"Geng Bo, what do you think of their plan to return to the moon?"

After the morning meeting of the research institute, in the process of chatting, Zhang Xingyang asked with a smile.

In the past few years, Eagle Sauce's plan to return to the moon has caused heated discussions around the world.

Even in China, which is thousands of miles apart, there have been heated debates one after another.

"From a technical point of view, it is also very difficult to return to the moon."

After thinking for a while, Geng Bo gave his own answer.

Although on the whole, the level of science and technology is constantly developing, getting higher and higher.

However, in some areas where technology is less used, it is easy to fall behind after explosive growth and decline.

At this time, if you want to develop the existing technology, you have to rely on "scientific and technological archaeology".

Eagle Sauce's Lunar Landing Tech Tree is one such case.

Many of the technologies that used to exist have been buried in the past few decades.

Now, even if they want to return to the moon, most of the scientific research workers who used to be dead and old are no longer able to work.

Therefore, if they want to go to the moon, they do not have any advantage in terms of technical reserves.

Like other countries, it's all about starting from scratch.

Even because of the technological fault, in terms of rockets, navigation and other technologies, it has not reached the world's first level!

"Judging from the capital investment, it is unlikely that they will invest a lot of money in the moon landing project now." Geng Bo then said.

"Now they are more interested in the International Space Station project."

"The priority of lunar exploration is relatively low."

The International Space Station, or ISS for short, began construction five years ago.

So far, six modules have been launched, including the Dawning functional cargo module, the Unity node module, the Xingchen service module, the Destiny experimental module, the Seek airlock module, and the dock docking module.

Although it has not yet reached the expected completeness, some scientific research experiments have already been carried out.

This is also the aerospace project that NASA attaches the most importance to at present.

Because it is not just Eagle Sauce one country's space program, as many as 16 countries participate.

This is also a big reason why it is called the International Space Station.

Although NASA is backed by Eagle Sauce's strong position in the world, it has almost a decisive say in the International Space Station project.

However, it is still impossible to ignore his international nature.

As the largest space project in history, most of NASA's funding in recent years has been spent on the International Space Station project.

Geng Bo is not convinced that NASA will be able to carry out another huge program to return to the moon under such circumstances.

In addition, the goal of sending astronauts to the sky will be completed within five years.

"Unless they can suspend the ISS's cooperation project." Geng Bo said after taking a sip of the green tea poured by Zhang Xingyang.

"However, then they will have to spend a lot of effort to appease the ISS partners."

No matter how much NASA has a say in the International Space Station, it is not a hall of NASA's word.

Both the alliance and Da Mao have a strong say in this project.

Especially Da Mao, who controls manned rockets, a large number of cargo and manned spacecraft in the International Space Station need to rely on them.

If they can't be convinced, then NASA can't get the whole project to stop as they imagined.

"What if they really convince the other participating countries to stop the follow-up construction?"

Su Xiao was on the side, and said with a bit of a raise:

"They have now completed the basic construction of the ISS, and even if they do not carry out subsequent construction, they have reached the point where they can use it."

Su Xiao's statement is also a possibility.

Over the past five years, the launch of the station's base module has been completed through dozens of launches.

Most of the subsequent modules are experimental modules and research modules.

There are still plans for two node modules, but they are all aimed at expanding the capacity of the existing space station.

Even if it is not launched, it will not affect the current application of the space station.

"It would be great if they could really stop the construction!"

After Geng Bo listened, he laughed and clapped his hands:

"Then we can keep up with the progress of their space station construction."

"Moreover, the current Eagle Sauce is not the 'Golden Twenty Years' of the sixties and seventies, and the moon landing program is enough to drain their blood!"

At that time, Eagle Sauce was in the so-called golden twenty years.

After the end of World War II, during the period of rapid economic development, the economic growth rate remained high.

Even so, the moon landing came at a huge cost and was not fully planned.

None of the follow-up plans of the Apollo program, Plan J, could be completed.

If they really want to invest huge financial and material resources in the moon landing activities now, as they did before.

So many other countries are estimated to be able to die of laughter on the sidelines.

Such a huge project is enough to drain the blood of a peak empire.

"There's no way they're going to invest as much into a moon landing program as they did in the last century."

Zhang Xingyang said thinking of the relevant information about the moon landing in the later generations of Eagle Sauce.

"It's even a question of whether they're really determined to go to the moon."

In the face of Heywood's speech, Zhang Xingyang felt that it was more like an unrealistic slogan he made.

It doesn't mean that they will really invest money in this area.

Maybe it's Eagle Sauce's strategic flicker, maybe it's also a trick.

It's like the "Star Wars Project" that they fooled the bear into a pit in the last century.

"No matter how I look at it, I think he's just shouting slogans."

Zhang Xingyang thought about it again, and Heywood spoke on the TV show.

"After all, they just announced last month that they were about to launch the next node module, and it doesn't look like they will abandon the ISS program."

The next nodal module, originally planned to be used as a support for the Columbus and Hope modules.

If they really intend to carry out a huge lunar program, then they should not continue with the launch program of the Nodal module-2.

"Unless, they intend to work on two huge space projects at the same time."

Geng Bo was taken aback by himself when he said this.

The International Space Station (ISS) is a major space project in which sixteen countries participate.

Although other countries also have a lot of funding, NASA also has a large part.

This already costs them a lot of their budget every year.

The moon landing program is a very huge scientific project.

At that time, Eagle Sauce spent $25.5 billion for the Apollo program.

At that time, the Bretton Woods system had not yet collapsed, and $35 was worth 1 ounce of gold.

That translates to a real 729 million ounces of gold spent on the Apollo program.

Throughout '03, the price of gold has been on the rise, and as of December, gold was quoted at $410 per ounce.

