Chapter 694 - 675: The Strings of Fate

Liupanshui, Laser Interferometry Gravitational Wave Observatory.

Currently, there are four countries in the world that have six gravitational wave observatories.

America owns two observatories in Washington State with arm lengths of 4 kilometers and 2 kilometers respectively (LHO), and Washington State has a 4-kilometer arm length observatory (LLO).

They are all part of the LIGO detection system and are, to date, the most advanced and sensitive gravitational wave detection devices. They have been constantly upgraded, with laser power now increased by twentyfold, and sensitivity ten times greater than the original version.

Then there’s Italy’s VIRGO (Virgo) Observatory in Pisa, with an arm length of 3 kilometers. It officially joined the LIGO network in August of last year to detect gravitational waves, and its sensitivity is on par with America’s three observatories.

Finally, there’s Germany’s GEO600 Observatory, with arm lengths of only 600 meters. Although it began operating in 2002, its sensitivity is not high, and it suffers from frequent malfunctions, making its scientific value extremely limited.

Beyond these, the Island Country used to operate the TAMA300 gravitational wave detector from 2000, but it was discontinued after LIGO detected gravitational waves in 2015 and has been repurposed as a different type of test bed.

The Island Country government also started constructing the Kamioka gravitational wave detector (KAGRA) in 2010, but it is not yet complete, with operations expected to start in 2020.

There are many complex indicators to measure the performance of a laser interferometry gravitational wave observatory, but the most obvious and largest is the arm length, which is the interferometer arm length for laser measurement. The longer it is, the easier it is to detect faint space disturbances, and the greater the demands on the entire system.

Liupanshui Observatory has an arm length of only 1200 meters, which is just slightly better than the bottom-ranked GEO. However, thanks to the base’s superb laser technology and the use of a multiple reflection scheme to improve sensitivity, it might detect gravitational waves ranging from microhertz to millihertz under extreme conditions.

Gravitational waves are usually divided into ultra-low, low, medium, high, and ultra-high frequency, with different causes for different frequencies. So far, human detection of gravitational wave events has been limited to between low and medium frequencies.

Ultra-low and ultra-high-frequency gravitational waves are extremely difficult to detect, and only the future space-based "Tianqin" system may be able to discover them, as it would be too difficult to continue making progress in a terrestrial environment.

Lu Qun is in no hurry, he is now focusing with his team and the people from the Astronomical Association’s gravitational wave section, meticulously calibrating Liupanshui Observatory.

A gravitational wave observatory cannot be used immediately upon completion; like other large-scale facilities, it requires long periods of calibration and fine-tuning—shortly a few months to a year, or in many cases, it could take several years.

By the time Liupanshui Observatory begins to listen to the sounds of the universe, the first "Tianqin" satellite should be almost ready to launch.

"Phew..."

It’s already 9:30 pm—Lu Qun, who has worked another evening shift, stretches lazily and then starts evicting people without mercy:

"Everybody out, everybody out, health is the most important thing. Come back tomorrow!"

The other hundred or so scholars and staff begin to pack up their things one after another. As the lights are turned off one by one, the inside of the observatory quickly darkens.

Lu Qun follows the crowd out the door, and just as he is looking for his car, his cellphone suddenly rings.

Ye Changsi? Why would he call so late?

"Hello? I..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the emotionless and stern voice of Ye Changsi came from the other side:

"I’m Ye Changsi, Lu Qun, are you still at the Liupanshui Observatory?"

"Yes, I just came out."

"Good, get no more than five reliable people and fly over immediately. There’s a C810 about to land at Yuezhuo Airport, come now, it’s urgent!"

Realizing the unusual situation, Lu Qun didn’t continue asking on the phone. Instead, he quickly found some assistants and trustworthy scholars who hadn’t gone far and headed straight to the nearest Yuezhuo Airport.

Just an hour later, the C810 carrying them landed on the base’s runway.

Hurriedly arriving, Lu Qun felt the night’s cool breeze and couldn’t help but touch his skin, which was covered in goosebumps.

...

More than two hours earlier.

At the time of the ’Robin Hood’ detonation, there were precisely seven satellites above it, six of which were small cubical GPS satellites, and the other was the "Laurel 03" exploration satellite.

The camera of Laurel 03 was firmly locked onto the blast center, capturing the spectacular scene after the nuclear explosion.

Centered on the minefield, the nuclear bomb’s shock wave caused the loosely packed moon soil within tens of kilometers to be agitated, creating a visible wave spreading outward.

Countless moon dust and moon rocks, under huge acceleration, reached the speed necessary to enter orbit and were thrown out, with the rising moon dust forming a dust cloud tens of times larger in scale than those on Earth, though much less dense and without the thickness of an atmospheric explosion.

Reaching high altitudes before the moon dust was soft X-ray radiation and a strong electromagnetic pulse.

The heat radiation, expressed as soft X-rays, was greatly weakened after a few dozen kilometers, but the raging electromagnetic pulse affected an area of thousands of kilometers in the vacuum, and the signal from Laurel 03 was immediately interrupted.

Even with ternary core electronics, they couldn’t escape unscathed in a situation akin to an EMP attack; the fragile silicon carbide lattice was easily breached, directly destroying this distinguished satellite.

The other cubic satellites and miniature satellites fared even worse, as they were so close they suffered from soft X-ray radiation. Their surfaces were heated and melted, leaving not even a complete corpse.

Fortunately, Laurel 03 had been prepared in advance, constantly transmitting its recorded video data to the "Magpie Bridge No.2" satellite at the Earth-Moon Lagrange point, which then transmitted the data back to Earth after avoiding the initial 15 minutes of the electromagnetic storm.

A nuclear bomb’s impact on communication is comprehensive. In fact, all communication within a thousand-kilometer radius around the Moon and its vicinity was completely shielded, only slightly less so on the far side.

The images of the nuclear explosion seen from the ground were first sent to the Yushu Base via long, shielded cables, then relayed by other satellites. This carefully constructed system, which avoided the nuclear bomb’s impact, managed to transmit only 12 seconds of footage before being forced to cut off.

It took a full 15 minutes before the Moon and Earth reestablished some contact, and the icons of various spacecraft lit up again.

At Union Mining Headquarters, communications with the Black Rabbit Space Station were the first to be restored, followed by "Magpie Bridge," "Laurel 01," "Yushu Base," and so on. Most of the spacecraft that had moved to the other side for refuge were intact, while almost all the satellites on the explosion side were wiped out.

Leaving aside how to compensate for these losses, what’s undeniable is the lethality of a hydrogen bomb in space, and its value as an EMP bomb is considerable. Ordinary spacecraft simply can’t withstand the intense shock.

As for the explosion’s destructive effects on the ground, that will have to wait until the surviving spacecraft move over the blast area to send back data.