Lin Xiao pondered about this matter for a while, and then said to Han Ya, "Have there been any major incidents in aerospace recently?" ”

"Aerospace things? I don't really know, but I can ask. http:///" Han Ya shook her head when she heard this.

The problems that Han Ya's secret service is concerned about are basically earthly problems, and the heavenly problems are naturally worried about by departments, but they have nothing to do with their secret service.

However, as soon as Lin Xiao asked, Han Ya immediately went to find out, and then said to Lin Xiao with a strange expression, "It's a strange thing, I really let you tell you right." ”

"Oh, is there really something?" Lin Xiao asked.

"Well, the Americans' Aerospace X-37B has just been recovered, and it has been in space for 22 months, which should be considered a relatively important thing, right?" Han Ya asked rhetorically.

"Flying in the sky?" When Lin Xiao heard this, his eyes couldn't help but light up.

X-37B is an unmanned and reusable space flight developed by Boeing of the United States, launched into space by a rocket, is the first aircraft that can fly in the orbit of the earth's satellite, and can enter the atmosphere, and at the same time can automatically return to the ground after the end of the mission, which is considered to be the prototype of future space combat, its maximum speed can reach more than 25 times the speed of sound, and conventional military radar technology cannot capture.

Launched into orbit by an Atlas rocket and powered by its own solar panels, the X-37B can take on reconnaissance, navigation, control, infrared detection, and automatically return to the ground upon completion of the mission.

In orbit, this flight can be engaged in intelligence gathering, launching small satellites, testing space equipment, etc., X-37B not only has the advantages of fast flight speed, long stay in the air, low launch costs, etc., but also has a strong reconnaissance and attack potential, which is called the prototype of air-space warfare by military observers.

According to information published by the US Air Force, the reusable X-37B is only a quarter the size of the active US space flight and can operate in orbit for 270 days.

In wartime, it has the ability to conduct military operations against enemy satellites and other spacecraft, including controlling, capturing and destroying enemy spacecraft, conducting all-round military reconnaissance of enemy countries, and so on.

However, there are different opinions about what exactly the X-37B will be used for.

A number of Western experts familiar with the situation said that this kind of vehicle mainly serves as a space eye that can respond quickly to needs, rather than an aerospace weapon as speculated by the outside world, and the US Air Force has also tried to understate that the X-37B is mainly used to test reusable space vehicle technology and complete scientific experiments, which sounds similar to space flight, but do not forget that space flight also has a military use, from 1982 to 1992, the United States space flight completed a series of military missions, It has carried secret military spy satellites into the air on several occasions.

Although the X-37B has flown several times, and this time spent more than 22 months in space, the U.S. military has publicly announced that the X-37B is still in the verification stage, and its development progress has been repeatedly delayed.

The outside world questioned that the X-37B was not simply a reusable space war, but a secret weapon that the United States was willing to reduce its nuclear weapons and could attack any target on Earth within an hour, which was more dangerous than a nuclear bomb.

Military experts believe that there are two types of so-called air-space flights, one is the air-space bombardment deployed in 2025 or later, which can fly in less than two hours1. 60,000 km, carry about 5. 4 tons of bombs or cruise missiles from the continental United States to bomb hostile targets anywhere in the world.

The other is air-space reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance, which can reconnoiter the enemy's situation in space, attack enemy satellites and other space vehicles, and maintain the enemy's satellites.

It is generally believed that it remains to be seen whether the air and space flight can achieve the capability of rapid bombing and strike, and it will take at least 10 years for the US military to achieve the capability of space operations in the air and space.

