New York time, 3 a.m.

White House, Office of Intelligence Information Processing.

Cedric Patton is part of a team of decision-makers who specialize in handling intelligence information, including information from the Hexagons in real time, as well as information from agencies such as satellite centers.

The environment at night is always groggy.

At this time, Cedric Barton was half-lying in his chair and felt like he was about to fall asleep, and generally unimportant intelligence information could be processed the next day, but some urgent information should be processed in time.

If the information is important to a certain extent, he even has to contact someone else immediately, even the number one decision maker who has already rested.

That's what he does.

In recent months, there has been calm in the international community, with no wars, no major incidents, and some minor conflicts that do not require much attention.

Cedric Barton thought it would be another silent night, so he simply closed his eyes and took a nap, only to fold his arms to his chest when he heard the sound of 'drip, drip' from the computer.

He came to his senses.

The sound of 'drip, drip' meant that there was an urgent message sent, and he immediately checked the newly sent information and suddenly became more sober.

"It can't be!"

Cedric Barton stared at the satellite photographs in the message, as well as the author's analysis of Bronke, "That big round ball, actually flying?" Are you kidding! ”

He said it was impossible, but his heart was sure.

Without a clear certainty, the satellite center will not send urgent information, and the beam of light under the huge sphere can be clearly seen in the photo.

The satellite images are not too clear, but comparing the position of the sphere at the same angle and the obvious pillar of light below, it is still possible to draw conclusions.

Cedric Barton took a deep breath, picked up the phone and contacted everyone involved, followed by a call to the satellite center in Europe.

Satellite centers in Europe also got the news.

Their reaction was the same as that of Amriken, a group of people looked at the satellite images in shock, and quickly operated the low-air satellites that were close to each other, especially flying over to reconnoitre, but it seemed that it was too late.

The two sides had a brief communication.

Cedric Barton and the other duty officers deliberated and decided to tell Decision One tomorrow, after all, all they could do was observe.

Soon.

The intelligence system became operational urgently.

The satellite center has also become very busy, and they control more than a dozen satellites to turn the perspective, all pointing in the direction of the light-pressure engine experimental base.

……

Take-off and landing tests of the light-pressure engines continue.

The huge gray-white sphere is suspended in the air, and even on a sunny afternoon, you can clearly see the strong light pillar below the ball, which looks very dazzling when you look at the light pillar.

The people in the bomb shelter on the side of the mountain have already walked out.

Each of them wore goggles and looked at the huge ball from the side, and many of them couldn't help but open their mouths in surprise.

Mr. Zhao couldn't help but sigh, "Before the experiment started, I thought about what I would see, but I still felt incredible, what a miracle!" ”

Teacher Xu nodded and said, "It's indeed a miracle, such a huge thing can be suspended in the air, if I don't know that it's a light pressure engine, I will definitely think that aliens have come to Earth." ”

Teacher Zhu spit out three words, "Big, really big......"

Viewed from the side of the mountain, the light-pressure engine is shockingly large, and the diameter of 120 meters is far less than the length of an aircraft carrier, but the feeling of being suspended in the air is different.

In addition, the height of the engine is only 230 meters.

230 meters is not high.

The height of the Donggang TV Tower, a landmark building in Donggang City, is also more than 400 meters, and the height of the huge ball is only half of the TV Tower, and with its diameter of 120 meters, you can imagine what a shocking feeling.

Of course, there is no dark shadow below, but it is several times brighter than other positions.

Paul Phil-Jones stood behind the three teachers, looking at the huge ball and excitedly, "It's full of science fiction, just like I imagined." ”

"Seeing this, it feels like it's all worth it."

"That's right."

He reacted suddenly, immediately took out his phone from his pocket, and took a selfie with his back to the huge ball in the air.

Someone suddenly asked, "Can I take a picture?" ”

"It's okay."

Zang Chunlai came over and said, "This experiment is semi-public, it is impossible to keep it secret, it is estimated that there will be a lot of reports in the near future, and anyone who wants to take pictures can take pictures." ”

As he spoke, he took out his phone to take a selfie.

Some people were suddenly depressed.

