"At 13 o'clock CT on December 25, Artemis III astronauts Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover met with TIANMU-3 astronauts Deng Lei and Li Wei at the edge of the impact crater.

It was a moment of great historical significance, with two hands from two directions of the earth holding together that had crossed 380,000 kilometers together......

…… CNN continues to bring you stories, so stay tuned for ......"

Musk watched with interest the footage shown on the television show, which was transmitted yesterday when the two teams met for the first time on the moon.

Both sides apparently communicated in advance that only two astronauts would be dispatched, and one of them would act as a cameraman, agreeing to meet at the midline between the two landing sites, exchange communication channels and gifts, and express greetings.

The images of Victor and Deng Lei on TV are very different, NACA's semi-monocoque spacesuit is a bit like a tall and lanky potato with four short limbs, while "Pioneer I." fits and practices, and the bare composite skeleton attached to the exterior looks very sci-fi.

One is visibly clumsy to the naked eye, and the other looks as cool as a mechwarrior.

However, the communication between the two was very harmonious, Victor sent a lander model, and Deng Lei's return gift was a multi-functional geological hammer.

In the end, the two sides also took each other for a test drive of the lunar rover, and then said goodbye to each other and returned due to time constraints.

The media commented on the meeting well, and John's spokesman made a few brief remarks, and it seemed that he didn't want to overhype the matter.

However, on the whole, compared with the-for-tat confrontation of the previous two years, the situation has eased a lot now.

However, just as he was thinking this, Scott, the chief assistant, appeared at the door and knocked on the open door.

"Boss, NACA has placed a new order for us."

Scott handed the tablet to Musk, and now SpecaX is also making strides towards a paperless office.

The official propaganda is for environmental protection, but in fact he copied Xinyuan.

Although XAP acts more mysteriously, it is the first in the aerospace industry after all, and every move can have a great impact.

Among them, the most attractive is its implementation of unmanned factories, full-system computer control and paperless office, and later aerospace companies are also desperately learning these three points, and the empty fork is one of the best.

XAP's aggressive use of AI to control everything sounds crazy, but it is very much in line with Musk's appetite, but he doesn't trust the backdoor of the server too much, and he doesn't intend to be so exaggerated.

He read the tablet quickly, surprise and confusion on his face.

NACA decided to accelerate the Ares program, soliciting new proposals from major space companies, requiring that a manned spacecraft be launched in mid-2020, and that the third quarter of 2022 be barely acceptable, in short, to land on Mars as soon as possible.

Regardless of how to achieve these two crazy goals, NACA decided to triple the number of overweight boosters purchased from 5 to 15 before the official plan was presented, and voluntarily increased the price of the additional 5 to $300 million, requiring all of them to be delivered by mid-2019.

Delivering the remaining 12 boosters at SpecaX's production capacity is not a big deal, but a total of nearly 400 Raptor engines would need to take up the vast majority of capacity, but with an additional $3 billion order from NACA, the expansion would be a breeze.

But Musk was shocked by the attitude shown by NACA, how difficult it is to land on Mars NACA is definitely the clearest, he is now boasting of landing on Mars in 2020 and building a Mars base in 2026, but with the current posture NACA seems to be ready to turn this idea into reality!

It took two and a half years to complete the manned landing plan, and in his opinion, it was completely to fight for the first place with the Chinese people, which was more risky than the moon landing race!

Isn't the lesson of that failure half a year ago enough? Since then, the entire NACA has become so cautious that even the president has not been able to intervene forcefully, as the consequences could come at the cost of astronauts' lives.

There is definitely something unusual about the sudden shift now, but the likelihood of a race for first place is slim.

“boss，boss？”

Scott woke up the distracted Musk and reminded:

"Vice President Muller, please come over as soon as possible, he is already preparing to expand production."

"Of course...... Scott, tell me a little bit more about the situation. ”

……

Class B base.

An Maowei and Evan Van Dishuk saw Lin Ju when they got out of the car and immediately happily stepped forward to shake hands.

"Boss Lin, I've admired my name for a long time!"

"Thank you, I didn't expect to see you in person."

