Chapter 936 - The Historic First Train
“Every time I look up at this space elevator, it’s difficult for me to restrain my impulse to worship it. Only a miracle can describe this magnificent project. May God bless human beings and may they not lose their course in the sea of stars, Amen.”
Standing at the foot of the space elevator, looking up, the old man with a beard in a priest’s suit reached out and touched the outer shell of the space elevator. He painted a cross with his old fingers, and recited an unknown prayer.
Today marked the first time that the space elevator passenger rail was open to public. Among the seventy people that would arrive at the terminal station, other than thirty trained astronauts, were twenty representatives from Xin as well as twenty invited foreign guests.
The selection of these twenty people was handed over to the United Nations. In addition to the numbers already discussed with Hua, the UA, Russia, the UK and other countries, the other seats were voted on by the special committee set up by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.
The bearded white “Santa Claus” was the former Pope José Rachel, from the Vatican, and was the oldest passenger on the first journey. In order to take care of this elder nearly a hundred years old, Celestial Trade specifically adjusted the acceleration of the space elevator during the acceleration and deceleration phases. It would make the acceleration time slightly longer, but it didn’t have much impact on the entire 36,000-kilometer journey.
The man stopped fixating himself on the elder, took a small wooden box from his pocket and slowly pressed the box in front of his chest. His skin color was very pale, his brown short hair was slightly curled, and there was nostalgia in his pupils.
“In 1895, the Russian scientist Tsiolkovsky was inspired by the structure and shape of the Eiffel Tower to imagine a ‘sky castle’ that revolved around the earth.” Looking up at the space elevator, the man muttered, “Fascinating greatness, the charm of civilization is exactly this. We can always obtain inspiration from our own culture, to imagine unrealistic dreams, and finally turn the dreams into reality.”
“You are?” The black man standing next to him looked at him with surprise.
“A writer,” with a pause, Rudolf Clark looked at the wooden box in his hand with a hint of reminiscence, “Like my grandfather.”
In 1978, his grandfather Arthur Clark took inspiration from Pearson’s description of the American Space Mechanics Research Laboratory and wrote “The Fountain of Heaven”, which depicted the blueprint of the space elevator and influenced many science fiction literatures.
The “carbon nanomaterials” and “ocean-equatorial space station” described in the text predicted the future in a certain sense. The main material used by Celestial Trade to build space elevators was “graphene”, and the end of the space elevator was the space station named “Celestial City”.
“You seem to be surprised?” Rudolf looked at the man.
“Indeed,” the man nodded. “I have seen at least two writers.”
As he said this, he turned his eyes to the side of the space elevator.
There, there was an Asian old man who didn’t seem to mingle well with the group.
“There is a line of words written in Chinese.” Haruki Murakami reached out and slowly moved his fingers across the square of the space elevator. He said to himself, “Who left this?”
“I know that we can solve the next problem, because we have solved all the problems that have existed before… If it is translated into English, it probably means this.” Standing next to the old man, Liu Haotian replied in English. “As for who left it, who else?”
A nostalgic smile appeared on his face.
When he was in Shangjing and Wanghai, he did spend some time with Jiang Chen. But now that his position changed, partly because the Liu family did not want him to waste more years in the previous position. This time, the reason why he could represent the state in this special ceremony was due to the energy and influence of the Liu family.
However, he was somewhat regretful that he didn’t see Jiang Chen on this trip.
Just as they held the first train ceremony here, Jiang Chen accompanied the Xin President to Canberra to attend the UN Outer Space Summit.
“I am Murakami Haruki,” He was surprised at Liu Haotian’s remark. The 60-year-old man extended his hand to him, “I am very glad to meet you.”
Liu Haotian took the hand that the old man had stretched out and shook it gently.
“Liu Haotian, it’s my honor to meet you.”
Of course, not everyone showed a fascinated expression to this space elevator. For example, the expert from ESA with a sneer and commented on the design of the space elevator with the BBC reporter net to him.
“Did they consider the impact of high air flow differences on the structure of the elevator? You should eat some motion sickness medicine, we will be probably be shaking like a noodles once we get to 10,000 meters.”
The ESA expert then mocked.
“Maybe it will break like a noodle.”
Going into space with all the invitees was a Stingray X-1 space plane that hung on the outer cargo track outside the space elevator.
To be precise, its name was Stingray C-1.
According to data released by Celestial Trade, the Stingray X-1 was to be used as a multi-purpose spacecraft with multi-function modules. The transport module was named Stingray C-1 and would carry a small amount of cargo. The Stingray with mining capability was named P-1, and the Stringray with an attack module was named A-1.
However, Celestial Trade did not recognize that it had a production plan for an attacking spacecraft. At least for now, humans have not discovered the existence of other civilizations. That being the case, the purpose of an attack module didn’t exist.
After all, according to the design drawings of the Pan-Asian Cooperation, the weapons used by the Stingray A-1 was a laser cannon. The power attenuation coefficient of laser weapons in the atmosphere also makes it impossible to become an efficient medium to long-range weapon. Moreover, the use of an spacecraft without any aerodynamic design to fight a war in the atmosphere is far less effective than the Aurora-20 with wing design.
“Ch-001 train is ready, please go to the waiting room and board the train…”
A polite and clear voice appeared, with the assistance of Celestial Trade staff, the first seventy passengers boarded a vertical train on a small lift.
Liu Haotian’s ticket was A07-9, which represented the 7th floor 9th seat.
Under the guidance of the crew, he sat in his own fixed seat and fastened the strange-looking seat belt. During the ascending and landing phases, the cabin would enter an overweight and weightless state. During these two phases, passengers were prohibited from leaving their seats. However, when the elevator was at a constant speed, passengers would be able to leave their seat and stand by the window to enjoy the breathtaking view of leaving Earth.
After securing himself in the seat, Liu Haotian took a deep breath and rested his head on the soft cushion to relax his tense body.
Under a uniform traction, the carriage began to move sideways under the traction of the robotic arm and then moved up. Like a bullet being pushed into the squall line, after a short and slight tremor, the carriage entered ascending track No. 1.
“Welcome to the Ch-001 train of Celestial Trade Outer Space Orbital Development. This train runs from the base station to Celestial City, with a distance of 35,860 kilometers. The estimated flight time is 5 hours and 12 minutes, and the maximum speed is 2 kilometers per second…”
“The elevator track has been confirmed to be smooth, and the Ch-001 train has entered the No. 1 track. Please ensure your seat belt has been fastened…”
Immersed in their own thoughts, all the passengers closed their eyes while soothing music began to play.
“The train is departing. I wish you a pleasant trip.”