"Edge of Sui Star No. 1" is the name of the spacecraft that is about to explore Europa.
In ancient China, Jupiter was called the Year Star, because it took 12 years to orbit the celestial sphere, which was the same as the Earthly Branches. It was not until the Western Han Dynasty in China that the astronomer Sima Qian, the author of "Historical Records - Tianguan Shu", discovered from actual observations that the year star was cyan, which was linked to the "Five Elements" theory, and then it was officially named Jupiter.
The departure time has been determined. Edge of Sui Star No. 1, which is going to Europa for the first time, is an unmanned exploration spacecraft. After the two days of testing and debugging, it will go to Europa Europa.
Compared to traveling from Earth to Mars, traveling to Jupiter is a relatively long journey.
How to calculate this distance?
Chen Mengchuan smiled and educated Sun Zhongyong and his daughters on science.
"Usually in the universe, because the distance is too far, the distance calculation units we usually use, such as meters and kilometers, are a bit weak. Therefore, there is a more common unit in the world, which is AU. AU is the unit of length in astronomy."
"Uncle Chen, how far is that AU unit?" Sun Zhongyong's daughter asked.
"In the past, people defined the distance from the Earth to the Sun as an astronomical unit AU. Later, at a meeting held by the International Astronomical Congress, they unified their opinions and defined a distance accurate to the meter astronomical unit AU, which is about 149.6 million kilometers. In fact, it is still the approximate distance from the Earth to the Sun." Chen Mengchuan said with a smile.
The girl curiously asked, "How far is it from Mars to this Europa?"
"Girl asked a very good question. Let's do the math. It is 1.6 AU from Mars to the sun, and 5.4 AU from Jupiter to the sun. So how many AU do you think it is from Mars to Jupiter?"
"3.8 AU!" The girl jumped up excitedly.
"Correct answer!" Chen Mengchuan chuckled, and everyone became happy.
Toni, who was standing aside, rolled his eyes.
The algorithm of Chen Mengchuan is not scientific because it also needs to calculate the orbit of the planet.
The difference between the orbital periods of Jupiter and Mars is huge. Mars' orbital period is approximately 1.88 years, while Jupiter's orbital period is more than 11.86 years. An orbital period with such a large drop will have an extra distance. What Chen Mengchuan calculated is only the shortest distance. But when it comes to joking with children, it's okay for him to say this. Should he still calculate the variables of the orbit with the children? That would be really troublesome.
"Mengchuan, how long will it take for this exploration spacecraft to reach Europa?" Sun Zhongyong has some doubts about the time that has changed several times. The calibration time at the beginning seemed to be much longer than the current calibration time.
Chen Mengchuan took out the small gravity screen in his hand and swiped it. It marked the latest progress of the current Eternal Universe example Space-time Traversal Space Folding technology implementation.
The latest update and optimization of the example shuttle is that it can perform a space jump every 17.25, and can reach an absolute straight-line distance of 160,000 meters each time, while performing 246 Space Folding!
In other words, an absolute straight-line distance of 39,360 kilometers can be achieved every time. After incorporating the AU astronomical unit, it can be calculated that it takes about 3,800 times to complete the distance of 1 AU astronomical unit. With the current efficiency of once every 17.25 seconds, it only takes 18.2 hours of non-stop operation to complete 1 AU astronomical unit.
This is also the result of the Eternal Universe Particle Space Folding Space-time Traversal department's day and night efforts.
Simply looking at the data panel, the current overall orbit parameter conversion distance of Mars and Jupiter has been calculated to a relatively accurate value of 5.3218 AU.
The final proofreading time given by the data panel is 96.9 hours. In other words, in about 4 days, the Edge of Sui Star No. 1, which is on its way to Europa for scientific investigation, will be able to reach Europa Europa in the orbit of Jupiter.
"Four days, is it so late to arrive?" Sun Zhongyong said.
Chen Mengchuan looked at him and smiled helplessly, "Although this speed is not fast as we expected, for United States NASA's former spacecraft, this speed is already very extraordinary. Do you know how long it took NASA's Voyager 2 to fly to the orbit of Jupiter? Their unmanned interstellar spacecraft at that time flew for a full 2 years before reaching the orbit of Jupiter."
"So long? If you put it that way, it is indeed a bit outrageous." Sun Zhongyong nodded.
"But in my opinion, this speed is still slow, and our speed should be faster. This will help us understand Europa faster. Europa is also just a small springboard for us. After that, we will explore further places, such as flying beyond Solar System." Chen Mengchuan said seriously.
Flying out of Solar System has always been in his plan, and this plan is very important. At the current speed, it is not difficult to fly out of Solar System, but it does not necessarily mean much. Only after reaching the speed beyond light can we truly have the foundation to step out Solar System.
Beyond the speed of light...
How difficult.
The current speed is only 39,360 kilometers/17.25 seconds, the average speed is only 2,281.74 kilometers per second, while the speed of light is as high as 299,792 kilometers, a difference of more than 131 times.
"We don't have to belittle ourselves, Mengchuan, we are not always moving forward. One day, we will achieve what you said as fast as you said." Sun Zhongyong saw some complexity in Chen Mengchuan's eyes, so he comforted him.
Chen Mengchuan nodded after listening to his words, and the conversation started again, talking about many other topics.
After arriving on Mars these days, Sun Zhongyong and others have slowly adapted to the many differences on Mars.
Chen Mengchuan even prepared many special gravity mechas, allowing everyone to put on the gravity mechas and actually set foot on Mars, feeling the gravity of the surface of Mars and the desolate Martian land.
Like everyone else, everyone returned to the base not long after the initial excitement, because the entire Mars looked the same, too desolate. Moreover, Martian base Six Flames Palace chose a medium-sized crater, surrounded by basically similar terrain.
Sun Zhongyong has been playing for a long time. He obtained more authorizations for gravity mechas, flew to a very high altitude environment, looked down at the land of Mars, and even completed a journey around Mars. He actually flew in a circle, which worried many people for a while.
After these days, Zhao Wanyu began to make arrangements to return to Earth and began to increase the speed of unloading goods. Tiansuo was loaded with too many materials needed for life and scientific research.
At the same time, she also prepared many very special gifts from Mars to bring back to Earth, such as a huge diamond weighing 2 tons...