Chapter 628 - 613: Turning Point_2

Of course, it could be related to the pie Xiao Okada had painted for them, the gravitational pull of a payload mass of over 10 tons is certainly not small.

Throughout the journey, An Maowei and Edwin had been lavishing Lin Ju and New Yuan with crazy flattery and brown-nosing until they finally sat down and revealed their ultimate purpose:

"Mr. Lin, more than 20 billion is too expensive, is there any way to lower the price?"

Edwin was a Dutch man in his sixties, his Chinese was quite good and he didn’t need a translator. He craftily didn’t repeat New Yuan’s US Dollar quotation.

"Hundreds of billions of RMB could build a small nuclear power station. If we have to spend so much just on the propulsion section, then we’ll only have a very small budget left for the probe. This is contrary to our objective."

Lin Ju’s face showed no sign of emotion as he naturally asked:

"Then, how much budget has the IAU decided to put into the entire exploration project?"

Edwin: "Our plan is to launch in 2020, with a total investment not exceeding 3.5 billion US Dollars. However, the vast majority of that would need to be apportioned to various research organizations and universities for studies on exploration routes and manufacturing components. In reality, the maximum funds that IAU can control do not exceed 1 billion US Dollars.

Lin Ju said nothing; he had already grasped the reasons IAU used to persuade various parties from Edwin’s somewhat embarrassed expression.

It wasn’t about everyone pooling money together for the IAU, but rather the participants from various sectors were allocating sub-projects, investing their own funds in related research. The billions of US Dollars spoken of were mostly for show, and the actual available funds were feared to be even less than 1 billion US Dollars.

Even if the total sum was obtained, it would only account for 6.7 billion RMB, and it would certainly be transferred over three years in increments, which was far less than expected.

It was unrealistic to expect the IAU to gather all the money from various parties for New Yuan. If they tried that, the partnership was likely to dissolve immediately.

Having considered this, Lin Ju completely calmed down and lightly said:

"Mr. Edwin, I must remind you that even though rocket launch costs are very low now, launching such a probe would require over 150 million US Dollars. The rest of the money wouldn’t be enough to cover our current A100 engine costs.

Smaller engines would certainly be cheaper, but that would require additional R&D costs, and 1 billion US Dollars would not be sufficient.

Moreover, you must understand that this is a journey of almost ten billion kilometers to Saturn. We need to greatly improve the reliability of the nuclear engines. Even if we offer you the lowest quote, it would still require at least 2.2 billion US Dollars."

"This..."

Edwin’s complexion turned somewhat ugly, 2.2 billion US Dollars was an amount the IAU couldn’t possibly gather, and even if they did, they wouldn’t give it all to XAP, especially since NACA wouldn’t allow that.

Actually, NACA was also pitching their yet-to-be-developed nuclear engine to them, assuring that it would be ready for use on schedule, but such matters were uncertain.

At this point, Lin Ju went on the offensive again, starting to emphasize New Yuan’s advantages:

"We can sign a contract, if New Yuan fails to complete the special nuclear engine on time, we’ll use the existing, more expensive and bigger A100. Regardless of when you need it, we can guarantee arrival at Saturn within 12 to 15 months.

"With traditional space technology, the time needed is 8 to 10 times that figure; furthermore, with a nuclear engine onboard, the probe can freely explore Saturn and all its surrounding moons, and it should even have enough leftover fuel to fly to Uranus or Neptune. In terms of exploration capability, the cost-effectiveness of a nuclear engine has increased tenfold or more."

Just as Edwin was about to speak again, he choked back his words. Lin Ju was, of course, making sense. The committee had already conducted multiple verifications internally, and these were feasible facts.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Edwin sat motionless for a while. Meanwhile, An Maowei, who had been silently observing, suddenly asked:

"Your nuclear engines use liquid hydrogen as fuel, right? During a voyage that lasts for years, can you preserve enough liquid hydrogen?

What about the engine’s nozzle? Won’t it be corroded by hydrogen plasma over such a protracted duration?"

Lin Ju: "No, of course not.

New Yuan has already solved these issues and conducted a wealth of experiments. We are a commercial company if any issues arise with the product, we take the corresponding responsibility."

