Deep Space Wandering Fleet

Chapter 98: Chapter 100 Jupiter’s Moon

Lin Xuanyuan was slightly annoyed, cursing inwardly that Zhang Yuan had no discernment at all—she had clearly lost 1 jin!

After a while, her heart finally calmed from the verge of bursting.

She flashed a professional smile, “There’s no live broadcast now, let’s relax and just chat casually. Hmm… Is there a special method to generate inspiration?”

Zhang Yuan coughed and replied, “Inspiration? I don’t know if you’ve done any Olympiad math problems?”

“Of course I have.”

“Doing scientific research is similar to solving Olympiad problems; the only difference is that there are no standard answers in research, which makes it more difficult. As for that sudden moment of epiphany, honestly, I don’t know how it happens.”

“When you solve Olympiad problems and suddenly have an epiphany on how to solve them, the feeling in research is similar, so there can’t really be anything generalizable… Anyway, you first need to accumulate knowledge. You’ve got to have enough tools before you can proceed, right? Then just keep thinking, keep thinking, keep thinking, right?”

The beautiful reporter thought hard for quite a while but genuinely had no idea what to ask next. She merely found the response somewhat amusing.

She wasn’t familiar with academic matters; at most, she’d report on normal life, study conditions, and perhaps the future impact.

“So, tell me about your daily life?”

“Ah, let’s not over-publicize it.”

Zhang Yuan shook his head, “For a successful person like me, I’m already fortunate enough; there’s no need to add more topics and fuel more popularity.”

“…You should pay more attention to those who haven’t succeeded, giving them more encouragement. The pain and confusion of exploring through the fog is truly hard to convey to outsiders, and sometimes even we don’t know how we made it through.”

Reporter Lin thought about it and said with a smile, “What you said, we know. But, the way this world operates rewards the successful, not those who fail. Otherwise, who would want to strive to be successful?”

“Ah, you indeed have a point…”

The entire interview took another half hour to complete.

It was only after noticing Zhang Yuan had grown delirious that the attractive young lady reluctantly got up to leave.

…

While Zhang Yuan was soundly asleep, the entire meeting video and papers had already been sent back to Earth.

Many scientists knew that a young lad on the spaceship had addressed the turbulence problem!

It couldn’t be said it was completely solved, but rather that the solution for the “next step” pushed it to an unimaginably difficult level!

To “solve it next time,” one might truly need to delve into mathematical methods and discuss something “smooth.”

This issue created a huge stir within the community, with some equipped labs already beginning to undertake the most important “plasma turbulence experiment.”

Of course, it didn’t stir much interest outside the community. To most people, issues like “turbulence” were incomprehensible. Without understanding, they couldn’t comment.

People cared more about clothes, food, shelter, and things directly affecting them.

Even if internet trolls saw the issue, they had no valid points to criticize. Otherwise, they might accidentally expose their own ignorance.

…

Waking up from bed the next morning, Zhang Yuan hadn’t slept this soundly in a long time.

He habitually checked his personal email.

A pile of congratulatory messages from colleagues, including many scientists from Earth.

Although it was troublesome, he still had to reply one by one, expressing “heartfelt” thanks.

There were also some reports on plasma turbulence experiments; some crazy scientists had worked overnight to complete some of the simplest tests.

His heart skipped a beat as Zhang Yuan carefully read the experimental data above.

Very good, everything met expectations.

This meant that his algorithm was also very suitable for dealing with plasma turbulence.

His heart gradually relaxed. The final part of his paper had been completed without much trouble.

“Zhang Yuan, congratulations on surpassing your father in this field!” It was a congratulatory video from Professor Wang Zhong.

“How does it feel to stand at the peak? Does it feel like you can look down on all the other mountains?”

Zhang Yuan smiled.

It indeed felt pretty good, but he also felt somewhat lonely.

The more he knew, the more he realized he didn’t know. He could now confirm that the turbulence problem could be approached with his current abilities, but it couldn’t truly be solved.

Professor Wang continued in the video, “After the plasma turbulence experiment was validated, we held a night-long scientific symposium…”

“Many scientists believe that your algorithm is more effective than your father’s method, with higher precision constraints. This will usher in another upgrade of the nuclear fusion industry, namely making miniaturization feasible.”

“… Even the nuclear engine on the ‘Earth Era’ can be updated and replaced.”

“But after careful discussions, we still think it’s unnecessary to upgrade the ‘Earth Era’ on this occasion and let it continue its journey into the distance…”

“Because with updates and replacements in the aerospace industry, the first priority is reliability and safety, and cost-effectiveness comes second. Your solution, although advanced, will need several years, or even decades, to be tested in long-term practice to ensure its reliability.”

“The classical engine of the ‘Earth Era’ has been time-tested and is reliable enough, while all the astronauts cannot afford to wait for decades. We hope you understand this.”

Zhang Yuan nodded.

“This is another point,” Professor Wang said with a smile. “Supervisors have sent down notices that if you want to stay on Earth, the state won’t impose any penalties on you…”

Zhang Yuan was slightly taken aback.

“However, from my personal point of view, I still hope that you will leave.”

“Young man, the worldly splendors aren’t worth lingering over; look forward to everything three thousand years from now!”

…

Amid various discussions, Jupiter’s moon, Europa, finally arrived.

This moon was quite far from Earth, approximately 630 million kilometers away, and the signal transmission time between Earth and Jupiter was 2100 seconds.

After several course corrections, the ‘Earth Era’ slowly docked at the Starry Sky Port of Europa. The spaceship itself was even slightly bigger than the port.

Europa is the second largest moon of Jupiter, with a diameter of 3183 kilometers, and its gravitational acceleration is only one-eighth of Earth’s.

From the distant cosmos, it could be seen as a massive ice puck, with an ice cap on the planet’s surface that is a hundred kilometers thick.

According to scientists, beneath the thick ice layer of Europa, there could be liquid water, and possibly even extraterrestrial life.

However, the ice layer over a hundred kilometers thick is ridiculously thick, and to this day, there isn’t a particularly good way to drill through the ice for scientific exploration. According to speculation, even if there is extraterrestrial life, it would most likely be just microorganisms and would not affect humans.

Here, the human population maintained a total of six million.

They had built a complex and massive survival paradise within the thick ice cap, providing a good example for future interstellar colonization.

The ‘Earth Era’ would stay here for about a month. During this month, the whole spaceship would be refueled with nuclear fuel, topped up with water resources, and undergo the final resource supplementation. Subsequently, the surplus population would enter hibernation, leaving only a small number of operational personnel to start the long interstellar voyage.

The real long journey was finally about to come.