176: Where does the water come from?

Lei Wen sat quietly by the porthole, his gaze shifting from space toward the receding red planet.

The dim atmosphere enveloping the planet's surface, the crisscrossing canyons that looked like scars, and the ubiquitous iron oxide dust all silently spoke of the planet's barrenness and desolation.

Although he felt disgusted by David Saul's typical capitalist face, he had to admit that Saul had made a valid point: the cost of life support on Mars was indeed ridiculously high.

Here, water was not just the source of life, but the lifeblood of industry.

Currently, Martian water came from two main sources: mining polar ice caps, or transporting it from Earth or the asteroid belt.

While the polar ice caps had decent reserves, they were too far from the industrial and residential zones near the equator; the cost of laying pipelines and maintaining heated transport was astronomical. Moreover, with the exponential expansion of industrial scale, relying solely on excavating ice layers could no longer satisfy the cooling towers and synthesis plants that devoured water like giant beasts.

As for space transport, even with the current capacity of the Human Federation, moving hundreds of millions of tons of water across interstellar space was an expense enough to make any finance minister collapse.

“Scarcity creates monopoly, and monopoly breeds tyranny.”

Lei Wen's fingers lightly tapped the window sill as he whispered to himself.

The reason the Nikola Group could grind those workers into the dirt was not just because of the harsh contracts, but more so because they controlled the water recycling system. If you didn't obey, your water would be cut off. On Earth, cutting off water might mean you could still go to a river to drink, but on Mars, cutting off water meant dying of thirst and suffocation, because all the oxygen there was produced by water electrolysis.

To break this absolute control, simply relying on administrative orders to limit prices was treating the symptoms rather than the root cause.

The problem had to be solved at the source; water had to stop being scarce on Mars.

“white flower,” Lei Wen called out in his mind.

“I am here, Father.”

“If we wanted to completely solve Mars' water shortage overnight—or in a very short period—to make lakes or even oceans appear there... can existing technology do it?”

“Conventional methods cannot, Father,” white flower's response was swift. “Even if all transport fleets were deployed for non-stop transport, it would take at least five hundred years to form a stable body of water with self-cycling capabilities on the Martian surface.”

“What about unconventional methods?”

“You mean...”

“If I remember correctly, there are hundreds of millions of icy asteroids and comets floating in the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud.”

“If we find a large enough icy asteroid, say about 50 kilometers in diameter.”

Lei Wen's finger traced an arc in the void, pointing from the edge of the Solar System straight to Martian orbit.

“Equip it with engines and tow it over.”

“And then...”

Lei Wen's palm suddenly snapped shut, making an impact gesture.

“Throw it at Mars.”

“The high temperatures from the impact will instantly melt and vaporize the ice, releasing a massive amount of water vapor. This won't just bring water, but will also thicken the atmosphere through the greenhouse effect and raise the surface temperature.”

It was a plan that was insane to the extreme, yet filled with temptation.

It was the so-called 'Sweet Dew from Heaven,' or more accurately, 'Flood from Heaven.'

“Building model... importing celestial mechanics parameters... simulating impact consequences...”

white flower fell into a long silence, the massive computational load temporarily preventing her language model from loading.

Ten minutes later, a detailed 'Martian Environmental Reshaping: Feasibility Assessment Report for Directed Asteroid Impact' appeared on the personal terminal in Lei Wen's hand.

“Conclusion: The plan is feasible, but the risks are extremely high.”

white flower's voice remained calm, but Lei Wen could hear the seriousness within it.

“First is target selection. I have identified an icy dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt numbered K-2049-Neptune. It is approximately 48 kilometers in diameter, primarily composed of water ice, with the remainder being dry ice, ammonia, and silicate dust. Its total mass is approximately 50 billion tons.”

“If successfully guided to impact Mars, the total water resources released would be equivalent to twice the volume of Lake Baikal on Earth.”

“This water is enough to form a vast inland sea, or rather a super saline lake, several hundred meters deep in the low-lying Hellas Planitia of Mars.”

“The trillions of tons of carbon dioxide and water vapor released by the impact will increase Martian atmospheric pressure by 30% to 50% in a short time. The greenhouse effect will raise the average temperature in equatorial regions by more than 20 degrees Celsius.”

A flash of joy crossed Lei Wen's eyes.

This would be a grand achievement with multiple benefits.

“And the risks?” Lei Wen asked calmly.

“Risks come primarily from three aspects.”

“First is the energy generated by the impact. A 50-kilometer diameter asteroid hitting Mars at escape velocity releases energy equivalent to hundreds of millions of Hiroshima atomic bombs. Although Mars is sparsely populated, if we do not control the impact point well, the resulting seismic and shock waves could destroy all existing underground colonies and industrial facilities.”

“Second is the nuclear winter effect. The impact will kick up hundreds of millions of tons of dust into the atmosphere. This dust could obscure sunlight for years or even decades, causing Martian surface temperatures to drop instead of rise, stopping photosynthesis and completely paralyzing all solar power stations.”

“Third is orbital safety. Debris ejected by the impact might partially escape Martian gravity and become space junk, potentially even posing a threat to Earth and the Moon.”

Hearing these risks, Lei Wen did not back down.

Risks were meant to be managed, not feared.

“Regarding the impact point,” Lei Wen pointed to the massive impact crater in Mars' southern hemisphere, “Hellas Planitia is one of the largest impact craters in the Solar System. It's the lowest point and the most perfect basin. If we have it hit here, not only can it accommodate the water body to the maximum extent, but it's also far from the main industrial and residential areas in the northern hemisphere.”

“We can reinforce colony structures in advance. Paradox Technology's damper technology is already very mature, and we can build sufficiently sturdy temporary underground shelters.”

“As for the dust obscuring the sun...” Lei Wen smiled. “I remember a research team from the Earth Science Research Center developed a special coagulant some time ago that can accelerate dust settling. Or we could simply deploy mirrors in orbit for artificial sunlight.”

“white flower, how much do you think we can increase the success rate if we use all our current technical reserves?”

“If Paradox Technology leads and utilizes the Apocalypse mainframe for real-time orbital corrections...”

white flower recalculated.

“The success rate can be increased to 94.6%, and the casualty rate can be controlled below 0.1%.”

“94.6%...”

Lei Wen took a deep breath.

On the scale of interstellar engineering, this was already a considerably high probability.

“It's worth the gamble.”

This wasn't just for water, but to break the old order.

When Mars had oceans, a thick enough atmosphere, and naturally cycling water resources, the exploitation system built by the Nikola Group based on resource scarcity would collapse on its own.

When rain falls from the sky, no one can monopolize the heavens.

“Refine this plan and make it into the most intuitive holographic demonstration video.”

Lei Wen stood up, his gaze piercing through the porthole toward the nearing Earth.

“I'm going to submit it to the Earth Council.”

“This will be the grandest project in human history, and also a fierce political gamble.”