In May 2023, while people were drowned out in the news about the Eastern Galactic Company, the Free Beacon Nation announced that they had built the world's most advanced spacecraft and planned to restart the Mars program by the end of the year.

For a while, the world shook, probably because the free lighthouse country has always occupied the first place in the world of science and technology in the past 100 years, and no one is puzzled, but takes it for granted.

"With a length of 140 meters, a width of 30 meters, an empty weight of 6,000 tons, a deadweight of 9,000 tons, and the use of fusion energy reactors, the fuel tank together with the thruster part occupies less than a fifth of the spacecraft's volume, and the ultimate speed of 170 km/s will be reached in the universe by accelerating for 5 days."

"Professor Russell, do you really think this was done by the Lighthouse Nation itself?"

At this moment, at the monthly report, several loyal employees of the East Galaxy Company put forward their opinions fiercely, they subjectively believed that the Free Beacon Country did not have the ability to build large spaceships for the time being, and there must be a "traitor" within the East Galaxy Company, and the most likely place for the traitor to exist was undoubtedly the research department managed by Professor Russell, and he was responsible for it.

Even the honest Professor Russell will not easily tolerate other people's unwarranted accusations: "No, you are mistaken, in the case of the popularization of fusion energy technology, there is indeed no technical bottleneck in building a large spacecraft, this kind of thing will happen, and it has nothing to do with whether there is a leak." ”

Professor Russell explained that as early as the 70s, both the Free Lighthouse and the Soviet Union had considered the realization of a fission energy reactor rocket, but later it was not realized, but at that time, some technology had been accumulated through research; Secondly, it's not the Free Lighthouse Nation that has mastered the technology to create large spaceships, but... The fusion reactor technology they had at hand forced them to build a large spaceship to accommodate such a large thing.

"Change your rigid brains! Aside from the fact that the goal of building a large spacecraft will instantly reduce the difficulty of installing fusion energy reactors, do you think there are any technical bottlenecks that will prevent the birth of spacecraft? ”

"Rest assured, we will make more progress than them, just a few days ago, the Hengyue-class spacecraft belonging to the East Galaxy Company completed the preliminary manufacturing and is in the debugging and test flight stage, you can follow us to experience."

"When the verification is completed, it will be mass production, and at that time, our shortcomings in cargo capacity and cost will be made up, the carrying capacity will be expanded dozens of times, and the freight cost from the earth to the moon will be reduced to 200,000 / person."

Professor Russell's astonishing words sparked the curiosity of the employees present, and no one talked about leaks and traitors anymore.

"Mr. Advisor, please come and take a look."

Cao Chuan showed that he was interested in the recent work of the research department, and agreed without hesitation. In addition to the interested employees, there were more than 100 people, forming a huge team, running to the dock several kilometers away that was specially used to accommodate the Hengyue-class spacecraft, intending to go in and experience it.

Half an hour later, Cao Chuan saw the Hengyue-class spacecraft, and Professor Russell stood in front and patiently explained, in fact, his main purpose today was to show their results to Mr. Advisor, but he didn't expect that the Freedom Lighthouse Country happened to choose to announce their large spaceship today, causing an unwarranted disaster.

"The performance parameters of the Hengyue-class spacecraft are: length 105 meters, width 25 meters, empty weight 4,000 tons, load 6,500 tons. Due to the smaller hull structure, the ultimate speed of the Hengyue-class spacecraft can reach 200 km/s. ”

"What does that mean?"

"The travel time between the Earth and the Moon can be reduced to 24 hours."

"The travel time between the earth and fire, even the farthest distance between the Earth and Mars is 400 million kilometers, is only 30 days, and the normal travel time is 10 days."

Before Cao Chuan could express his opinion, the employees below discussed it on their own, "It's a pity that the moon-by-month spacecraft still can't load the fusion energy reactor, otherwise, the speed can be faster." ”

"But doesn't that mean we now have a chance to explore Mars?" Another employee's words reminded others, and they suddenly became excited, Mars, the second home that mankind has always dreamed of, even if Mars is relatively small, the ecological environment is very poor, and there are no resources worth mentioning, and it can't stand the influence of half a century of propaganda.

Although many people will think that Venus, Ganymede, and Ganymede in the solar system will be the future home of mankind, it is fair to say that Mars is indeed a suitable planetary exploration target after the moon.

"We can't afford to be left behind the Beacon of Freedom! We have to do something! Some employees even called out, and many people echoed and supported them.

"Mr. Advisor, let's go in and take off."

Cao Chuan nodded, he was a little concerned about why the Free Lighthouse Country chose Mars, was it because he was afraid of their East Galaxy Company? They do have the qualifications to be feared, but the problem is that, according to the known Martian data, there are no special resources on this planet, and as for solving the population pressure, it is not worth paying such a price, and it should not be considered and approved by the parliament of the lighthouse nation.

Cao Chuan didn't think about why the Lighthouse Country made such a plan, and decided to put it on hold for the time being, anyway, he believed that even if the East Galaxy Company also made the decision to explore Mars at that time, he was not afraid of any conflict with the Free Lighthouse Country.

After everyone entered, they quickly felt the emptiness of the spaceship, walked for a while, and even got lost, and could not see anyone else, and after further understanding, they learned that the Hengyue-class spacecraft needed a crew of at least 50 people to maintain normal sailing, and the crew could reach 3000, so the number of immigrants who could be transported over at a time was equivalent to 30 month-by-month spaceships. ”

The fusion energy reactor was launched, and the spacecraft lifted off into space, because the helium-3 on the lunar surface was so worthless that no one felt that their test flight was a waste.

They experienced the sensation of acceleration to 100 km/s, in fact, they didn't feel it, because the acceleration was not so drastic, there were not many references in the universe, and the perception of speed was weak.

Even so, the employees seem to have returned to the scene when they first went into space, showing unusual excitement, looking around, to experience, and refusing to settle down.

After traveling 2 million kilometers, the Hengyue-class spacecraft turned around and returned, and returned to the moon a day later, thus ending the successful test flight.