Deep Space Wandering Fleet

Chapter 54: Chapter 54: The Super-Large “Balloon

The Transport Ship circled the Moon a total of four large loops before slowly adjusting its orbital position to dock officially with the Space Port.

This technical feat wasn’t too difficult, resembling the docking process with a space station and involving four stages: long-range guidance, short-range guidance, final approach, and docking.

After so many years of development, the technology had become quite mature.

“Astronauts, please pay attention, the spaceship is about to dock. Please put on your space suits, enter the vacuum chamber, and queue up to exit the spaceship.”

Zhang Yuan exhaled and donned his heavy anti-radiation suit made of nano-silver ions, akin to a thick cotton-padded coat. With a thick glass cover on his head, he checked everything and then “floated” into the vacuum chamber before squeezing into an orbit train.

“I’m floating up here, give me a hand!”

Because there was no air, even the action of “swimming” was impossible. The only option was to grab onto the handrails and move forward.

Without anything to leverage against in the surroundings, and without help, one could end up floating indefinitely in mid-air.

Such a terrifying accident had occurred before, where an unfortunate individual ended up floating in space, unable to push against anything. The nearest handrail was just a meter away, yet he was unable to move even the slightest bit. When the rescue team arrived, the person had completely broken down.

Thus, nowadays space suits are equipped with a very small jet device that can expel jets of air to avoid such incidents. Of course, this function is better unused if possible; in the universe, any bit of matter is precious.

Zhang Yuan grabbed the handrail and gently pulled the man down.

The guy even said, “Thanks a bunch.”

This was “Dragon Gate 7,” humanity’s largest Space Port, where all astronauts would pass along the central axis of “Earth Era” and enter the massive Circular Living Area powered by centrifugal force.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on ɴονǤ0.сօ

It wasn’t just air that could carry sound. Any material could transmit sound. The roaring noise of the orbit train, conveyed through the handrail to their ears, had a solid, rumbling quality.

“Earth Era Time” was the Wild Wolf Design Bureau’s proudest creation.

Zhang Yuan’s father had also once been one of the Bureau’s main designers.

Fundamentally, it could be viewed as a super-sized “balloon.”

Apart from vital structures like the spaceship’s central axis and engine room, which used high-strength metal, most other parts, including the ship’s walls and the Light Sail, were made from extremely light, flexible nanomaterials.

The universe is nearly a vacuum with almost zero atmospheric pressure, while inside the spaceship, the air is pressurized to a standard atmospheric pressure of 1.01×10^5 Pa.

The difference in pressure between inside and outside was equivalent to each square meter of the spaceship bearing a weight of ten tons under Earth’s gravity, causing the entire ship to expand naturally to maintain its designed shape.

The advantage of this was that the spaceship was very, very lightweight while fully utilizing the extraordinary tensile strength of the nanomaterials.

Despite the spaceship’s colossal volume, akin to a mountain, its own weight was less than 800,000 tons.

Ahead, two girls were whispering to each other over their headsets, but they inadvertently opened a small public channel.

“It’s said that the spaceship’s nanomaterial walls are only 4 millimeters thick… It looks so unsafe. What if it suddenly breaks?”

“How could it break? That’s nanomaterial. Originally, 1 millimeter was considered enough, but for safety’s sake, they increased it to four times that thickness.”

Listening to their conversation, they apparently hadn’t interned in Space City and were newcomers.

Li Zhendong turned around, smiling as he explained, “The spaceship’s walls are a composite structure of nanomaterial and aerogel. Just like reinforced concrete, the nanomaterials may only be 4 millimeters thick, but there’s also aerogel, lighter than air, acting as a structural support; so the total thickness is more than that.”

“Also, the spaceship’s structure isn’t what you imagine. There is no gravity or atmosphere in the zero-gravity areas, which hold various material resources. Only the Circular Living Areas have atmosphere, designed as a honeycomb structure divided into many small rooms, and the outermost areas are uninhabited.”

“Every room has an air pressure sensor. If there really was an accident on the exterior, it would be difficult for it to immediately affect the interior. Rest assured, we’ll go and repair it right away!”

“Are you a spaceship maintenance crew member?” The girl’s eyes widened as she turned her head.

She introduced herself very enthusiastically: “Hello, my name is Li Yiyi, I’m a kindergarten teacher, and also a…haha, a painter.”

“My name is Li Zhendong, everyone has the last name Li, we must have the same ancestor!”

“Really? Haha!”

“We are all descendants of Laozi.”

“Laozi?”

“Li Er!”

“Oh!”

Watching Li Zhendong flirting with the girl and discussing such a boring topic, Zhang Yuan instinctively felt a bit embarrassed for him. Can’t you talk about something more normal, making it seem like it’s culturally significant?

As for being a spaceship maintenance personnel, that’s wishful thinking… Ye Kaifu, a craftsman with superb skills, he’s the real spaceship maintenance personnel.

They, although they have some skills, still can’t handle real problems when they arise.

“You are… Zhang Yuan! You’re an astronaut too!”

Zhang Yuan, with a bandaged head, thought, Ah, am I already that famous? What’s going on…

A bunch of girls started chattering around Zhang Yuan again.

Li Zhendong spread his hands, his limelight stolen, appearing somewhat helpless.

The reason for the existence of the “kindergarten teacher” profession is because, with 500,000 young people, accidents are bound to happen. Inside the spaceship, passion is encouraged along with proper contraception measures, but abortion is not enforced; if someone gets pregnant, they’ll have to give birth.

In short, with the help of various high-tech systems, the first basic goal of this small society is self-sufficiency, to sustain the entire social structure; the second goal is development.

As they chatted, the orbital train rounded a bend and slowly came to a halt.

Everyone entered into a large elevator once again.

This elevator would take them from the central axis of the spaceship to the bottom of the centrifuge, while also imparting a lateral tangential speed to all the passengers.

“Earth Era” uses centrifugal force to simulate gravity—it doesn’t have a high rotational speed, meaning that the Coriolis force is very small, making it very comfortable for human habitation.

“Ding,” finally the elevator doors opened, and everyone entered a small room, taking off their space suits.

The air temperature was 24 degrees Celsius, with 50% humidity.

Zhang Yuan excitedly stamped on the floor, feeling its texture similar to a carpet, yet firm.

Moreover, this place had gravity similar to Earth’s, making movement very convenient.

It was just that, after being in a weightless state for the past few days, their bodies felt a bit dispersed, and walking seemed to require some effort.