Great Country Academician

Chapter 902 The Moon Suspected to Have Life~

The news broadcast of CBS TV station is still going on, but Musk is no longer in the mood to watch it.

Not only because of the report about SpaceX, his glory has passed. But also because of the sudden news of manned landing on Mars, which shocked him.

Although various social media have stated before that SpaceX will launch a manned landing on Mars in 2030, and even stated that humans will migrate to Mars within 20 years.

But in fact, Musk himself knows very well that this is just a way to stimulate the stock market.

Let alone manned landing on Mars, even a month ago, the return of the United States to the moon was something that all the people were looking forward to.

The failure of Artemis's moon landing has made this country, which was once the largest space country, fall into deep doubt.

If it weren't for the perfect success of the Artemis II lunar module manned landing and returning to the moon, I'm afraid that few people in the United States would pay attention to the aerospace field now.

The previous setback was really a miserable fall.

But when the public's confidence in the aerospace field was being raised, it was revealed that their competitors were already preparing to land humans on Mars.

This was definitely a huge blow to the development of the US aerospace industry.

The stock market, which had not yet improved, was probably smashed to the ground.

After taking a deep breath and coming to his senses, Musk took out his mobile phone from his pocket and opened Twitter.

As expected, China's upcoming manned Mars landing project has already topped the hot search list.

Almost everyone was discussing and lamenting about this matter, and a small number of people were angrily criticizing NASA and the authorities, angrily saying that they took so much funding every year but did nothing, and gave up their position in the aerospace field.

[Damn it, what is our NASA doing? The Chinese are starting to prepare to land on Mars! ]

[Shit! Can we still catch up with China? They are all starting to prepare to land on Mars! ]

[NASA is shit, the authorities are shit. They get tens of billions of dollars every year, but they even fail to land on the moon. Not only have they not made any progress, but they have regressed! ]

[One second ago, I was still happy that Artemis II returned to the moon, but the next second, I couldn't laugh anymore. While our eyes were still on the moon, China had already aimed at the more distant Mars. ]

[To be honest, I am very pessimistic. We are no longer the number one country in the field of aerospace. I beg NASA to wake up and stop living in history with the glory of the past! ]

[Damn it, isn't it enough for them to occupy the moon? Now they are extending their claws to Mars! The moon also has the "Convention of Agreement" that stipulates that it belongs to all mankind, but what about Mars? Mars has nothing! Just wait and see, in a few years, Mars will fall into the hands of those Chinese people! ]

[Mars is one of the most important stepping stones for human civilization to step out of the earth and the solar system. We must stop those Chinese people! 】

【.】

As he expected, almost everyone who paid attention to this news discussed the manned landing on Mars in an amazed or shocked tone.

Staring at the hot search news and comments on his mobile phone, Elon Musk's face was full of complicated expressions.

He and Professor Xu are both competitors and partners.

The two had also reached a cooperation deal worth billions of dollars.

If it weren't for lithium-sulfur batteries, Tesla would not have been able to have surging competitiveness in the market, and was even hailed as the hope of new energy vehicles in the United States.

However, in the aerospace field, whenever SpaceX's business and stock price just started to improve, this person would always come up with some other news or things.

SpaceX is like a natural conflict with his personality, and the two sides will collide every time.

And every time they collide, his SpaceX will be defeated.

Musk knew that Professor Xu was not targeting him, but the entire US aerospace company.

But SpaceX itself is part of the US aerospace field, and it is also a leading company, the first company to face the impact.

Unless, he is willing to give up SpaceX.

Or choose to cooperate with Professor Xu.

But no matter which choice, it is almost impossible for him.

SpaceX is his ideal, he can't give up.

And choosing to cooperate with Professor Xu Chuan is even more impossible.

At present, SpaceX relies on domestic aerospace orders in the United States. To be precise, most of their aerospace resources are obtained from NASA.

When NASA and the other party are in a stalemate and the two sides are competing with each other, SpaceX, NASA's top henchman, will never cooperate with its competitors.

