Orbital Mass Accelerator

Of course, Yue Yuan had also left plenty of his own serum samples at the Beijing Laboratory for research.

He did not object to this. Since that unknown substance was already irreplaceable, they could only begin studying the people who had benefited from it. There was still hope of discovering something.

It could be said that Yue Yuan and the other six were even more precious than pandas. No wonder Zhu Pete had been so cautious before.

Honestly, for safety's sake, Yue Yuan should have remained in Beijing. However, the seven of them displayed identical traits, Callisto Base truly still needed him, and Yue Yuan himself had grown accustomed to working there. In the end, he chose to return to Callisto.

Yue Yuan took a shower, then comfortably spent some time reading the documents Zhu Pete had brought over earlier. They contained basic information on several experts from Yinghuo Base.

This time, Yue Yuan was heading to Callisto Base not only to snag an expert from Guanghan Palace Base, but also to take one from Yinghuo Base. Those five capable experts had remained on Earth, after all. Without replenishing their ranks, work would be difficult to carry out.

The higher-ups readily approved Yue Yuan's reasonable request. Not only that, they also delivered a set of the most advanced equipment to Callisto Base for research.

There was no need to say what they would be researching. It was definitely related to genetics. The meaning was obvious: they wanted Yue Yuan to take charge of the project over there as well, so its data could be compared against experiments conducted in Earth's environment.

Although Yue Yuan did not specialize in scientific research, he possessed solid scientific literacy. Otherwise, he would never have risen to his current position. He was the type who knew a great deal without being an expert in any one field, but it would not be wrong to call him a leader who genuinely understood theory and technology.

The equipment had already been shipped to Callisto ahead of time. By now, it had probably passed Mars Orbit.

Setting down the documents, Yue Yuan drifted off to sleep.

Han Hai stretched roughly a thousand kilometers from east to west. At the speed of a Cruise Ship, the journey would take around twenty-eight hours—just over a day.

After waking at dawn, cleaning himself up, working out as usual, and finishing breakfast, noon soon arrived.

The Cruise Ship docked. Yue Yuan briefly packed up his daily necessities and headed for the pier. As for the rest of his luggage and belongings, personnel were assigned to handle them.

This time, Yue Yuan had brought plenty of Earth specialties back to Callisto, including all kinds of rare fruits and vegetables, as well as meat products. Those were extremely popular at Callisto Base.

Since he had rarely returned to Earth, Yue Yuan naturally would not miss the opportunity.

The Cruise Ship slowly came to a stop at the dock, and the passengers disembarked one after another. Yue Yuan was not exactly a regular tourist, but he still followed the crowd off the ship in an orderly fashion. After all, he had a private aircraft but insisted on taking a ship into the Snow Region instead.

"Hey, what a coincidence. Isn't that Yue... something... Yuan?"

The moment he stepped off the ship, Yue Yuan heard someone seemingly calling for him. Looking toward the voice, he indeed saw a woman waving at him amid the bustling crowd at the pier.

Yue Yuan had excellent eyesight. Even from such a distance, he could see the faint dimples appearing on the woman's cheeks as she smiled. It was Xu Yanshi, whom he had run into at the bow yesterday.

Yue Yuan noticed that Xu Yanshi was accompanied by another girl, slightly taller and wearing glasses. She was presumably the classmate Xu Yanshi had mentioned.

"What a coincidence." Yue Yuan carried his small suitcase horizontally in one hand and strode over to greet them with a smile. "Are you two waiting for someone?"

"Yeah, we're waiting for a handsome guy like you." Xu Yanshi's eyes rolled playfully as she answered. But immediately after speaking, she laughed awkwardly. "Ahaha, just kidding, just kidding. We're waiting for a classmate."

That kind of joke really shouldn't be made.

Sensing Zhu Pete, standing not far to his right, lower the brim of his hat, Yue Yuan grumbled inwardly.

The two exchanged a few more meaningless pleasantries before Yue Yuan bid farewell to the enthusiastic girl on the grounds that he needed to continue his journey.

If it had been any other time, Yue Yuan would not have minded chatting longer with such a compatible girl. Unfortunately, his circumstances were somewhat special now, and many things were inconvenient to discuss. Besides, choosing to travel by Cruise Ship had already placed immense pressure on Zhu Pete and the other bodyguards.

Yue Yuan was someone who understood his subordinates. That was one reason why so many people trusted him.

Nothing happened along the way. Yue Yuan and his group of four boarded a vehicle Zhu Pete had arranged beforehand, switching from water travel to land travel as they headed toward the Orbital Mass Accelerator.

