Chapter 407 - 398 Saving Budget_1

The loyal patriot, the great astronaut helmsman, arrived at his faithful base.

Before landing, he saw a huge white object being moved out of the assembly hangar, which was the fuel storage section of the lunar orbit space station.

The current production capacity arrangement of the base was still full, mainly involving the remaining eight large compartments and twelve connecting pipes of the March vessel, but the trouble was mainly with the former, while the latter were technically and manufacturing-wise simpler, with four even outsourced to the space agency.

After getting off the plane, he headed straight for the office, where many senior engineers from the base had already gathered, ready to plan the follow-up according to the new reward system.

"One hundred and seventy tons! Even the third rocket might not be enough."

Guo Shen went through the data for the laser smelting satellite and immediately thought of the problem of sending it to the Moon.

Androff: "There’s no need to send it over all at once, you can first send it to low Earth orbit and then push it with thrusters, don’t we have a shuttlecraft plan? Just send it over slowly, it won’t take long."

Their specialty was astronautics, mainly concerning launch and positioning issues, while others were more interested in the technical features of the smelting satellite itself.

Space smelting technology was not a new concept. The Union had conducted related experiments in space in the 1970s and was quite optimistic about its prospects.

In space, due to the lack of oxygen, it was easier to obtain high-purity metals, especially many elements that are easily oxidized; for non-metals, exemplified by semiconductors such as silicon, the gravitational and environmental constraints on Earth limit the fabrication to single-crystal silicon rods with circular interfaces and a maximum size, whereas in space, it’s possible to produce square-shaped ones to reduce wasted area, while also facilitating the increase in the purity of silicon wafers, thus improving the yield of good products.

On the Moon, there were more factors to consider than in space, but one-sixth gravity could still significantly reduce the difficulty of many processes, and overall, space metallurgy was a rather advanced and efficient method.

If the heat source were made into a satellite, the facilities required on the lunar surface would be much less, and the power supply pressure would be greatly reduced, the main tasks being mining and refining ore.

Moreover, traditional electric arc furnaces have temperatures of only around 4,000 degrees, but laser satellites are impressive, capable of providing over 12,000 degrees of extreme heat. Under such high temperatures, many steps in the separation of simple substances would be simplified, reducing the needed types of chemical raw materials while also greatly enhancing efficiency. A single satellite would be completely sufficient for the smelting needs of the coming years.

Imagine the mined ores, after being crushed and screened, melting under the laser’s extreme heat to separate out the pure elements, forming neat blocks of metal, and then being launched into low orbit at extremely high speeds by electromagnetic acceleration rails.

After all, it’s not a satellite or spacecraft; there’s no need to consider acceleration overload for chunks of metal. Once launched into orbit, they would then be collected by specialized ships; after that, sent to near-Earth orbit, where there are plenty of ways to bring them to Earth.

The two technologies provided by the system, along with the part already mastered by the base, were entirely sufficient for the initiation of the mining plan.

The engineers in attendance were extremely excited, eagerly imagining the prospects and considering which technologies could play a role in their respective areas of responsibility.

...

New York.

The fourth International Space Station expansion advocacy meeting was convened.

Since Montal first proposed the expansion of the International Space Station, member states of the ISS had been making a mess of discussions for months, and now it was finally settled.

Montal stated that America’s expansion proposal would be temporarily postponed and would prioritally support Russia’s small centrifugal cabin plan, as well as requesting Europe and the Island Country to build two and one new modules, respectively.

Two laboratory modules, one habitation module, and one centrifugal module, totalling 80 tons of mass, basically reached the limit of the International Space Station’s truss without expansion, increasing the total weight to 500 tons.

The total investment was projected at 11 billion US dollars, to be shared among the nations, with America even bearing the brunt of it.

Not providing modules themselves but still providing funds for others, although the expansion cost was not a small figure, this time consensus was finally reached, solidifying the official agenda for the expansion.

Montal’s willingness to yield was certainly not because John was a good person, but rather because NACA currently had no time to attend to the affairs of the ISS, as they were fully committed to preparing for the Moon landing.

Claire adjusted NACA’s schedule once again, postponing the large FATS and the smaller MSP space shuttle programs, directing Boeing to devote all its efforts to the manufacturing of the SLS rocket.

After all, the progress of the nuclear engines at JFT was still a long way off; although it was supposed to be operational by July last year, it was in fact impossible to be ready before October, so it might as well be put on hold.

Let the other member countries undertake the expansion task of the ISS for now, and once NACA is freed up, it will go head-to-head with the March.

This plan was something that Claire had managed to persuade John to approve after much difficulty, as the latter despised spending these "unjustifiable sums."

Having been in office for over four months, John had always felt suffocated, with things not going well since he took office, and he had been in a reactive state for almost the entire first half of the year.

If he was overtaken and outdone in the Moon landing during his tenure, there was no doubt that he would leave a terrible reputation in history, so, unlike his usual inclination to meddle, he quite uncharacteristically followed Claire’s advice on space matters, treating her even better than his own staff.

Even though he kept expressing to Claire that he would give NACA all the support it needed, whenever he asked whether it was possible to guarantee landing on the Moon first, he could never get a definitive answer.

On the contrary, she was actually advising the president to conduct preliminary research on the God of War Ares program, which was almost a reminder for him to prepare for a contingency plan in case the Moon landing failed.

John dared to push forward with the plan to land on Mars, but funding was a difficult issue to resolve; he understood that printing money was not a cure-all.

If they were to land on Mars, from where could some funds potentially be saved?

John closely examined last year’s government expenditure statement, scanning over each sector.

Social welfare? This definitely couldn’t be cut, as he must consider the interests of the troublemakers to some extent, or reelection would be at risk;

Public health... hiss, pharmaceutical giants are not to be messed with;

Government personnel budget, this was a place where he could make cuts, as streamlining the administrative system had been the right move by previous bosses, indeed saving a bit of money, but it was too little;

Education funding, hmm, that couldn’t be touched either;

Military spending... 770 billion US dollars!

Seeing this last item of enormous expenditure, John immediately became excited. Although reason told him that the intricacies within were complex, that was still 770 billion dollars!

Even if he could skim two to three billion dollars each year for NACA, that would still be ample; it would only account for a mere two to three percent, truly tempting.

But it was clear that he couldn’t act rashly. Let’s look at the specific military branches: Navy? That was a no-go—as the most vital force, its budget could not be reduced. America was founded on its navy, and ancestral practices must not be abandoned;

Air Force? The AAF was in charge of space, deeply connected with NACA, and had been the strongest force since World War II, surpassing the Navy; it couldn’t be touched;

That left only the Army. In John’s view, Army combat seemed to consist solely of calling in the Air Force and Navy to bomb, and then to occupy and fight in small-scale wars. Why did it need so much money?

Looking further at the numerous overseas bases, the annual supply of materials and troop deployments were astronomical figures. These places were all poor and broken; were they really worth spending so much money on?

The Air Force is the eagle of the sky, the Navy is the shark of the ocean, the Army? Are you talking about the criminals, black people, and hoodlums, those third-class citizens made up of yokels?

John circled this item heavily—he would start saving money with the third-class citizens.