"Is the drill ready?"
"Ready, the data has been verified and completed, and drilling can begin!"
After the words fell, everyone in the spacecraft control center became excited.
At this time, 8 hours had passed since the landing of Europa.
During these times, Exploration Multi-Arm Crab, under the control of the controller, conducted some exploration of the surface environment of Europa.
Got a lot of exciting news.
There is no doubt that there is enough water ice on Europa.
The surface of the entire planet is a huge ice shell, and this ice shell is composed of water ice.
After the water ice was cut and collected, it was sent to the spacecraft for thawing, and fresh water mixed with dust was obtained. After being filtered by a high-precision graphene water membrane, a cup of clean and thorough Europa fresh water was sealed.
Although water has been discovered on Mars, the water obtained this time at Europa is also of great significance to mankind.
The low temperature of Europa causes the water on the body surface to almost permanently freeze into ice. The amount of this ice is very huge and can be used by humans. This amount of water is extremely amazing. Almost as large as the entire Pacific Ocean.
If these ice layers can be intercepted and returned to the earth, the greenhouse effect of the earth's gradual warming can be quickly alleviated.
These topics are discussed everywhere on Martian base, which is a planned direction for the benefit of mankind.
When Chen Mengchuan came to the Edge of Sui Star No. 1 remote control center, Zhang Dongyu was directing and arranging the staff to start preparations for drilling work.
"Good job, Old Zhang." Chen Mengchuan smiled and said to Zhang Dongyu.
Zhang Dongyu blushed. "Brother Chuan, please stop teasing me. I can't stand your praise for my abilities."
"Haha, a job well done means a job well done. I heard that this time, you showed up. Newspapers all over the earth are full of photos of your command. You are all good at logging in Europa this time, and the credit will be remembered for you." Chen Mengchuan said.
"Hey, then I'll thank you Brother Chuan first. Haha."
"Are you all ready? I think we're ready to dig."
Chen Mengchuan saw on the big screen that the spacecraft was firmly fixed on the ice, and the drilling equipment was ready. The turbine extraction machine also began to work.
Zhang Dongyu nodded. "We are ready to dig now. We plan to dig through this ice shell at once and dig directly into the sea under the ice to find out if there is any life on Europa."
"Let me take a look, just keep doing what you're doing."
"Okay, all units are ready to start the excavation process and try to clear the level in one go!" Zhang Dongyu shouted.
"Okay!" A shout rang out.
The drill in the picture began to drill rapidly, and in a few breaths it began to sink into the surface of the ice.
The screen quickly switched, and a vertical 3D rendering appeared on the screen. The green light spots represented that the drill bit was driving into the gray-white ice shell bit by bit.
The drill bit drove in much faster than Chen Mengchuan imagined.
The icon clearly shows the drilling speed, which is 40 centimeters per second, which is considered very fast.
"Brother Chuan, if an ordinary drill bit is drilling into the ground, cooling and soil removal will be a big problem. However, our drilling equipment does not have these problems on the Europa. The high-speed rotation of the drill will quickly drive the ice layer and generate a lot of heat. This heat will quickly dissolve the ice. The extraction machine prepared on the second layer of the drill will quickly extract the water ice, so we can drill holes far down."
"How far can it be drilled? How long is the pipe length of the extraction machine? It should be clogged, right?" Chen Mengchuan asked.
Zhang Dongyu opened a design drawing and pointed it to Chen Mengchuan.
"Brother Chuan, you see, although the pipeline length is only 600 meters, you can rest assured that our high-pressure turbine extractor can keep working. And the gravity device on the drill bit equipment is also multi-layered, at least Within a distance of 10,000 meters, there is no big problem. Judging from the current speed, it will take a long time to drill through this 10,000 meters, and it will take half a day to see good progress." Zhang Dongyu said.
"How thick is the ice shell? Have you confirmed it?"
Zhang Dongyu shook his head. "The current ultrasonic detection instruments have poor stability. The magnetic field of Europa is different from the simulated environment. Now we need to recalibrate the data. The initial detected ice thickness is 27,000 meters, but this thickness is not the final data. There will be at least a difference of 5,000 meters."
Chen Mengchuan was slightly surprised. "This is much thicker than expected."
Zhang Dongyu said, "Our latest data report has sufficient parameters to confirm that the Europa ice shell has plate tectonics and subduction activities similar to those of the Earth. Based on this, the researchers are now very optimistic about whether there is life in the underground ocean. They generally believe that there is life under the ice shell."
"Really?" Chen Mengchuan smiled, but he didn't know this.
"They built a model with Achen to show the subduction process. When one plate slides under another plate, it will sink into the ice shell. This series of simulations can draw many good conclusions. For example, the area where the Europa ice shell expands is similar to the expansion of the Earth's mid-ocean ridges. This also adds another good information to the Europa crustal structure."
"And now we have also obtained a very important information, that is, the ice shell of Europa does not have only one layer."
"There's not just one floor?" Chen Mengchuan looked at Zhang Dongyu.
"Yes, there is not only one layer, but at least two layers of ice shell. The surface ice cap is relatively weak, and the temperature of the convective ice layer below it will be slightly higher. With such two layers of ice shell, Europa will definitely have a plate subduction effect, because as long as there are two layers of ice shell The difference in salt content can provide the necessary density difference for plate subduction. Now, there is sufficient data to prove that there are indeed changes in salt content in the ice layer of Europa." Zhang Dongyu's voice sounded slightly excited.
These are some very important additions. Human beings are really too far away and unfamiliar with Europa. This time the field exploration produced a large amount of data, which was quickly absorbed and digested by scholars, deducing one after another very meaningful speculations.
"Has it been confirmed?" Chen Mengchuan also received a lot of interest.
Zhang Dongyu nodded decisively.
At this time, he was much more excited than Chen Mengchuan.
Because a large part of the pressure during this period was on Zhang Dongyu, he clearly felt that everyone was looking at him.
Although whether Europa can discover life has little to do with how hard you work, discovering or not discovering life is completely different in terms of the results of your efforts.
Naturally, he hopes to discover life even more.