Fire Moon (1): Vascular

65 million years ago, Earth, Victoria Wetlands

Last night, Nikola Tesla and Maria barely slept, holding each other tightly, with endless things to say.

After 80 long years of separation, their reunion was deeply cherished.

Their breakfast with Abbott started late, and by the time they finished, it was almost noon. The three sat around the table, and Abbott said:

"I've been thinking about your Earth terraforming plan all night, and it makes a lot of sense. Now, tell me about your Mars plan."

Tesla pondered for a moment and said, "On Venus's Equator, we erected an 180,000-kilometer-high tower. Injecting it with Superluminal wave energy caused the crust to bulge. We did the same on Earth to change the landscape, but it won't work on Mars."

Abbott nodded and said, "Yes, Mars is the first landing point for the Venusians in your plan. The lessons from Venus taught us that erecting a Superlight Wave Power Station on the Equator of any planet, at the same time, leads to intense geological activity, which greatly impacts human survival."

Maria said, "Nikola, don't you have an external brain connected to the Lightning Ball? It can help you think deeply."

"The Lightning Ball isn't omnipotent. It's based on empirical big data and logical reasoning. It merely increases my thinking speed and provides more options and decision-making schemes."

"The external brain connected to the Lightning Ball is more rational than the human brain. In most cases, the results it guides my thinking towards are the optimal choices, but sometimes it causes my thoughts to get stuck on a paragraph or even a single word."

Abbott asked eagerly, "Are you saying the optimal construction plan for the Mars power station is stuck on a word?"

"Yes, that word is VESSEL. It means container, but I can't figure out the relationship between a container and the Mars power station construction plan."

"VESSEL doesn't just mean container. I'm in the medical field, and in medical terminology, Blood Vessel means blood vessel. Doctors find it troublesome, so VESSEL can directly refer to a blood vessel, but its more precise meaning is the stem-like tube that transports nutrients within animals and plants, also called vascular."

VESSEL, vascular? What does this have to do with the Mars Superlight Wave Power Station? Nikola Tesla and Abbott fell into deep thought, shaking their heads helplessly.

The weather was clear, and the sun hung in the sky like a bright white disc.

Suddenly, the Moon's shadow encroached upon the Sun's disk. A total annular solar eclipse, a once-in-a-decades event, began.

"An eclipse? Didn't you two astronomers predict this for me? Will there be a total solar eclipse soon?" Maria said to Tesla and Abbott.

The three looked up. Abbott, like a scholar, explained to Maria.

Due to the coincidental relationship between the distances and apparent sizes of the Moon, Earth, and Sun, when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, it perfectly blocks the Sun, creating a solar eclipse.

During a solar eclipse, if the Moon is closer to Earth, it completely obscures the Sun, resulting in a total solar eclipse. If it is farther away, it appears as if the Moon is embedded in a halo around the Sun, called an annular solar eclipse.

Nikola Tesla had remained silent. As if struck by inspiration, he said to Abbott nonsensically, "I get it. Embedding Mars within an energy ring is the optimal plan for the Mars Superlight Wave Power Station."

Tesla didn't offer further explanation. He quickly kissed Maria goodbye, grabbed Abbott, and headed for the space elevator, saying as they walked, "Abbott, let's go to Mars right now."

In Mars's near-orbit, the spaceship carrying Nikola Tesla and Abbott circled Mars at a speed of 5 kilometers per second.

"The lessons from Venus taught us that we cannot build the power station directly on the ground of a planet's Equator. If this is called a contact-type power station, the optimal solution should be to build a non-contact type. Encasing Mars non-contactly with a ring structure in space."

As a top physicist, Abbott understood immediately and said, "Exactly! Building a closed ring structure in orbit above Mars's Equator, with a diameter of 180,000 kilometers, can also become a Superlight Wave Power Station. And the excess heat won't be injected underground, causing tectonic activity."

Nikola Tesla and Abbott excitedly began to discuss. Building a closed ring structure in outer space around Mars, akin to assembling a super-long space station, was indeed technically feasible.

But if, like a space station, the building materials were primarily metal, the amount of metal required for a ring with a diameter of 180,000 kilometers would be astronomical. Was there a better way?

"Abbott, we can weave hollow tubes from carbon nanotube fibers, seal them together into a ring, and fill the tubes with water, like a flexible fire hose," Tesla said.

This 180,000-kilometer-long closed ring pipeline would be able to fully receive the wavelength of Superluminal waves. Heat energy would be generated within the structure, driving the circulation of water within the pipe walls. The thermal and kinetic energy would be converted into electrical energy, forming a Superlight Wave Power Station.

