Chapter 316 - 309: Mighty Dragon B_1

Fully automatic life-like voice and changeable posture intelligent silicone dolls... no, their official name is the Multi-Purpose Life Housekeeper Robot, and their development took a year.

Don’t laugh, this is actually a very serious topic in space.

After the first human space station was launched into orbit, various countries began researching human reproduction in space environments, preparing for the future.

However, strangely, perhaps due to minor changes in hormone secretion after the loss of gravity, people generally lose most of their sexual desire in a zero-gravity environment.

Nevertheless, research on this topic has never stopped. NACA has even meticulously studied how to perform certain actions in a weightless state, designing a type of suit for two people that can assist with exertion.

In September 2001, NACA sent a couple to space (male: Mark, female: Joan) and then started the first human space reproduction experiment.

Regrettably, over the 100-plus days, they encountered quite a few difficulties. Firstly, Mark, perhaps due to nervousness among other factors, found it hard to respond and had to rely on medication to proceed with the experiments.

It also took a great deal of effort for the two to study postures while wearing the suit, and although they managed to conduct a few successful experiments, they finally found that without gravity, it was extremely difficult for DNA to reach where it was supposed to go, making pregnancy very challenging.

Although Mark tried tirelessly many times, in the end, they were unable to conceive successfully.

Therefore, whether human eggs can be successfully fertilized in a weightless and radiation environment, and whether they can develop into normal embryos or mutate, remains an unresolved question, even though NACA was ready to take the hit to its reputation in order to find out.

However, for the Forward Space Station, since it can provide enough privacy and generate gravity, it is essential to address astronauts’ physiological needs, and this is not a trivial matter, as humans can be very vulnerable at times.

Silicone... from any perspective, is a good solution. It raises no ethical issues and is also safe enough, even if it can only resolve physiological needs, leaving emotional gaps unaddressed.

Therefore, "Brave" is about to start learning about "companionship" and "care," internally codenamed as the life housekeeper.

Its significance lies not in simply making short breathy noises, but in being able to quietly make a cup of coffee when sensing that an astronaut is feeling down, and to gently provide psychological counseling. Such effects are much better.

And unlike real people, astronauts won’t be wary of a robot, which means they can relax more subconsciously.

Of course, the requirements for the life housekeeper’s physical carrier are much simpler. It’s enough if the body strength can reach or even be slightly lower than that of an average person. Its task is to do light work within colonies or ships, with limited range of motion, and its battery requirements are also much lower.

All these projects were dumped onto the Microelectronic Department as a part of the construction plan for the Forward Space Station, with the life housekeeper set to go online concurrently upon the space station’s completion.

...

"Oh no, I’m getting the itch to reshoot again, what should I do?"

In Qiongzhou, waiting for Pioneer to land, Guo Fan said that nightmarish whisper to Liu Peiqiang... Wu Jing.

On February 9th, after 14 days of hard work and two overtime operations, the five-man group of Pioneer managed to install three radiating cabins and their corresponding trusses within the projected 15 days.

The major credit goes to Pioneer’s Intelligent Assistive Mechanical Arm, which was highly efficient and precise in operation. All five had taken turns operating it, and everyone who used it had nothing but praise.

After the completion of the mission, the ground team decided to have Pioneer return to Earth according to the original plan, starting immediate maintenance and refurbishment, while the second crew was set to embark on the second space station construction mission onboard the Glory on February 25th.

The objective of the second construction mission was still the radiating cabins, the simplest parts of the entire space station. After installing six radiating cabins, the next step would involve 12 centrifugal cabin segments and 12 arc connecting compartments, which are more cumbersome to construct and install.

The third H2M was almost finished, but its interior outfitting was temporarily put on hold. Rumors had it that the space agency wanted to buy this spacecraft and possibly perform some modifications.

The rumors seemed trustworthy, as the name "Great Wall One" had already been suggested, but the space agency never released any related information publicly.

But Guo Fan didn’t care about these. What he cared about more was what good stuff he could scrounge up from the base for movie production.

The Spring Festival screenings of 2017, featuring the space movie ’Oriental Action’ produced by Hua Ying, received unanimous praise.

Although Guo Fan wasn’t the director, the space agency and New Yuan strongly intervened in the movie’s production, and its scientific background and visual effects reached documentary levels, with absolutely no scientific flaws.

Additionally, there was the cinematography. The Tiangong Space Station provided extensive materials for editing and beautification. Although the "science fiction" element of this space movie wasn’t plentiful, both the visuals and the plot had undergone a qualitative leap.

’Oriental Action’ achieved a box office record of 2.3 billion in the 7 days of the Spring Festival, seizing this year’s holiday season box office championship. The film industry also held this movie in high regard and had a more positive outlook on the future of China’s science fiction genre.

