Chapter 29: Space Elevator

Words : 1613 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

In Xiao Yu’s plan, the “County-Class” spaceship would weigh at least 100,000 tons and be a minimum of 500 meters in length. After assessing his material reserves, Xiao Yu decided to construct a 300,000-ton “County-Class” spaceship as his flagship. The remaining two ships could be slightly smaller, at 200,000 tons each. Such large spaceships could no longer be built on the ground. The reason was simple: their sheer size and mass. Once constructed, with Xiao Yu’s current technological level, it would be impossible for them to take off from the surface. Forcing a ground launch would likely cause significant structural damage to the ship. If structural damage alone was considered acceptable, then for a 1,000,000-ton “City-Class” spaceship or a 10,000,000-ton “Province-Class” spaceship, being within the Roche limit of a large celestial body after construction would be completely unfeasible. Such a ship would be torn apart by gravitational forces. Although Xiao Yu’s spaceships were made of the most durable and resilient materials, they were hollow structures. Apart from the outer shell, most of the interior consisted of empty space, making the spaceship’s overall density even lower than that of water. The Roche limit refers to the minimum distance at which a rigid or fluid body can orbit a massive celestial body without being torn apart by tidal forces. Taking Earth as an example, with Xiao Yu’s current level of technology, a 10,000,000-ton “Province-Class” spaceship within 20,000 kilometers of Earth would be torn to pieces by the planet’s gravitational imbalance acting on different parts of the ship. Previously launched human satellites avoided such destruction because they were small in size and built with strong materials. In science fiction movies, enormous alien spaceships often rise and descend vertically above Earth with ease. It’s certain that such civilizations have mastered anti-gravity technology. Without such advancements, given their ship sizes, achieving this would be impossible. With Xiao Yu’s current technology, he was still some distance away from mastering anti-gravity technology. Although the “County-Class” spaceship couldn’t be built on the ground, Xiao Yu had already found a solution: constructing a dock in a geostationary orbit 2,000 kilometers above Titan, where the “County-Class” spaceships could be assembled. However, this raised the issue of material transportation. Currently, only two spaceships—the Hope and the Dawn—were capable of shuttling through space. Relative to the tens of thousands of tons of materials required to build a “County-Class” spaceship, the transport capacity of these two ships was insufficient. This was where the pre-established Materials Science Research Institute proved its worth. During this time, Xiao Yu had developed a new type of nano-polymer material whose strength exceeded that of steel by more than a hundredfold. Xiao Yu named this material “Life Rope” and planned to use it to build a space elevator. He deployed a massive fleet of robotic units to dig a pit several hundred meters deep along Titan’s equator. Into this pit, he buried a metal block weighing at least several thousand tons. Then, he piloted the Hope to hover 2,000 kilometers above this pit. Next, a milky-white rope-like material extended downward from the bottom of the Hope. This was the pinnacle of Xiao Yu’s materials technology—the Life Rope. A Life Rope with a radius of just one millimeter could withstand up to ten tons of tensile force, showcasing its remarkable durability. The Life Rope extending from the Hope’s underside had a radius of two centimeters. According to calculations, this rope could bear nearly 4,000 tons of tensile force. One end of the Life Rope was equipped with a small nuclear fusion engine. When activated, the engine would pull the rope downward toward Titan. After extending 10 kilometers, the rope reached its full length. The other end of the Life Rope was also equipped with a small nuclear fusion engine. These two engines fixed the 10-kilometer-long rope in place, allowing it to rotate slowly with Titan’s rotation. The Hope then returned to retrieve another segment of Life Rope. After returning to its original position, the new segment was connected to the previous one. Under the propulsion of the nuclear fusion engines, the Life Rope continued to extend downward. After more than 200 round trips, one end of the Life Rope was secured in the pre-dug pit on Titan and anchored to the large metal block, which Xiao Yu buried with robotic assistance. The other end, in space, was fixed to another large metal block by the Hope. Thus, a simple space elevator was completed. The principle of this space elevator is simple: when an object’s velocity exceeds the second cosmic velocity of a celestial body, it will escape the celestial body’s gravitational pull and never return. The space-end of the space elevator is already moving faster than Titan’s second cosmic velocity, but it is anchored by the Life Rope. Naturally, this creates an upward pulling force that keeps the Life Rope