As the Snowpiercer enters Antarctica, Qiao Lu gradually sees the facilities built by the Antarctic Courtyard Project, and gets a glimpse of the true face of this magnificent project.

Distant puffs of white smoke rise from the Antarctic continent, which is the steam emitted by industrial buildings. The huge machinery roared, obviously in the ice and snow, but a large number of workers were busy in full swing.

Around these factories that emit huge energy, there is a dense circle of living quarters outside, forming an industrial city.

Starting from the innermost ring, it is distributed layer by layer, all kinds of facilities are readily available, and there is even a ring high-speed connection to various places, and the heavy carrier vehicles of the wandering earth are lined up in a convoy on the highway, transporting goods in an orderly manner and shuttling through the city.

"That's the outer building of the Antarctic courtyard project." "Some raw materials can be mined directly in Antarctica, such as the stones used in heavy nuclear fusion, which don't need to be transported all the way, so large factories need to be built to process them," said the Snowpiercer guide. ”

"When a heavy fusion plant is working, the cooling towers emit a huge amount of heat, which provides a temperature comfort zone in the extremely cold part of Antarctica. So workers built living quarters around these cooling towers, and with the house's own thermal function, it could sweat in the heat of -150 degrees Celsius in Antarctica, and there was almost no air conditioning. ”

In the vicinity of these huge cooling towers, the snow and ice have indeed melted, and you can move freely even without protective clothing, although because the oxygen is relatively thin, you still need to use a respirator to relieve it regularly.

Such cities are continuous in Antarctica, constantly processing materials and providing housing for Antarctic courtyard projects, just like the dungeons for planetary engines.

All of this makes life in Antarctica less strenuous, as long as you don't have to work all day in heavy protective clothing under the biting cold wind, it is a physical and mental torture.

The Snowpiercer shuttles through these polar cities, stopping at each city, unloading and reloading for transport to the heart of the Antarctic Courtyard Project.

"It's incredible."

Qiao Lu looked at the towering industrial buildings, rows of neat houses, and a large number of heavy transport convoys, and it was hard to imagine that this was the Antarctic, which had been below minus 90 degrees for a long time, a terrifying and extremely cold place.

The tour guide smiled: "We have survived the worse environment, what is there to be afraid of here?" ”

Indeed, the Wandering Earth has been at a low temperature of tens of degrees below zero for a period of time, and in that case, it can maintain the operation of 10,000 planetary engines, and the experience of dealing with extremely cold weather is too rich.

Today's large-scale construction in Antarctica, compared to the escape era of the wandering earth, pediatrics, industrial cities rising from the ground, and the Snowpiercer across the entire southern hemisphere are all testaments to the determination of the coalition government to build Antarctic courtyards.

As the Snowpiercer train continues to advance, the main body of the Antarctic courtyard project finally appeared in front of Qiao Lu's eyes.

It was a huge building even grander than a planetary engine, in the form of a perfect cylindrical shape, tens of thousands of meters high, with a smooth surface, like a metal mountain.

Two huge mechanical arms carried parts at the top, each hundreds of meters high, thicker than the waist of a mecha hunter, and seemed to be able to lift a 10,000-ton ship with ease.

"This is the main body of the Antarctic courtyard project?" Qiao Lu couldn't help but ask.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg of the Antarctic courtyard project." The Snowpiercer guide corrected, "Don't forget, there's 12,756 kilometers of Earth Tunnels down there." ”

The part that was exposed to the ground alone was already so unimaginable that Qiao Lu couldn't predict what kind of spectacle the Earth Tunnel would be.

Qiao Lu walked off the Snowpiercer train, and 2B followed behind without saying a word, his face still with a hint of flushing, and he didn't seem to have recovered from what had just happened.

Shen Huabei, the person in charge of the Antarctic Courtyard Project, has been waiting at the entrance for a long time, and there is also Ding Yi, a physicist Qiao Lu knows, who is also helping to work here.

Seeing Qiao Lu get out of the car, Shen Huabei immediately greeted him and said:

"Director Qiao Lu, welcome to Antarctica!"

He is a bold middle-aged man, not as reserved and introverted as other scientists, except for the white coat he wears, which is no different from the middle-aged uncle that Qiao Lu often meets on the street.

Shen Huabei is also a well-known figure in the wandering earth science community, but Qiao Lu has never had the opportunity to meet him.

Because since the Antarctic Courtyard Project was launched, Shen Huabei has stayed here every step of the way, dedicating all his life's learning to this magnificent project.

"Long admired the name, Dr. Shen." Qiao Lu admired and shook hands with him.

This is not a polite word, Shen Huabei is known as the "father of the new solid state" on the wandering earth, and almost everyone knows it.

His invention of the new solid state not only provided the technical basis for the Antarctic courtyard project, but also was an indispensable material for the construction of planetary engines.

This is an ultra-high-density substance, which first requires the use of a nanomaterial called "sugar coating", which is wrapped in an extremely high-strength alloy, and then a million-ton nuclear explosion is created around it, and the stress balance distribution of the "sugar coating" is used to make the whole alloy get precise centripetal compression.

Just as soft graphite can be turned into hard diamond under high temperature and pressure, after being wrapped in "sugar coating" and the stress compression of a megaton nuclear explosion, the final material is a new solid state.

The density of the new solid state thus created is almost as high as the specific gravity of stone and water compared to the density of the rocks in the formation.

Therefore, once the new solid state is placed on the ground, it will continue to sink as if it was sinking into the sea, and it will not stop no matter how many tens of thousands of meters it goes.

It is precisely by taking advantage of this characteristic of the new solid state that it is possible for humans to dig tunnels that can penetrate the entire earth, otherwise using something like a drilling shield machine, it would be enough to dig through the earth's crust.

New solid-state matter, on the other hand, is produced by successive small nuclear explosions, so it is possible to create a wide range of density levels.

The lower density material does not sink into the ground, and a large foundation is created with it, and the pressure of the high-density material is dispersed by the foundation and can float on the ground.

Using this principle, the base and pillars of the planetary engine are actually built on new solid-state materials, otherwise there is no structural strength of the material at all, and it can withstand the thrust of 15 billion tons of planetary engine.

In a sense, Shen Huabei's invention also saved all mankind, and Qiao Lu certainly wanted to express his heartfelt respect to him.

Today, the 12,756-kilometer-long earth tunnel also needs to be built with new solid materials from Shenhua North, and it is even more desirable for him to be the main person in charge of the Antarctic courtyard project.