With the arrival of the radio signal from the Spark spacecraft, the electronic detonator detonated the explosive instantly. The energy contained in the TNT explosive was quickly released. While generating a large amount of gas, this silent explosion also violently pushed away the asteroid material that was originally crowded around it.
Many rock fragments gained enough speed in this explosion, and they fled the planet, never to come back again. There are also many substances that are gases at normal temperature, but are solid here, which are turned into gases again in the explosion, and then are cooled and turned into solids again.
But in this moment, such a small asteroid also briefly had its own atmosphere.
This explosion also opened a channel to communicate between the inside and outside of the asteroid.
The large amount of solid gas inside it is rapidly melting under the action of the decay heat of radioactive heavy elements. This creates higher pressure internally. And because of the tidal force effect of being close to a large planet—compared to it, Sedna is undoubtedly a giant—that is, because of the different distances from Sedna, the gravitational force exerted on various parts of the asteroid's body is uneven. The result is that it has more internal energy.
For example, the side of the asteroid's body that is far away from the star Sedna will experience a smaller gravitational force, while the side closer to the star Sedna will experience a greater gravitational force. In this way, under the action of gravity, it will be torn and squeezed. Pressure and distortion, and this will be expressed in the form of heat energy.
As a result, the solid gas inside it melts into gas faster, and the internal pressure is higher.
At this moment, the passage to the outside was opened. As a result, under the action of internal pressure, the gas surges out, like a balloon with a hole in it.
The size of this passage opening also has strict requirements. It doesn’t work if it’s too big, it doesn’t work if it’s too small, it must meet the requirements. Because if the hole is too large, the gas injection speed will decrease and the reverse thrust will decrease. On the contrary, the injection speed will increase, but the decrease in the total amount will also lead to a decrease in reverse thrust. A balance must be achieved between the two to achieve maximum results.
This explosion, which was carried out after rigorous calculation, obviously achieved better results. The observed gas injection speed and flow rate fully meet the requirements.
As a result, a "fireworks show" that was much larger than before was staged in the vast space on this small, dust-like asteroid.
At this moment, people did not notice any obvious changes in the orbit of the asteroid, but that doesn't matter. The ejection of gas and the reaction force exerted on the asteroid body during the ejection process are a relatively long-term process. Under the jet of gas, the reverse thrust is always present and continues to act on it.
After finding that everything was as expected, people's mood was lifted again. But this is still not the final moment. People still have to wait.
The gas ejection continues, and it continues to approach Sedna. And because of the existence of this reaction force, Xiao Xi's prediction of its orbit is constantly being revised.
On the projection screen, the asteroid is marked in green, and its future predicted orbit is also green. At this moment, this green line still coincides with the star Sedna, which is also marked green. This means that if the asteroid continues on its current trajectory, a collision will still occur.
But the angle at which the green line coincides with Sedna has been changing over time. People stared at the screen intently, carefully observing every change in the simulated image.
Gradually, the coincidence point between the green line and the star Sedna decreased from about 20% to 19%. After that, it became 18%, 17%...
Until it becomes 1%.
This means that the asteroid will hit Sedna in an almost parallel orbit and at an extremely sharp angle.
But this is still not the end. People can see that the impact angle is still changing. The impact point continued to recede, and eventually, the line became obviously curved.
This means that it would have circled half a circle around Sedna before impacting on it.
Then half a circle turned into a circle, and one circle turned into two circles.
"come on! Come on……"
People shouted silently in their hearts.
Time passed quietly, and there was only one hour left before the final impact time. At this time, in the simulation image, the coincidence point between the orbital lines and the Sedna star suddenly disappeared. Immediately afterwards, its orbital lines completely coincided with each other, forming an ellipse.
This means it gained a stable orbit around the star Sedna. It became a satellite of Sedna. If there were no accidents, it would never hit Sedna.
Zhao Changxing felt a surge of blood rushing to his head, and a wave of ecstasy instantly took over his heart. Almost subconsciously, he yelled: "Okay!"
"Very good!"
"Success!"
People cheered together. I don’t know how many people were moved to tears. Even the children who didn't understand anything jumped up and cheered happily at this moment.
