Chapter 507 - 496 Ma Yilong Washing Machine_1

"Luo Luo plans to repurpose six decommissioned nuclear warheads from the Royal Air Force for use in United Mining Company’s lunar blasting missions."

That afternoon, the BBC released a startling piece of news.

The content was very detailed, even including part of the contract’s specifics.

The most eye-catching detail, of course, was the $1 million price tag for each "near-expiry" hydrogen bomb, as well as a requirement that five British experts must conduct at least two lunar missions before 2019 to carry out environmental inspections.

It was morning in London, and when the current female Prime Minister Blasiye announced the news in the House of Commons, there was a moment of silence followed by collective cheering.

Seeing this, Blasiye felt the weight in her heart finally drop, knowing she had made the right bet.

On the day of the press conference, the current Foreign Secretary Boris immediately tried to submit to her an amazingly clever proposal.

A proposal that would allow the UK to save face while gaining tangible benefits, effectively leverage its influence in exchange for interests, and keep pace in the heated space race, thereby achieving unprecedented accomplishments.

The emphasis of the proposal was on speed, to reach out to the Chinese people first, capturing the greatest benefit at their most urgent moments—hence the hurriedly arranged negotiation team from Luo Luo.

After leaving Union Mining Headquarters, Conna couldn’t wait to relay the good news; when Blasiye heard that six hydrogen bombs, each requiring a substantial annual maintenance cost, were exchanged for five spots to land on the Moon, she almost thought she was dreaming.

She immediately stormed into the House of Commons, which was discussing the renovation of London’s municipal sewer system, and announced the specifics of the deal.

Members of Parliament, who normally quibbled over trivial matters, were first shocked by Blasiye circumventing the parliament to secretly strike the deal, then ecstatic that British people would actually be able to set foot on the Moon.

Just last month, the Chinese people had landed on the Moon, America had achieved a 90% successful moon landing, and, just a dozen days ago, Abe had also managed to land on the Moon, leaving the whole of Europe feeling indignant.

But it was no secret that the UK’s current situation was well known, having difficulty even participating in the Artemis program, let alone supporting a crewed lunar mission.

Most members had previously been opposed to United Mining’s plan to use hydrogen bombs for mining, but now no one spoke of it anymore, casting it from their minds. After all, they were blasting the Moon, but the benefit was for the UK.

With the government’s deliberate promotion, the news spread across the three islands in less than an hour, and almost all newspaper pages were emphasizing the British astronauts who were about to go to the Moon. Nuclear bombs? The Moon? What’s that got to do with us?

Those among the public who followed environmental organizations in protesting the destruction of the Moon also shut up, instead beginning to debate a new problem:

How to allocate the five astronauts among the three islands, and whether Scotland should still push for independence?

...

Black Rabbit Space Station.

The seven astronauts who had been living here for over 18 days were busy collecting trash, then packing it with soft fabric into a shape that could be docked through the node chamber’s port for easy grappling.

Although the living module of the "Black Rabbit" is a 50-ton heavy segment, a large portion of its payload is scientific equipment. Housing seven people is actually running over capacity—it’s bearable but not convenient, and materials are depleted much faster than usual.

All the fresh vegetables originally grown on the space station had been eaten, and Li Wei carefully checked that the new seedlings were growing well before slowly closing the cover of the cultivation box.

The original plan was to leave three full-time astronauts on the Black Rabbit Space Station, but given that there would be no spacecraft capable of returning to Earth after Storm left, it was decided that all crew members should evacuate.

Prior to leaving, Reyna took many photos, claiming "each minute here was hard-earned by my homeland with oil."

Compared with the stunning blue Earth seen from the Tiangong and Hila Space Stations, the barren Moon was desolate but held a unique charm that belonged to the cosmos.

Being here, one truly felt part of the universe, at the very least beyond Earth’s atmosphere.

Deng Lei, though, was diligently checking the condition of Storm’s structure. Its nuclear reactor was always a concern for those on the ground, as this related to everyone’s safety.

