Chapter 1108: The Second Group of Colonists
Translator: _Min_ Editor: Caron_
Five kilometers underneath the Martian colony, they discovered the suspected remains of the Martian civilization.
It was an incredible piece of news.
After Jiang Chen read the report from the colonial captain, Hong Zewei, he immediately called Kevin and dispatched the second group of colonists in advance.
A new Seagull-cla.s.s was responsible for this transport mission. The 500,000-ton s.h.i.+p was commissioned half a month ago. With the improved version of the Red River X1 engine, the s.h.i.+p could complete the acceleration and deceleration phase in a shorter time while achieving higher cruising speed within the solar system.
Based on the calculated data from quantum computers, the trip from Celestial City to the orbit of Mars would only take 21 days with the current relative position between Earth and Mars.
Because the colonization plan was pushed ahead by three months, the 100 colonists who were being trained had to end the training ahead of time. They boarded the s.h.i.+p inside the hibernation chambers with goods to be taken to the Martian colony. In addition to the colonists, there were ten orbital airborne soldiers equipped with the most advanced Gauss rifles and outer s.p.a.ce kinetic skeletons.
Although Jiang Chen expressed doubts about the existence of Martians, after all, Mars was only habitable more than three billion years ago. Even if they dug their own tombs underground, they probably turned into sand by now, let alone any living creatures.
However, in order to rea.s.sure the colonists, Jiang Chen finally decided to send a force.
He was aware the extreme behaviors of people in an isolated state.
At the same time as the second group of colonists set off, the twenty members of the Earth Defense Alliance also returned to the surface, which ended Ghost Agent’s surveillance. After Jiang Chen left the office, he went to Future Heavy Industries’ s.h.i.+pyard.
The s.h.i.+pyard was located in the gravity-free section of the main axis of the s.p.a.ce elevator, next to the port.
When Jiang Chen arrived at the s.h.i.+pyard, the hull of a 600-meter-long Seagull-cla.s.s transport s.h.i.+p was fixed by more than a dozen mechanical arms and was suspended in s.p.a.ce. It occupied almost ninety percent of the s.h.i.+pyard.
Numerous construction robots surrounded the outside of the transport s.h.i.+p and welded finished parts to the transport s.h.i.+p. At the rear of the s.h.i.+p, four mechanical cantilevers were connected to a wide variety of tools from screwdrivers to laser welding guns. These mechanical cantilevers were performing complex operations, which was connecting the Red River X1 engine to the slot at the rear of the s.h.i.+p.
The wisdom of working people was unlimited.
Although the design drawings and key technologies of the Seagull-cla.s.s transport s.h.i.+p were provided by Jiang Chen, the entire production process was the crystallization of the hard work of 10,000 scientists, technicians, and senior engineers of Future Heavy Industries.
This production process wasn’t necessarily the most optimal, but it could be renowned as the best in the world
Jiang Chen could proudly announce to the world that Future Heavy Industries was the only company that had mastered the manufacturing process of a 500,000-ton transport s.h.i.+p. Whether it was Russia’s Oleg-cla.s.s, Hua’s Changchun-cla.s.s, or UA’s Apollo X1, they were just small fishes in the water in front of his “big seagull”.
Of course, while he fantasized, he didn’t come here to look at the magnificent size of the Seagull-cla.s.s transport s.h.i.+p; he had more important matters to attend to.
Not long afterward, a middle-aged man in a uniform flowed to him while kicking his legs back, then he skillfully grabbed the armrest and stood still by the window.
As the s.h.i.+pyard manager of Future Heavy Industries, he was in a meeting with senior engineers at the s.h.i.+pyard. When he heard reports of Jiang Chen’s visit, he quickly asked his right-hand man to take over the meeting while he rushed over.
Dai Zhengming anxiously looked at Jiang Chen while he explained, “Sorry, I was in a meeting with the technicians. I didn’t know the boss personally came to the s.h.i.+pyard to perform an inspection. If there are any places where you think can be improved, please let me know.”
“There’s no need to be so polite.” Jiang Chen let go of his hand on the railing and waved his hand to signal Dai Zhengming to not to take it to heart. He smiled,” I just came for a quick tour; I hope I didn’t bother your work.”
