Reborn in 2011, I am the chief designer of aerospace.

The online sensation "Reborn in 2011, I am the Chief Designer of Aerospace," a heartfelt work by Space Pioneer, is available here.

A long six-second delay.

"Copy all of this, Tianhong," Yang Gang replied, "but your answer is avoiding the main point."

Sheng Tianhong replied firmly, "That's all the answer you can get, Yang Gang."

After another delay, Song Xingye heard laughter coming from the background of the mission control center through his earpiece.

"'Search God's Ship, received by Jingzhou. Thank you for your cooperation. Oh, by the way, Mira, Tianhong, and Xingye, could you please get together and take a group photo of the three of you?"

Sheng Tianhong looked puzzled. "Jingzhou, please repeat."

"As long as you guys can stay in the same frame in front of the camera for a few minutes, that's fine."

Upon hearing this, Sheng Tianhong floated closer to Song Xingye, who was standing by the table, and Mira also swam up behind the two of them, facing the camera lens.

Yang Gang's voice came again: "'Search God', this is Jingzhou. Right now, to be precise, 005/01:42, that is, the 1st hour and 42nd minute of the fifth day of the mission, you are crossing a crucial dividing line. Although you may not feel it physically, at this moment of enjoying lunch, you might as well keep it in mind."

"I'm all ears, Yang Gang."

"...Perhaps one of you would like to share with us what you see through your 'windshield' right now?"

Song Xingye turned around. The "windshield" that Yang Gang mentioned was actually a two-meter-wide observation window embedded in the bulkhead. To fit the concave surface of the pressure hull, this heavy triple-glazed window had a distinct curvature, as sturdy as a porthole on a deep-sea submersible.

"I can see the Earth and the Moon," he reported. "They look almost full image now, though a very thin shadow can still be faintly discerned on the right edge." Due to the immense distance, Earth's spherical features are no longer clearly visible; it has shrunk to a flat, luminous blue disk, with its pale, withered companion star nestled close to its edge. He added, "The light is still bright enough for me to read, but…"

"Please continue, Hoshino."

"Something feels different now." He pressed his face against the porthole, gazing intently out the window. "The sky outside is like the clearest winter night on Earth, and, my God, it's filled with stars. In the early stages of the flight, the intense light reflected from Earth was so blinding that it almost obscured all the starlight, but now, the stars are visible. This is the first time on this journey that we can clearly identify those familiar constellations."

"The 'Search God' has indeed sailed into the depths of space."

"Yes, without a doubt. Ahead lies a long, desolate, and cold eternal night."

"Soul Searcher, Kyoto calling. Thank you for sharing, Hoshino. Attention all crew members of the Soul Searcher, you are now approaching 56.2 kilometers from Earth. At this very moment, you are completely breaking free from Earth's gravitational influence."

The Hill Sphere (gravitational well boundary) is a virtual gravitational sphere centered on Earth. At this boundary, the gravitational potential wells of Earth and the Sun reach a delicate balance. Within this range, the "Searching for the Sun" is essentially still an artificial satellite orbiting the Earth. However, once it crosses this boundary, the spacecraft completely breaks free from Earth's constraints and officially enters a Sun orbit, becoming a brand new artificial planet in the solar system.

Sheng Tianhong cleared his throat and said solemnly, "Thank you, Yang Gang. We fully understand the historical significance of this moment, and we feel deeply awe, even somewhat overwhelmed..." Sheng Tianhong seemed a little awkward about his high-sounding clichés. He thoughtfully turned his gaze to Song Xingye, "Xingye, do you have anything to add?"

"Jingzhou, this is the 'Search for Gods.' What shocks me most right now is that all of human civilization has actually been trapped at the bottom of a bottomless abyss, a deep gravitational trap created by the massive mass of Earth impacting the spacetime structure. Of the billions of humans who have existed throughout history, only the three of us—Tianhong, Mira, and I—have truly climbed to the edge of this abyss..."

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Mira and Sheng Tianhong exchanged a slightly suspicious glance. Sheng Tianhong quietly waved his hand, signaling Mira not to interrupt him.

