Mars has once again entered the public's field of vision.

Since the launch of three Mars probes last year, the Mars window has passed, and Mars has "disappeared" from the public's view.

It's not that Mars is really gone, it's that not many people are paying attention to it.

Then in February this year, when the three Mars probes entered the orbit of Mars one after another, the topic of Mars became hot again.

But when the rover should be put into orbit, and the rover should be released from the landing, people will be fresh for a few days, and the topic of Mars will be silent again.

And this time, it seems that Mars is really on fire.

Official and non-governmental, group and individual, always and often, this is how much attention Mars is getting right now.

No way, who let the aliens come.

Mars is naturally associated with "aliens".

In the early days, astronomers used simple telescopes to observe Mars, and they discovered that the ice caps at the north and south poles of Mars change with the seasons, just like the ice caps on Earth.

Later, it was found that Mars and Earth are similar in many aspects, such as rotation cycles and seasonal changes.

As telescopes become more sophisticated and larger, people can still see mountains, sandstorms, river valleys, and even "canals" on Mars.

At that time, it was thought that there might be life on Mars.

Then, the writers can't control their hands.

Soon after, "The War of the Worlds", also known as "The Martian Invades Earth", was born.

This was followed by a series of Mars-related sci-fi.

Later, a prominent media personality at Merrican aired a radio drama live on CBS.

This radio drama is based on "The War of the Worlds", and it is called "The Martians Invade Earth".

This media person uses a situational approach that opens with a pseudo-news report, which is the pseudo-documentary mode used in movies now, but at that time it was broadcast.

The radio talked about burning meteorites falling to the ground, and described the terrifying appearance of aliens, and then there were explosions, screams, reporters in front of them, many places were destroyed by attacks, and so on.

The radio drama was broadcast during World War II, and it was broadcast in a way that mimicked news broadcasts, so many Merrican listeners believed it, and it immediately caused panic among more than a million Merriken people, and some packed up their packages and ran out of the city.

When the film technology improved, Merrican began to shoot science fiction films related to Mars, or that the aliens at that time were all from Mars, and it was not nonsense to come, just to grab food, money, and women.

By the way, you can also connote the opposite side of the ocean.

Because Mars is also red.

People used to use telescopes on the earth to see, but later the Mars probe was launched, and people finally saw the true face of Mars.

But as soon as they saw it, people were shocked!

"There are really Martians on Mars!"

Merriken's Viking Mars rover photographed a landscape in orbit and sent it back to Earth, and the media and viewers looked at the images and found that it was actually a Martian face the size of a mountain.

This is definitely a marvel for the Martians!

However, with the improvement of the resolution of the cameras of the next few probes, people no longer see such a human face, it is an ordinary Martian mountain.

But the "Martian face" is so famous, so later there was a science fiction movie called "Mission to Mars" that used that as a gimmick, about the relationship between humans and Martians.

Later, there were probes that landed on Mars, and people found that Mars was a dead silence, with nothing but sand, so people slowly became less enthusiastic.

But Mars is Mars, and it always surprises people.

It was found that in ancient times, Mars was similar to Earth.

There is a thick atmosphere, there is a lot of water resources, there is volcanic activity, etc., but Mars is too small to preserve these things for a long time, and it has slowly become what it is now.

As for whether it has ever produced life, people really don't know, at least so far, the probes that have landed have not found anything of value.

But now that there is water, people take it for granted that there is life, and even if there is no intelligent life, there will be other life.

It's just that I haven't found it yet.

After all, humans have only thrown a few Mars rovers at it, and these rovers are slower than turtles, and the places to explore are very limited, so it is not surprising that they cannot find anything useful.

So people have been thinking about sending someone to land on Mars and have a field trip.

If the previous Cold War had been fought, maybe the field trip to Mars would have been completed now, but after the end of the Cold War, the aerospace industry was too expensive, so various goals and funds were greatly reduced, and the moon could not be landed until now.

It's not that the technology can't do it, but it's that I'm reluctant to spend so much money.

And now, again, it is time to have to spend money, because the "aliens" are coming.

Speaking of Merriken's side alone, the people of the space agency are boiling.

