"In space, we Lucians are invincible! Hurrah!" With such a slogan, the Lucian spacecraft was launched into the air.
Along with it, more than twenty megaton-level nuclear bombs launched by the five major powers of Blue Star.
Because this mission is to intercept the asteroid with nuclear bombs in outer space, the trajectory of the nuclear bombs launched by the five major powers of Blue Star is different from the normal parabolic trajectory; instead of falling after leaving the atmosphere, the warheads are flying toward the direction of the asteroid along with the Lucian spacecraft.
After being blown up by the Federation and pushed a bit by the Flame Country, the asteroid has split into two parts, a large and a small piece, both on adjacent but not identical orbits heading towards Blue Star at the same speed.
The larger piece of the asteroid, under the gravitational pull of the Moon and the propulsion of the thrusters installed by the Flame Country team, has now deviated from its collision course with Blue Star and is expected to graze past, but the smaller piece still follows its original trajectory and will still hit Blue Star.
However, this situation was within the original expectations of various countries. The third part of the rescue operation is for the Lucians to use spacecraft to guide the nuclear bombs to carry out a saturation nuclear strike on the small piece of the asteroid heading towards Blue Star, destroying it in outer space.
The original asteroid was over ten kilometers in diameter, and after the explosion of the nuclear bombs, the larger piece of the split asteroid is about seven kilometers in diameter, while the smaller piece is only a little over four kilometers.
It sounds much smaller, but if it hits Blue Star, the damage it would cause would still be severe. It’s just a matter of changing from global destruction to the destruction of most of Blue Star.
So even though the larger asteroid has been pushed off its collision course, the smaller asteroid cannot be allowed to land on Blue Star.
The best way to resolve it is to intercept it in outer space and use nuclear bombs to blast it into fragments.
As the strongest and most powerful destructive weapon invented by humans, the power of nuclear bombs is undoubtedly strong; however, detonating nuclear bombs in space is quite different from on Blue Star.
The nuclear bombs used on Blue Star, due to the presence of air as a medium, mainly damage through the shockwave produced by the explosion, as well as the continuous secondary damage brought by nuclear radiation.
But in space, due to its vacuum environment lacking a medium, the explosion of a nuclear bomb will not cause a shockwave nor form the iconic mushroom cloud.
As for why the Federation was able to blow off the debris flow on the asteroid’s surface twice before, it was because the debris flow was made of fragments stripped from the asteroid itself, which could serve as a medium to transmit the impact created by the explosion.
As for the radiation, to be honest, the nuclear bombs used by various countries now are already very clean and will not cause a large amount of nuclear radiation, let alone form a Chernobyl-like uninhabitable zone for decades.
Moreover, the radiation generated by the explosion of nuclear bombs is insignificant compared to the various radiations already pervasive in space.
But even so, the energy released by the nuclear material in the warheads during fission reactions can still cause astonishing destructive power, especially since the maximum-yield strategic warheads used by various countries have already reached megaton levels.
More than twenty megaton-level nuclear warheads bombing a block with a diameter of four kilometers is enough to blast it to smithereens.
Because of this reason, most countries on Blue Star started to feel quite relaxed after the astronauts from Flame Country and the Federation completed their missions.
After all, the previous missions of Flame Country and the Federation were highly successful, and the mission of the Lucians was very simple. They believed that the task of saving Blue Star had been mostly successful.
In the eyes of these countries, after Flame Country and the Federation completed their respective tasks, the asteroid crisis was already over. What remained was merely waiting for the displaced piece of the asteroid to pass by Blue Star and using a saturation nuclear strike to completely break apart the piece heading towards Blue Star.
Proclaiming the crisis over now, although somewhat risky, was an understandable move given the severe impacts of the previous global crisis.
In this crisis, countries worldwide suffered massive losses, both economically and livelihood-wise. Some smaller countries were thrown into chaos and collapse, and the entire nations were severely hit.
Especially in Southeast Asia and Latin America, several countries fell into anarchy, causing total disorder, as if the apocalypse had arrived.
Under such circumstances, countries around the world were eager to resolve the crisis as soon as possible, so they could deploy resources and energy into post-crisis rebuilding.
Moreover, for countries still able to perform governmental functions, entering a post-crisis rebuilding phase early and reaping the political benefits of successfully handling an apocalyptic crisis and guiding post-crisis rebuilding was what politicians cared most about.
Thus, it became standard practice to start guiding public emotions and prepare everyone for post-crisis rebuilding, as the damage caused by each day of sustained disorder and emergency was incalculable.
However, for the five Blue Star powers, they had not let down their guard, not only because there was still an asteroid heading towards Blue Star but also because the asteroid that was displaced from the collision course still posed a risk of crashing into Blue Star.
This was not due to any shortcomings in the missions completed by Flame Country and the Federation, but because, at that time, all countries were in a do-or-die situation, and did not strictly calculate the size and trajectory of the asteroid. The thrusters and nuclear bombs were the largest found and could be sent up.
As for how effective those things sent up could be, and to what extent, neither the scientists in charge nor the astronauts working on-site were entirely sure.
Though the tasks have been completed thanks to the efforts and sacrifices of the astronauts from Flame Country and the Federation, the mass of the asteroid actually exceeded expectations, so even though the larger piece of the asteroid has been pushed off the collision course, it remains in a very dangerous position.
As it passes through Blue Star’s trajectory and approaches Blue Star, it could be affected by Blue Star’s gravitational interference; in such scenarios, if the asteroid is influenced by Blue Star’s gravity and falls directly...
No one could bear the consequences.
Therefore, the action team set up by the United Nations is not only maintaining vigilance but has increased the monitoring of the asteroid, conducting round-the-clock calculations of the trajectory of the two asteroids and providing data support to the Lucians. Meanwhile, they could only pray for the asteroid pushed away from the collision course not to hit Blue Star.
Because at this very moment, humanity has no more power to deal with this asteroid.
All the nuclear missiles that could be launched have been sent into space to intercept the small piece of the asteroid about to collide with Blue Star. The aerospace capabilities have also been almost exhausted. Although it’s not that there are no spacecraft that can go to space, there are no shuttles capable of drilling the asteroid and no heavy thrusters capable of propelling it left.