Song Xingye gazed at the receding Earth, raising a hand to completely obscure the entire Earth-Moon system. "At this moment, with just a raised hand, I can conceal the entirety of human history, even the distant lunar mission. Mars is still approaching; we still have a long year to spend in this metal canister, watching Earth recede further and further away. Outside, only the sun, moon, and stars accompany us. Despite the trials and tribulations we've endured, we know the road ahead is arduous, but most importantly, we have broken free from Earth's gravitational pull and are about to witness the magnificence of Mars. Jingzhou, we have truly entered the depths of the solar system."

Sheng Tianhong nodded, his gaze never leaving Song Xingye, as he pondered to himself.

Song Xingye felt a pang of melancholy. Suddenly, this "mission capsule" drifting in space, accompanied by the roar of engines and the lingering smell of food and foul farts, had become his little home. It was incredibly fragile, yet it was the only place he could rely on in this long, dark night.

……

[Task duration (days/hours:minutes:seconds): 066/06:34:51]

Sheng Tianhong slept very restlessly. When soft background music finally drifted from the walkie-talkie, mixed with a few guitar notes, he almost breathed a sigh of relief.

He closed his eyes, buried his head deep in his sleeping bag, and thought he might be able to doze off for a few more minutes...

Then he heard loud thuds and muffled groans coming from the next sleeping pod, accompanied by low curses, followed by a heavy punch to the intercom control panel. "Shut up."

Mira had been awake for a while.

Sheng Tianhong heard Song Xingye sneeze loudly, most likely because of the dust. This was indeed a big problem. In a microgravity environment, dust simply could not settle. Although the air circulation system was constantly filtering, a large number of particles were still floating inside the cabin, including food scraps, shaved stubble and hair, and shed skin flakes.

The music stopped abruptly.

Yang Gang, acting as the ground communications officer, switched to the channel: "Search God, are you ready to take notes? I have several flight plan updates, consumables inventory reports, and the morning news to read to you."

After relieving himself and washing up, Sheng Tianhong changed into a T-shirt and shorts, and tied a pair of reading glasses around his neck with a lanyard.

Today should have been a good day. According to the flight plan, Sheng Tianhong was to complete the optical tracking mission before TCM-2 (tomorrow's second heading correction maneuver). Ever since the flight plan was finalized, he had been eagerly anticipating this core mission.

But before he could enjoy his moment of glory, he had to deal with a bunch of mundane and trivial matters.

As usual, after a slow and messy breakfast, the team's first task for the day was to wipe the walls of the mission cabin with disinfectant wipes.

This cleaning process needs to be done every few weeks, and the frequency needs to be increased if ground technicians detect excessive bacterial activity inside the capsule. This is also caused by the microgravity environment, where microorganisms thrive on tiny water droplets floating around, eventually accumulating in hidden corners of the capsule walls. Worse still, microgravity can reduce the number of lymphocytes in astronauts' blood, thus weakening the body's immune system.

Then, the three crew members floated to the front of the "Space Ark".

This experimental setup was used for a series of small animal experiments, some of which were designed by high school students. Inside, plastic cages of varying sizes were arranged in a staggered pattern, containing small fish, six mice, hundreds of fruit fly pupae, a spider, and even a box of worms. Sheng Tianhong gently tapped on the outer plexiglass wall, and saw the small fish circling around inside, clearly disoriented by the weightlessness.

During the mission planning phase, Song Xingye had always been deeply skeptical of the reliability of the scientific equipment carried on the "Ark," while Mira resolutely refused to participate in such a "meaningless" project. However, Sheng Tianhong keenly noticed that the two of them had now developed a strong interest in this miniature experimental kit.

Sheng Tianhong found the worms quite interesting. They were called "palolo worms" and were native to Samoa. These little creatures lived in burrows deep within coral reefs, gnawed into them. Every October, they would emerge precisely at the waning crescent moon to mate. However, no one knew how they managed to time this so perfectly. In Samoan waters, the tidal changes caused by the lunar phases were negligible, imperceptible to the worms, and moonlight could only penetrate an inch or two into the rocky reef burrows where they hid.

Therefore, the purpose of this experiment is to explore what changes would occur when these worms were completely removed from Earth's gravitational field.

