Chapter 465 - 456 Ares_1

"Damn it, these design flaws wouldn’t have led to a cascade of errors with just a slight alteration."

After "The Agreement" was reached, NACA immediately obtained the original data from the black box of the lander from the Aerospace Development Committee. Because they knew "Blue Moon" better, they were able to determine the cause of the accident more quickly.

The first thing that could be confirmed was the same as what the Aerospace Development Committee had suspected, a series of errors due to irrational inner and outer structural design, leading to a minor fault causing system misreporting and widespread terminal control crashes.

Although this wasn’t exactly a minor issue that could be easily solved, knowing where the problem lay meant immediate improvements could be made.

At NACA’s headquarters, Jeff Bezos, who had been uneasy, finally managed to relax temporarily. In contrast, Lockheed Martin began to grow anxious.

The HLS lander project was led by Blue Origin as the original contractor, with responsibility for leading the team and handling system engineering, but many subsystems were also outsourced to other manufacturers.

Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Draper Corporation were all involved, and the problematic structural design, as well as the crew cabin, were the responsibility of Lockheed Martin. Although Blue Origin bore the main responsibility, the other half had to be attributed to Lockheed Martin.

In recent days, Blue Origin had received a severe backlash, with Bezos facing daily protests and crowds calling for "punishment of the murderer Jeff" during the hearings. The failure of Blue Origin had even caused Amazon’s stock price to drop.

However, Claire Borden was far from relaxed. As the director of NACA, he would inevitably be held accountable for any malfunction, and Congress was already impatient to impeach him.

His departure was inevitable, and the next NACA director was roughly determined to be another deputy director, Robert Lightfoot.

Robert Lightfoot had previously worked at the Stennis Space Center, dealing primarily with space shuttles, which was likely why he was favored.

He was now in the process of transitioning work with Claire.

"Robert, ’Blue Moon’ must undergo a thorough investigation. Although the mechanical design is the direct cause, we’ve found that several emergency systems failed to activate even after the engines were illegally shut down. This indicates serious problems with control, and overall the project is quite imperfect," Claire said.

Robert replied, "The accident investigation team has already been authorized by Congress to form. I believe ’Blue Moon’ and SLS might be grounded for a year. I will use this time to improve ’Blue Moon’ and the entire system, this time should be sufficient for stabilization."

He had always been involved in supervising SLS under the Artemis program. However, since SLS’s boosters had also malfunctioned, Claire remained concerned overall.

Claire believed in his colleague, but once it was linked to the tasks of the Presidential Palace, too many extraneous factors could arise. If the Artemis program was carried out step by step as planned, such a serious accident would not have occurred.

But failing to speed up progress wasn’t an option either, as Congress had already started to question whether NACA was worth all the funds it was consuming.

His plan was to take all the responsibility onto himself for poor management, otherwise, once Congress started investigating NACA as a whole, it would be a serious blow to its authority and cohesion.

"Robert, the investigation of Artemis II is only a small part, and I’m afraid it’ll become a secondary objective after you take office," he said.

"You mean... Mars?" Robert asked.

Claire nodded gravely: The latest news was that the An-1250 had reached New Yuan base, either transporting space shuttles or enormous habitat segments, definitely to continue the construction tasks for the March.

The idea that March would set off for Mars in 2018 was unlikely; it needed to operate stably in space for a year, become thoroughly familiar with the environment, before embarking on a space journey of over a year.

No one knew the optimal design for a low-gravity space station, no one knew how to control a 1,500-ton space station when it started to rotate, all this required time to adapt, and inevitable problems would emerge.

But by the next launch window in 2020, if all went well, March would definitely meet the flight conditions, but considering the preliminary exploration and construction, 2022 would be more appropriate for the spacecraft’s departure.

To be conservative and systematic, 2022; to be aggressive, 2020—these were the deadlines for China’s mission to Mars, as per Claire’s assessment.

After he shared his speculations, Robert’s expression grew solemn as well.

That is to say, he had at most five years, and at least three, to make sure that NACA launched a Mars spaceship within one of those two points in time.

In between, he needed to find the time to swiftly complete the moon landing and incidentally carry out some lunar construction; any slight joy he might have felt at his recent promotion to director had utterly dissipated.

If he had been given ten years to accomplish these tasks, he would have been filled with ambition and determination, but now he felt only endless pressure.

Still, he held on to a sliver of hope and asked:

"Perhaps we could temporarily give up the competition..."

"We certainly will not," Claire said, shaking her head decisively:

"John is about to pass the God of War Ares program and will be investing a colossal sum in aerospace for about the next ten years. The funding NACA receives is very likely to exceed what it was during the Cold War."

"How do you know that?"

"After I resign, I am going to join John’s staff team. I was involved in drafting some of the content."

Robert "..."

...

"Citizens of America, as well as citizens of China across the ocean, and citizens of the entire world.

First of all, on behalf of the government of America, I would like to congratulate you on your achievements and sincerely thank you for all your efforts in ensuring the survival of the two astronauts from Artemis II.

Welcome to becoming the second nation after America to achieve manned moon landing, an extraordinary second step that moves humanity forward once again..."

On the President’s Mansion Lawn, John read from the script with an expressionless face, his voice more rigid than Google Translate’s.

Countries around the world had already expressed their congratulations to the two nations that had fully or partially completed the moon landing, and naturally, America could not pretend to have not seen this; the space race did not exist in the media, and the world was still peaceful and stable on the surface.

John pinched his nose as he made the congratulatory speech, which should have been the job of the Secretary of State, but Pio had been kicked out, and Jack Sullivan needed more time before he could take over.

After the last part of the congratulatory message, John paused for a moment and then picked up the second script:

"The Moon is but a small step in humanity’s conquest of space. It is just a part within easy reach on the edge of our cradle; we must touch it, for only by grasping it can we stand and step out of the cradle.

We have encountered some difficulties before us, but we have never feared, driven by courage and curiosity to fall and rise again. The entire Artemis program continues to move forward firmly, and we will indeed make the Moon a part of human society in the very near future.

In our Solar System, on the Orion Arm, in the Milky Way, in the universe, there are countless stars. Compared to Earth, the stars are our ultimate destination.

Our steps will not end on the Moon but will reach higher and further places.

The Moon has no atmosphere; it is merely a satellite of Earth. This destines it not to become humanity’s second home but just a minor resting spot.

America will immediately commence a manned landing on Mars. We will safely send humans to Mars and establish a long-term sustainable Martian base before the year 2025, making it a seedbed of civilization.

We are willing to give everything for this, everything for space, everything for the future of humanity, never to relent."