Dawn Star synchronous orbit.
An extremely large man-made object floats silently in space.
The man-made object is shaped like a giant disc.
That was a giant space city that humans had recently built.
Under the light of Gliese 555, this enormous, disc-shaped man-made object is slowly rotating around its center.
It works on the same principle as a gravity chamber.
This approach allows the space inside the disk to experience a gravity equivalent to that of the Earth.
Not far from it, there is a giant space city that is half-built and has the exact same shape and structure.
The purpose of these space cities is not to dock starships or to build starships.
Their primary role is to nurture newborn humans.
The gravity on the surface of Dawn Star is too great, which is not particularly friendly to children who are not yet fully developed.
Even newborns, whose bones are not yet fully developed, would find it extremely difficult to stand and walk under such gravity.
You can't exactly put an exoskeleton on a newborn baby, can you?
To ensure the normal reproduction of humankind, the Chinese Academy of Sciences made preparations several years ago—to establish several giant space cities in the synchronous orbit of Dawn Star as nurturing centers.
Once pregnant, both parents can travel to the giant space city together and enjoy a 20-year maternity leave.
It seems like a lot.
But considering that humans typically live for eight or nine hundred years or even a thousand years, this amount of time is insignificant.
Once the newborn reaches adulthood, the parents and child can return to Dawn Star to resume a normal life.
Although this measure seems humane, the time cost of up to twenty years and countless hidden costs still deter many people from adopting it.
Therefore, since the construction of the giant space city, very few people have chosen to have children, and the huge space city has become empty.
Further out from Dawn Star are rows of equally enormous buildings.
That is the spaceport for the human fleet.
As the core area for the daily maintenance and manufacturing of starships, many fleets are docked near the spaceport.
The flagship, the Earth, was quietly docked there.
The core area of the spaceport.
"Researcher Li Yuntian, a communication request has been sent from Dawn Star. Do you wish to accept it?"
Zero's electronic synthesized voice echoed throughout the large room.
Then, a male voice rang out: "Accept."
As the holographic projection unfolded, Lü Yongchang's image appeared before Li Yuntian.
"How is Poseidon doing?"
Without any preamble, Lü Yongchang asked directly.
Li Yuntian, who was familiar with Lü Yongchang's ways, was not surprised at all and quickly reported the latest developments to Lü Yongchang.
He first reached out and adjusted the camera angle so that it could capture Poseidon on the other side, and then spoke.
"Professor, [Poseidon] has been completed and is currently undergoing performance testing."
Through a huge glass panel, Lü Yongchang could clearly see the true appearance of Poseidon.
As a specially designed mineral exploration vessel for an icy giant planet, the Poseidon differs greatly in appearance from normal mineral exploration vessels.
To withstand the immense pressure and harsh environment inside the icy giant planet, Poseidon was designed as a perfect sphere.
Below the sphere are several nozzles of varying sizes; this is the tail of Poseidon, where the Hall thruster unit is located.
Above the sphere are several pieces of glass made of transparent aluminum.
This is the porthole of the Poseidon.
To ensure the overall strength of the Poseidon, the porthole glass was significantly thickened, and its area was reduced as much as possible.
Each porthole allowed only one person to look out.
Behind the porthole is the cockpit of the Poseidon.
Compared to the rest of the starship, the cockpit looked exceptionally small.
The entire cockpit is less than fifty square meters in size.
After installing various instruments and equipment, only a dozen square meters of space remained for the driver.
Conditions were harsh, but the safety level of the cockpit was undoubtedly the highest compared to the rest of the mining exploration vessel.
In some ways, the cockpit is even equivalent to a miniature starship.
In the design, once the starship suffers irreversible damage, the cockpit will be ejected entirely.
With its own fuel and small Hall thrusters, it could even plunge into near-Earth orbit around an icy giant planet!
Of course, that's all.
It's unrealistic to expect to use it to leave the icy giant planet and return to Dawn.
As for the pilots, they will enter the deep-sea compartment inside the cockpit when they encounter danger.
Once the cockpit enters near-Earth orbit around the icy giant planet and sends out a distress signal, they will enter hibernation and await rescue by the human fleet.
This was the safest measure that Lü Yongchang could think of.
In addition to the cockpit and Hall thruster nozzles, Poseidon has two large, tightly closed hatches on its rear side.
That's where the robotic arm and the warehouse are located.
Once a potentially useful mineral resource is discovered, the robotic arm, under the control of the operator, can perform sampling and place the ore into a warehouse.
In addition, there is a small laboratory inside Poseidon.
It can perform basic tests on the collected ore samples, which can greatly improve the working efficiency of the exploration vessel—ensuring that the two drivers don't make a wasted trip.
Despite its many internal structures, the Poseidon still appears remarkably "small" compared to the rest of the human fleet's starships.
The entire starship is less than 100 meters in diameter.
What about its compressive strength?
Lu Yongchang asked in a deep voice.
For Poseidon, compressive strength is the most important metric.
Just by reaching the surface of the liquid ammonia sea, the pressure around it reaches 60 standard atmospheres. Once it goes deep into the seabed of liquid ammonia, the pressure will increase rapidly!
"The test results show that its maximum pressure resistance reaches 100,000 standard atmospheres," Li Yuntian replied quickly, glancing at the holographic projection beside him.
Lu Yongchang remained silent, his eyes filled with contemplation.
One hundred thousand standard atmospheres.
That's quite high.
In Earth's time, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench had a pressure of only a few thousand standard atmospheres.
Even so, at that time, the Mariana Trench remained an abyss that was difficult for humankind to conquer.
However, this level of pressure resistance is still insufficient for icy giants.
Based on model predictions, the pressure inside icy giant planets could reach millions or even tens of millions of standard atmospheres.
Carbon atoms are compressed into tiny diamonds by this terrifying pressure, and countless diamonds even fall from the "air"!
Of course, the Poseidon mineral exploration ship doesn't need to go to such a terrifying area.
Theoretically, its pressure resistance of 100,000 standard atmospheres should be sufficient to support its journey to the depths of the liquid ammonia ocean.
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