Hot Wavelength

Chapter 32 (Impact Point 2): Polymer Clay
April 2030, Yucatan Peninsula

Michael's assistant, Dr. James, was tall and thin. At less than 40 years old, he not only had a solid academic foundation but was also an energetic and pragmatic person.

Only a few executives and core technology experts at Esby Space Technologies had access to Nikola Tesla’s theory of faster-than-light waves after signing confidentiality agreements, and Dr. James was one of them.

Michael tasked James with developing a feasible plan for a Mars superluminal power station.

Imagine the sheer difficulty of building a 9-kilometer-high space elevator on Tasmania Island, located on the Earth's equator, and then doubling its height to create a 18-kilometer-high carbon fiber tube column—the so-called ultra-light wave power station.

The feasibility study for the Earth Tower Island power plant was rejected by the person in charge of Project T before it was even completed.

Later, the plan to build a superluminal power station on Enceladus, using the large amount of ice in Saturn's rings as a natural support, was also forced to be suspended.

Espeon's ultimate goal is to build a superluminal power station on Mars to heat its metallic core, returning it to a liquid state and thus restarting its magnetic field. This would transform Mars into another habitable planet in the solar system, serving as a "backup plan" for Earth.

If building a superluminal power station on Earth is fraught with difficulties, then building one on Mars would be an impossible task.

Michael and his team simply refused to accept the notion that "impossible" was true! When the idea of ​​reusable heavy-lift rockets was first proposed, aerospace experts, while pitying the ignorance and arrogance of these "laymen," shouted, "Absolutely impossible!"

However, the difficulties are indeed very real. Although the 18-kilometer-long carbon fiber tube is enormous, it is still possible to send it to Mars through multiple transports using Espe's large-diameter, reusable rockets.

However, the supporting structure required for the stable structure of a 18-kilometer-high ultra-light-wave power station would be hundreds or even thousands of times larger and larger than carbon fiber tubes. The transportation capacity and time required to process it on Earth and transport it to Mars would be unacceptable.

Michael's external advisor, VESSEL, suggested: use what's available.

A single sentence was like a wake-up call; Dr. James suddenly realized that the scaffolding could be extracted and processed from Martian soil. A new problem arose: although Martian soil contained metals such as iron, establishing a metal smelting plant on Mars was extremely difficult.

Most critically, even if iron were smelted and steel made, its weight would be too great to construct a structure 18 kilometers high. The raw materials for the support structure needed to have a certain degree of hardness, but not too high a density.

Dr. James found the answer: pottery, pottery made on Mars, serves as a support structure for a superluminal power station.

Pottery making requires clay, and Dr. James obtained Martian soil samples from the US Space Agency. Due to technical limitations, the samples were taken from a depth of only ten centimeters below the Martian surface, and the samples did not contain suitable clay components.

Sending a dedicated spacecraft to Mars to retrieve deeper soil samples is both laborious and time-consuming.

Dr. James came up with an alternative approach: find geological structures on Earth that are the same as or similar to the soil on the surface of Mars, and if there is suitable clay deep beneath those structures, then Mars might also be the same.

Dr. James selected two regions on Earth with surface soil compositions similar to those on Mars from multiple target locations: one is the sedimentary layer in the East African Rift Valley lake region in northern Kenya, and the other is an ancient Mayan village on the Yucatan Peninsula in southeastern Mexico.

After compositional analysis, the sedimentary layers in the East African Rift Valley lake region did not match the Martian soil, so Dr. James placed his last hope on the Yucatan Peninsula.

He recently made an astonishing discovery and couldn't wait to report it to Michael. So, Michael Max went to the soil excavation site near the Mayan village in Mexico.

Dr. James excitedly said, "Michael, the soil beneath your feet has almost the exact same composition as the Martian sample, and beneath these components lies a clay layer. My only concern now is whether the consistent composition of the surface soil means there is also clay beneath the Martian surface."

“I wouldn’t dare say this elsewhere, but on the Yucatan Peninsula, I’m sure your reasoning is correct.”

Dr. James looked up in surprise and asked, "Why is it definitely correct in the Yucatan Peninsula?"

“Don’t forget my girlfriend Daphne is an astronomer. She believes that Mars exploded 6500 million years ago, and a huge fragment impacted Earth right here,” Michael replied.

