Super technology leader

"I think... Navigator Aerospace is subtly mocking the Americans."

"Why do you say that?"

"Look, the American Mars spacecraft is 60 meters long and called Enterprise, a typical protagonist ship name, definitely given high hopes. But Navigator's Mars spacecraft is 120 meters long and called Spore, the size comparison is quite telling, don't you think?"

"Wow, I see the picture."

"It's not just that. Look at the Enterprise spacecraft, with only two modules, and its assembled form doesn't resemble any sci-fi spaceship. Then look at the Spore spacecraft, wow, a driving module, an experimental module, a simulated gravity module, an ion thruster, and it's also equipped with two landing crafts and two living cabins. This is a sci-fi long-range exploration spaceship!"

"Indeed."

"I didn't expect Navigator to assemble this long-range spaceship in just one month, and I think its concept is excellent, taking that step for humanity. Its technology has indeed arrived. The Spore, responsible for 'taking this step,' is a complete long-range exploration spaceship, considering all aspects and having sufficient technology to realize them, instead of a pieced-together, forced long-range voyage that is irresponsible for the astronauts' lives and still thinking about starting a war with a broken spaceship."

"You are right."

"Wait, why do you keep praising me? Are we doing cross-talk(相声: a form of Chinese comedic performance) here?"

"What do you think?"

"Wow, if we really team up to do cross-talk(相声: a form of Chinese comedic performance), you must promise me one thing."

"What is it?"

"Hey, I get excited when I talk about this. You go get a perm, and I'll go get a buzz cut."

"Get out of here!"

Well, they were indeed doing cross-talk(相声: a form of Chinese comedic performance). As soon as Navigator Aerospace's Spore spacecraft was assembled, people started creating humorous content. This video is one of many such works.

However, since there are two things with the same purpose and from different companies and institutions, people with leisure time will naturally compare them.

Many times, comparisons have no clear results because they turn into flame wars and chaos, but this time the result is different. Navigator's winning chance is too great.

Especially when Navigator started publishing some information and data about the Spore, the Spore's victory became even more certain.

120 meters long and 50 meters wide at its widest point.

This 50-meter width is not just the width of the solar panel array when unfolded; it is the actual usable space width. The medium-sized simulated gravity rotating cabin reaches this diameter, and even the node cabin section connected to the two Mars living cabins has this width.

These large modules, large spaces, and large solar panel arrays directly increased the Spore's mass to 500 tons.

This 500 tons is its base mass. If you add the two Mars landing crafts and two Mars living cabins it carries, its mass can reach 820 tons.

The four things it carries alone have a mass of 320 tons, not to mention that there are many unpressurized cargo holds hanging outside the integrated experimental cabin in the middle of the Spore.

These unpressurized cargo holds can hold a lot of things, such as orbital probes, landing probes, deep-space probes, relay communication satellites, and astronomical telescopes.

The Spore itself is a long-range exploration spacecraft. The places it goes to are basically places that humans have never touched, like this time's target—Mars.

Initially, to explore Mars, humans could only launch rockets from Earth and then consume a lot of fuel to fly to Mars.

If it were handed over to the Spore, it could fly directly to Mars orbit and then release the orbital and landing probes in the unpressurized cargo hold to explore Mars from multiple dimensions.

Even if the astronauts on the Spore want to land, it's simple.

Select a suitable landing site from the data detected by the orbital probe, then control the orbital probe to focus on observing the pre-selected landing site, and finally launch a landing probe to conduct close reconnaissance and landing reconnaissance on the pre-selected landing site.

Because they are not flying from Earth themselves, but are transported by the Spore, they do not need to carry extra fuel and deep-space propulsion platforms. They are directly the probe bodies, so they can be very small. A one-ton landing probe can carry a small Mars rover and a small helicopter to land on Mars.

Moreover, there is an orbital probe in orbit, which makes it easy to contact the Spore, so they don't even need to walk autonomously, which is too slow. Astronauts can remotely control them from the spacecraft with almost no delay, allowing them to quickly explore various places.

After everything is explored clearly, if the conditions are right, then the astronauts can land on Mars.

With the landing spacecraft and ground living cabin, astronauts can safely carry out long-term scientific research missions.

If it is not suitable, then this can become an unmanned detection point, allowing the Mars rover and helicopter to explore autonomously and continue to contribute to scientific research. The astronauts can choose another landing site.

Moreover, since they are already here, launching deep-space probes in Mars orbit is much easier than launching deep-space probes directly on Earth.

Mars is closer to "deep space" than Earth, and it is already in orbit, so there is no need to resist gravity to take off. You can directly launch the deep-space probe.

In this case, the deep-space probe can fly a longer distance in a shorter time, and a small amount of fuel can also maneuver for a longer time, which is very good.

Letting the long-range spacecraft carry equipment and launch it at any time not only saves effort but also reduces the non-mission loss of equipment.

Just like when Tianxia(天夏: ancient name of china) did before, in order to let Chang'e 4 land on the back of the moon, they launched a relay satellite in advance.

It's just that this satellite was launched a bit early, half a year in advance.

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Originally, its scheduled lifespan was three years, but this time it was used for half a year without carrying out any relay missions.

Moreover, Chang'e 4 is still working. When the relay satellite is scrapped, Chang'e 4, which is on the back of the moon, will lose contact with Earth, and continuous scientific research data will no longer be able to be transmitted back to Earth.

This is the impact of equipment being consumed in advance.

If you want to talk about the most powerful guy on the Spore, it has to be its ion engine.

The ion engine it uses is called the "Super Accelerator", which is a super-upgraded version of the ion engine technology used on the previous "unmanned Mars spacecraft", but unlike that experimental item, this time it is already a universal version of the ion engine for large long-range spacecraft.

Because it uses solar panels for power, its power cannot be 100% utilized. It will not be able to exert its full strength until the nuclear fusion device can be installed on the spacecraft.

Even so, it is enough.

When the positions of Earth and Mars are suitable, it only takes 20 days to fly from one side to the other.

So, don't think that the Enterprise, driven by the "protagonists", has already set off for a month, but as long as the Spore sets off these days, it can completely "Deja Vu(逮虾户: catch shrimp family)" past them and arrive on Mars two months earlier.

So, is the Spore ready?

Of course!

After all the modules were assembled in place, and then unmanned startup and autonomous operation were performed, and all data boxes and module states were OK, the astronauts boarded the orbital shuttle and entered space.

Because the four docking ports of the node cabin are docked with additional equipment, the orbital shuttle docked to the driving room at the front end.

The driving room of the Spore is a conical module, not a flat or round one. It looks like the driving module at the front of the spacecraft, which is in line with human's structural understanding of flying facilities.

Its cone tip opens to be a docking port, which is the fifth external equipment docking port on the spacecraft.

And the first person to enter the Spore's driving room was Tang Chao!

Chapter Two 11 o'clock