I, Superman, the Supreme Commander

Chapter 160: Fire Fighting Mission Success

There are 27 days and 21 hours left until the predicted time of the solar helium flash.

[All pilots, please go to the designated coordinates. ]

In the solar system, 1500 million kilometers away from the sun, a "thin" net has almost completely wrapped up the sun, with only two gaps at the two ends.

"Slender" is relative to the sun. For humans, the lines on this web are still giant pipes with a diameter of more than 100 kilometers, and the connecting point of the lines is a sphere with a diameter of more than 1,000 kilometers.

Seen from far away in space, hundreds of standard equilateral triangles divide the surface of the sun into regular areas.

At this time, from time to time there would be a strong coronal mass ejection, penetrating the solar fusion controller grid and rushing to the shore like a tide penetrating a fishing net.

[G9-level solar storm radiation detected, please take precautions! ]

Solar storms are becoming more frequent, now occurring every thirty minutes or so, and the energy level is approaching level 20.

Braving the strong solar wind, the modified spacecraft with specially enhanced radiation resistance flew to the solar fusion controller node and anchored behind the node, using the node's physical barrier to reduce solar wind damage.

[Group A units report the situation! ]

[A001001 has arrived at the designated location. The main body of the spacecraft is intact, but the control system is partially damaged and is undergoing emergency repairs.]

[A001002 is 5 minutes away from the designated location. The power system is faulty and is being repaired! ]

[A001003, lost contact...]

United Earth Government Headquarters, Global Command Center.

The big screen was all red, indicating that half of the nearly 30 million spaceships in space were experiencing abnormal situations.

"This is not a good situation. We underestimated the impact of solar storms."

"The intensity of the solar storm is currently approaching level 20, and it is expected to intensify sharply in the next few days!"

"Solar wind damage levels in the solar fusion controller orbit will exceed G10 levels, exceeding the critical point of our spacecraft protection systems."

The decision makers of the United Earth Government were silent. They had all undergone knowledge enhancement and knew clearly what that meant.

Once the spacecraft's protection system is penetrated, the electronic components of the internal electronic system will be severely burned. The spacecraft will lose power and become a cold space coffin at best, or explode and disintegrate on the spot at worst.

The crew will be exposed to huge amounts of radiation and suffer serious injuries, just like being exposed to a nuclear explosion.

You know, the sun is a super-large hydrogen bomb that is constantly exploding...

Although solar activity has not yet reached its peak, violent solar storms have already caused many spacecraft to malfunction.

How will humans complete the next plan?

There was not enough time and technology to add more protection to the spacecraft. With the current level of technology on Earth, it was almost the limit to resist the damage of a G9-level storm.

"The spacecraft arrival rate is less than 60%. If this trend continues, I'm afraid the success rate of the [Moth Project] cannot be guaranteed..."

Hao Xiaoxi reported to the standing directors solemnly.

"Affected by the solar storm, the spacecraft system will experience various failures, and it will not be possible to guarantee that it will arrive at the scheduled location in time, nor complete the subsequent mission of crossing the corona..."

Zhou Zhezhi, the Chinese director, sighed, "Is it possible to fill the gap with human lives?"

"It looks like we have no choice. Drawing lots or seniority first?"

"Let's vote..."

A moth flying into a flame is an old idiom from the Eastern powers, used to describe blindly courting one's own destruction.

[Moth Project] is an adventurous gamble by Earth civilization to solve the solar helium flash crisis.

The cause of the solar helium flash is the exhaustion of hydrogen, and the Sky Repair Project is to safely replenish hydrogen for the sun. Since there is no time left, a bold and radical approach should be adopted.

- Use a spacecraft carrying solid hydrogen to directly crash into the sun, adding fuel to the sun in a brutal way.

This is also the origin of the name of the Moth Project: tens of millions of spacecraft are like moths to a flame, rushing towards the sun, burning themselves, turning themselves into fuel, and lighting up the stars!

This is equivalent to moving the third phase of the [Sky Repair Plan] forward to before the second phase, and changing the long-term and steady replenishment of hydrogen elements to a one-time replenishment.

According to estimates, to be on the safe side, the Sun needs to be replenished with at least 10 to the 22nd power tons of hydrogen at one time, which is equivalent to about 30 Galactus satellites fully loaded with hydrogen or 1.5 masses of the Earth.

If the replenishment is successful, the Sun can obtain enough hydrogen to continue burning for another 1 to 100 million years - depending on the efficiency of the replenishment.

The most difficult part of the plan is whether the spacecraft can penetrate the corona, which is as hot as 100 million degrees Celsius and several million kilometers thick. The corona is divided into three layers: outer, middle and inner. The fuel spacecraft needs to reach the inner layer of the corona to achieve the maximum efficiency of hydrogen replenishment while minimizing the instantaneous impact on the corona activity.

All spacecraft manufactured by the Earth civilization, including the Galactus created by Voyager's black technology, cannot withstand the high temperature of the corona and will be quickly vaporized into plasma after entering the corona.

The larger the spacecraft, the longer it can last. But even a Galactus with thick skin and flesh can only last for a dozen minutes.

Therefore, the only feasible way is for the spacecraft to complete acceleration outside the corona, rush into the corona at high speed, and use inertia to break through the high-temperature space.

As for which layer it can reach, it can only be left to fate... After all, 100 million degrees Celsius is just the average temperature of the corona. In the area where the flare occurs, the temperature of the corona can reach tens of millions of degrees Celsius. If the spacecraft is unlucky enough to rush into the flare, it may melt directly.

Time is running out and Earth civilization only has one chance, so it can only go all in and put all its transport ships to use.

The larger the amount invested at one time, the higher the chance of success in fueling the solar furnace.

In order to build the solar fusion controller, most of the Galactus were dismantled into raw materials, and now there are only 28 Galactus in the entire human race.

Considering that after eliminating the solar helium flash, humans still need to continue to build solar fusion controllers, and at least keep two to mine the remaining parts of Jupiter. In fact, there are only 2 Galactus available. The remaining 26 Galactus' carrying capacity gap can only be filled by 4 million carrier ships.

Initially, the plan of the United Earth Government was to use AI to control the spacecraft and automatically drive it to execute the final step of "moth to flame".

But they underestimated the impact of solar storms.

The helium flash has not yet occurred, but the powerful solar storm caused by the previous intense solar activity is enough to have a serious impact on the spacecraft's control and power systems.

The feasibility of the [Moth Project] suddenly became unguaranteed.

The coalition government was therefore forced to adopt a backup insurance plan.

"Since machines are unreliable, let humans take control!"