After fully verifying the performance of this new lens and determining that it could meet the requirements of the current stage, large-scale manufacturing began immediately.
In the search for nearby dwarf planets, a single telescope is clearly not enough. In particular, adopting a structure similar to the original Hubble Telescope allows it to only collect light from the target facing it, which will have a greater impact on the size of the observation area.
To search the entire celestial sphere, at least dozens of telescopes are needed.
Therefore, in this space environment far away from any large stars, dozens of crystallization chambers were built as quickly as possible at the place where the telescope was intended to be placed. The "seeds" were sown and began to grow slowly.
The reason why centralized construction is not adopted but decentralized construction is because the main lens of the telescope cannot withstand the gravity caused by acceleration and deceleration during the transfer process. It can only be built directly on its intended location.
It took a full year before enough telescopes were built. After this, a large-scale search operation began immediately.
Dozens of telescopes have divided areas respectively, covering the entire celestial sphere without leaving any gaps.
At this moment, the only thing people can pray for is that there are indeed other macroscopic celestial bodies within the range closer to the Sedna Star. Otherwise, no matter how advanced the telescopes made by people are, they will be useless.
During this process, numerous image data are generated rapidly like a tsunami. The automatic analysis system began to screen and search for any signs of the existence of new planets. If new planets are screened out, the image data will be passed to astronomers for further manual analysis.
On the first day of the search operation, hundreds of new stars were screened out. But unfortunately, most of these stars are distant and dim stars that have never been observed before. They are basically of no value except to enrich the star catalog produced by human civilization.
There were no unexpected gains in this process. For example, a previously unknown red dwarf star located in the direction of Cetus has been discovered. It is only 12.6 light-years away from the sun. On a cosmic scale, this is pretty close.
As the search operation continued into its sixth day, one target caught people's attention.
The first batch of screening ruled out the possibility that it was a star. However, since it is not a star or any celestial body in the solar system that people know, but it can be captured by a telescope, this must mean that it is not too far away.
Because if it is too far away, the telescope will not be able to see it.
People were greatly encouraged and immediately mobilized more observation forces to focus on the star. As a result, various subsequent data were continuously transmitted back.
In the human government building, in the leader's office, on Zhao Changxing's desk, the secure phone suddenly rang. Zhao Changxing picked it up, and the excited voice of the person in charge of the search operation reached Zhao Changxing's ears.
"Leader, leader, we have found a new planet! It is only 80 million kilometers away from us and has a diameter of 680 kilometers!"
"good!"
Zhao Changxing stood up immediately and blurted out a good word.
With a diameter of 680 kilometers, it is not much smaller than a deep sky star. How many resources would exist on such a planet? No matter how small it is, with the current level of human resource consumption, there is no problem in supporting it for twenty years, right?
In twenty years time, maybe technology will develop again and another way out will be found.
After hanging up the phone, Zhao Changxing walked to the window and looked out the window at the slightly deserted city.
Due to the resource crisis, various business activities have also been severely affected. Except for work, people no longer go out unless they can.
"This situation will soon change."
Zhao Changxing said silently in his heart.
As early as before the experiment of using crystallization method to manufacture telescope lenses was successful, the construction of a new generation of large-scale industrial spacecraft was already on the agenda. Its purpose is to carry as many people, machinery, and materials as possible to a new planet and sow the seeds of industry there.
Now, they have been built and parked in the dock, ready to go.
While scientists were further observing data related to this planet, the news had already been announced to society, and at the same time, large-scale recruitment orders had been issued.
Faced with this news, countless people in dozens of space cities spontaneously walked out of their homes and joined the celebration.
It was a new planet after all! A brand new planet that contains many resources and has never been touched before!
Human civilization can obtain astronomical amounts of water, endless industrial raw materials, gold, silver, copper, iron and other minerals from that planet. When the engine of human civilization and industrial development is having difficulty operating due to resource constraints, the addition of this batch of "fuel" will surely make the engine run smoothly again!
There's simply no better news than this!
Faced with the recruitment order, countless young people enthusiastically signed up, hoping to earn more contribution points while also contributing to civilization.
The distance is so long that it would take more than three years to sail there? What are you afraid of? You have the money to take it.
