Human curiosity can be said to be the driving force that supports the continuous development of human society as a whole. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The ancients wanted to look farther afield, and began to consciously train horses, until the invention of the wheel to hurry; I wanted to cross the ocean and see what was in the sea, so bigger and stronger ships were gradually built. In modern times, after understanding the basic astronomical knowledge, countless people have set their sights on the universe, from space stations to various astronomical telescopes, the purpose of which is nothing more than to satisfy people's curiosity about the universe.

Humanity has too many doubts about the universe that feeds our lives. And the biggest doubt at this stage may be whether there is really extraterrestrial life, or even extraterrestrial intelligent life.

And for extraterrestrial life, human emotions are also very complex.

On the one hand, many people feel that it would be too lonely if there was only one intelligent life in such a vast universe. On the other hand, human beings are afraid of high-level extraterrestrial life from the bottom of their hearts, and countless science fiction novels and movies invaded by extraterrestrial intelligent life describe this state of mind very thoroughly

But in any case, whether there is life outside the earth, or whether there is intelligent life, has always been the most curious thing for countless people. Whether it is a scientist or an ordinary person, they all have such curiosity. Every time the news of UFOs comes out on the Internet, a group of people can be excited, and the topic of whether there is extraterrestrial intelligent life has never stopped. Every discovery of a planet that might be suitable for life sends a great shock through the astronomical community, and Europa is one of them.

So even Xiao Yan, a guy who can't match the eight poles of science, is extremely interested in the information just given by this scientist assigned to his ship.

Releasing the probe is the easiest task for these reconnaissance ships, even if it is a Sparrow-class reconnaissance ship, it only takes a minute to complete such a task, and the subtext of assigning such a simple task to this Eagle-class reconnaissance ship is self-evident, that is, let them cooperate well with the work of Professor Tan on the ship.

And this also gave Xiao Yan and the other crew members on the ship enough reasons to discuss this issue with Tan Zhenwen, or the word discussion was not appropriate, mainly to satisfy the curiosity of a group of people.

"I said, Professor Tan, do you really think that there are intelligent beings on Europa that are similar to us?" The first mate on the side of the ship interjected.

Perhaps because the captain is a fellow Chinese countryman, Tan Zhenwen didn't have much to say, shrugged his shoulders and said: "I don't think it's useful, but thanks to you, we can get closer and get to know it, but the life we are talking about is not necessarily intelligent life, in fact, given the size of the ocean on Europa, there is more suspicion that there are fish creatures similar to those on Earth under the water of this planet." After all, the temperature on Jupiter is extremely low, too far from the sun, and its average annual temperature at the equator is only -163 degrees, while the two stages reach about -250 degrees! If this extreme environment can give birth to intelligent life, then I can only say that this intelligent life is very strong, at least much stronger than humans! ”

"Fish?" A group of people on the ship laughed, and Xiao Yan laughed at himself: "It's a good thing to have fish!" Speaking of which, it feels like I haven't eaten meat for a long time, and I can only eat super nutrition pills on the ship, and I can't enjoy virtual food, so it would be nice if I could catch a fish on Europa! I don't know what the alien fish tastes like! ”

"I don't know if alien fish are good or not, but if we have a chance to come into contact with extraterrestrial non-intelligent creatures in the future, I suggest you don't think about eating them directly! The environment of each planet is different, and all kinds of bacteria and germs are even different, and even if you really encounter extraterrestrial intelligent life, you must not come into direct contact with it. Don't believe the nonsense that the earthlings in the sci-fi blockbusters are in direct contact with extraterrestrial life, without going through a series of tests and research, we must not have direct contact with any extraterrestrial life form until various germ analyses are carried out on those planets where life exists, and various vaccines are developed. ”

"If some potentially deadly alien germ invades our ship, and we don't have antibodies in our bodies, it won't be long before more than 100,000 people are left with scum. As far as our current understanding of the universe is concerned, just like the understanding of the earth by people in the Middle Ages on the earth, how many people will die after a plague, you all know, for example, the Black Death, in just four years, has reduced the population of the whole of Europe by at least one-third, not to mention that the population density on the spaceship is much denser than that of medieval Europe. That's why we have to carry out strict disinfection steps every time we enter and exit the cabin. More than 100,000 people sounds like a lot, but in the universe, it couldn't be easier to perish! Tan Zhenwen shook his head.

Well, it's a pretty heavy topic, both in terms of having to be silenced and the dangers they face. For now, the excitement of the expedition and the longing for the future of stepping out of the galaxy to explore the vast universe are far greater than the fear of an unknown future. So Xiao Yan pouted and resolutely planned to end this discussion, as a commander with considerable experience, he knew very well that in the early days of the expedition, talking about these unknown risks was a great blow to morale, of course, for these scientists, they would definitely not feel that there was anything wrong with saying this, these pure scientists' pursuit of scientific truth is often far greater than the fear of death, and this spirit of not being afraid of death cannot be compared with them. Even Xiao Yan sighed to himself.

"Alright, brothers, it's time to get to work! Our task today is still very heavy, to the designated coordinates after the radiation probe still has to go to Europa to travel around, here is not close to Europa, turn on the maximum speed to rush back and forth at least twenty hours, not to mention to cooperate with our Professor Tan to complete some experiments, I miss the black limit in the pre-mixed wine, after completing this mission, I invite everyone to have a drink, and then I will ask our Professor Tan for this knowledge. ”

This is obviously a pretext, really back on the ship, these scientists who are guarding the scientific research layer do not have much intersection with this group of people, but everyone does not care, not together, but back to their respective positions.

"Fasten your seatbelts, light up the curvature engine, push slowly, send out the detector, and in an hour you will enter the speed of a tenth of light, and we will be on our way!"

