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

"At 13:00 Central Time on December 25, Artemis 3 astronauts Reed Wiseman and Victor Glover and TIANMU-3 astronauts Deng Lei and Li Wei met at the edge of the impact crater.

This is a moment of great historical significance. Two hands coming from two directions of the earth and spanning 380,000 kilometers are held together...

...CNN will continue to bring you reports, please stay tuned..."

Musk watched with interest the footage broadcast on the TV program, which was the video sent back from the first meeting of the two lunar landing teams yesterday.

Both parties had obviously communicated in advance. They would only send two astronauts, and one of them would serve as a cameraman. They agreed to meet at the midline between the two landing sites, exchange communication channels and gifts, and express greetings.

The images of Victor and Deng Lei on TV are completely different. NACA's semi-hard-shell spacesuit is a bit like a tall and thin potato with four stubby limbs, while "Pioneer I" is well-fitted and practiced, plus The exposed composite bones attached to the exterior look very sci-fi.

One is visibly clumsy, and the other looks as cool as a mecha warrior.

However, the exchange between the two was very harmonious. Victor sent a lander model, and Deng Lei's return gift was a multifunctional geological hammer.

In the end, the two parties also test-drove each other's lunar rovers, and then said goodbye to each other and returned due to time constraints.

The media's evaluation of this meeting was quite good, and John's press spokesman also briefly mentioned it, seemingly not wanting to overdo it.

But overall, compared to the tit-for-tat confrontation in the previous two years, the current situation has eased a lot.

However, just as he was thinking this, Chief Assistant Scott appeared at the door and knocked on the open door.

"Boss, NACA has placed a new order for us."

Scott handed the tablet to Musk, and now SpecaX is also making strides towards paperless office.

The official propaganda is for environmental protection, but in fact he copied Xinyuan.

Although XAP acts in a more mysterious manner, it is the number one in the aerospace industry after all, and every move it makes can have a great impact.

The most attractive thing among them is the unmanned factory, full-system computer control and paperless office it promoted. Later aerospace companies also worked hard to learn from these three points, and Kongcha was the leader among them.

Although XAP's radical use of AI to control everything sounds crazy, it is in line with Musk's appetite. However, he does not trust the backdoor of the server and does not intend to be so exaggerated.

He quickly read the content on the tablet, with surprise and a little doubt on his face.

NACA decided to accelerate the Ares project and solicit new plans from major aerospace companies. It is required that the best is to launch a manned spacecraft in mid-2020, and the second best is the third quarter of 2022, which is barely acceptable. In short, it is We must land on Mars as soon as possible.

Not to mention how to achieve these two crazy goals, before the formal plan was proposed, NACA decided to increase the procurement number of super-heavy boosters, tripling it from 5 to 15, and proactively provided the additional 5 boosters. The price reaches US$300 million, and the requirement is to be fully delivered before mid-2019.

Delivering the remaining 12 boosters with SpecaX's production capacity is basically not a big problem, but a total of nearly 400 Raptor engines will take up most of the production capacity. However, under the premise of NACA's additional orders worth US$3 billion, the expansion of production It's also a piece of cake.

But Musk was shocked by the attitude shown by NACA. NACA must know best how difficult it is to land on Mars. He is now bragging about landing on Mars in 2020 and establishing a Mars base in 2026. But with the current posture, NACA seems to be preparing to put this Vision becomes reality!

It took him two and a half years to complete the manned mission to the moon. In his opinion, it was all about competing with the Chinese for first place. The risk was higher than the race to land on the moon!

Isn’t the lesson from that failure half a year ago enough? Since then, the entire NACA has begun to act cautiously, and even the president cannot interfere forcefully. After all, the consequences may be at the cost of the lives of astronauts.

The current sudden change is definitely abnormal, but the possibility of competing for first place is very small.

"Boss, boss?"

Scott woke up the distracted Musk and reminded:

"Vice President Mueller asks you to come over as soon as possible. He is already preparing to expand production."

"Of course...Scott, tell me more about the situation at that time."

…

Class B base.

An Maowei and Evan van Dishoek saw Lin Ju as soon as they got out of the car, and immediately happily stepped forward to shake hands.

"Boss Lin, I have long admired your name!"

"Thank you. I really didn't expect to see you in person."