"We made it! We made it!"
At this moment, the asteroid's orbit is still changing. Because the gas inside it is still spraying, exerting force on it. As a result, its orbit once again lost its stability and began to become chaotic. But it doesn't matter, because no matter how it changes at this moment, its orbit will always change in the direction away from Sedna Star. At most, it can get an orbit that breaks away from Sedna Star's gravity and fly away. As long as it doesn't If it crashes into it, people won't care about its final fate.
When the joy in his heart finally subsided, Zhao Changxing stopped people's noise and celebration.
"The disaster has not completely passed yet." Zhao Changxing said: "Don't be too happy yet."
Although the main body of the asteroid will not hit it, many rock fragments fell off it in the previous explosion. Moreover, during the process of ejecting the internal gas, some matter will always break away from it and maintain its original orbit. This means that there must be something else hitting Sedna.
If on the earth, most of these debris would turn into meteors, contributing to a wonderful meteor shower for people. But Sedna has no atmosphere. Any tiny debris will hit it unhindered.
Of course, this will no longer have any impact on Sedna, but people still need to be prepared to prevent these things from directly hitting human buildings.
Their speed is comparable to bullets. Once they hit, as long as the mass is not too small, they can make a hole in the wall or roof, or directly penetrate.
"Hopefully our losses will be smaller. Otherwise, we will have to spend a lot of time repairing our buildings."
Zhao Changxing said seriously, but the smile at the corner of his mouth could not be concealed.
Compared to a direct collision with the main body of an asteroid, it's just a few meteors. How serious can it be, no matter how serious it is?
The most dangerous time has passed.
People suppressed their joy and waited quietly for the impact to pass. After the asteroid orbited Sedna for almost a week, the meteor shower impact finally ended.
"Let's go check out the situation."
Zhao Changxing immediately led a dozen people, took the Falcon 1 and Falcon 2 spacecrafts, left the Spark spacecraft, and landed on Sedna.
Still in space and before landing, Zhao Changxing saw the human architecture that still maintained its overall integrity. This made his heart beat violently again. The distance was getting closer, but Zhao Changxing still couldn't see any damage.
Until the spacecraft landed completely, more than a dozen people spread out and looked at different buildings respectively. After searching carefully for more than half an hour, they finally found a 23-centimetre-diameter hole on the roof of the yet-to-be-built No. 2 Comprehensive Base. The depth of the pit was only about 3 centimeters, and some rock debris was found around it. Apart from that, no damage was found. People finally confirmed that this disaster had really passed. Not only did it pass, but it basically failed to cause any damage to people's buildings.
This time, people can finally relax and celebrate thoroughly.
Looking at the people jumping several meters high on the Sedna star, listening to the enthusiastic cheers on the public communication channel, and even some uncontrollable choking, Zhao Changxing's body finally relaxed, and then he sat down on the ground. .
"Finally, I don't have to go through the same path decades ago..."
Next, as long as the key equipment and materials transported to the Spark spacecraft are moved back, these bases, which have been built with great pains, can be put into operation again. The construction progress that was originally delayed can start again.
"It's just that I don't know when the gold mine will be found."
After surviving the immediate disaster, Zhao Changxing's thoughts immediately drifted to the future.
Without gold mines, future construction would still face insurmountable obstacles.
At this moment, Zhao Changxing suddenly felt a little tingling under his buttocks.
Although the gravity on Sedna is very small, and his weight is correspondingly small, it is still a bit heavy.
He subconsciously reached out and touched a stone. He took it out casually and was about to throw it away, but the special luster of this stone instantly caught his attention.
At this moment, the sun, which was like a point of light, spread light equivalent to 100 times the brightness of the moon on the land of Sedna. With the light of the sun, Zhao Changxing could clearly see that the stone in front of him was emitting a clear golden light.
It's very heavy. This means it is very dense. It is also very soft and can be broken with your hands. It also has obvious traces of high-speed impact, as if it was suddenly hit the ground.
Zhao Changxing's heart skipped a beat.
"It's gold, it's natural gold! It's natural gold that fell from that asteroid!"
