Eight Hundred and Seventy-Six Everything Is Ready

Beidu rejected the idea of ​​detonating in advance and continued to implement the original plan, but the original plan was not foolproof.

The specific time of Io's arrival can be calculated, and the detailed orbits of Phobos and Deimos can also be calculated. However, with Io's current orbit, it cannot fly to the earth at all, and it will definitely change its direction near Mars. .

At that time, it is impossible to determine from what position Io will approach Mars and what its orbital altitude will be. As a result, the distance and positional relationship between the satellite and Io cannot be determined.

If you want to hit Io, timing is very important. Being too early is equivalent to alerting the aliens, and being too late is equivalent to giving Europa a chance to evade calmly. Therefore, when to detonate is the difference between the success of the plan and the success of the plan. The key is that the position of the satellite and Europa cannot be too far when detonating, and the flying speed of the fragments must be fast enough.

However, although the planetary engine is powerful, the mass of Europa is not low. Its steering, acceleration and deceleration are very troublesome. As long as the speed of the fragments is fast enough, it is not impossible to hit Europa.

If this were not the case, there would be no need to continue the Mars project. It would just be declared a failure and return to Earth to wait for a decisive battle with aliens.

After the differences in planning were resolved, the Mars project entered the fast lane. The first issue that the Fourth Fleet needed to solve was the placement of the super engine.

Not placing the super engine would have a serious impact on the mission, so we definitely couldn't do this. In order to prevent the impact of the nuclear explosion from destroying the engine, the fleet came up with an unexpected way: build a shelf!

To put it simply, it is to find several giant steel cones that are 100 meters long. The cone head is fixed at a designated position on the satellite surface, and the cone tail is fixed on the super battleship. It is equivalent to using a rack to fix the super engine on the satellite.

The depth of the steel cone inserted into the satellite, the length left outside and the angle of insertion into the ground have all been carefully calculated. When the nuclear bomb explodes, the steel cone acts as a buffer between the fragments and the engine. The steel cone will penetrate deeply into the fragments due to inertia, thus Super engine fixing completed.

The weight of the super engine is extremely high. If it were placed on the earth, it would definitely not be able to do this. Even the gravity of the moon can bend the steel cone. Only small celestial bodies like Phobos and Deimos, which have low gravity, can fix the spacecraft in this way.

On April 6, 2028, the last super engine was fixed on the surface of the satellite.

The success of the super engine has cleared the last obstacle to the Mars plan. The next task is to wait for the arrival of Europa.

In order to prevent aliens from discovering the super engines, Ye Han also led his soldiers to cover the engines with camouflage nets, disguising all super engines as hills on the surface of the satellite.

This was not a spur-of-the-moment idea by Ye Han and others, but a task that had been arranged before the fleet set off.

Ye Han was very doubtful about the effectiveness of the camouflage net, but it was better than nothing.

It only took the Marines two days to lay out all the camouflage nets. At this time, it was still more than a month before Io arrived. Except for a few people in the Fourth Fleet who stayed to monitor Io, everyone else was injected with hibernating hormone.

At this time, Yushan has completed all its missions and can leave Mars and return at any time. However, firstly, the distance between the Earth and Mars is still relatively far, and secondly, Europa is about to arrive. After Ye Han solicited the opinions of all the officers and soldiers, he applied for temporary stay. Mars, participating in follow-up missions of the Mars program.

After careful consideration, the Qiongzhou base agreed to Ye Han's suggestion.

Qiongzhou Base didn't know what to do with the Marines left behind, but there was no rush to come back. At this moment, it was best if there was no need. What if there was a need but no one could be found?

On May 20, 2028, Europa was only three days away from Mars. The fleet woke everyone up and got into position to wait for Europa's arrival.

Io is getting closer and closer, and its position can be clearly seen with the naked eye. Although all the spacecraft of the Fourth Fleet are painted black, in order to prevent the fleet from being exposed, all spacecraft are hidden behind the satellite, and only need to be installed on The surveillance equipment on the satellite observes Europa, and all spacecraft are constantly moving under the unified command of the flagship to ensure that all spacecraft can be blocked by the satellite.

At 4 a.m. on May 23,

Europa is only two hours away from Mars. The Fourth Fleet is standing ready. Everyone on the bridge of the flagship Nanzhou is performing their duties. Wang Tianyu reports the orbital parameters of Europa every once in a while.

That's right, it's Wang Tianyu, not only him, but Ling Yu is also there.

Originally, the Fourth Fleet was not a few of them, but because of the failure of the Third Fleet, Ling Yu and others strongly requested to join the Fourth Fleet. They found connections to issue military orders and even wrote blood letters, and then they won the command. Opportunities for the Fourth Fleet.

This is also the reason for the failure of the Third Fleet. Otherwise, if all the blood in the body is written dry, the Fourth Fleet will not be able to turn to these people.

Of course, the Third Fleet's long-distance voyage experience also adds a lot to Ling Yu and others... There are not many senior commanders with long-distance voyage experience.

Time passed slowly after a long wait. When Europa Zero was only half an hour away from Mars, Wang Tianyu finally got the orbit analysis results: "Report, Commander, the orbit analysis results are out. Europa Zero will arrive on February 2." Arriving at Mars in seventeen minutes, the orbit is at an altitude of 28,000 kilometers.”

"What? Only 28,000 kilometers? Are you sure?" Ling Yu was shocked and stared blankly at the home screen, "What do the aliens want to do?"

He did not doubt the results of the orbital analysis, but was shocked by the madness of the aliens.

Twenty-eight thousand kilometers is a very far distance for man-made aircraft, but for Mars or Europa, this distance is really too close.

Although Ling Yu's astronomical knowledge is limited and he doesn't know what will happen if the two planets are too close, this distance is less than four times the diameter of Europa Zero, which is too close.

Xu Moliang's expression was so serious that it almost froze: "From Europa Zero's current orbit, it does want to use Mars to slow down..."

Ling Yu's eyes never left the main screen, where there was a real-time situation map near Mars. At present, Europa Zero was flying in front of Mars, and Deimos was just behind Mars. It is estimated that the closest distance between the two is no less than 50,000 kilometers. Even if Deimos was blown up immediately, the resulting fragments would not be able to catch up with Europa Zero.

The relative speed between Europa Zero and Deimos is as high as more than 80 kilometers per second. Although the power of the super engine is good, it can't catch up with tens of millions of tons of boulders, unless you throw away the boulders and use the super engine to chase Europa Zero's tail.

But in that case, even if you catch up, it will be useless. The super engine will at most tickle Europa Zero.

However, there is always a way out. The location of Deimos is not good, but Phobos happens to be on the other side of Mars!