The date of the moon landing project Xu Chuan thought about it, and took out his mobile phone from his pocket: "June"

Looking at the calendar on his phone, he thought about it and his eyes fell on a festival.

"In June, the moon landing project might as well be arranged on June 21st, the 21st is the summer solstice, and the 22nd is the Dragon Boat Festival, which is one of the four traditional festivals of our traditional culture."

After a pause, he continued: "The fifth line of the "I Ching: Qiangua" has a saying: "The flying dragon is in the sky, and the Dragon Boat Festival is the auspicious day of the "flying dragon in the sky", also known as the Dragon Day Festival. Although this has nothing to do with the moon, the Star Sea set sail on this day, like a dragon entering the sea, which also means that we are the descendants of the dragon and have landed in the universe. ”

"Let's use a manned moon landing to present a special gift for the Dragon Boat Festival, the people of the whole country and even the world!"

For Xinghai, although the manned landing on the moon is the first time, it does not mean that the space shuttle will be the first to land on the moon.

It is impossible for any country to send astronauts directly to the moon without conducting an unmanned lunar landing experiment. It is impossible to send astronauts directly to the moon without conducting unmanned experiments on the moon.

This is irresponsible for the lives of astronauts!

For example, the Apollo manned lunar landing program launched 17 spacecraft from 1966 to 1972.

Among them, No. 1 ~ 3 is a simulated spacecraft, No. 4 ~ 6 is a non-manned spacecraft, No. 7 ~ 10 is a manned spacecraft flying around the earth or the moon, and No. 11 ~ 17 is a manned spacecraft to the moon.

And the famous Apollo 11 is the first spacecraft to land on the moon as later generations.

Perhaps in a few years, travel between the Earth and the Moon will become the norm. But at least for now, with the current space technology, no country can do such a thing.

The same is true of Xinghai, which cannot carry astronauts directly to the moon on its first voyage.

Before June 21, it will carry out two unmanned lunar landings to conduct experiments to ensure that there will be no problems during the manned landing on the moon.

And as long as there is an accident in either of these two experiments, the time of the manned landing on the moon will be pushed back.

Only by ensuring that there are no problems with these two unmanned lunar landings will the manned lunar landing officially start on June 21.

Listening to Xu Chuan's chosen day, Academician Chang Huaxiang glanced at him with some surprise, and said with a smile: "I didn't expect you to have any research on books such as "I Ching and Qiangua". ”

He has no surprise that he will choose to start a manned lunar landing project on June 21.

In the choice of dates for some major projects, this preference for traditional festivals is also a well-known thing for insiders.

Previously, when the space base discussed which day in June the opening time of this manned moon landing might fall, many people were predicting the Dragon Boat Festival.

He was surprised that this person was so familiar with the "I Ching and Qiangua", this kind of thing that ordinary people can't memorize, he opened his mouth and came.

Skipping off-topic, Chang Huaxiang then returned to the topic and continued: "June 21 is within the scope of the investigation, which is also quite appropriate, if you are sure, I will record it and report it to the space agency." ”

For the choice of dates for some major projects, Xu Chuan didn't think so much, his idea was very simple, if he could bring joy to the Chinese people on traditional festivals, it would be great.

Smiling, he continued: "On this day, the moon landing will start in the early morning of June 21, calculate the time, and just enough to send our astronauts to the moon at about 12 o'clock at noon on the second day of the Dragon Boat Festival." ”

Compared with conventional spacecraft, Xinghai, which uses an electric propulsion system as its power source, takes longer to climb the gravity shaft.

But once in space, it flies much faster than a traditional spacecraft.

The Chang'e series of probes fly from the Earth to the Moon in about 8-14 days. Chang'e-1, for example, took more than eight days.

And the Apollo 11, the first manned landing on the moon in the United States, took three and a half days for the spacecraft to travel from the earth to the moon.

The three and a half days here refer to the time it took for Apollo 11 to reach the lunar orbit, and if you count the orbit to adjust the lunar landing, or the lunar module to the lunar surface, it probably took more than four days.

For Xinghai, the process of landing on the moon is simpler, faster and less time-consuming than that of traditional spacecraft.

