"A hundred billion dollars? Mr. Director, are you kidding me? ”

Claire took the phone away in time to dodge the big boss's sonic attack, and sighed helplessly.

He was woken up by a phone call in the middle of the night to analyze the possibility of a space power station, which directly destroyed his only adequate sleep this week.

John's whimsical plan to build a 200-acre (800,000 square meters) solar farm over the opposite side, Claire had to make rough calculations with a sense of sleepiness.

800,000 square meters, according to the quotation of Spectrolab (a well-known supplier of solar cells to Aramco), mass production is so much a super discount of 1 square meter of 100,000 US dollars, that is, 80 billion, launch...... Let's just assume that Starship succeeds, 100 billion dollars is really not too much.

This number is far from what John imagined, and he thought that a maximum of 10 billion, or even billions, would be enough.

Knowing that John must be thinking with his head again, Claire could only reluctantly reassure:

"Boeing is developing new solar cells with a capacity of more than 1,000 watts per square meter, and it is expected to be successful in five years, and if we were to build at that time, such a large area could generate 800 megawatts of electricity, and Mr. President, the Hoover hydropower plant will generate 1,300 megawatts.

The Hoover Dam cost $50 million, which was $50 million in the 1930s, accounting for almost one-thousandth of GDP, and last year we had $20 billion per thousandth of GDP. ”

John was silent, not because the expenses were too big for him to imagine, but because he felt that Claire seemed to be more useful than his staff, at least all kinds of data at his fingertips, and it sounded much more professional.

Pio's bastard, though more flattering, didn't offer any useful advice, and he was not as good as a director of NASA.

But the power station this ...... The cowhide has been blown out.

"What! You just tweeted that you will build the world's largest man-made object, over 200 acres, during your tenure?! ”

Hearing this explosive news, Claire almost fainted, although the previous Xiao Hei didn't know anything but didn't interfere blindly, this one came completely by preference!

"Don't make such a fuss...... I know NACA has a solution, right? ”

“……”

Rubbing her temples vigorously, Clairedo wished it was just a dream and wouldn't be dominated by phone calls in the middle of the night.

"This ...... It's not entirely impossible, let me think about it...... It's cheaper, and it's as light as possible, I know. ”

The words artificial moon came to his mind:

"In the last century, NACA had plans to build 90,000 square meters of mirrors to provide lighting, and its main structure is a metal foil, which can be contracted and expanded like an umbrella, 1 million square meters...... Even a 250-acre mirror may be 100 tons, and it can be easily hit, and the cost will be reduced by more than ten times.

If you don't count the cost of launching, 10 billion dollars should be able to do it. ”

"This is it!"

John couldn't wait to respond, 250 acres, more than twice as large as the one opposite, very good.

"Can it be seen? Surely obvious, right? ”

"Well, maybe 10 times brighter than the moon, so it's going to be very bright, the brightest celestial body."

The brightest, the biggest, John's mood suddenly improved a lot, and he quickly sorted out Claire's words and tweeted them before forgetting, as if he was an astronaut expert.

Neither Artemis nor the god of war Ares had a Artificial Moon in his opinion, especially since the latter proposed it during his tenure and would definitely be completed during his tenure, which is simply great.

Even if he leaves office in the future, as long as the people of Ami raise their heads, the light they see will carry John's name!

He had already decided in his heart that he had to push this plan to the end, and it was called the John Sun Project...... Forget it, Second Sun Project! Go one step further than day by day!

……

Florida.

The 1:2 scale "miniature" Blue Moon lander started its engines on the test site, stabilized its attitude at an altitude of 25 meters with flexible swings, and the strong engine air quickly blew a crater on the ground.

This is the last test machine verification before the delivery of the Blue Moon lander.

Since the gravitational pull of the earth is six times that of the moon, the BE-7 engine on the complete lander cannot be pushed up and cannot be tested, so the actual machine test is used in the same scale model, which is also enough to use with the addition of electronic technology.

The BE-7 engine is a relatively reliable upgrade from the BE-3, but a previous accident proved to be the result of human error, and NACA engineers have resolved these issues.

Construction of NACA's HLS for the moon landing began in May and is expected to be completed by the end of June, and if the scale demonstrator passes the test, it will be sent to the moon in preparation for the first lunar landing mission.

In order to be able to rush to work again on the already crazy schedule, "Blue Moon" has removed most of the features that are not needed for the time being.

For example, inside the cabin of the lander, the air circulation system can only be maintained for 30 hours if it is slashed, and the redundancy can only be said to meet the minimum requirements if the emergency device is included;

Other meaningless decorations, such as chair interiors, can be cut, and if they can't be cut, the function will be reduced, and the mass of the cabin will be less than a ton.

Even this mission does not bring a lunar rover, which is half a ton.

Reducing functionality is not only about losing weight, it's also about minimizing risk, because the law that less functionality is more reliable is biblical in engineering.

Under the premise of not exceeding the maximum time limit, the huge development team of "Blue Moon" has made every effort to ensure the safety of the astronauts.

The crew of the Artemis II mission was more or less aware of the risks of the trip, and almost all of them stayed here outside of the training plan, familiarizing themselves with the various operations and contingencies of the lander.

Christina Koch was especially serious that she and Victor Glover, a black man, would be the two astronauts who landed, the only two passengers on the lander.

In fact, she regrets it a little now, she is a former engineer, and the role of this mission is a payload specialist, so she did not have to take risks.

Such a dangerous action should be done by men, but if she doesn't go down this time, the outside world will criticize her for not paying attention to women, so it can only be her and Victor.

Cursing the damn O organization in her heart, Christina picked up the more than 300-page "Human Landing System (HLS) Operation and Emergency Maintenance Catalog" and gnawed on it, these things might save her life.

Next to him, Victor was still training in a manual landing simulation, and the joystick that completely simulated the real feedback made the strong black man sweat profusely.

"Damn, I really don't know how Neil landed on the moon with this thing, it's a lot of effort, but it still requires precise control and no mistakes."

Christina looked up: "Learn from Glover, or we'll have to wait for next year's Artemis III to be brought back in a body bag." ”

Victor: "Aren't the Chinese also going around the moon, maybe I can say on the radio, 'Oh, go to the country, unload,' and they'll drop the lander and take us back to the prisoner of war camp." ”

Christina: "Maybe they're just going to drop a pack of vacuum curry off the track, oh, they can't throw it down." ”

Victor: "I am still a registered disciple of the lay family of Shaolin Temple, and even shaved my hair for it, and the host will definitely intercede for me, they believe in Buddhism." ”

Christina: "Shaolin Temple? When did you become a disciple of Shaolin Temple? ”

Victor: "A Korean helped me introduce me, and I got a black satin disciple certificate for $3,000. ”

(End of chapter)