The military-industrial scientific research system of the academic master

Of course Griffin knows his own affairs very well.

Although NASA has always claimed that it is prepared to solve the threat posed by space debris 40396, in fact, it has always been at the stage of talking.

It wasn't until at most five minutes ago that a specific action plan appeared in my mind for the first time. At this moment, I didn't even have time to talk to Meyer, my most trusted assistant.

And then it was announced across the Pacific that the plan had failed?

This obviously cannot be a problem with confidentiality.

But the other party wants to cheat!

Griffin immediately wanted to ask the news center to write an article to refute, but after a moment of hesitation, he decided to look at the other party's specific remarks before organizing a more targeted counterattack.

"Send me the original text from China!"

He suppressed his anger, which was already on the verge of exploding, and said to John Yambrick on the other end of the phone.

Playing with public opinion with the United States?

We must let the other side see what true media hegemony is!

"Uh... we don't have the original text yet."

Yambrick heard the anger in the director's tone and felt a little guilty:

"It was a regular press conference. The topic was originally about China's first spacewalk mission, but then it suddenly turned to the construction of the space station, so..."

Being rushed together by all kinds of chaos, Griffin no longer had the patience to listen to these minutiae and interrupted the other party directly:

"As soon as the draft of the press conference comes out, translate it and send it to me!"

After hanging up the phone, Griffin's mind began to think rapidly.

"Has the data handover for the X37 verification project been completed?"

He looked up at Meyer across from him.

Although the latter did not have the ability to take charge of his own affairs, he was indeed capable as an assistant. Faced with this somewhat abrupt question, he almost nodded without thinking:

"Actually, part of the X37 project data is still with us. The R\u0026D team that was previously responsible for docking with Boeing has not been completely disbanded. Even the prototype of the X37A has not had time to be transferred to the Air Force Factory 42... So now we have to re- There are no obstacles to taking over, and it is expected that flight tests in the atmosphere will be restarted as early as September.”

Hearing this, Griffin showed a helpless smile.

The last time X37B was transferred from NASA to the Air Force was in 2004. Now two years later, it still has a lot of tails. This efficiency is obviously saddening to hear and weeping to listen.

But in a way, it's a blessing in disguise.

Meyer continued:

"The only problem at the moment is that because the retirement of the space shuttle is approaching, the original plan of launching into orbit through the space shuttle cargo bay needs to be changed to using the Delta 4 launch vehicle, which may take some extra time to determine the real launch date. It will be postponed until the end of 2008 at the earliest.”

"Judging from the current plan of the Chinese people to capture by flying net, it may be too late to use X37 to carry out the mission..."

Griffin lowered his head slightly and his brain began to work rapidly:

"Atlantis is currently in a state of readiness, and the expected window is early September. However, even if the design parameters of the Chinese capture mechanism are obtained through special channels, it is unlikely to be released in just over two months. Complete mission preparations, so we can only settle for the next best thing and consider the Discovery mission in December..."

"Judging from China's statement at the press conference, will they..."

When Griffin answered the phone just now, he specifically did not ask Meyer to recuse himself, so the latter also heard the conversation.

"Just listen to what was said at the press conference."

Griffin waved his hand to interrupt the other party, looking like he didn't care much:

"During this period, the Russians have been talking about threats to the International Space Station almost every week. If you only listen to their statements, then they are the ones most likely to solve the problem..."

But then he added another paragraph, which seemed more like convincing himself than convincing Meyer:

"China does not have a multi-functional spacecraft with sufficient mission flexibility like the space shuttle, so even if the capture device is successfully developed, it will still need to design and produce a satellite separately... When I was the chief engineer of NASA and After dealing with China, their process will take about six to eight months. Combined with this year’s rocket launch mission schedule, it can be roughly guessed that China will take action in the first half of next year.”

This speculation is reasonable and well-founded. Even if someone else were standing here, they wouldn't be able to find much to refute.

What's more, Meyer had no objections and continued to perform his functions as an assistant:

"The STS-116 mission carried out by Discovery included four space walks, but three of them were for repairing and adjusting space station equipment. Only one P5 structure really needed to be transported, so there was ample space in the cargo bay to deploy an additional mission. module."

"That's just right..."

Griffin wanted to say something more, but the computer on the table suddenly sounded a beep.

It is an encrypted email sent to an internal mailbox.

After opening it, he quickly found the press conference draft forwarded from the press center in the attachment.

Griffin quickly skipped the previous few routine questions related to manned spaceflight and directly pulled the scroll bar on the right to the end.

Sure enough, it was the part that Yambrick mentioned before.

"We used the latest technology to evaluate the solar activity pattern in the next six months and found that starting from August 30, there will be a solar storm lasting about 40-60 days. At that time, high-energy particles ejected from the center of the solar system will induce Joule heating causes the density of the Earth's upper atmosphere to rise, thereby increasing the air resistance in middle and low orbits..."

