Chapter 746 - 719 Benefits and Newcomers

Li Wei stood on the edge of the second explosion crater, squatted down, and pressed on the floating dust on the crater wall, unable to press deeper than a knuckle.

Due to the collective effect of 8 carefully placed nuclear bombs, the size of Explosion Crater No. 2 was incredibly large, with a diameter of about 4600 meters and a depth of approximately 577 meters, as observed by the space station!

The original Explosion Crater No. 1 was directly erased, and the edges of Explosion Crater No. 2 rose about seven to eight meters, like the rim of a ringed mountain.

Standing on the edge of the explosion crater, Li Wei felt as if he were looking at a valley with no end in sight, since most of the crater’s bottom area was covered by shadows due to the angle of the sunlight, giving it the sense of an abyss.

However, in actuality, the explosion crater only covered an area of 16 square kilometers, comparable to a small lake, but it was only because it was on the Moon and created by humans that it could deliver such a shocking impact.

When the explosion happened on the 12th, even Yushu Base, located 200 kilometers away in a straight line, saw the ghastly white flash of the nuclear detonation, which also triggered a maximum 5.2-magnitude earthquake in the surrounding area. One could clearly feel the vibrations, and compared to the first time, the force had turned over a new leaf entirely, with the yield increased by a full 160 times.

"Old Liu, we might need to send a report back to the surface."

Li Wei carefully observed the slope, which theoretically calculated to be around 25%, was already considered steep and significantly affected the operations.

The subsequent blasting required descending at least two to three hundred meters in height to drill into the crater wall. The current equipment could barely cope, but out of space-borne caution, developing some adapted kits would be more appropriate.

"The slope ratio is indeed a bit high, it would be best to let the robots work, human operations will soon become unreliable."

Liu Ming thought further ahead, as the continual deepening of the explosions would rapidly increase the slope ratio, even approaching 1, which is an angle of 45 degrees. He estimated that descent would require professional equipment soon.

Although nuclear explosives could create extremely smooth craters, they could not create tiered mountain roads around the mine pits on Earth, and they did not have the energy to build roads either.

"So, that would mean a specialized work vehicle... and we also need to find a way to deal with emergency rapid ascents, hiss~"

Li Wei’s speech was interrupted by a cry of pain; he was still under the effects of Drug 304, meaning he was still undergoing tooth replacement.

Even though significant optimizations had been made in this area, the pain from rapid tooth replacement was unavoidable, especially as Li Wei had not taken any painkillers during the mission.

His cries were clearly heard by Liu Ming over the radio, who couldn’t help but move his own gums.

Liu Ming was the second to be inoculated with the injection, but according to the timeline, he still had three to four days before he would start replacing his teeth.

"Beep beep beep... This is Yushu Base, please respond if you hear this, beep beep beep... This is... "

Suddenly, a call sign came through the radio, and Li Wei hurriedly replied:

"I am Li Wei, signal received, repeat, I am Li Wei..."

After about a few seconds, Fu Xiangjie’s voice sounded again:

"The new four team members have arrived, we have landed at Yushu Base, instructor, I request to pinch a floret of broccoli, to entertain the new members tonight!"

Li Wei immediately recalled the news from two days prior about the dispatch of the new batch of four permanent team members. Starting four days after the explosion, all the experts, excluding the permanent astronauts, began to withdraw in succession, and at the same time, the new team members promised by the ground had arrived.

Two men and two women, all under thirty-five years of age, clearly meant to have the old team members mentor the new ones.

Li Wei was uniquely tolerant of newcomers and immediately answered:

"The baby bok choy should be ready by now, take out our best stuff to treat them. Liu Ming and I still have about eight hours before we can return. Please get some rest as soon as possible, over!"

...

"Come, come, come, welcome my junior brothers!"

While Fu Xiangjie was on the call with Li Wei, Deng Lei was enthusiastically welcoming the four new team members, one of whom he was particularly familiar with.

Gao Qitao felt a bit awkward being called a junior brother since Deng Lei was old enough to be his father, but technically speaking, he was indeed his junior in the profession.

He was a graduate of the 2017 class and one of the most outstanding among the first batch of talent independently cultivated by Xinyuan, having primarily worked on the design and implementation of the OGAS System over the past year.

A month ago, when discussing subsequent crew members on the ground, Xie Liaofu immediately recommended him after half of the four slots were given to Xinyuan.

The other female member, Yu Jie, came from a materials science background and was sent to Qingshan Base after joining the workforce. She came to the Moon to be trained as a nuclear engineer.

However, regardless, these two couldn’t yet be considered experts. They came to the Moon to work while they continued their studies, with Xinyuan hoping to cultivate space talent from the ground up.

The candidates sent by the Aerospace Development Committee were also strong, but the 28-year-old Zhang Xiaozhou was a prodigy in the field of nuclear physics, earning his Ph.D. at the age of 24. He had published several extremely valuable papers since he was 20 and participated in numerous cutting-edge projects, becoming a truly pivotal figure.

The other slot went to a 32-year-old female named Zhang Qiuying, an electronics expert who also earned a Ph.D. in psychology, so she could provide psychological counseling services to the team members.

These four team members were just the first batch; another four would be added in the second batch, with several more batches to follow, eventually bringing the number of permanent astronauts on the Moon to around 20, including 12 stationed at Yushu Base and 8 at the Black Rabbit Space Station.

As far as Deng Lei knew, this expansion plan should be completed within the year. As for replacements?

The Aerospace Development Committee’s intentions were unclear, but for employees like Deng Lei and Li Wei from Xinyuan Company, they remembered discussing annual leave with the boss last time—Lin Ju had mentioned holidays...

Xinyuan’s policy for permanent Moon-based astronauts was referenced against sea duty, tentatively set at one year off-Earth followed by a two to four-month break, with each astronaut granted one family reunion slot per year.

This was a suggestion from Lin Ju to alleviate the psychological well-being of employees, allowing them to invite one relative to their workplace for a reunion lasting no more than seven days within a work cycle, with the first application required two months in advance for necessary training of the relative.

For now, this benefit was temporarily implemented under the name of Xinyuan Company, but Lin Ju was already planning to transition it under United Mining.

Deng Lei and Li Wei, of course, already had this benefit and could use it this year. Deng had chosen his wife, while Li Wei was still hesitant.

As for the other two team members, although there was no news, Li Wei didn’t think that the Aerospace Development Committee would treat them unequally and probably were still discussing the matter.

The main purpose of this benefit was to stabilize the workforce. Lin Ju was well aware of the Moon’s importance, and maintaining a stable personnel structure was essential. The first batch of team members might work for over ten years before being transferred elsewhere.

Deng Lei was also happy with this arrangement and even looked forward to bringing his son to the Moon when he grew up enough to meet the requirements.

Perhaps it was his personal feelings mixing in, but he was exceptionally friendly towards the newcomers.

"Once again, welcome you, my colleagues, juniors, and comrades."