North America, Florida.
On the central launch pad of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base stood a super rocket that was as tall as a 32-story building.
The side of the rocket was printed with the flag of the United States, the NASA emblem, the Space-X logo, and the letters BFR. At the same time, in order to cater to a few extravagant sponsors, several Wall Street investment banks that sponsored the plan were printed below these logos.
It took the staff nearly a month to send such a huge rocket to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base and complete the assembly. It took another week to complete the final preparations for the launch.
Now that the life support system had been installed on the rocket, all of the preparations were in place. It was finally time for the expedition to begin. Countless pairs of eyes looked up from the direction of the audience, and countless people were looking forward to the arrival of this moment.
The ignition countdown began.
At the end of the ten-second countdown, thick smoke instantly swept out.
The 42 Raptor engines consumed the liquid oxygen and methane in the fuel chamber at a terrifying speed, providing the entire spacecraft with a terrifying takeoff thrust of 128 megawatts, pushing the hundred-meter-long rocket slowly away from the launch pad and platform, speeding toward the blue sky.
The roar of the engines was like the roar of a behemoth.
This behemoth was called chemical propulsion.
With the most advanced liquid oxygen methane propulsion technology, this behemoth once again displayed its thick and powerful arms to the world …
Elon looked at this scene through the telescope. He smirked and handed the telescope to his assistant. He looked at Director Carson, who was staring at the smoke column in the distance, and spoke with a smile.
"I told you, there is nothing to worry about. We have the best aerospace technology research and development team in the world, as well as the richest launch experience. You just have to wait for the good news to come from the desert 60 million kilometers away."
"I hope it's good news." Director Carson put down the telescope and said, "What about the BFS spacecraft? Is it ready? "
If the life support system was successfully deployed on the surface of Mars, the three lucky people would board the ship in June and embark on the greatest expedition in human history.
As a supporting facility for the BFR super rocket, the BFS spacecraft played an equally important role in the Ares program, which was to safely send astronauts to Mars.
Musk: "We're not going to use the BFS spacecraft."
Director Carson looked at Elon and said, "But what you said in the PowerPoint was …"
Elon smiled and said, "That thing is a 100-person transport spacecraft. By the time we use it, it's already the last phase of the Ares program. It's just to send three astronauts. We will use a smaller, more stable and reliable vehicle. Can you guess what it's called? "
Director Carson: "… What is it called?"
"Heart of Gold!"
Director Carson hesitated for a second before he realized what Lu Zhou was talking about.
"Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?"
If he remembered correctly, that was the name of the book. However, the Heart of Gold in the book didn't use chemical propulsion. Instead, it used an "infinite non-probability drive". In theory, it could instantly reach any corner of the universe.
A smile appeared on Musk's face.
"That's right, Douglas Adams' science fiction masterpiece. I plan on making it the first manned spacecraft to fly to Mars!"
Director Carson smiled and shook his head.
"… I think it would be more appropriate to give it a more historical name."
Musk said indifferently, "History is written by people. When we succeed, whether it's the weight of history or something else, it will be there."
While the two of them were talking, deafening cheers broke out not far away.
People from all walks of life, civil society representatives, and reporters from major media companies were standing there. At this moment, everyone's faces were filled with excitement.
Amidst the cheers, the BFR rocket carrying the life support unit sped toward Mars more than 60 million kilometers away. If everything went well, it would land on Mars in a month.
Standing at the designated shooting location, the excited reporters had already finished filming the rocket taking off. They were fiddling with their cameras as they left the launch site.
They couldn't wait to go back to their computers and start editing tomorrow's headlines.
Once the day was over …
The entire world would be shocked by the achievements of the United States …
…
The news of the successful launch of the BFR rocket made the headlines the next day.
According to NASA's report, the "Heart of Gold" spacecraft carrying the life support system had successfully accelerated to the second cosmic speed, leaving the Earth-Moon system for a new world.
The United States once again demonstrated its ambitions and strength in the field of aerospace to the world. At the same time, the related reports appeared on major newspapers, TV news, and talk shows.
As one of the protagonists of the Ares program, Space-X's stock price began to rise after a short period of shock.
