Hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, in lunar orbit.
Not far from the Moon Palace space station, a silver-white hexagonal prism device was dropped from the Magpie Bridge's cargo compartment, falling toward the surface of the Moon.
A few months ago, the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study teamed up with many domestic research institutions to research and develop automated mining equipment on the Moon's surface.
Now, the project had made some progress. This 300-million-yuan "Pioneer" device was one of the research results of this project. It was mainly responsible for the initial mining of the titanium-rich lunar rocks.
That is, if the equipment is deployed successfully and works successfully. The Lunar Orbit Committee would consider continuing to deploy an automated vacuum self-consumption arc smelting device on the Moon, which would process the mined titanium ore into titanium ingots or even titanium alloys. This would fill the structural material needs of the second phase of the Moon Palace project and the lunar research facilities.
The silver-white prism device slowly approached the Moon's surface due to the inertia of the Moon's gravity.
As it got closer and closer to the Moon, the two Moon Palace staff members stationed on the Magpie Bridge and the pilots on the Magpie Bridge began to tense up.
"Countdown to impact … 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 … Landing successful!
"Deploy the brackets!"
The second the silver-white prism touched the Moon's surface, gray lunar dust rose into the sky due to the impact of the mining equipment.
The brackets on the side of the device quickly opened and nailed into the Moon rock like four hooks.
The two Moon Palace staff members stared at the screen intently. They finally breathed a sigh of relief. They high-fived each other and immediately returned to their task.
"This is Moon Palace, the lunar automated mining equipment has landed successfully. Requesting further instructions."
"This is the ground command center. Congratulations on completing the mission. Please check the deployment of the automated mining equipment. If there are no abnormalities, please begin the next test in ten minutes."
"Roger that."
After the Moon Palace staff members completed all the tests and confirmed that the device had been deployed successfully, they immediately pressed the activation button.
The signal light on the top of the automated mining device flashed slightly, as if it was responding to the Moon Palace's call. It moved like a giant beast crawling on the Moon's surface.
The alloy plate at the bottom slowly opened, and then a huge drill bit extended from it and nailed into the lunar soil.
As the drill bit began to rotate and push downwards, the titanium-containing moonstone in front of it was quickly cut into countless pieces. After being processed through a spiral crushed ore pipeline, it gushed out from the discharge port on the side of the device.
After the matching smelting equipment was deployed, the discharge port of the entire automated mining equipment would be connected to the smelting equipment through a special pipeline, and transported into the smelting furnace with the help of caterpillar tracks, thus achieving complete automated production.
But for now, the mined titanium-containing moonstones could only be piled up here. Therefore, after confirming that the device could operate successfully, there was no need to keep it running.
"The device has been successfully activated and is operating in good condition."
"Make it stop."
"Roger that."
As the drill bit slowly stopped and was retracted into the abdomen of the mining device, the crushed ores no longer gushed out from the discharge port.
However, due to the low gravity on the Moon, the moon dust that was flying everywhere did not settle down.
Johnson stood next to the porthole of the Moon Palace living cabin and stared at the dusty Moon from afar. His mouth was wide open, and his face was filled with shock.
"Jesus Christ … What are the Chinese doing to the Moon?"
No one answered him.
Because Jones, who was standing next to him, didn't look much calmer than him.
She only saw the Chinese throw something from the spacecraft, and then the rolling moon dust covered the sky, as if the Moon had been hit by a missile.
"Are they … testing weapons on the Moon?"
After a long silence, as the space station slowly moved, the "construction site" covered in moon dust disappeared from his sight. Only then did he speak in a voice that seemed to be talking to himself.
Johnson muttered to himself, "I hope not."
Theoretically speaking, it was impossible. The peaceful development and use of outer space resources was a consensus reached by all countries. Experts from all over the world were on this space station, and there were countless astronomical observatories on Earth.
If the Chinese wanted to test weapons on the Moon, then they must be crazy.
Johnson wanted to believe that they wanted to build something on the surface of the Moon, just like the plant growth unit they deployed a while ago.
Jones looked at the captain next to him and said, "Speaking of which … When can we go home?"
Johnson shook his head and said, "I don't know."
"What about Travis? Why haven't I seen him lately? "
Johnson went silent for a while and spoke.
"Something might have happened to him."
"I heard … he seems to have been infected with a terrible Mars virus. Could it be that we also … "Jones's face turned pale as he thought of something terrible.
Johnson looked at his teammates. Although he was frustrated, he still comforted them.
"Don't worry, the world's top biological experts are gathered here. Whether it's Travis or us, we will all be safe."
Even though he said that, he wasn't confident at all.
Previously, when he reported to the people of North America through the Moon Palace communication device, he had a brief conversation with NASA.
Fortunately, the Chinese didn't stop him from learning the truth. During his conversation with the NASA director, he basically understood the whole story.
Simply put, there was a kind of extremely tenacious Martian bacteria in their bodies, and this bacteria may cause unpredictable effects on the Earth's ecosystem. Therefore, they were temporarily quarantined on the space station. After a while, they would be transferred to a research facility on the surface of the Moon.
What would happen to them? If the bacteria proved to be invincible, even the world's top biologists would be helpless. What would happen to them? Johnson didn't even dare to think about it.
Perhaps the best solution would be for the three of them to sacrifice their lives. He could even vaguely feel that Director Carson had hinted this to him during the call.
However, everyone only had one life. No matter what kind of glory was hidden behind it, how could it be easy to give it up?
At this moment, the hatch of the living quarters suddenly opened.
The Chinese researcher who previously examined them was accompanied by two astronauts. He floated into the cabin and stood in front of the two.
Johnson tensed up subconsciously, but he soon relaxed.
"What? Is there any progress in the research? "
When Johnson asked this question, he didn't have any hope. After all, it had only been a few days since the international experts arrived on the Moon Palace. It was extremely difficult to find a solution in such a short period of time.
However, Zhao Shuxuan's words had exceeded his expectations.
"A little bit."
Zhao Shuxuan looked at Johnson and paused for a second. He then said in a serious tone, "In order to verify our conjecture, we need you to cooperate with us to conduct some experiments."
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