Chapter 780 - 741 Crushing the Old Order_2

Truk scrutinized this legendary figure intently. Director Zhong Cheng had been too busy to attend the welcome ceremony for long, disappearing soon after it started—he had reportedly gone off to inspect an engine base somewhere and had delegated full authority to Vice Chairman Lin in the meantime.

This arrangement was quite intriguing, and Truk keenly realized that the young man before him was no ordinary individual.

From his understanding over the past few days, he also learned that Lin Ju even had the largest office and the most secretaries, and he immediately regarded this as a potential breakthrough point.

Meanwhile, Lin Ju racked his brains thinking about how to get out of the situation. Just as he was about to slip back to the base, he got caught on the spot. Zhong Cheng and several deputy directors were missing due to urgent matters, and unexpectedly, he became the person with the highest authority present.

Having no similar experience, Lin Ju simply left everything in the hands of the Aerospace Development Committee’s secretaries, resolving to listen but not act, to read but not respond, and to leak as little information as possible other than understanding greetings.

After the public meeting concluded, Lin Ju, following the arrangements left by Zhong Cheng, discussed the cooperation issues with United Mining with Truk, leading him directly to the Union Mining Headquarters for a tour to kill time.

Truk gladly accepted, showing no reluctance, and so he followed him around on the tour.

...

"Now, United Mining has made all the preparations for the lunar base infrastructure!"

Lin Ju casually picked up a wooden model from the exhibit, carefully showing it to Truk:

"This one, is a highly integrated road-building machinery using space cement technology. With it, we can embark on such a vast infrastructure project with merely a few dozen people.

Aside from this primary machine, we only need at least four supporting auxiliary vehicles and 7 personnel to work with design efficiency."

Truk observed the model in Lin Ju’s hands meticulously. Subjectively, it resembled a combined harvester, though it seemed a bit larger in scale.

"How big and heavy is it?"

"The first prototype, once assembled, should be about 45 tons, with a maximum length of 11 meters. You see this part; it has deployable cooling fins. It also uses nuclear power, not an isotopic battery, but a thermionic emission reactor with high power output capable of supplying electricity to other machinery.

According to our design expectations, this machine can build at least 350 meters per day."

With Lin Ju’s prompt, Truk could roughly recognize the modularized reactor module. Its small size indicated mature technology.

New Yuan’s globally unparalleled nuclear technology was truly enviable, achieving omnipresent nuclear power.

The outside world had analyzed that New Yuan’s spacecraft had begun batch nuclear propulsion because China’s import of yellowcake had been steadily increasing, roughly guessing the scale.

"350 meters? That sounds somewhat modest."

Lin Ju: "That’s why there will be at least six such road-building machines starting work simultaneously. The main purpose of the first prototype sent up is data collection. The timeline will be controlled within 6 to 8 months.

During this period, United Mining will develop the mining site to a usable state and aim to get our steel smeltery up and running."

"That’s extraordinary. In the UK, we can’t even fix a 300-meter municipal road in 6 months, yet you’ve decided to build a steel union on the Moon."

Truk couldn’t help but recall the current state of UK’s space endeavors; not exactly booming, but rather a mess.

France could barely keep up with the mainstream by clinging to the European Space Agency, while the UK had no money at all, technological generations behind by half a century, with rocket technology reserves perhaps even less than the Island Country.

By selling nuclear warheads, the few astronauts the UK sent up and the data they collected already far exceeded the total achievements of its past space endeavors. But that was it; no longer could they partake in more activities, with the Royal Army even deciding to retire all tanks to save on expenses...

Seeing the space fervor rippling through Earth Village, each wave higher than the last, Truk still couldn’t help saying:

"Mr. Lin, I believe constructing such a union in space involves arduous technical issues across a full industry span. The UK still possesses extensive technical expertise and is willing to provide services for United Mining.

We can offer many new types of space plants, as well as quite decent life support equipment that’s being used on the International Space Station, with reliable quality."

"..."

Lin Ju had intended to respond politely, but upon hearing these two offerings, he was momentarily at a loss for words.

