Homo sapiens.

Regarding the impact of the solar storm on the space station, the Earth Alliance is now in entanglement. Many executives in the association hope that the space station can persist. After all, this is a project that has invested tens of billions of dollars.

Chapter 524 It's a Mess

Just when the International Space Station of the Earth Federation was arguing with the Earth Federation Association.

In orbit above the space station, 16 small communications satellites owned by SpaceX were damaged beyond repair during this solar storm.

The orbit control system of these satellites has failed, and the communication system cannot be used, so it is completely scrapped.

One of the defunct Starlink satellites, after losing control, collided with another nearby Lucia spy satellite.

Due to the outbreak of the solar storm at this time, the communications on the earth have been affected, and some communication satellites have been scrapped. As a result, the members of the Earth Federation Association have no way to monitor all spacecraft in low-Earth orbit.

Especially the low-Earth orbit on the side swept by the solar storm.

After the scrapped Starlink satellite collided with the Lucia spy satellite, both satellites suffered serious damage and both deviated from their respective orbits.

Debris and debris from satellite impacts are scattered in all directions, especially towards lower orbital regions.

The orbital altitude of these two satellites is about 670-680 kilometers in low-Earth orbit.

The new International Space Station of the Earth Federation Association is in the area of ​​450-460 kilometers in low-Earth orbit.

Hundreds of satellite fragments and wreckage drifted all the way to the lower orbit.

Soon, 3 Starlink satellites and 2 satellites of other forces were involved. These satellites and debris collided with each other, knocking out more debris and wreckage, and further expanding the scope of debris splashing.

After about an hour and a half.

Dozens of satellite debris floated near the new International Space Station.

However, due to the attack of the solar storm, nearly a quarter of the equipment on the International Space Station was paralyzed, and a large part of the equipment failed. It was not detected that these small debris were approaching the space station.

A piece of wreckage separated from the Lucia spy satellite rolled and smashed on the No. 3 experimental module of the space station.

This satellite shell with a radius of about 0.4 meters smashed through the bulkhead of the No. 3 experimental cabin in an instant under the blessing of rapid speed.

[alarm!alarm! There is an air leak in the No. 3 experimental cabin...]

Feeling the rapid drop in the surrounding air pressure, Zhang Ming's face changed drastically: "Not good! Close the air pressure gate of cabin 3 quickly..."

Robert, who was in charge of controlling the management of the internal air pressure system, quickly pressed the emergency button.

Immediately, the doors on both sides of the No. 3 experimental cabin were automatically closed, and part of the air pressure inside the space station stopped falling.

However, they haven't waited for them to breathe a sigh of relief.

Another piece of satellite debris the size of a screw quietly penetrated a fuel tank of the space station, and a large amount of methane stored in the fuel tank leaked.

[alarm!alarm! F5 fuel tank leaks...]

"This..." Zhang Ming turned pale with shock.

The entire new international space station has 4 pairs of fuel tanks, corresponding to the 16 attitude control engines on the space station.

Jin Shangwen, the administrator of the power system, swallowed his throat: "Captain, we only have 9 posture control engines left."

Zhang Ming thought for a moment, then made a decisive decision: "Immediately start the No. 7 emergency plan."

"receive."

The other seven astronauts have no opinion, and this emergency plan is also prepared for this situation.

They quickly put on the spacesuits of the extravehicle type, and headed to the emergency escape spacecraft of the space station at the same time. Obviously, Zhang Ming had already sensed the problem of the space station, so he didn't dare to be careless.

Come to the emergency escape spaceship.

Correspondent Owen received an order from the headquarters of the Ground Federation.

"Captain, the headquarters asked us to stay there for half a month. After half a month, the headquarters will launch two spaceships and send us a batch of maintenance components."

Zhang Ming frowned: "Have you reported our current situation?"

Owen's face was also very ugly: "I reported it."

"Fack squid! Don't they know that the space station is facing a crisis of losing control and disintegrating?" Robert cursed angrily.