In other words, the Apollo program would have cost at least more than $300 billion to date.

Eagle sauce's GDP last year was only 11 trillion US dollars, and 300 billion US dollars can account for about 3% of it!

And that's without taking into account the factors that have been rising in domestic prices for decades.

NASA's spending last year was only $14.9 billion.

It will take at least twenty years to reach $300 billion!

And that's without taking inflation into account.

"There's no way their Congress can agree to spend so much on space exploration."

Zhang Xingyang said according to his understanding of Eagle Sauce.

In fact, if it weren't for the fact that the woolly bear stole the honor of being the first to go into space, they would not have started such a huge moon landing project in the sixties.

"There is no short-term benefit in this way, and it costs a lot of money, and I don't think there is anyone in the country to support Eagle Sauce except for Heywood."

Su Xiao said after thinking about it.

Starting the moon landing program, Heywood's acceptable materials and money will be greatly increased, and he is naturally happy to see it.

"And they just launched the YLK war this year, and the main public opinion in the country is still more concerned about war matters."

Geng Bo said: "For things like the moon landing program, there are not many people who are concerned. ”

"If there is no public opinion, neither the bureaucrats nor other people in their country will pay attention."

What Geng Bo said is very realistic, Eagle Sauce is a country where public opinion is supreme.

As long as we can win the attention of public opinion, many things can get the attention of the public.

And at present, the hot topic in their public opinion field is still war.

Not much attention has been paid to the moon landing, something that has been done decades ago.

"Brother Xingyang, when will we be able to land on the moon?"

Seeing that the scene was a little cold, Su Xiao hurriedly talked about a related topic at this time.

"We have a complete plan for lunar exploration."

Zhang Xingyang also laughed at this time and said.

The Chang'e project is very clearly divided for each step of lunar exploration.

The first is the three steps of "orbiting", "falling" and "returning" of the unmanned detector.

Chang'e-1 is the realization of the step of orbiting the moon.

A large number of photographs of the lunar surface were taken, and at the end of its life, the impact experiment on the moon was completed.

The lunar north pole was found, and evidence of a large amount of water ice existed.

"Chang'e-2 was originally a backup satellite of Chang'e-1."

Zhang Xingyang had a brief chat.

"Chang'e-3 and Chang'e-4, we plan to achieve a soft landing on the moon and use a lunar rover to explore the lunar surface."

"Chang'e-5 and Chang'e-6 have achieved sampling on the surface of the moon and have returned to Earth."

The three-step plan, as a public content of the lunar exploration project, is actually relatively clear to everyone.

However, the content after this is not very clear to everyone.

In particular, there is something about a manned landing on the moon.

"Xingyang, just say that there is a plan for a manned landing on the moon!"

Geng Bo, who couldn't wait, said hurriedly.

"Manned landing on the moon, in fact, has not yet been completely determined, what plan to adopt."

Zhang Xingyang smiled and said, "But I think that by 2020 at the latest, we will still be able to land on the moon." ”

In 2020, it is only 16 years from now, and it is not long to say that it is short, and it is not short to say that it is short.

"Now there are two different models for the moon landing program."

"The first, naturally, is to learn from the world's only successful moon landing program."

"That is, the lunar orbit rendezvous scheme."

As astronauts, everyone is familiar with this kind of scheme.

In the program, it is divided into a command/service module and a lunar module.

The Directive/Service Pod is responsible for carrying the necessary fuel and necessities.

The lunar module is responsible for the astronauts' landing on the moon.

After the spacecraft enters lunar orbit, the lunar module separates from the command/service module and lands on the lunar surface.

In this process, the command/service module stays in lunar orbit, and an astronaut stays in the command/service module to provide various services to the astronauts on the moon.

After the mission to the moon, the lunar module took off again and docked with the command/service module in lunar orbit.

Then return to Earth together.

"Such a plan cannot be said to be bad, but there are many drawbacks."

Zhang Xingyang spoke next.

"First of all, in order to be able to bring so many things to the moon at once, the rocket thrust needs to be very strong."

"As a result, a large part of the money is spent on the process of launching supplies into space."

Geng Bo combined his own recyclable rockets, as if he had thought of something.

"Secondly, this plan has no way to stay on the moon for a long time."

After Zhang Xingyang finished speaking, he gave everyone a little time to think, and then said.

"So I think that if you want to land on the moon, you must first build a permanent space station in outer space as a starting base."

"It is used to adapt astronauts to life in space, and the space station can provide them with supplies on the moon."

"In this process, the use of Hongyan rockets can reduce the cost of material transportation on a large scale."

"On the moon, before the astronauts go, we will first build a base for astronauts to live with unmanned autonomous machines."

This plan has actually been in Zhang Xingyang's mind for a long time.

Moreover, this is also a set of more convenient lunar landing plans explored by later generations.

Unmanned autonomous machines will first build basic living quarters in the polar regions of the moon.

And because there is a lot of water ice in this area, it can greatly reduce the demand for water in logistics.

"Then, we can transport astronauts from the space station to the moon through spacecraft for scientific research."

Zhang Xingyang completely said his thoughts.

Although this scheme sounds much more complicated at first glance than the lunar orbit rendezvous scheme.

However, if you think about it carefully, the fault tolerance rate of such a scheme is much higher than that of the lunar orbit rendezvous scheme.

Moreover, whether it is a permanent space station, or a space transport spacecraft, it is itself within various space programs.

One of the few difficulties in this plan is in the construction of the lunar base.

The logistical pressure is also less than that of other options.

Because they now have recyclable rockets, the cost of transportation between the ground and space is relatively low.

And in the transportation in interstellar space, Hall thrusters have made some progress.

In the future, the cost of transportation will not be very high.

Geng Bo thought about it carefully, the probability of success of this plan is really very high!

(End of chapter)