"From a technical point of view alone, the X-37B three missions in orbit are getting longer and longer, which is in line with the objective law, before the US space agency's manned space flight can usually only be in orbit for ten days, mainly because the manned space flight needs a complex life support system, which consumes more energy, and the X-37B itself is equipped with solar panels, which is no different from the satellite, if you want, the X-37B can also create a longer record, after all, the satellite can stay in the sky for more than ten years." When mentioning this, Han Ya said to Lin Xiao, "However, the X-37B is designed to verify the future reusable spacecraft technology of the United States, conduct some scientific experiments, and test it after returning to Earth." According to them, the technologies verified by the X-37B project include advanced guidance, navigation and control technologies, thermal protection systems, electronic systems, high-resolution structures and seals, conformal reusable thermal insulation technologies, lightweight electric flight systems, autonomous orbital flight re-entry and landing technologies. But what kind of test would require the X-37B to work in orbit for hundreds of days? In fact, no one really knows what this spaceflight has done in orbit for the past two years. ”

An expert next to him listened to their conversation and said, "There is no need to deify the X-37B's capabilities too much, because the X-37B's orbit is basically maintained at an altitude of less than 500 kilometers, and the fuel it carries is not enough to push it into a higher orbit, which means that it is difficult to detect or attack military satellites that are widely distributed in medium and high orbits." In addition, there are few advantages in performing ground attack missions with the X-37B compared to ICBMs. It is also possible to hit the globe in one hour, and if you miss the target, you will need to wait for the sky to regain the top, because the X-37B cannot turn around or turn around in space. ”

"Having said that, I think the strange metal elements found this time seem to be related to the X-37B project in the United States." Lin Xiao shook his head at this time and said.

"Why do you think that?" Han Ya said that she was a little incomprehensible about this.

"It's just a gut feeling." Lin Xiao replied.

"To prove that there is a certain connection between the two, it is actually easy to do, we can study the recent flight trajectory of the X-37B." One expert made his own suggestion.

Lin Xiao and Han Ya listened to it and both thought that this suggestion was very good.

Although the Secret Service does not have such information, there is a department that must have been tracking the US air and space warfare program, and there is certainly information in this regard.

"I'm going to do a survey." Han Ya stood up and said to everyone.

This project is relatively sensitive, and the density involved is relatively high, so Han Ya has to personally verify it.

After another half an hour, just when Lin Xiao was waiting a little bored and was reading the novel in his hand, Han Ya finally came back.

"How's it going?" Lin Xiao raised his head and asked.

"Well, after analyzing the official flight path you took and the previous X-37B air-space battle flight trajectory, you have come to a preliminary conclusion......" Han Ya looked at Lin Xiao's eyes and replied very seriously, "What is certain is that although the two of you have different altitudes, there is indeed a close overlapping area in the sky above the incident site. ”

"Sure enough!" When Lin Xiao heard this, he immediately clapped his hands and stood up.

He walked around the sub-cell, and then said to Han Ya, "I suspect that the reason why the U.S. Air-Space Warfare X-37B has been in space for so long is for the sake of this memory metal nanocloud, or the existence of this air-space warfare is to collect this unknown element from space." It's just that I didn't expect that in this process, something went wrong, this unknown metal element leaked, and it happened to be encountered by our flying again! ”

"Your guess is really a bit ......," Han Ya couldn't help but shake her head after hearing this, "However, this kind of speculation seems to be the only reason that can explain the existence of this thing at present." ”

In fact, Han Ya did not really want to admit the illusion proposed by Lin Xiao, if this was the case, it would mean that the Americans had rushed out of the earth and into the universe in the research of nanotechnology.

This kind of realization is definitely not a good thing for her, after all, it is beyond her control, and it is definitely not something to be happy about.

However, in today's situation, Lin Xiao's speculation may be the hypothesis closest to the truth.

Han Ya had to admit that Lin Xiao's illusion had a great impact on her.

After all, he is right, if there is no special reason, the Americans' air-space warfare X-37B, there is absolutely no reason to stay in space for so long, this result can only say one thing, the Americans must have hidden something important in it.

After all, with the strength of the Americans, they have already checked the surface of the earth to the interior and found it clearly, even if even many of the weapons arsenals in Huaxia have been clearly marked on the navigation map of their precision strikes.

Under these circumstances, it would be completely unnecessary for the X-37B to remain in space for 22 months, unless they were actually using it to do something that no other device could replace, such as collecting some extremely small amount of elements from outer space.

"So, one thing should be clear now, do these metal elements carry a sufficient number of outer space ray particles?" Thinking of this, Lin Xiao put forward another guess.

"yes, why didn't I think of that?" When a scientist heard this, he immediately nodded and said, "We have discovered this before, and Lin Ji's guess is likely to be the one closest to the true answer." ”