According to the latest outcomes from bilateral secretive talks, NACA will set out on October 18, which is within a week of the "Tianwen-1" entering Mars orbit at the earliest, to send a delegation to China for academic and experience exchange.

As an equal response, the Aerospace Development Committee will also organize a team to visit America around November 25.

The issue of Spaceport construction was also formally notified to NACA during private contacts. Robert immediately indicated that NACA is willing to participate in all aspects of the bidding for United Mining lunar development and the Spaceport, intending to engage in "all possible cooperation."

To show sincerity, NACA provided a set of data and results from their earlier tests on artificial ecological systems.

Back when the NACA space program was not yet drastically cut and still maintained its prestige, NACA ambitiously envisaged establishing long-term colonies on Mars and the Moon, hence they funded a series of closed artificial ecological system projects.

The most famous among these was the largest "Biosphere 2" closed ecological system, which even recruited volunteers to live inside for six months. Although the Biosphere 2 eventually collapsed and the experiment failed, it provided a wealth of data and reference experiences.

Later, NACA’s spacecraft designs and space station designs were more or less informed by these, and on the Moon and future Mars projects, these data are quite useful, indeed a tremendous advantage.

NACA hopes to partake in the design of life support and environmental systems of the Spaceport or Yushu Base of United Mining, even pointing out that several habitat modules’ environmental system designs at Yushu Base are currently very inefficient.

New Yuan generally confirmed NACA’s strength in this area as world-leading, which is why Truk found Lin Ju’s expression quite odd when speaking about this topic, and for a moment, he did not respond.

Even though he quickly resumed normalcy and casually agreed, he did not escape Truk’s notice, who immediately felt a sense of foreboding.

The UK doesn’t have much notable to offer anymore, and before his visit, he had made a point of doing his homework. A field that requires long-term data support should be very much needed by China.

The UK was deeply involved in the original Biosphere experiments and space botany, indeed possessing a great deal of firsthand data, which could not possibly fail to tempt anyone.

Who could it be? Russia? No, former Union doesn’t have these, and European Space Agency is even less likely, so...

On the surface, Truk maintained his usual composure, forcefully suppressing his speculations.

Not until the visit at United Mining was nearly over did he ask:

"There is a prevailing rumor outside that the Aerospace Development Committee is about to embark on a super Spaceport project involving tens of thousands of tons, could this also become a part of United Mining’s future work?"

"This... I cannot give you a definite answer, but the Aerospace Development Committee indeed intends to take humanity’s scale in space a step further, to make a groundbreaking change."

Hearing such a response, Truk had a fairly strong inkling and followed the current, saying:

"Such a grand plan requires an extremely vast resource investment. Does your side plan to invite foreign space agencies to join and participate, to embark on extensive and peaceful cooperation like that of the International Space Station?"

The International Space Station? Excluding their own "extensive cooperation?"

Lin Ju conveyed his skepticism through his gaze before responding to Truk’s question:

"Of course, the Aerospace Development Committee welcomes all friendly cooperation. A globalized space strategy is also a very important part, if your side is willing to join, you might want to pay close attention to the latest news from the Aerospace Development Committee."

If the UK could join, then forces outside the Huayin Organization could also participate, thus... Musk wasn’t bragging, his interviews were all telling the truth, and it’s indeed possible that Lin Ju might invite him on board the Aero-Space Plane.

In a short period, Truk had already sorted through much information, and his mission on this trip was more than halfway accomplished.

Damn it, the Yankees have truly betrayed the free world!

With NACA putting out Musk’s interviews, they’re building momentum. Earth’s most top-tier and largest space force is going to come together!

And when he thought about the proposal put forward by America’s representative at the United Nations concerning the so-called unified space order, he feared it meant that space would be essentially ruled directly by the two powers, with everyone else having to follow their rules for space exploration.

There’s also the rapidly emerging Space Forces established by both sides, which were likely related to this matter as well!

Truk had no desire to stay any longer, wishing he could immediately set out back to the UK, only conveying one thing:

The Yalta System, established after World War II, is about to be jointly shattered!