The Great Elder took a deep breath, as the leader of a large country with a population of 1.4 billion, the Great Elder quickly regained his composure and said, "Xiao Chen, the matter is very important, I need to convene an enlarged meeting of the Council of Elders immediately, I hope you can also attend!"

Chen Xin smiled and nodded, "It's an honor!"

……

Two hours later, in a conference room in ZNH.

The seven Elder Elders of the Council of Elders and more than 20 alternate elders packed the conference room, and with the exception of a few elders who were unable to attend because they were out of town, the core of the Chinese power was almost all present.

In addition, more than 10 top scientists with important influence in the field of scientific research in the Republic attended the conference.

After all the people arrived, the Great Elder made an opening remark: "Today's meeting was held in a hurry, but because of the urgency of the matter, I can't take care of it so much for the time being! This person next to me must be known to everyone, Mr. Chen Xin from the War Suddenly Bureau, this meeting is also related to a news that Mr. Chen has just told me!"

The Grand Elder paused and continued, "As you must all know, a month ago, on behalf of the Republic, I reached an agreement with the War Surprise Bureau, and after the two aerospace planes of the War Sudden Situation are in place, we will discuss the space elevator plan and the scale of investment at the Council of Elders. However, after learning this news, I don't think I need to wait that long, and the main topic of this meeting is whether our country should fully support the space elevator program. Before that, Mr. Chen Xin will announce to you the latest discovery of the war!"

As he spoke, the Great Elder nodded at Chen Xin.

Everyone also focused on Chen Xin. I wanted to hear what kind of important discovery made the Great Elder gather everyone so recklessly, and several elders even postponed the foreign affairs activities that had been scheduled for this reason.

Chen Xin stood up, swept his gaze over everyone's faces one by one, and said slowly: "Hello leaders, today, on behalf of the war situation, I officially inform the Republic of the important discovery of our Firefly probe on Mars -- our side has found ice in the interior of an extinct volcano at 72.1 degrees south latitude and 125.6 degrees west longitude on Mars! That is to say, there is water on Mars!"

Chen Xin's voice fell, and the conference room was completely silent, at this moment. Almost all of them became sculptures. His eyes stared at Chen Xin motionlessly, as if they were all shocked by the news, and a few elders who were drinking water didn't even notice that the cup in his hand was crooked.

"Mars has water?!"

The first to react was the dozen or so top scientists who were specially invited to participate in the meeting, and a rocket expert surnamed Nie said in a trembling voice: "Mr. Chen." Are you sure. Is there really water on Mars?"

Chen Xin nodded with a smile. took out a round tray and put it in the center of the conference table, pressed the button on the side and said, "This is some of the information taken by the Firefly Probe on Mars, you can take a look!"

The mesh hole in the center of the tray casts a stream of light. A 3D holographic projection is formed over the conference table.

Chen Xin continued: "I think you should remember the Forbes-Soil probe a few months ago, right? After the War Bureau repaired it, a small Mars rover made by the War Bureau was placed on it, and we named it Firefly. Later, the Firefly landed on Mars, and has been doing some basic scientific exploration work on Mars for the past few months, and to be honest, we didn't expect to actually find the existence of underground ice on Mars. ”

Everyone in the conference room looked at each other, and for a while, no one knew what to say.

When the Forbes-Soil Mars probe was repaired, although China and Russia made a big bargain, they were wondering if the Forbes-Soil Mars rover would do anything.

Now they know that the Forbes-Soil is also carrying an uninvited guest from the war.

There was a buzz in the conference room, and most people were bowing their heads to each other and discussing.

After everyone digested their words, Chen Xincai said: "Okay, I won't say much about the rest, let's take a look at the information taken by the Firefly first!"

The room fell silent again, and everyone stared intently at the 3D holographic projection of Mars above the table.

Even the Great Elder is no exception, after all, all the images of Mars that humans see so far come from the images taken by the American Opportunity, Spirit and Curiosity rovers, which are completely incomparable to the holographic projection of high-definition movies presented by the war.

The video is about an hour and a half long, and Steelhammer has taken all the wonderful footage taken by the Firefly after landing on Mars, put them together in categories, and combined them with baritone commentary, to form a fairly comprehensive Martian documentary that even the laymen from the presbyterian church from the political world can fully understand.

From the origin and evolution of Mars to the Martian atmosphere, landform and topography, soil and rocks, physical fields and internal structure, etc., Mars is elaborated and introduced.

Inside, there are the vast wasteland of Mars, the majestic mountains, the terrifying sandstorms, the sunrise and sunset, the double moon glowing, and all kinds of wonders that shocked everyone in the conference room.

It wasn't until the second half of the video that footage of the extinct volcano where ice was found beneath the ground began to appear.

The steel hammer named the volcano Phoenix Mountain.

When the Firefly probe entered the interior of Phoenix Mountain, almost everyone was shocked by the huge space and strange geological formations inside Phoenix Mountain, especially when they went deep underground along the strange karst cave and found thick ice, these high-ranking officials who had always shown a calm and calm image in the past couldn't help but exclaim.

As for those scientists, they also rippled one by one, and a few aerospace experts even began to whisper academic discussions despite being in important venues.

Chen Xin put away the holographic projector and said: "At present, the war is preparing to send a second probe to Mars to conduct a comprehensive exploration of this area, determine the ice content in the depths of the stratum in the area, and prepare for the next step to establish a Mars base and even a Martian city." Based on the principle of complementarity of resources, we hope that China will also join this plan. ”

The conference room gradually fell silent, and everyone couldn't help but look at each other, and finally, everyone's eyes were focused on the Great Elder.

The Great Elder said slowly: "The development value of Mars must be clear to everyone, and water resources are an important factor that cannot be ignored in large-scale space development. In the past, when Mr. Chen proposed to me to jointly develop space elevators, I was still a little hesitant, worried that it would affect the economic development of China. But now, the discovery of ice on Mars has made the planet extremely strategically valuable. Personally, I believe that cooperating with the War Storm to develop a space elevator is a rare strategic opportunity for our country, especially of great significance to whether our country can grasp the right to speak in the solar system in the future. ”

Elder No. 2 interjected: "What the Great Elder said is right, the development of Mars may not see many results in our generation, but it is of great significance to our next generation, the next generation, and even the future of mankind, I personally agree." ”

"I agree!"

"I agree. ”

Next, all the standing elders and alternate elders of the Council of Elders also agreed.

When it was the scientists' turn to speak, Nie Lao looked at Chen Xin with blazing eyes and said: "Mr. Chen, on behalf of the aerospace community, I would like to ask, is the war really ready to make technical reserves for colonizing Mars? You should know that based on China's current level of science and technology, large-scale space development requires countless resources, and if it is not technically prepared, it will be a catastrophe for this country. ”

Chen Xin smiled: "I can guarantee this! There is no problem with the technology." ”

Nie Lao stared at Chen Xin for a long time before he said solemnly: "Okay, then I will believe you......!