Chapter 261 - 255 Go to the Mars_1

"Land Warrior?"

On the outskirts of the booth, Pratt & Whitney staff selling their civilian aviation engines recalled something and blurted out.

The Land Warrior, a single soldier combat system proposed by America in 1991, included a series of equipment such as powered exoskeletons and combat robots. It came close to cancellation several times, though it was widely known.

Warrior No. 1, could it be China’s version of the "Land Warrior"?

Aerospace Science and Technology and Northern Weapons immediately associated Warrior No. 1 with its practical value, and images of Warrior No. 1 brandishing an 89 heavy machine gun in urban combat flashed through their minds.

As a model sample for the artificial intelligence part, Warrior No. 1 grabbed everyone’s attention on the first day of the exhibition.

...

Ohio, Dayton Airport.

The Nevada Mountain Company, Lockheed Martin, and most of the NACA personnel involved in the "Dream Chaser" program welcomed the visitors’ arrival.

The guests were a team of seven or eight people, with the leader looking to be in his fifties and very energetic.

Dozens of people gathered inside the hangar didn’t seem crowded—it was an airport prepared for the Dreamer series of space shuttles with a comprehensive hangar specially built for maintenance, repairs, and reconstruction, covering a large area.

The successfully completed first flight of the Dreamer b1 space shuttle was suspended mid-air, undergoing further modifications.

Days until the boss election: 3.

"Mr. John, this is the Dreamer. It is being outfitted with subsequent equipment and will undergo a full-status unmanned test flight in 15 days. The next time, it should realize manned flight."

The NACA official in charge of the Dreamer project proudly introduced it to the visitors, who constantly nodded and proudly lifted their heads:

"Yes, I know this is the new space shuttle, America spent five years without a space shuttle, now we have her back, and that’s good, very good.

Space shuttles are symbols of advanced space technology, and I know we’re still great."

John tilted his head and cast an inquiring glance at the staff, who nodded permission. He wiped his hands on his red tie and then gently placed it on the bottom heat-resistant tile of the Dreamer.

Feeling the cool touch of the insulating ceramic, John turned his head and uttered a sentence:

"This is our H1. On behalf of John company, I offer all workers of the Dreamer, all of you, an unsolicited donation of $5,000 each as a commendation from an American citizen for your hard work."

Even though he was one of the two sole candidates, John did not regard himself as a prospective BOSS and spoke very cautiously.

As soon as cash rewards were mentioned, John’s towering six-foot-three figure loomed even larger in the eyes of others, and they felt that this former state legislator, though somewhat unreliable, was still fervent about the aerospace industry!

"Thank you, we all appreciate Mr. John’s selfless donation..."

Nevada Mountain Company’s chief project officer, Eamon, shook John’s hand and then heard the latter continue:

"I suppose the Dreamer must have a commercial operation plan, right?"

Eamon: "Of course, Nevada Mountain Company is a business dedicated to near-Earth personnel transportation, and naturally, we have such plans."

John: "I had planned to go to space on H1 before, but if you can arrange a tourist flight next year, I am willing to pay $30 million."

"...wow," Eamon didn’t expect a passenger to come knocking of their own accord, willing to pay such a high price, and was momentarily moved.

"Thank you for supporting America’s space industry. Just as you said, it’s exactly..."

"America’s rise! Right?"

John wasn’t the least bit concerned about spending $30 million—more and more space-going tycoons were emerging, but many were using the Eastern International Space Hotel. He’d rather support his own country’s enterprise and let freedom’s glory shine upon the world once again.

As a staunch idol of Texas rednecks, John had always been committed to protecting local interests, shifting focus to people’s livelihoods and the social environment, greatly differing from Diana’s traditional white elite.

No political correctness; just protecting the little interests of the common folk—it didn’t match traditional values, but John had no plans to change.

After all, he was a state legislator who had taken up politics halfway through his career, and he knew what people really cared about.

The only uncertainty was the Dawn project, which forced NACA to start and accelerate the Artemis Moon landing plan ahead of schedule. After a year, the race had entered a fervent phase.

In August, the launch of the CZ-10 had reminded many old flag-waving Americans of the glory days of the Apollo program. Surviving Apollo astronauts frequently appeared in the media to combat Moon landing conspiracy theories, and even Buzz Aldrin, who did not suffer from severe Alzheimer’s, stubbornly toured the nation’s middle schools, hoping to rekindle the dreams of space.

Space elements were inevitably included in the campaign rhetoric of John and Diana, and the former saw it as a potentially critical factor.

In the week before election day, John made consecutive visits to various aerospace companies, continuously making donations since his state legislator status and family business were not short of money.

The Dreamer was his final stop, and thus he clarified the current basic landscape of the space race:

CASA, with less experience and a late start, has made rapid progress, and although some technology is still lacking, it is quickly maturing through a powerful industrial capacity and a rich talent system, surpassing NACA in some aspects;

XAP, a mysterious and powerful aerospace company, is believed to be backed by an elite group of Chinese from around the world, boasts a wealth of technical heritage and formidable strength;

CASA+XAP essentially form the main roster of the red team’s players, with the rest being small fry; the blue team is led by NACA, joined by a consortium of more than a dozen heavyweight corporations, along with European powerhouses. In terms of technology and scale, the advantage is ours.

