CHAPTER 144: A SIMPLE WATER

Tom knew that even if this heavy spacecraft possessed such high kinetic energy, it would not be able to destroy this asteroid.

The mass difference between the two was simply too great.

But... it could knock the asteroid off course! Preventing it from hitting Venus!

Although simple, this method was extremely effective.

It was like an out-of-control, unstoppable heavy-duty truck on an Earth highway; since it couldn’t be stopped, why not use another vehicle to hit it? That way, it wouldn’t hit anything people didn’t want it to hit.

At this moment, such a space-version of a "marble game" was truly playing out next to Venus.

The heavy spacecraft, weighing tens of billions of tons, violently crashed into the asteroid. In that instant, intense light was released from the impact point, bright as the sun.

Countless shattered rocks were released from the impact point, sweeping across the surrounding starfield like a meteor shower. Many of them directly slammed toward Venus.

But they were too small, and Venus’s atmosphere was thick enough.

Its density was more than ninety times that of Earth’s atmosphere!

Even Earth’s atmosphere can directly burn up many small asteroids, let alone Venus’s atmosphere.

Under violent friction, these small fragments were burned up completely by Venus’s atmosphere before they could reach the surface of Venus or release any impact power.

The asteroid itself had its orbit directly knocked off course at this moment, grazing past Venus, and then hurtling toward the sun without looking back.

It is estimated that after some time, it will collide with the sun and merge with it forever.

This crisis for the Bluetoth was thus resolved.

Tom’s expression grew increasingly grim.

He knew that this method was useless.

Even if he pushed ten or a hundred more asteroids, it would be of no use.

Because Tom saw that in Venus’s orbit, the Bluetoth had prepared at least a hundred of these super-heavy spacecraft.

They orbited Venus at a speed of approximately 10 kilometers per second, and when needed, they only required a slight acceleration, taking very little time at all.

Placing them in orbit, allowing them to orbit Venus, was itself equivalent to pre-storing a large amount of kinetic energy for them.

Tom’s plan to destroy the Venusian environment by asteroid impact completely failed.

But Tom knew that his overall approach was not wrong.

The Venusian environment must be further deteriorated, to a point where even the Bluetoth cannot tolerate it, only then can he win this war.

To worsen the Venusian environment, the only way is to project objects from outside to affect it.

The current failure was merely due to choosing the wrong projectile.

So... what should be chosen as the projectile?

This new projectile must first have the effect of severely deteriorating the Venusian environment, and second, it must be impossible to intercept.

Anything that can be intercepted will surely be intercepted by the Bluetoth.

What kind of projectile is impossible to intercept?

Tom’s hundreds of millions of brains began to operate frantically in unison.

An uninterceptable projectile seemed to simply not exist. After all, there’s no reason why he could accelerate it, but the Bluetoth couldn’t intercept it; how could such a strange substance exist in the universe?

But Tom actually thought of it.

There is a substance that, when projected onto Venus, can both severely worsen the Venusian environment and be impossible for the Bluetoth to intercept!

This substance is very ordinary, very common.

Water!

First, water cannot be intercepted.

Because Venus is close enough to the sun. The sun’s energy will heat the water. And there is no atmospheric pressure in space, so water will exist in molecular form.

Once in molecular form, a considerable portion will have their chemical bonds directly broken by solar radiation, decomposing again into oxygen atoms and hydrogen atoms.

But it doesn’t matter, this is only a small part. Most of the water will still exist in molecular form.

It is essentially a molecular cloud, a molecular cloud existing like interstellar dust.

Just a molecular cloud, almost negligible as having no physical substance, how could the Bluetoth intercept it?

Second, after a series of complex chemical changes within Venus’s atmosphere, the addition of water is completely sufficient to make its environment even worse, even ten or a hundred times worse than before!

Inside the supercomputing base, Tom immediately built a model and began to simulate calculations to determine how much water would be needed to cause the desired changes in Venus’s atmosphere.

After some calculations, a startling result appeared before Tom.

8 trillion tons!

Accounting for various potential losses along the way, he would need to project approximately 10 trillion tons of water toward Venus to achieve the desired changes in Venus’s atmosphere!

The entire Earth’s atmosphere, all its water, amounts to only about 12.9 trillion tons.

Approximately 12.9 trillion tons of water have created winds, rain, thunder, and lightning, and countless rushing rivers on Earth. And now, he needs to pour almost the equivalent of the entire water content of Earth’s atmosphere into Venus.

Where would he find so much water?

Jupiter’s moons, Ganymede, Europa, Callisto, and Saturn’s moons, Enceladus, and Titan, all contain extremely large amounts of water, with a total water content even exceeding that of Earth.

But they are too far away.

The long journey and massive losses are not the only issues; for water existing in molecular cloud form, the sun’s radiation pressure is also a problem that must be considered.

The sun’s radiation pressure would "blow" them away, potentially causing them to dissipate into the vast expanse of space before reaching Venus.

A sufficiently close water source must be found.

Which planet is close enough to Venus and has enough water for him to use?

Earth.

Only Earth.

Earth is the closest planet to Venus. And Earth has abundant water.

Over 70% of Earth’s surface is covered by oceans. The deepest parts of the ocean even exceed 11 kilometers!

The total water content of Earth’s four major oceans is approximately 1.33 quintillion tons, undoubtedly far exceeding the 10 trillion tons he needs.

But no matter what method he uses to extract these approximately 10 trillion tons of water from the surface into space and then project them toward Venus, it would mean an extremely, extremely, extremely massive engineering undertaking.

And this would very obviously cause severe impacts on Earth.

Setting aside how he would extract so much water and project it toward Venus, even if he could actually do it, should he really do it?

Earth is his homeland.

Earth nurtured me, nurtured our Human Civilization. My compatriots have spent long eons on Earth, and even I have countless beautiful memories on Earth.

It is not just home; it is also my spiritual anchor.

Even with the war against the Bluetoth Civilization being so cruel, so intense, and the pressure so immense, he has always carefully protected Earth, trying his best to keep it from being affected.

Aside from building supercomputing bases and necessary supporting facilities on the surface, he has not conducted any industrial development on Earth.

And... such a massive project could very likely cause the entire ecosystem of Earth to collapse.

Would he... personally destroy Earth’s ecosystem?

Tom silently pondered for a few seconds, then resolutely made up his mind.

"If I lose the war, the Bluetoth will care even less about Earth’s ecological environment.

They came to the solar system purely for exploitative mining; they will only make the solar system, and Earth, even worse!

It’s better for me to personally destroy Earth’s ecology than for it to be destroyed by the Bluetoth! Besides, if I win, I might not be unable to restore Earth’s ecology!

If Earth’s ecology is destroyed, it can be rebuilt. If I’m gone, Earth will be completely finished!

Then, let’s do it!"