They were not allowed to use electronic devices during the work stage, and they didn't carry any mobile phones or other products at all, so they simply went over and asked Paul Phil-Jones, Zang Chunlai and a few other people to help take pictures.

The atmosphere was much more lively.

The three teachers were a little embarrassed to stand at the front, they wanted to ask the assistant to help take pictures, but they were embarrassed to speak now.

In the end, it was Teacher Zhu who shouted, "Xiao Wang, come and help me take a photo." ”

He thought that he was going to retire soon, and similar opportunities would be very rare in the future, so he must cherish and leave a commemorative photo with the suspended light pressure engine.

Mr. Zhu also made an excuse when taking pictures, "Take a few more photos, and show them when you go back, so that they can know what aerospace is and what is high-tech!" ”

Teacher Zhao and Teacher Xu no longer held the shelf, and quickly joined the group photo team.

At this moment, the test of the light pressure engine is still in full swing, and it has entered the balance system test.

In this link, several small excitation propulsion devices on the side of the concave mirror will instantaneously release a certain amount of light pressure, generating thrust to make the engine flutter as a whole, and the engine will tilt to one side, or even move a certain distance.

After that, the balancing system will be activated.

The balancing system is a very complex system, the main components of the engine are also contained in the frame, and when the engine side is tilted, the 'balancing module' of the electronic system is activated to detect the engine status in time.

After the calculation is completed in an instant, the small excitation propulsion device on the other side is automatically controlled, and the light pressure in the opposite direction is released to rebalance the engine.

During the adjustment process, the released light pressure is fine-tuned to ensure that the engine quickly adjusts back to the original balance point.

At the same time, the neutron channel is fine-tuned.

The activation of the small excitation propulsion device will inevitably consume a part of the internal light source, so adjust the release of more neutrons and create more light sources to ensure the internal energy balance.

This is a change inside the engine.

In the eyes of the outside world, it is the engine that flutters and tilts to one side, which instantly makes people's hearts tighten.

Teacher Zhu's mobile phone almost fell to the ground, and he shouted, "What's the matter?" Did it fail? ”

Everyone looked over.

Paul Phil-Jones calmly explained, "This is a balancing system test, which actively excites the light pressure device on one side to make the engine unbalanced, and to test the balancing system. ”

He continued, "Don't worry. The system has been tested many times on the ground, but now it has been replaced with an air test, and there will be no problems. ”

Teacher Xu couldn't help but ask, "Are you so confident?" ”

"Of course." Paul Phil-Jones laughs, "Because I'm the head of the balance system research!" ”

"Really......"

Mr. Xu's tone still sounded worried.

Paul Phil-Jones added, "I am only one of the people in charge, and Wang Hao is the direct person in charge of the research. ”

The three teachers let out a long sigh in unison, and a relaxed smile appeared on their faces.

They were all relieved.

Paul Phil-Jones was very depressed, no matter how low his emotional intelligence was, he knew that he was not trusted, "Don't believe me? Believe Wang Hao? ”

He shouted softly, carefully pondering and bowing his head helplessly.

Because, he himself sees it this way.

……

The test of the balancing system went well.

After three successive tests, it was determined that there were no problems with the balance system, and the experiment entered the second half.

There is only one job left, which is to ensure that the engine can land smoothly.

Landing is a very important job.

Landing is more difficult and dangerous than taking off, because take-off requires only enough thrust and landing must be smooth and balanced.

The light-pressure engine is a large body with a diameter of 120 meters, and it is certainly not possible to make a hard landing.

When the engine lands, the excitation propulsion unit is kept running, and the main nozzle is also maintained at a temperature of 7,000 degrees Celsius, which can melt the surface layer of the sand in an instant, even when landing in sand.

Their plan was to get back to the take-off point, which would require landing on 12 large stands, with no room for error along the way.

It's kind of like a satellite docking, or refueling in the air.

Of course, the difficulty coefficient is lower, and the main difficulty is reflected in two aspects, on the one hand, the stability of the engine balance and the injection light pressure, in other words, the stable performance of the engine.

On the other hand, it's operational.

