Chapter 7 (Tumor of Mass 1): The Landfill

65 million years ago, Earth, Victoria Wetlands

Venusians had achieved remarkable technological progress, with over a century of space exploration behind them. Tens of thousands of satellites, probes, and spacecraft traveled between Venus, Earth, and Mars. Yet space activity brought with it an unintended consequence: a sky choked with space debris, threatening navigation and, on occasion, plummeting to planetary surfaces, causing loss of life and property.

Collecting space debris was a laborious task. The Venusian Alliance decreed that Earth’s “Clean-up Crew,” positioned along the main trade routes, would be responsible for this vexing work. The crew’s equipment consisted mainly of a space elevator located in the Victoria Wetlands and specialized debris-cleaning ships in low Earth orbit. As for the crew, it was made up of convicted felons exiled to Earth, and clones manufactured by Maria.

Thus, the Victoria Wetlands became the landfill for Venusian space debris.

Maria had assumed that, after Tesla bid her farewell a few days earlier and returned to Venus, his work there would keep him occupied for a long time—and that it would be ages before they met again. To her surprise and delight, only a few days had passed before Nikola Tesla once again appeared before her on Earth, this time accompanied by Abbott, President of the Venus Academy of Sciences.

After dinner, the three sat together at the table.

Abbott began, “Nikola, our mission this time cannot fail. Time is of the essence. Yet you brought me to Earth—will you finally tell me why?”

Tesla gently took Maria’s hand. “Maria, you are isolated here in exile, but unfortunately, Venus is facing a grave crisis. Abbott and I have been ordered to devise an evacuation plan to ensure the safety of all Venusians.”

Turning to Abbott, Tesla continued, “If Venusians must abandon Venus, the only habitable planets are Earth and Mars. Naturally, Earth is our first stop for inspection.”

Facing Abbott and the still-stunned Maria, Tesla shared his thoughts: “The population of Venus now exceeds six billion. Relocating everyone to another planet is an almost insurmountable challenge, fraught with complexities and countless factors to consider.”

Tesla had analyzed and evaluated the data and proposals compiled by the Venus Academy. By linking with the external brain via the Lightning Sphere, he formed a plan.

The solar system contains only three planets within the habitable zone: Venus, Earth, and Mars. Tesla’s immigration plan was: “one primary, one backup, one to wait for.” In other words, Mars would be transformed into the main destination for immigrants; Earth would serve as a backup, and, over a long period, they would wait for Venus’s environment to recover naturally so that humanity could ultimately return to the world they were most accustomed to.

“According to the experts at the Academy, Earth is the first choice. Why do you put Mars first?” Abbott asked.

“Earth does indeed share many similarities with Venus and appears to be the best candidate. But before I explain my reasoning, let me first tell you the Lightning Sphere’s reason for excluding Earth,” Tesla replied.

He cast a meaningful glance at Maria. “The underlying values of artificial intelligence models are set by us, by humans. Its reason for excluding Earth is that humanity has no right to wipe out the dinosaurs.”

Tesla’s reasons, of course, were not solely ethical. Earth and Venus did have much in common: similar radii and densities, nearly equal surface gravity, and an oxygen concentration of 28%, somewhat higher than Venus’s 21%—but that was not necessarily a drawback.

However, Earth’s tectonic activity was too feeble; there were almost no high mountains, making it impossible to form long rivers and vast alluvial plains. How could a planet unsuitable for agriculture or animal husbandry be considered habitable?

“My plan is to use the Superluminal Wave Power Station to inject energy into Earth’s interior, intensifying plate tectonics, and thereby creating great mountains and rivers. Before that, we Venusians will first relocate to Mars.”

Abbott immediately recalled how the Superluminal Wave Power Station had caused Tash Island to rise three thousand meters, triggering a massive retreat of the seas.

He slapped his thigh. “Brilliant! We begin transforming Earth now, move Venusians to Mars, and, once Earth becomes habitable, relocate again.”

“Abbott, don’t forget, Mars is not an ideal refuge either. We can’t just move Venusians there and call it done.”

Abbott sobered. “True. Besides Mars’s frigid temperatures, the greatest challenge is that its gravity is only one-third of Venus’s. That will be the hardest thing for Venusians to adapt to. If only we could increase Mars’s gravity.”