Sighing silently, Musk subconsciously raised his hand and wanted to drink a sip of Coke, only to find that the Coke in his hand had already fallen to the ground.

At the same time, on the other side.

NASA also returned to the headquarters urgently because of this sudden news, and Director Bill Nelson, who had just got off work, held an emergency meeting to deal with this emergency.

Xinghai Research Institute, the most powerful institution in China's aerospace field, will officially launch the manned Mars landing project in four months.

This is a dimensionality reduction attack for them who are now focusing their energy on the moon.

If China takes the lead in achieving manned Mars landing, it will be unacceptable to the United States, which has always regarded itself as a major aerospace power.

However, for NASA, an emergency meeting was held, but no effective way to deal with this crisis was discussed.

It's not that no one has proposed the idea of ​​sending astronauts to Mars through the Falcon Heavy rocket before Xinghai Research Institute.

But it was rejected as soon as it was proposed.

There was a serious accident when the Artemis lunar module landed on the moon first. In the end, they had to ask for help from their competitors to allow the two astronauts trapped in the lunar module to return to Earth smoothly.

That time, the United States had already lost face in front of all countries in the world.

If there is another accident during the forced manned landing on Mars, not to mention the blow to NASA's reputation, the entire United States may not be able to bear this price.

Because letting astronauts perform such a mission that is almost impossible to return will cause strong opposition from the public.

If astronauts, the country's top elite talents, can be sacrificed at will, then ordinary people like them may have even less protection.

Especially in a country like the United States that emphasizes human rights.

But apart from forcibly launching spacecraft and trying to land on Mars before their opponents, they also have no other way to stop the opponent's actions.

Launch a missile to shoot down the opponent's spacecraft?

This is simply impossible.

Let alone NASA, even the president does not have this right now.

Public opinion?

The other party will not care even more.

Especially when facing that person, public opinion is of no use to him at all.

Just when the eyes of the world are focused on the information of manned landing on Mars.

On the other side, far away in the starry sky 380,000 kilometers away.

On the moon, in the laboratory of Yuehuatai·Qianshou Research Station, Liu Wenkang, wearing dark blue casual clothes, was lying on a chair, leisurely browsing entertainment videos on his tablet computer.

As a professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Nanjing University, he originally thought that his life should have been spent in school all his life.

As a result, no one expected that the big man in the school would actually create a new world in the field of aerospace and build a research base on the moon.

With a try-it mentality, Liu Wenkang submitted an application to the Xinghai Research Institute.

Unexpectedly, the application was approved, and he got a six-month research work time on the moon.

After a series of exercises and training, he arrived at the Yuehuatai·Qianshou Research Base on the moon.

Although he was not the first batch of researchers to arrive on the moon, he adapted to the work and life here very quickly.

The low-gravity environment did bring considerable interference to scientific research and life, and even had a certain impact on the body.

But the scientific research work on the moon is not very busy. On average, they work only three to four hours a day.

The rest of the time is basically personal.

Whether it is going to the gym to exercise, adapting to the low-gravity environment; or like him, lying in the laboratory to watch videos and play games on the phone, it is all possible.

At this moment, the tablet in his hand suddenly lit up a caller ID.

He quickly connected the video call, and a colleague in dark blue casual clothes on the other side came into Liu Wenkang's sight.

Seeing this person, Liu Wenkang smiled and greeted: "What's the matter, Lao Wang."

On the other side of the video call, the middle-aged man named Lao Wang smiled and said: "There is a sample of lunar local material collected yesterday. It is being sent to you via the 06·A base vehicle. It should be here soon."

"As usual, you do a basic test first, check the situation, and record it."

Hearing that there is a scientific research task, Liu Wenkang sat up straight, smiled and nodded and said: "Okay, I know, I will deal with the sample as soon as it arrives."

"Okay, hang up."

"Bye."

A brief work chat is the normal communication between these scientific researchers on the moon.

