The meeting in the afternoon began.
As Lu Zhou expected, the experts on Earth did not seem to have much say here.
Led by Academician Yang Chongping, several heavyweight experts from the Tiangong City Aerospace Science and Technology Research Institute took the lead in expressing their opinions, followed by engineers from several other aerospace agencies and companies.
Generally speaking, most of the experts sitting at the conference table had no objections to the demonstration of technical feasibility. Firstly, considering the current actual situation, the aerospace companies of Pan-Asian Cooperation did have the ability to develop resources on Europa. Secondly, considering the funding for the second half of the year, it would not do them any good to disagree on this matter.
As for Lu Zhou, his point of view was actually similar to theirs.
From a purely practical point of view, developing water resources on Europa was indeed cheaper and much more environmentally friendly than transporting freshwater resources from Earth to Mars.
In fact, as early as a century ago, Lu Zhou had considered including this planet full of water resources as part of his aerospace strategy.
However, due to the technical conditions at the time, and because he did not expect that he could solve the problem of faster than light speed so quickly and expand the radius of human civilization directly from the asteroid belt to the world outside the asteroid belt, this matter was put on hold.
But now, it seemed that they clearly had the conditions to take their footsteps to a further world.
However …
When the meeting progressed to the next stage, the situation took a 180-degree turn. The atmosphere at the conference table changed from peaceful to tense in an instant.
Seeing how they were arguing, Lu Zhou originally planned to express his opinion, but on second thought, it seemed that doing so would only add fuel to the fire, so he gave up for the time being.
At this time, an old engineer in his sixties with a white beard stood up with his hands on the table. He raised his voice and spoke loudly.
"We can select four points in the central area of the asteroid belt to establish freshwater resource reserve stations, transport the seawater resources extracted from Europa to the reserve stations for rough processing, and then transport water resources from different freshwater reserve stations to the colony according to the position of Mars."
A man with his arms crossed sneered and retorted in a sarcastic tone.
"Building reserve stations on the asteroid belt? And four of them? Haha, have you forgotten about those active space pirates in the asteroid belt? "
"We have the strongest fleet in the Solar System, which can provide us with safety and protection! I don't think this is a problem at all! "
"That's the fleet of the Pan-Asian Cooperation, not Tiangong City." Interrupting the man's words, Academician Yang Chongping said blankly, "Unless the Pan-Asian Cooperation allows us to have our own defense forces, your proposal will not stand."
Hearing the words of this big shot, the person who was arguing with a flushed face suddenly weakened. Under the tug of his companion, he hesitated for a moment before finally returning to his seat.
Seeing that the atmosphere was a little stiff, the mayor's secretary sitting at the conference table coughed lightly and began to play the role of a peacemaker. He smiled kindly and spoke.
"Everyone, don't get too excited … This idea does have some difficulties. We've been fighting for the right to self-defense for a long time, but there hasn't been any results."
The man who raised the objection with his arms crossed showed a smile on his face. He put down his arms and said in a happy voice, "So this matter doesn't need to be so troublesome at all.
"So this matter doesn't need to be so troublesome at all. The transportation capacity of our Distant Space Shipping Group is more than enough to maintain this route across the asteroid belt. We can transport the water resources mined from Europa to Mars for processing. This is both efficient and avoids some unnecessary risks — "
"Mr. Yu Zhenghui." The mayor's secretary glanced at him. While interrupting his speech, there was a trace of displeasure in his voice as he said, "Please pay attention to your words. We are discussing a development plan here. Please don't bring in personal information."
The man named Yu Zhenghui shrugged his shoulders, dropped an insincere apology, and stopped talking.
However, the expression on his face made the expressions on the faces of many experts present not look good.
Watching this debate, Lu Zhou glanced at the person next to him who was also slacking off. He lowered his voice and said.
"I always thought that the academic community on Mars would be more united?"
"That's your illusion." Wu Qinglai said with a helpless expression, "Once it involves interests, there is no right or wrong."
Lu Zhou nodded thoughtfully and gave an ambiguous opinion.
"If you put it that way, it makes sense."
Speaking of which, what is Academician Yang Chongping's opinion?
Lu Zhou subconsciously looked in the direction of Academician Yang, but he was surprised to find that the middle-aged man was also looking at him.
Perhaps it was just a coincidence, but the moment their eyes met, Academician Yang looked away from him, as if he had just glanced at him inadvertently.
Lu Zhou frowned slightly.
For some reason, he had a feeling that this conference might not be as simple as he thought …
Just like that, the first day of the meeting ended in an unhappy atmosphere because the big bosses could not come to an agreement. The unresolved issues were naturally left for tomorrow.
Perhaps because of the emotional argument at the conference table, Lu Zhou noticed that many faces did not appear.
During the dinner, Mayor Xiao of Tiangong City also made a special visit. After greeting the experts he invited, he chatted with Lu Zhou for a long time. He talked about his optimism about the future prospects of Mars and what he planned to do after taking office.
It wasn't until Lu Zhou looked at his watch for the tenth time that the talkative man finally stopped talking. He said that he still had work to deal with later, then left the hotel in a hurry.
After dinner, Lu Zhou returned to his room. He flipped through the notes he made during the meeting and briefly sorted out some of the interesting ideas.
Although he had his own ideas on the development plan for Europa, this did not prevent him from learning from other people's plans and improving his own plan.
This naturally included Academician Yang Chongping.
Even though he could feel that this guy seemed to have some inexplicable hostility or fear towards him, he had to admit that this guy was able to become an academician.
The doorbell rang outside the room. Lu Zhou glanced at the image on the holographic screen and pressed the button to open the door.
When the door opened, he saw Wang Peng coming back from outside. Lu Zhou asked casually.
"Did you find any clues?"
Wang Peng sat down on the sofa and sighed.
"It's not that easy, I just went to see my colleagues today. Those people from the foundation are very cautious. If it weren't for the East Asia Power case, we might still be in the dark. "
Lu Zhou: "It seems that I helped you guys a lot?"
Wang Peng smiled and said, "You helped us more than that … Speaking of which, when I was wandering around, I heard some very interesting rumors."
Lu Zhou: "What rumors?"
Wang Peng: "Recently, several Extraterrestrial Star System Colonization Funds have been publicly raising funds, intending to build colonial ships to other galaxies. Has East Asia Heavy Industries begun to industrialize the warp drive? Why haven't I heard anything about it? "
Colonial ship?
Lu Zhou was slightly taken aback.
What surprised him was not that someone had set their eyes on the world outside the solar system, but that this time people actually took the initiative to walk in front of him.
"Probably not yet, the relevant technology is still in the experimental stage, but we do have plans to commercialize this technology."
"I see, that's hard to say." Wang Peng picked up the mineral water bottle on the table and took a sip. After resting for a while, he continued, "At first, I thought it was some new type of financial scam and was going to report it to colleagues in other departments, but then I found out that this matter is not so simple. Guess what, this project is actually backed by the Mars Academy of Sciences! "
"Oh yeah?" Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows slightly and cast a surprised look at him. "Are you sure the source of the news is true?"
"I haven't verified it yet, but it shouldn't be wrong." Wang Peng continued after thinking for a moment, "I remember that the expert who endorsed the Star System Colonization Plan seems to be called … Yang Chongping?"
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