Chapter 760 - 731 Artemis_2

Accompanying him were two generals, which indicated the shocking nature of the information.

"The flight took off at 10 a.m., starting in the northwestern district and finally broke through the atmosphere over the South Pacific Ocean. The ascent rate was not very high, even slower than that of an aerospace plane, and its speed was much slower."

The entire flight process didn’t jettison anything; it was a single-stage to orbit vehicle, and our current guess is nuclear propulsion."

"Of course, it could only be nuclear propulsion!"

Robert’s full attention was already on the documents, painstakingly scanning over each line of data and the blurry photographs.

Incredible, unbelievable!

It was the Enterprise, the third shuttle, which both NACA and the Air Force thought was just like the Chapter 9 and the Zhu Rong, but in reality, it turned out to be a huge joke.

The Chapter 9 and the Zhu Rong could never take off on their own and escape Earth’s gravity to enter space. Although SSTO had already appeared in the form of an aerospace plane, the Enterprise’s angular and boxy shape still made it hard to believe it had such capabilities.

Robert couldn’t even imagine how much fuel could be packed inside such a frame or what kind of engines could provide the power for it to enter space, even for nuclear propulsion, it seemed too exaggerated.

The A100 wouldn’t suffice either; that type of engine couldn’t operate in an atmospheric environment, and it was also very large and heavy.

Moreover, according to data from radiation collection aircraft that the Air Force scrambled to launch, no radiation clouds were detected near the flight path. The radiation levels of the samples were slightly higher than normal, but those were the normal values for a nuclear reactor passing by, so there wasn’t too much pollution in the exhaust.

For a moment, Robert even thought of UFOs, feeling that such a propulsion method was more like some fantastical anti-gravity engine.

"We are equally shocked. The Air Force is unable to determine the performance of its propulsion system at the moment, and we are beginning to suspect that it might be using some unknown method."

Anthony continued with the analysis from the Air Force Intelligence Room:

"The body of the Enterprise is generally similar to the first two shuttles, but it’s impossible for it to be filled entirely with fuel. If necessary cargo space is allocated, at most it could carry a hundred more tons of fuel, which... is astonishing."

"I even suspect the Chinese have obtained extraterrestrial technology through some channel."

The former NACA Director, Claire, stood up; his current attitude was no joking matter:

"This is too advanced. Although it’s not the route of A100, if we wanted to achieve these things with our current technology, it could only remain theoretical. This level of advancement doesn’t belong to humankind.

Gentlemen, Area 51 certainly doesn’t have any flying saucers, but there might be some in the Northwestern Desert."

"..."

Perhaps it was the astonishing performance of the Enterprise, or perhaps it was Claire’s shocking remarks, but the office of over a dozen people fell completely silent for a moment.

It was a while before John waved his hand to break the silence:

"Alright, let’s not discuss technical matters here; there aren’t many technical experts among us. NACA and the Air Force can conduct their analyses independently.

This is just a portion of what we need to discuss today. David, tell them."

David Ussnor stood up; he had only returned to the country two weeks ago, after an extended stay of more than half a month in China, trying to obtain more information from them.

He pushed a whiteboard over from the other side, with a photo of Mars pinned to it, showing an enlarged section of an area that was highlighted with a marker.

"I had quite a few exchanges with the Chinese, and although both of us discovered the signal, they may have collected more information:

They have confirmed the signal originated on the Martian surface, right in this area around the South Pole."

David’s hand was on the periphery of the Zero Plain; everyone’s attention immediately focused on this region, trying to discern some clues from this ordinary-looking area.

David: "Our Mars orbiter is not specialized, but the Chinese detector that passed by, due to its much further working distance, was equipped with a very powerful radio transmission device and was facing the transmission source at the time, so it roughly determined the direction of the signal.

Based on Mars’s position at the time, the signal came from this area near the South Pole, with an error of no more than 15%.

Tianwen-1 and the third astronomy orbiter, Tianwen-5, also known as Zhu Rong, will land in this region and begin a large-scale detection, expected to complete the landing in November."

"It’s too far!"

Claire immediately spotted the problem:

"Our Mars rovers are all concentrated in the Utopia plain in the northern part of Mars; they simply can’t reach there!"

"That’s exactly the problem. I think the Chinese wouldn’t joke with their massive investment, but the problem is we only have satellites, while the Chinese have shuttle machines that can travel back and forth, robots, nuclear-powered explorers... they have everything.

If the Chinese discover something, we are completely unable to intervene."

David spread his hands and widened his eyes as he looked at the two space agency directors.

"Gentlemen, we can’t do nothing."

John banged the table forcefully:

"Every compromise I’ve made has a precondition: America must participate in controlling humanity’s future, instead of becoming passive spectators at the mercy of others."

Robert said, "It’s such a vast area; satellite observations haven’t detected anything unusual. It would be hard for just a few explorers to find something. They might land up there and find nothing for months."

"But we all know the possibility exists. If there is extraterrestrial civilization there, the Chinese will eventually find it."

John said this and stopped, slanting his chair back and giving orders in an undeniable tone:

"Figure out a way. The Chinese are landing on Mars at the earliest in 2020, we can’t be later. Start building the Mars spacecraft now, select astronauts for the landing, I need to see your progress every second that passes.

Don’t leave any room for delay, come up with a plan, and then do it."

David appropriately whispered in Robert’s ear:

"Nobody wants to wait. There have been some accidents recently, and America needs to be prepared."

Even though he knew it was inappropriate, Robert still asked subconsciously:

"What kind of accident?"

"One of our agents was caught; he tried to steal data from Staike-DM to accelerate our laser weapons development, but Russia’s precautions were beyond imagination."

Robert was stunned for a moment, then said sentimentally:

"That’s their most treasured, most closely guarded treasure, of course they’re going to protect it tightly.

I understand what you’re worried about, but please grant me continued power to increase NACA’s staffing and funding; I need countless employees and funds."

...

On September 9, the far side of the Moon witnessed its third nuclear explosion.

With a total yield exceeding 60 million tons, due to the temporary lack of necessary equipment, the hydrogen bomb was buried at a depth of only 10 meters, still considered a surface blast.

Four nuclear bombs expanded the maximum depth of the explosion crater to 890 meters in one go. The anticipated iron ore deposit was fully exposed and a rift hundreds of meters deep was blown open; it was after this that United Mining had long coveted the layer of rare earths.

Now they were preparing to bring in a massive amount of specialized mining equipment, with the fourth operation set to be large-yield blasting below a depth of 300 meters, directly targeting the rare earth layer.

However, the fourth operation will take much longer than the previous ones; the timetable disclosed by New Yuan was set for 2019, meaning at least three to four months later.

Of course, they wouldn’t be idling during this period; United Mining would fully construct Yushu Base in this time, begin preparations for smelting ores and start building the lunar highway.

Meanwhile, a rumor began circulating in the Aerospace community: the national plan was to build a super Spaceport weighing tens of thousands of tons, and since the scale was so large, they were considering collecting proposals from private spaceflight companies and the entire society, as well as selecting partners for collaboration. The name was likely to be "South Heaven Gate."

This news immediately sparked a heated discussion, but most were skeptical, considering it to be hype like the "artificial moon" rumors. After all, the March had over two thousand tons and had taken a huge effort, and it was still undergoing intensive testing. The idea of a Spaceport seemed unrealistic.

Moreover, neither New Yuan nor the space agency had made any statements about this news, calling its reliability into question.

However, unlike their skepticism, the reaction from foreign space agencies was quite positive.