"Based on past experience and calculations, a spacecraft with a similar mass to No. 40396 space junk will have its orbital altitude drop by about 80-150 meters per day without power compensation. The International Space Station will be affected by drag due to its size advantage. is smaller, it will significantly increase the chance of a collision."

“After the United States ignored the concerns and dissuasion of the international community and insisted on conducting anti-satellite tests on March 5, which ultimately triggered a huge crisis related to the safety of astronauts, NASA has publicly stated on many occasions that it will work hard to eliminate the risks faced by the International Space Station, and China has always had the greatest goodwill and hopes that the United States can make up for the mistakes it has made."

“However, as of today, with only about two months left before the solar storm hits, the United States is still inconsistent with its words and deeds, and has not taken any effective actions... Considering the personal safety of the International Space Station and astronauts in orbit, we have officially Announced that it will no longer wait in vain, but will work with other international communities with a positive attitude to jointly carry out this space debris cleanup mission..."

"..."

After reading about a whole page of eloquent content, Griffin's temples were pounding, and he felt a burst of blood in front of his eyes.

This statement may seem polite, but if translated, the meaning is probably——

My brother has been gloating about the excitement for three months, and I guess you are really in trouble, so I am going to lead my brothers to set up a separate mountain and settle this matter alone.

He took several deep breaths in succession and finally managed to control his urge to slam the table.

Then he picked up the phone again and called the person in charge of the news center:

"The Chinese people are planning to use solar storms as an issue, but they are completely on the wrong side of the gun... When it comes to studying solar activity, no one can do better than us now."

"I will immediately ask Meyer to send you a remote sensing map of the solar energy observation satellite and related analysis results. You will make them public on our official website first, and then focus on explaining them at the press conference tonight... The peak impact will only last for 1-2 days. It will take three consecutive solar storms of the same intensity for the piece of space debris to fall to roughly the same height as the International Space Station. The next two years will be low years of solar activity, that is There is no need to worry until at least 2009..."

"..."

…

12 hours later.

Early the next morning, Beijing time.

Chang Haonan had just returned to the Space Fishing Ship Project Command Center from the Ninth Academy of Aerospace Science and Industry when he saw Xing Muchun hurriedly appearing at the door of his office holding a report.

"Academician Chang, there were two emergencies last night that need to be reported to you."

The latter said as he put the document in his hand on the table:

"First, NASA held a special press conference to refute our claim that solar storms may cause danger to the space station, and also produced raw data from the two solar energy observation satellites as proof... The current direction of public opinion It's still roughly a 50-50 split, but as more and more professionals express their opinions, I'm worried that the situation will develop in a direction that is not conducive to us..."

"I have already seen the briefing on the press conference on the way..."

Chang Haonan shook his head and replied:

"Although what they said is indeed correct, the truth is not important in this matter... Furthermore, we said before that the risk of collision was increased, but we did not say that a collision would definitely occur, so it is not considered false."

"With the current situation, it doesn't matter which way the public opinion is blowing. The key is to keep this matter hot enough from now on until the space fishing ship mission is completed... In addition, the key to the public opinion war is to always maintain If we have the initiative, as long as we let the other party fall into a self-evident trap, then we will have countless scapegoats to blame and let them jump into the yellow... Even jumping into the Mississippi River can't clean them up..."

In the past, due to the disadvantage of the influence of public opinion, China usually fell into this dilemma.

But now, it's finally Americans' turn to experience it for themselves.

It can also be considered an offensive and defensive type.

And even Chang Haonan himself has to admit that this kind of behavior of pointing fingers from the moral high ground is really satisfying...

More to come in the future.

As an honest person, Xing Muchun was still a little doubtful about this, but Chang Haonan was the commander-in-chief of the entire plan after all, so he had no choice but to temporarily put aside his worries and switch to the second topic:

"Okay... In addition, Stellar Company sent us a reminder through unofficial channels, saying that because it is not a commercial activity, the restrictions stipulated in the patent are very weak. The distributed node flexible grabbing system we entrusted to them 'Once it enters the formal production stage, it may be difficult to keep it secret for a long time..."

"In other words, if the United States is more flexible, it may be able to obtain the relevant parameters of this module just one step later than us... Even if some core data is missing, it can be made up in a relatively short period of time."

"It's not surprising...the bond between the United States and Europe is still too deep, especially in the aerospace field."

Chang Haonan did not show any surprise or anger:

"I estimate that NASA will be able to replicate our plan by the end of this year at the earliest, or the beginning of next year at the latest, so I insisted on using solid rockets and modular satellite design, and strive to complete the entire mission before the end of September... This will not only allow us to get ahead of the Americans, but also make them work in vain for a while, wasting some of their time and resources!"