Chapter 240 Kraken-Mare Sea
Luan birds speed through Titan's dense atmosphere.
Weak artificial intelligence quickly analyzes the information from the camera and various sensors.
"drop!"
"Discover the ocean!"
Stiff electronic sounds sounded in the starship cockpit.
Zhao Zijie perked up and quickly raised his head to look at the holographic image in front of him.
In the picture, the surface of an ocean composed of liquid methane is sparkling.
The coastline meanders as far as the eye can see.
This is the largest ocean on Titan.
Kraken-Marais.
The area reaches 400,000 square kilometers, and the deepest depth reaches 300 meters.
Although it cannot be compared with the ocean on the earth, it is amazing enough for a small satellite!
After confirming some data, his eyes showed a bit of excitement: "One, release the detector and find a suitable landing site."
"Roger, looking for a landing site."
After the words fell, a small hatch opened in the belly of the Luannia starship, and a series of drones flew out in an orderly manner.
Then, the Luanniao starship drew a graceful curve in the air and flew towards the coastline.
…
Kraken - a relatively flat piece of land on the Mare Sea coast.
A faint blue flame glowed from the bottom of an 800-meter-long starship, slowly landing on the surface.
The high temperature brought by the Hall thruster instantly vaporized part of the liquid methane remaining on the ground.
But then, the methane liquefied into tiny droplets again at the surrounding temperature of -179.15 degrees Celsius, suspended in the nitrogen-filled atmosphere.
From the outside, a thick white mist suddenly rose around the starship, and a black Luan bird loomed faintly in the white mist.
Paired with the light orange atmospheric environment and the sparkling sea surface in the low light, it immediately formed a beautiful alien picture.
"Okay, we should hurry up and get to work!" Zhao Zijie withdrew his gaze from the porthole, unbuckled his seat belt and stood up.
"According to calculations, in two days, Titan will have eight days of darkness."
"We'd better get it all done in two days."
(The duration of a complete day and night on Titan is 15.9 days)
After dozens of minutes, the hatch on the side of the Luan Bird slowly opened.
Two starship pilots wearing tight spacesuits slowly stepped off the starship and stepped on the frozen ground.
"...It's so beautiful."
Zhao Zijie looked at the endless methane ocean and sighed softly in the team's radio frequency band: "It's hard to imagine that this is just a small satellite."
Gao Yang next to him nodded in agreement with Zhao Zijie's words while operating the transport equipment.
Compared with the helium-3 extraction machine in Jupiter's orbit, the extraction equipment on the Luan Bird is like a baby that is not yet a full moon.
But even so, it took two people a lot of effort to drag the two-meter-diameter extraction pipe to the ocean several hundred meters away.
"Zijie, where should the extraction device be placed?"
With the help of several robots, a huge piece of equipment was moved out of the starship cabin.
Zhao Zijie turned around and looked at the surrounding terrain, then opened his watch and checked it carefully.
Then, he pointed at a flat rock dozens of meters away that was about two meters higher than the surrounding area.
"Just put it over there."
"According to one's calculation results, affected by the gravity of Saturn, the ocean here also has tidal phenomena."
"It should be a safer place over there."
Although these liquid methane will not have any impact on the pumping equipment, it can even help it dissipate heat.
However, when you are on a strange planet, you can never go wrong with being safe.
Gao Yang nodded noncommittally and reached out to greet the robot following him.
…
After installing all the equipment, the two returned to the Luanniao starship.
Looking at the gradually dimming scenery outside the porthole, Zhao Zijie slowly exhaled a breath of thick air.
While pressing the switch of the suction device, he lay back on the seat and said, "Just wait."
"We can go back to Mars to rest in a month."
"I heard the next crew on duty is Bart's team."
A month later, a [Taotie] Nebula-class material reserve ship will come to "pick up the goods."
And they can also take this opportunity to get a chance to return to Mars to rest.
"It's so boring..." Gao Yang sighed and lay down on the chair.
"Be content." Zhao Zijie glanced at his teammates angrily.
"How about you continue mining in the asteroid belt?"
Gao Yang shuddered slightly.
Unlike the Luan Bird, the Hummingbird's cockpit is extremely small, allowing only one starship pilot to live.
Small living space means greater psychological pressure and a more boring life.
"No, no, no, I suddenly felt that collecting methane on Titan would be a good job!" Gao Yang waved his hand repeatedly.
The cockpit fell silent again.
"Speaking of which..."
Just as Zhao Zijie narrowed his eyes and was half asleep, Gao Yang's weak voice came from the side.
"There can't be life on Titan, right?"
"..." Zhao Zijie shuddered suddenly, and his sleepiness disappeared instantly, "No, it's impossible, right?"
"What kind of creature can survive in this -179 degrees Celsius environment?"
As he spoke, he looked out the porthole.
The searchlights around the Luanniao starship have been turned on.
There were some small waves beating on the methane ocean, and there was nothing on the surrounding ground except gravel and liquid methane.
Gao Yang was startled by Zhao Zijie's action, and he stood up from his chair and looked out the porthole.
After looking around, he scratched his head with a wry smile.
"I just mentioned it casually."
"Think about it, Titan looks similar to the Earth."
"With an atmosphere, rivers, lakes and oceans, maybe some life can be bred?"
Zhao Zijie rolled his eyes and stood up from his chair.
"Okay, I'm going to sleep, you continue to dream."
Seeing Zhao Zijie leave, Gao Yang hurriedly climbed up from the chair.
"Hey! Wait for me!"
"Our bet on a bag of spicy strips is not over yet!"
Zhao Zijie didn't look back, waved his hand, and threw down a sentence.
"Gambling? What gambling?"
"I only know that first come, first served."
As he said that, he quickened his pace and rushed to the lounge.
Gao Yang was immediately furious when he saw this.
"This!"
"Captain! Captain, you can't do this!"
...
The voices of Gao Yang and Zhao Zijie gradually faded away.
Under Yi's control, the lights in the cockpit slowly went out.
The bright searchlights around the starship silently dispelled the surrounding darkness.
Under the light, the waves on the Kraken-Mare Sea seemed to be a little bigger.
The sea level also began to slowly rise.
