At a time when China is closely studying miniaturized and controllable nuclear fusion technology, on the other side, Washington State on the other side of the Atlantic.

In the White Room, a meeting led by the NSC committee and NASA is underway.

The theme of the conference is to return to the moon and make the United States great again!

In the huge conference room, parliamentary delegates and grandfathers sitting at the conference table listened to the report of their Deputy President, Ms. Kamala Harris.

At the heart of the report is nothing more than the fact that, with the advent of controlled nuclear fusion technology, over time, the country opposite them has begun to threaten their international standing.

They must take relevant measures or means to break the situation in which the prestige of the United States has been declining in the world.

NSC, the whole National Security Council (self-translation, blocking words can't be typed), was established in accordance with the "National Security Council", the president is responsible for presiding over the meeting, subordinate to the president's executive office, and is personally commanded by the vice president.

Its participating members can be said to be involved in all aspects of the country's politics, such as the secretary of state, national defense, finance, energy, staff, intelligence and other aspects.

In addition to this, the heads of some other executive departments and agencies, as well as other high-ranking officials, can also be invited to attend meetings of the National Assembly that require them to participate, which can be said to be amazingly powerful.

After Ms. Kamala Harris completed her presentation, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson took to the podium to brief the seated representatives of lawmakers on NASA's plans.

"Gentlemen and ladies!"

"As a 'leading power' in the international community, our influence on the international stage has been expanding in the 21st century, and its scientific and technological level, economic development, and cultural influence have all performed very well."

After a simple injection, Bill Nelson changed his words and continued in a heavy tone: "However, in the past year, the losses in the energy field have also shown us a lot of shortcomings. ”

"I believe that once in the field of energy, in the field of controlled nuclear fusion, our country is undoubtedly NO1! However, it is a pity that we did not strengthen our determination in the follow-up investment, which led to the occurrence of this tragedy. ”

"This has not only made us fall a lot in terms of energy, but also made our influence on the international stage fall a lot. We have to look at that, no matter what we've achieved, it's pointless to not be able to maintain the advantage! ”

"For example, now, China has launched a manned space project, and is even preparing to land a manned person on the moon, do we still have to watch them send astronauts and footsteps to the moon?"

"You must know that we are a unique space power in the world, and if we lag behind in the field of aerospace, I think this will be an unacceptable consequence for us!"

Just then, a voice came from the conference room.

"Sorry to interrupt, can I say a few words?"

Interrupted from his speech, Bill Nelson looked in the direction from which the voice came from, and it was the director of the Bureau of the Budget who spoke out, and when he saw this, he immediately changed his face to a smile and nodded.

"Of course."

Glancing at the meeting report in his hand, the director of the budget bureau said: "I read your report, the budget is as high as 78 billion meters, can you explain such an exaggerated budget?" ”

Bill Nelson smiled slightly and said: "This is all the budget of the new Artemis program, including not only manned spaceflight, artificial landing on the moon, but also a series of subsequent projects such as establishing permanent bases, mining resources on the moon, exploring Mars, etc. ”

"In fact, in the first phase of the re-entry to the moon, our budget requirements are only 18 billion meters of gold, which includes manned lunar landing, exploration of various resources such as lunar ice, helium-three, titanium, etc., and the establishment and mapping of the distribution of elements/resources throughout the moon."

This is not the first new proposal of the Artemis Project.

Back in 2017, Mr. President, who had a cool hairstyle, officially signed the Space Policy Directive No. 1, officially approving the Artemis program.

After all, with the decline of the economic cycle, the United States does need a new plan to stimulate and enhance its international prestige.

But unfortunately, less than a year after this plan was proposed, Huaguo began the Qixia controlled nuclear fusion project.

In the following time, the news of various phased breakthroughs in controllable nuclear fusion directly caused the congressional masters of the United States to greatly weaken the investment in the aerospace field, and the Artemis program died halfway.

And this time, I don't know how NASA did it, they persuaded the NSC committee to convene today's meeting to try to persuade all the lawmakers in Congress to pass the "Artemis program" of "returning to the moon".

But it has to be said that in today's declining situation, they do need a great cause to bring the prestige of the United States back to the peak, even if it is a brief return.

Maybe the overall plan of 78 billion meters of gold will not be so crazy that the congressmen will approve it as a whole, but if it is to return to the moon, send astronauts up again, and pull the opponent into the space race in an orderly manner, and once again use their strong background to slow down the development of the opponent, or even drag down the opponent, it is not hopeless.

As Bill Nelson has said, the loss in the energy sector has cost them a lot of their voice on the international stage.

If we don't make some counter-attacks and break the downward trend, the consequences will be unimaginable.

On the other side, Jinling, in the Xinghai Research Institute.

Wen Yuanhang, who went to the capital to report, hurried back quickly after completing his work.

After discussing with Xu Chuan, Jinling Jun District quickly dispatched an independent group to make a new deployment for the mountains, forests, roads and other areas around the Xinghai Research Institute, and strengthened the protection of the research institute.

However, this work was not carried out with great fanfare, and the team on the side of the army directly and quietly changed the position and completed the replacement.

After all, the Xinghai Research Institute itself is the object of attention of all countries, and the fanfare will inevitably attract countless eyes.

In the office, after learning about the arrangements and deployments made by the above for miniaturized and controllable nuclear fusion technology, Xu Chuan nodded and handed Wen Yuanhang some of his optimization plans for the management of the Xinghai Research Institute in the past two days.

"Look at this, the management of the institute is a little behind, this is a new adjustment plan, and we will have a meeting to discuss it later."