According to a financial practitioner working on Wall Street, this launch plan not only brought Space-X billions of US dollars in direct revenue, but it also brought billions or even tens of billions of US dollars worth of market value increase in the US stock market.
Considering the expanding electric car market due to lithium-sulfur batteries and controllable fusion technology, it wouldn't be long before Elon Musk became one of the top 10 richest people in the world.
On the other hand, after the successful launch of the BFR rocket, the criticism of the lunar orbit space station became more and more intense.
Many people even jumped out and said that this project, which was worth tens of billions, was doomed to fail from the beginning. Even if it succeeded, it would be useless.
Lu Zhou didn't even pay attention to what these people were saying. Ever since he came back from Beijing, he had been working non-stop.
The most difficult part of building a space station in lunar orbit wasn't how to send the space station components from the Earth's surface to lunar orbit.
So far, Star Sky Technology was the only company that could do this job.
Therefore, it was no exaggeration to say that the outcome of this competition depended on Lu Zhou alone.
Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, Institute of Aerospace Technology conference room. A conference on the lunar orbit project was going on.
"… If we want to complete the construction of the lunar orbit space station, we need to send at least 500 tons of weight into lunar orbit." Lu Zhou looked at the concept diagram on the screen and gently tapped the table with a pen. He said, "Also, this is only the first phase of the project. We still have at least 2,000 tons of weight waiting for us. We have to increase our capacity as much as possible."
The Lunar Orbit Space Station project management paid Star Sky Technology's launch fees in kilograms, which were paid every six months. Because this was a key project directly under the central government, there weren't any construction arrears problems. Therefore, it was quite easy to apply for a loan from a bank.
Even though the project hadn't started yet, Lu Zhou had already applied for a 50 billion yuan loan from the big four banks. Part of this money would be used for the construction of the new Skyglow spacecraft, while the other part would be used for the research and development of new space transportation vehicles.
Lu Zhou paused for a second before speaking.
"I think we can develop a spacecraft specifically designed to travel between the Earth-Moon transfer orbit and the geosynchronous orbit."
The conference room was filled with people discussing this idea.
The idea of building a spacecraft specifically designed to travel between the Earth-Moon transfer orbit and the geosynchronous orbit was too futuristic. Many experts who had been in this field for decades couldn't make up their minds about this idea.
Hou Guang frowned and thought for a second before saying, "What you're saying is … use Skyglow to complete the transportation from the surface to the geosynchronous orbit, then transfer the space that needs to be transported to a special spacecraft, then use a special spacecraft to complete the transportation from low-Earth orbit to lunar orbit?"
Lu Zhou nodded and said, "Yes."
Hou Guang said, "In theory, it's feasible, but there might be a lot of technical risks during the cargo transfer phase."
Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Aerospace itself is full of risks. Every orbit change is a risk. The appropriate risks are worth it. If we can do this, not only can we increase the carrying capacity of the Earth-Moon transfer orbit, but we can also outsource the launch from the Earth's surface to geosynchronous orbit to other qualified aerospace companies. This way, we can share our costs. "
After hearing Lu Zhou's idea, Hou Guang went silent. After a while, he spoke.
"I'll go back and do some research. I'll give you a detailed report by tomorrow night."
Lu Zhou nodded solemnly.
"Okay, I'll leave it to you."
This kind of thing wasn't something that could be easily decided in a meeting. All Lu Zhou had to do was think about it, and the experts in charge of the specific issues would have to run errands and run errands.
However, Hou Guang didn't directly reject his idea. He even said that it was theoretically feasible, so it shouldn't be a big problem. At least the pros and cons were weighing the pros and cons. This big name in the aerospace field was tempted.
The meeting went on until noon.
After the meeting, Lu Zhou went to the cafeteria of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study. He was about to order some barbecued meat on rice when he received a call.
Lu Zhou looked at the screen and saw that it was Director Li. He picked up the phone and spoke without hesitation.
"Hello? What's up? "
Director Li didn't bother with small talk. He spoke in a serious tone.
"The Americans launched their BFR rocket!"
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