“No, no.” Dai Zhengming quickly waved his hand and laughed, “If there’s anything you don’t understand, please be sure to talk to me. I know all the answers!”
Jiang Chen politely smiled and turned his gaze to the Seagull-cla.s.s outside the gla.s.s window. He paused for a moment then said.
“In the fleet plan approved by the Earth Defense Alliance, open tender is scheduled for the first million-ton cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p to the enterprises in the member states is schedule for a week later. Currently, only we have the technical capability of the hull welding, the engine, and the ecological warehouse. You are an expert in this area, so I would like to refer to your opinion. Are you sure that this million-ton wars.h.i.+p is safe?”
Dai Zhengming’s face turned a little sour as he listened to Jiang Chen.
“Boss, to be honest, you should’ve seen it. Our s.h.i.+pyard is still too small. The construction s.p.a.ce isn’t enough. The 500,000-ton cla.s.s is already at the limit. If it was any bigger, the bow would have to extend to the outside.”
Jiang Chen nodded.
He also noticed the s.p.a.ce problem of the s.h.i.+pyard. The Seagull-cla.s.s transport s.h.i.+p had already occupied the construction s.p.a.ce of the entire s.h.i.+pyard.
It should be mentioned here that the entire Celestial City was divided into a gravity-free section and a gravity section, and a low-gravity section in the middle. Due to the problem of the center of gravity of the entire s.p.a.ce elevator, in addition to the light industries as well as farming, heavy industries such as s.h.i.+pbuilding and steel-making, which had large resource throughputs, were distributed in the gravity-free section—the main axis of the entire s.p.a.ce elevator. s.h.i.+pyards, ports, and heavy industry factories were stacked together similar to Lego blocks.
There were many benefits to this, such as maximizing the use of the limited s.p.a.ce available and reducing the time spent on logistics and transportation of industrial raw materials. However, the disadvantages were also obvious. One of them was that if there wasn’t enough s.p.a.ce, expansion was not an option.
At present, there was a steel mill below the s.h.i.+pyard, and the port was right above, both of which were troublesome to demolish. Extending outwards was an option, but the lack of vertical distance severely limited the scale of the s.h.i.+pyard.
After some considerations, Jiang Chen looked at Dai Zhengming and said.
“A million-ton cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p cannot be built at the s.p.a.ce elevator. If we separated the entire s.h.i.+pyard out of the s.p.a.ce elevator and place it on a synchronous...o...b..t, would this solve the problem?”
“Separate it?” Dai Zhengming acutely sensed the intention behind the boss’s words, and his eyes lit up. He then quickly asked, “You mean, we can build a separate s.p.a.ce station outside the s.p.a.ce elevator as a s.h.i.+pyard.”
“Yes.” Jiang Chen nodded. “I don’t know if there’s any difficulty with implementation.”
If the s.h.i.+pyard was moved out of the s.p.a.ce elevator and served as the satellite city of the entire Celestial Trade, the s.p.a.ce at the s.h.i.+pyard would be much bigger. It would also allow for further expansion based on needs. By that time, one million-ton, or even ten-million-ton interstellar s.h.i.+p could be built.
As for the current s.h.i.+pyard, it was only enough to build s.h.i.+ps lighter than 500,000 tons.
Dai Zhengming had considered this issue before, but he was only a s.h.i.+pyard manager after all. It wasn’t clear how the s.p.a.ce elevator worked. Since he was under Future Heavy Industries, and the s.p.a.ce elevator was managed by Celestial Trade, even if he voiced his concern, it was difficult to be heard.
Now the boss mentioned this, he whole-heartily favored this proposal.
“I will get someone to look after this. You should think about how the s.p.a.ce station can be planned?”
At the same time, Jiang Chen muttered in his mind: Celestial Trade and Future Group’s businesses are getting bigger and bigger. It seemed that the cooperation between the departments needs to be strengthened. I’ll have to discuss with Xia s.h.i.+yu to see if there is any good way.
With the joyous Dai Zhengming and a group of employees bidding farewell, Jiang Chen left the s.h.i.+pyard. He was about to call Xia s.h.i.+yu, however, she called first.
“What’s up?”
“Zhang Yaping just called you but he couldn’t reach you, then he called the company. The foreign minister of Nippon is in Coro City, and he wants to have a discussion with you.”