Great Country Academician

While China is closely studying miniaturized and controllable nuclear fusion technology, on the other side is Washington State on the other side of the Atlantic.

In the white room, a meeting led by the NSC Committee and NASA Space Agency is underway.

The theme of the meeting is to return to the moon and make America great again!

In the huge conference room, the congressional representatives and grandfathers sitting at the conference table listened to the report of their Vice President, Ms. Kamala Harris.

The core of the report is nothing more than one point. With the realization of controllable nuclear fusion technology, as time goes by, the country opposite them has begun to threaten their international status.

They must take relevant measures or means to reverse the declining reputation of the United States in the world.

NSC, the National Security Council (self-translated, blocked words cannot be typed), was established in accordance with the "U.S. National Security Act". The president is responsible for presiding over the meeting. It is affiliated with the President's Executive Office and is personally led by the vice president.

Its participating members can be said to be involved in all aspects of American politics, such as Secretary of State, national defense, finance, energy, staff, intelligence agencies, etc.

In addition, some heads of other administrative departments and agencies and other senior officials can also be invited to participate in congressional meetings that require their participation. It can be said that the power is amazing.

After Ms. Kamala Harris completed her report, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson walked to the podium and introduced NASA's plan to the congressional representatives sitting in the meeting.

"Ladies and gentlemen!"

"As a 'leading power' in the international community, our influence on the international stage has been continuously expanding in the 21st century, and our technological level, economic development, cultural influence and other aspects have been outstanding."

After a simple injection of chicken blood, Bill Nelson changed his words and continued in a heavy tone: "However, in the past year, the failure in the energy field has also made us see many shortcomings."

"I believe that in the field of energy and controllable nuclear fusion, our country was undoubtedly No. 1! However, it is a pity that we did not strengthen our determination in subsequent investment, which led to this tragedy. ."

"This has not only caused us to fall back a lot in energy, but also made our influence on the international stage fall a lot. We must look at this. No matter what achievements we have made, we cannot maintain our advantages. Go down, it will be meaningless!”

"For example, now that China has launched a manned aerospace project and is even preparing to land a man on the moon, do we still have to watch them send astronauts and feet to the moon?"

"You must know that we are the only aerospace power in the world. If we continue to lag behind in the aerospace field, I think this will be an unbearable consequence for us!"

At this moment, a voice came from the conference room.

"Sorry to interrupt, can I say a few words?"

After his speech was interrupted, Bill Nelson looked towards the direction where the voice came from. The person who made the voice was the director of the Bureau of Budget. When he saw this person, a smile suddenly appeared on his face and he nodded.

"certainly."

After looking at the meeting report in his hand, the director of the Budget Bureau said, "I read your report. The budget is as high as 78 billion meters of gold. Can you explain such an exaggerated budget?"

Bill Nelson smiled slightly and said: "This is the entire budget of the new Artemis program. It not only includes manned spaceflight and artificial landing on the moon, but also the subsequent establishment of permanent bases, mining of resources on the moon, exploration of Mars, etc. A series of projects.”

“In fact, in the first stage of returning to the moon, our budget requirement is only 18 billion meters of gold, which includes manned landing on the moon, detection of lunar ice, helium-3, titanium and other resources, and establishing Map the distribution of elements/resources across the Moon, etc.”

This is not the first time the Artemis plan has been proposed.

As early as 2017, the president with the cool hairstyle officially signed the "Space Policy Directive No. 1" and officially approved the Artemis program.

After all, with the decline of the economic cycle, the United States does need a new plan to stimulate and enhance its international reputation.

But unfortunately, less than a year after this plan was proposed, China started the Qixia controllable nuclear fusion project.

In the following time, news of various staged breakthroughs in controllable nuclear fusion directly caused the American Congressmen to significantly reduce investment in the aerospace field, and the Artemis project died midway.

This time, I don’t know how NASA did it. They persuaded the NSC committee and held today’s meeting to try to persuade all members of Congress to pass the Artemis plan to return to the moon. '.

But it has to be said that in today's declining situation, they do need a great cause to return the United States' reputation to its peak, even if it is a short return.

Maybe the 78 billion meters of gold overall plan will not be crazy enough for Congress to approve it as a whole, but if it is to return to the moon, send astronauts up again, and draw opponents into the space race in an orderly manner, and use it again Their strong foundation will slow down the opponent's development, or even bring down the opponent. It is not hopeless.

As Bill Nelson said, the failure in the energy field has caused them to lose a lot of voice on the international stage.

If some counterattacks are not made to break the downward trend, the consequences will be unimaginable.

On the other side, in Jinling, in the Xinghai Research Institute.

Wen Yuanhang, who went to the capital to report, quickly rushed back after completing his work.

After discussing with Xu Chuan, Jinling Jun District quickly dispatched an independent group to make a new deployment of the mountains, forests, roads and other areas around the Xinghai Research Institute to strengthen the protection of the institute.

However, this work was not done with much fanfare. The team in the army quietly changed positions and completed the replacement.

After all, the Xinghai Research Institute itself is the focus of attention from all countries, and the high-profile movement will inevitably attract countless eyes.

In the office, after learning about the arrangements and deployment of miniaturized controllable nuclear fusion technology, Xu Chuan nodded and handed Wen Yuanhang some of his management optimization plans for Xinghai Research Institute in the past two days. .

"Look at this, the management here at the institute is a little behind. This is a new adjustment plan. We will hold a meeting to discuss it later."

Wen Yuanhang took the plan, flipped through it with some thoughts in his eyes, looked up at Xu Chuan and said: "By establishing standards that are consistent with the research institute and using big data and intelligent systems to control the research process and material product suppliers, this Are you preparing to adopt intelligent research + intelligent industrial system?"