In the universe, the tail of the Hawkeye suddenly lit up, and the ejected energy trajectory made the space behind the ship seem to be compressed, and then the spacecraft began to gradually accelerate towards Europa.

When leaving the earth, the expedition-1 only used the ordinary engine to sway at a super slow speed to the calculated space folding point, because it was afraid that the negative energy bubbles generated by the curvature engine would extend the space-time in the direction of the earth, and the high-energy explosion of particles produced would affect the earth-to-earth magnetic field and trajectory, causing unpredictable catastrophic effects. Now that it is far away from the earth, the curvature engine configuration on the Hawkeye is much lower than that of the Expedition One, and it is naturally not so limited to use, so it is naturally excellent for traveling.

……

On the Expedition No. 1, after Wang Shizi placed Yan Xiaoxi and Wang Xinyao, he went directly to the R&D layer, found Nils, and was communicating with the developer of the black hole cannon.

The scientist's research project on the Expedition 1 is to further optimize the space folding technology on the Expedition 1. This is also the project that Wang Shizi attaches the most importance to, and the current space jump is very high in terms of safety and success coefficient in the case of the safety of the surrounding environment, but if it encounters some special circumstances, the performance is likely to be less satisfactory. Therefore, it is naturally necessary to be able to improve during the voyage.

Although Wang Shizi's original intention was not to fight an interstellar war, but when he really went out of the galaxy, the devil knows what situation he would encounter. Not to mention that even if there is no war, the splendid universe is full of dangers, black holes, large-scale and dense meteorite showers, strong radiation rays, unknown black holes, and sudden starburst ......, there are simply not too many. The improvement of space folding technology allows Expedition 1 to jump in various emergency situations, but it is the only way to save life.

As the captain of the ship, Wang Shizi must be responsible for more than 110,000 people on the ship, not to mention that his family is still on this ship.

"What did you find out about the jump you just made?"

"Of course!" Nils looked at the data refreshed on the virtual screen in front of him without raising his head, and briefly answered Wang Shizi's question: "As you said just now, our time is still synchronized with the earth, so I put the video in the transition space into the virtual environment for calculation!" The answer was amazing! In the Transition Space, it's not that time stops, it's that time slows down! ”

"Time slowing down?"

"yes, it's just that time is slowing down!"

"The reason why time on our instruments is not jumping is because our timing system is only measured in milliseconds, but you see here, if we use a more accurate timing system to reproduce, you can see that in fact time is still moving when we pass through the transition space, but the whole transition process only takes 0.8 microseconds, that is, 1.2 million secondths of a second, and it is extremely normal for the timer on Expedition 1 to have no response in milliseconds in such a short time!"

"So I'm right, so our thinking slows down in the transition space?"

That's pretty much what it means, but that's not the most important thing. Look at the patterns we have captured in these transition spaces, which seem to be chaotic, but they seem to be orderly, which is really amazing! I can't imagine that such a strange space still exists, but one thing seems to have been proven that even beyond the speed of light, we can't go back to the way things were! If we really want to invent a time travel machine one day in the future, it seems that we can't think about it from the speed of light, and we have to think of something else! ”

Wang Shizi was silent, of course he understood what Nils didn't fully say.

Time is still moving forward in the transition space, which shows that the transition space and normal space are still closely related to a whole, rather than the completely separated positive and negative space as once imagined, and they only took less than a subtle time to cross hundreds of millions of kilometers of space, which is much faster than the speed of light, but when he is connected to the earth, the time on both sides is still synchronized, which probably proves that the theory that you can go back to the past beyond the speed of light is untenable.

This is a verification of the basic theory, and although it is not yet seen to be of any use, it is extremely important for mankind to understand the universe. After making a few more jumps, I found the pattern in it, and maybe there was a big gain.

Of course, these things are not rushed, but fortunately, the journey has just begun, they are still in the solar system, and there is no need to be too anxious to solve this problem.

However, before the two could continue to chat, the pager on Wang Shizi's body rang sharply again.

"Captain, please come to the celestial simulation room immediately, there is a major discovery!"

This is a video sent by another astrophysicist who stayed on the ship, Eddington Ross of the United Kingdom, in an emotional tone, and it is clear that there has been a major discovery.

What's even more frustrating is that after dropping this sentence, the scientist hung up the communication directly, making people want to inquire about what kind of major discovery it is.

"Together?" Wang Shizi looked at Nils beside him and invited.

Nils looked at the virtual screen in front of him in embarrassment, a tangled expression appeared on his face, obviously this guy was very curious about the major discovery of his peers, and a little unable to let go of the things at hand, but after a while, curiosity finally prevailed, nodded and said, "Together!" ”

Niels' Space Jump R&D Center is on the same floor as the Astrophysics Research Center, and after ten minutes of taking a hovercar, Wang Shizi took the Swedish physicist to the ladder simulation room of the Astrophysics Research Center.

"Eldington, you'd better make a real discovery! Otherwise, it's a waste of my time, and my time is worth it! ”

These scientists usually have contact with each other, and as soon as they met, Nils spoke first without waiting for Wang Shizi to speak.

"Ha, Nils, you're here too? But don't worry, our findings are in a sense no worse than the black hole cannon you made! It can definitely be said to be a cross-century discovery! It's just a discovery, though! Addington Ross said without flinching.

Perhaps the competition between the various R&D centers and R&D projects on Earth has directly extended to the Expedition 1, and the dialogue between the two is still full of competition.

Wang Shizi ignored the two of them, and just focused his attention on the virtual Jupiter system that simulated the indoor space.

It doesn't seem to be anything special, the huge Jupiter, surrounded by its moons, is rapidly rotating along a given orbit, but many of the points of light marked in the virtual image seem to have a special pattern. Maybe these people really made a great discovery? (To be continued.) )