Satellite launch

The polar regions.

About one kilometer from the Pansy, a large temporary campsite has been set up on the ice field.

The houses are built from snow and ice, with an inner layer of felt and heating facilities.

The indoor temperature can be maintained at around 5 degrees Celsius.

For the polar regions, this is considered warm.

Outdoors, all staff members were dressed very warmly.

At first, people habitually used Magic Power to keep warm.

However, it was soon discovered that the concentration of Magicules here was much lower than in normal areas.

The Magic Power replenishment speed is only one-third of normal.

"Thank goodness it's not Antarctica."

Su Ming said with relief.

According to Chloe's "Forbidden Zone Survival Journal," the concentration there is much lower than here, only one-tenth.

He poured himself a cup of hot tea.

Through the frosted window, you can see the Pansy in the distance.

The massive ship lay prone on the ice, its Vermilion Bow already raised high.

The enhanced track, hundreds of meters long, extends upwards along the hull, like a spear piercing the polar night sky.

Similarly, the circular electromagnetic track extends downwards by about three hundred meters.

It pierced through the dark, icy water and landed on the seabed.

****

With the hoisting completed, the main body of the Plain Increase Second Generation No. 1 rocket is now in the Pansy maintenance area.

A large number of people were working around it.

Under the searchlight, they looked like a cluster of black dots.

"Fueling, begin!" Beianqi announced.

Pipelines are connected to the aerospace assembly.

The cryogenic pump unit hums.

Liquid oxygen is first forced into the pipeline.

Pale blue frost mist seeped out from the interface, spreading and proliferating along the metal casing.

Then the liquid hydrogen pipeline began operation.

Fine white mist swirled near the cryogenic valve assembly, frost quickly formed on the outer wall of the pipes, and a slight contraction sound was heard.

The personnel responsible for refueling retreated to a safe distance, leaving only the automated robotic arm and monitoring instruments to carry out the process in the cold wind.

The tiered storage tanks were gradually filled.

The pressure curve climbed, and the numbers on the control panel continued to fluctuate.

****

Inside the Earth Support Base warehouse, three sets of satellites were folded and stored together.

The first group contains the largest pieces, with only three.

These are high-orbit satellites in the equatorial plane; they carry the largest amount of fuel and have the highest equipment power.

It is the "host" in the entire communication system.

They are capable of forming uninterrupted planetary communication coverage.

The second group consists of eight much smaller low-orbit satellites, responsible for providing near-Earth signal enhancement.

The third group of three also consists of low-Earth orbit satellites.

They operate directly on polar-axis orbits to complete the network.

Because it does not require orbital changes, it has the smallest possible size.

"How much did these cost?" Su Ming asked curiously.

"It's quite cheap," Ling Wen replied. "This whole set only cost two hundred million."

She looked to the other side.

Sangzi is inspecting the "Red Spider Lily" dimensional communication satellite with meticulous movements.

"The ones on her side are the more expensive ones."

Ling Wen held up three fingers.

"At least three billion."

Su Ming was quite surprised to hear this.

"You launched the same set as well."

"With backups, wouldn't that be over ten billion?"

Ling Wen shook her head.

"No backup satellites."

"There's not enough time."

"It's really expensive to do all this," Su Ming sighed.

"Your previous H-6 WZ destroyed just as many things as this one," Ling Wen comforted her thoughtfully.

"Those three ' Chubby Girl ' helicopters cost over a billion each."

Su Ming was speechless.

When undertaking even slightly large-scale projects, the financial costs are always exceptionally high.

This allowed him, who had become accustomed to an individualistic perspective in his past life, to...

It always feels so unreal.

****

After Su Ming completed the teleportation, the Star Arrow quickly assembled.

The fairing is closed; final inspection.

After confirming that everything was correct, the Plain Increase entity began to descend downwards along the track.

Gradually, it settled on the area above the seabed.

A massive metal claw extended and firmly gripped the assembly.

At the starting point of the track, the annular outer shell begins to freeze, and the ice layer gradually thickens.

"The Vermilion Bow Electromagnetic Catapult System has completed its cryogenic calibration," said Hechun.

"The inside of the track has been evacuated to a vacuum," Beianqi said.

"Vacuum isolation array, deploy normally," Zijin said.

Su Ming checked all the parameters.

"Maintain the status quo and wait for the window of opportunity to start again."

"The temperature is still dropping, and the guide rails will shrink further," Beianqi worriedly said.

"Let's heat it up," Su Ming said.

After he finished speaking, he took a deep breath to calm himself down.

Everyone is waiting.

The sound of the polar wind, the low hum of the equipment, and the slight vibrations coming from underwater.

Finally, in ten minutes, the launch window will open.

"Start charging!"

Su Ming issued the order.

The six gas turbines on the Pansy are operating at maximum power.

A deep rumble emanated from deep within the ship's hull, initially like muffled thunder, then rapidly rising to become a continuous metallic roar.

The Zhurong reactor has also reached 120% power.

A large amount of electricity converges into the superconducting coil.

