From black technology to super engineering

Earth-Moon L1 Lagrangian point.

Invitation to the moon is quietly floating in the dark space.

Half of the crew on this ship are international astronauts. In the past two months, I have been doing orbital flights and scientific research experiments. Just arrived here two days ago.

Today, everyone stopped their work and gathered in the main control cabin.

There are not enough seats, many people are sitting on the gangway, staring at the big screen in the main control cabin.

Although there is no glass installed, the large screen can clearly show the space scene outside the spacecraft.

At this time, the upper part of the screen is the brilliant galaxy, and the lower part is the halo of sunlight blocked by the earth and the moon.

Gradually, something seemed to flicker in the tranquil halo.

Someone in the hall immediately asked in a low voice, "Are you here?"

"It seems to be here."

"It's coming, it's Chang Wu."

At this time, Ye Ming's voice also sounded on the broadcast in the hall: "Professor Li Lei, I am Ye Ming, the thruster has flown out of orbit, you should be able to see it."

Hearing Ye Ming's voice, everyone immediately shut their mouths.

Li Lei adjusted his headphones, suppressed his excitement, and said in a deep voice, "Professor Ye, I am Li Lei. Yes, we have seen it."

"Okay, now I'll take over the main display screen of Yaoyue and split the screen."

As Ye Ming's voice fell, the main display screen flickered slightly, and two main windows and two character windows were immediately separated.

One of the main windows is the current sensor screen of Yaoyue, and the other window is to capture the sensor feedback screen on the thruster.

There are two character windows, one is Ye Ming, and the other is Peng Xiaofei who is located in Guanghan Base.

After a brief greeting, Ye Ming appeared in the small window. Obviously, he also shared the screen: "There are still five minutes, Xiaofei, ready to perform the thruster turn."

"Understood." Peng Xiaofei spoke concisely and crisply.

The reason why he was asked to execute it was naturally because he had basic skills.

Although the control of the aircraft can be completely handed over to Aita in theory, the closer to the surface of the asteroid, the more "human" is needed to make judgments, especially after landing on the asteroid, it is even more necessary for humans to operate the aircraft. The thrusters are secured to the asteroid.

Time passed by second by second.

When Ye Ming's voice sounded again, everyone saw that the main screen cut a simulated scene again.

In the scene, the propeller launched by God 5 is rapidly heading towards the asteroid.

"Start the transition."

"The transition begins."

As Peng Xiaofei's voice fell, the thruster immediately began to change orbit, turning into a big circle, and landed behind the asteroid.

"The thrusters accelerate."

"The thruster has accelerated."

"Thruster slow down."

"Execution deceleration completed."

...

Time passed by, and as the distance between the asteroid and the thruster got closer and closer in the simulation screen, everyone began to hold their breath and look at the largest main window.

That's the image from the thruster's sensor.

On the screen, a barely visible small bright spot gradually rose.

"Continue to slow down."

"Start the attitude engine."

"Attitude engine starts."

Peng Xiaofei's voice kept echoing in the hall, and it could be heard that his voice was full of suppressed excitement.

After all, this is the first time humans have truly "captured" an asteroid.

Although as early as 2013, Lao Mei proposed a plan to capture asteroids, but that was just a plan after all, and it still sounded unreliable.

Laomei’s plan is to find an asteroid with a diameter of five meters, water ice, metal, and silicate minerals. After that, use a rocket to approach it, then release a special large bag to wrap it up, then turn on the booster, push it off the orbit, bring it to a near-moon orbit, and finally launch the rocket to bring it to the gravitational balance point.

There is no plan for landing research at all, and it can only be studied in the sky...

Ye Ming's plan is much simpler.

He just needs to work hard to perform miracles.

The asteroid is close enough, and the right size, that it's fine.

As the thruster approaches the asteroid, the tumbling "big rock" can already be clearly seen in the video.

"Attitude engine deflection synchronously."

In the communication screen, everyone saw that Peng Xiaofei had already put on his glasses.

Obviously, he is now fully immersed in the first-person view of the thruster.

The attitude engine tuned again and began to synchronize with the asteroid's deflection.

It's as if two dancers, one big and one small, are slowly approaching while dancing a beautiful waltz in space.

"Lights on, ready to land."

Peng Xiaofei's voice fell, and the main screen also showed the surface of the asteroid.

Therefore, the deflection of the two sides has been synchronized, so everyone can no longer feel the rotation of the asteroid, but only feel that under the light, the dark brown boulder is slowly approaching.

In the midst of the radiance, the thruster landed firmly on the surface of the asteroid.

"Landing complete."

Ye Ming's voice sounded at the same time: "Thank you, Brother Fei."

Peng Xiaofei chuckled: "It's okay, I'll drink some water, and I'll drill and fix it later—Professor Li, you can operate the robotic arm to remotely analyze the strength and composition, just be careful not to move the attitude engine."

"Okay, take a break first." Li Lei exhaled slowly.

...

In Xichang, Ye Ming watched the big screen while eating his boxed lunch.

Many people have already poured into the conference room.

There are three key technical points in this asteroid capture.

The first one is naturally landing, which is the premise of all actions.

And the next thing is the most important and the most difficult fixed propeller.

The reason why it is difficult is because we don't know the specific situation of the meteorite - although the composition can be analyzed in the early stage, the real strength, texture and fixed conditions can only be determined by destiny.

But looking at it now... it seems that luck is good.

"Xiao Fei, you're lucky. You seem to have just landed on an ordinary rock, and the hardness is not bad."

Li Lei's laughter came from the screen: "Drill two holes later, just punch two."

"Professor Li, I'm afraid it's just bad luck." Peng Xiaofei replied with a smile: "Even if there is no such thing as Zhenjin, Nine Heavens Black Iron, gold is fine... Tell me about ordinary rocks..."

Everyone in the conference room laughed together.

Although they are not mainly involved in the capture project, they also know that the cost of this asteroid has long been determined through spectral analysis. It cannot be said to be 100% accurate, but it is close to ten.

From the current point of view, this should be an ordinary rocky asteroid with nearly half of iron, nickel and other metals on it.

Ye Ming also smiled and put down his chopsticks. He glanced at the time and leaned into the microphone.

"Xiao Fei, it's time to do it."

"okay."

While speaking, Peng Xiaofei began to control the robotic arm to drill holes.

Ye Ming, on the other hand, called up the task interface in his mind.

He noticed that the progress of the task had increased by ten percent.

It seems... such a small one, the system also recognizes it?