199: Chapter 199: A Sudden Change in Deep Space Mining – A 40,000-ton Ore Vein Collapses!
Alien Civilization Navigation Timing, Day 136.
The luan bird decelerated.
The coordinate difference on the main screen dropped from six digits, and the last three zeros returned to zero simultaneously.
Su Che released the thrust lever.
The Global Deep Space Quantum Radar automatically switched to near-field scanning mode.
The detection beam narrowed from a wide area into a directional cone, aiming at the vacuum area ahead where "there should be nothing."
Three seconds later, the sub-screen flashed the scan results.
It wasn't a cluster, it was a field.
High-density metal clusters were scattered within an ellipsoidal space of about seventeen kilometers, with a total mass preliminarily estimated by the main god ai to be nearly forty thousand tons.
Platinum group elements accounted for over forty percent, and the spectral characteristics of associated iridium, osmium, and ruthenium were clearly distinguishable.
Technician Wei turned the data notebook to a new page, his fountain pen landed and wrote three lines, then stopped there.
"Forty thousand tons?"
"During remote scanning, I only saw the densest core area." Su Che adjusted the radar resolution to the maximum. "The actual distribution is much larger than estimated."
He called up the mining feasibility assessment module of the main god ai and fed the scan data into it.
The assessment result popped up in less than ten seconds.
The ore body dispersion is moderate, and the cluster density in the core area is suitable for direct grasping by mechanical arms.
Peripheral debris requires Anti-gravity field assistance for gathering.
According to the mining efficiency of the current supply system, the time required for full collection...
Su Che looked at that number.
"Notify the whole ship, enter mining operation status."
Technician Wei turned on the intercom channel and passed the instruction down.
Twelve deep space technicians were in their positions.
The life support team did a round of cabin environment confirmation, and the two safety emergency personnel went to the equipment cabin to check the deployment status of the mechanical arms.
Su Che adjusted the attitude of the luan bird to the mining configuration.
The dedicated cabin door on the ship's belly slowly opened, six-jointed mining mechanical arms extended from the cabin, and the drilling heads at the ends quietly unfolded in the vacuum.
The Anti-gravity field spread out in a cone shape, aiming at the nearest group of metal clusters in the ore core area.
The data from that deployment test during the CME transit was still hanging in the background, and the stress readings of the mechanical arm root locking mechanism were all normal.
"Start mining."
The drilling head cut into the surface of the first platinum group ore body.
The vibration of the tungsten carbide blade eating into the metal was transmitted back to the ship through the mechanical arms, turning into a very slight tremor on the floor of the driving and control cabin.
Su Che hung the mining progress on the sub-screen and left the main screen to the Global Deep Space Quantum Radar for situational awareness.
Deep space was very quiet.
Except for the sounds made by the luan bird itself, there was nothing.
Alien Civilization Navigation Timing, Day 138.
Mining entered the third day.
When Su Che came out of the living cabin, Technician Wei had already been on duty in the driving and control cabin for half a shift.
"The mining progress of the core area is more than half complete." He handed over the notebook. "The intake of platinum group elements exceeds expectations, and the purity of iridium and osmium is even higher than remote spectral analysis."
Su Che turned a page.
The collection volume of superheavy isotopes was also rising steadily; these things were sold by the gram on Earth, but in the cabin, they were already packed by the ton.
He returned the notebook to Technician Wei and sat back in the main pilot seat.
On the main screen, the Global Deep Space Quantum Radar's situational awareness panel was running stably.
The six joints of the mining mechanical arms operated alternately in the core area of the ore body, crushing ore into the cabin, purifying and sorting, and sending waste residue into the circulation line; the assembly line ran smoothly.
Then, a small yellow box popped up in the upper right corner of the Quantum Radar monitoring panel.
It was not an alarm, but a prompt for abnormal fluctuations.
Su Che clicked it open.
Deep in the core area of the ore body, the gravitational field readings showed slight periodic oscillations.
The oscillation amplitude was extremely small, so small that conventional sensors could not capture it at all; it was a signal that only the ultra-high sensitivity mode of the Quantum Radar could distinguish.
"Technician Wei."
Technician Wei walked over.
Su Che pulled up the waveform of the gravitational field oscillation.
"Periodic." Technician Wei stared at the waveform for five seconds. "The frequency is slowly increasing."
Su Che called up the three-dimensional structural model of the ore body and looked at the source of the gravitational field oscillation and the mining operation point superimposed together.
The ore body was not homogeneous.
Deep in the core area, there was a metal core with a density far higher than the periphery, about six meters in diameter.
There was a layer of loose debris between the core and the peripheral ore body.
The mechanical arms continued to mine on the periphery, changing the mass distribution of the ore body.
The mass distribution changed, and the gravitational gradient received by the core changed accordingly.
The core was displacing slightly.
Every displacement squeezed that layer of debris, and when the stress of the debris accumulated to a certain extent, it was released once, producing periodic oscillations.
The oscillation frequency was increasing, meaning the interval of stress release was getting shorter and shorter.
The load-bearing capacity of the debris belt was approaching its limit.
"What if the debris belt breaks?" Technician Wei asked.
Su Che pulled up the deduction results of the main god ai.
The debris belt disintegrated, the core instantly lost its constraint, and the ten-thousand-ton ore body underwent resonant disintegration in the micro-gravity environment.