Although Zhang Ming was very angry and disappointed, he still forced himself to calm down: "Owen, in the name of all our members, you send an application to return to Earth again, and explain the crisis of the space station at this time."

"Yes."

Then Zhang Ming said to the others: "Everyone, we have to prepare with both hands. On the one hand, we must find a way to eliminate the danger of the space station, and on the other hand, we must make an emergency evacuation plan."

Everyone also knows that this is something that few of them can do at present.

However, the astronauts such as Zhang Ming didn't know that the satellite fragments splashed everywhere had gone crazy at this time.

Due to the large number of Starlink satellites of the Space Exploration Company, there are currently 3572 orbiting in low-Earth orbit, plus some satellites launched by the Earth Federation Association in recent years.

Moreover, these satellites are still crowded in this orbit at an altitude of 400-750 kilometers.

When a large amount of debris is flying around, and because the solar storm interferes with communication, many satellites responsible for monitoring space junk in low-Earth orbit have a large-scale monitoring blind spot.

The number of satellites colliding with each other soon increased to 37.

These colliding satellites further increase the size of the debris.

As if a chain reaction had been triggered, a large amount of debris was scurrying around in low-Earth orbit.

Homo Sapiens' space division headquarters.

It is very clear what happened in the low-Earth orbit at this time, and even the trajectories of various debris have been monitored.

Faced with this messy low-Earth orbit, Homo sapiens also felt very difficult, and could only give priority to protecting the company's satellites.

This is also one of the reasons why Homo sapiens arranged the space station in the middle orbit.

It is because of the large number of Starlink satellites launched by Musk, once they get out of control, it is easy to trigger a chain reaction.

However, if the large-scale Homo sapiens space station is placed in an orbit of 400 to 500 kilometers, it will feel numb in the face of such dense and chaotic satellite debris.

Homo sapiens is clearing the door for itself.

The Earth Federation Association on the other side finally noticed the problem at this time, but it was too late.

Especially for those Starlink satellites with limited fuel, there is no way to do large-scale maneuvering orbit changes, which leads to a rapid increase in the number of Starlink satellites hit by debris.

And this situation further increases the scale of satellite debris.

A vicious cycle begins.

Three hours later, the helpless Earth Federation Association had to announce the failure of the evasion plan.

During this period, the new International Space Station was attacked by seven pieces of debris of different sizes.

Zhang Ming looked at the bulkhead of the emergency escape spaceship that had been smashed into a small hole by the debris, and his face was extremely dark.

"No! Although the air leak is blocked, one of the attitude control engines of the escape spacecraft has been destroyed, and the escape spacecraft cannot be used." Jin Shangwen floated out of the escape spacecraft.

The other astronauts were worried.

Robert cursed even more: "Fack squid! Those bastards killed us! If they hadn't prevented us from returning to Earth, we would have returned to Earth safely."

Zhang Ming asked, "Owen, hasn't the headquarters of the Earth Federation responded yet?"

Owen shook his head in disappointment: "No, they asked us to wait."

"Wait a fart!" an astronaut yelled directly.

In fact, the Earth Federation Association is also very anxious at this time, not indifferent, but it is useless to be anxious.

After receiving the call for help from the space station, the management of the Earth Federation Association immediately held a meeting to discuss how to solve the problem.

Chapter 525 The Leaky Room Meets the Evening Rain

During the emergency video conference of the Earth Federation Association.

Bill, the head of NASA, looked embarrassed.

The reason for his embarrassment is mainly because of the matter of the Space Exploration Company. The other members of the Earth Federation Association have reminded NASA before to let Bill and Musk communicate well and not increase the size of the Starlink satellites.

However, Musk's backer is not Bill and NASA, but the Pentagon.

In order to ensure comprehensive monitoring of Homo sapiens and maintain a certain space strategic force, the Pentagon is still under pressure to let Space Exploration continue to launch Starlink satellites.

