parentshiftbook Chapter 83 Developing Mars, Planetary Terraforming Project
Chapter 83 Developing Mars, Planetary Terraforming Project
Chapter 83 Developing Mars, Planetary Terraforming Project
Time passed slowly, and half a year had passed since Fang Heng returned from Neptune.
On this day, a document was delivered to Fang Heng.
"What is this?"
Looking at Wang Yang standing in front of him, Fang Heng was also a little curious. "Your Excellency, this is the Mars development plan."
"Oh? A Mars development plan? Do I really need to be consulted for something like that? Why not just build a base and start development?"
"Your Majesty, this time is different. The Academy of Sciences has put forward a very bold plan. After reviewing it, I am a little undecided, so I would like to ask you to make another decision."
"What plan do you not dare to make a decision on?"
Half a year ago, Fang Heng delegated many tasks to the cabinet, allowing the cabinet and the six ministries to operate independently and handle the affairs of the entire empire, while he became a hands-off manager and enjoyed a period of leisure.
However, his comfortable days didn't last long. He received a report from Wang Yang, saying that he had an important matter to decide.
Looking at the plan in his hand, Fang Heng also opened it and began to read it.
After a long while, Fang Heng closed the plan, leaned back in his chair, and rubbed his temples.
"These guys are really daring. Aren't they afraid of messing things up?"
"Your Majesty, I also asked them, and they said that current data simulations show a 70% success rate, and the remaining 30%, even if it fails, will not affect Mars' orbit."
Are you sure?
"We've consulted multiple experts, and it's indeed true."
"That makes sense. Even if we fail, Mars will just have fewer resources. But if we succeed, we'll have another habitable planet."
"Your Excellency, I understand."
"Yes, go for it. But for some big plans, we still need to be cautious and follow one principle: we cannot disrupt the existing ecological order, the operation of celestial bodies, and so on."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Watching Wang Yang leave, Fang Heng couldn't help but sigh. These researchers' ideas were truly wildly imaginative; they actually thought about terraforming Mars.
"Ethan, do you think this plan can succeed?"
"Commander, this plan is bold and crazy, but theoretically it is feasible. The only thing to be careful about is how to maintain it after the transformation is successful. After all, Mars is quite far from the sun, and the sunlight intensity is not enough, which will be a test for the transformed Martian ecosystem."
"That depends on whether the Institute of Biology has any new findings."
Looking at the cosmos outside Elysium, Fang Heng was also looking forward to the implementation of the Mars terraforming project.
Time passed slowly, and three months quickly went by.
After the Mars terraforming plan was proposed, Wang Yang's team also began preparations for the terraforming.
This transformation will involve multiple departments: the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of the Military. The three departments will work together. The Ministry of Justice will need to strengthen patrols to ensure the stability of Earth and Elysium during this period, while the Ministry of Works will provide technical support.
The Ministry of War was quite busy, as it needed to deploy all its warships to search for suitable asteroids in the asteroid belt near Mars and tow them to designated locations.
The Mars terraforming plan is actually quite simple: use asteroids to impact Mars, activate its core, and restore its magnetic field.
Activating a planet's core is relatively simple; an asteroid impact can reactivate a cooled core.
However, to form a stable magnetic field, a gravitational device is needed to guide the interior of Mars, causing it to rotate in a specific direction to generate a magnetic field.
Mars needs a magnetic field to resist the solar wind.
After all, Mars is the fourth planet in the solar system and is very close to the sun. It has no magnetic field and cannot withstand the solar wind, so life forms would face a huge threat to survive on it.
At the same time, the gravity of Mars also needs to be adjusted.
Compared to Earth, Mars has only two-fifths the gravity. This gravity is so weak that if humans lived there for a long time, they would also develop osteoporosis.
However, as a terrestrial planet, Mars has a similar rotation time to Earth. A day is about 25 hours long, and a year is divided into four seasons. However, each season is twice the length of Earth's, which is equivalent to two Earth years, to complete one revolution.
