Chapter 617 - 604: Learn to Provide Financial Aid

Tick-tock.

Even though winter had already set in, and the office air conditioning was comfortable, a drop of sweat still trailed down his sleeve to the floor.

John was seemingly unaware of this, his mind somewhat bewildered.

Suddenly thrust onto the vast stage of the Solar System, he had made no preparations and had absolutely no idea what to do.

Even a signal, still uncertain in nature, could exert immense pressure from hundreds of millions of kilometers away.

Cheyenne Mountain had contingency plans for all kinds of dire situations, even an asteroid colliding with Earth, but indeed, no one had considered how to deal with aliens.

For anyone who truly devoted their energy to pondering this would realize: attempting to guess the intentions of an alien civilization from a human perspective was an exercise in absurdity.

Humans could crush an ant without any reason, and it was clear that the gap between them was not as vast as that between humans and aliens.

The ant’s simplistic worldview could not comprehend why a creature would engage in activities unrelated to survival, and human values were meaningless within the cosmos.

Pondering about aliens was futile, but John could not stop thinking.

"I authorize you, I give you all permissions,"

John, leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, said his final words,

"Inform Sullivan, he knows who to call over."

...

B-Level Base.

"This is a flat piece of land."

"That’s all?"

"That’s all."

Lin Ju and Xiao Okada exchanged glances, their eyes filled with confusion.

"Departing Fire" had arrived on Mars and had been conducting intensive surveillance for two months, using every available means to collect nearly all data on Zero Plain, and the base’s geologists and astrophysicists had earnestly analyzed it for two months.

Now that all valuable content had been compiled, the conclusion they had arrived at was exactly what Xiao Okada had related.

There really was nothing special; as far as all data held by humans was concerned, the most notable feature of Zero Plain was that the small expanse of plain was truly flat.

This flatness was not just about the surface being level, but rather that "Departing Fire" detected an even subsurface beneath the loose soil; the actual surface was more irregular due to the shifting winds creating various small mounds.

Behind the flatness were two possibilities: subterranean structures or natural formations.

The likelihood of both was equal and couldn’t be further discerned; all were baseless speculations, and satellite surveillance had hit its limit.

For Zero Plain, "Departing Fire" had exhausted its survey value, and what remained was a powerful, comprehensive survey satellite that just needed to continue monitoring Zero Plain.

"Then proceed with the plan to silence Departing Fire, except when absolutely necessary to wake it, don’t use it again until next October,"

Xiao Okada nodded; this was a strategy planned well in advance.

Before "Departing Fire" was launched, the base had seriously considered the issue of communication secrecy, including disguising the signals as natural, with the most critical part being the relay transfer.

Initially, they used the "Laurel" series of satellites on the Moon for relay, and later, thanks to the Skylight-1 mission, they had a shuttle throw several microsatellites into the ecliptic plane; as for now, the setup was even more complex.

In the past few months, the probes "Descendants," "Golden Crow," and "Changsi," targeting the Sun, Mercury, and Lingxi Star, respectively, took turns relaying and remodulating the signal back to Earth in a set pattern, making it impossible for humanity’s current methods to detect where the signal from Departing Fire had gone.

The coding and encryption were given considerable effort, with a group of engineers compiling information on timeline differences obtained from the System, using seemingly unrelated content and differing physical parameters as encryption methods, and directly employing the SC09 spacecraft control system’s communication format for coding—an authentic extraterrestrial civilization coding format with no foundation on Earth.

But even so, Lin Ju remained cautious, Departing Fire transmitted information at random times using pseudorandom numbers, minimizing communication frequency.

Now that its value had diminished, Departing Fire would enter a quiescent state, transmitting no information unless necessary.

However, this did not mean that "Departing Fire" was a fruitless investment; it would continue to collect information on Mars unseen before it could make a public appearance, benefiting from its considerable weight and technological advantages. The exploration capabilities of a single satellite were nearly equivalent to the sum of all other Martian orbiters.

The data it provided would be a reference for subsequent Mars mission planning, saving both time and costs invisibly.

Plans of launches flashed through Lin Ju’s mind, telling himself it was almost time, almost there.

In as little as six months, robots would tread upon Zero Plain, and then surely something would be discovered.

"Oh, boss, someone wants to finance us, to embark on a Solar System gas giants exploration program."

"Who?"

Lin Ju was somewhat surprised as the exploration of the gas giants entailed deep space missions, involving Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and their many moons beyond the Martian orbit.

Traditional space exploration techniques required travel times of a dozen or even twenty years, whereas the base’s nuclear propulsion technology could trim that down to several or even one year, but at great cost, so it was clearly established for the time being that no deep space missions would be undertaken.

For the future, they would only consider restarting such missions when the base’s manufacturing capability greatly increased or funds were more ample, but waiting a few more years was far better than a slow journey over several decades.

NACA had launched explorations during a rare 176-year window, but who else would willingly undertake such a thankless and exhausting endeavor?

"The International Astronomical Union (IAU),"

Xiao Okada mentioned a name that felt unfamiliar yet strangely familiar.

"Since last year, the chairpersons of the 15th and 16th Committees of the Third Division of the Union have been traveling around the world; they have secured funding intentions from many universities and scientific organizations.

A few days ago, through the representative of the Capital City Branch, they conveyed their hopes that if New Yuan could complete the commission within a year, they could convince the whole Union to raise the funds."

The IAU had a long history, established in 1919 in Brussels, Belgium, with the primary purpose of organizing academic exchanges and protecting the astronomical observation environment, and was a powerful non-governmental academic organization.

They were divided into 11 divisions and 51 committees responsible for education, public outreach, and promoting research in their respective fields.

Although it was an academic organization of loose structure, this very characteristic gave it a strong presence worldwide, with the potential to raise funds for exploration missions.

The reason they were interested in New Yuan was obviously due to the nuclear propulsion technology, which made it possible to quickly understand several remote gas giants in the Solar System, and even the Kuiper Belt.