Chapter 135: Pit

Rumble...

Accompanied by a sound like thunder, Zhou Cheng once again felt the familiar feeling of overweight on top of the huge rocket and inside the manned cabin.

He was pressed down towards the Earth by the huge acceleration that was several times greater than the Earth's gravity. Even if he tried his best, he could only move a finger.

This feeling of overweight lasted for a few minutes and then gradually subsided.

Only then did Zhou Cheng regain some mobility. He struggled to his feet, quickly observed the rocket's condition, and quickly reported to the ground personnel.

After finishing all this, he finally had time to look out the porthole.

At this moment, the fairing has been jettisoned and the portholes of the manned cabin are no longer blocked.

Then he saw the vast blue earth, the white clouds, and the lush forests.

Although Zhou Cheng had seen this scene several times before, he was still shocked when he saw it this time.

The small manned spacecraft circled the earth seven or eight times in space before slowly catching up with the Hope spacecraft that had already been assembled in the earth's orbit.

The Hope spacecraft is about 200 meters long. Its main structure is a huge cylinder with five pairs of solar panels extending from it. The whole thing looks like the Chinese character "丰".

It is loaded with a large amount of fuel, supplies and equipment, with a total mass of about 1,580 tons.

It was for this that the space launch power that had been left over from the heyday of human civilization and carefully protected for more than 60 years was exhausted.

Under the guidance of the Earth base, the small manned spacecraft finally caught up with the Hope spacecraft and docked with it. Everything was completed, the hatch opened, and Zhou Cheng finally transferred from the cramped manned cabin to the spacious Hope spacecraft.

He was suspended in the gravity-free cabin, and using his hands and feet, he reached the control room. He fastened himself to his seat with a seatbelt, checked the instrument panel, and sent a message to Earth.

"Hope is ready."

"It's ready to start."

Zhou Cheng solemnly pressed the button. A bright flame erupted from the tail of the spacecraft. At the same time, he felt a slight push on his back, as if gravity had returned.

From this moment on, the Hope spacecraft entered the acceleration process.

After flying around the Earth dozens of times, it will gain enough speed to break free from the Earth's gravity.

This moment arrived in a few days.

Instruments indicated that from this moment on, the Hope spacecraft would be moving away from Earth and would no longer orbit it. However, to the naked eye, neither the Earth's scenery nor its own state would change.

But after a while, Zhou Cheng noticed that the curvature of the earth seemed to be a little larger.

After a while, he finally saw the entire earth, instead of only a part of it as before.

After that, more details on the Earth's surface became blurred and could no longer be seen clearly. The Earth also became smaller and smaller in his eyes.

At this moment, the distance from the earth has expanded to more than 100,000 kilometers.

The Hope spacecraft is irreversibly moving away from the Earth.

He opened the communication channel: "I feel good at the moment."

"Zhou Cheng, have a safe trip!"

"Bon Voyage!"

In the ground control room, looking at the light representing the Hope spacecraft, these words appeared in the minds of countless people at the same time.

Contrary to what most people understand, the most important thing when traveling from Earth to Mercury is not acceleration, but deceleration.

The gravitational field of a planet can be thought of as a large pit. The stronger the gravitational field, the deeper the pit and the steeper the slope of its walls.

The sun is the largest celestial body in the solar system and has the strongest gravitational field. The "crater" created by the sun is not only large but also steep.

Because Mercury is so close to the sun, it looks like a small pit near the bottom of the solar crater.

The journey from Earth to Mercury can be likened to a small ball rolling down the wall of a "big pit" created by the Sun.

Obviously, because the pit is too huge, the speed of the ball will increase uncontrollably, getting faster and faster.

The Mercury crater is too small and too close to the bottom of the Sun crater.

Not only must the ball be aimed accurately at the Mercury Crater, but its speed must also be slow, otherwise even if it enters the Mercury Crater, it will bounce out by itself and continue to fall to the bottom of the Sun Crater.

This would require the spacecraft to consume a large amount of fuel to slow down in order to ensure that it stays in the crater of Mercury.

Not only will the Hope spacecraft have to use its own fuel to slow down, but it will also pass through a complex orbit, using the gravity of Venus, Mercury, and even the Earth to "brake" itself.

It will first reach Venus, then Mercury, then orbit the sun, and then return to reach the earth. After further slowing down with the help of the earth's gravity, it will reach Venus again and finally reach Mercury.

The entire journey will take three years.

This is only because the technology of human civilization at its peak was advanced enough that enough technology and equipment were left behind to allow the Hope spacecraft to reach Mercury so quickly.

In the past, it took eight, nine, or even more than ten years for a satellite to reach Mercury.

In the vast space, the Hope spacecraft was moving slowly forward.

The inertial navigation phase is actually a very boring thing.

There wasn't much to do besides routine spacecraft inspections and adaptation training.

Zhou Cheng spent more than a year in this situation.

Over the past year or so, Zhou Cheng would record a video and send it back every once in a while. Similarly, Liu Yu would also record a video and send it back.

The two of them exchanged trivial matters in life and expressed their thoughts to each other, just like a pair of lovers in a long-distance relationship.

In the vast deep space, Zhou Cheng moved forward alone.

At this moment, he had passed Venus, which was covered by thick clouds, passed the target planet Mercury, and entered the orbit around the sun.

Because of the shortened distance, the sun, which was the size of a disk in the past, has now expanded to the size of a large round table.

After blocking out the dazzling core region, you can even see the prominence extending from it.

It just hangs in the vast universe, unscrupulously spreading its energy around.

Zhou Cheng carefully adjusted the attitude of the spacecraft, ensuring that only the side equipped with the sun visor was facing it at all times.

If this is not done, the spacecraft will be directly damaged by high temperatures and excessive radiation.

This period of time is also the time when we are disconnected from the earth.

Because at this moment the Earth and the Hope spacecraft are on opposite sides of the sun.

Everyone in the Earth base was caught in a rather long wait.

After a period of waiting, the Hope spacecraft finally circled the sun.

But... for some reason, one of the solar panels on it is missing.