Chapter 466 - 457 Accident_1

"Chaos, chaos is about to descend again!"

On July 11th, the day after John delivered his speech, the already slightly relaxed situation began to show even more signs of tension.

Big Shot flew in from Huayin and immediately convened his team to discuss the matter.

After expressing his sentiment, he directly brought up the opinion from the higher-ups:

"We’ve landed on the Moon and are about to start building on it on a large scale, and our journey to Mars will not stop.

This Mars, we must land on, and it’s not just about sending astronauts there; we need to prepare for long-term construction, to build a sizeable Martian base by 2030, and hopefully present it as a tribute for the motherland’s 80th anniversary!

Moreover, a decision at next year’s conference will be made to ensure that by around 2030, our national strength and technological level will reach that of developed countries. Landing on Mars is also a very important part of this!"

Big Shot’s voice was strong and clear because both he and the higher-ups had a unified response to John’s speech: to accept the challenge and even surpass the competition.

The success of the Dawn project and the fatigue displayed by NACA had instilled a strong sense of confidence domestically; even the most pessimistic had to admit that the country’s space program had surpassed NACA.

Since we have this advantage, we must not only maintain it but continue to widen the gap, moving further ahead of course.

Furthermore, with the completion of the March spacecraft imminent, although no official document had been formed, the general opinion from the top was quite united, preparing to actively promote the manned Mars landing project.

Everyone immediately applauded; the speech was incredibly spirited, heading straight for the construction of a Martian base.

"The official project code will take some time to be determined, but our Tianwen plan is already the symbol of the first phase starting, and I hope all four unmanned exploration missions can be launched on schedule."

Lin Ju: "Our private aerospace companies will provide all the help they can, and in addition, around the end of this year, we will launch a new type of reusable rocket that can be used for Martian missions."

Big Shot was somewhat surprised by Lin Ju’s positive statement; just the New Yuan No. 3 rocket was completely sufficient for Martian missions, and among the space agency’s rockets, only CZ-9 could surpass it by a head. So what was the need for a new rocket?

Lin remained silent but gestured a "4" with his hand, which was quickly understood by others.

The No. 4 rocket, the target rocket that had always been present in New Yuan’s official website PPT, was it finally coming?

The core stage would use 39 high-performance hydrogen-oxygen engines, and also strap on four super boosters, an ultimate rocket with specs so high they were hard to believe.

Well, just having that rocket would solve half the problem of landing on Mars; super rockets are just too OP.

Academician She, who had just confirmed the XH40 as the next generation of reusable landers, immediately thought that if the launch was at the end of the year, it would be perfectly timed to catch the XH40. The insane lifting capacity of the No. 4 rocket could directly fling a fully loaded XH40 to the Moon; probably using that payload as an experimental test for the first launch.

But such a rocket would likely launch very infrequently; the production and storage cost of liquid hydrogen alone would be hundreds of millions, and without reuse, the price would be astronomical.

No, even with reuse, it wouldn’t work, as the four super solid boosters would also cost hundreds of millions. In terms of cost-performance, it really wasn’t as worthwhile as the No. 3 and No. 2 rockets, as kerosene and methane were much cheaper.

If it wasn’t absolutely necessary to fire a test shot, Lin Ju probably wouldn’t be willing to splurge like that.

The fact was about the same; the base estimated that the first launch of New Yuan No. 4 would cost up to 2 billion yuan, with the fuel and boosters accounting for a solid 1 billion. The cost of each launch would cause immense heartache. However, an all-hydrogen-oxygen first stage design also resulted in an impressive payload ratio of 5.4%, and in terms of rocket design alone, it was a major success.

With Lin’s interjection, the committee’s previously somber atmosphere immediately lightened up; John may have spoken well, but the advantage was all ours.

The meeting was led astray and became chaotic for a few minutes until Big Shot restored calm and assigned tasks:

"Without affecting the existing Moon mission plans, our next task is to ensure the March spacecraft is completed and enters trial operation as soon as possible to conduct long-term sustainability experiments in preparation for landing on Mars.

