After joining the astronaut team for so many years, Liang Youcheng had heard countless mobilization meetings, but this was the first time he was so excited.
"Turn the wasteland into fertile land, and turn the desert into an oasis!"
Academician Lu's words pierced his heart, making the blood in his body boil.
It was as if something deep in his bones was awakened by a certain voice.
That innate sense of mission was urging him to spread order and prosperity to even further places!
Obviously, Liang Youcheng wasn't the only one who was excited.
As soon as Academician Lu left Biosphere A, the news that the Mars landing plan would be launched within a month spread throughout the entire research base.
It wasn't that someone leaked the news, but that this matter was not deliberately kept secret. Even before Lu Zhou arrived in the desert area, Everyone Daily and other media outlets were already laying the groundwork for this plan.
In particular, the science and education program of CCTV launched a three-episode column called "The Future Home of Mankind". They invited Academician Yuan Huanmin from the Aerospace Science and Technology Research Institute to popularize the blueprint of China's space plan for the next 20 years for the general public, as well as the practical significance of building a scientific research station on Mars and a space base at the Lagrange point.
Therefore, almost on the afternoon of the opening of Biosphere A, this news was spread to every corner of the country by the reporters stationed in the Dourbantunggut Desert through the cameras and microphones of their interviews!
Almost every newspaper that could be seen was reporting the same thing on the headlines!
Beijing Evening News: [Biosphere A is opened! Artificial biosphere research has entered a new era!]
Science and Technology News: [The 400-day closed experiment has achieved a stage success! The physical condition of the twenty subjects is normal!]
China Agricultural University Newspaper: [China has mastered fully enclosed space colonial capsule technology! Professor Hu Yang of our school is participating in this project!]
Jin Ling University Newspaper: [Our school's Academician Lu is the chief designer, the Mars landing arrow is ready!]
Jin Ling Daily: […]
Intensive news came one after another. Under the bombardment of so much news, a series of related terms such as "China's Mars landing plan", "Biosphere A", "Academician Lu", and so on were soon sent to the hot search list.
Just a few days ago, people were still surprised that Lu Zhou announced his resignation from the ILHCRC board of directors and debated where he would go next. They didn't expect this debate to come to an end so quickly.
Furthermore, it was such a shocking piece of news.
China will launch a manned Mars landing program within this month!
Academician Lu was personally appointed as the chief designer!
It was simply amazing!
The biosphere in the Gurbantunggut Desert was an international cooperation project. Therefore, not only were China's researchers and reporters stationed there, but the mainstream media from various countries had also focused their attention on this place a few days ago.
Therefore, just as the news of the initial success of Biosphere A hit the headlines of major domestic media, the news that the Mars landing plan would be launched within a month quickly spread to the outside world, attracting widespread attention and discussion from the international community.
This sudden news could be said to be shocking to many people.
Especially for the Americans, who had suffered a big setback on Mars a few years ago, it was like a bolt from the blue. They didn't know how to react.
On Twitter.
The popularity of this topic quickly replaced the recent baseball league and occupied the hot search headlines!
In particular, the comment section of NASA's recent tweet about extraterrestrial planet observations was filled with shocked netizens in North America.
"China is planning to land on Mars?!"
"F * ck! You guys burn so much money every year, where the hell did the money go?! "
"I don't think there's any need to panic. If China is interested in Mars, let them be. We've already been there anyway."
"This argument doesn't make people feel at ease. The Mars landing plan was a disgrace! When their spacecraft came to pick up our astronauts, NASA was worried that their technology would be leaked to the Chinese, so they took the initiative to crash the BFS spacecraft that was left in Mars orbit! "
"This is just China's side of the story. There is still controversy."
"That's enough! I don't think landing on Mars is anything to be proud of! The key is whether they can stay on Mars. If they just want to leave a footprint, plant a flag, and then go home like NASA, I don't think it's worth making a fuss about! "
"This is China's provocation! We should restart the Mars landing plan immediately! Rebuild 'New Virginia'! "
The voices of debate continued to ferment on Twitter.
The opinions of netizens seemed to be divided into two factions. One faction believed that China had mastered the technology of cruising in Mars orbit and fully enclosed biosphere. It would not be difficult for them to establish a permanent research station on Mars.
The other faction held the complete opposite view. They believed that although China had mastered the technology of cruising in Mars orbit, it was still not an easy task to establish a permanent base on Mars.
The two sides were arguing, and no one could convince the other.
So far, it seemed that the latter's voice had the upper hand.