taut. Furthermore, as Titan rotates, it continuously accelerates the massive metal block at the space-end of the Life Rope, maintaining its velocity above escape velocity so that it will never fall. Most intriguingly, due to centrifugal force, the space-end of the Life Rope generates a force akin to gravity. This eliminates the inconvenience of weightlessness during the construction of ship hulls, significantly facilitating the building process. To simplify, the principle of the space elevator is like someone vigorously swinging a chain with an iron ball at its tip. The iron ball wants to fly away but is held in place by the chain, pulling it taut instead. With this setup, Xiao Yu can use the Life Rope, which will never fall, to continuously transport materials into space. He might even install a pulley system to send materials into space directly from the ground once the space elevator is fully completed. For now, however, the space elevator is just a prototype. Over the next few months, Xiao Yu undertook extensive work on the space elevator, reinforcing and thickening the Life Rope to a diameter of one decimeter. He also equipped it with numerous devices and stationed a large number of robots at the space-end of the elevator to begin the construction of the dock. Building this space elevator took Xiao Yu six months. While constructing the first elevator, he simultaneously began work on two additional space elevators. By the time the first was completed, the other two were nearing the final stages of construction. Altogether, the three space elevators provided Xiao Yu with powerful material transportation capabilities. From the surface, countless tons of specialized steel, advanced materials, pre-assembled components, and various types of robots were transported into space for the construction of the docks. At the same time, construction on the ground was proceeding at full speed. In addition to the original base, Xiao Yu began building three new bases. These ground bases focused entirely on constructing “Village-Class” and “Town-Class” spaceships, while the three space docks in orbit concentrated on building “County-Class” spaceships. Materials flowed out like water, and in return, three large docks capable of constructing 300,000-ton spaceships were completed. On the ground, hundreds of “Village-Class” spaceships and dozens of “Town-Class” spaceships were neatly arranged, the smallest of which were as large as the Hope. While building the “County-Class” spaceships, Xiao Yu dispatched hundreds of “Village-Class” spaceships to Saturn to gather resources. After leaving the solar system, Xiao Yu would no longer have access to even a single piece of scrap metal for replenishment. Amid this shipbuilding frenzy, the development of a new generation of photon computers also began. During this time, Xiao Yu achieved breakthroughs in the architecture, computation models, and instruction sets of photon computers. The new computer, once completed, was expected to increase Xiao Yu’s computational power by fivefold. With this, he would be able to control a fleet of over a thousand spaceships while simultaneously compiling the Chronicles of Heroes Across the Cosmos and conducting various scientific research. The new photon computer would be installed on the flagship as the fleet’s central brain. The older photon computer would be installed on another “County-Class” spaceship to handle auxiliary computational tasks that did not require Xiao Yu’s direct intervention. At this stage, Xiao Yu abandoned sustainable development. He bombarded every methane lake on Titan inhabited by Black Bugs, using either nuclear strikes or conventional high-explosive munitions depending on the lake’s size. Apart from reserving some Black Bugs for artificial farming, he exterminated every other Black Bug he could find, collecting their bodies to build spaceships or store for future use. Titan suffered greatly under Xiao Yu’s activities. Over these years, sporadic explosions and mushroom clouds frequently erupted across the moon’s surface, turning it completely upside down. This was Xiao Yu’s final rampage before departure. Since he would never return, he decided to leave his mark here. Such were Xiao Yu’s thoughts. Three years passed in the blink of an eye. The construction of the three “County-Class” spaceships was completed. Additionally, 1,000 “Village-Class” and 70 “Town-Class” spaceships were finished. The long-awaited interstellar voyage was about to begin. [T/N: Here is a note from the Author that I think is pretty relevant.] Note 1: Titan is tidally locked by Saturn’s gravity and rotates slowly. For the space elevator described, the Life Rope would need to be at least 20,000 kilometers long. However, given the protagonist’s current construction capabilities, this has been adjusted to 2,000 kilometers for narrative convenience. Additionally, there are likely many scientific inaccuracies in the story; readers are advised to enjoy it as entertainment and not take it too seriously. Those with expertise in related fields, please avoid scrutinizing the details.

Chapter 29: Space Elevator

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