Chapter 744 - 717: Weakness

"Incredible, United Mining is the most incredible company I’ve ever seen!"

On July 14th, the command module of Artemis VI splashed down with three astronauts in the waters near the West Coast, and Roy and others saw a group led by Deputy Director Jim from NACA the very next day.

The astronauts were now resting at the Astronaut Training Center in Houston, but their spirits were quite good, and one could even say they were the most spirited Jim had ever seen after a lunar mission.

An over-enthusiastic Roy started talking about everything he had seen, without stopping:

"...You absolutely can’t imagine how lavish the Chinese people are... Chapter 9 is like a mobile mini-base, I can even say its living conditions are better than ’Gateway’, with ample space and full facilities!

Their supply of materials is also at any cost, with goods sent from Earth to the Moon taking only four days at the fastest, and fresh vegetables from Tiangong Space Station taking less than 24 hours! My God, every meal I had surpassed all the standards of space meals I had ever heard of.

Of course, I know you’re more interested in the technology, we were equipped with two T7s, two T3s, the former powered by nuclear reactors and the latter by isotope batteries, both with an endless supply of electricity!

You have no idea how smart their space suits are. Wearing them, one can jump to a height of 10 meters or dive to the same depth..."

Roy’s narration was somewhat disorganized due to his excitement, but the experts from NACA did not interrupt and rapidly took notes, simultaneously constructing a realistic picture of the Skylight project:

The Chinese have an almost infinite supply of materials, the majority of their energy needs are met by nuclear power, robots assist with work, greatly reducing the workload for astronauts...

Jim, looking at the notes, became more and more shocked. Matthew and others had had similar discussions recently, and Jim could feel that the Chinese presence on the Moon had grown even stronger!

In comparison, the "Columbus" site seemed too slow, too slow. After just a few missions, they hadn’t even prepared the ground base properly!

Roy was absolutely right, United Mining was creating miracles every moment, they really could be described as incredible!

After speaking with Roy, Jim also separately interviewed Felix and his deputy commander. Although their accounts varied slightly, one could still hear the shock in their voices concerning the Chinese astronaut technology.

Upon leaving the training center, Jim immediately boarded a plane back to Washington to find the equally busy Robert.

...

"NOVA hasn’t had a single successful engine test yet, can you achieve this year’s launch target!"

As Jim approached Robert’s office door, he heard the roaring voice from inside, then prudently decided to sit down somewhere first.

The discussion was about the Saturn VII Rocket’s "NOVA (new star)," a colossal launch system which, to his knowledge, wasn’t progressing smoothly either.

The most advanced part of the Saturn VII was the first-stage rocket body; the unprecedented 14-meter diameter rocket body was advancing quickly with the massive NACA funding, and three months prior, Boeing had successfully fabricated the first 14-meter diameter ring, with the first-stage prototype rocket nearing completion.

Lockheed was given the task of the second-stage reusable spacecraft, which had just completed validation testing. They successfully conducted atmospheric re-entry testing with a 1:3 scale model, and this year, at most, they could produce a full-scale static test specimen.

If those two were slow but still tolerable, Rockdain’s F1R engine was truly terrifying.

The F1R design had a minimum throttling range of 10% and was reusable—a seemingly not too difficult achievement, but this was a 680-ton thrust liquid oxygen and hydrogen rocket engine!

The CZ-18 used 39 hydrogen-oxygen engines with a thrust of 280 tons each, which also included the factor of throttling difficulties with super-large thrust rocket engines!

F1R’s reuse modification and ignition test went quite smoothly, but the throttling part was simply a disaster. Throttling down to 30% risked a shutdown, and the thrust change caused by throttling was completely nonlinear, driving Rockdain’s designers to pull their hair out.

Not to mention the initially promised first flight by the end of 2018, it looks like there’s little hope for 2020 either.

The noise from Robert’s office lasted for a full 10 minutes, and then the designer in charge of coordinating the Saturn VII came out with an ugly look on his face. Jim waited a few more minutes before going in.

Seeing that it was his deputy Robert, he tried to calm down as much as possible. After briefly reviewing the report Jim brought, he set it aside and began to complain about the various projects:

"Saturn VII’s delays are senseless, there’s actually no need to support it, but now I still have to try to salvage this shit! Endeavour is the one I’m most satisfied with. If only everyone were as efficient and responsible as JFT...

Oh, and SSTO, that monster cobbled together by Hu Bing has already started production, but the engineer I sent to watch over it told me, the existing design will be more than 20% overweight, and the Aero-Space Plane simply won’t fly!

Damn it, why, why do the Chinese People succeed in everything they do so smoothly!"

Robert’s trip to China was not only about discussing aliens. Although he didn’t get to visit the New Far Base as he had hoped, he did get a good look at the Jingou Rocket Manufacturing Base.

The Jingou Base had been automating since over a year prior, learning from New Far, and even without achieving something as exaggerated as OGAS, it also realized remarkable improvements in output and quality.

Robert saw the body of the CZ-5 rocket, scheduled for its first flight this year. The Chinese People had started work on six rockets simultaneously before the first flight of this rocket, seemingly without any concern about failure.

The only thing in America that could compare was SpaceX, but SpaceX could only mass-produce the first stage of Starship, while the second stage spacecraft were still being modified, and there was no mass production capability for the more complex space station module, etc.

Thinking about this is not just about comparing with the Chinese People, but also an urgent need to respond to the alien crisis.

After going to China, he accepted the advice of the experts there. Whether to flee or fight, one must first build a massive space infrastructure and spacecraft, and NACA is also studying long-term plans.

If it continues to drag on like this, the original 10-year plan might be hard to accomplish.

Jim quietly listened to his complaints, then suddenly stood up to lock the office door, sat back down, and asked quietly,

"Director sir, have you ever considered buying technology from the Chinese People? At least for now, we should all be in the same boat."

Robert’s face was a bit sour, but he didn’t get angry. Instead, he explained in a low voice,

"We subtly suggested it, but they were very firm in their refusal to share advanced technology. I guess it might be related to next year’s market opening. At least until they’ve made a fortune here, we can forget about sniffing around those things.

Damn, I hope our companies won’t all go bankrupt next year due to the Chinese People’s dumping. The president really opened up all fields."

Jim was greatly disappointed, wanting to say something but holding back. In the end, he blurted out,

"The president is too weak; we shouldn’t keep conceding like this."