Hot Wavelength

Chapter 14 (Fire Moon 2): Screwdriver
In December 2029, Liangguo Sazhou Rocket City

Daphne Braun envisioned a human survival capsule placed in Mariners Canyon on Mars, which Michael called a "capsule".

"The inhabitants of the capsules aren't just doing scientific research, are they? What engineering tasks do they also undertake?" Daphne asked Michael.

"Their primary task is to achieve self-sufficiency as much as possible, including drilling ice from deep within the canyon floor to extract water, produce oxygen and hydrogen, and solve the problems of drinking water, oxygen, and energy," Michael replied.

Looking at the explorer who was like a hero in her eyes, Daphne deduced that Michael's capsule project on Mars was not just about survival experiments, but about establishing a continuously expandable Martian settlement.

She asked, "Your plan requires a lot of transport capacity. Although the Bird 5 rocket has a large payload and can be reused, it is still far from enough to meet the material needs of the settlement."

Yes, it's not just that rocket carrying capacity is insufficient; establishing a launch site on Mars is also very difficult.

"You must have already come up with a solution. I'm curious, did you come up with it with the help of your external consultant, VESSEL?"

“This time it really wasn’t; it was designed by our company’s chief engineer, Dr. James.” Michael shook his head, recalling VESSEL’s answer to him, and said with a smile, “Regarding the capacity issue, VESSEL’s answer to me was itself, VESSEL.”

"The key to solving the transportation bottleneck in the Mars colonization plan is actually the word VESSEL itself?" Daphne asked in surprise.

As the owner of Esby Space Technologies, many of Michael Max's ideas seem almost outlandish to ordinary people, especially to Dr. James, the chief engineer who identifies with the company culture.

Dr. James suggested building a transit station near a geostationary orbit above Mars, with transport spacecraft propelled by a Falcon 5 rocket docking with the transit station in space, instead of traveling to and from the much more challenging Martian surface.

The transfer station in geosynchronous orbit is connected to the Martian surface using carbon fiber tubes and auxiliary supports, creating a Martian version of a space elevator.

Daphne Braun is a professional astronomer. Although she doesn't understand the details of engineering, she knows that building a Mars version of a space elevator would be extremely difficult.

One approach is to extend approximately 20,000 kilometers upwards from the Martian surface along the Martian equator; another is to construct a massive artificial object in orbit 20,000 kilometers above Mars as a stabilizer. Both are clearly very difficult.

“Building upwards from the Martian surface would require transporting building materials to Mars, which is essentially going back to square one and is clearly not feasible,” Daphne continued, as if solving a riddle. “Building a sufficiently large and stable man-made object in a geosynchronous orbit 20,000 kilometers above Mars is also impossible!”

Michael smiled mysteriously and said to Daphne:

“Building a man-made restraint weighing hundreds or thousands of tons is indeed impossible, but our brilliant Dr. James used a naturally formed restraint called Deimos, which is equivalent to the Earth’s moon.”

"Deimos, the fire moon!" Daphne exclaimed.

Mars has two moons, both with near-zero eccentricity, meaning they orbit Mars in almost perfect circles with near-zero inclination, practically hugging the Martian equatorial plane. They are located directly above the theoretically optimal site for a Martian space elevator.

Deimos has a semi-major axis of about 23000 kilometers and orbits Mars once every 30.3 hours. Mars' rotation period is 24 hours and 37 minutes, which means that Deimos is slightly above Mars' synchronous orbit.

The technical difficulty of docking the transport spacecraft with Deimos, which is "floating" above Mars, is far lower than landing and returning on the Martian surface, and the transportation cost will be greatly reduced.

Daphne, professional and perceptive, immediately pointed out the problem, asking, "Deimos's orbital speed is less than the linear speed of Mars's rotation. Even if Deimos were to lower a space elevator towards Mars, it wouldn't be able to establish a stable connection with the Martian surface because of the speed difference."

Dr. James had also considered Daphne's problem. The space elevator hanging down from Deimos is nearly 20,000 kilometers long. The end closer to the Martian surface could be reinforced with additional weight, but it could not be directly connected to the fixed base on the Martian ground because of the speed difference.