The Orbital Mass Accelerator was essentially an oversized Electromagnetic Catapult, or rather, an oversized Electromagnetic Railgun.

The Orbital Mass Accelerator used electromagnetic interaction to accelerate spacecraft to First Cosmic Velocity and launch them into space. In reality, however, air resistance made it difficult to accelerate them to First Cosmic Velocity while still on the track. Thus, after leaving the Electromagnetic Track, the spacecraft would use its own fuel for supplementary acceleration to break free of Earth's gravity. Once in space, it would also use its own fuel system for orbital Attitude Adjustment before docking with the Tiangong Space Station.

Compared to traditional chemical rockets, the Orbital Mass Accelerator possessed almost nothing but advantages. First, launch costs were drastically reduced. Once built, the Orbital Mass Accelerator would be a permanent facility.

Second, spacecraft could be reused. Of course, this did not refer to traditional crewed rocket capsules, but to Spaceplanes. Compared with conventional return capsules, Spaceplanes could glide back for recovery. Once they successfully reentered the atmosphere, a Spaceplane was essentially an enormous aircraft.

The combination of the Orbital Mass Accelerator and Spaceplanes caused the cost of round-trip crewed space travel to plummet. It could even support flight-like launch schedules, providing convenient transportation between the ground and the Tiangong Space Station.

At the same time, it allowed humanity to construct even larger Space Stations in Low Earth Orbit.

Zhonghua Family had once considered building a Space Elevator, but material technology had limited them. They could only settle for the next best option and construct the fully mature Orbital Mass Accelerator.

After all, ever since the beginning of the last century, Zhonghua Family's Electromagnetic Cannon technology had stood alone at the top of the world. Its development of high-speed rail had also given it extensive technical expertise in track materials.

It could be said that Zhonghua Family's ability to build an Orbital Mass Accelerator was neither accidental nor some kind of alien Black Technology. It was the result of genuine technological accumulation.

What was surprising, instead, was the location chosen for the Orbital Mass Accelerator. The original plan had been to build it in a low-latitude region, since those areas could better utilize Earth's rotation to save energy and offered superior transportation and construction conditions compared to the plateau.

However, due to the Orbital Mass Accelerator's enormous power consumption, the Snow Region was ultimately chosen.

The reason was simple: there was more than enough Electric Force here.

The ten hydropower stations built along the Han Hai Project benefited from massive elevation differences, giving them tremendous generating capacity. Combined with the Snow Region's abundant solar and wind resources, they could provide sufficient energy security for the Orbital Mass Accelerator.

Compared with other regions, which would require drawing on electricity from across the country and constructing distant transmission systems, this was undoubtedly the best option. There was another advantage as well: the high altitude meant thinner air, so air resistance was lower than in low-altitude regions.

Moreover, because of the Han Hai Project, vast desert basins would eventually become suitable for water transport. Bulk cargo could then be shipped into the Snow Region by boat, reducing the cost of transporting materials to the Orbital Mass Accelerator from another angle.

Combined with Zhonghua Family's experience and technological accumulation in plateau construction, the site of the Mass Accelerator was finally decided.

Of course, building such a massive Orbital Mass Accelerator was not Zhonghua Family's affair alone. Once completed, it would not be used by Zhonghua Family alone.

Therefore, unlike the Han Hai Project, which had been undertaken independently, the Orbital Mass Accelerator became an international cooperative project. Traditional aerospace powers and regions such as the United States, Europe, and Russia invested enormous funds through cooperation. India, Great Britain, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Egypt, and many Middle Eastern nations also did not miss this opportunity, joining the Great Project one after another.

Zhonghua Family naturally welcomed everyone. After all, a milestone project like the Orbital Mass Accelerator, one tied to humanity's exploration of space, could not possibly be used alone. Besides, with so many partners scrambling to join, there was no need to worry about funding. It was simply a win-win—no, a multi-win situation.

Arriving at the Orbital Mass Accelerator site, Yue Yuan once again witnessed the sheer scale of the project.

Amid the scattered supporting structures, the soaring Electromagnetic Track that resembled a giant slide was especially eye-catching.

From Yue Yuan's position, he could see that the ground section of the Orbital Mass Accelerator was shaped like a disc. The ground-level Electromagnetic Track spiraled layer upon layer like a coiled mosquito repellent. The circular sections winding outward from the center totaled more than two hundred and twenty kilometers in length.

This section occupied the largest area of the entire Orbital Mass Accelerator.