I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

Until now, all probes targeting the four giant planets were launched in the last century.

The reason for the lack of follow-up is basically timeliness. As the situation changes, people are increasingly unwilling to invest in these decades-long detection plans.

Moreover, people who have experienced the information explosion have a profound understanding of technological development: Instead of spending 30 years to send a detector that will be extremely backward in the future, it is better to wait 25 years and then use 5 years to send a 100 times more powerful detector.

Especially after missing the four-star consecutive window period that only occurs once in nearly two hundred years, waiting for new aerospace technology has become an inevitable choice.

The emergence of the A100 is the kind of revolutionary aerospace technology that the IAU needs.

With only a small amount of fuel, the nuclear thruster can continue to work for several days, and the life of the reactor is as long as decades. For deep space detectors, it means ample power redundancy and unimaginable abundant power. This is very important outside the asteroid belt.

It takes several hours for Voyager 1 to transmit 1MB of data, and there is a high chance of data loss. However, a nuclear reactor can perform miracles, and it is easy to increase the transmission power by 100 times.

It can also support a sharp increase in the mass of the detector. It used to take a rocket of several hundred tons to send a detector of less than 1 ton. Now it can send a detector weighing dozens of tons to the earth's orbit and then fly there by itself.

Coupled with the huge advances in current technology, it represents exponentially improved detection capabilities.

Another huge advantage of such a detector is that it has a long life. It will not have to crash on the target planet due to limited maneuverability, and can fly everywhere with the help of a steady stream of power.

There is no doubt that this is a temptation for the astronomical community, so support from the academic community has been smooth after the 15th and 16th Committees. The main problem is the difficulty of national borders.

It is only now that they may have convinced those who had other objections and gained the confidence to approach Xinyuan for cooperation.

Lin Ju doesn't have much doubt about how much money they can come up with. As long as some resistance can be overcome, it shouldn't be a problem to raise billions of dollars around the world.

The last deep space exploration project jointly conducted by 17 countries was the "Cassini" Saturn probe. As the largest and heaviest deep space project in history with a mass of 5.7 tons and carrying a sub-detector, its planning process lasted 11 years and the cumulative cost exceeded $3.4 billion.

That was US$3.4 billion before 1998!

Even if the world is generally a bit degenerate now, it can definitely still be done if we scrape together another $3.4 billion.

Assuming that US$2 billion is spent on scientific instruments, the remaining US$1.4 billion is handed over to the base, which is 9.4 billion yuan, which is enough to develop several sub-models based on the A100 and undertake three or four platform manufacturing tasks.

Lin Ju has no intention of making money on this, so he is not stingy about doing a good deed. If the IAU really promotes the project, it must share the results. This is enough.

And if IAU initiates fund-raising, there will definitely be some domestic funds raised, and maybe a lot of money can be made.

After thinking about this, he had already made a decision and ordered Xiao Gangtian:

“Let Qingshan Base calculate how much it will cost to develop several small-thrust models based on the A100, and then give them a quote in units of dollars.

Tell them that we only need this cost price. If there are not too many projects and we have no spare capacity, we will still fund them. After the project is established, I will donate 20 million US dollars in my own name, which is considered to support astronomy.

This matter is very interesting. Think of a way to operate it. If you have any trouble, report it anytime. "

"No problem. According to our old saying, it's called the West... Borrowing a chicken to lay an egg!"

"Hey, Lao Xiao, you have made great progress!"

"It's all the wisdom of our ancestors. No reward, no reward."

…

"Here I go again, little garbage dump!"

Victor Glover pushed open the docking door, opened his arms and shouted loudly to the empty "Gateway" space station.

Apparently, this is the "little garbage station" he calls it.

The truth is almost the same. The Artemis 2 mission was evacuated in a hurry, and the various packages and equipment in the already small space station were not packed or organized. In addition, it was floating around in a gravity-free environment. The title of garbage station is really appropriate.

It is now 23:14 on the evening of the 23rd, Beijing time. It only took Artemis 3 an hour and a half to successfully dock with the "Gateway".

According to NACA's news, Dawn 1 arrived about six hours ahead of schedule and is probably still sorting out the Black Rabbit space station.

Compared with that big guy, the "Portal" is pitifully small. Both the "Origin" lander and the OSS fueling tank are heavier than it, and Victor has already kicked it out of the space station.

"Give Victor a chance, Jeremy and I will go check out the lander first. We'll leave it to him to clean up later. You can move the landing materials out of the spacecraft."

Deputy Commander Wiseman gave orders without conscious thought, as if he was the commander.

But Victor has no rebellious mentality. Although this classic old white man is boring, his military experience tells him that Wiseman is a trustworthy partner.

"Okay, okay, I know you want to save time."

"Actually, I think we can win."

While Jeremy was retrieving the data from the lander, he did not forget to express his opinion on the radio:

"The preparation time for their battleship must be much longer than ours. The destroyer has its own advantages."

"Battleship" is the nickname they gave Jiuzhang, because the latter is a "Big Boat (big ship)" because of its huge size. The abbreviation is BB, which is exactly the same as a battleship (the navy's term BB).

The "Origin" is as petite as a destroyer (DD) in front of it. This way of referring to a spaceship with a naval ship has become popular within NACA.

"But battleships and destroyers have different meanings, don't they?"

Wiseman rarely complained. It was also a moon landing. This time, the technical gap between the two teams was much larger than five months ago, which made it difficult for him to accept.

"You are all right, Jeremy. There are six packs of curry chicken in your supply. I want to exchange three packs with you."

…

At the same time, Wutu Space Station.

After a comfortable sleep, Deng Lei opened the sliding door of the bedroom and found that Li Wei had gotten up and was lying on the porthole looking at the moon. The other two were still catching up on their sleep.

Of course, they are also preparing for the landing mission, but the inspection of the Nine Chapters does not require them to do it.

This time Dawn 1 brought three brothers to Lao Shi4 on the lunar surface. They are placing supplies and performing inspection tasks under the supervision of the ground, which allows the four astronauts to rest at ease and conserve their physical strength to the maximum extent.

Deng Lei floated to the flight platform of the space station and retrieved the status of the Gateway Space Station detected by Yuegui 3, and found that Artemis 3 had also successfully docked.

Jiuzhang decided to carry out the landing mission at 9 o'clock on the 24th, which is more than 9 hours later. If Artemis 3 moves faster, it should land first.

But he didn't care about the order of things, the winner had already been decided.