"Huh? I thought it was an asteroid. It turns out it was the impact of fragments from a Martian explosion that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and the beginning of the Cenozoic era."

James exclaimed in amazement, finally understanding why Michael was so certain: if what they were standing on was indeed debris from Mars, it would be strange if its soil composition didn't match Martian soil. Dr. James opened a wooden box and carefully took out a piece of pottery, which Michael had bought at Mandy's charity auction.

He said mysteriously, "Michael, there's more good news. We've discovered that the ancient Maya used a special clay to make pottery that can be fired at low temperatures. With the same hardness, it's lighter and more flexible, making it perfect for making supports."

“It’s what’s known as Mayan polymer clay. I’ve heard of it before.” Knowing that Erin and Mandy were in a nearby village, Michael continued, “I’ll take you to a place where you can see how the Mayans made polymer clay.”

Mandy's foundation's first indigenous tribal conservation project, "Fossils of Civilization," was located in a Mayan village in Mexico. The village is situated deep in the dense forest of a valley extending from a volcanic crater, not far from the ruins of an ancient Mayan city-state with palaces, temples, and pyramids built of megaliths.

Erin and her daughter Mandy warmly welcomed Michael and his group. Mandy said, "Michael, I thought you were only interested in rockets and electric cars. Why are you suddenly so interested in Mayan polymer clay?"

Michael smiled but didn't answer. He simply pulled Dr. James up and, led by Mandy, led him to the polymer clay workshop.

Dr. James was surprised to discover that the Mayan villagers did not use the usual potter's wheel, but instead directly rolled the kneaded clay into thin ropes and hand-wrapped them into the shape of jars. There were also several mold-like components on the nearby workbench.

Mandy understood the doctor's confusion and proudly explained, "The clay in this region is of excellent quality—fine, sticky, and highly malleable—so there's no need for wheel throwing. The Maya have been making these by hand since ancient times, or mass-producing them using molds."

Michael and Dr. James exchanged a knowing smile, both understanding that this was yet another piece of good news. The clay deep within the Martian surface must also possess excellent plasticity. On Mars, using molds for large-scale industrial production would undoubtedly be a good way to reduce labor costs.

Michael suddenly remembered something and asked Eileen curiously, "It's normal for Mandy to come to this remote village for work at the foundation. Did you come with her on a leisure trip?"

"Of course not, I'm here to work too. Don't forget I'm a polymer biologist, specializing in life sciences. I'm here to investigate an ancient crop."

"Crops? Aren't you the world's leading diabetes expert? And as far as I know, the main crop of the Maya was only corn."

"Yes, it's corn. In Mexico, specifically on the plateau of this valley, there is an ancient wild corn that can grow up to 10 meters tall. Its ears are twice the size of ordinary corn, and the kernels are plump."

"My God, 10 meters tall, and there's corn like that?"

Life sciences, diabetes, bioenzymes extracted from corn starch—Michael seemed to have a slight understanding of Erin's purpose in coming here.

A freshly fired pottery jar placed in the corner of the workbench caught Dr. James's attention. He pointed to the jar and said to Michael, "Look, the pattern on this jar is exactly the same as the one you bought at the auction."

Michael recalled the patterns on the two pottery jars, and they were indeed the same. He thought to himself that he bought the pottery jars to study their composition, and he didn't care much about or pay much attention to the patterns on them.

"So you didn't know what the pattern on the pottery jar meant? I thought you bid on it because you liked the image on it," Mandy said.

Michael scratched his head slightly embarrassedly. He carefully held the pottery jar in his hands, turned it around, and examined the pattern on its surface. It was a human figure with lush corn leaves and ears of corn growing on its head. He asked, puzzled:
Who is the person in this picture? What does it represent?

Eileen glanced at her daughter Mandy and answered first:

"The corn god, the corn god most revered by the ancient Maya."

&
The poem composed of collected verses at the end of the chapter:
Though small in scale, it is profound in meaning; Song Dynasty, Chen Yuyi

All the unfulfilled desires of my life have been extinguished. — Li Mixun, Song Dynasty

My talents should be put to good use. — Liu E, Yuan Dynasty

It is neither cheap nor precious, like mud or gold. —Song Dynasty, Buddhist monk Weiyi
(End of this chapter)