The "more positive outlook" was clearly referring to ’Wandering Earth’. To date, Guo Fan had already poured six billion into it, and the scale and quality of the production crew had reached an extravagantly high level. Regardless of how the finished film would turn out, the sheer assembly of talent was something other production crews could hardly gaze upon without awe.

Having both money and talent at his disposal, Guo Fan’s demands for the film grew even more extreme. Many scenes with immense resource investment that weren’t to his satisfaction were directly reshot. Various fanciful ideas were constantly draining the budget.

Up until now, ’Wandering Earth’ has completed about half of its ground scenes. The opportunity Lin Ju promised for shooting in space had not yet been used, kept in reserve for the most crucial moment.

Previously, the only location available for shooting was the Tiangong Space Station, but now it seemed there was a chance to shoot on the Forward Station? And should he also add some scenes involving the H2M spacecraft, making the cast as luxurious as possible? To deliver a trump card for the 2018 Spring Festival season?

Every change meant another reshoot, and Wu Jing, the lead actor, would have had complaints if it weren’t for Guo Fan promising him a space suit for filming up in space; now he had no choice but to labor tirelessly for Guo Fan.

However, the thought of really being able to take a space plane to a space station to film—it seemed like it could leave an unparalleled record in the film industry, right?

While Wu Jing was in the throes of indecision, sudden exclamations erupted around him. In the sky, which was nearing evening and darkening, a blazing orange meteor appeared in the distance. The spearhead craft, surrounded by a flame-like atmosphere, plummeted at a speed of Mach 35.

Within the heart-stopping spectacle of the spearhead craft was an unexpectedly calm interior. Weighing 79 tons and with its immense size at the time, its re-entry speed was lower than that of the H1, and the flight attitude was much more stable due to its weight, comparable to the turbulence of a passenger plane during its climbing phase.

Deng Lei held the control stick, gently pushing it down with virtually imperceptible movements. Within dozens of seconds, they had crossed Annan airspace and soon spotted the coastline of their homeland.

"Pioneer, this is ’Tianshan’, you have entered the South China Sea airspace, escort fighters will arrive in three minutes, please observe, over."

"Pioneer received, Tianshan. Is it the Su-35 of the Southern Overlord or the J-16?"

About forty kilometers away, personnel in the ’Tianshan’ KJ-500 command plane let out a few chuckles over the radio.

"Pioneer, please observe, this is a surprise."

"Surprise?" The crew of the Pioneer all shifted a bit of their attention to look out the window, and it wasn’t long before they knew what the "surprise" was.

An aircraft with a surface that looked like tarnished metal, dirty and silver-grey, appeared alongside the Pioneer. Its size was the longest the astronauts had seen, and the cockpit at the nose of the plane was quite distinctive, visibly bulging, and appeared to have a side-by-side dual-seat layout.

Painted on their tail fins were the white numbers 2211 and 2212, respectively.

The J20B, also known as the interceptor version of the J20 equipped with two XW-9B engines, comprised the first two production models, 2211 and 2212, on their first mission, to escort the space plane.

They incorporated state-of-the-art stealth coatings and electronic technologies, with top speeds of Mach 3.5 and a maximum ceiling of 35,000 meters, achieving the "dual three-five" performance targets.

The XW-9B was an improved model developed by the 611 Institute with additional funding, boosting maximum thrust to 14.7 tons without sacrificing high-speed performance, while fuel consumption increased only minimally.

The J20B’s maximum range is 6,300 kilometers (without external fuel tanks), with a combat radius of 2,950 kilometers, maximum take-off weight of 44 tons, fuel load of 13 tons, supersonic cruising speed of Mach 1.8, with a maximum endurance of 11 hours, featuring a side-by-side dual-seat configuration.

This is a bona fide heavy interceptor. Inside its bays, it could carry 8 Thunderbolt 15 long-range air-to-air missiles and 4 Thunderbolt 10E short-range missiles, equipped with a more powerful radar and a distributed electro-optical system, representing the pinnacle of domestic technology in every field.

The cost was its astronomical price tag. The unit price of the first two mass-produced aircraft reached 1.3 billion yuan, almost double that of a standard version.

The design had undergone major changes, including the airframe and skin. It was no longer compatible with the J20 production line and could almost be considered a different kind of fighter, resembling the original only in shape.

Yet the military could not resist the temptation and placed an initial order of 12 units, with delivery expected before the end of 2018.

As far as the outside world was concerned, the existence of the J20B was still highly confidential. These two aircraft made only a brief appearance to greet the Pioneer, without even establishing radio contact. They simply flexed their wings to show off their slender figure and then swiftly disappeared into the clouds on both sides with a sharp ascent.

Four Su-35s took over their escort task. These imported fighters didn’t need to be kept secret and could flex their muscles openly. They chased away two FA18E/Fs that wanted a piece of the action and devoted their attention to escorting the Pioneer safely to the airport.