Meanwhile, the spider was kept in a small box with a "corona spider" label on the outside. A perfectly intact spider web, at least one meter wide, stretched across the center of the box, and the spider was perched in the center of the web.

"Alright, Arabella," Sheng Tianhong muttered softly, "you're practically an astronaut now, right? Let's test your intelligence." He gently flicked the front of the box, and the main load-bearing thread of the spider web immediately snapped, causing the entire web to collapse inwards, leaving the spider suspended alone in mid-air. Sheng Tianhong felt a pang of pity, thinking it was too much to destroy its hard work, but the purpose of this experiment was to record the entire process of it reweaving its web in a weightless environment. An acoustic transducer was installed inside the cage, emitting a high-frequency sound field. Any tiny movement of the spider would interfere with the sound field, thus triggering the lights and the still camera.

The three crew members gathered around the small box, joking about the unfortunate spider while fiddling with the cage and the experimental equipment inside.

Then, Sheng Tianhong floated towards a miniature experimental garden. Rather than a garden, it was more like a windowsill planter, a soil tray the size of a suitcase, in which peas, wheat, cucumbers, parsley, onions, dill, fennel, and garlic were planted. Some of the plants grew freely in a pure microgravity environment, while others were placed in small plant centrifuges to simulate the gravitational environment of the moon and Mars.

Sheng Tianhong carefully tended to the rows of seedlings. The peas had grown vigorously in the first four to five weeks, but now they were somewhat listless, seemingly on the verge of dying. He cautiously replenished them with water and nutrient solution. These plants failed to produce pods, but the test data showed that their nutritional value was still high; the microgravity environment had not hindered protein synthesis. It was just that, without the effect of gravity, their root systems had become tangled and spread in all directions.

The scene before him filled Sheng Tianhong with emotion. These warm, verdant, and vibrant little lives formed a striking contrast with the thin mission module wall just centimeters away. He gently breathed on the pea shoots, hoping to provide them with a richer concentration of carbon dioxide.

[Task progress time (hour:minute:second): 09:57:57]

Sheng Tianhong was sweating profusely on the isokinetic trainer, a machine bolted to a support frame in the middle of the mission module. It featured a double-handled bar with shoulder pads and grips, connected to an air turbine via sprockets. This newly designed machine aimed to completely replace the outdated treadmills and rowing machines used in early spaceflights. Sheng Tianhong braced his feet against the platform for support, performing a series of exercises including squats, leg raises, shoulder presses, pull-ups, bench presses, and triceps presses.

He glanced at the timer every now and then; the seemingly endless training sessions were making him increasingly irritable. His vest was already soaked with sweat; in the weightless environment, the sweat couldn't drip off, instead pooling into a sticky clump between his chest and shoulder blades, making him feel extremely uncomfortable. The only thing that could distract him at this moment was the small, round porthole on the pressure tank wall; he stared out at the deep darkness.

According to Sheng Tianhong's understanding, after spending several months in space, the body's major systems gradually adapt to the microgravity environment, eventually establishing a new balance completely different from that on Earth. Among these systems, the inner ear's balance mechanism, the vestibular nervous system, is the first to experience dysfunction, which is the culprit behind "space sickness." However, it is also the fastest self-repairing system, typically adapting within a few days. Following this, the distribution of body fluids is readjusted, and finally, the cardiovascular system, including the heart and blood vessels, gradually adapts and returns to normal function.

However, the reality is not so smooth.

Weightlessness caused blood to rush to Sheng Tianhong's head, leading her brain to mistakenly believe there was excess fluid in her body. This caused her brain to frantically send signals to her kidneys to urinate, resulting in dehydration. Therefore, Sheng Tianhong had to force-feed approximately 1.5 liters of fluid mixed with a water-electrolyte every day.

However, frequent urination triggered a new chain reaction, leading to a significant loss of calcium and potassium from the bones. Calcium deficiency makes bones brittle and increases the risk of kidney stones, while potassium loss greatly increases the risk of cardiac arrest. Therefore, he not only had to swallow handfuls of dietary supplements but also had to keep anabolic steroids on hand at all times to prevent any crew member from experiencing severe bone loss—something absolutely unacceptable.