Chapter 432 - 423 We Treat Everyone Equally_1

On the morning of July 3, Dawn III detected some radio signals.

The source of these signals was not far from them and consisted of very regular call signs, which could be recognized and played back without even breaking the FM modulator.

"Dawn Three, it’s Artemis, Reid Wiseman"

Dawn Three, it’s Artemis, Reid Wiseman"

It seemed that these aliens not only knew how to transmit radio signals using international standards but also spoke English... Of course, that wasn’t the case. The signals came from Artemis II, and Commander Reid Wiseman was calling Dawn III on the public channel.

Zhang Zhiguang, under the gazes of Fang Lin and Ding Jihua, picked up the microphone and put it under his chin, tuning into the same frequency:

"This is Dawn Three; on behalf of all on board, I send our greetings to you."

Let’s rewind to half an hour earlier.

Both the Orion spacecraft and the Dawn Spaceship were equipped with synthetic aperture radars of extremely high detection range and resolution, which not only aided in docking missions but also allowed for detailed detection of the landing sites on the lunar surface during lunar orbit.

Space, unlike the Earth’s atmosphere, is not affected by Earth’s curvature, air, or mountains. As long as one properly handles radiation and clutter, the empty vacuum is very friendly to radar, and detection distances can easily be increased by dozens of times.

Almost simultaneously, unusual signals appeared on the radars of both Artemis II and Dawn III, and they quickly understood who this anomaly was.

Reid Wiseman called on the radio without ground permission, and after a quick minor assembly, Dawn III responded promptly.

No one on Artemis II could speak Chinese, and although the crew of Dawn III could, they clearly had no intention of responding in English.

The words spoken by Reid Wiseman could be easily understood by Dawn III, while the four on the Orion had to cluster around the translator in Victor Glover’s hand.

Every astronaut had a certain payload allowance for personal items, and Victor had chosen to include a translator in his.

Though machine translation seemed a bit strenuous, it was still comprehensible, albeit with a wait.

"Victor, is that a genuine iFlytek translator you have there? Why is it so slow?"

"Buddy, this is space!"

"But it’s advertised for offline use."

Jeremy Hanson bantered with Glover while glancing outside the porthole.

The atmosphere aboard Artemis II lightened considerably from the moment they established communication with Dawn III.

Compared to Dawn III, they had been under a lot of pressure in the past several hours, with some degree of anxiety.

Who could have imagined that before landing on the Moon, they would first have to fix the lander? According to information provided by engineers on the ground, the entire repair process would take 3 to 6 hours, posing a severe test for their physical and mental endurance.

Communication with Houston was almost entirely about how to repair "Blue Moon," but now, talking to Dawn III felt like sailors on a broken ship encountering a passing cruise liner—just knowing the other was there could be quite comforting.

By analyzing the relative coordinates on the radar, Wiseman deduced the approximate orbits of both ships, learning that they were at a close convergence point, with a distance of less than two thousand kilometers at the closest, allowing for at least an hour of stable communication.

The four took turns talking on the radio, discussing everything besides the mission itself, leaving the three on Dawn III baffled.

Are all foreigners so enthusiastic? It’s only been two days since departure; could they miss humanity that much?

It wasn’t until the distance widened and the signal grew weaker that Koch finally ended the communication.

Zhang Zhiguang compiled the entire communication and sent the recording back to Earth; he felt that something was not quite right.

Astronaut training would definitely include highly stringent psychological tests, and it was evident from the conversation that the crew of Artemis II felt some... anxiety? Or concern?

This should not occur among astronauts selected for a lunar landing; there must have been some incident.

...

Huayin.

"Badis, how’s the progress on the Venera rocket?"

"Uh, progress... it’s underway..."

Watching the other party hesitate and stammer in their response, Xie Liaofu felt that something wasn’t quite right.

This was his first day in Huayin, and he’d come as a representative of the main domestic private space contractor to provide technical consulting. His first task upon arrival was to assess the aerospace scale and technology of the major collaborating countries.

He started with the Vieneto Rocket, co-developed by Italy and France. Five months had passed for what was considered a "near-success" rocket, with its engines, body, and recovery technology already sorted out. The maiden flight of the first rocket couldn’t be far off, could it?

However, Badis’s evasive expression made Xie Liaofu furrow his brow, and it took persistent questioning to force out the truth.

"Right now... we are manufacturing a test sample of the first stage shell body."

Xie Liaofu: "The 5.4-meter diameter rocket body is mature technology from the Ariane 5, a task you should have already undertaken three months ago!"

Badis: "That’s true, but manufacturing the rocket body takes a lot of time, and we need Germany’s help for testing. It often requires coordination between three countries...

But we will definitely achieve the maiden flight next year, we’ve been working hard to improve efficiency."

Thinking of the 18 engines that had been built last year and would now have to sit in a warehouse for another year, Xie Liaofu didn’t know what else to say.

He then turned his gaze to the French space representative, Antoine. The core stage was delayed, but surely there couldn’t be problems with the EAP too?

Under Xie Liaofu’s intense stare, Antoine appeared somewhat embarrassed:

"The EAP is scheduled to be completed this year, the combustion chamber is being built, it should be on time. Moreover, at the moment our main focus is on the Hermes spacecraft."

"And the spacecraft?"

"We began manufacturing the static test specimen last month."

"..."

Feeling despair, Xie Liaofu left the temporary meeting room and ran into Shen Zuozhou, who had just finished docking work with Russia.

The two men walked together into the superior’s rest room and sat down on sofas.

"How is it? Tomorrow we will start discussing the scale of the Moon Base and the distribution of launch mission shares. Do you have any ideas?"

Shen Zuozhou: "According to my conversation with Director Borisov, we can confirm that the only operational heavy-lift rockets are the ’Proton’ and the Angara A5 rocket. The former has a good number in stock, and the latter can be launched twice a year, but both can only launch unmanned probes or small payloads.

The large rocket in development is the Hurricane Rocket. They say it could make its maiden flight by mid-2018. If put into service, it would be a giant rocket like the CZ-10 and have a high launch frequency due to its reusability."

Superior: "Do you think they will be put into use on schedule?"

While Shen Zuozhou was hesitating, Xie Liaofu spoke first: "Don’t trust the Russians."

"..."

"..."

"Let me tell you about Italy and France. In my opinion, their launch capabilities will be almost zero for two, even three years. At most, they can send satellites to lunar orbit, which is practically the same situation as Russia. Regular launches of medium and small rockets are useless for Moon missions.

Actually, if you consider help towards the Moon Base, collectively their strength is not even as much as if America gave us some more money."

Ignoring the helpless expressions of the two, Xie Liaofu continued:

"Among the four countries, only we have the capacity for large-scale construction and manned landings. They can at most provide some equipment, such as Russia offering some cheap isotope batteries, or European chemical equipment which isn’t too bad... but it doesn’t make much of a difference. What we’re primarily lacking is probably funds, not technology."

Superior: "But if that’s the case, they might not be very willing to accept such cooperation."

Xie Liaofu: "Then we just promise them all. Anyway, apart from these tasks, no one but us can accomplish them. The result will be the same; the only one in the world who can stand on the same level with us is America.

They will accept the cooperation, definitely."

There was a clear implication in his words, and the superior quickly understood.

"You mean Skylight II?"

"Yes, we not only have to complete the Skylight II mission, but we also need to heavily promote it. Let them know that without relying on cooperation, we can still carry out large-scale lunar operations. It was never about... us seeking cooperation, it’s them needing to rely on us to keep up with the space age.

Before breaking through with heavy-lift rockets, the voices of these countries don’t make much difference; we treat them all equally."