Chapter 801 - 757: Puddle (Part 1)

Zhong Cheng’s intention was clear, which was to accelerate the preparations for a manned landing on Mars, making it as comprehensive as possible.

If there was really no other choice, humanity would have to take the risk.

There wasn’t even a need for psychological fortification—this was a war, an interstellar war. Those living aboard the March were not ordinary employees but soldiers of the Space Force; this was their mission.

The second phase of the reconstruction project for the March was still just a draft plan, with the main focus on the design research of the spaceport, along with adaptation and reliability tests. The state of March when heading to Mars wouldn’t change much.

The current March had only four docking ports. When heading to Mars, it could essentially carry the necessary supplies itself. According to the current plan of the Aerospace Development Committee, it was to carry two shuttles, leaving two ports as spares.

Although Firefly-1 couldn’t rule out the possibility of a sudden mechanical failure and demise, everyone had tacitly thought of many things.

As for what decision would be made above, people also had some ideas, as the current situation was still completely unknown. It definitely required further exploration by aerospace to determine the extent of action.

"Change the plan. Tianwen-2, Tianwen-3, Tianwen-4, all prepare for landing and the rescue of Firefly-1. At least we need to figure out what caused it to lose contact."

Lin Ju and Shen Zuozhou had no objections to Zhong Cheng’s order, only the latter added,

"Since this has happened, should we..."

Shen Zuozhou clasped his fingers together making a downward chopping gesture, clearly inquiring whether they should prepare for armed response.

However, the other two didn’t dare to make a decision lightly, it was finally Lin Ju who said,

"We definitely need it, it’s better than doing nothing. But since we’re going to do it, let’s go big, prepare something massive."

"Big? How big?"

"An explosive yield of at least a hundred million tons. We don’t need to launch it right away, but making preparations can never be wrong."

...

In 1655, Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch physicist, astronomer, and mathematician, first discovered Titan, the second largest moon in the Solar System.

Centuries ago, astronomers did not have powerful observational tools like today and even had to rely on self-made tools, so significant manual skills were necessary.

In modern times, celestial bodies are usually observed through two means: optical and electronic telescopes, but in an era that only had optical telescopes, where observational accuracy depended on manually ground lenses, astronomers also had another method: mathematics.

Why did heliocentrism prevail over geocentrism and become an undeniable axiom? Because whether calculating the orbits of other Solar System bodies with Earth or the Sun at the center, the results always showed that the Sun was in the primary position.

Similarly, when astronomers calculated an astronomical body’s orbit, if the observational results disagreed with the calculations, it meant that the gravity of some body was affecting it.

Based on this, astronomers did not need to actually see with their eyes but could gradually "capture" all the planets, their moons, and comets of the Solar System on paper, thereby completing the stellar map of the Solar System.

But what about observing planets in other star systems? That’s where pure mathematics falls short.

Modern astronomers still rely on "sight."

For instance, if a star is 100 light-years from Earth, no telescope could determine whether it has planets or how many, but observing the star alone is feasible.

Imagine a planet orbiting this star system, passing in front of it from the perspective of the Solar System; it would block a bit of the starlight, slightly reducing the brightness.

After several such records, once people compare and find a regular pattern in the brightness fluctuations of the observed star, they can naturally deduce the orbital period of the planet, and thus infer its mass.

If this planet has an atmosphere, the reflected light spectrum would change due to the atmospheric composition. If the observed light is analyzed more minutely, the general composition of its atmosphere can be discerned.

Thus, even from star systems 100 light-years away, people could gather a lot of information from the variations in starlight, and even if there are deviations, they could guess some aspects correctly.

Conversely, if observers were observing the Solar System from a great distance, the information they would gather is quite rich.

The Solar System isn’t just one planet. Even with the roughest analysis, observers could determine that there are both giant planets and terrestrial planets in the Solar System, and by recording more periods and gradually deriving the cycles to establish a mathematical model, they could know that there are not just one, but multiple giant and terrestrial planets here.

Assuming these observers are also carbon-based life forms, roughly similar in size to humans, and their technological development is almost the same, then they would think:

There are terrestrial planets with atmospheres, suggesting potential habitation (the atmosphere is not only for breathing; its primary use is to block cosmic rays, as no creature can survive directly under a bombardment of high-energy particles), moderate in size and weight;

Further observations might even reveal evidence of water if they require it.

First is the potential for an inhabitable environment, next would be resources.

In a star system, interstellar dust accumulates, gradually coming together under the influence of gravity, condensing, and then erupting to form a star; many light and heavy elements are thrown out, gathered to form planets orbiting it.