One million kilometers is only forty-seven minutes and thirty-seven seconds for a debris with a speed of 350 kilometers per second.

Even if the interception range is reduced to 300,000 kilometers, deducting the time required to lock on to the target, it is necessary to decide within 33 minutes how to intercept seven fragments with six nuclear warheads.

Luo Jinyong wanted to tell the truth, but it was not his turn to call the shots.

Burke hurriedly ran to Howard and said a few words, and then ran towards Luo Jinyong.

"Professor Luo, you are still the head of the Scientific Advisory Board, you ...... You have to make a decision. ”

Luo Jinyong let out a long breath, and then nodded. The duty lies in the fact that even if he has completely lost faith in this intriguing institution, he must shoulder the responsibility.

"What resources do you need?"

"A computer that's fast enough."

"No problem, China's supercomputer is at your disposal, and if necessary, you can also mobilize the computing resources of China's computer center through grid connection."

"Allocation and use of the Hubble-2 telescope."

"Okay, I'll take care of that myself."

"Twenty minutes."

"What?"

"There is not enough time to calculate the exact trajectory of the remaining debris, and it is impossible to determine the interception scheme, and we still have more than half an hour."

Burke gritted his teeth and nodded in agreement.

"Now, give me some space."

"You can go back to the office, or go to my office."

"No, it will take time to go back and forth, just here."

"Okay, I'll arrange it right away."

Burke said he would do it, and immediately approached Howard and asked him to give up his position in front of the main console. Howard was reluctant, but he had no choice but to move.

When Luo Jinyong walked to the front of the main console, Burke had already arranged for other personnel.

"The Hubble-2 telescope was mobilized to capture seven pieces of debris in a row at the highest resolution using the time-sharing method, and then the orbital map was mapped."

Burke was stunned for a moment, how did Luo Jinyong know that the Hubble 2 telescope had a time-sharing shooting function?

"Professor Burke!"

"Yes, deal with it right away." Burke did not hesitate any longer and immediately issued an order to NASA's department in charge of the Hubble-2 telescope.

The Hubble-2 telescope uses a reflective lens and the world's largest CCD sensor, with a resolution of up to 5.6 billion pixels. By using a second reflective lens, the Hubble-2 telescope has a peculiar feature, that is, it can take pictures of multiple targets within a certain range at the same time without adjusting the focus of the main lens, only when the score is scored, so it is called the time-sharing function.

With this feature, the Hubble-2 telescope has reduced resolution, but can accurately track multiple objects at the same time.

With distances reduced to less than one million kilometers, the reduced resolution has little impact on the accuracy of the measured orbit, and the ability to accurately track multiple objects at the same time comes in handy.

It is not difficult to trace the orbit of the debris, but it is not easy to accurately calculate the orbit.

The reason is that the debris itself is rotating around the central axis, and the central axis is not necessarily parallel to the orbit, and the rotation will cause the center of mass to move in a small area, thus changing the orbit.

A few minutes later, the orbit of the seven pieces of debris was delineated.

However, when the seven orbits extend to the vicinity of the Earth, they are no longer a point, but a circular surface, that is, the seven orbits themselves are a conical region.

As more data is measured, the track section is slowly shrinking.

"Burke, three-dimensional structural diagram of seven fragments."

Burke didn't occupy the large screen showing the continuous tracks, and displayed a three-dimensional structural diagram of the seven fragments on the screen on the left side of the hall.

The fragments are rotating, so photographs of the shards in all directions were obtained, from which a three-dimensional structural diagram was depicted.

Luo Jinyong took a quick look, the seven fast fragments were not small, and the estimated mass was about 100,000 tons. Although there is a high probability that it will completely burn up after falling into the atmosphere, as long as the angle of incidence is appropriate, such as the side with the smallest projection area facing the Earth, it will still hit the Earth.

Even if only 10,000 tons of material hit the ground, the consequences are unimaginable.

"Burke, add in the rotational velocity of the debris to estimate the attitude when entering the atmosphere."

