sinovels Chapter 271 Project Titan
Chapter 271 Project Titan
The day after option C was chosen, a complete map of the solar system appeared on the whiteboard of the aerospace division.
Nine planets: five nodes in the inner solar system are lit up, and four gray targets in the outer solar system. Chen Hao picked up a marker and drew a circle on Saturn's sixth moon, then closed the marker, took two steps back, and stared at the circle for about ten seconds.
"Titan, the sixth node of the web. Fourteen billion kilometers." He turned to face the people in the room. "How do we get there?"
Seven people sat in the aerospace division's conference room. Zuo Cheng stood next to the whiteboard, Yu Ying sat by the window, Shen Yiming held a laptop, Han Lu flipped through a budget sheet in the corner, Fang Ze was drawing something in his laptop, and Liu Wei was drinking coffee. This was the core team's first formal technical meeting since option C was revealed.
Zuo Cheng took the marker from Chen Hao and drew a line next to Jupiter, extending from Jupiter's orbit to form an elliptical arc. "Jupiter's gravitational slingshot."
The Lone Ranger spacecraft is still orbiting Europa, and so is Jupiter's relay satellite. If a propulsion module were launched from Earth to Jupiter's orbit and dock with existing assets, using Jupiter's gravitational slingshot effect to propel the probe towards Saturn, only one new propulsion module would be needed for the entire mission. The journey would be shortened by at least one-third from a purely linear flight, and fuel consumption would also be significantly reduced. The rest of the journey would reuse existing assets.
"Minimum cost, maximum range." Chen Hao stared at the arc for a few seconds. "The propulsion module's design parameters need to be recalculated. What about the gravity slingshot's window?"
"There's a Jupiter-Saturn phase window in three months. If you miss it, you'll have to wait another twelve years." Yu Ying's voice came from the window. In front of her was an open laptop, its screen displaying a hastily drawn orbital mechanics sketch. Several vector triangles already marked the upper and lower limits of the velocity increment. "The current relative positions of Jupiter and Saturn allow for a continuous gravitational slingshot maneuver, using Jupiter for acceleration and Saturn's atmospheric braking for deceleration. No propellant is needed for deep-space braking throughout. If the propulsion module is launched within three months, the Webweavers can reach Titan in eleven months. This means that 6/9 can be achieved before the buffer period expires."
The meeting room fell silent for a second.
"Eleven months." Shen Yiming looked up from behind his laptop. He had been typing, not notes, but code. The screen displayed the architecture diagram of the Lone Wolf AI, with three new layers of annotations added, each with its functional requirements. "If we arrive in eleven months, then we won't need to transport people. The Webweavers can activate the Titan node before the buffer period expires. 6/9."
"Yes. The Titan doesn't need to carry passengers," Zuo Cheng said. "The Pioneer will still go, but the Titan will go first."
He put down his marker and turned to face everyone. "The Web Weaver. The next version of the Lone Wolf."
Shen Yiming spun the laptop halfway around, making sure everyone could see the screen. Three more layers had appeared on the architecture diagram.
The first layer is the consciousness bridge remote interface. Zuo Cheng can directly connect to the Webweaver on Earth via the consciousness bridge. Not to control it, but to sense it. The instant the Webweaver touches the Titan node, Zuo Cheng can feel the temperature of that metal on his side. The delay isn't thirty-three minutes, not three seconds, not 0.1 seconds. It's 0.04 milliseconds. Faster than the transmission from one neuron to the next in the human brain. Faster than his own heartbeat reaching his fingertips.
The second layer involves automatic analysis of origin decoding. Any origin code detected is automatically translated in real time. This eliminates the need for Yinghua to perform cross-decoding in a day, or for the quantum team to run models. The Web Weavers themselves read the markings on the surface of Titan, translating them into Chinese as they read. The translation result, 1.4 billion kilometers away, appears in Zuo Cheng's consciousness 0.04 milliseconds later. It's like seeing light with your eyes and hearing sound with your ears.
The third layer is the Webweaver protocol processor. The last thing a lone wolf can't do. The Webweaver will use the founder's own communication protocol to handshake with the Titan nodes, establishing a web-level data link from Hangzhou to Titan. It's not there as a visitor; it's there as part of the web.
Looking at the three layers of labels on the screen, Yu Ying wrote four words next to Shen Yiming's architecture diagram. Her handwriting was light, but clear: "The Web Weaver and Door Knocker."
Han Lu glanced down at her budget sheet. "Hardware costs for the web weaver."
Fang Ze wrote down the names of three components in his notebook: three NX-40 radiation-resistant chips with a redundant backup architecture; a consciousness bridging interface module, a lightweight modification based on a brain-computer interface; and a web-weaving protocol processor, a dedicated encrypted chip customized by the Quantum team within two months. He tore the paper off and pushed it to the center of the table. "I can do these. The environmental equivalence testing of the NX-40's resistance to Saturn's radiation will take six weeks, the web-weaving protocol processor requires the cooperation of the Quantum team, and the consciousness bridging interface module requires the cooperation of the research institute's brain-computer interface lab. The total cycle is two months. The advancement module will be developed concurrently, without interfering with the main timeline."
Liu Wei leaned back in his chair. "A three-month launch window, two months for hardware preparation. That means three-quarters of your company only have sixty days on this project. Then, if even one screw isn't tightened properly, you miss the window and have to wait twelve years."
No one objected. Liu Wei refilled his coffee. "Okay. I'll handle the logistics."
Zuo Cheng glanced around the room. Chen Hao was recalculating the orbit, his pencil drawing arc after arc on the paper. Shen Yiming was writing the first version of the Web Weaver's instruction set, the screen densely covered with annotations. Fang Ze was drawing the NX-40's packaging structure on the back of a piece of paper, marking the radiation tolerance margin for each trace. Han Lu was flipping through a list of international suppliers while simultaneously calculating launch insurance rates. Liu Wei was drinking coffee, his phone open with two purchasing groups and three logistics platforms. Yu Ying was looking out the window, but her pen was still moving, drawing a line on a draft paper, from Earth to Jupiter, from Jupiter to Saturn, and writing a small plus sign next to the circle on Titan. Next to the plus sign were a few words: The sixth piece of the puzzle.
By the time the meeting ended, it was already dark outside. Shen Yiming sent the design drawings of "The Web Weaver" to the group chat, adding a note in the lower right corner: "The Lone Walker is someone who walks into the darkness. The Web Weaver is someone who walks in with a flashlight, the other end of which is held in Hangzhou."
Zuo Cheng saw the image in his office after midnight. Satellites streaked across the sky outside his window, as bright as ever. He opened the system panel and glanced at it. The system verified the effective range of the consciousness bridge with a line of text: theoretically unlimited, but practically dependent on two conditions: both parties have established contact with the web, and the sender's consciousness is compatible with the creator's encoding. Below that was a green confirmation: the host meets all conditions. Effective range: full web coverage. He added a sentence below Shen Yiming's notes.
It's not a flashlight. It's a hand.
The moment the Web Weaver touches the Titan node, he will feel the temperature of a cold metal piece 1.4 billion kilometers away. Not through cold data, not through blurry images, but through consciousness. He has never experienced that sensation before, but he knows it will come. He places his hand on the table, his fingertips tracing the cold, rough texture of the wooden table, his mind contemplating another metal surface on another orange-yellow planet.
Eleven months later.