Chapter 643 - 627 Anniversary Speech

But Christopher also didn’t dare have the senator escorted out; a somewhat popular senator was not someone he could afford to antagonize.

However, his irritation didn’t last long. Shortly, a group of people in plain clothes walked into the factory and immediately flashed their badges tucked into their collars.

"FBI! Please cooperate with our investigation!"

They went straight for the FAA senator, who was making a scene, and without listening to any explanations, they hoisted him up and walked him out.

Christopher and the engineers inside the factory watched in stunned silence until a person who seemed to be the leader approached. He glanced indifferently at the senator being led away and then casually patted Christopher on the shoulder, saying,

"You’re doing the greatest work in the world, and no one can stop it."

"But, but..."

"That guy? He will soon be swamped with a sex scandal and divorce lawsuits—rest assured, the president keeps track of Endeavour’s modification plans every day."

The FBI left as quickly as they had arrived. Christopher stood bewildered for a moment before directing the continuation of the nuclear engine dismantling work, but now with increased confidence in their eventual success.

When A105 was ignited within the Earth’s atmosphere, it certainly caused severe pollution, but aside from that, the residual pollution was not significant. As long as the space shuttle’s launch and landing areas were strictly limited, the harm was much less than feared.

Nevertheless, the president’s keen interest was a surprise to him, so much that his impression of the old man improved significantly, and he even began browsing through John’s Twitter account during his free time.

Suddenly, a new tweet popped up:

"John: In astronomy, the asteroid belt demarcates two regions of the Solar System. We call the region beyond it deep space.

It is far from the Sun, where all worlds are cold and lonely. Like the universe, venturing towards them means breaking free from the cradle’s bounds, truly advancing into the cosmos.

Announcement: January 20, University of Pennsylvania, let us fly to the stars together."

...

"Mr. Zhu Bingguang, please check if your helmet’s latches are locked down, verify the wrist display’s power connection is functioning, check..."

Standing in Chapter 9’s airlock, Zhu Bingguang went through each item on the checklist according to the smart voice in his earphones, and his assistant along with Fu Xiangjie were doing the same.

It was January 18th, and the Skylight III exploration mission had already proceeded to the third landing. The final team of payload specialists consisted of the 3D-printed Moon Soil team and France’s nuclear expert Rosenberg.

The remaining six specialists and three other residents at the U-Tu Space Station would return to the Tiangong Space Station within the next ten days and then descend to Earth.

Before January 26th, all nine payload specialists were scheduled to return to Earth, thus concluding the primary exploration objectives of the Skylight III mission.

However, for the four professional astronauts, their work was less than halfway finished.

The two professional astronauts descending this time were Liu Ming and Fu Xiangjie. This was their first lunar mission.

Before February 2nd, the second fuel supply ship and two permanent habitat modules would launch into lunar orbit. They needed to refill on fuel and, before February 15th, correctly position them to establish the Moon’s first long-term habitation base.

Although there were only two modules, they would provide 150 square meters of living space, sufficient for up to ten people to live, making the stay for the four stationed astronauts relatively comfortable.

Artemis III’s eight-day record would be easily surpassed, and even one month would not be a problem.

Therefore, Fu Xiangjie did not regard the time spent on the Moon as precious, in stark contrast to Zhu Bingguang.

"Where is it, where is Yang’s test field!"

He had barely disembarked from the spacecraft and hadn’t even had time to tidy up his own Moon Soil 3D printing prototype machine before he started clamoring to see the fruits of his rival’s labor first.

Yang Xinjun’s first landing mission, which he participated in, also lasted almost four days. He managed to lay a test field with a small portion of samples made on the ground. The checklist for this landing mission also included checking for any significant changes in the performance of the space cement after 15 days.

Using cement in space is not easy; firstly, the surface environment of the Moon is not like that of Earth where one can mix cement, water, and sand in the open air. Furthermore, the Moon’s surface experiences extreme temperatures ranging from over a hundred degrees to below minus two hundred degrees Celsius, and regular cement would simply crumble into powder after such drastic temperature changes.

Space cement needs to be used within a temperature range of -15 degrees to 75 degrees Celsius on the Moon’s surface to ensure fluidity. It uses hydrocarbon-based organic fluids instead of water as the binder, which remains fluid at low temperatures and does not evaporate at high temperatures; otherwise, it would either instantly solidify into ice crystals or evaporate when exposed to the air.

The remaining steps such as mixing, laying, and other process also require specialized machinery, and with all his effort, Yang Xinjun only managed to pave an area of five square meters.

Fu Xiangjie first watched as Rosenberg hoisted the white... tricolor flag before leading them to the test field, as the 3D printing test area also needed to be placed there to serve its purpose for comparison.

When the Moon rover navigated to the destination, he did not see the flat expanse he had imagined.

On the contrary, although the test field was generally flat, its surface was densely packed with palm-sized chunks like fish scales, giving the impression that it was...

"Was this flattened by foot?"

Zhu Bingguang commented unceremoniously, while squatting down to squeeze the raised part of the ground forcefully.

The color of space cement, after use, seemed to be no different from the Moon soil itself, but once solidified, it indeed achieved the same effect as concrete; at least he couldn’t cause any damage with his own strength.

"This... was it really flattened by foot?"

"No, I was just kidding. Don’t take it seriously."

Zhu Bingguang interrupted his assistant and explained seriously:

"You should think more ordinarily. Think about it, with the Moon’s temperature fluctuating hundreds of degrees day and night, how long would a flat surface last if it could withstand the stress from thermal expansion and contraction?

Displaying flat land in a PPT is to show technological strength; it is possible but doesn’t mean it should be done. Moreover, the Moon’s gravity is very low, and to prevent vehicles from slipping at high speeds in the future, the patterns formed also increase friction. This old guy thought things through very thoroughly, barely coming up short compared to me."

Fu Xiangjie, listening to the initial words, kept nodding his head in admiration of Professor Zhu’s broad-mindedness, only to have his good impression completely reversed by the last sentence.

"But this stress relief method is completely uneven. It’s fine for paving roads, but when it comes to building structures... heh-heh.

So, he can only lay a flat piece of land here, while we are going to construct here... a wall!"

Recalling that Zhu Bingguang had limited raw materials on this trip, he corrected himself in time, but this did not affect his confident demeanor.

Rosenberg, who followed in silence, did not utter a word but inwardly sneered.

He already knew that United Mining was keenly interested in using nuclear explosions to construct roads—or more precisely, to create vast plains. If successful, the benefits would far exceed the cumbersome and inefficient methods being used.

Who would have thought that the hydrogen bomb, created for the purpose of mass destruction, would have such tremendous potential in engineering applications?