Prompted by Tesla’s insights, Abbott jokingly put forth a wildly outrageous idea:

Without altering Mars’s mass, how could they dramatically increase the surface gravity?

Ninety years ago, Nikola Tesla submitted a paper, “The Dynamic Principle of Gravitation,” in which he proposed the Superluminal Wave Hypothesis—later confirmed by experiment.

Tesla’s understanding of gravity was different. Through mathematical derivation, he found that, within a given gravitational field, the force acting on an object was proportional to the intensity of energy it displaced; centripetal acceleration, likewise, was proportional to the gravitational constant times the energy intensity at a given distance.

But what about different gravitational fields? Studying the mass-luminosity relationships of thousands of stars, he discovered that the ratio was not linear. Cooler red stars had longer peak wavelengths and proportionally higher mass-luminosity ratios; hot blue stars, the opposite.

The longer the peak emission wavelength of a gravitational source (star), the greater its relative gravity.

Thus, Tesla concluded: in any gravitational field, the force experienced by an object depends on the source’s peak emission wavelength and the energy intensity at a given distance.

Bold in hypothesis, cautious in verification, falsifiable, and predictive.

Nikola Tesla studied the lunar surface gravity map: mountain peaks displayed anomalously low gravity; lowlands, or lunar maria, anomalously high gravity. This ran counter to intuition.

The Moon, as a source of radiation (reflecting sunlight), had mountain peaks with shorter wavelengths and lowlands with longer ones. The peaks were warmer, emitting shorter wavelengths and thus exerting less gravity; the lowlands were colder, emitting longer wavelengths and thus exerting more gravity. The lunar gravity map coincided perfectly with the infrared thermal imaging map. So, what “gravity anomaly”?

To verify the true nature of gravity, Tesla designed an experiment he called the “lunar mass anomaly” test.

“Mass anomaly? How come I, as a biologist, have never heard of such a disease?” Maria asked.

“It’s not a real tumor, just a metaphor, referring to the anomalous gravity phenomena on the lunar surface,” Abbott explained before Tesla could.

Venusian astronomers had launched gravity probes to orbit the Moon at a height of ten kilometers, mapping the entire lunar gravitational field.

“Lunar gravity is unevenly distributed. Which do you think exerts more gravity, the mountain regions or the lowlands—the maria?” Tesla asked Maria with a smile.

“Of course the mountain regions, since they have more rock,” Maria replied without hesitation.

Tesla, with relish, explained that the lunar surface gravity distribution was the opposite of common sense: the gravity at mountain peaks was below average, while that of the maria was above.

Scientists had reasoned that the only logical explanation was the presence of high-density metal masses beneath the maria—so-called “mass anomalies.”

Nikola Tesla disagreed. He believed that the Moon, as a gravitational source, exerted gravity not based on mass, but on the intensity of energy it emitted and its peak emission wavelength.

All the Moon’s energy comes from reflected sunlight, and, with its slow rotation relative to the Sun—one revolution every 27.32 days—its surface temperature is highly uneven. The mountains are warmer, emitting shorter wavelengths; the maria, colder, emitting longer wavelengths.

“Maria, if we were to fill in a six-kilometer-deep lunar mare, artificially increasing its mass, would the gravity of that region become greater or smaller?” Tesla posed his experimental proposal.

“With the existing mass anomaly below the mare, plus the added mass, gravity should only increase,” Maria said.

Tesla predicted that if the mare were filled, not only would the local gravity fail to increase, it would actually become less than before—returning the anomaly to normal and causing the “mass anomaly” to disappear altogether.

Because gravity is not caused by mass, but by energy intensity and peak emission wavelength. Filling the mare would raise the temperature, shorten the emission wavelength, and thus reduce the gravity—eliminating the anomaly.

Abbott, already familiar with Tesla’s experimental design, asked with some doubt:

“Nikola, what material do you plan to use to fill in the target mare?”

Nikola Tesla pointed to the sky, then, with deep meaning, gestured toward the distant heap of space debris, confidently declaring:

“With space junk!”

Abbott and Maria exclaimed almost in unison:

“You plan to turn the lunar mare into a new landfill for space debris?”

&

Collected Verses:

Under the moon, sandals high and low—Ming, Qian Chengzhi
Brushing off the dust, reading old inscriptions—Song, Lin Jizhong
Unmoved by external things—Qing, Hongli
Often on this path, yet always lost—Qing, Tian Wen