In terms of spacecraft, SLS is comparable to CZ-10, Dream Chaser to H1, FATS plan to H2, Heavy Starship to New Yuan No. 3, Meridian satellite network to Star Chain, ISS to Tiangong, roughly on par.

The Centrifugal Space Station is behind, as is the super-heavy rocket, as well as manufacturing capabilities.

Especially the last point; CZ-10 went from project initiation to first launch in just 10 months, truly shocking the industry, which means that the production time for CZ-10 would not exceed six months, or even just over four, forcing an all-out effort to launch three times a year, surpassing America during the Apollo era.

Having understood this, John knew what he had to do.

After leaving Ohio, on November 3rd, two days before the election, John and Diana had their final presidential debate at Texas Tech University.

Diana quietly observed John’s interactions with the crowd, silently studying her notes.

The televised debate is a classic moment in the battle between bosses, where both sides engage in multiple fields and seize the opportunity to present their work plans and woo voters.

Diana was clearly confident of victory; even though John was very popular, he was just a successful real estate businessman, while her entire life had been spent dancing in the political arena, knowing exactly when to do what.

The host started with economics, culture, healthcare, and other issues. John had a team of aides, but obviously lacked the hands-on experience that Diana had, and soon found himself at a subtle disadvantage.

Compared to the calm and clear-headed Diana, John seemed overly hasty, and being in his fifties, he was a bit younger than Diana. He even went so far as to say Diana "doesn’t look like a boss, she doesn’t have the energy."

Diana retorted, "Let him first visit 112 countries, negotiate a peace treaty, a ceasefire agreement, help release dissidents... or even testify before a congressional committee for 11 hours, and then he can talk to me about energy."

The atmosphere between them was obviously tense, but fortunately, the host moved on, leading to the last topic: space.

Diana’s response was essentially a continuation of Xiaohei’s views on the Artemis mission, considering NACA as the beacon of freedom, emphasizing the Artemis program and the "stereotyped" Apollo program are different and aiming to send women, African Americans, and the indescribable to the Moon’s surface.

Such politically correct remarks earned considerable applause, and then it was time for the friend of Michael Jackson to respond.

John briefly glanced over the notes prepared by his staff and flipped it face down.

"Gentlemen, citizens of the United States born of freedom, I have to tell you, as they have described, the second Space Race has begun.

This is different from the past; it’s not about spending great efforts to send humans into space, to the Moon, just to be ’the NO.1’. What we’re going to do is to build new homelands on the Moon, on Mars, to seek new colonies.

Six Artemis missions, 24 astronauts, twice the number of the Apollo program, but that’s not enough. Our goal should be to send 240, 24,000 people into spaceships, off towards the cosmos, like the ancestors who crossed the Atlantic during The Age of Great Navigations.

Its significance is far beyond what we can imagine..."

John’s words weren’t flowery, but Diana keenly sensed his intention: Diana treated the space race as just a part of the election campaign and shared the mainstream thought that the symbolic meaning of landing on the Moon is limited, and the public cares more about earthly matters;

John, however, clearly viewed the space race as a primary mission, with a touch of a willingness to fight at all costs.

This young man... is he planning something big?

Diana felt uneasy, her intuition telling her John was about to say something shocking.

Compared to her formulaic speeches, John tried to use plain language to bring space closer to the common people, as after all, the education level of Texas rednecks who easily believe in flat Earth theories and the Shoe Church still falls short of the elite.

Fortunately, many of today’s audience were local university students resulting in a good effect, the emotion was well conveyed, and John finally began to unveil his trump card:

"...no one knows better than I do how to be the boss of the Space Age. If elected, next year I will enter space aboard the Dreamer Space Shuttle!"

Audience: Wild applause (Shocked.JPG).

This was far more exciting than listening to political news, indeed, the idea of an American boss going to space sounded fantastic.

John was pleased with such a reaction and called out with a trembling voice the decision he had discussed with his staff overnight, after visiting several officials at NACA:

"The Moon is but a small step for humankind’s exploration of extraterrestrial planets, it is not suitable for human habitation – only a lonely and barren outpost of our home. The Artemis program is just a start.

The goal of the 21st century should be to colonize the Solar System. We need to head towards the most likely habitable Earth-like planets, establish colonies of over a thousand people, and completely free humankind from dependence on the Blue Planet!

I’m going to push the whole civilized world to undertake the ’God of War Ares’ Mars colonization plan! The entire Ares program will be completed by America, creating 1 million jobs, solving unemployment for at least 5 million families, and at the same time launching a new era of a two trillion-dollar infrastructure plan, moving forward into the interstellar era!

In eight years, we want to send humans to Mars by 2024 and establish the first long-term colony."

"We choose to go to Mars, not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard! We choose to go to Mars in the next eight years, to overcome all challenges and become great again!

(We choose to go to Mars, not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard! We choose to go to Mars in the next eight years, to overcome all difficulties and become great again!)"