Chapter 669 - 650: Hope

February 25, Florida, Kennedy Space Center.

For America Space, the beginning of 2018 was quite good.

First, the "Gravity Dragon" spacecraft had safely let two astronauts experience four days of gravity life and safely returned, snatching the crown of the first artificial gravity spacecraft.

Then, Endeavour passed ground tests, which marked the imminent maiden flight of America’s first nuclear-powered, large manned spacecraft, effectively matching the Storm.

And now, another Moon rocket was standing tall on the launch pad.

This was the third SL-X, carrying the entire crew of Artemis IV, set to execute the first Moon mission of the new year.

Compared to the first two SL-X launches, this SL-X made significant improvements to its upper stage, replacing the two RL-10 engines of the ICPS upper stage with the three RL-10 engines of the Centaur VI upper stage, increasing the lunar orbital payload capacity to 55 tons.

What could be done with the extra 9 tons of payload capacity? In addition to the 20 tons of spare capacity that the SL-X launch of the Orion spacecraft already had, it was now possible to also send over the OSS fuel module intended for use with the "Origin" lander.

The OSS fuel module was placed on top of the Orion spacecraft, just like the position of the Lunar Module during the Apollo program. The whole rocket became taller than before with the addition stacked, but it was still lower and lighter than the Starship assembly, obviously avoiding any center of gravity issues.

The new upper stage replacement was finalized under the intense supervision and urging of Director Robert and the congressional gentlemen; the original ICPS upper stage was neither here nor there, requiring separate launches for the spaceship and the OSS, where at least two launches were necessary to wait for a Moon mission.

Now, the simplified process meant a reduction in expenses by more than 400 million US dollars per launch and also facilitated the conduct of Moon missions.

The crew executing this mission still consisted of four astronauts, but one of them was surprisingly a UK astronaut.

According to the original charter, NACA wouldn’t open up seats to Europe until Artemis VI, but now they had advanced it by two missions.

The UK astronaut David knew why: initially, Europe had been counting on the Artemis program to include them, but now not only had the European Space Agency accelerated the Selene project, they also had China as a new option.

Through the Skylight series of missions, six countries have already accomplished Moon landings!

Furthermore, with NACA resolute in its ambition to heavily develop the Moon with the "Centaur" program, the slots for Moon landings were nowhere near as tight as before, so they "generously" gave up one slot early to the UK, and it included a spot among the three people landing on the Moon’s surface.

Three months after the launch of Artemis III, America was ready to land on the Moon again.

The questioned reliability of the Super Heavy Booster had been sufficiently tested, and with six consecutive launches, the last four of which had no issues with the first stage, multi-engine clustering was no longer considered "heretical."

However, to signify the importance of the first launch of the new year, Deputy Director Jim still made an appearance on site for media interviews, then watched SL-X rise into the sky amidst cheers, once again sending four astronauts on their journey.

...

Washington, Columbia Special District.

Contrary to the general optimism seen by the outside world, Robert was not affected by this mood; instead, he felt an increasing burden.

The July incident with Artemis II was a disaster, but it actually turned out to be a blessing for America Space.

Following the accident, NACA gradually awoke from its overheated pursuit mode and began to restore its past rigor and seriousness.

Everyone thought this would greatly slow progress, but in actuality, as the chaotic plans were reorganized, resources and manpower became more logically allocated, and external distractions decreased, after a small slump, the momentum of development actually rose starting with the SL-X rocket, proceeding full steam ahead.

But while making progress, most people neglected the fact that their peers across the ocean were also improving; they had just quieted down for a while but were about to explode with even greater intensity.

According to intelligence gathered through public channels, Huaxia’s Big Four Banks were jointly preparing a new investment bank, rumored to be primarily aimed at investments in space development, with the goal of raising capital for the aerospace market.

Without a doubt, United Mining was the only operation on the scale to match such an endeavor; under its powerful drive, lunar base infrastructure began to rapidly inflate like a balloon, far outstripping the traditional routes of spaceflight.

There’s also word that the second and third aero-space planes are about to be put into use, and the Guanghan Palace Base initiative driven by the Huayin Organization has settled on a launch plan.

Then there’s wireless power transmission, hypersonic vehicles... NACA has established one benchmark project after another, each a significant grand plan that constantly stretched Robert thin.

In addition to all of this, he had to occasionally participate in meetings organized by Office Thirteen, whose head David, although questioned by many, had undeniable expertise.

Office Thirteen had even secretly started a new field: extraterrestrial sociology, attracting thirty scientific elite to join, destined to become a "cosmic sociology think tank" in the future.

And he was now reading the latest research findings provided by Office Thirteen, each word of which needed to be analyzed carefully in order to adjust the defensive strategy in a timely manner.