The monitoring curves climbed rapidly, and the electromagnetic confinement system lit up segment by segment, like a steel dragon awakening.

The magnetic field strength of the superconducting coil continues to increase.

The charging process took a full 15 minutes.

When all indicator lights turn green, the voltage and electromagnetic field have reached the threshold.

Su Ming stared at the launch button in front of him, his finger pausing for half a second.

Then, he pressed down hard.

It is completely different from the scene of a traditional rocket launch, where huge flames erupt and a massive object slowly ascends into the air.

The instant the button is pressed.

The hook and rope were released.

The electromagnetic catapult system triggers the first magnetic coil rapidly, in picoseconds.

Following the second and third sections----

An invisible, immense force erupted from the depths of the seabed, rising upwards.

In just one second, the massive Plain Increase material was accelerated to a speed of 1000 meters per second.

It pierced through the vacuum isolation array, carrying the firelight generated by electromagnetic stimulation, and crashed into the atmosphere with a roar.

A powerful, sound-breaking shockwave exploded above.

On the ground, large swaths of ice fog were shaken into rings and spread outwards.

The Plain Gift No. 1 rubbed violently against the air, leaving a bright trail of heat trailing from the edge of its outer shell.

Like an arrow shot from a giant bow, it powerfully pierced the sky.

****

"3 kilometers in altitude!"

"7 kilometers above sea level!"

"Altitude 11 kilometers!"

As altitude increases, atmospheric concentration rapidly decreases to one-fifth of that at ground level.

Resistance also decreased exponentially.

The system automatically completes the ignition.

This time, a brilliant flash of light finally erupted in the night sky.

The liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen rocket engine ignites, and the cryogenic fuel reacts violently in the combustion chamber, leaving a long, blue-white tail flame trailing behind the nozzle.

The flame was clean and bright.

Against the backdrop of the polar night, it resembles a straightened blade of light.

The rocket continued to accelerate.

The tail flame briefly shone brightly on the clouds below before quickly moving away.

As the air becomes thinner, the drag on the rocket decreases further, and the acceleration increases.

The ground observation station set up in Northern Ice Island successfully captured the target.

"Altitude 50 kilometers, flight parameters stable, no anomalies detected!"

At sea, the Albacore also deployed tracking equipment.

"The Albacore successfully located the target; no clam activity was detected."

Soon, the flight altitude reached 100 kilometers.

The first-stage engine combustion has ended.

The rocket body shuddered slightly, the connecting structures unlocked one by one, the first stage was pushed away from the main axis, and it fell downwards due to inertia.

After a brief separation interval, the second-stage engine ignited, and a bright stream of fire shot out from the tail again.

The remaining arrow body will be propelled into a higher trajectory.

After leaving the Kármán line, the fairing, which had become a burden, was also abandoned.

It split to the left and right, tumbling as it fell into the atmosphere, where it quickly burned up due to the high temperature and friction.

After that, the rocket accelerated even faster.

The engine shut down approximately ten minutes later.

The rocket entered an orbit with a perigee of 300 kilometers and an apogee of 600 kilometers.

The three smallest orbital satellites were released one after another.

However, this is still early; it will take time before they are adjusted to their unfolded positions.

Then, as the curvature of the earth obscured the view, the rocket went below the horizon and lost contact.

****

At its current orbit, the rocket completes one orbit around the Planet Taiya in approximately two hours.

It wasn't until about half an hour later that the rocket was captured by a ground station located in the First Sunrise Republic.

When the news came that the orbit was normal, everyone at the North Pole Launch Center finally breathed a sigh of relief.

A moment later, suppressed cheers erupted.

"Let's get everyone rested first," Su Ming instructed Beianqi.

"Afterwards, clean up the launch site and prepare for Plain Increase No. 2."

"Yes!"

Su Ming's work was far from over.

Based on the received data, he and Chun checked the orbit and calculated the orbit change window.

When the rocket returned to the North Pole skies and the signal was confirmed to be good, Su Ming restarted the rocket engine.

The goal this time is to extend the apogee of the orbit to approximately 12,000 kilometers.

This would cause it to coincide with the lunar orbit of Taya.

That's right, the moon in Taya is much closer to Earth's moon.

However, it is also much smaller, with a diameter of only about 180 kilometers, less than one-fifteenth the size of the Earth and the Moon.

This is also why it is possible to use the moon to perform equatorial orbital maneuvers without incurring too high orbital costs.

The whole process is extremely complicated.

Most of the computational work has been done by the support team on Earth.

Even on Su Ming's side, the one who made the calculations based on the actual trajectory was actually the Electricity-Swallowing Beast.

However, the process of manual verification is indispensable.

Su Ming and Hechun took turns on duty to confirm that everything was operating normally.

The satellite's orbit change process took more than a week.

After that, a total of 14 communication satellites, including 8 low-orbit and 3 high-orbit satellites in equatorial orbit and 3 low-orbit satellites in polar orbit, were finally deployed to form a network.

To be honest, the launch accuracy wasn't great.

The most severely affected satellite had an orbital deviation of up to 5%.

But this is the price of reclamation.