Nikola Tesla suddenly realized: a tube, a tube that generates and transmits energy – wasn't this the answer provided by the Lightning Ball's external brain? VESSEL, vascular.

A Vascular Superlight Wave Power Station!

Abbott thought of another problem and said, "Nikola, even if the vascular power station is built and generates a large amount of electricity, how will it be transmitted to the surface of Mars? If it can't be transmitted to the surface, it's still useless for the Venusians on Mars."

Nikola Tesla laughed heartily and replied, "Don't you forget, I am the inventor of AC power, and the first person to propose and verify that electricity can be transmitted wirelessly."

Abbott instantly understood. It was indeed feasible. He recalled the tens of thousands of small artificial satellites still densely packed in Venus's near-orbit – that was the wireless internet system provided by a Venusian commercial company, covering the entire planet, called the "Star Array Satellite."

Venusians could connect to the Star Array Satellite with their mobile phones from any corner of Venus to freely access the internet. Thus, in the future, Venusians would be able to wirelessly receive electricity from any part of Mars to charge their phones.

Abbott thought of another problem. The 180,000-kilometer-diameter vascular ring floating in the air, under Mars's gravity, would orbit Mars.

But without a stable structural support point, the vascular ring and Mars would experience relative positional shifts, or even collisions. It would be difficult for the ring to maintain stability.

Nikola Tesla didn't answer immediately. Instead, he gestured for Abbott to look out the spaceship's porthole. Outside the window, a white dot came into view – Mars's only moon, called "Fire Moon" by the Venusians.

Abbott, intimately familiar with the astronomical data of celestial bodies in the Solar System, couldn't help but exclaim:

"Nikola, you are a genius! Fire Moon is 90,000 kilometers from Mars, its orbital plane aligns with Mars's Equator, and its eccentricity is almost zero. Using it as a pivot, its orbit is the closed ring of the vascular system, and Fire Moon's orbit is stable and won't shift."

"Once the Vascular Superlight Wave Power Station is built, Mars will have abundant and stable electrical resources. Nikola, you truly are a genius!" Abbott marveled.

"Abbott, do you remember my proposed Moon Mass Tumor experiment?" Tesla asked.

Abbott had long noticed that Mars's gravity was weaker than Venus's, making Venusians feel light and unaccustomed on the Martian surface.

According to Nikola Tesla's theory of gravity, a celestial body as a radiation source has a relatively fixed and constant surface radiation temperature and energy intensity. Its output radiation flux and peak wavelength are correspondingly fixed.

Through mathematical derivation, Tesla determined that gravity is directly proportional to the product of radiation flux, which is determined by energy intensity and peak frequency.

On the surface of Mars, with constant energy intensity, if its peak radiation wavelength is changed, its output radiation flux will also change accordingly. This was precisely the purpose of Tesla's Moon "Mass Tumor" experiment.

The Vascular Superlight Wave Power Station would emit intense, extremely low-frequency long-wave radiation. After being absorbed by Mars, it would cause a significant redshift in Mars's peak radiation wavelength towards longer waves, greatly increasing the surface gravity in the Martian equatorial belt. The principle of formation is the same as the Moon's "Mass Tumor."

By changing the planet's peak radiation wavelength without increasing its mass, gravity can be increased?

Abbott, filled with suspicion, suddenly recalled that in recent years, spacecraft sent by Venusians towards Earth had repeatedly experienced abnormal gravitational surges when passing close above Earth's Equator. He thought to himself that arguing was pointless; it was best to wait for the results of the Moon's "Mass Tumor" experiment to settle the matter.

Dean Abbott snapped back to attention and reviewed Nikola Tesla's plan for transforming Earth and Mars. He felt the trip was worthwhile, as the issue of a landing site for the Venusian colonists now had a clear direction.

Another major problem troubled Abbott: transporting nearly six billion Venusians from Venus to the landing site on Mars would require immense transport capacity and time, a task that seemed almost impossible.

Even with military assistance, the Venus Alliance government would face enormous challenges. How many people could be transported in total, and who would go first?

Nikola Tesla seemed to read Abbott's mind and patted him on the shoulder, saying:

"It's impossible to transport all six billion Venusians. When your plan can't proceed, you can go find Maria; perhaps she has a solution."

Abbott looked up in surprise, staring directly at Tesla as he asked:

"Maria? What solution could she possibly have?"

&

Poem:

Cloud pavilions and jade terraces, a temporary respite, Zhao Sicheng, Song Dynasty

Crimson pouches, crimson locks, jade rings linked. Huang Tai, Song Dynasty

White rainbows speed, lightning flashes run, Pu Shoucheng, Song Dynasty

Ten thousand acres of silver waves in half a moment. Yang Wanli, Song Dynasty