Stationed there for at least ten years? What are you afraid of? What does it matter if it takes longer to contribute to civilization?
High risk? Maybe die?
They were almost divided into sub-human beings, how could they be afraid of death?
The deep space people headed by Xiong Guda also showed great enthusiasm for this expedition.
During this period, the deep space people headed by Xiong Guda have always struggled on the front line of industrialization, which is the hardest and most tiring, and have made outstanding contributions to civilization. On several occasions, Zhao Changxing even personally commended them.
Now, people in deep space are strongly demanding that they also participate in this interstellar expedition that is destined to be full of dangers and destined to have countless difficulties and obstacles. The reason is also very simple.
Deep space people have stronger bodies, stronger endurance and tolerance than humans. Under extreme conditions, they can even work continuously for days and nights without rest. These qualities make them undoubtedly more suitable for the work of planetary reclamation.
Zhao Changxing finally agreed to the people's request.
The more you pay for civilization, the stronger your sense of identity and belonging will be. From this perspective, it would be good to involve them. Of course, Zhao Changxing would not treat them badly.
Including 500 deep space people, the first group of people to go to Planet 3 to carry out the planet reclamation mission was finally set at 8,000 people. However, before they set off, another piece of good news arrived.
A second dwarf planet near Sedna has been found.
This planet is 120 million kilometers away from Sedna Star, and its diameter is as high as 920 kilometers, which is only slightly smaller than Sedna Star and larger than the Deep Sky Star.
What I didn’t say, let’s continue recruiting people. It happened that many people were unsuccessful in the first batch of personnel recruitment, and now they are recruiting people.
After this, the third planet was discovered. Zhao Changxing had no choice but to expand the number of personnel recruited again.
Then the fourth and fifth planets were discovered one after another. So Zhao Changxing discovered that now, even if he recruited all the people who had signed up before, there would not be enough people to open up the planet.
Not only are there not enough personnel, there are not even enough large transport ships.
At first, I only thought that I was lucky enough to find two planets. Even the most optimistic people did not expect to find so many planets not far from Sedna.
At first, only two such large interstellar transport ships were built. The ship that was going to the third planet to open up wasteland temporarily requisitioned the one originally scheduled to go to the deep space star. Where can the spacecraft go to these fourth and fifth planets?
Zhao Changxing truly understands that sometimes, being too lucky can become a worry.
As a last resort, Zhao Changxing could only issue an order to the industrial department to start manufacturing the new spacecraft immediately. At the same time, he first selected the three planets that were closest and easiest to reach among the five planets, and developed these three first. .
So, with the shipyard operating day and night and rushing to build new spaceships, three large interstellar transport ships, fully loaded with personnel, machinery, supplies, etc., left Sedna and embarked on the journey to No. 3 and No. 4. , the journey to the three planets on the 6th.
Time passes slowly. Three years passed in a blink of an eye. People who had been waiting in boredom for three full years finally waited for the moment they arrived at their destination.
Looking at the huge planet under their feet that looked slightly yellow under the sun, people cheered at the same time.
The small landing spacecraft sent the first group of people, who were also the people in charge of this interstellar wasteland reclamation mission, to the ground.
People's hearts were filled with joy as they stepped on the ground that was frozen to a hard surface by the low temperature.
People have previously discovered that on the dark yellow earth beneath their feet, there is a rare earth mine with huge reserves. The rare earths it produces can support human civilization for at least 20 years.
Ahead is a huge and deep canyon. Satellites have detected that there is a large amount of hydrates in the canyon, and the water mineral reserves are at least 4 billion tons, which is roughly equivalent to a famous lake called Taihu Lake in the earth's era.
More than 200 kilometers away on the left is a gold and silver mine, where at least hundreds of tons of gold can be mined. As for the associated silver reserves, there are even more.
In addition, there is a large-scale iron mine with good quality on this planet. However, there is no shortage of iron on Sedna, so this iron ore is not of much value. However, the iron mine here can fully support people's construction on this planet, and there is no need to transport supplies from Sedna.
"This, this is really a treasure place..."
At this moment, everyone had the same sigh in their hearts.