An Maowei is the vice chairman of the Chinese Astronomical Society and the 41st Committee of the International Astronomical Union, while Ewen is the chairman of the 15th Committee and the vice chairman of the IAU. The two of them came here for the deep space exploration project.

"The Chairman of Committee 16 was recently in Sweden for an academic conference, but he will be visiting soon together with IAU President Debra Elgrelin."

An Maowei explained a little apologetically, but Lin Ju obviously didn't care and was very enthusiastic.

"You great scientists must have a lot to do, and you are doing things that are beneficial to all mankind. We should support you.

Please, let's go over there and talk in detail. "

The Astronomical Society moved faster than Lin Ju imagined. Maybe they were prepared in advance, but no matter what, it was very gratifying.

Of course, it may also have something to do with the pie that Xiao Gangtian drew for them. The payload mass of more than 10 tons at any time is not small.

An Maowei and Ewen wildly boasted and flattered Lin Ju and Xinyuan along the way. They didn't reveal their ultimate goal until they sat down:

"President Lin, more than 20 billion is too expensive. Can you lower the price?"

Evin is a Dutchman in his sixties. His Chinese is good and he does not need the help of a translator. It is a shame that he did not repeat the US dollar quotation of Xinyuan.

"Tens of billions of dollars can be spent to build a small nuclear power plant. If we spend this much just on the propulsion part, then we can only allocate a small budget to the detector, which is contrary to our purpose."

There was no expression change on Lin Ju's face, he just asked naturally:

"So how much budget does the IAU decide to invest in the entire detection plan?"

Ewin: "Our plan is to launch in 2020, with a total investment of no more than US$3.5 billion, but most of it needs to be allocated to various research organizations and universities for detection route research and component manufacturing. In fact, IAU has the highest amount of funds at its disposal. Not to exceed US$1 billion.

Lin Ju didn't speak. He already understood the IAU's reasons for persuading all walks of life from Ewen's somewhat embarrassed expression.

It is not that everyone raises money for IAU, but that all parties involved allocate sub-projects and fund relevant research themselves. Most of the billions of dollars are just gimmicks, and the actual funds that can be used are probably less than 1 billion US dollars. .

Even if it were all taken out, it would only be 6.7 billion yuan, and it would definitely take three years to gradually arrive, which is far behind expectations.

It is unrealistic to ask the IAU to pool all the money from all parties and give it to Xinyuan, in which case the company would probably be disbanded immediately.

Thinking of this, Lin Ju's mood had completely calmed down and he said calmly:

"Mr. Evin, I must remind you that even if the cost of rocket launch is very low now, it will cost more than 150 million US dollars to launch such a detector, and the remaining money is completely insufficient for the cost of our current A100 engine.

A smaller engine will of course be cheaper, but it will require another development expense, and $1 billion is completely insufficient.

And you must know that it is a journey of almost one billion kilometers to Saturn, which requires greatly improving the reliability of the nuclear engine. Even if we give you the lowest price, it will cost at least 2.2 billion US dollars. "

"this……"

Evin's face looked a little ugly. It was impossible for IAU to raise the US$2.2 billion, and it was impossible to give all the money to XAP. At least NACA would not allow them to do so.

In fact, NACA is also selling them a nuclear engine that has not yet been successfully developed. Although they guarantee that it can be put into use on time, who can say for sure.

At this time, Lin Ju struck again and began to emphasize Xinyuan's advantages:

"We can sign a contract. If Xinyuan cannot complete the development of a dedicated nuclear engine on time, we can use the off-the-shelf, more expensive and larger A100. No matter when you need it, we can guarantee that it will arrive at Saturn in 12 to 15 months.

If it is traditional aerospace technology, the time is 8 to 10 times this number; and equipped with a nuclear engine, the detector can freely detect Saturn and all its surrounding satellites, and there should even be remaining fuel to fly to Uranus or Neptune. Press In terms of detection capabilities, the cost-effectiveness of nuclear engines has increased more than ten times. "

Ewen, who was about to speak again, held it back. Of course, what Lin Ju said made sense. The committee had done many internal demonstrations, and it was a fact that it could be done.

At this time, he was caught in a dilemma. An Maowei, who had been watching, suddenly asked:

"Your nuclear engine uses liquid hydrogen fuel, right? Can it retain enough liquid hydrogen during a voyage that lasts for several years?