Before coming to Xinghai Research Institute, he was the office director of the Science and Technology Strategic Planning Department. He had some basic understanding of the development of all walks of life. It was not difficult to understand what Xu Chuan proposed.

Xu Chuan nodded and said: "Yes, although the current artificial intelligence is not of much help in the field of academic research, there is no problem in doing some data statistics, screening, and analysis work."

"Using big data and artificial intelligence to liberate these tasks that originally require tedious manpower can improve a lot of efficiency, both for research and for cooperation in the industrial chain."

Wen Yuanhang nodded and said, "Okay, I will handle this matter."

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "Sorry to trouble you."

"You're welcome."

After settling the follow-up work arrangements, Xu Chuan focused on the two projects of aerospace engine and large hadron collider.

However, his heart is not as urgent as before, because compared to the almost completely unfamiliar field of miniaturization of controllable nuclear fusion, the research on the latter two is not completely without foundation in China.

The essence of aerospace engines is electromagnetic propulsion. In this regard, China's research is quite good.

For example, the Sky space station uses Hall thrusters in the electromagnetic propulsion system. Its designed operating power reaches 100kW and the thrust can reach 5 N.

Although the number is small, the technology contained in it is among the top in the world.

With this background and the theory at night, he does not need to worry too much about the progress of the aerospace engine.

In fact, this is exactly the case. With the technical support of Sichuan Aerospace Base and Jiuquan Aerospace Base, the aerospace engine has already completed the design and is currently being assembled, waiting for subsequent testing.

As for the Large Strong Particle Collider, there is no need to say more. In terms of the collider, China has complete technical reserves. What it lacks is only top-notch detector technology.

In this regard, Xu Chuan had some ideas before, but he never had time to do them.

It just so happened that there had been a breakthrough in miniaturized controllable nuclear fusion technology. Before completing the final space shuttle, he had several months to study and make breakthroughs in detector technology.

"Speaking of which, I feel like your busy schedule never stops."

In the cafeteria of Xinghai Research Institute, Zheng Hai sat opposite Xu Chuan with a lunch and suddenly spoke.

"Why do you say this suddenly?"

Xu Chuan stopped his chopsticks, glanced at him and asked curiously.

"It's nothing, I just think you should rest for a while. Being too tired is not good for your health." Zheng Hai shook his head and persuaded.

Originally, he thought that there had been a breakthrough in miniaturized and controllable nuclear fusion technology, and he should have some rest. Unexpectedly, he turned around and devoted himself to research in other fields without stopping for a day.

Thinking of the scene where this man fell sick from exhaustion after returning from St. Petersburg some time ago, he felt that he needed to remind him to pay attention to his health.

Xu Chuan smiled and said: "I also want to rest, but now is not the time. Whether it is the development of aerospace or the construction of the collider, it is all about it."

Although academic research is his hobby, he is also happy to indulge in it.

But it has to be said that his current state has already gone beyond the scope of normal academic research. Even if it is a hobby, it is difficult for a person to work continuously like this.

After all, his current state is not to mention working and researching 24 hours a day, but apart from research and academics, there really seems to be nothing else in his life.

But at this point, it's not that he doesn't want to rest, but that he can't rest yet.

As he said himself, whether it is the development of aerospace or the construction of a collider, they are all things waiting for him to do.

If some management work can be left to others to complete, then no one can really replace him to complete breakthroughs in cutting-edge technology.

There is no way, he is already at the forefront of science, and no one is more familiar with some related theories and technologies than him, so he can only advance it himself.

For example, the miniaturization of controllable nuclear fusion technology, if he had not decisively changed the research direction from the tokamak device route to the stellarator route, and successfully made improved superconducting materials and designed a permanent magnet stellarator .No one knows how long it will take for a breakthrough in miniaturization.

It may take more than ten years, or it may only take a few years.

But regardless of the progress, as it is now, it is probably beyond anyone's imagination that a fusion reactor can be made the size of an SUV in less than a year.

There is no denying the contribution of Xinghai Research Institute, but in the final analysis, the most core thing is what he made.

Although Xu Chuan also wanted to leave the work of transforming theory into applied technology to others, judging from the current situation in the country, he could not do so.

After all, many things can't be created just by giving him a theory or drawing a design.

He can achieve theoretical results, but this does not mean that actual research and application can follow quickly.

Just like the theory of controllable nuclear fusion technology had been perfected in the last century, but its practical application was still fifty years away before he was reborn.

Most of the time, the development of science and technology complements each other.

Breakthroughs in theoretical science can drive technological development to a certain extent, and technological breakthroughs can in turn drive the extension of scientific theories.

It's just that under normal circumstances, this mutually reinforcing development often takes a lot of time.

But Xu Chuan couldn't wait. He couldn't wait for more than ten years or more for technological breakthroughs.

After all, a person's golden academic career only lasts so long. It would be a pity if a bunch of theories are left behind but fail to pass technical verification.

Therefore, he can only "fight" on the front line by himself, leading the R\u0026D team to transform his theory into practical technology.

This is why since returning to China, he has had almost no time to rest for 365 days a year.

Across the dining table, Zheng Hai was silent for a while, then sighed and said, "But it's a bit too hard for you."

Xu Chuan smiled and said: "Actually, it's not bad. For me, doing scientific research is similar to ordinary people playing games. They are both things I like."

After a pause, he continued: "Speaking of which, why are you so weird today that you suddenly care about this?"

Zheng Hai shook his head, and just as he was about to open his mouth to speak, another voice came to his ears.

"Academician Xu, it's an emergency."

"NASA just announced at a press conference that it will invest 16 billion meters of gold to restart the Artemis Project and realize the plan of manned landing on the moon and returning to the moon."