These 14 satellites will form a network in the sky and integrate with ground observation stations to create a comprehensive system.

For the first time in the Taya world, Su Ming possessed a space-to-ground communication and positioning system.

Meanwhile, Plain Increase No. 2 was also ready.

Thanks to orbital communication and the achievement of basic positioning capabilities, the accuracy of the second satellite launch was greatly improved.

Twenty-one satellites are almost evenly distributed in a circular orbit around the equator at a distance of 300 kilometers.

They unfolded their solar panels one by one and connected to the wires.

These satellites also have communication relay capabilities, further strengthening the communication network.

The ground-based communication environment has become more user-friendly.

The second batch also carried observation equipment, enabling them to perform some low-precision but extensive mapping of the ground.

However, Su Ming wasn't in a hurry about that at the moment.

Su Ming was concerned about the mirage.

Their primary task is to detect and investigate the activity patterns of clamshells from space.

This part of the work was carried out by a team of scholars from the Ruby Base, with the assistance of the satellite control team led by Chun.

In short, it is essential to ensure a stable and orderly space environment.

This clears the way for the upcoming launch of the "Red Spider Lily" system.

****

With the deployment of ground antennas at each node, Taya has suddenly entered the era of satellite communication.

Communication levels between different regions have improved dramatically.

For example, Su Ming can now hold video conferences with everyone.

There is significant latency, and even stuttering.

But there's nothing to criticize.

"This is much more convenient than my dream projection!"

The Grand Elder of Zhimeng held the small terminal in his hands, utterly amazed.

"So why did you contact me?" Su Ming asked.

"Didn't you send me a message asking about powerful, extinct creatures in the Taya Plane?" Zhimeng asked.

"Extinction" and "powerful"—don't you think these two words are quite contradictory?

"Su Ming is searching for creatures that might attack Eden," Chloe interjected.

He also consulted many other scholars on this issue.

Zhimeng didn't understand at first.

"Su Ming, you analyzed Eden's enemies, so why did you investigate Taya?"

"It has been confirmed that Taya and Eden are biologically homologous," Chloe said.

For example, in human DNA sequencing, the difference is less than one in a thousand.

"The Super Crystal Dragon from last time, although it doesn't exist in Taya, has many biological characteristics that can be found in Taya's creatures."

Zhimeng thought about it for a moment.

"You mean, Taya, and Eden share the same origin?"

Chloe shook her head.

"The dimensional energy of Eden is higher than that of Taya."

"Life forms from Eden can easily descend into natural spatial rifts."

"It's nothing more than gambling on the mortality rate."

Even if it succeeds only once every few decades.

"A span of millions of years is enough time for biological environments to replicate."

19

But Taya's life cannot be reversed.

Zhimeng was utterly astonished upon hearing this.

"You mean, Eden was the origin of life in Taya?"

"Yes," Chloe replied, "That's the most likely scenario at the moment."

"The Ruby Institute's academic team is already drafting related papers."

"It is planned to be officially released at the annual meeting of the Supreme Knowledge Association."

Zhimeng understood.

She turned to Su Ming: "Are you guessing that creatures that went extinct on Taya might still exist on Eden?"

"Yes," Su Ming replied.

"I fear that such a creature may appear on our list of enemies."

Therefore, it's always better to be prepared.

Zhimeng began to think.

"Among my Dragon Race, quite a few dragon species have gone extinct."

"Like the White Dragon, it was the smallest, and also clumsy; it went extinct a long time ago."

"There are also Bronze Dragon, skilled at breathing lightning, and they like to live by the sea."

"As a result, in the primordial era, they were swept along the coast by hostile dragons and wiped out."

Chloe interrupted, "At this level, it's unlikely they'd become a primary enemy, right?"

"You dragons can handle this yourselves."

Zhimeng quickly thought of something else, "Poison Dragon!"

Her voice rose.

"The Poison Dragon is the most powerful among the Dragon Race!"

"In the primordial era, we were invincible!"

"But when the dragon hordes merged and multiple races lived together..."

"That's where the problem arises; very few dragons are willing to mate with them."

"Because if other dragons mate with them, they will be poisoned and experience pain."

"Over time, the Poison Dragon became isolated."

Su Ming was somewhat stunned upon hearing this.

"The Poison Dragon, just like that—extinct?"

"Otherwise what?"

Zhimeng shrugs her shoulder blades.

"There are still Poison Dragon intermarrying with other Dragon Race."

"Without exception, the bloodlines they chose for their descendants were not those of the Poison Dragon."

"To prevent them from having difficulty integrating into Dragon Race society when they grow up."

"Only between purebred Poison Dragon Poison Dragon there be offspring of Poison Dragon."

Over time, the number of Poison Dragon has steadily decreased.

"And that's it."

Chloe also sighed.

"The Poison Dragon were the most unjustly wiped out."

Zhimeng's tone suddenly became lighter.

"Speaking of which, I've reached the age where I can raise a baby dragon."

"Who do you fancy? I'll go beat him up for you," Zijin interjected.

Zhimeng raised its emerald-green claws.

"No need, I'll do it myself!"