The approval of the increase in space funding was passed, the previously mothballed Mars landing plan was taken out of the archives, various high-level meetings were held one after another, universities, private companies, and private research institutes were notified, and various orders were scattered like snowflakes.

There is only one goal for all of this, and that is Mars!

"We're going to send someone to land on it!"

Some of the old people had tears in their eyes, and the Merrican of that time, it came back.

Merrican is really great again, understand Wang Niupi!

In the future, I will follow the king to understand.

Merrican Aerospace, a conference room blocked by gendarmes, was very lively.

"What about this, the nuclear rocket plan that has been set before, compared with traditional rockets, the propulsion efficiency is more than 2 times, the speed is more than 3 times, the overall spacecraft can reduce the weight by 60%, and it only takes half the time of a chemical rocket to and from Mars."

"That's good, it's a plan that was finalized decades ago, and although the times are different, it's more beneficial for us, and with more advanced technology, we can make it more suitable for flying in space."

"I don't think so, thermonuclear rockets are still too dangerous, and once a nuclear leak occurs, the lives of astronauts cannot be guaranteed."

"Yes, the radiation in space is very serious, and if you let the astronauts stay with the nuclear radiation, it doesn't matter if they can get to Mars."

"I also think it's time to reconsider, even if you don't consider the astronauts, it's not safe to launch and go into space, once the rocket fails to launch or the spacecraft crashes on any planet, it will cause a nuclear disaster, not to mention that the engine itself is still spraying nuclear radiation gas, which is simply expensive and dangerous."

"You are all too careful, we are technologically advanced enough now that a crash will not happen at all, and as for the nuclear gas, it is theoretically under control."

"Look, look, you also say it's 'theoretical', what's the use of just talking about theory in this kind of thing?"

"I've seen the previously sealed materials, and our relevant technology is actually not perfect, and any rocket and spacecraft carrying nuclear materials will require a lot of research costs to develop, and it will take a lot of time, and we will not have time."

"Alas, if only we had the advanced ion propulsion technology of the Navigator company, their ion thruster vacuum thrust has reached the thousand-newton level, we only have the cattle level, and there is no way to use it on large space equipment."

"It's a pity that the two countries have no intersection in the aerospace field at all, although the relationship between the two space agencies is good, but it can't deny the fact that we suppressed them very hard, and now it is reasonable for them not to agree."

"At that time, the politician should not have been allowed to go up and give a speech, if a scientist had been allowed to do something, it might have succeeded!"

"Actually, it's not impossible, we can use chemical propulsion equipment and ion propulsion equipment together, and when we enter the orbit of Mars, we can use chemical propulsion equipment to accelerate the spacecraft to a very high speed, and then throw them away, turn on the ion propulsion and slowly accelerate, which is actually a way."

"No, it's too troublesome, track assembly technology is a risky thing, and adding another set of power systems, the degree of cumbersomeness will rise sharply, no, no."

"Why not, I think it's okay!"

A group of people are arguing endlessly, all talking about things from decades ago, as if there is no more advanced technology now.

Well, well, there doesn't seem to be a leap forward in the current technology, at most, the development of electronic computer technology has made flight control capabilities and automation technology better.

But when it comes to landing on Mars and space voyages, in the final analysis, it still comes down to the power plant.

With a powerful enough power plant, they can send astronauts to Mars and even further into the stars quickly and safely.

Unfortunately, in a few decades, there has not been much progress in the power system of interstellar voyages.

Even if it progresses, it's not theirs.

That's why it's sad.

And even if the advanced ion propulsion system is given to them, they actually don't dare to use it directly on the long-distance manned spacecraft.

NASA is not actually a gathering place for the most advanced technology, but the safest and most reliable gathering place for science and technology.

You don't see the space fork of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, at the beginning of the use of a cool rocket thrust back landing, stunned to let the space agency in the name of safety, replaced with a traditional parachute landing, forced to directly lower two levels.

If you don't change to a parachute, sorry, you won't get the order.

In their view, the use of advanced ion propulsion in the Navigator unmanned exploration spacecraft is a test.

Otherwise, who would build a 32-ton Mars rover, and even the complexity directly turned it into a small spaceship.

This is certainly a technical test for future manned spacecraft on Mars.

