Chapter 749

North America, Florida.

On the central launch pad of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station stands a super rocket as high as a 32-story building.

On the side of this rocket are printed the American flag, the NASA emblem, the Space-X logo, and the three huge letters of BFR. At the same time, in order to take care of several large-scale funders, several Wall Street investment banks that sponsored the plan are also printed below these signs.

For such a huge rocket, it took the staff here nearly a month to send him to Cape Canaveral Air Force Base and complete the assembly. It took another full week to complete the final launch preparations.

Now that the life support unit is loaded on the rocket and all the preparations are in place, it's finally time for the expedition to begin. A pair of looking up eyes came from the direction of the auditorium, and countless people were eagerly looking forward to the arrival of this moment.

The countdown to ignition begins shortly.

With the end of the ten-second countdown, billowing smoke swept away instantly.

42 Raptor engines consumed the liquid oxygen and methane in the fuel chamber at a terrifying speed, providing the entire spacecraft with a terrifying take-off thrust of 128 meganewtons, pushing the 100-meter-long rocket slowly away from the launch pad and The launch platform galloped towards the blue sky.

The roar of the engine was like the roar of a giant beast.

The behemoth is called chemical propulsion.

Condensed with the most advanced liquid oxygen methane propulsion technology, this giant once again showed the world its strong and powerful arms...

Looking at this scene through the telescope, the corners of Musk's mouth turned up, he put down the telescope in his hand and handed it to the assistant, looked at Director Carson, who was motionless and staring at the smoke column in the distance, and said with a smile.

"As I said, there is nothing to worry about. We have the best aerospace technology research and development team in the world and the most extensive launch experience. You just need to wait for the good news to come from the desert 60 million kilometers away. .”

"I hope it's good news," Director Carson said after putting down the telescope on the bridge of his nose, "Where's the BFS spaceship? Is it ready?"

If the life support unit is successfully launched on the surface of Mars, the three selected lucky ones will board the ship in June and start the greatest expedition in human history.

As a supporting facility of the BFR super rocket, the BFS spacecraft will play an equally important role in the entire Ares program, that is, to send astronauts to Mars safely.

Musk: "We don't use BFS spacecraft."

Director Carson looked at Musk and said, "But what you said in the PPT is..."

Musk smiled and waved his hands: "That thing is a carrier spacecraft with a unit of 100 people. When we use it, it is already the last stage of the Ares plan. Just send three astronauts up, we A smaller, more stable and reliable vehicle will be used, and what do you think its name is?"

Director Carson: "...what's your name?"

"Heart of Gold!"

Director Carson hesitated for a while before reacting to this old stalk.

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?"

If he remembered the book correctly, it was probably called by this name. It's just that the heart of gold in the novel does not use chemical propulsion, but a confusing "infinite improbability drive", which can "theoretically" reach any corner of the universe instantly.

A smile appeared on Musk's face.

"Yes, Glass Adams' sci-fi masterpiece, I intend to make it the first manned spacecraft to fly to Mars!"

Chief Carson shook his head with a smile.

"...I think it would be more appropriate to choose a name with a more historical sense."

Musk said disapprovingly: "History is written by people. When we succeed, there will be a sense of historical weight or something else."

While the two were talking, deafening cheers erupted not far away.

Standing there were people from all walks of life invited by NASA, representatives of civil society, and reporters from major media companies. At this moment, everyone's faces were full of excitement.

Amidst the cheers, the BFR rocket carrying the life support unit galloped towards Mars, which is more than 60 million kilometers away. If nothing else, one month is enough for him to land on the surface of Mars.

Standing at the designated shooting location, the excited reporters have finished shooting the rocket take-off and are leaving the launch center while fiddling with the camera.

They can't wait to get back to their work computers and start editing tomorrow's headlines.

Wait until the end of the day.

The whole world will be amazed by America's achievements...

...

The news of the successful launch of the BFR rocket made the headlines of the next day's news without any suspense.

According to the news reported by NASA, the "Heart of Gold" spacecraft carrying the life support unit has successfully accelerated to the second cosmic speed, and is leaving the Earth-Moon system for a new world.

The United States has once again demonstrated to the world its ambition and strength in the aerospace field, and at the same time, relevant reports have also appeared on the screens of major newspapers, TV news, and talk shows.

