Chapter 2

This was Xiao Yu's plan. However, there was a significant flaw in this plan, which was the fuel consumption issue before reaching Titan.

With the current technology on Earth, spacecraft are launched using rockets to achieve the second cosmic velocity, breaking free from Earth's gravitational field. After that, the spacecraft mainly relies on inertia for flight, and the carried fuel is only used for minor orbital adjustments and necessary acceleration or deceleration. Of course, Xiao Yu's spacecraft was not like this.

Xiao Yu's spacecraft was assembled in a geostationary orbit and then used its own fuel to break free from Earth's gravitational field, starting its journey into outer space. Although he had initially stored as much fuel as possible and optimized fuel efficiency to the maximum extent, breaking free from Earth's gravitational field alone had already consumed 35% of the total fuel. After several accelerations, the fuel Xiao Yu carried was now only 60% of the maximum.

Maintaining a long-term hiding behind Mars also required a significant amount of fuel. Moreover, deceleration was needed when reaching Mars' orbit, acceleration when leaving Mars' gravitational field, and deceleration again when reaching Titan. All these required a considerable amount of fuel.

Originally, Xiao Yu's plan was to fly directly to Europa. Europa is the most likely place in the solar system, besides Earth, to have liquid water. With liquid water, using the local special environment and some special technical means, Xiao Yu could collect liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as fuel, then focus on researching nuclear fusion technology. Once he mastered the nuclear fusion engine technology and collected enough fusion fuel from Jupiter, Xiao Yu would leave the solar system and fly into outer space. However, the good plan was ruined by the moon colliding with Jupiter.

With no choice, Xiao Yu adjusted the engine's thrust direction, changed the orbit, and headed towards Mars.

Ten days had already passed. During this time, the moon had already crossed Mars' orbit, like a rampaging giant beast, rushing towards Jupiter. Xiao Yu's camera was closely monitoring the moon.

Twenty days passed in a flash. The red Mars appeared as scheduled in Xiao Yu's field of view.

After deceleration, Xiao Yu's spacecraft had slowed down to 4 kilometers per second. This deceleration alone consumed at least 5% of the fuel, making Xiao Yu wince in pain.

However, this consumption was necessary. Without deceleration, the spacecraft would have passed by Mars. Only at a speed of about 4 kilometers per second would it be captured by Mars and enter its orbit.

At an altitude of 3,000 kilometers above Mars, Xiao Yu successfully entered the orbit around Mars, slowly circling the planet, waiting for the moment of the great impact.

This altitude was the optimal height calculated by Xiao Yu. At this height, the spacecraft could be completely hidden behind Mars to avoid the energy from the impact, and the energy consumption for escaping Mars' gravitational field could be minimized.

Xiao Yu's spacecraft was now making a nearly circular orbit around Mars with Mars as the center. At Xiao Yu's current speed, it took less than two hours to complete one orbit around Mars.

Before the moon collided with Jupiter, meteorites from Earth had already started to hit Mars. Recently, the frequency and mass of meteorite impacts on Mars had significantly increased. Seeing the occasional flashes of explosions on Mars, Xiao Yu began to feel an inexplicable worry.

The meteorites from Earth clearly showed signs of life. For example, a meteorite 300 meters long and 50 meters wide had a reflectivity of 0.7, indicating a very smooth and bright surface. Xiao Yu speculated that this meteorite was mainly composed of steel.

Xiao Yu was extremely envious and wanted to collect this piece of steel. After all, a large amount of material would be needed to modify the spacecraft in the future. However, reality clearly disappointed Xiao Yu. Not to mention a meteorite of such a large size, even a small pebble was beyond his ability to collect. At such high speeds, a small pebble meteorite was equivalent to a grenade, and Xiao Yu could no longer withstand such unexpected impacts.

This was the largest meteorite during this period. The Tunguska explosion on Earth was estimated to be caused by a meteorite about 30 meters in diameter, which disintegrated in the atmosphere, releasing energy equivalent to over a thousand Hiroshima atomic bombs. The current steel meteorite was several dozen times larger in mass and volume.

Fortunately, when the impact occurred, Xiao Yu's spacecraft was on the opposite side of Mars. Even so, through an optical telescope, Xiao Yu observed the significant impact on Mars.

