Chapter 736 - 710 Luxury

Unlike the other first spacecraft of New Yuan, "Enterprise" was directly purchased by the military for an extravagant sum, becoming an active space shuttle in the Space Force.

For Earth’s near-Earth transportation, "Enterprise" had limited significance. The Moon was sufficiently serviced by Chapter 9, and the biggest prospective application of Enterprise would still be to follow "March" on exploratory ventures.

At that time, "March" had only completed its design goals. The subsystems and overall performance still needed testing, and significant modifications and trials were required for deep space missions. There was no urgent mission requirement in the short term.

Another point was that Enterprise had as many as six nuclear reactors. Although power generation was a secondary function, they could also provide an unimaginable abundance of electricity for a platform of this size.

With enough space and power to accommodate weapons and the aid of plasma mirror reflection technology, the laser power of Enterprise could even exceed that of Thousand-Jun Stick No. 1.

In the future, if astronauts landing on Titan or Mars encountered danger, Enterprise could at least provide a measure of defensive capability.

However, for the time being, Enterprise would not dock with "March" for extended drills. After docking with March, it would cause an imbalance in the center of gravity, preventing March from correcting the shift caused by the change in the center of gravity.

"March" would have to complete its second phase of modifications, and after installing a slip ring interface in the axis, transition from rotating as a whole to partial rotation, with the axial part remaining stationary, to undertake long-distance missions. This would still require at least two years.

During this period, the main activity area for Enterprise would still be Earth and the Moon, as it prepared qualified warriors for the Space Force who could perform missions hundreds of millions of kilometers away.

If one were to mention the most obvious benefit brought by the "Black Stone" operation to the base, it would undoubtedly be the extremely plentiful financial support. The base had no need to worry about funding and could recklessly carry out research plans.

But Lin Ju had only diverted "a small portion" of the funding to accelerate project advancement, without any plans to invest hundreds of billions into the system to forcibly break through technological barriers. The consequences of such actions were utterly unpredictable.

Enterprise was originally scheduled to leave the factory by the end of July. It was moved out now to prepare for an early engine test and to get ready for the transfer of the testing site.

The base was not very far from densely populated areas. The military planned to remodel an existing test site a few hundred kilometers away in the northwest. Enterprise would be disguised as a sister model of Chapter 9 and transferred there for intensive testing.

Indeed, due to the limitations of the initial site selection for the base, the location wasn’t suitable as a testing ground for aircraft. The surrounding terrain was also difficult to expand further, which was somewhat unfavorable for future development.

The base had demolished a section of the surrounding wall near the runway and temporarily repaired a road to the riverbank. Enterprise would be towed to the temporary site there for pre-launch testing, then it would move on its own to the test site in the northwest. During this process, there was no worry about any flaws being detected.

Although its exceptionality would eventually emerge, domestically they certainly weren’t planning to stimulate the other side by presenting a "big surprise" right after John had just left.

...

"I dare say, this is the best meal I’ve had in space," said Roy, skillfully picking up food from his plate with chopsticks, while fluently conversing with Deng Lei in Beijing dialect.

He was now in the cockpit of Chapter 9, where the area behind the pilot seats was very spacious. A cantilevered metal board unfolded from the cabin wall served as a long table, turning this place into a makeshift dining room.

The table was big enough to squeeze in 10 people if necessary, but there were only five in the cockpit now. Another four were sleeping in the lounge below, all experts from the Black Rabbit Space Station.

Over several months, the payload specialists on their second long-term lunar mission had all become elite astronauts, and in terms of adaptability to the Moon, they certainly surpassed the three members of Artemis VI.

Artemis VI had successfully landed in the Yushu Mining Area a day earlier, bringing with it three ten-megaton hydrogen bombs and three American astronauts.

Unlike any previous moon landing mission, the crew of Artemis VI consisted of only three people, and none stayed behind at the "Gateway" space station; all descended to the lunar surface.

This was partly due to confidence in automated control and partly because of the presence of Chapter 9 and the Black Rabbit Space Station.

NACA apparently believed that with such a strong team present, even if Artemis VI encountered problems, there wouldn’t be any significant trouble.

The situation was almost as expected; the three astronauts spent just one night in the "Origin" lander, and then the next day Deng Lei, Fu Xiangjie, and the three payload specialists descended to the Moon’s surface aboard Chapter 9 and successfully rendezvoused with Artemis VI.

The two sides met victoriously, and then, according to the agreement reached in advance by NACA and the Aerospace Development Committee, Chapter 9 had enough space to accommodate eight astronauts, who used it as their base for lunar surface operations during the mission.

As for communication issues, there was no need to worry. Not to mention the proficient English level of the Chinese astronauts, there were also payload specialists who had mastered Chinese. Among the members of Artemis VI, Roy served as an excellent translator.

Roy’s mother was second-generation Chinese-American, and he learned to be bilingual at a young age and also absorbed many Chinese customs. There were absolutely no barriers to communication, which was his biggest advantage in being selected for this mission.

After their victorious rendezvous with the Skylight mission team members, the astronauts from Artemis VI truly witnessed what was called the future era:

In front of Chapter 9, their lander looked like a crude bucket. This spacecraft had a fully-equipped airlock for cleaning lunar dust off the surface of spacesuits, and though the living space provided was not much larger than "Origin," its flat design resulted in higher efficiency, allowing it to accommodate more people.

There was an ample supply of drinking water and a rich menu, but the most luxurious aspect was the supply of fresh vegetables. The expansion plan for the Black Rabbit Space Station was also more than halfway complete, with one of the two new 50-ton modules dedicated to cultivation.

For the Skylight mission team members, these had all become part of their daily life, yet they completely revolutionized the perceptions of space missions for the crew of Artemis VI.

Deng Lei welcomed them with the rather ordinary C-level meal for the mission, which was designated for more than four diners and included 12 types of dishes and pre-cooked vegetables. The more sophisticated B-level and A-level meals, some of whose dishes needed to be cooked on the spot, were generally provided during non-mission times.

The standards of the C-level meals had been continuously upgraded with the progress of lunar construction, and for these veterans, there was no novelty. Nevertheless, the luxuriousness lamented by Roy and the other two astronauts in their hearts was a testament to the Chinese people’s extravagance.

Space food places great emphasis on energy content, typically requiring the same mass to provide as many calories as possible. Most foods are meant to be fully eaten, so dishes like Kung Pao chicken, minced pork with eggplant, curry, and other completely consumable, no-waste foods are very popular.

However, the C-level meal they tried included soy sauce pork ribs, a whole fish, lamb chops – dishes with more complicated eating processes and more waste, contrary to the space principle of convenience and speed.

But one just needed to observe the expressions of the others to understand that these were trivial matters to them. It meant that the Chinese people could fully afford such "waste" just to slightly improve the astronauts’ living experience.