With the concerted efforts of the nation’s top minds, a very rough outline of the "alien civilization" had finally emerged:

The first was a big piece of good news—based on the level of signal technology, the technological level of the alien civilization should be no more than 50 years ahead of humanity;

Then came the bad news: The aliens must not be within the Solar System, which means they possess at least rudimentary interstellar travel capabilities, putting them at least 50 years ahead of humanity.

In summary: The aliens are 50 years ahead in aerospace technology, other technological levels are to be determined, and they should (emphasis) also belong to a civilization that has just stepped over the threshold of interstellar travel. Hence, their homeland, or base, or spacecraft, shouldn’t be too far from the Solar System.

They are much stronger than humans, but not to an unimaginable degree that just gives up the struggle. Therefore, it is highly likely that the elite won’t have to flee en masse to cling to survival, and it might be worth trying to fight desperately for development.

However, this does not mean that the original deep space plans should be overturned, because struggling means that there needs to be a defense network established across the Solar System—at least within the range of the Kuiper Belt—to build a not-so-weak defense force.

The outer asteroid belt’s giant planets are natural fortresses, and future space fleets (if any) would need to rely on them for existence, which means there is still work to be done.

The report also included some statements that were not approved by most members, or lacked sufficient evidence, but still had a certain possibility:

Some optimistic scholars believe that the aliens are not necessarily malicious, and David’s energy threat theory may not apply to all civilizations. It’s very possible that the aliens have long since entered human life.

The strongest support for this argument is the "fifth man" incident on the Artemis II mission. After careful study, Office Thirteen only came up with two possibilities:

Either China secretly added an unsavory person to the mission, or there’s some other conspiracy; or the aliens are playing tricks, either manipulating facts or they have already gained collusion with the Chinese!

While the latter possibility is infuriating, it also suggests that the aliens may not necessarily be set on exterminating humanity and that there’s room for maneuver if there can be communication.

Perhaps they are monitoring humans simply out of curiosity or other harmless purposes; in any case, it’s not as bad as having to exterminate humanity.

The optimistic view only gained very little approval since David’s energy threat theory is based on biological instinct and scientific principles, which are much more solidly founded. The optimistic faction might still harbor too many idealistic elements.

But regardless, the upper echelons could finally stop being constantly on edge.

Office Thirteen also put forward a request that was approved: to build a super space telescope with a diameter of 60 meters.

The largest space telescope currently in orbit is the Hubble II Telescope, with a diameter of 2.4 meters; China’s "Skylight" telescope, planned for launch this year, has a diameter of 4.2 meters.

The James Webb Space Telescope, currently under development with a projected launch in May 2020 (original timeline December 2021), will dramatically jump to a diameter of 6.5 meters and will become the world’s largest space optical astronomical telescope.

The main purpose of the 60-meter class super optical telescope, which Office Thirteen hopes to build, is to achieve surveillance and defense of the entire Solar System, and it can also be used for star observation during downtime.

Such a super telescope would even be powerful enough to observe the surface conditions of planets in closer star systems.

If used for Solar System defense, it would be able to display all the details people want with incredible precision, providing considerable warning capabilities.

Of course, the difficulty of processing can also be imagined; just the mirror of that scale would be enough to give optical companies a headache.

In large aperture optical telescopes, conventional lenses—transparent glass optics—are not widely applied. Instead, the Ritchey-Chrétien design hyperbolic mirrors are extensively used to replace lenses for focusing.

No matter how pure or high-quality the lens, it is inevitably affected by diffracted and scattered light, unless its transmittance can reach one hundred percent.

The materials used for parabolic mirrors are very abundant. For example, the beryllium mirrors used by the Webb Telescope and the silicon carbide mirrors used by the Skylight Telescope offer more precise imaging than lenses.

Manufacturing mirrors of this scale is actually not considered particularly troublesome; Europe is already developing ground-based observatories with apertures of 40 to 50 meters, and with a bit of effort, it is not impossible.

Moreover, the mirrors don’t need to be designed in one piece; for instance, the primary mirror of the Webb Telescope is composed of 18 hexagonal segments. A 60-meter class super telescope could similarly be constructed, but the number of segments must not exceed 30, otherwise, the control system would become too meticulous and complex to be reliable.

Office Thirteen is tentatively calling it the "Hope" Telescope, expecting it to be operational before 2025.

However, this is just one part of the envisaged Solar System warning net. In addition, there are plans to build a Gravitational Wave Observatory on the Moon or in space, to detect possible gravitational wave communications or other unusual phenomena.

Before humanity possesses the capability of space retaliation, these efforts will at least not let humanity be caught off guard when death is imminent.