Burke nodded, and he thought of it as well.

Using a supercomputer with a speed of up to one trillion operations per second, it took just over a minute to estimate the attitude of the seven fast debris when it entered the atmosphere.

Of course, this is an estimate with a large error.

The situation is far from ideal, and it is possible for each piece of debris to enter the atmosphere at an ideal angle, which means that it can hit the ground or the sea before it burns up completely.

What to do?

In the more than a minute of waiting, Luo Jinyong was already thinking about countermeasures, but he didn't completely think about it.

"Professor Luo......"

"Taking into account factors such as geography and population distribution, we will evaluate the damage caused by the impact of seven pieces of debris." Luo Jinyong let out a sigh and said, "Also, take into account the angle of incidence of the orbit." If possible, it is also necessary to estimate the melting of the fragments in the atmosphere. ”

This time, it took the supercomputer about five minutes to complete the calculation.

Of the seven pieces, three will fall on the Asian continent, one on the Australian continent, two on the Pacific Ocean and one in the Indian Ocean.

Seeing the results, Luo Jinyong didn't bother Burke anymore, but completed the most difficult work by himself.

Obviously, it is necessary to intercept the debris on land from four impacts, even if one of them is in sparsely populated Central Asia. Among the remaining three pieces, the one where the impact point is in Southeast Asia must be intercepted, and this piece of debris is the one that Luo Jinyong pays the most attention to. Of the remaining two pieces, one must be discarded.

The question is, should we abandon the part of the impact that is about 1,500 kilometres southeast of the Mariana Islands, or the part that is in the southern Indian Ocean?

If Luo Jinyong was asked to make a decision, he would choose the former.

The angle of incidence of this piece of debris when it enters the atmosphere is very large, so there is a possibility that no one else would have anticipated it. That is, after the debris hits the atmosphere, it will be affected by the atmospheric tension, and it is possible to bounce up at a high altitude above sea level. Just like playing with a pebble, the pebble will bounce up on the water. If this is the case, it is very likely that this extremely high-speed debris will break out of the atmosphere again before it hits the surface. To put it figuratively, it is to pass by the earth.

Even if this does not happen, the debris will travel the farthest in the atmosphere and be completely burned out because of the large angle of incidence.

In contrast, the angle of incidence of the piece of debris that hit the southern Indian Ocean is not so great.

It's just that Luo Jinyong didn't make a decision, and he didn't have the right to make a decision.

"Professor Luo......" Seeing Luo Jinyong straighten up, Burke hurriedly greeted him.

"Send this result to the Council of the Chiefs of the General Staff." Luo Jinyong sighed and said, "If nothing else, I'll go back and pack my personal belongings." ”

"Professor......

"Burke, we have worked together for two years, and although we often have different opinions, we are also a little friendly. From now on, you can do it yourself. ”

Burke still wanted to keep Luo Jinyong, but Howard had already walked over.

"General Howard, I said that I would take responsibility. Following my departure, Professor Burke will temporarily assume the responsibilities of Head of the Scientific Advisory Board. Luo Jinyong smiled reluctantly and said, "Wait until I pack up my personal belongings and then hand them over to the guards for counting." ”

Howard nodded, not saying more, and no more needed.

Leaving the main console, Luo Jinyong walked towards Zhang Xiaogang.

"Got it figured?"

"I've thought about it a long time ago, I don't want to stay in this place for even a minute."

"Evil as hatred?" Zhang Xiaogang smiled.

Luo Jinyong smiled bitterly and said: "When I need you, treat you as an uncle, and when I don't need you, I will abandon you as a cheat." Lao Zhang, I only now understand what kind of life you have lived in the past two years. To be honest, if I had known the Dao, I wouldn't have accepted your invitation two years ago. ”

"Is that really the case?"

"At least I won't devote myself to it, and I've wasted two years."