The revolution has little impact; the most important thing is the rotation. The rotation time is so similar to that of the Earth, which means that humans living on it will not have their daily routines disrupted, and they don't have to worry about sleeping for only a few hours before dawn.
Mars is essentially a desert planet, with sand dunes and gravel covering its surface. There is no stable liquid water, and its atmosphere, which is mainly composed of carbon dioxide, is thin and cold, with dust suspended in it, and dust storms occur frequently every year.
Compared to Earth, geological activity is less active. Most of its surface features were formed during a more active period in ancient times, resulting in numerous impact craters, volcanoes, and canyons, including the highest mountain in the solar system: Olympus Mons and the largest canyon: Valles Marineris.
Another unique topographic feature is the distinct difference between the northern and southern hemispheres: the south is an ancient, crater-filled highland, while the north is a younger plain. Both of Mars' poles have polar caps composed mainly of water and ice, and the dry ice covering them varies with the seasons.
This means that there is no need to worry about obtaining water resources on Mars, and after terraforming, it can also have oceans or lakes.
The transformation plan was not concealed, so the entire empire's central leadership understood its importance.
On a smaller scale, a successful terraforming project would create a new habitable planet. On a larger scale, it would validate the planetary terraforming technology. Success would mean that the empire now possessed the ability to terraform other planets.
The biological research institute also modified Devourer No. 3 and Fast-Growing Tree No. 2 based on their characteristics.
Compared to Devourer II, which modifies the foundation rubble, Devourer III has the added ability to absorb carbon dioxide and convert it into oxygen.
For plants, this ability is innate, but Devourer No. 3 has enhanced this ability, absorbing carbon dioxide from the air, converting it into oxygen, and then transporting the carbon to the ground to increase soil fertility.
The Fast-Growing Tree II further enhances its original functions, making its oxygen production capabilities even more powerful.
Thus, after large-scale cultivation, and after preparing a large number of Devouring No. 3 spores and Fast-Growing No. 2 tree seeds, the gravity regulation device was also completed.
The preparation time took a total of one year.
Among these, the gravity adjustment device was created because the research on curvature devices yielded a lot of data on gravity, which led to the development of a gravity adjustment device with a very large range of applications.
Calculations show that only six gravity adjustment devices are needed to make the gravity of Mars the same as that of Earth.
With everything in place, the Empire also began to take action.
The first one is the asteroid that made the impact.
For more than a year, the military's warships have been constantly on the move, heading to the asteroid belt to search for suitable asteroids to tow into Mars' orbit.
Currently, there are tens of thousands of asteroids in the orbit around Mars, which vary in size and serve different purposes.
On this day, Fang Heng also traveled to the outer space near Mars' orbit aboard the Punishment rover, ready to witness this historic moment.
"Your Excellency, everything is ready. We may begin."
"Okay, let's begin."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
With the order to begin issued, the first to appear was an asteroid with a diameter of over 20 kilometers.
The role of these asteroids is to impact the surface of Mars with their enormous mass, thereby compressing the crust and reactivating the core.
The remaining smaller asteroids were used to increase the mass of Mars.
As the program began, hundreds of gravity accelerators were activated, and then the escort ship towed these asteroids, which were about 20 kilometers in diameter, to the rear of the accelerators.
"Arrived at designated location, release grappling hook."
As the hooks securing the asteroids detached, the asteroids, propelled by their flight inertia, hurtled toward the acceleration device.
"Wow!"
After being accelerated by the accelerator, these asteroids reached the designated speed.
In the main world, Tokyo University tested the power of the Rod of God against the science fiction fantasies of the United States at the time, but found that the effect was not good.
The same applies to these asteroids nowadays, because they were dragged into Mars' orbit in advance. If they were released directly, the kinetic energy they would generate would not be enough to activate the core.
