Chapter 269 - 262: Flying Together_1

Xie Liaofu had made frequent appearances at the Aerospace Development Committee, showcasing his extraordinary talent and leadership abilities.

Although the emergence of a super-genius was not something hard to accept, many from the space agency felt an inexplicable, strange sensation when interacting with Xie Liaofu: it was as if they were dealing with someone their own age.

It should be noted that most of the senior scientists and leaders at the Aerospace Development Committee were over 50, yet when they communicated, there seemed to be no generation gap, and Xie Liaofu’s manner of speaking and conducting affairs also had a distinctly classical flair.

Moreover, his name had a blend of East and West, and if it weren’t for his purely Chinese family background, one would have thought him to be a bald Alliance expert working here.

When Xie Liaofu suddenly proposed a launch plan from the Alliance Era, it was as if the leaders of the Aerospace Development Committee were also transported back to that time—an era of both primitive and exquisite astronautics, filled with a sense of raw power.

Academician She suddenly thought of something and nodded fiercely:

"The budget for the Heavenly Inquiry 1 project is 1.2 billion. If we base our Mars landing probe universal platform on Heavenly Inquiry 1, we can reduce a lot of costs. It would be great to launch several more; perhaps with 2 billion, we might manage three or four, or even more Heavenly Inquiry-1s."

The others also pondered for a while, and finally, someone said:

"To achieve the fastest and most efficient completion of basic Martian environmental surveys, we must solve the communication issue. We need three high-power geosynchronous communication satellites and two or three resource exploration satellites, ideally sent in one go."

"And meteorology! The Martian dust contains a rich amount of iron oxides, which can disrupt communication when a storm arises. We need two or three meteorological satellites to provide accurate weather forecasts for the landing site and to plan work schedules."

"Can we hold off on the resource exploration satellites? Water is much easier to find on Mars than on the Moon. The focus should be on ground rovers—must be large rovers that can go fast and far; subsequent fuel synthesis equipment can’t be relocated once delivered."

"..."

Each person added a sentence, and a comprehensive Mars exploration plan gradually took shape.

When they had mostly concluded their discussion, Lin Ju and Xie Liaofu also spoke of the support New Yuan could provide:

Xie Liaofu: "Next year we will launch an ultra-large Martian orbiter, weighing around 10 tons, equipped with a nuclear reactor to provide communication and navigation support in Martian orbit. It also has quite impressive optical detection capabilities and can use its own Hall Thruster to make slight orbital maneuvers. It can be launched in about January.

This is part of the ’Star Dwelling’ Solar System deep space exploration network plan. The internal codename for the Mars mission is, for the time being, ’Departing Fire.’"

Academician She: "..."

Others: "..."

"Mr. Xie, a 10-ton large-scale detector is something you probably don’t have the rocket capacity for, right?"

Xie Liaofu: "The detector and the propulsion parts will be transported separately. The detector, which contains delicate optical precision instruments, will be launched on a space shuttle, followed by a propulsion part weighing about 5 tons—yeah, the basic model of New Yuan-5 alone is sufficient. The spacecraft would dock in low Earth orbit then proceed to Mars. It’s very fast; it can reach Mars in 4 to 5 months and will not occupy heavy-duty rocket launch sites."

Lin Ju: "Much of the Departing Fire Detector’s mass is dedicated to a super-high-power communication system. In an ideal state, the transmission bandwidth could reach extremely high levels. Additionally, New Yuan has the capability to provide high-power RTG isotopic nuclear batteries or send a future envisioned mobile lunar nuclear power cart to Mars, providing wide-range detection capabilities.

Including rockets, the CZ-7 and New Yuan-2 are both usable heavy-lift rockets. We do not lack launch capabilities."

The big shots calculated carefully and realized that involving New Yuan would markedly increase the scale and quality of the plan. This reassurance significantly settled their minds.

Only 18 months left, that’s enough to save up a few satellites and probes.

"So, the Aerospace Development Committee will immediately start the evaluation of the Mars landing site selection as well as resource exploration missions, and we will come up with a concrete plan by December. Then we’ll look at NACA’s actions to decide the scale of the mission,"

...

"Flight 0202, Flight 0202, airspace is clear, you are cleared for takeoff."

"Roger that, Flight 0202!"

At B-level Base, Deng Lei, dressed in a spacesuit specially tailored for the space shuttle mission, checked that the power pipeline was connected to the four turbofan engines attached to the tail of the craft, flipped open the brake switch cover with his index finger, and gently pushed the throttle.

In the co-pilot’s seat, Zhang Zhiguang had the same rudder controls in front of him, but above them, there was a large screen surrounded by a ring of flat buttons.

The main mission of H2M is to complete the construction of the Forward Space Station. According to the plan, it will take between 8 and 12 launches to possibly complete the space station, which is certainly a very high frequency.

H2M is set to establish four crews, each with 5 members, making a lineup of 10 New Yuan personnel and 10 from the space agency.

The crew of Unit 1 will carry out the first manned flight mission and accumulate experience for the construction of the super-large space station—all consisting of experienced and excellent astronauts.

The first atmospheric flight of Glory will be piloted by the commander and deputy commander of unit 1, Deng Lei and Zhang Zhiguang.

In the original timeline, due to the high cost of manned spaceflight launches and fewer missions, astronauts who had been to space would, apart from the "old leading the new," give as many opportunities as possible to newcomers, but that is no longer the case.

The Tiangong Space Station and tourist flights have created a large number of launch missions, and with the high-frequency launches of the main force of the tourist flights, New Yuan 5B, the cost of manufacture and development of rockets has long been recovered, costing just a bit of fuel.

Starting in July, within four months, Unity, Determination, and Progress executed 7 manned launches, setting a record.

The space agency and New Yuan’s reserve astronauts who had not yet been to space were quickly "eliminated," with the interval between missions shrinking from years to months.

Especially, tourist flights are a rapid way to accumulate the number of astronauts; riding on space agency’s internal flights is cheaper than a tycoon’s trip. The cost of a single Shenzhou spacecraft launch can send dozens of people into space on an H1, which is quite moving.

Zhang Zhiguang, despite being an honored space hero, did not retire from space missions to take on second-line work. Instead, he stayed active due to his good physical condition, accumulating a great deal of experience with simulated landings using the H2 simulator and remote landings with the Ulanha Mountain verification machine.

If the Pioneer sails through an uncrewed 24-hour orbital flight and returns safely on November 30, Glory will be immediately transported to Qiongzhou for the first manned launch on December 11.

However, in reality, because H2M innovatively uses lifetime heat-resistant tiles, theoretically identical to the body of the craft, maintenance time is astonishingly short. In theory, it can be inspected and readied for another launch within a week.

But the first manned mission of Pioneer was still set for the end of January next year. The first set of 3 radiating cabins and part of the trusses for Forward are already completed. Pioneer will carry the radiating cabins, and Glory the trusses. The 10 astronauts from the two space shuttles will carry out a 15-day installation job in space and will return after spending the New Year in orbit, preparing for the next mission.

Zhang Zhiguang knew he was sure to be one of them, looking forward to his first New Year in space.

At this moment, Glory had already released the brakes and was accelerating down the runway. To the left, a Meteor Advanced Trainer flown by an Air Force representative and a New Yuan reserve astronaut flew by at low altitude, escorting Glory on its maiden atmospheric flight.