"A new space race has begun."

In the Russian Federal Space Agency, Director Demirit looked at the latest report and said with emotion.

The deputy chief Viacheslav on the side nodded approvingly and replied:

"Yes, their tentacles expand very quickly."

"From the very beginning of Africa, to the present Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, and even space, their footprints have been all over every piece of physical space."

"Maybe they will become the new empire on which the sun never sets-—— of course, in another form."

Hearing this, Demirit couldn't help but be a little amused.

He shook his head and was silent for a moment before he sighed and said:

"This is the real empire on which the sun never sets, do you know how those old men in the Ministry of Social Sciences judge? They say that China has the potential to become the first 'stellar empire' in human history. ”

"Well, the term Empire may not be accurate, they say 'Stellar Federation', but I think the title of Empire is more suitable for them."

"And in fact, they have never given up the past pursuit of the so-called 'great unification', the so-called 'community of shared future for mankind', which is probably indeed the courage that only a real empire can have."

"In short, we have been left far behind, and there is no hope of overtaking us in the foreseeable future."

Vyacheslav gave Demirit a smug look, and then said:

"Unless it's war."

"Unless it's war, yes. But we're not stupid enough to be that stupid. ”

"If China's development path is still within the scope of human understanding, both hot and cold wars can be regarded as options for choice."

"But what about now? Even the most elite scholars cannot explain their successive technological breakthroughs, and can only think of them as some mysterious force at work that has not yet been observed by us. ”

"In this case, there is no point in confrontation, forget it, let's get down to business first."

At this point, Demirit flipped the document in his hand to the first page, then pointed to the table of contents on it and said:

"There are three main types of demand we are currently receiving from Huaxia."

"The first, technical cooperation in the construction of the open space station."

"The second is to exchange talents related to solid rocket fuel technology."

"The third"

Before Demirit could finish speaking, Vyacheslav interjected:

"The first two are very reasonable, so the third need is what they really want, right?"

"That's right."

Demirit nodded slightly and continued:

"The technical framework of the RD-180 engine is not only -—— engine itself, nor is it just the related technology of this type of engine, but the entire technology including this type of engine."

"Including the RD-191 engine that we will test later."

"They've probably found a shortcut. Now they're like bandits. ”

"Only solve the core technical problems, as for the foundation, the framework, either to us, or to the United States."

"I have to say, this way of operation is so efficient, I'm really envious."

Vyacheslav laughed and replied:

"It's just part of their globalization strategy-—— and it's impossible not to give it to them."

"The construction of the 2013 CNF fusion reactor is about to begin, and we can't afford to have problems at this critical moment."

"Compared to the pressure from his superiors, the resistance on Isotov's side is nothing at all."

"It's just a few old-fashioned old people clamoring for so-called 'self-reliance' with outdated concepts. I can fix it. ”

"You've got to fix it."

Demirit repeated his words and continued:

"According to the information I have, Huaxia is expected to complete the launch of Chang'e-5 within six months, and the Long March-9 rocket used by Chang'e-5 will be equipped with the latest LIV engine."

"This engine had to be built on the frame structure of the RD-180, and we also needed to provide them with corresponding systems engineering technical support."

"So, objectively speaking, we are also the key to the moon landing project, and if we slow down the project, they will inevitably recover the losses from other places."

"Whether it's a metallic hydrogen plant, a gas pipeline, or a power station, it's a result we can't afford."

"So, it's better to cooperate-—— anyway, we can rely on this thing to get a follow-up space station participation quota."

"It's not a loss at all, you know, the Commonwealth of Arab States has paid hundreds of billions of dollars just to get two quotas a year."

"Hundreds of billions? Are they crazy? ”

Vyacheslav asked dumbfounded.

"They were crazy-—— maybe they thought they could hear Allah's voice there."

Demirit said teasingly.

"To hear Allah's voice, they might as well take a few hydrogen bombs to North America, and if they don't have them, we can help."