"Professor, if you really think so, I'm looking at the wrong person." Walking out of the door of the control center, Zhang Xiaogang took out a cigarette. "If I told you that the first two years were just for you to do warm-up exercises, and the real challenge starts now, would you still think so?"

Luo Jinyong's brows jumped a few times, and he heard the meaning of Zhang Xiaogang's words.

"Let's go, I'll help you pack your belongings."

"You're not staying in the command center?"

"What's the use of staying there, and no one cares about me."

"You want to avoid suspicion, right?"

Zhang Xiaogang smiled and didn't say anything.

When he came to Luo Jinyong's office, Zhang Xiaogang did not help, but immediately used communication equipment.

At this time, the meeting of the chiefs of the General Staff had already made a fuss.

Burke sent the interception plan submitted by Luo Jinyong to the meeting of the chiefs of general staff as it was, and Yang Fanglie and Sergeyev both expressed their approval, and Renault was also inclined to adopt it, but Stark was firmly opposed, and he also brought Stockton together to put forward several reasons for opposition.

The main argument for opposition is that there are many countries along the Pacific rim, and if a super tsunami were to be triggered by an impact, the consequences would be unimaginable. Relatively speaking, the Indian Ocean coast is much less populated and predominantly underdeveloped, and only Australia is the only member country bordering the Indian Ocean, and even if the impact caused a super tsunami, the disaster would be much less severe and less impactful to the members of the Planetary Defense Council.

This reason seems high-sounding.

It's just that a key data mentioned by Luo Jinyong in the interception plan is ignored. That is, if there is no interception, the probability of debris hitting the Indian Ocean is as high as 74 percent, while the probability of hitting the Pacific Ocean is only 23 percent, a difference of more than three times.

In addition, the former is a high-probability event, while the latter is a low-probability event.

According to mathematical logic, Luo Jinyong's suggestion should definitely be adopted to intercept the debris at the point of impact in the Indian Ocean, rather than the debris at the point of impact in the Pacific Ocean.

The real reason Stark's adamant objection is that the point of impact in the Pacific Ocean is too close to Guam.

Although the last six nuclear warheads belong to China and Russia, it is unlikely that Yang Fanglie and Sergeyev will consider them state property after the news is announced.

For this reason, Yang Fanglie and Sergeyev can only argue on the basis of reason.

The purpose of the two is actually the fundamental reason for Stark's opposition, that is, to use the "extraterrestrial strike" to uproot the most important US military base in the western Pacific in one fell swoop.

Of course, this is only a very small probability.

If the piece of debris, labeled "334", had not hit the ball, but had changed its orbit after entering the atmosphere, brushed shoulders with the Earth, or burned up completely during the fall, as Luo Jinyong predicted, it would have caused no damage to China and Russia.

Time passed minute by minute, and the "decision point" was getting closer and closer.

In order to save time, the meeting of the chiefs of general staff first approved the interception of the five pieces of debris, which threatened to be carried out by China and Russia. China is responsible for intercepting two pieces of debris on the Asian continent with impact sites in Southeast Asia and Australia, while Russia is responsible for intercepting three pieces of debris from the Asian continent.

Control of the last nuclear warhead is in China's hands.

Obviously, it was Sergeyev who deliberately left the hot potato to Yang Fanglie. It stands to reason that China should intercept the piece of debris in southwest China.

Now, on the issue of the use of the last nuclear warhead, it has become a direct confrontation between Yang Fanglie and Stark.

"General Yang, you should know that the Planetary Defense Council is a whole. If you are still obsessed, I suggest that a vote be taken. ”

"General Stark, do you think now is the right time?" Yang Fanglie was stalling for time, because he knew that there were still two nuclear warheads, and both of them had been locked onto the target. His goal was to continue arguing with Stark and make Stark show his fox tail.

Yang Fanglie is well-established, there is nothing to worry about at all, and the seven fragments will be intercepted.

If you can't suppress Stark at this time, you will encounter even more difficult problems next.

Don't forget, the Doomsday Force isn't on the battlefield yet!