The surface rotational linear velocity near the Martian equator is approximately 240 meters per second, while the linear velocity at the end of the space elevator pointing towards Mars is 200 meters per second. There is a velocity difference from east to west, which is approximately 40 meters per second.

Michael took Daphne's hand and gently prompted, "Are you assuming that the space elevator's base on the Martian surface is fixed?"

Daphne Braun suddenly realized that if the docking platform moved at high speed from east to west on the Martian surface—that is, if the platform rotated relative to Mars and continuously receded from east to west—and if the receding speed was exactly 40 meters per second, a stable docking between the platform and the space elevator could be achieved. "40 meters per second, that's 144 kilometers per hour! Are you planning to make the docking platform into an electric sports car that can travel at 144 kilometers per hour? It must be a Nikola, right? Haha."

Even after Daphne Braun guessed the answer, she still couldn't believe that Dr. James could come up with such a bold and ingenious solution. After calming down a bit, she thought of another question and asked:

"Mars has a thin atmosphere, and dust storms are not only intense but also last a long time. Even if the base is built on a sports car, it would be difficult to withstand the harsh weather."

Michael told Daphne that Dr. James's plan took these factors into account, and another advantage of the space elevator not being rigidly connected to the ground base was that, during dust storms, the space elevator structure was shortened, with its end away from the Martian surface.

The high-speed moving base platform needs "rails," or tracks, but it is completely unnecessary for the tracks to orbit Mars because the cost would be too high.

The Martian equatorial circumference is approximately 21000 kilometers. Dr. James's planned rail track is less than 4000 kilometers long, allowing the space elevator to dock with Mars once every seven days on days without dust storms.

Daphne Braun, a woman of exceptional skill, immediately grasped Dr. James's good intentions. She exclaimed in amazement:

"Less than 4000 kilometers? You plan to build the platform's orbit in Valles Marineris, where the angle between the orbit and the Martian equator is very small, in order to better withstand Martian storms?"

Michael Max stood up and poured a cup of coffee for each of them. He gazed at his intelligent and beautiful girlfriend, hesitant to speak.

Several months ago, he learned about Nikola Tesla's theory of faster light waves and signed a confidentiality agreement, promising not to reveal his true plans to anyone, including his beloved girlfriend.

Michael knew that even if a clever space elevator was built, it would not be possible to transform Mars into a second habitable Earth for humans. To achieve this goal, a superluminal power station must be built on Mars, and the Mars version of the space elevator was only an auxiliary project.

The biggest problem troubling Michael Max was building a structure 18 kilometers high on Mars, and the raw materials used had to be sourced from Mars, as transportation was not an option.

These materials must be extracted from the soil on the Martian surface, but due to current technological limitations, humans can only sample the Martian surface soil at a pitiful depth of a mere 10 centimeters.

There is also a purely engineering problem: even if standard support components for the power station structure could be manufactured on the surface of Mars, these components would still need to be connected using precise and reliable connectors, or, to put it simply, screws and screwdrivers.

Daphne broke the brief silence and suddenly asked, "How do you plan to connect the standard components of the space elevator?"

Michael made a strange face and replied, "Didn't my external brain give me the answer? Use VESSEL."

Daphne asked, puzzled, "VESSEL? The literal meaning is container, large ship, and vein, none of these meanings are related. Of course, the building where we had our first date is also called VESSEL. Ladder? Does it mean ladder to heaven?"

"It may have something to do with the ladder to heaven, but I don't think that's all it is. It may also be related to my other company, a supplier of Nikola electric cars."

Daphne was completely confused and looked at Michael with bewilderment.

Michael said, "Nikola electric vehicles require various types of screwdrivers during the manufacturing process, and our company's corresponding supplier is a well-known manufacturer of screwdrivers and pneumatic equipment."

The screwdriver manufacturer that Michael Max mentioned is a well-known company in the country of Fusheng; their product trademark is:

VESSEL.

&
The poem composed of collected verses at the end of the chapter:
Stacks of jade, cold and gleaming, Ming Dynasty, Li Se
Still recognizing the auspicious rainbow winding around the lightning. (Qing Dynasty, Chen Tingjing)
Wind Cave and Star Rock should be accessible. (Ming Dynasty, Gu Lin)
The wheels of carriages are busy going back and forth all day long. (Song Dynasty, Liu Zai)

(End of this chapter)