So even if they get the technology, they have to build an unmanned spacecraft to give it a try.

But the unmanned spacecraft of the Navigator is about to take off, they don't even have a design, and it's too late for time.

Not to mention that the most important "alien probe" has not yet been discovered, and what they are doing now is also the most advanced preparation.

There are no things used in aerospace that can be done in a day or two.

However, these aerospace experts only know that they are going to build a Mars spacecraft, but they don't know why they want to build it.

Why do you have to build a Martian spacecraft separately on your side?

And also to keep it secret.

They don't understand that the top management who plays a decisive role is clear.

It just so happened that when there was a meeting there, there was also a meeting in another secret conference room, but there were no scientists here, mostly politicians in suits and soldiers in military uniforms.

"This matter must be kept secret, and it must be fast, now the probe on the Martian side has basically been determined to be aliens, so we may encounter real aliens at any time."

A fat-headed and big-eared politician paused at this, then looked at the others and continued: "If aliens are evil, we will definitely not be able to run, we don't have that ability, no country on the earth has that ability, but as the most powerful country on the earth, we also have our confidence." ”

"Now our main hypothesis is alien friendliness, even if it's not friendly, it's sensible and negotiable, and we have to be the first country to come into contact with them!"

"So we're going to build a spaceship that can carry people as soon as possible."

That's Merrican's plan.

Cooperation between countries, information sharing, and the non-contact regulations of the Convention on Contacts between Human Civilization and Extraterrestrial Civilizations are all nonsense.

Of course, if aliens are evil and non-negotiable, the whole world must be on the side when they are beaten and resisted, after all, there is a treaty, and international law is clearly written.

But if the aliens are good, or negotiable, then sorry, Merrican must be the greatest nation on Earth.

And don't say anyone, don't look at Merrican is preparing to build Mars or a spacecraft, other countries must be building it.

You don't have to think about it.

If any country really acts scrupulously in accordance with international law, then that country is not far from death.

In fact, it is.

Europa Space Agency has also been meeting recently, and it has completely ignored the technical experts on the Merrican side, and only found aerospace experts that can be absolutely trusted on its side, and is also thinking about building a long-distance spacecraft.

It's been too long since the center of the world left Europa, and it's time for it to come back.

The sphere of influence on the earth has been fixed for a long time and is not easy to break, but once an external force intervenes, it is different.

Not to mention that the external forces are so "external" this time!

So maybe this is an opportunity that they need to seize.

However, the threshold for this opportunity is relatively high, and the starting point is a manned long-distance spaceship.

After all, if the aliens come, let the alien's spaceship land directly at the door of the house to talk about cooperation, and drive the spaceship yourself to meet and talk about cooperation in space, the result will definitely be different.

In addition, there are hairy bears, who are also thinking about building a long-distance spaceship, but their funds are really difficult to come up with.

So they need to find a big dog to work with.

Judging from their analysis, it is estimated that they are willing to cooperate in this regard, after all, several other capable companies are richer than him, and there is no shortage of ability and funds, and there is no need for those countries to cooperate with other countries.

The distribution of power in the world may be reordered, and they are sure that those who have money but no power will not miss this opportunity.

Relatively speaking, the situation in Tianxia is complicated.

Because there are too many surprises brought by the Navigator Company, there is no need to rush to build a long-distance spaceship, and even install a suitable power system for the Tianting space station, it is a huge long-distance spaceship.

Tang Chao had considered its flight ability when it was originally designed, so its force structure was a spaceship structure, as long as it didn't accelerate too fast or perform any extreme maneuvers, the structure was absolutely fine.

Of course, a long-distance spaceship doesn't need to be that big, and given the flexibility required by the spacecraft, a smaller size and a sturdier structure would be more appropriate.

Therefore, the voyage spacecraft should be a simplified version of the structure of the Tianting space station, plus the power module, it is a qualified manned voyage spacecraft.

These are not troublesome, so they are thinking about what to do after the aliens come.

The friendly alien also said that if it is not friendly, then it is a sentence: "If you seek peace through struggle, you will live in peace, and if you seek peace through compromise, you will die in peace." ”

Tianxia will definitely let them know how powerful humans are.