There is no problem with the former, and by the time the test has been carried out, it has been determined that the light pressure produced is very smooth, which can keep the engine stationary in the air.

The latter requires fine control.

If all of them are manipulated by humans, there is a high probability that something will go wrong, and it may be just a small mistake that can cause a very big accident.

In order to reduce the possibility of accidents, that is, to increase the operating error space, the concave mirror backbone of the engine is supported by six extendable auxiliary brackets.

Six auxiliary brackets, assembled in the upper half to the lower half of the concave mirror, have a total length of 60 meters when unfolded, and the middle part of the bracket has a bending point.

In this way, the six auxiliary brackets can land first, creating a spider-like support structure for the engine.

This support structure is not enough to support the weight of the engine, but only plays the function of assisting landing, which can ensure that there is enough room for error when landing.

Command center.

Wang Hao has already given the order to land.

Many people looked at the side console, the place where the landing operation was located, and there was only one engineer in military uniform.

His name is Sheng Weidong, and he is a mechanical control engineer sent by the military, and he has a nickname called 'manipulator'.

Sheng Weidong, known as the 'manipulator', is very good at the micro-operation of large machinery and precision machinery, his hand is very stable, and his mentality is also very stable.

In this take-off and landing test, Sheng Weidong was responsible for landing control.

When Sheng Weidong first decided on the job, he didn't feel any pressure, and he has been doing similar work all along.

Now when the engine is about to land, Sheng Weidong still feels nervous, whenever he thinks that he controls more than 100 billion high-tech equipment, as long as there is a little mistake, it may bring tens or tens of billions of losses.

This made him feel very stressed.

He took a deep breath, suppressed the tension in his heart, and began to operate the engine to land, which was slower than the speed of take-off.

Sheng Weidong is making adjustments little by little.

When the lower part of the engine is about ten meters away from the upper end of the main support, the speed of controlling the fall can be described as turtle speed, and his operation is also very fine, and it takes more than half a minute to adjust the height of each meter.

The position of the engine, the closer it is to the upper end of the main bracket, the slower it falls.

When the bottom of the engine was five meters away from the main support, Sheng Weidong paused to continue the control, allowing the engine to remain in a suspended posture.

At this point, it's time to adjust the position.

The position of the engine is adjusted so that the beam of light ejected by the excitation propulsion device is directly aligned with a circle on the ground marked with a special high-temperature resistant material.

The diameter of the pillar of light is about two meters.

The diameter of the circle is also only 2.1 meters, which is slightly more than the diameter of the beam.

It took Sheng Weidong about three minutes to align the pillar of light with the circle of the ground, and make sure that each direction was within the edge of the sphere.

He made sure again and pressed another button.

This button is the six auxiliary brackets that start the engine, and from a distance, it looks like a huge ball has six legs and slowly steps on the ground.

With the protection of the auxiliary bracket, the position of the engine is fixed to a certain extent, and there is no longer a tremor and becomes much more stable.

At this time, the landing was mostly done.

The next step was to control the engine to continue descending, little by little, approaching the upper end of the twelve-seat ground support, and the last meter even took five minutes to finish.

Along with an electronic cue, the top of the E-pillar on the ground has been connected to the outside of the engine.

Sheng Weidong decisively pulled the operating lever, and the engine suddenly shook downward, and then it was fixed by twelve brackets on the ground.

"Whew~~~"

Seeing this scene, everyone exhaled a long breath.

Sheng Weidong lay down on the chair hard, panting very hard, his whole body was soaked in cold sweat, but he couldn't help but show a relaxed smile on his face.

The command center experienced a brief silence, and the next moment erupted in excited cheers, "Success!" ”

"Weidong, it's perfect!"

"It's a manipulator, it's amazing, I was scared to death just now~~~~"

"The experiment is over, right?"

A group of people looked at Wang Hao.

Wang Hao was standing behind Sheng Weidong, he patted the other party's shoulder, and exclaimed, "Sheng Gong, well done!" ”

"It's over!"

"Our tests were a complete success!"

"Now—"

"Everyone can come down easily!"

Suddenly.

The cheers are even louder!

(End of chapter)