I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?.

Chapter 747 Rescue
"Still haven't been able to contact Artemis?"

Robert came to the Artemis team with great concern, and saw the person in charge calmly shaking his head:

"No, we gave XAP the channel and key for communicating with Artemis as you ordered, but they couldn't do anything. The flipped Artemis couldn't find a stable communication direction at all, but it wasn't all bad news."

"So what's the good news?"

"XAP's high-orbit satellite took a photo of Artemis. According to our judgment, Artemis' reflective surface should be fully unfolded, not just partially unfolded as expected, which means its working mechanism is normal."

Robert frowned:
"If it is fully deployed, it should not cause deflection due to overload. The attitude system can handle it completely."

"So we suspect it's actually a sensor failure, or a computer program error.

The deployment of Artemis should have been very smooth, but some of the tens of thousands of sensors spread throughout the spacecraft failed and sent back incorrect signals, causing the attitude system to make incorrect adjustments, mistakenly believing that Artemis had experienced a large-scale deviation.

This deflection then led to further misjudgment, more corrections to the wrong attitude, and ultimately caused Artemis to actively start spinning, and the attitude system simply crashed and shut down. "

Robert found the pictures transmitted by Xinyuan and the emergency analysis report of NACA, which at least proved that the structure of Artemis was basically intact. As long as the huge reflecting surface was not broken, it would be necessary to get it back on track as much as possible.

"Can we find a way to restart the system, or re-enter the parameters for calibration?"

Faced with the director's expectations, the person in charge still shook his head:
"We don't know the source of the problem yet, and there is another problem. Artemis is about to enter the day side, and its rotation speed is not very fast right now. Under the sunlight, it may cause it to rotate too fast and eventually disintegrate.

We roughly calculated the extreme tolerance range of its orbit and materials. At most, after three passes through the day side, the speed change caused by the sunlight will definitely exceed the tolerance limit, and the reflective surface will be torn apart. "

Artemis is now operating in an orbit of about 400 kilometers, with an orbital period of about 90 minutes, which means there is still a little more than two hours left. If it is too late, this expensive artificial sun will disintegrate and be destroyed due to its increasingly rapid rotation even without the need for ground-launched missiles.

NACA has no clue now. The key point is that even if it lowers its status and asks the Aerospace Development Commission for help, the other party will be helpless.

Three years ago, the Soyuz spacecraft also had an out-of-control spin accident, and the space shuttle could fly over to forcibly correct it, but this could not be done for Artemis.

Even if a space shuttle could arrive and capture it in just two hours, it would not be able to stop its spin.

First, Artemis has a mass of more than 150 tons. Even if it is spinning slowly, its momentum is quite terrifying, and ordinary space shuttles are completely useless.
The second and most important thing is that Artemis is too fragile, so fragile that only the uniform and gentle thrust of its own ion thrusters can adjust its posture, otherwise the huge reflective surface will be torn apart.

So the problem is quite tricky. Artemis is like a soap bubble floating around. We have to stop it but we can't burst it.

Robert, who was in a state of panic, thought about it for a long time and suddenly asked:

"Can you make it shrink back? If it can shrink back, it will be much easier to deal with it later."

Person in charge: “Theoretically, it’s possible, but there’s still a signal problem. Even if we try, we can’t contact Artemis.

Unless you can find a way to launch a satellite precisely next to it, then maneuver with it and transmit commands.

But I don't recommend doing this. The space affected by Artemis' rotation is too large, and it is very easy to block the signal of this satellite, which may cause further damage. In addition, we don't have a preset emergency retraction order. If we do it now..." "Then do it now. This is our only way. This is $100 billion! The Apollo program didn't cost that much!"

Robert interrupted the person in charge's explanation and immediately commanded:

"Write the order immediately, quickly. I'll only give you 30 minutes. The rocket will be launched in 60 minutes at most!"

The person in charge was dumbfounded and asked subconsciously:

"60 minutes? That's not even enough time to get the rocket to the launch pad, and we don't have any satellites that can immediately carry out the mission."

Robert: "But the Air Force has it. Their emergency network repair system has both rockets and satellites. I think it's okay to use one for $100 billion. You just need to do it immediately. We don't have time to waste!"

Just as he was furiously making plans, Deputy Director Jim rushed in and said breathlessly:
"The Pentagon... they requested NACA's assistance to allow Artemis..."

Robert frowned and interrupted him and replied impatiently:

"We are doing it, and we need their help right away. I want to keep Artemis more than any of them.

I know Artemis has caused a big disaster, but believe us, it will only cause chaos for a while at most, and the Aviation Development Commission has reached an understanding with us."

Jim: "No, not to keep it, but to let it continue to cause large-scale radio interference, preferably affecting most areas of the Eastern Hemisphere!"

Robert was startled, and instantly realized something was possible. He rushed forward, grabbed Jim's shoulders with both hands, and asked fiercely:

"What happened again? Damn it! Are they crazy? We finally reached a settlement!"

Jim was a little dizzy because of him. He wanted to say the answer but he shuddered and uttered a few words with his eyes blank:

"war...the war, it's there."

This extremely sensitive word instantly gave Robert a startle and he almost jumped up on the spot.

"No, this is impossible! These lunatics, no, I can't do this, there must be some misunderstanding, I will never carry out this order!"

Robert reacted, grabbed the Artemis leader by the neck, and almost roared in front of him:
"We must not let Artemis continue to create chaos. Immediately, immediately get the order I need!

Jim, I need a helicopter so we can stop this as quickly as possible!"

Robert dragged Jim and ran outside. Then he seemed to think of something, took out his mobile phone and opened an app. After hesitating for a moment, he clicked on it. He typed the letters one by one in a dizzy manner while running, and finally pressed the send button with trembling hands.

After seeing that the message was sent successfully, he felt a sudden shock in his heart, but at the same time, he inexplicably relaxed a little, and then deleted the operation record locally.

(End of this chapter)