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Chapter 25 - Mining

Hawke began intensive pre-construction preparations.

First, for the large amount of raw ore that might arrive once Earth's mining trip was underway, Hawke spent two months building a brand new titanium and zirconium processing and smelting base next to a methane lake that was determined to be free of black bugs.

Then, Hawk built thousands of small fusion engines with some intelligence and loaded them all into the Hope. After all the preparations were made and the Hope took off smoothly and rushed to the original Earth orbit, the construction of the Aurora began.

The various bases and the smelting facilities had already been built, and there was no need to expand again for the time being, just to maintain the current production rate.

Inside the main base, hundreds of aircraft took off and landed back and forth every day, bringing supplies to the area in an endless stream. Immediately after the planes landed, robots would sort the raw materials they brought into different processing workshops, where they were purified or refined again, and then manufactured into individual parts, which were then transported by robots to the assembly workshop, where they were assembled into large parts and then transported to a large factory for assembly.

Countless robots are like hard-working ants, and the huge Aurora is like an anthill. Under the busy work of these industrious worker ants, the Aurora was gradually revealed.

By this time, Hope had already reached Proto-Earth orbit after a long two-month journey.

After all these years, a belt of asteroids had formed around the Sun in proto-Earth orbit, with a total circumference of over a billion kilometres, a width of about 10,000 kilometres, but a thickness of only about ten kilometres. Hawke knew that it had been formed by the gravitational pull of the Sun. The Earth, as it is now, is the Sun's "ring", like the rings of Saturn and Jupiter. In the future, these things would no longer be called Earth, but rather "solar rings".

After observing the orbit of the present Earth through the Hope, Hawke sighed.

He knew that with the gravitational disturbances of the outer planets, such as Jupiter, Mars and the inner Venus, there would be no new planets in the Earth's orbit. Earth had become a thing of the past.

It is 1.3 billion kilometres from Hawk. There is a delay of about eighty minutes in communication between here and Titan. So Hawke gave most of Hope's operations to a pre-programmed program, and only monitored Hope's situation at all times.

A steady stream of data was transmitted to the high-powered communications satellite pre-positioned at the Sun-Jupiter's Lagrangian point, which in turn transmitted the signal to the satellite at the Sun-Saturn's Lagrangian point, which in turn transmitted the signal to the orbiting satellites around Saturn, which in turn transmitted the signal to the orbiting satellites around Titan, and so on, before the signal before it reaches Hawk's mind. If Hawke wanted to send a command, he would have to follow the same process, but in the opposite order.

With this data, Hawke could tell where Hope was going.

The Hope had been surveying below this "ring" in the original Earth orbit. It is equipped with an extremely sensitive titanium and zirconium probe. Whenever it found a meteorite rich in titanium and zirconium that was within an acceptable size, Hope would act on it.

"Hmm? Hope has found a meteorite that fits the bill?" Hawke's heart rejoiced and he immediately waited for the next signal to be transmitted.

The meteorite, which was close to square in shape, was about ten meters in length and width, and about one thousand cubic meters in volume, was mainly composed of thirty percent rock and sixty-nine percent ilmenite, with the rest being some impurities, and its mass was up to about five thousand tons, heavier than the entire Hope.

According to estimates, with just this one meteorite, Hawke could smelt nearly a thousand tonnes of titanium out.

"It's already worth getting started." Hawke thought to himself, "According to the pre-programmed procedure, the next step is for the Hope to tow it below the solar ring for a quiet processing environment."

The signal had been racing through space for over an hour when Hawke picked it up, which meant that it had happened over an hour ago.

Vaguely, Hawke was surprisingly a little nervous in his mind.

Practice, was the best way to test the accuracy of a program. Although Hawke had tested the program hundreds of thousands of times before the launch of the Hope, the test was still just a test, whether the program worked correctly or not depended on how it performed in practice.