After all, as many people had seen, although China had completed cruising flights in Mars orbit more than once and successfully returned to the Earth-Moon system, they had never really left a footprint on the surface of Mars.
The technical difficulty of arriving at Mars and landing on Mars was still a different dimension.
Even though the Garden Project had achieved phased success, the Dourbantunggut Desert was nothing compared to the despairing yellow sand on Mars.
The sandstorms there could even last for a whole year. The sand that covered the sky would not only paralyze all solar facilities, but it would also drop the temperature on the surface of Mars to an extreme number!
Even a fully enclosed biosphere couldn't rely on the input of external energy for a whole year, completely relying on the internal material cycle to achieve the balance of the artificial ecosystem.
Maybe China didn't realize how bad the situation on Mars was?
Many Americans had the same idea.
After all, as the citizens of the most powerful aerospace country in the last century, this reality was too difficult for them to accept …
Compared to the optimism of the general public, the reaction of the American elites was much more pessimistic.
Although it was still controversial whether China could successfully complete a manned landing on Mars and build a permanent full-cycle colonial base on the surface of Mars as planned, they would not optimistically think that the China did not consider the extreme climate there.
After all, it was the China who brought their astronauts back from Mars.
In contrast, they were more surprised by another thing.
That was, China announced that it would launch a manned Mars landing plan within a month …
Although they didn't know why those Chinese people made such a hasty decision, this kind of casual attitude of going to Mars as if they were booking a plane ticket really shocked many people.
NASA's Facebook group.
Most of the people who posted the news were engineers in the aerospace field, or at least master's students and doctorates in related fields. As soon as NASA's latest tweet exploded in the comments section, the discussion on the Internet also began.
"Launch within a month? Jesus … Are they kidding? This kind of large-scale space exploration project involves tens of billions of dollars, without more than half a year of planning, they decided on this in a hurry? "
"Maybe they have made sufficient preparations many years ago … Just like Biosphere A, when we hurriedly threw the soles of our shoes onto Mars and came back with a mess, they had already started preparing for today's plan."
"Sh * t … I feel like our astronauts are like guinea pigs."
"It's not just the astronauts who are acting as guinea pigs. I feel like the entire NASA has become their guinea pigs. Isn't there a rumor? The black box of the New Virginia colony was not actually left on Mars with the wreckage of the crash, but it was taken away by them! "
This speculation was not unreasonable.
After all, there were too many suspicious points about the series of things that happened at the time.
However, speaking of the American astronauts who participated in the last Mars landing plan, what was interesting was that at the same time that China announced the Mars landing plan, the former BFS spacecraft captain, Mr. Johnson, who was picked up from Mars by Starlight, posted a thought-provoking tweet on his personal social media. This tweet was unacceptable to many Americans.
"I don't think anyone in North America knows better than me how amazing their aerospace technology is. The difference between the BFS spacecraft and Starlight is like the difference between a sailboat and an ironclad. This is a vivid metaphor, because when we were still calculating the energy on the spacecraft, they already had enough energy to build a coaxially rotating gravity chamber! Although I felt that this design was redundant, I was so shocked that my jaw dropped to the ground. "
"I think our gap is not in aerospace at all, but in some fields that are more fundamental than aerospace engineering. For example, materials, energy … Just like the controllable nuclear fusion that we all know. "
"I have no doubt that as early as two or even three years ago, they had the ability to send astronauts to Mars and let them stay there comfortably. As for why they didn't do this, it's just because of humanism and respect for life itself.
"Perhaps our Mr. President should reflect on what this meaningless confrontation has brought us other than disaster!"
Johnson, who had been on both the BFS and Starlight spacecraft, was the person who understood the gap between the two the best.
After all, in the entire North America, other than himself, there was probably only one other astronaut who was still awake.
After the tweet was sent, it received a considerable number of retweets in just one hour, causing many Americans to gradually doubt whether this space race was necessary.
Of course, even then, there were still some arrogant people.
For example, Professor Phil Goethe, a NASA specially hired engineer and one of the people in charge of the Lunar Gateway project, who was an aerospace engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology University, spoke in an interview with the media.
"This is a sloppy space plan!
"I believe they have a certain degree of advantage in aerospace technology, but I still can't see any hope of success from their sloppy arrangements!
"If they really care about the lives of their astronauts and are still in awe of life, then it's best to reconsider the launch arrangements and spend a few months studying the launch plan."
"Don't mistake arrogance for courage. Otherwise, this will be the most embarrassing tragedy in human history!"
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