Chapter 100 99: Celestial River
Within the entire Solar System, the Sun alone accounts for 99.86% of the system's total mass. Of the remaining 0.14%, Jupiter alone comprises about 71%.
The remaining 29% of the mass makes up the other seven major planets, as well as numerous dwarf planets, a near-infinite number of asteroids, comets, interstellar dust, and all other celestial bodies.
Jupiter possesses a vast satellite system. Four of its moons are large enough to have achieved hydrostatic equilibrium, pulling them into a spherical shape.
The largest of these moons, Ganymede, is even larger by volume than the planet Mercury. Of course, its mass can't compare, at only half that of Mercury.
In addition to its four large moons, it also has over seventy smaller moons and a magnificent Jupiter Ring.
The Jupiter Ring is similar to the Solar System's Asteroid Belt, composed of countless pieces of debris of all sizes.
The Jupiter Ring is highly fragmented. The largest objects within it are only about a hundred meters in diameter, and its overall thickness ranges from just ten to several dozen kilometers.
But this presented an advantage: Li Qingsong could conveniently harvest minerals from the Jupiter Ring.
If the elemental composition of a small celestial body met his needs, he could simply pull it away to be crushed and smelted. This completely eliminated the need to mine on a planet, a process that required digging downward, sometimes for thousands of meters.
Besides the Jupiter Ring, the four large moons and over seventy smaller moons also held rich mineral deposits. Most importantly, three of the four large moons contained vast reserves of water.
Ganymede alone held more water than all of Earth. Coincidentally, Li Qingsong's large-scale development required vast quantities of water.
On Ceres and Enemy God Star, Li Qingsong had often been plagued by a lack of water resources.
Furthermore, Jupiter is located right on the dividing line between the Solar System's rocky planets and gas giants.
From here, the Asteroid Belt lies inward, holding even more celestial bodies like dwarf planets and asteroids. Farther inward are Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury, while Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune lie outward.
Whatever resources he needed were fairly easy to obtain. No matter the destination, the distance was never too great.
This could be considered a "central" hub for the Solar System.
After a comprehensive comparison of the data on each planet, Li Qingsong finally decided to establish his main development base in the Jupiter System—more specifically, on Ganymede.
After entering the inner Solar System, Li Qingsong's fleet continued its journey. Only after crossing the orbits of Uranus and Saturn, a few hundred million kilometers from Jupiter, did the massive fleet slowly turn. The engines ignited, and the ships began a braking burn to gradually reduce their velocity.
However, one Space-Air Carrier did not decelerate. Instead, it adjusted its trajectory, broke away from the main fleet, and began to head deeper into the Solar System.
After more than three months of deceleration, Li Qingsong's main fleet arrived at Ganymede, its velocity reduced to approximately 2.5 kilometers per second.
And so, forty-nine Space-Air Carriers and dozens of heavy transport ships entered into orbit around Ganymede, beginning their slow revolution around the moon.
A wondrous sight now unfolded before Li Qingsong.
The distant Sun was no longer just a point of light but had resolved into a discernible disc.
But it was still tiny, only about the size of a marble.
Though small, it was incredibly bright—almost blinding to the naked eye.
Its brilliance was enough to illuminate the vastness of Deep Space. In its light, one could even read the fine print in a book, and it easily cast shadows from any object.
All in all, the brightness was comparable to dusk on Earth.
Bathed in the light of this brilliant Sun was a planet so enormous it occupied a vast portion of the sky—a giant sphere with distinct yellow and white stripes.
It resembled the eye of some cosmic demon, silently watching Li Qingsong's fleet and exuding an immense, oppressive presence.
Farther still was a curved band of light, as brilliant and splendid as a rainbow.
It stretched out from behind Jupiter like a celestial river, arching high into the heavens before falling from a great distance to disappear behind the planet's other side.
This was the Jupiter Ring.
Beside the majestic, river-like Jupiter Ring were many other bright points of light.
Those were Jupiter's other moons.
Tearing his gaze from the heavens and looking down, Li Qingsong saw an enormous planet with a pale white hue. Its surface was crisscrossed with numerous grayish-white streaks.
This was it—Ganymede, the final destination of his journey of over ten billion kilometers.
It appeared pale white because large parts of its surface were covered in water ice, just as Earth appears azure because it is mostly covered by oceans.
The pale streaks were massive cracks in the ice.
This enormous world, so rich in water and other resources, now lay before Li Qingsong like a succulent feast waiting to be devoured.
Li Qingsong was in no hurry to begin a large-scale landing.
He kept the massive fleet in orbit and dispatched numerous satellites to survey the planet's topography, environment, and resource reserves from every angle. He also sent down small landing craft for preliminary on-site reconnaissance.
The previous reconnaissance had been cursory, after all. A comprehensive survey was necessary now.
In addition to Ganymede, Li Qingsong dispatched numerous satellites and Scientific Research Vessels to the other moons to begin detailed observations of every satellite in the Jupiter System, as well as Jupiter itself.
Amidst these activities, the first batch of Clones finally landed on Ganymede.
Gazing out at the desolate landscape and sensing the extremely thin atmosphere, the Clones busily began their on-site survey mission.
While they were busy with preliminary survey work in the Jupiter System, the lone Space-Air Carrier that had separated from the main fleet finally reached its destination after several months of travel.
It had now entered orbit, circling the enormous azure planet at a speed of roughly ten kilometers per second.
At this point, Li Qingsong temporarily halted the preliminary work in the Jupiter System. At the speed of light, he transferred his consciousness from a Clone there to one currently in orbit around the enormous azure planet.
The consciousness transfer took over forty minutes to complete.
The next moment, Li Qingsong opened his eyes and saw it for himself—the planet where he had been born, where he had grown up, where he had lived for decades.
Earth.