The fragments were ejected in irregular directions; the speed was not fast, but the mass was large, and the mechanical arms bore the brunt.
"Stop mining." Su Che issued the instruction.
The drilling heads of the six mechanical arms simultaneously detached from the surface of the ore body, and the joint arms retracted to a safe distance.
The frequency of the gravitational field oscillation was still rising.
Stopping mining only paused the change in mass distribution, but the previously accumulated stress did not disappear.
The debris belt had already been pushed near the critical point.
"The luan bird back up three hundred meters."
The Anti-gravity field output reversed, and the hundred-thousand-ton ship hull moved backward steadily.
Su Che stared at the gravitational field waveform.
The frequency was still rising.
The debris belt couldn't hold on.
"Secure the whole ship, max out the shields."
The quantum state stealth shield's 6,400 sectors switched from cruise mode to full-power defense.
Three seconds later, the gravitational field reading of the ore body core jumped sharply.
The debris belt collapsed.
On the main screen, the three-dimensional model of the ore body suddenly disintegrated.
The remaining metal ore quietly fell apart in the micro-gravity environment; there was no fire, no sound, and the fragments slowly drifted away along their respective inertial directions.
The core popped out of the debris belt, rotating irregularly, drifting in the direction of the luan bird.
Six meters in diameter, pure metal core, mass estimated to be over eight hundred tons.
The speed was not fast, less than two meters per second.
But if an eight-hundred-ton object hit, the local pressure on the shield would instantly soar to the design threshold.
Su Che did not wait for the main god ai to provide a plan.
He manually took over the Anti-gravity field control module and aimed the focus of the cone field at the drifting core.
He wanted to "catch" it with the Anti-gravity field.
The cone field caged the movement axis of the core, like an invisible hand holding up a rolling iron ball.
The drift speed of the core was uniformly reduced from two meters per second to one meter, zero point five meters, zero.
It stopped.
The eight-hundred-ton metal ball hung one hundred and twenty meters in front of the luan bird, rotating slowly.
The fountain pen in Technician Wei's hand left an ink mark on the notebook.
Su Che locked the Anti-gravity field at the current parameters and turned his head to look at the scattered peripheral fragments.
"main god ai, calculate the scattering trajectory of the fragments, and mark all clusters that still have mining value."
The main god ai took in the data, and the result popped up two seconds later.
After the ore body disintegrated, more than sixty percent of the valuable minerals in the scattered fragments were still distributed in a spherical space with the luan bird as the center and a radius of eight kilometers.
The drift speed was slow, so there was still time to collect them.
"Redeploy the mechanical arms, switch to fragment gathering mode, divide the Anti-gravity field into three groups of sectors, and drive the fragments to the cabin door in batches."
Su Che switched the mining program from "fixed-point mining" to "scattering gathering."
The six mechanical arms extended again; this time, the task became large-scale retrieval.
The Anti-gravity field acted like a sheepdog herding sheep, pushing the metal fragments floating in deep space one by one toward the feed inlet on the belly of the luan bird.
The mechanical arms were responsible for the final fine grasping and cabin entry.
Mining turned into picking up stones.
Technician Wei looked at the screen, twisting the cap of his fountain pen on and off.
"Can we still finish on time?"
Su Che glanced at the progress recalculation of the main god ai.
The efficiency of scattering gathering was thirty percent lower than fixed-point mining, but after disintegration, the exposed area of the minerals was larger, so the purification speed was actually faster.
The two data points offset each other.
"We'll make it."
Alien Civilization Navigation Timing, Day 139.
The last batch of fragments entered the cabin.
The recycling line spat out the last waste compression rod, which went into the recovery bin.
Su Che sealed the full-process log of the mining system on the main pilot seat.
The inventory list of the ship's belly cargo hold flashed on the sub-screen.
Platinum group elements, iridium, osmium, ruthenium, and those superheavy isotopes were enough to support the core material reserves needed for the subsequent upgrades of the Nantianmen Project.
Plus that eight-hundred-ton pure metal core, locked separately in the external Anti-gravity traction cabin.
Su Che turned off the mining system and switched back to navigation.
"Course set, returning."
The luan bird turned around.
The hundred-thousand-ton steel behemoth was in the deep space desert twenty-three million kilometers away.
It completed the first in-situ resource mining in human history, carried a full hold of strategic materials, and accelerated toward Earth.
The quantum encrypted communication terminal lit up.
Lin Waner.
Just one line of text.
[ "Are you back?" ]
Su Che replied with two words.
[ "Back." ]
He put down the terminal, took the small cloth bag out from the bottom of the luggage bag, pulled out the folded paper, and took a look.
"Wherever you go, it's the way back."
Su Che folded the paper and put it back.
On the main screen, in the lower right corner of the Global Deep Space Quantum Radar's regular scanning panel, an inconspicuous piece of data was quietly refreshing.
sentry ship direction.
Nothing was marked at that position.
But in the background log of the main god ai, there was an encrypted note.
The estimated return time is the same as the outbound trip.
And in the few days that the luan bird was away, on Earth, the encrypted group of Pangu Laboratory had piled up forty-seven unread messages.
The latest one was from Liu Huaqiang.
[ "Chief Engineer Su, come back and take a look, there's a situation with the Xuan Nu." ]