Putting away the tablet in his hand, Liu Wenkang just stood up, and the door of the laboratory slowly opened.

A transport vehicle inside the base, pulling a metal box, slipped in with a ticking sound.

"Hello, a sample has arrived, please receive it as soon as possible!"

As if scanning Liu Wenkang's presence, the base vehicle drove two steps towards this side, and an anthropomorphic voice sounded in the laboratory.

Holding the walking alloy tube installed on the laboratory wall and the laboratory table, Liu Wenkang walked towards the base vehicle with a smile on his face in a way that looked very strange but very efficient.

After swiping the work card on the base vehicle, the base vehicle made a sound.

"Verification passed, identity confirmed, sample material handover in progress."

The highly intelligent base vehicle made a crisp sound, sensing the situation in the laboratory like the anthropomorphic big eyes of the smart food delivery vehicle in the hotel, and then "gurgled" "gurgled" towards the platform in the laboratory specially used to place materials.

After arriving at the location, a silver-white mechanical arm stretched out from the side of the base vehicle, gently lifted the metal box containing the transported samples, and placed it on the platform.

"Handover completed!"

With a hint of anthropomorphic tone, the base vehicle drove out of the laboratory.

Liu Wenkang didn't care about the base vehicle. He picked up the intercom, called his assistant, and began to prepare for the test experiment according to the standard operating procedures.

After the first phase of the Yuehuatai Outpost Research Station was officially completed, many high-precision cutting-edge equipment that was not available before was now transported here by space shuttle.

Here, they can conduct many experiments that originally needed to be done on Earth.

Although the low-gravity environment has brought extremely troublesome problems to various experiments, it is far more troublesome to do experiments than on Earth.

It seems that it is more convenient to transport these sample materials to Earth for inspection by space shuttle.

However, conducting various complex experiments in a low-gravity environment like the moon is itself a necessary process in the process of space development.

After all, they cannot guarantee that all environments are exactly the same as on Earth during the development of space.

Moreover, the preparation, smelting, and observation of the performance of various materials in a low-gravity environment are also of great value.

About an hour later, the assistant's voice sounded in the material testing laboratory.

"Professor, take a look, there seems to be something wrong with this image!"

Liu Wenkang, who was busy with another test, wore a mask and goggles and responded without raising his head.

"Wait a moment."

After handling the sample material in his hand and putting it into the characterization pyrolysis chromatograph, Liu Wenkang walked towards the assistant.

"What's wrong, what's the problem?"

Assistant Xue Shi quickly replied: "The spectral analysis image of this material is very strange, and I'm a little unsure of what's going on."

"How strange is it?" Liu Wenkang asked casually.

Xue Shi hesitated for a moment, but still said: "It may be a fossil structure of some primitive life."

Professor Liu Wenkang: "????"

Hearing this answer, he was stunned for a moment, and then his breathing became heavy, and he quickly asked: "Are you sure?"

Xue Shi replied honestly: "I'm not sure."

"But from the current image data, it has a certain similarity with the most primitive blue algae on earth and the structure of glass sponge."

"Its organizational structure shows a regular distribution, which is difficult for natural materials in nature."

Hearing this, Liu Wenkang took a deep breath, pushed away the assistant who was still stuck in front of the computer, and didn't even care about the chair. He bent down and looked at the spectral analysis image on the computer screen.

"Fuck~"

After a long silence, in the laboratory, a simple and unpretentious voice with shock, surprise, astonishment, excitement, excitement and other emotions came out, echoing in the laboratory.

"Professor, what is this? Could it be a fossil of a living thing?"

Liu Wenkang took a deep breath and quickly replied: "I don't know!"

Hearing this answer, Xue Shi was stunned for a moment and looked at Professor Liu Wenkang in surprise.

Liu Wenkang ignored him and quickly ran to the other end of the laboratory and picked up the communicator from the table.

"Lao Wang! Where did you dig the samples today?!"