"Without that annoying country, the world would be a better place."

Vyacheslav muttered.

In fact, his resentment against the United States is almost equal to his resentment against the Commonwealth of Arab States.

Needless to say, the United States has been fighting for decades after all.

As for the Arab Commonwealth, it is dissatisfied with their crazy increase in market prices, which has made it more and more difficult for them to negotiate with China.

In his opinion, this kind of behavior is no different from emptying the last fish in the river to feed the bear, not only does it not develop a relationship with the bear, but it can also make the bear become more and more greedy after it has eaten enough.

——

Yes, like most of the Russian top brassiers, he was always wary of Huaxia, but relatively speaking, his vigilance manifested itself more obviously.

"Don't be so resentful, think on the bright side, it is precisely because the Arab Commonwealth has squeezed out the last of their fossil energy potential that we have a chance to keep up with China."

"Otherwise, we will have to fill this part of the cost gap."

"Well, I'll admit you have a point."

Hearing Demirit's authority, Vyacheslav could only nod helplessly.

After a few seconds of relative silence, he got up to leave.

Before turning around, he asked:

"Is this exchange still left to Marokov?"

"Leave it to him, at least for now, he's pretty credible."

"He is a more determined fighter than we are, and everything he does is just for the purpose in his heart."

Vyacheslav nodded thoughtfully.

That goal in mind?

At one time, most of the top decision-makers in his country were like Marrokov.

But now, such a trend of thought may only be found in Huaxia.

——

Who knows, though?

Integration is already beginning to emerge, and perhaps soon, something that is almost disappearing will spread rapidly.

"Is the RD-180 thing done?"

Walking on the trail inside Cheng Fei, Chen Nian opened his mouth and asked Chen Guo on the side.

"It's basically no problem, Marokov has just flown to the imperial capital today, and he will go to negotiate with the representatives of the Great Wall Industry Group to discuss specific offers and exchange conditions."

"However, this negotiation is basically a formality, and most of the issues have been discussed before."

"The main thing is that there are still seats on the space station and the lunar base, and we intend to give them two to five seats, depending on the specific development."

"It's quite a big deal, after all, we're in an all-win situation, and they don't have a lot of chips to exchange."

There aren't a lot of chips.

Hearing this, Chen Nian couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

You must know that in the previous life, Huaxia did not know how much it paid for this RD-180 engine, and even took advantage of the tightening of the global situation and the close cooperation between the two sides to finally take it.

And if you don't talk about the consideration, just talking about the RD-180 engine itself, in fact, you can't say that you don't have too many chips.

After all, the high reliability and high technical level of this engine are well-known all over the world, and even Lao Mei calls it a "technological miracle that is difficult to replicate".

Coupled with the innovative design of the tandem combustion chamber + main turbine pump, it can be extremely easily adapted to various modifications, and Loma has modified several different models based on this framework, including solid-liquid combined rockets.

Therefore, Chen Nian actually included the RD-180 in the product goals that he had to get at the beginning, and the development of things was even smoother than he expected.

With this framework, the design and manufacture of the new LTV engine will be much easier, and the assembly speed of the Long March-9 rocket will be greatly accelerated.

6 months on the moon?

It's still conservative, and in the best case, maybe it can be completed in 4 months.

After all, all the equipment, except for the main launch unit, is actually almost ready until now.

When the rocket is in place, it will be ready to go into the sky immediately.

Thinking of this, Chen Nian said:

“. The RD-180 itself is a good target, after all, our technology is backward, which is different from the aviation industry, the short-term technical advantage of relying on the LTV engine to hard-pull up is not sustainable, and it is very beneficial for our future development to get a complete and usable framework. ”

"The era of rocket engines is going to last for a long time, and it's not a waste."

Hearing Chen Nian's words, Chen Guo on the side smiled, and then said:

"Talking about this, I recently heard interesting news."

