9 a.m. Washington time.

Lounge behind the scenes of NASA's press conference.

Director Carson, who was standing in front of the mirror, reached out and tightened the tie on his chest, straightened his appearance, and suddenly said abruptly.

"Gerstenmeier, do you believe in God?"

Sitting on a chair not far away, Deputy Director Gerstenmeier was slightly stunned after hearing this, and hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"I ...... Sorry, I'm not a believer. ”

"Are you a materialist?"

"Sort of," Deputy Director Gerstenmeier shrugged, "after all, dealing with rockets and satellites every day, even the most devout believers will have doubts about their faith. ”

"Then we don't seem to be the same kind of people," said Director Carson slowly, smiling slightly at himself in the mirror, "I'm an idealist. ”

“…… So you believe in theism? ”

"No, what I call idealism is not the kind of idealism you understand, but a spiritual awakening. How can we make our country great again? The most important thing is not how to make it great, but to convince our people that we can do it and are doing it. ”

At this point, he stopped talking, and looked at the bewildered Deputy Director Gerstenmeier, Carson lifted his cuffs and glanced at his watch.

"It's almost time, the reporters are still waiting for us, it's time to go."

……

The lights are on.

Dressed in a formal attire, Director Carson stepped up to the stage, nodded to the audience of reporters and cameras, and then announced the start of the press conference.

Originally, this kind of press conference should have been done by a dedicated press spokesperson, but considering the incident caused by the bad performance of the press speaker in the last press conference, Carson felt that it would be better to do it himself this time.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to attend our press conference. Just over a week ago, the Congressional Budget Committee approved our budget for the first part of the Ares program, a BFR super rocket with a total weight of 25 tons of life support units, to be launched to Mars in a month to send our future new home to the surface of Mars. ”

As he spoke, Director Carson looked at the big screen behind him.

"When I say life support unit, that's it."

The moment the voice falls, the screen switches.

In the center of the big screen, there was a hemispherical white building.

According to the diagram in the perspective view, the hemispherical white building is divided into two parts, the inner circle is divided into four sections, two of which are living cabins, which can accommodate up to four colonists and provide each colonist with 5.3 square meters of living space per person. The other two living areas are the experimental area and the public living space, which meet the needs of scientific research on the one hand, and the living needs of the colonists on the other.

As for the outer ring of the life support unit, that is, the part where the entire life support unit is inflated and unfolded after landing, it is a circle similar to a vegetable greenhouse. It is used to try to breed some drought-tolerant crops to provide extra food for the colonists to reduce the cost of transporting supplies from Earth to Mars.

In addition to this, there is also a concept map of the Martian colony.

Rows of hemispherical white "yurts" were serialized through transparent tubes, 3D models of small figures shuttling between tubes, and rovers with huge tires drove on the nearby red desert.

When they saw this scene, the media at the scene suddenly made an exclamation of amazement.

Although NASA has previously released the relevant information on its official website and Twitter account, it has not revealed more details about the Ares program, nor has it explained the specific situation of the life support unit.

Now standing here, looking at everything on the big screen, even if they were ready to be surprised again, many people couldn't help but have shocked expressions on their faces.

Especially the BFR Super Rocket, which was displayed in front of people's eyes right after!

You must know that previously, the Saturn V launch vehicle, which has the largest payload, has a maximum payload of only 118 tons, and this can only be transported to low-earth orbit. If it were to be delivered to lunar orbit, the carrying capacity would be reduced to 47 tons.

However, the destination of the Ares program is not low earth orbit or lunar orbit, but the surface of Mars, which is as close as 55.76 million kilometers from the Earth!

The reporters were so frightened by NASA's grand plan that the hall of more than 300 people was silent for a while.

Carson was pleased with the silence of the crowd, and after coughing slightly, he continued.

“…… A life support unit that is successfully deployed on the surface of Mars will be able to sustain up to five astronauts on the surface of Mars for two to five years. During this long period of time, the astronauts will carry out a number of scientific expeditions on Mars, explore the mineral and water reserves on Mars, collect first-hand information for our scientists on Earth, and pave the way for the follow-up projects of the Ares program. Eventually, we will build a self-sufficient Martian village on the Red Planet! ”

As Director Carson's words fell, the atmosphere at the press conference was pushed to a high level in an instant. Tide.

Soon entered the on-site question session.

All the reporters raised their hands in the air, as if they wanted to stick their fingers in Carson's nostrils.

Director Carson glanced around the room, and naturally chose the Washington Post.

As a long-established newspaper, The Washington Post has a relatively conservative view and generally doesn't start with a sharp question to bother him, so it's the safest choice.

At the gesture of Director Carson, Ham, a veteran and well-known reporter for the Washington Post, was given this precious opportunity.

He took two seconds to consider his words, and quickly stretched out his voice recorder and asked: "Hello Mr. Director, we all know that the Ares project has only just been launched, and compared to our ambitious goals, there is only a small amount of time left for us to prepare, do you think this plan is safe?" Or to put it another way, how sure is NASA about achieving the goals of the first phase of the Ares program? ”

To Carson's surprise, the Washington Post's choice of entry point was indeed focused on "preparation time" and "success rate".

Raising his eyebrows upwards in response to a pair of eager glances for answer, Director Carson said with a pleasant face, "It is true that the Ares program has only recently been restarted, but we have been preparing for the landing on Mars for a long time before that. For example, the life support unit has been researched as early as ten years ago. And Space-X's BFR super rocket completed its first test flight two years ago. ”

"The project to colonize Mars was not a temporary idea, but a well-planned project! On the issue of security, I can assure you that we will make all security efforts foolproof before we let our colonists go! ”

Director Carson's words fell, and the deafening applause quickly filled the room.

After a round of applause, the British journalist from the BBC was lucky enough to get a chance to ask a question and stood up to speak.

"Mr. Director, we all know that just a week ago, China's manned lunar landing project was a great success. I would like to ask you, is NASA's hasty decision to launch the Ares program a response to China's moon landing? ”

Do you need to ask this question?

If it weren't for Huaguo sending astronauts to the moon, Congress would have gone crazy to approve their crazy and money-burning plan.

Speaking of which, NASA actually has to thank the Chinese people.

After all, if it weren't for Huaguo's step-by-step approach in the aerospace field, the old men of the Congressional Budget Committee would never have opened their pockets so happily.

Of course, the truth is reasonable, and Director Carson, of course, will not admit it, and simply refutes it.

"This claim is baseless, we sent our astronauts to the moon half a century ago, and now China has succeeded in doing this, which is commendable, but not so much that we put them in the position of opponents."

"Remember, the manned moon landing is something we have achieved in the past, and there is nothing left in that land that is worth remembering. Now, our goal is more distant Mars, where the possibilities are endless. ”

Ho Ho ——!

There was a sound of exclamation at the scene.

The expression on the face of the North American reporter was full of excitement, as if he had been beaten with chicken blood. The British journalist looked interested, as if he had seen big news. The expressions of the Russian reporters were somewhat complicated, and the expressions of the Chinese reporters were a little unpleasant.

No matter how you interpret it, the information revealed in the NASA administrator's speech is not very friendly to China.

We've never seen you as rivals!

As you follow in the footsteps of our past, we have set our sights on the farther side!

.。 m.