An Maowei is the vice president of the Chinese Astronomical Society and the 41st Committee of the International Astronomical Union, and Ewen is the chairman of the 15th committee and vice president of the IAU.

"The Chairman of the 16th Committee recently attended an academic conference in Sweden, but he will soon be visiting with IAU President Debra Ergrerling."

An Maowei also explained with some apologies, but Lin Ju obviously didn't care and was very enthusiastic.

"You great scientists must have a lot to do, and you are doing things that are beneficial to all mankind, and we should support you.

Please, let's go over there and talk about it. ”

The Astronomical Society's actions were faster than Lin Ju imagined, and it may have been that they had been prepared, but in any case, it was very gratifying.

Of course, it may also be related to the cake that Xiao Okada painted for them, and the load mass of more than 10 tons is not small.

An Maowei and Evan boasted and patted Lin Ju and Xinyuan wildly along the way, and it wasn't until they sat down that they said their ultimate purpose:

"President Lin, more than 20 billion is too expensive, can you lower the price a little more?"

Ewen is a Dutchman in his sixties, his Chinese is good and he doesn't need the help of a translator, and he doesn't repeat Xinyuan's dollar quotes.

"Tens of billions of dollars can build a small nuclear power plant, and if we spend so much just on the propulsion part, then we can only spend a small budget for the detector, which is contrary to our purpose."

There was no change in the expression on Lin Ju's face, but he asked naturally:

"So how much budget did the IAU decide to devote to the entire exploration program?"

Evin: "Our plan is to launch in 2020, with a total investment of no more than $3.5 billion, but most of it needs to be allocated to various research organizations and universities for the study of exploration routes and the manufacture of components, and in fact, the IAU can have a maximum of $1 billion in funds.

Lin Ju didn't speak, he had already understood the reason why the IAU persuaded all walks of life from Ewen's somewhat embarrassed expression.

It's not that everyone raises money together for IAU, but that all parties involved allocate sub-projects and fund related research on their own, and most of the billions of dollars are gimmicks, and the funds that can really be taken out are only less than $1 billion.

Even if it is all taken, it will only be 6.7 billion yuan, and it will definitely take three years to gradually arrive, which is too far from expectations.

It is unrealistic to ask IAU to pool all the money from all parties to Xinyuan, so it is estimated that the gang will have to be dispersed immediately.

Thinking of this, Lin Ju's mood had completely calmed down, and he said lightly:

"Mr. Evan, I must remind you that even if the cost of rocket launch is very low now, it will cost more than $150 million to launch such a probe, and the rest of the money is not enough to cover the cost of our A100 engines in service.

A smaller engine would certainly be cheaper, but it would require another development expense, and a billion dollars would be completely insufficient.

And you have to know that that's going to Saturn across almost a billion kilometers, and it would require a significant increase in the reliability of nuclear engines, at least $2.2 billion, even if we give you the lowest offer. ”

"This ......"

Evin's face was a little ugly, and the $2.2 billion IAU couldn't have raised it, and it couldn't have all of it raised for XAP, at least NACA wouldn't allow them to do so.

In fact, NACA is also selling them a nuclear engine that has not yet been developed, and although they promise that it will be put into service on time, who can say for sure.

At this time, Lin Ju attacked again and began to emphasize Xinyuan's advantages:

"We can sign a contract to use off-the-shelf, more expensive and larger A100s that will be available and guaranteed to reach Saturn in 12 to 15 months, whenever you need it.

And in the case of traditional aerospace technology, the time is 8 to 10 times that number; Moreover, after carrying a nuclear engine, the probe can freely explore Saturn and all the satellites around it, and there should even be surplus fuel to fly to Uranus or Neptune, according to the detection ability, the cost performance of the nuclear engine has increased more than ten times. ”

Evan, who was about to speak again, held back again, of course what Lin Ju said was very reasonable, and there have been many arguments within the committee, and this is a fact that can be done.

At this time, he was in a dilemma, but An Maowei, who had been watching from the sidelines, suddenly asked:

"Your nuclear engine is fueled by liquid hydrogen, so will you be able to hold enough liquid hydrogen during a years-long voyage?

And the nozzle of the engine, which will not be destroyed by hydrogen plasma corrosion over a long time? ”

Lin Ju: "No, of course not.