An Maowei uttered an "Oh" and fell silent, quietly waiting for Edwin’s response.

The latter rubbed his thighs for quite a while before he stood up and replied with difficulty:

"I need to consult with others, but no matter what, we are grateful for the help you’re offering."

"You’re welcome."

Lin Ju also stood up to shake his hand and politely saw the guests out, with An Maowei following suit and leaving as well.

The meeting had practically dashed all his hopes for the Astronomical Association. A mere few hundred million US dollars was but a drop in the ocean when it came to the immense shortfall of the Saturn project, far from enough even for an unmanned exploration mission.

As he was vigorously rubbing his head, a pair of warm, soft hands settled on his shoulders and began to knead them gently.

"Not going very well?"

"It’s worse than just ’not going well’... We need to squeeze out at least forty to fifty billion in capital within half a year. The timeframe is short, the demand high, and the IAU essentially lacks such capability. Getting one or two billion US dollars out of them in half a year would already be considered proactive; we absolutely can’t count on it."

Lin Ju decisively shook his head. The timing was precisely at the start of United Mining’s major expansion, along with the launch of several large projects, each with its own funding destination. The urgently initiated Saturn project required immediate access to substantial funds, an incredibly stringent demand for cash flow.

Yu Man: "What about the space agency? Why don’t you talk to them about undertaking more deep-space projects?"

"That won’t work either... The space agency does have a larger budget next year, but it’s not possible for them to release that much to us immediately; if it really comes down to it, we’ll just have to put the construction of the research center on hold. In any case, we can’t miss the launch windows for Mars and Saturn before June; otherwise, we’d have to wait another year."

"But you said the research center is very important, and several of the major projects rely on this foundation."

"We’ll have to prioritize the immediate concerns..."

Lin Ju gave a wry smile and shook his head. Of course, if New Yuan were to reach out to the civilian market, they could decisively dominate and effortlessly overthrow several industries, but that was a last resort, far from necessary at the moment.

As his mind was plagued with frustration, he also thought of the anomalies on Saturn and Mars, further intensifying his agitation.

"Don’t think about so much all at once; there might be a turning point."

Yu Man increased the pressure of her hands. She was still unaware of the details of the Saturn mission, her beautiful eyes gazing toward the darkening sky.

In another hemisphere, which lay in the direction of her gaze, Office Thirteen had only just set the first stage of their objectives.

...

Presidential Palace.

"The two intercepted signals point in two different directions."

Within the confidential intelligence room, John and a group of staff were listening to David Ussnor report his latest findings.

David showed none of the gloom or fear that plagued the elites, only work-related focus and excitement, gesticulating animatedly at the whiteboard.

"Over these past few days, we have carried out a more detailed analysis of the M signal using... well, various technical means. We’ve confirmed the most likely sources of the two signals:

The first one was directed towards the Ursa Major constellation, the specific galaxy unknown, coinciding with its path between Venus and Mercury;

The second signal was aimed towards the Southern Cross, a direction with no planets from the Solar System in its path, utterly unrelated to the first direction.

But since the source of the emissions is clearly the same, that only suggests one thing—"

Everyone’s emotions followed David’s pointing finger and collectively held their breath:

"—The receiving source is moving, possibly a passing spaceship or probe, or it could be something orbiting around the sun. I favor the latter option."

"..."

Claire couldn’t help but raise her hand:

"David, what is the reasoning behind the second possibility? The interval between our two receptions of the signal was less than a month, yet the directions were so vastly different. How fast must an astronomical object be moving in its orbit to cause such a discrepancy? In that case, we should have observed extremely prominent electromagnetic signals, but there’s nothing like that in the Solar System."

"But you’re talking about a natural orbit. What if the receiving source is powered?"

David immediately rebuffed:

"Moreover, based on the signal strength from the source, there’s a very high probability that the receiving source is within the Solar System. Electromagnetic wave transmission is not only inefficient in space but also highly delayed; it would have to be relayed through some device.

Given that we could still intercept the second signal, their monitoring methods within the Solar System are limited, suggesting they may not be in the Solar System themselves.

And why have our probes on Mars only begun to receive signals now after working for so many years? What does that indicate?"