On the 21st at 8:20 PM Beijing time, the five astronauts still aboard the station donned their spacesuits, then each pushed a bag of trash into the space shuttle, stuffed all into the node chamber in the shuttle’s cargo bay, and brought it all back to Earth for treatment, making an effort to keep the lunar orbit clean whenever possible.

Once everyone was secured, the Storm began its detachment, closing the cargo bay and adjusting its orientation over the course of an hour before commencing the first acceleration phase.

Li Wei, the co-pilot, was skillfully checking the navigational data, yet still managed to engage in casual conversation:

"As per the plan, we’re heading back up here in December, by then we’ll be bringing a few hydrogen bombs, right?"

They were of course aware of the events happening on Earth; the Black Rabbit Space Station could connect to the internet via satellite, although the delay was so bad it made gaming impossible.

Deng Lei: "I don’t know if we’ll actually bring hydrogen bombs, but there’ll definitely be some British folks."

Li Wei: "We’re actually going to be the first to use a hydrogen bomb with ’British’, one million dollars apiece and buy five get one free? Are they really that cheap?"

Reyna, who had been eavesdropping, couldn’t help but chime in:

"Brother Li, Brother Deng, shouldn’t you be the ones most familiar with how much a hydrogen bomb costs? We have no clue."

Alkali: "I really want to see what a hydrogen bomb explosion looks like in lunar orbit, it must create a particularly large mushroom cloud, surely the most precious imagery ever."

"Then I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed."

After some thought, Deng Lei considered himself somewhat of an expert in demolitions.

"It’s Earth’s atmosphere that allows mushroom clouds to form. On the Moon, you’d probably just see a very bright mini sun, and since it’s definitely a deep underground blast, the chances of seeing it are slim.

I’m more worried about whether the electromagnetic pulse might severely impact orbiters, rendering the space stations and satellites we launched inoperative."

...

Florida, Cape Canaveral.

Atop a Cosmos God V rocket sat a Dreamer b1 space shuttle, the second model named "Determination," carrying out its second manned launch since the Dreamer’s return to flight. It was tasked with delivering six tourists and three astronauts to the International Space Station, and would bring back the same number of tourists and three astronauts whose missions had ended after seven days.

The launch was incredibly expensive because SpaceX’s two previous Heavy Falcons had used up the stock, and the remaining Falcon 9s were all booked for missions. Without a cheaper Heavy Falcon immediately available, it had to rely on ULA’s Cosmos God V rocket.

The launch went smoothly, and Eamon, CEO of Nevada Mountain Company, was thrilled to celebrate with investors and other wealthy people who had bought tickets. The Dreamer’s malfunction six months ago was finally behind, poised to surpass the Dragon Spaceship as America’s premier manned space vehicle.

The only thing missing was the launch pad. SpaceX’s Heavy Falcon was slightly cheaper but hard to schedule, and the two companies still competed. ULA’s Cosmos God V rocket was expensive and going out of production due to the upcoming depletion of Russian-made RD180 engines, urgently needing a new rocket.

However, Eamon was making eyes at Jeff Bezos, planning to use the New Glenn Rocket as a successor. During the transition, they could use the Vulcan rocket from Blue Origin’s collaboration with ULA, for which ULA promised a nice discount.

As he envisioned the future, an investor curiously pointed at another sealed launch pad:

"What’s that over there? Looks like another rocket."

Eamon squinted his eyes and said flatly:

"I call that the Musk-branded Washing Machine. He and Lockheed plan to use a rope to swing a spacecraft around in space to generate gravity.

Um, it’s like putting people in a washing machine and spinning them, the speed is similar to a rollercoaster hurtling down the steepest drop."

"That sounds terrifying."

The investor clutched his chest, already feeling dizzy.

Eamon: "But rest assured, we’re collaborating with Blue Origin to develop a safe artificial gravity space station, just like XAP’s."