The massive shock wave increased Mars' eccentricity by 0.2 percentage points. On the opposite side of the impact point, a mountain over 10,000 meters high suddenly rose. At the same time, countless dormant volcanoes on Mars began to erupt, and thick smoke almost covered the entire Martian surface. The permanent ice layers at the poles melted, and unprecedented rain fell on Mars. Several intense earthquakes almost changed the entire face of Mars.

Xiao Yu more deeply understood the saying: "The entire solar system is a delicate structure, where one change affects the whole."

The explosion on Earth was not just an Earth event. The explosion on Earth was bound to affect the entire solar system, and the impact was enormous and significant.

Seeing all this, Xiao Yu felt a strange sense of sorrow, a feeling of "when the rabbit dies, the fox mourns": "If there were any life on Mars, it would be wiped out now."

Apart from skillfully dodging a few fragments ejected from Mars during the impact, the impact on Mars did not significantly affect Xiao Yu. If anything, it made Xiao Yu's estimation of the impact of the moon colliding with Jupiter rise to a new level.

Thinking about it, Xiao Yu began to secretly look forward to the impact: "An impact of this magnitude, if not in the entire Milky Way, at least in the third arm, is rare. I can actually witness such a grand event; my life would not be in vain."

Twenty days had already passed. There were ten days left until the estimated impact time.

Xiao Yu had already started to slowly reduce his speed. To avoid being pulled into Mars by its gravity, Xiao Yu had to increase the engine's thrust towards Mars. Finally, one day before the impact, Xiao Yu fixed the spacecraft behind Mars.

Xiao Yu, the center of mass of Mars, and the center of mass of Jupiter were roughly in a straight line. This allowed him to avoid the influence of Jupiter to the maximum extent.

Out of curiosity, Xiao Yu was unwilling to miss the opportunity to witness a grand impact. Therefore, he placed a small satellite in orbit around Mars in advance. This way, even if Xiao Yu was hiding behind Mars, he could still see some of the impact through the satellite's transmission.

At the current orbit, Mars was about 500 million kilometers away from Jupiter. This meant that the impact scene and its effects would take about half an hour to reach here.

Based on the data from the last observation, Xiao Yu began to count down silently.

In fact, the impact should have already occurred. However, the impact scene had not yet traveled the 500 million kilometers. Imagining the grand and shocking scene, Xiao Yu was full of anticipation.

"Ten, nine, eight... two, one!"

Everything happened as expected.

Xiao Yu saw a shocking scene.

The ecliptic plane was almost completely covered by the debris from the Earth's explosion. Therefore, the solar system was dark.

However, in the pitch-black darkness, a huge light source suddenly appeared in the vast, boundless sky, with a light intensity almost ten times greater than the sun! This massive light source instantly illuminated the entire solar system.

This scene only lasted for a moment, and then the signal was interrupted. Xiao Yu knew that the small satellite had been melted by the powerful radiation from Jupiter.

Before Xiao Yu could recover from the shock, he felt the massive impact of the moon colliding with Jupiter.

The powerful light source, heat source, and high-energy radiation completely disrupted Mars.

The impact of the steel meteorite from Earth had already covered the entire Martian atmosphere with countless dust particles, plunging Mars into darkness. The powerful energy from Jupiter heated the already chaotic Martian atmosphere, causing an imbalance in air pressure and instantly triggering super hurricanes. The wind was so strong that it almost blew some debris into Mars' synchronous orbit.

At the same time, the surface of Mars facing Jupiter began to melt, with rocks and sand turning into dark red flows, ravaging the Martian surface.

Faced with this overwhelming force, Xiao Yu did not dare to move, hiding behind Mars and silently observing everything.

Xiao Yu began to be grateful for his correct decision. If he had not found Mars as a shield, he would probably have become a pool of molten iron.

The high-energy radiation did not stop, sweeping past Mars' orbit and continuing to race towards Earth's orbit at the speed of light.

At the current Earth's orbit, a large group of comets were gathering. Under the influence of the sun's light pressure, heat, and high-energy particles, they all had long tails. However, the powerful energy from Jupiter arrived. The countless comet tails were instantly blown away, and the sun, which had momentarily brightened, was then temporarily overshadowed by Jupiter's energy, causing the comet tails to point towards the sun.

By the intensity of the light reflected by the comets from Jupiter, Xiao Yu estimated the approximate brightness of Jupiter at that moment.

At this moment, Jupiter's absolute magnitude was more than ten times greater than the sun's! In other words, if Jupiter and the sun were placed at the same distance, Jupiter's brightness would be more than ten times greater than the sun's!

What a magnificent force!