front of the moon.

The moon has no atmosphere, and the Luanniao aerospace plane cannot use the atmosphere to slow down.

So it either slams into the moon for a hard landing, or uses the engine to slow down and achieve a soft landing.

The period of the moon's rotation and revolution is equal, so the moon always faces the earth with the same side, so the back of the moon cannot be seen on the earth.

This phenomenon is called "synchronous rotation", or "tidal locking", which is almost a universal law in the satellite world of the solar system, and is generally believed to be the result of the long-term tidal effect of the satellite on the planet.

The side of the moon facing the earth is called the front side of the moon, because the front side of the moon is relatively flat and has a large area of ​​lunar maria, and human beings have a very detailed understanding of the front side of the moon, so most of the cities built by the three major federations on the moon in recent years are on the moon. front.

The end point of Zhong Cheng's earth-moon flight is the Moon Palace City on the front side of the moon. The Moon Palace City is located in the center of the Copernicus crater in the Ocean of Storms.

Cities on the moon are almost always built in the center of small and medium-sized craters. The mountains around the craters can provide a natural defensive barrier, and the "tamped" rock formations inside can provide the strongest foundation.

The Ocean of Storms is the largest mare on the moon, with a north-south diameter of about 2500 kilometers and an area of ​​about 400 million square kilometers.

The Ocean of Storms is located in the western hemisphere of the moon, on the west side of the side facing the earth. It is a vast gray plain surrounded by small lunar seas, such as the sea of ​​clouds in the south and the sea of ​​rain in the north.

The new Paris of the European Federation is also built in the Ocean of Storms, and dozens of cities, or industrial bases, are being built in the Ocean of Storms.

When the Luanniao aerospace plane flew over the Storm Ocean, Zhong Chengcheng saw the busy scene of "in full swing".

They are late!

Luanniao aerospace plane slowed down while descending altitude, and flew into Copernicus crater from the west mountain wall.

The Copernicus crater is a crater in the eastern part of the Ocean of Storms, surrounded by a huge and bright ray system, named after the founder of the human heliocentric theory-Nicolas Copernicus.

To the east of Copernicus Crater is Shuwan (Langwan), to the southeast is Central Bay, to the southwest is the Island Sea, and to the south is Zhihai.

60 kilometers to the north of the crater is the Carpathian Mountains, and 180 kilometers to the northeast is the Apennines. These mountains are located in the Rain Sea.

The Copernicus crater is located in the center of the front of the moon, and its geographical location is very important. The fact that the Asian Federation can occupy this place reflects the status of the First Federation.

Copernicus crater is a well-preserved young crater (unlike older craters that have been eroded by impacts), with a well-defined outline and a slightly pulsating outer rim.

The diameter is about 93 kilometers, the inner slope wall is 15 kilometers wide, and the wall height is 1-1.5 kilometers higher than the surrounding surface, while the bottom of the pit is 2.5 kilometers deeper than the surrounding surface. Therefore, relative to the bottom of the pit, its side wall is 3.8 kilometers high.

In the central area, there is a central peak composed of three isolated hills, which are more than 1.2 kilometers above the ground. These peaks are separated from each other by valleys, forming a roughly straight line along the east-west direction.

The Moon Palace City of the Asian Federation was built between these three hills, covering a small half of the bottom of the crater.

As the first human city on the moon, Yuegong City has a history of almost ten years, but it has only been more than two years since the city was officially named.

It was continuously transformed and expanded on the lunar landing base established by the Chinese people on the moon in 2023.

Now it has a permanent population of 30. It is the capital of the Asian Federal Moon Administrative Region and the base camp for the Asian Federation to develop the moon.

At present, the terminal of the lunar side of the Earth-Moon flight of the Asian Federation is at Benyue Airport on the outskirts of Yuegong City.

The luanniao aerospace plane that Zhong Cheng took was landing at Benyue Airport.

(End of this chapter)