Wen Yuanhang took the plan, flipped through it with some thought in his eyes, looked up at Xu Chuan and said: "By establishing standards that meet the standards of the research institute, using big data and intelligent systems to control the research process and material product suppliers, is this preparing for intelligent research + intelligent industrial system?" ”

Before coming to the Xinghai Research Institute, he was the director of the office of the Strategic Planning Department of Science and Technology, and he had some basic understanding of the development of all walks of life, and it was not difficult to understand what Xu Chuan proposed.

Xu Chuan nodded and said, "That's right, although the current artificial intelligence does not play a big role in the field of academic research, there is no problem in doing some data statistics, screening, and analysis." ”

"The use of big data and artificial intelligence to liberate these tasks that originally required tedious manpower to complete can improve a lot of efficiency both for research and for the cooperation of the industrial chain."

Wen Yuanhang nodded and said, "Okay, I'll take care of this matter." ”

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "I'm sorry for you." ”

"You're welcome."

After arranging the follow-up work, Xu Chuan focused on the two projects of the aerospace engine and the Large Hadron Collider.

However, his heart is not as urgent as before, because compared with the almost completely unfamiliar field of miniaturization of controlled nuclear fusion, the research of the latter two is not completely unfounded in China.

The essence of aerospace engines is electromagnetic propulsion, and in this regard, Huaguo's research is quite good.

For example, the Sky space station uses Hall thrusters in the electromagnetic propulsion system, which are designed to operate with a power of 100kW and a thrust of 5 Newtons.

The numbers are small, but the technology contained in them is among the best in the world.

With this background, coupled with the theory of the night, he didn't need to worry too much about the progress of the aerospace engine.

In fact, with the technical support of the Chuandu Aerospace Base and the Jiuquan Aerospace Base, the design of the aerospace engine has already been completed and is currently being assembled, waiting for subsequent tests.

As for the large strong particle collider, not to mention, in the collider, Huaguo has a complete technical reserve, what is lacking is only the top detector technology.

In this regard, Xu Chuan already had some ideas before, but he never had time to do it.

Now that there has been a breakthrough in miniaturized and controllable nuclear fusion technology, he has several months to research and break through the probe technology before completing the final space shuttle.

"Speaking of which, I feel like you've never stopped being busy."

In the cafeteria of the Xinghai Research Institute, Zheng Hai sat opposite Xu Chuan with a lunch, and suddenly spoke.

"Why do you say this all of a sudden?"

Xu Chuan stopped his chopsticks, looked at him and asked curiously.

"It's nothing, I just think you should have to rest for a while, it's not good for your body to be too tired." Zheng Hai shook his head and persuaded.

Originally, he thought that there had been a breakthrough in miniaturized and controllable nuclear fusion technology, and this person should have a period of rest, but he didn't expect him to turn around and devote himself to research in other fields, without stopping for a day.

Thinking of the scene of this man who had been exhausted and sick after returning from St. Petersburg some time ago, he felt the need to remind him to pay attention to his body.

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "I also want to rest, but now is not the time." Whether it is the development of aerospace or the construction of the collider, it is a thing. ”

Although academic research is his hobby, he is also happy to indulge in it.

But I have to say that his current state has long gone beyond the scope of normal academic research, even if it is a hobby, it is difficult for a person to work continuously like this.

After all, his current state is not to say that he works and studies 24 hours a day, but he really doesn't seem to have anything else in his life except research and academics.

But at this point, it's not that he doesn't want to rest, but he can't rest now.

As he himself said, whether it is the development of aerospace or the construction of the collider, it is something waiting for him to do.

If some management work can be handed over to others to complete, then there is really no one to replace him in the breakthrough of cutting-edge technology.

There is no way, he is already at the forefront of science, and no one is more familiar with some related theories and technologies than him, so he can only promote them himself.

For example, the miniaturization of controlled nuclear fusion technology, if it were not for his decisive shift from the tokamak device route to the stellarator route, and the successful production of improved superconducting materials and the design of permanent magnet stellarics. No one knows how long it will take for the breakthrough in miniaturization.

It may take more than ten years, or it may only take a few years.

But no matter how far it goes, no one could have imagined that it would take less than a year to turn a fusion reactor the size of an SUV in less than a year.

It is undeniable that the Xinghai Research Institute has contributed to it, but the most core thing, in the final analysis, is still made by him.

Although Xu Chuan also wants to turn the work of turning theory into applied technology to others to do, judging from the current situation in China, he can't get rid of it.

After all, many things can't be created by giving theories or drawing designs.

He can make theoretical results, but this does not mean that the actual research and application can be followed up quickly.

Just as the theory of controlled nuclear fusion technology has been perfected in the last century, the practical application is still forever fifty years before he is reborn.

For the most part, the development of science and technology is mutually reinforcing.

Breakthroughs in theoretical science can drive technological development to a certain extent, and technological breakthroughs can in turn lead to the extension of scientific theories.

It's just that under normal circumstances, this complementary development often takes a lot of time.

But Xu Chuan can't wait, he can't wait for more than ten years or even longer to wait for a breakthrough in technology.

After all, a person's golden academic career is so long, if you leave a bunch of theories but can't pass the technical verification, it is a bit too regrettable.

Therefore, he can only 'resist' the front line by himself, leading the R&D team to transform his theory into practical technology.

This is also the reason why he has hardly had any rest time for 365 days a year since he returned to China.

Across the table, Zheng Hai was silent for a while, sighed and said, "But it's too hard for you to do this." ”

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "Actually, it's okay, for me, engaging in scientific research is similar to ordinary people playing games, and they are all things I like." ”

After a pause, he continued: "Speaking of which, why are you weird today, and suddenly care about this?" ”

Zheng Hai shook his head, and just as he was about to open his mouth to speak, another voice came from his ears.

"Academician Xu, emergency."

"At the press conference just now, NASA announced that it would invest 16 billion meters of gold to restart the 'Artemis program' to achieve a manned landing on the moon and return to the moon."