However, what happened today suddenly exposed the vulnerability of Starlink satellites.

Although the cost of mass-produced Starlink satellites is very low, dozens of Starlink satellites can be produced at a time using ordinary Falcon launch vehicles.

The problem is, it's so easy to launch this thing into low Earth orbit, it's a pain to clean up.

More than 3000 Starlink satellites, together with other satellites of Homo sapiens and Earthlink, currently have 5632 satellites in operation in the entire low-Earth orbit.

This number is simply too crowded.

"The Starlink satellite was affected by the solar storm, and now it has created a large piece of space junk, which is scurrying around in low-Earth orbit. The space station is almost scrapped."

Chairman Kester Conde quickly comforted: "Zhang, don't be angry, things have happened, now we should find a way to save the eight astronauts on the space station."

"I propose to adjust the recent launch missions, postpone the plan for the moon base, and then free up two lunar landing spacecraft to bring eight astronauts back to Earth safely."

Bill hesitated for a moment: "This... Zhang, are you too anxious? In fact, the space station can last for a while, so there is no need to be too anxious."

"Bill, I hope you can understand that if we don't act now, I'm afraid there will be even more trouble in the future."

The others whispered.

Alexander, head of Lucia's space department, thought about it and expressed some of his own opinions:

"I agree with Zhang's idea. There is more and more space junk in low-Earth orbit. The more it drags on, the greater the danger of low-Earth orbit. Let's arrange a spaceship to bring people back as soon as possible!"

Although Bill was unwilling, he finally chose to compromise.

If people are not rescued now, not only will the hearts of the astronauts be chilled, but the morale of the free world will plummet, and it will not be conducive to a series of cooperation between the four major forces in the future.

In desperation, Bill could only agree to adjust the launch mission and use the two lunar landing spacecraft for the emergency mission of picking up the astronauts on the space station.

After some discussion, it was decided to launch the first emergency rescue spacecraft 5 days later, and the second emergency rescue spacecraft 12 days later.

With the decision made by the management of the Union Association.

Zhang Ming, Owen, Jin Shangwen, Robert and other astronauts in the new International Space Station also breathed a sigh of relief.

But they were not too happy.

After all, it takes time for the two emergency rescue spacecraft. During this period, they must ensure the safety of the space station and prevent other accidents.

Usually when you say something like this.

No accidents, accidents are about to happen.

In order to ensure nothing goes wrong, the Earth Federation has prepared four launch vehicles and four emergency rescue spacecraft, two of which are used as rescue spacecraft, and the remaining two are used as backup spacecraft.

A blink of an eye.

5 days slipped away.

A Falcon Heavy launch vehicle is ready at the launch site in Florida.

As the commander pressed the launch button, light blue flames spewed out from the nozzle of the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, pushing the launch vehicle towards low-Earth orbit.

Through the live broadcast, Bill, Alexander, Comte and others who watched the launch saw a trace of relief on their faces when they saw that the launch process went very smoothly.

It's just that they were too happy.

Just after the Falcon Heavy dropped its booster and core stage near the Karman line, the spacecraft began an orbital maneuver.

In the beginning, everything went very well.

However, when the spacecraft entered the orbital region at an altitude of 300 kilometers, it started to run into trouble.

The satellite fragments scurrying around made the staff of the ground launch center feel like they were facing a formidable enemy. While monitoring the satellite fragments, they adjusted the flight direction of the spacecraft.

It's just that if people are unlucky, they may be choked to death even drinking water.

After three consecutive large-scale maneuvers and orbit changes, the rescue spacecraft was hit by a fingernail-sized titanium alloy at an altitude of 377 kilometers to hit the fuel tank.

Suddenly, the methane in the fuel tank leaked rapidly.

The spacecraft that lost a lot of fuel began to have insufficient power, and the flight attitude control became more and more difficult.

Then the rescue spacecraft was hit by space junk again, destroying part of the spacecraft module again.

Ground Union's Ground Launch Center.