Chapter 621 - 608: Titan

[Event: Space Race to the Moon: Over.

Mission: Complete a manned exploration of Earth’s satellite, the Moon, and establish a base capable of housing two people within 48 months; completed.

Thanks to the solid foundation gained from continuous development, the base’s astronautic technology advanced rapidly under your leadership, and a successful landing operation was carried out on Earth’s satellite, the Moon.

Landing craft: Chapter 9, number of personnel landed: 4, landing mass: 152 tons.

You placed third in the race to return to the Moon. Although your timing was later, your technological level and scale held an absolute advantage.

A comprehensive evaluation of prestige, technological impact, and tech level is underway, please wait...]

In the lounge, Lin Ju, lying on the sofa, was somewhat anxious, eagerly anticipating the calculation process of the System.

According to the mission initially set, the Moon landing needed to be completed before July 2019, and now he was nearly 20 months ahead, having achieved the mission in just about 28 months, which is almost two and a half years.

Of course, according to the original plan, the landing was to be completed with the XN90, but plans do not always keep pace with changes. The competition between the Artemis and Dawn projects pushed the timeline forward. Although Chapter 9 was still powerful, it was far from matching the XN90.

There was no doubt that the reward this time would be somewhat less than expected, but he thought it should not be too shabby.

From launching satellites to manned spaceflight, and now to a Moon landing, the System’s rewards for such mainline, phased missions were always generous. The last reward for completing manned spaceflight was the NPAE engine; the reward for completing the Moon landing was certain to be even better.

The NPAE, known as the ultimate jet engine of its generation, and the A100 used for cosmic navigation was almost the pinnacle; if another propulsion technology was to come, perhaps only a fusion engine could be considered a generation ahead, right?

However, this was not particularly good news for Lin Ju. How many new technologies, how many new materials would a fusion engine require? Even if he was given all the answers to copy, it would certainly be overwhelming.

Although the derived dividends would definitely pay off, the higher the technology, the higher the mission’s demands. Landing on Mars and the like were still manageable, but interstellar colonization would be outrageous.

Of course, it wasn’t that the technology was unachievable, but the base simply couldn’t provide enough manpower and economic strength. Interstellar colonization would require organizations nearly as vast and scientifically improbable as RDA, Umbrella, or Weyland Corporation from the movie Prometheus, which far surpass any conspiracy theory’s Freemasons in power, virtually exceeding political entities.

The base wasn’t up to par—at least not on Earth. Humanity wasn’t ready to accept such hominid systems yet.

This time, the System’s calculation took surprisingly long, causing Lin Ju’s mind to wander with reckless speculation, not knowing how long it had passed before he heard the System’s voice again.

[After a comprehensive evaluation from multiple aspects, the overall mission rating is: A (Quite Outstanding)

Although compared to the current world situation, the Skylight III Pioneer Landing operation is far ahead, there is still considerable room for improvement. Please keep up the good work.

Based on the completion of your mission and the bonuses for some of your exceptional performances, the following reward will be given:

Chi Ren, a super-nano material that breaks the traditional understanding of molecular structures.

"Chi Ren" was successfully developed by Guang Way Fishing Gear in 2119, originally intended for ultra-high-pressure deep-sea hunting on Jupiter II’s ’Europa’ to fish for a sulfur-based aquatic life form living between 150 and 200 kilometers deep. As they lurked near underwater volcanoes all year round, the extreme environment endowed their bodies with a variety of high-value compounds, making them highly sought after by the scientific and medical communities.

The technical foundation of "Chi Ren" stems from the further pursuit of nano materials. After the development of carbon nanotubes and other high polymer nano materials reached a peak, Guang Way Fishing Gear attempted to utilize micro-space gravity to compress the material gaps further, ultimately producing "Chi Ren".

This is a type of ’giant’ hollow carbon nanotube with a diameter of 1 micron. Compared to traditional carbon nanotubes, its hexagonal structure is asymmetrical, which makes it stronger and more stable, allowing the diameter to be expanded to 1 micron and laying the foundation for macroscopic engineering applications.

"Chi Ren" is most notable for its high-temperature endurance and expandability, while possessing good flexibility and high-temperature superconductivity. Cables of considerable thickness can be manufactured using ultrafine laser weaving, making it a super-material suitable for constructing a space elevator.

This objective far exceeded Guang Way Company’s expectations, but at the time, Earth had already built a hollow tower from the surface to the geosynchronous orbit that was only one atom thick using strong nuclear forces and did not need such outdated technology.

Eventually, "Chi Ren" was purchased by a mining company that used it to make nets for dragging asteroids.

Note: "Chi Ren" requires microscopic gravity control capability for production, meaning that significant breakthroughs in microphysics are necessary.

But "Chi Ren" signifies the possibility of a space elevator, granting humanity unprecedented resource projection capabilities, a technology that is epoch-making.

New mission: Land on Saturn’s second moon, Titan, and assemble an expedition team of no less than 10 people to land on it.

Mission duration: 96 months; Mission remarks: There is a chance that life forms may still exist, please make the necessary preparations.]

[Event: The space race, Mars begins.

A passive mission, landing on the first planet, is an inevitable step for humanity, of great significance.]

[Summary of non-natural information: Mars, Titan.

Note: Although the universe is young, it is unimaginably long for intelligent beings. Life always fades, but their spirit endures forever.

The universe is large enough to accommodate all sorts of improbable coincidences, nothing is truly surprising.

Countless worlds have proposed Feynman’s conjecture, but the answers vary.

Long-term mission begins: Pursuing the traces of civilization.

Seek the truth in the universe, decipher the meaning of life.]

In the empty lounge, Lin Ju’s eyes gradually widened, staring in disbelief at the pristine ceiling.

If the Zero Plain was still somewhat concealed, this time the System was almost explicitly telling him: There are aliens, there is an extraterrestrial civilization, and it’s close.

What does "there is a chance that life forms may still survive" mean?

Clearly, the life forms mentioned in this statement are unlikely to refer to microorganisms such as bacteria, which means... living aliens??!

This frightening conjecture had just surfaced when he felt a tingling on his scalp, goosebumps all over his body, and his brain fell into a blank stupor.

Moreover, landing on Titan is much more difficult than landing on Mars. The shortest distance from Earth to Saturn is about 820 million kilometers, which is 15 times the distance to Mars, significantly increasing both the difficulty of support and the risk of flight.

And with Saturn’s orbit taking a full 29 years, and an opportunity for Saturn to be at its closest approach during its solar opposition occurring only every 13 months, there are only a few possible departure dates to choose from.

months, or 8 years, sounds long, but considering it still takes years even with nuclear propulsion, doesn’t that mean there’s at most just four to five years to prepare for this ultra-long-distance deep-space voyage!