Even based on the closest distance, the distance between Mars and Earth was hundreds of times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Even light would take three minutes to travel. With the current technical conditions, it was basically unrealistic to establish a supply line between Celestial City and the Mars colony.
The research plan developed by the Aerospace Science and Technology Research Institute in the apocalypse was to design an engine that could be used as an aircraft between Earth and Mars. This engine was required to accelerate a large transport ship of one million tons to 60,000 kilometers per hour, which was close to the third cosmic speed, in one day, so that it could travel between Earth and Mars in a week to half a month. Although the relevant technical problems had been solved a long time before the war, there were no ready-made drawings for the engine itself to refer to. It could only be redesigned with the help of predecessors.
This was also the most regrettable part for Jiang Chen.
It was said that the Zhenghe launched in Jiuquan could accelerate to one-tenth of the speed of light. However, the researchers involved in the design of the Zhenghe engine were all valuable talents, and it was impossible to leave them on the wasteland to fend for themselves.
Because it was not possible to establish a supply line for the time being, it required the colonial base deployed on Mars to have higher resource utilization efficiency than the Moon colonial base and to be self-sufficient to the greatest extent. The production cost of the equipment was also several times higher than that of the Moon colonial base …
At the end of the tour, Kelvin reported a number to Jiang Chen.
The cost of the entire equipment was as high as 25 billion Xin New Dollars, and 90% of the structure was completed by industrial-grade 3D printers. Just these twenty people burned the market value of a listed company. Even Jiang Chen felt distressed for a while.
…
On the first Friday after returning to Xin, it was finally time to launch the Mars colonization plan.
Standing on the offshore platform under Celestial City, Jiang Chen sent the twenty colonists to the space elevator. After shaking hands with them, he personally awarded them commemorative medals in recognition of their contributions and sacrifices to the aerospace industry.
After arriving at Celestial City, they would begin a week of closed-door training, and after the training, they would board the ship and sail to Mars tens of millions of kilometers away.
For now, it was a one-way ticket. In the next few years or even decades, they would spend their time on the desolate Mars. At least before the flight to and from Mars was opened, they would not be able to see their loved ones again.
The parting scene was quite touching. Seeing the heroes and their families hugging each other to say goodbye, everyone present had tears in their eyes. Media from all over the world recorded this historic scene with their cameras, accompanied by texts from different countries, and spread it to every corner of the international community as news.
NASA and SpaceX reacted rather calmly to Celestial Trade completing the manned landing on Mars ahead of them. From the moment the space elevator was built, they were fully mentally prepared for this day.
Due to the fact that Celestial Trade was ahead of them, SpaceX silently canceled the Mars colonization plan originally scheduled to launch in 2020 and focused on the development of asteroid resources.
But this had nothing to do with Jiang Chen. Regardless of whether SpaceX adjusted its business strategy, he didn't think they could beat him in the space race.
As for how the United States would react and how China would feel, he couldn't be bothered to think about it.
After the launch ceremony of the Mars Colonization Plan, Jiang Chen canceled all social engagements and had a relaxing weekend. In the morning, he slept until he woke up naturally, and in the afternoon, he was either surfing or lying on his private beach leisurely basking in the sun. As for the night, even if he didn't want to, he would still be pulled into one of the two women's gentleness.
Occasionally, just occasionally. When Xia Shiyu couldn't take it anymore, she would also ask for help from Ayesha, who happened to be hiding on the side. But when she woke up the next day, she would be ashamed of what happened last night.
Good times always passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was already May.
With the participation of Celestial Trade, the war in Ukraine ushered in a historic turning point. According to Jiang Chen's instructions, after Celestial Trade soldiers helped the civilian armed forces push the front line to the east bank of the Dnieper River, they stopped the offensive momentum and turned to defense. In addition to maintaining limited air support for the civilian armed soldiers on the front line, the ground forces had basically withdrawn from the front line.
Now was not the time to achieve victory.
NATO would not allow Ukraine to fall to the East, and Jiang Chen didn't want to feed the polar bear all at once. However, it couldn't be too obvious. After all, the employer paid. Fortunately, Arrow sent an additional 20,000 mercenaries to Ukraine and fought a mobile war with the civilian armed forces in the northern towns, which also gave Celestial Trade the opportunity to maintain the stalemate.
Perhaps Celestial Trade's decision gave Arrow's commander the illusion that they could "win". At the end of April, two divisions of the Ukrainian Army, with the support of Arrow, launched a new round of offensive against the civilian armed forces on the east bank of the Dnieper River.
In the entire battle, a total of 120 tanks, 327 armored vehicles, 27 armed helicopters, and 10 fighter jets were involved in the war. The steel ruins and black smoke with the smell of tar covered every inch of land in the eastern suburbs of Dnipropetrovsk.
If it weren't for the two brigades of Celestial Trade rushing from the rear to support the front line, they almost succeeded. After both sides paid a lot of casualties, the Ukrainian army finally failed. The two divisions returned to the west bank of the Dnieper River.
Because of the fiasco of the Ukrainian army on the east bank, the Ukrainian president was almost forced to step down. However, Poroshenko had the support of NATO behind him, and he wasn't ousted by the anti-war people.
The two sides were in a stalemate on both sides of the Dnieper River, and no one could take a step forward. The situation finally eased.
In addition to carrying out air strikes, Aurora-20s occasionally sneaked into the airspace of Poland, Frankberg, and even France. According to Jiang Chen's instructions, they cooperated with Ghost Agents to search for Carmen's whereabouts.
It had to be said that this guy was quite cunning. Ever since he escaped the assassination in Pilsen Church, he seemed to have disappeared. He pushed all the public affairs to the spokesperson or hired professional agents to handle, and he completely hid behind the scenes. Occasionally, he surfaced a few times, but he quickly sank again.
Even with the help of high-tech investigation methods, it was not easy to track the whereabouts of a person in the vast Europe. What's more, Europe was the stronghold of the Freemasonry. Its inherent power was integrated into all levels of society, and it was almost ingrained. If Carmen didn't take the initiative to show up, the possibility of catching him was almost negligible.
The Ghost Agents operating in Europe had investigated traces of Carmen's activities in Switzerland and Finland, but when they arrived, he was already gone.
However, they did gain something.
On the morning of May 4th, Monica Geller, who returned from Europe to Coro Island to report, brought Jiang Chen two interesting pieces of news …
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