As the signals continued to come in, Hawke saw the Hope approach the meteor first carefully, and only when the distance was reduced to thirty metres did it fire a mechanical claw that held it firmly in place before the engines started up and dragged the meteor away from the solar rings.

Everything, as Hawke had expected, was as it should be.

Relieved that his pre-programmed procedure had stood the test of practice, Hawke continued to watch for Hope's next move.

The Hope slowly brought the meteor closer and the 3D scanner scanned it, measuring the centre of gravity, density and other information to find the best place to mount the engine.

That's right, the thousands of small fusion engines Hawk had built earlier would do just that.

Hawke's plan was to find a suitable meteorite, install engines on it, and let it fly to Titan on its own, powered by the fusion engines. After all, Hope's transport capacity is limited due to its tonnage, and if Hope were to make the trip back and forth alone, Hawke would not be able to obtain enough material in a hundred years.

Small fusion engines are extremely limited in the amount of power they can provide, and relatively limited in the amount of acceleration they can provide to a meteorite. This means that a meteorite would take about a year to reach Titan, thanks to the gravitational acceleration of Saturn, Jupiter and other stars on the way.

But even so, it would be much more economical to use this method than to send the Hope on a trip. After all, at Hope's speed, a round trip would take four months, and even if the ship were to be towed, it would only be able to transport a maximum of 100,000 tons of meteorites in one trip, no more. Such efficiency is really low.

After bringing the meteorite close enough, the Hope opened its hatch and several robots installed a small fusion engine on top of the meteorite, secured it, and then returned to the Hope to start looking for the next moment of value.

About thirty minutes after the Hope left, the small fusion engine, mounted on the sunward side, suddenly shot out a pale blue flame, propelling the meteorite forward.

During the year-long flight, high-powered communication satellites scattered throughout space would serve as its navigator, ensuring that it reached Titan safely and accurately.

Hawke was relieved to see that everything was going well, and was confident in the mining plan.

Three days later, Hope searched for another eligible meteorite. This meteorite was much more massive than the previous one, with a volume of about 30,000 cubic metres and a mass of over 100,000 tonnes. Yet it also contains a staggering eighty percent ilmenite.

According to the calculations, in this meteorite, Hawke could obtain up to 30,000 tons of titanium ore.

In Hawke's setup, Hope did not have the decision-making power to decide on its own whether to collect such a large meteorite. Once it had sent the information to Hawke, it began tracking the meteorite and waiting to hear back from Hawke.

Hawke thought about it for a while and decided to harvest it anyway. After all, over 30,000 tonnes of titanium ore was not a small amount. It was just that the transport plan would have to be modified a little.

Hawke quickly made an improved transport plan and sent it along to the Hope.

After receiving the signal, Hope followed the program and towed it away from the zodiacal plane, then installed a full fifteen fusion engines on it before leaving to continue exploring the next meteorite.

In half a year, Hope had collected nearly three hundred meteorites of varying sizes and masses, the largest reaching 300,000 tons and the smallest weighing 2,000 tons. According to Hawk's estimation, these three hundred meteorites could provide him with three million tons of titanium ore and one million tons of zirconium ore, enough to support the first phase of Starfleet construction.

After completing all this, installing the fusion engines on each of the three hundred meteorites and sending them on their way, Hawke gave the order for the Hope to return to its destination.

Hope was several times faster than the meteors, but even so, it was expected to take another two months for Hope to return to Titan, and then, in another four months or so, the first meteor would reach Saturn's orbit. After all, a year is a lot of variables, and it's hard to be sure that the meteors will hit their targets accurately.

Besides, Hawke didn't want to lose mass due to friction with the atmosphere as it entered. That would be too costly. But Hawke had made a foolproof pick-up plan to ensure that the meteors would reach the processing plant he had prepared for them safely and with minimal damage.

Half a year had passed and the construction of the Aurora was in its final stages, with all the post-processing now underway, and soon the Aurora would be free to leave Titan and soar through space.

Everything, everything is going according to Hawke's plan.