Chapter 288 - 281 Chang’e 5_1

Rong Eighth Affiliated Middle School, lunch break, Zhou Qingfeng and two exchange students huddled together, their gaze fixed on a smartphone screen level with the underside of the desk.

The video began with a title flashing by: "If Only I Had Known, Boys Could Also Be..."

This was the "good stuff" talked about by an exchange student from the Island Country’s middle schools, and it was something the mainlanders had never seen before. So, after class, they huddled together to share it.

The three kids watched intently, completely oblivious to the fleeting look of danger that passed by the window.

"Look at Bin Bin, he’s just so lame."

"Come on, let’s go back to my room and check out the cool stuff."

"Brother Jie, what, what is this?"

"Brother Jie, please, no Brother Jie!"

"..."

"Ah!"

Zhou Qingfeng shrieked and jumped up from his stool, not because he was shocked by the content of the video, but because a pair of large hands had suddenly grabbed his ears.

The disciplinary teacher, with a grim face, snatched the phone from the three terrified pairs of eyes and uttered, "Everyone to my office," then proceeded to check what was playing on the phone.

When the video ended, the middle school exchange student reluctantly shifted his gaze to the disciplinary teacher and squeezed out a smile:

"Teacher, this is educational..."

"Get out!"

...

After a round of scolding and having their phones confiscated, Zhou Qingfeng and the exchange student Huang Xiaobin went to the cafeteria to eat. The latter complained briefly about how expensive his HTC phone was before quickly forgetting the incident and switching to other topics:

"Zhou Qingfeng, do you also want to be an astronaut in the future?"

Zhou Qingfeng put down his chopsticks and puffed out his chest: "Of course, I’ve even flown in a trainer from the Xinyuan Company and have entered the sequence of prospective reserve astronauts."

"What’s a prospective reserve astronaut? Aren’t those just before ordinary people, trying to become reserve astronauts?"

"No, if I want to be a reserve astronaut, then I’m a prospective reserve astronaut."

"..."

Huang Xiaobin was at a loss for words, but with Zhou Qingfeng’s grandfather being an astronaut, the likelihood of him becoming one in the future wasn’t small.

"By the way, Xiaobin, why did you want to become an exchange student?"

Huang Xiaobin: "I also want to become an astronaut. I think it’s pretty good here, and later on, I can take the exams and enter Southern Aeronautical and Astronautical University. Maybe I’ll even become an astronaut. Their university requirements are a bit different, only students who take the unified exams on the mainland can get in, I couldn’t take them on Bay Island."

Zhou Qingfeng: "Wow, your family must be quite rich to send you here to study on your own."

Huang Xiaobin: "Actually, it’s just an average level, mainly because of Mr. Ma’s exchange scholarship fund. After Mr. Ma was re-elected, he said that the mainland will be able to land on the Moon in a few years, and there will be Bay Island astronauts going too. We have to start strengthening cooperation from now on. I heard that over 20 provinces on the mainland are receiving students like me. Each one can get at least 1000 RMB a month from the exchange scholarship fund."

RMB? There are two in our class, and with 10 classes having exchange students, I heard that from the first year of junior high to the first year of high school, four grades participate in the exchange program, so that’s 80 people. Does that mean the monthly scholarship totals 80 thousand?

Zhou Qingfeng did some quick calculations in his heart, then was shocked:

"A thousand bucks! I only spend 100 RMB a week for pocket money. Doesn’t that mean if I go to your place, I can get more than double the living allowance in a month? I want to be an exchange student too, I also want to exchange!"

Huang Xiaobin: "Although I also get more pocket money since coming here, I think the mainland is safe and vast. I don’t want to go back at all. Dad says that since our ancestors are from Fujian, I’ll have to return to my hometown to recognize my ancestors eventually."

Zhou Qingfeng: "I still want to go there. I heard that people over there speak with an ’Ah-oh, ah-oh’ accent."

Huang Xiaobin: "Actually, this hasn’t been the case for long. Before, we all spoke Mandarin there too. This accent has been promoted for less than twenty years. Mr. Ma now says we should change it back and correct it to Mandarin."

Zhou Qingfeng: "I feel like I’ve forgotten something."

Huang Xiaobin suddenly slapped his forehead and shouted:

"Today is the launch date for the Chang’e-5 mission! It launches at 13:30, and it’s already 13:20!"

The two hurriedly scrambled to clean up their plates and sprinted back to the classroom, discovering that most of the students were already seated, all watching the live broadcast from the central television station on the multimedia screen up front.

With five minutes to go until the launch, the TV station’s hostess was still chatting with a guest from the Aerospace Development Committee’s lunar exploration project:

"Mr. Zhang, the Yutu-3 Robot looks a lot like Explorer-1. Are they related in any way?"

Guest: "Well, first of all, I must say that the Chang’e-5 mission is a lunar exploration project that was internally bid by the Aerospace Development Committee. Each part could choose bidding proposals from contractors and then jointly develop them.

Just like the rover for this mission, New Yuan Aeronautics, based on the Explorer’s development, won the bid with its new generation of universal multi-legged robot platform and then started joint development with the fifth agency, able to name it Yutu-3.

Other parts, like the lander design, also involved other private companies. This division of labor and cooperation greatly reduces research and development costs and saves the space agency’s energy."

Host: "It’s said that Yutu-3 is equipped with a nuclear battery. Can you disclose any specific information?"

Guest: "Yutu-3 is equipped with a new generation of high-power nuclear battery that holds independent intellectual property rights from a Chinese enterprise. It can maintain a weight of 50 kilograms while outputting 280W of power. That is, 5.6W of power per kilogram, whereas the same type of nuclear battery from around the world can only output about 3.1W per kilogram.

Therefore, Yutu-3 is globally leading the field overall."

Seeing Huang Xiaobin’s slightly baffled look, Zhou Qingfeng seized the chance to show off:

"What this expert is talking about is the nuclear battery on America’s Curious Mars rover. Our nuclear battery is the same weight but with double the power, world number one!"

"Wow, Qingfeng, you’re amazing."

"It’s our country that’s amazing!" Zhou Qingfeng corrected Huang Xiaobin’s wording. "Even better than America!"

Huang Xiaobin: "I didn’t expect the mainland to have surpassed America already, that’s great."

In the TV broadcast, the host glanced at the countdown timer for the rocket launch beside the teleprompter and wrapped up the guest interview:

"The unmanned Chang’e-5 carries three landers weighing 5.8 tons each and is equipped with six Yutu-3 robots and four cubic microsatellites designed by the Bao Island Institute. The Chang’e-5 mission will be the heaviest of all the landers humanity has launched to the Moon in a single mission and will carry the most rovers and have the largest exploration range.

They will provide preliminary preparations for our country’s future Moon landings and development, leading our lunar dreams forward."

As the words fell, the screen switched to the Qiongzhou Launch Site’s Position 3, where the New Yuan-2B rocket painted in the traditional blue and white livery of the space agency stood tall. Its dark-grey body was marked with a series of Aerospace Development Committee logos, making the reusable second stage’s darker color somewhat uncoordinated.

Zhou Qingfeng and his classmates counted down together until the zero moment, when seven methane engines lifted the rocket from the launchpad.

On December 14th, the Chang’e-5 mission was successfully launched.