As one of the protagonists in the Ares plan, the stock price of Space-X began to rise uncontrollably after a brief shock.

According to a comment by a financial practitioner working on Wall Street, this launch plan not only brought Space-X direct income of billions of dollars, but also brought billions or even tens of billions of dollars in US stocks. Market cap growth.

Considering the electric vehicle market expanding with the innovation of lithium-sulfur batteries and controllable fusion technology, it may not be long before Musk's name can be promoted to the top 10 of the world's richest list.

At the same time, with the successful launch of the BFR rocket, domestic public opinion has become more and more critical of the lunar orbiting space station.

Many people even jumped out to sing bad news, thinking that this project worth tens of billions of dollars was doomed to fail from the very beginning, and even if it succeeded, it would be useless except for the glory of face.

He didn't pay attention to these voices, and didn't even notice what those people said at all. After returning from Shangjing, Lu Zhou has never been idle for almost a day.

The core difficulty in constructing a space station in lunar orbit lies in how to send the completed space station components from the surface to lunar orbit.

From the current point of view, there is nothing other than Xingkong Technology that can do this job.

Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that the outcome of this competition is all tied to him alone.

In the conference room of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study and the Institute of Aerospace Technology, a meeting on lunar orbit engineering is in progress.

"...If we want to complete the construction of the lunar orbital space station, we need to deliver at least 500 tons of heavy objects to the lunar orbit." Looking at the concept map on the curtain, Lu Zhou tapped the table with a ballpoint pen, "And this is the last For the basic first phase of the project, there are still orders of at least 2,000 tons waiting for us, and we must maximize our capacity.”

The Lunar Orbit Space Station project manager settles the launch fee of Xingkong Technology in kilograms, and the payment is settled every six months. Because it is a key project directly under the central government, there is no arrears of project funds that are common in local infrastructure projects, and it is quite convenient to find a bank to apply for a loan.

Although the project has not yet started, Lu Zhou has already applied for a loan of 50 billion yuan from the four major banks. Part of the money will be used for the construction of the new Xiangrui space plane, and the other part will be used for the research and development of new space transportation tools .

Having said that, Lu Zhou paused for a moment, then continued.

"I think we could look at a spacecraft that's designed to go between Earth-Moon transfer orbit and geosynchronous orbit."

There were murmurs of discussion in the conference room.

The idea of ​​building a spacecraft dedicated to traveling between the Earth-Moon transfer orbit and the geosynchronous orbit is so avant-garde that many experts who have been in this field for decades are still undecided.

Hou Guang frowned, and after thinking for a moment, he said: "You mean... use the Xiangrui to complete the transportation from the surface to the synchronous orbit, and then transfer the space capsule to be transported to a special spacecraft, through a special spaceflight to complete the journey from low-Earth orbit to lunar orbit?"

Lu Zhou nodded: "Yes."

Hou Guang said in a deep voice: "Theoretically, it is feasible, but there may be considerable technical risks during the transfer of goods."

Lu Zhou smiled and continued: "Spacecraft itself is a risky thing, and every orbital change is an adventure. Appropriate risks are worthwhile. If it can be done, we can not only transfer the Earth and the moon The carrying capacity has been upgraded to a higher level, and the launch mission from the surface to the synchronous orbit can be outsourced to other aerospace companies with suitable qualifications to share our costs."

After listening to Lu Zhou's thoughts, Hou Guang fell into silence and spoke after a while.

"I'll go back and study, and I'll give you a detailed report before tomorrow night."

Lu Zhou nodded solemnly.

"Well, I leave it to you."

This kind of matter itself cannot be easily decided at the meeting. He just opens his mind and uses his words, and the experts in charge of specific issues may have to run away.

However, Hou Guang did not directly deny his idea, and even said that it is theoretically feasible, so the problem should not be too big. At least the trade-off between the pros and cons made this big cow in the aerospace field a little bit excited.

The meeting went on until noon.

After the meeting, Lu Zhou went to the cafeteria of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study. He was about to eat barbecue and bibimbap in a corner when a call came to his mobile phone.

Glancing at the screen, seeing that it was Director Li calling, Lu Zhou pressed the connect button, brought the phone to his ear, and said without thinking.

"Hello? What's the matter?"

Director Li on the other end of the phone didn't exchange greetings either, his tone was serious, and he only said one sentence.

"American BFR rocket launched!"