Ice World

May 17, 2023.

A probe weighing 18.6 tons had previously departed from the Mars Outpost Base and had now arrived in Jupiter's orbit.

More specifically, it was in Europa's orbit around Jupiter.

The probe was named Pieris. It was a probe symbolizing life, and its purpose was to determine whether life existed on Europa.

After entering Europa's orbit, the probe circled at an altitude of roughly 275 kilometers above Europa without deploying its lander.

This was because Jupiter's magnetic field was extremely powerful. It also possessed seventy-nine natural satellites, along with a large number of associated asteroids and ice crystals.

Faced with such a complex astronomical environment, even though the Ministry of Aerospace had all kinds of contingency plans, it still could not afford to let its guard down.

Although the Federation could afford to lose a probe, avoiding such losses would naturally be better.

At present, the Ministry of Aerospace had deployed a total of seven communications relay satellites in Jupiter's orbit, three of which were in Jupiter's synchronous orbit.

Deploying communications satellites solely in Jupiter's synchronous orbit was not enough to ensure comprehensive communications around Jupiter.

This was because Jupiter had many large natural satellites, which could easily block communications in certain regions.

To ensure relatively uninterrupted communications, the remaining four communications satellites had been placed in Jupiter's medium orbit and low orbit respectively.

Of course, this arrangement still had some brief communications blind spots. In the future, the Ministry of Aerospace planned to add another batch of communications satellites across Jupiter's various orbits, raising their total number to sixty-four.

Only then could Jupiter's communications quality be fully guaranteed, ensuring that other spacecraft could maintain good communications with locations beyond Jupiter.

At the Mars Outpost Base, Su Xiaoyu was remotely controlling Pieris through a remote-control system.

Of course,