Although John said that he would go all out to carry out the Ares project, it did not mean that the Artemis project would be aborted.

Conversely, the Artemis program will also have a base on the moon, with multiple subsequent landings to keep the astronauts stationed.

And to explore Mars while maintaining a high frequency of lunar exploration, there is no doubt that a considerable number of giant rocket launches will be needed, and they will need to be cheaper.

SLS, which costs more than $4 billion for a single launch, is definitely not good, not to mention the current Block 1 version, not even Block 2 with a capacity of 140t, and these giant rockets alone will have to consume all the budget.

In this case, Robert reorganized the bidding to come up with a new rocket that could replace the SLS, and the cost was directly the same as XAP's announced launch price of Xinyuan-2A: 500 million US dollars.

The first thing he did when he took office was to scrap the SLS, and after the launch of the third one, he never made it again.

Although he knew that there was a lot of resistance, he insisted on doing so, and with the support of Jack Sullivan and John, Ami really couldn't afford to launch such an expensive thing on a large scale.

And this time, in addition to SpecaX, which unexpectedly came up with a starship, Lockheed also came up with a second-stage recoverable rocket that is a benchmark starship.

"Nova, we decided to use Nova for this mission, it's completely reusable, and it's very inexpensive."

Robert got the data of the "Nova" rocket, and he instantly felt familiar: isn't this the NOVA plan to bid for Saturn V!

During the Apollo program, according to the needs of different missions, von Braun came up with two rockets with 5 F1 engines and 8 F1 engines in the first stage, and finally weighed the cost and difficulty, and NACA chose the first plan, which was later Saturn V, which was also known as "NOVA".

Lockheed turned this old plan out of nowhere, and then made a magic change:

The first is the first-stage design, because of the need for recovery and the increase in dead weight, the diameter is expanded to 14 meters and a deep throttling F1R engine is added in the center, with a total thrust of 6,120 tons, and a weight of 3,800 tons after refueling;

Then abandon the original cumbersome and unreliable five-stage design, like the starship spacecraft with a huge controllable wing surface two stage, 10.4 meters in diameter, 21 meters in wingspan, using 5 Lockdyne improved methane fuel engine RS75 based on RS68, a single thrust of 750,000 pounds, the core stage can be deeply throttled, water landing recovery, a total thrust of 1,650 tons, and a mass of 1,200 tons after filling.

The first stage, known as the "Saturn VII" to commemorate the origin, and the second stage, named after the "nova", can carry 170 tons of payload into low orbit when recovered, and 35 tons of payload when flying to the moon.

After a comprehensive assessment, Lockheed believes that the cost of a launch of the Nova rocket will be controlled at about $450 million, and the upper stage can carry both people and materials, and it is not a problem for the OSS vehicle to refuel the "portal".

The engineers who designed him believed that although the configuration was similar to that of the Starship, the first stage of the "Nova" only needed nine proven and reliable F1R engines, the latter being a reusable version of Locke's design for the F1, simplifying the structure by 30% and significantly reducing costs, and would never be unreliable and unreliable due to the number of engines like the Starship booster.

In addition, when landing at sea, the Nova spacecraft first decelerates vertically, and then lands on the water at a small elevation angle, which consumes less fuel and has a greater fault tolerance during recovery.

In Robert's view, there are still many bright spots in the whole "nova" scheme, especially the fact that the number of engines is small, and the launch of Starship in May is really worrying about multi-stage paralleling.

It seems that the old military-industrial complex still has a few brushes!

First-class kerosene fuel, second-class methane fuel, it really doesn't look expensive.

Like SLS, the "Nova" also has the advantage that it is evenly wet with rain and dew, unlike the "Starship", which is basically fully covered by SpecaX, the main rocket body plan of the "Nova" is contracted to Boeing, the engine comes from the mature and reliable Lockyne, the system engineering and personnel cabin Lockheed is responsible, and the avionics and control equipment are handed over to Raytheon.

I can recall Claire's advice before leaving office: support a more efficient and cheap SpecaX and suppress the old military-industrial complex.

Considering various factors, the "new star" is more attractive, but the "starship" has already entered the actual launch test, and it is really difficult to choose.

However, he soon knew what to do.

……

Presidential palace.

"If you raise taxes, you will inevitably increase taxes."

Jack Sullivan shook his fist resolutely, causing John to subconsciously shrink his neck.

"If we increase our spending, we will inevitably increase our revenues, and taxes, and taxes are the foundation of Aramco!

Banks are not a substitute for substantial fiscal planning, and raising taxes on the rich is not only a good way to increase incomes and balance the class, but also to increase the power in your hands! ”

"But ......"

Ignoring for a moment that he was also a rich man, John asked worriedly:

"Levying excessively high taxes can cause some instability, you know."

Sullivan, of course, knew what he was afraid of, and just shook his head contemptuously:

"Sir, politics is a loose alliance of rival tribes, and increasing taxes on the rich will indeed offend many people, but the officials above and below will strongly support your decision, with the help of the god of war Ares and the industrial reshoring plan, you only need to move your mouth, and naturally countless people will rush to bite it."

But after finishing speaking, he changed his tone again, and his expression became more serious:

"Of course, if you just do this, there will be a backlash, so you need to be appeased."

John hurriedly asked, "What kind of appeasement?" ”

"Subsidizing the auto giants is appeasement, and there are also the Ares and Artemis plans of the god of war, from which enough benefits must be divided, behind the automobiles, medicine and aerospace are the main objects you are targeting, use these plans to give them some benefits, and then put some pressure on them, they will compromise.

The only ones who really accept our support are small and medium-sized enterprises, and if you give them a chance, they will naturally fully support your re-election. ”

Smack, smack.

John couldn't help but start applauding, the new staff was less likable than Pio, but more worthy of the task.

But before he had time to praise, Sullivan began to spoil his good mood:

"Sir, it's not a good idea to attack the military."

"How do you talk about this?"

The team assembled for the logistics investigation of the overseas base was ready to go, and John was very confident that he could grab some people's pigtails.

From last year's ledger alone, he found many clues: 1.4 million black goats flown in by transport plane, $1,000 coffee cups, and why there was an electric breast pump on the purchase list?

Seeing that John was not pleased, Sullivan did not say any more, leaving a "You will understand" and withdrew.

(End of chapter)