And won’t the engine nozzle be damaged by hydrogen plasma corrosion over a long period of time? "

Lin Ju: “No, of course not.

Xinyuan has solved these problems and carried out a lot of experiments. We are a commercial company and will bear corresponding responsibilities if there are problems with our products. "

An Maowei said "Oh" and stopped talking, quietly waiting for Ewen's answer.

The latter pressed his hands on his thighs and rubbed them for a long time. Then he stood up and answered with difficulty:

"I need to talk it over with someone else, but regardless, we appreciate the help."

"You are welcome."

Lin Ju also stood up and shook hands with him before politely seeing him off, and An Maowei also left.

This meeting almost dispelled all the expectations of his astronomical society. A mere few hundred million dollars was just a drop in the bucket in front of the huge gap in the Saturn plan, and even the unmanned exploration plan was far behind.

Just as he was rubbing his hair vigorously, a pair of soft hands placed on his shoulders and kneaded them gently.

"Is it not going well?"

"Not only is it not going well... we have to squeeze out at least four to five billion dollars in half a year. The time is short and the demand is huge. The IAU actually doesn't have that much capability. If it can give us one to two billion US dollars in half a year, it is considered positive. It's completely Can’t count on it.”

Lin Ju shook his head decisively. Now it happened to catch up with the start of the joint mining development. Multiple large projects were launched at the same time, and all the funds had their destinations. The urgently launched Saturn Project needed huge funds immediately. Such cash flow The request itself is demanding.

Yu Man: "Where's the space agency? Go tell them about the multiple deep space projects."

"No way... The space agency has a large budget for next year, but it can't give us that much right away. If it doesn't work, it can only shelve the construction of the scientific research center. Anyway, the launch window for Mars and Saturn before June cannot be missed. Otherwise, it will be another year of waiting.”

"But you said that the scientific research center is very important, and several big projects need this foundation."

"I can only look at the present first..."

Lin Ju smiled bitterly and shook his head. Of course, if Xinyuan reaches out to the civilian market, it will definitely be able to make a big impact, and it can easily subvert several industries, but that is a last resort, and it is far from that time.

While he was upset, he thought of the unusual movements on Saturn and Mars, and his mood became even more depressed.

"Don't think so much at once, maybe there will be a turn for the better."

Yu Man increased the strength of her hands. She didn't know the inside story of the Saturn mission yet, and looked at the darkening sky with her beautiful eyes.

In the other hemisphere in the direction of her sight, Office Thirteen had just formulated the first stage goal at this time.

…

presidential palace.

"The signals intercepted twice pointed in two different directions."

In the secret intelligence room, John and other staff were listening to David Usnow's report on the latest results.

David has none of the gloom and fear of the elites, only the seriousness and excitement of his work, and he points excitedly at the whiteboard.

"We have conducted a more detailed analysis of the M signal these days. Through... in short, many technical means, we have confirmed that the two signals are pointing to the most likely direction:

The first time it was headed in the direction of Ursa Major, the specific galaxy was unknown, and it passed right between Venus and Mercury;

The second signal pointed to the Southern Cross. There are no planets passing through the solar system in this direction. The two directions have absolutely no relationship.

But the source of the emission is obviously from the same one, which can only mean one thing - "

Everyone's emotions moved with David's raised finger, and they all held their breath:

"——The receiving source is moving. It may be a spacecraft or detector flying by, or it may be orbiting the sun. I prefer the latter."

"..."

Claire couldn't help but raise her hand:

"David, what is the reason for the second possibility? The interval between the two signals we received is less than a month, and the directions are so different. How can the moving celestial body rotate so fast? In that case, we will observe extremely An obvious electromagnetic signal, but there is no such thing in the solar system."

"But you're talking about natural orbits. What if the receiving source is powered?"

David immediately retorted:

“And based on the signal strength of the transmitting source, there is a very high probability that the receiving source is within the solar system. Electromagnetic wave transmission in the universe is not only inefficient, but also has a high delay, so it must be relayed and forwarded through some kind of device.

Judging from the second signal we were able to intercept, their monitoring methods in the solar system are very limited, and they are probably not in the solar system themselves.

Moreover, our detectors on Mars have been working for so many years and have only recently begun to receive signals. What does this mean? "