Xinyuan has solved these problems and carried out very rich experiments, we are a commercial company, if there is a problem with the product, we will take the corresponding responsibility. ”

An Maowei said "oh" and stopped talking again, quietly waiting for Ewen's answer.

The latter rubbed his hands on his thighs for a long time before he stood up and replied with difficulty:

"I need to consult with others, but we appreciate your help anyway."

"You're welcome."

Lin Ju also got up to shake hands with him and then politely sent off the guests, and An Maowei also left.

The meeting had almost dispelled all the expectations of his astronomical society, and a few hundred million dollars was a drop in the bucket before the huge gap in the Saturn program, even if the unmanned exploration program was far behind.

Just as he was rubbing his hair vigorously, a pair of soft hands rested on his shoulders and gently kneaded them.

"Isn't it going well?"

"It's not just that it's not going well...... We have to squeeze out at least four or five billion dollars in half a year, the time is short and the demand is large, the IAU actually does not have that much capacity, and it is positive to be able to come up with one or two hundred million dollars in half a year for us, and we can't count on it at all. ”

Lin Ju shook his head decisively, now it is just in time for the beginning of the large-scale development of the United Mining, and a number of large projects have been carried out at the same time, and all the funds have gone, and the Saturn plan that was urgently launched needs a huge amount of funds that are immediately in place, and such a cash flow request itself is very harsh.

Yu Man: "What about the Space Agency, you go and tell them about multiple deep space projects." ”

"No...... The space agency has a lot of budget for next year, but it is impossible to give us that much right away; Anyway, the launch window of Mars and Saturn before June cannot be missed, otherwise it will be another year to wait. ”

"But you said that the scientific research center is very important, and several big projects need this foundation."

"I can only look at the ...... in front of me"

Lin Ju smiled bitterly and shook his head, of course, if Xinyuan reaches out to the civilian market, he will definitely be able to kill and easily subvert several industries, but that is the next step, and it is far from that time.

While he was upset, he remembered the movements on Saturn and Mars, and his mood became even more depressed.

"Don't think so much at once, maybe there will be a turnaround."

Yu Man increased the strength of her hand, she didn't know the inside story of Saturn's mission, and a pair of beautiful eyes looked at the dark sky.

In the other hemisphere of her line of sight, the Thirteenth Office had only just set its first goal.

……

Presidential palace.

"The signals intercepted twice pointed in two different directions."

In the secret intelligence room, John and other staff members are listening to David Usno's report on the latest results.

David did not have the gloom and fear of the elites at all, only the seriousness and excitement of his work, and he pointed excitedly at the whiteboard.

"We've been doing a more nuanced analysis of the M signal these days, by...... In short, there are many technical means to confirm the maximum possible point of the signal twice:

The first time it was heading towards the constellation Ursa Major, the exact galaxy is unknown, and it happened to pass between Venus and Mercury;

The second signal is directed to the constellation Southern Cross, a planet that does not pass through the solar system in this direction, and the two directions have nothing to do with each other.

But the fact that the launch source is clearly from the same source only means one thing-"

The emotions of the crowd moved with David's erected fingers, and they all held their breath:

"—The receiver is in motion, it could be a flying spacecraft or a probe, or it could be orbiting the sun, and I'm leaning towards the latter."

“……”

Claire couldn't help but raise her hand:

"David, what might be the reason for the second? The interval between the two times we received the signal was less than a month, and the direction was so different, how did the moving celestial bodies rotate so fast? In that case, we would be observing very obvious electromagnetic signals, but there is no such thing in the solar system. ”

"But you're talking about the natural orbit, what if the source is powered?"

David immediately retorted:

"Moreover, according to the signal strength of the transmitting source, the receiving source has a very high probability of being in the solar system, and the transmission of electromagnetic waves in the universe is not only inefficient, but also has a high delay, so it must be relayed and forwarded through some kind of device.

Judging from the fact that we can intercept the second signal, they have limited means of monitoring in the solar system, and it is likely that they are not in the solar system themselves.

And what does it mean that our rovers on Mars, which have been working for so many years, have only recently begun to receive signals? ”

(End of chapter)