Therefore, these asteroids need to be accelerated by gravity to gain sufficient kinetic energy.
Because the asteroid belt is quite a distance from Mars, it was dragged here in advance.
Due to material limitations, the asteroid's direction needs to be gradually changed during the dragging process to bring it closer.
After reviewing the documents in his hand, Fang Heng turned his attention to the scene.
After being accelerated by gravity, the asteroids hurtled toward Mars at an extremely high speed, falling from the sky like fireballs and crashing rapidly to the ground.
"Boom boom boom!"
As these asteroids struck Mars, the Martian surface immediately shattered, and the powerful impacts even seemed to shift Mars slightly.
However, after the tests, Mars continued to operate normally in its previous orbit.
"Conduct data monitoring and keep a close eye on Mars's movement data."
"Yes, sir."
As asteroids collide with Mars, all the detection data are steadily increasing, just as predicted by the models.
Soon, after all the asteroids larger than 20 kilometers had struck, Mars has become a lava planet.
Looking at Mars now, everyone present was very excited because it was exactly the same as their original simulation.
"Alright, let's move on to the next step of the plan: continue using asteroid impacts to release all the gas inside Mars."
"yes!"
The next step is to use these smaller asteroids to continuously bombard Mars, causing all the internal gases to escape into the atmosphere and increasing the thickness of Mars' atmosphere.
The next step is simply to wait.
These smaller asteroid impacts can take a very long time to occur.
At this time, the surface of Mars was covered with lava, and the impacts from these asteroids would maintain this state.
Time passed slowly, and Fang Heng did not leave. Instead, he quietly watched as an audience member.
A week later, all the smaller asteroids had collided with Mars, leaving only a few dozen frozen asteroids in its orbit.
These are used to cool the surface of Mars.
As these asteroids begin to fall into Mars, the gravity accelerators in orbit are being rapidly dismantled and transported to the Martian surface by spacecraft.
Once all the asteroids in Mars' orbit had been cleared, the lava on the Martian surface had cooled, but no frost had appeared on the ground.
Researchers have calculated the number of these impacting icy asteroids, so there's no need to worry that Mars will become an icy planet as a result.
"Alright, the planet's temperature has now cooled down. Order the fleet to place the gravity device in the designated location."
"Yes, sir."
Soon, several escort ships landed on the planet's surface and installed the gravity device and its supporting facilities.
"Sir, the device is installed. Shall we start it?"
"Start now!"
"Yes, gravity device activated!"
"Wow!"
Once the gravity device was activated, the invisible gravity quickly enveloped the entire Mars.
"Sir, data analysis shows that the gravity on the Martian surface is increasing."
"Keep an eye on it. Order the biological research institute; they can proceed with their next move."
"Yes, sir."
After the biological research institute's spacecraft was in place, the command center reported new data.
"Report, data analysis shows that the gravitational data on the surface of Mars is now the same as that on Earth."
"Very good, maintain this gravity. How's the gravity device?"
"Everything is normal and operating stably. The supporting power supply equipment can meet the needs for over a hundred years."
"That's good."
A hundred years is enough time for technological breakthroughs here, and by then there will certainly be new ways to increase the gravity on the surface of Mars.
Meanwhile, the biological research institute's spaceship also immediately released the seed spaceship after it was in position.
These small spaceships will enter the planet's surface and sow seeds in designated areas.
Mars has a surface area roughly the same as Earth's land area, so sowing seeds across the entire planet is not something that can be done in a short time.
Fang Heng watched the final operation from the Punishment Ship and nodded in approval.
Sowing the seeds is the final step; all that's left is to wait for them to take root and sprout, gradually altering the Martian atmosphere.
This process also takes time to complete.
After seeing that things here were mostly resolved, Fang Heng prepared to head to the Neptune base.
During this long period of time, the warp drive on Neptune has also entered the final stage of construction and is about to undergo final testing.
Fang Heng went there to boost morale and to observe the experiment.