At the same time, the Tianwen plan can be appropriately expanded based on circumstances, but all launch missions will be finalized by November. Are there any problems?"

John expressed his congratulations and announced the launch of the Mars program, and naturally, we had to respond accordingly.

On the evening of the 11th, the news program broadcast a speech given by a senior official outside the Huayin venue, with the backdrop of Mount Hua scenery:

"The preliminary success of the Dawn program merely signifies the first step in realizing our millennium-long lunar dream, and it’s far from a point where we can simply rest on our laurels.

Human civilization has progressed from slash-and-burn agriculture to the Stone Age, and then further to the Bronze Age, Iron Age, eventually igniting the energy revolution and entering the Steam Age, the Internal Combustion Engine Age, and the Electrical Age. We have already stepped into the Information Age, but the ultimate goal of all these advancements is to leave Earth and become a true interstellar civilization.

As early as 54 years ago, our country established the Interstellar Travel Committee for this objective. Under its leadership, we completed the first steps of space exploration, laying a solid foundation for the ongoing success up to this point.

We have never given up the dream of interstellar travel, and this should also be a goal that the whole world strives for. China’s aerospace will march forward step by step, steadfastly progressing toward interstellar civilization, the Solar System including the Moon and Mars, and eventually to fly to other star systems beyond the Solar System, to achieve the grand goal of leading human civilization into the interstellar age!"

...

Both sides of the ocean were fiercely trading verbal blows, almost spitting fire at each other, and the Island Country (crossed out), Hawaii, felt this particularly keenly.

The two forces exerted pressure from left and right upon the narrow terrain, almost tearing the land apart in various senses.

JAXA attempted to find a third way through the gap to gain independence, but it seemed to be struggling.

"What? You can’t conduct the next launch mission until next year? Then when can we test our combined module?"

Inside JAXA’s headquarters, Sakai Shinichiro looked ready to fight with the visiting Samarkand, but the latter remained unmoved, indifferent.

The other JAXA employees also had grim expressions, thinking that ISRO had stood them up:

The launch mission of Gagan Yan 2 Spaceship is set to take place in April next year, that is, in nine months, and it will still be an unmanned flight.

The first joint flight of astronauts from both countries, planned in the blueprint, has been postponed to the end of 2018, and the combined module test of Gagan Yan command module and Island Country service module will have to wait until 2019.

This was almost a whole year behind the original plan, but ISRO clearly had no intention of accelerating.

As Earth’s red and blue giants, the Immortals, clashed, Modi vaguely felt that the outcome for their national strength would definitely not be better than NACA’s failure. After much thought, he decided to slightly deprioritize the Star of Asia plan.

Despite strikes and protests from Russian experts, ISRO eventually obtained the viable technical information. As long as they worked at it slowly, they were certain to master the technology for manned spacecraft, and this was already a satisfactory achievement for them.

Having sobered up from the initial frenzy, India now realized that while others prepared for major developments on the Moon, they could, at best, send a few people for a walk up there even with all their might – maintaining a permanent presence was pure fantasy, and their GDP did not permit it either.

Having earned the title of the fourth country to independently launch astronauts was a cause for celebration, and there was no need to pursue the unclear prospects of the Star of Asia program.

But this made Sakai Shinichiro extremely angry. JAXA had already diverted the funds for the research and development of the H3 rocket to the H-X project. If the Indians bailed on the project, the one billion US Dollars would have been as good as wasted, signifying the end of JAXA’s last independent efforts.

He knew Kishimoto had always wanted to promote joining America’s Artemis program, and if the "independent and autonomous" Star of Asia project failed, JAXA would be reduced to a link in America’s space supply chain, losing the ability to conduct independent research.

But he could not influence ISRO’s decisions, and everything seemed to be set in stone.

Watching Samarkand leave, Sakai Shinichiro locked himself in his office to mourn alone, but shortly after, he suddenly heard noise and shouts outside.

The commotion grew louder, and he decided to open the door to see what had happened.

His colleagues pointed at the television in the corner of headquarters, which was typically used as a backdrop, in horror. It was broadcasting breaking news:

"Kishimoto assassinated."