"The Great Wall Industry is engaged in an inertial rocket launch project-—— they plan to build a super-large electric fan on the Great Gobi? Then the rocket was tied to the fan blades and flew out. ”

Do you think this idea is feasible? It looks like well, and it's unreliable mixed with a bit of reliability. ”

Chen Nian couldn't hold back his laughter, he never thought that the plan he had ruled out before would be preempted by Great Wall Industry.

However, the Great Wall Industry Group has already undertaken a considerable part of the construction of metal hydrogen plants in cooperation with the Russian side, and is more familiar with the characteristics of new materials, so it is not surprising that this plan can be auctioned.

However, patting the door of the brain is patting the door of the brain, in fact, Chen Nian also knows that the real plan cannot be as simple as the "big electric fan" that Chen Guo said.

"The solution of vacuum duct, high-speed motor and high-sensitivity control system is feasible, but it is not so simple to implement at present."

"To be honest, it belongs to a 'beggar's version of the plan' at this stage, you say it's useless, it's more than enough to throw some small satellites."

"But you said that it would be useful first person will definitely not be able to send it, accelerate to the first cosmic speed, and people will be flattened by centrifugal force."

"This kind of scheme is only suitable for the Great Wall Industry, after all, they have a relatively high degree of commercialization and can be directly converted into civilian profit projects."

Chen Guo nodded and said casually:

"Yes, they're going to use it to throw Starlink."

"Oh, that's okay - wait a minute? Our Starlink project, so soon? ”

Chen Nian was a little surprised.

In fact, Huaxia certainly has its own Starlink project, but for a long time, he has never heard of this project being put on the agenda.

It only exists as a vision of the future, and whether it is useful in the end or not is still a matter of opinion.

"Yes, at present, several private enterprises in China are doing it, which can be regarded as an exploration."

"Of course, what they want to engage in is not traditional electromagnetic wave communication, but quantum communication, and the main thing is to borrow the east wind of quantum computing."

"Understood."

Chen Nian nodded thoughtfully, and secretly sighed at the efficiency of domestic enterprises.

This layout can really be said to be quite early - but from another perspective, it can also be seen that domestic private enterprises are gradually becoming wealthy.

This is a good phenomenon, indicating that after the emergence of fusion, the trend of the overall economic environment getting better has indeed accelerated.

I don't know what kind of expression Musk will have when he hears the news, the bulls he bragged out were realized by us one by one, and this feeling probably won't be too comfortable.

The two continued to walk forward, chatting about the recent project progress, SpaceX's actions, and Musk's big words at the press conference.

They didn't take the phrase "it will definitely be before Huaxia" to heart, after all, they all knew that even if they could really launch first, it would just be to have one more metal satellite in lunar orbit.

And to really take the "big step of mankind", we can only rely on Huaxia.

"The space age is really coming."

Chen Nian said suddenly.

"Yes, I always say the sea of stars, but I didn't expect it to be lazy faster than we thought."

"It's as if we're not even in a flying car — not even an electric car — before we even get on it, and we're going to fly to the moon."

"So, have you figured out what we're going to say after the moon landing?"

"It's not a trivial matter, we have to keep Armstrong's words down."

"I've thought about it for a long time."

Chen Nian replied.

"Have you thought about it for a long time? Unusual. Tell me about it? ”

Chen Guo looked at Chen Nian curiously, and the latter replied without saying anything:

"It's a big step for me, but it's only a small step for humanity."

"Very seconds!"

A smile immediately appeared on Chen Guo's face.

Although the order of the two words has only been changed, the spirit and pattern have completely changed.

Yes, the moon landing was just a small step.

The journey of mankind is still far away.

While they were talking, a heavy transport plane was flying over the Arctic Ocean from an altitude of 10,000 meters, heading in the direction of Chang'an.

Under its wings, a bright moon is slowly rising

(End of chapter)