After climbing out of the gravity well, it can save the time of orbiting and go directly to the moon.

Of course, considering that this is the first manned lunar landing project in China, the relevant process and orbit entry method are still based on the experience of the Chang'e spacecraft.

After all, it is relatively shortened by one or two days, and the most important thing is to ensure the smooth completion of the first manned landing on the moon.

However, even so, Xinghai has a huge advantage over traditional spacecraft in terms of time and speed for landing on the moon.

And if the distance is pulled further, such as landing on Mars, the advantage of Xinghai will be greater.

The distance between the Earth and the Moon is still too short for the electrically propulsion space shuttle, and even theoretically not enough to accelerate it to its maximum flight speed.

After all, in outer space, because there is no air resistance, spacecraft need extremely long braking distances to slow down.

In order to ensure that the space shuttle can smoothly enter the orbit around the moon, Xinghai also needs to start reducing its speed halfway and gradually decelerate until it can officially enter the lunar orbit until it is reduced to the orbit speed.

On the other side, the United States.

White House, Washington.

NASA Director Bill Nelson was led into the president's office by his assistant secretary.

In the room, in addition to the elderly Mr. President, there was William Joseph Burns, the director of the CIA, wearing a black suit and standing with a blank face.

Seeing the two of them, Bill Nelson frowned slightly and walked into the office quickly.

"Look at this."

Seeing his arrival, Mr. German, who was sitting behind his desk, pushed a document on the table forward and gestured.

Bill Nelson glanced at the papers on the table, then at William Joseph Burns, who was standing nearby, and picked them up from the desk for some unknown reasons.

Seeing it, the news on the document made his pupils shrink suddenly, and he blurted out words of surprise.

"It can't be!"

On the other side, the old man ** snorted coldly and said: "Huaguo has started the moon landing project, and the Xinghai will go to the moon in a week, but what about you?" No progress at all! I don't even know where you're spending all the money in Congress! ”

Taking a deep breath, Bill Nelson calmed himself down and said quickly: "Judging from this information, the moon landing in a week is only an unmanned space program, they can't be astronauts so soon, we still have time." ”

Standing aside, CIA Director William Joseph Burns said expressionlessly: "The space shuttle called Xinghai will officially start manned landing on the moon on the 21st of next month!" There is less than a month and a half left for you. ”

Hearing this, Bill Nelson quickly spoke: "I suspect that this information was deliberately released by the other party. It is almost impossible to collect experimental data for an unmanned lunar landing in a month and a half and prepare for a manned landing on the moon. ”

"You have to know that going to the moon is quite a complicated undertaking and there are countless preparations to be made. They only started the first round of unmanned lunar landing experiments to collect data a week later, and no matter how fast and smooth everything is, it will take at least half a year from unmanned lunar landing to collect experimental data to manned lunar landing. ”

William Joseph Burns: "You said the same thing about electric propulsion last time, they couldn't have done it. But however, the other party's Xinghai is in the sky right under our noses. ”

Hearing this, Bill Nelson quickly retorted: "Whether the propulsion system used by Xinghai is electric propulsion remains to be confirmed. Moreover, it is your job to gather intelligence, and NASA can only provide some judgment. It's not our turn to take this mistake. ”

After a pause, he looked at the elderly general sitting behind the office and continued: "Moreover, even if the other party is really sure that the manned lunar landing project will be officially launched on June 21, we will be in time!" ”

"With regard to the Artemis program, we have successfully completed all the preparations for the first phase. Whether it is Space-X's BFR super rocket or Lockheed Martin's Orion multipurpose manned spacecraft, these manned lunar landing equipment have completed acceptance. ”

"According to the established plan, NASA was supposed to start the first manned space program around July, and now, it is not impossible to bring it forward to June."

Behind the desk, after hearing Bill Nelson's explanation, the elderly president's face, which had been gloomy, finally looked better.

He tapped on the spacious mahogany desk and said, "I need to make sure nothing goes wrong!" Make sure we can return to the moon before each other! ”

Bill Nelson nodded and affirmed, "Of course!" ”

(End of chapter)