I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?.

Chapter 496 Ma Yilong Washing Machine

"Royce Royce plans to modify six decommissioned Royal Air Force nuclear warheads for use in the United Mining Company's lunar blasting mission."

That afternoon, the BBC announced a surprising piece of information.

The content is very detailed and even includes some details of the contract.

The most eye-catching ones are of course the US$100 million "expiration date" hydrogen bomb, and the fact that five foreign experts will conduct at least two lunar landing missions before 2019 to conduct environmental inspections.

It was the morning of London time. When the current Prime Minister Brasier announced the news in the House of Commons, the audience was silent for a moment, and then collectively burst into cheers.

Seeing this, the stone hanging in Brasier's heart finally fell to the ground, and he knew that he had made the right bet.

Just the day after the press conference, the current Foreign Minister Boris found a way to submit an amazing proposal to her.

A proposal that allows Dai Ying to gain real benefits without losing face and make full use of his influence in exchange for benefits will also enable Dai Ying to not lag too far behind in the fierce space competition and achieve unprecedented achievements. .

The key point of this proposal is to be quick, contact the Chinese people as early as possible, and grab the greatest benefits when they are most anxious. That's why the Luo Luo negotiating team hastily bid.

Connor couldn't wait to report the good news as soon as he got out of the United Mining Headquarters and got into the car. When he heard that six hydrogen bombs, which required a lot of expenditure every year, had been exchanged for five places to land on the moon, Brasier almost thought that This is a dream.

She immediately broke into the House of Commons, which was discussing the renovation of sewer pipes in urban London, and announced the specific contents of the deal.

A group of congressmen who argued all day long about trivial matters were first shocked when Brasier bypassed the parliament and secretly reached a deal, and then fell into ecstasy when the Americans actually managed to land on the moon.

Last month, Chinese people landed on the moon, and America and America were considered 90% of the people who landed on the moon. And then more than ten days ago, Arbor was also able to land on the moon. People across Europe were very unconvinced.

However, Dai Ying's current situation is well known. It is very difficult to even participate in the Artemis program and cannot support the manned moon landing program at all.

In the past, most congressmen were still opposed to United Mining's hydrogen bomb mining plan, but now they have never mentioned it and put it behind them. What is being bombed is the moon, and what will benefit is the belt.

With the government's deliberate promotion, the news spread throughout the three islands in less than an hour. Almost all newspaper pages focused on reporting on the astronauts who were about to land on the moon. Nuclear bomb? Moon? What does that have to do with us?

The people who followed environmental groups to protest against the destruction of the moon also stopped talking and started arguing about a new issue:

How should the five astronauts be divided among the three islands, and should Scotland still want to be independent?

……

Utu space station.

Seven astronauts who have lived here for more than 7 days are collecting garbage and then packaging it with flexible fabric into a shape that can be grasped through the docking port of the node module.

Although the living cabin of "Wutu" is a 50-ton super-large cabin, a large part of the load is scientific research equipment. The life of 7 people is actually exceeding the limit. Although it can withstand it, it is not that convenient after all and consumes materials. The speed is also much faster than before.

All the fresh vegetables originally grown on the space station had been eaten. Li Wei carefully confirmed that the new seedlings were growing well before slowly closing the lid of the incubator.

The original plan was to leave three permanent astronauts in the Wutu Space Station, but considering that there would be no spacecraft capable of returning to Earth after the Storm left, it was finally decided to evacuate all personnel.

Before leaving, Rayana took a lot of photos with a camera. In his words, "Every minute here is paid for by my motherland's hard work with oil."

Compared with the beautiful blue planet seen in Tiangong and Shila Space Station, although the desolate moon is dead, it has a unique charm that belongs to the universe.

Being here is truly in the universe compared to low-Earth orbit, at least it is finally out of the Earth's atmosphere.

Deng Lei carefully checked the condition of the Storm's body. Its nuclear reactor was always the most important place on the ground, which was related to everyone's safety.

At 21:20 on the 5st, Beijing time, the five astronauts who were still on the space station put on their spacesuits, and then each pushed a bag of garbage into the space shuttle, and then stuffed it all into the node module in the cargo hold of the space shuttle, and brought it all back to the ground for processing. If possible, try to keep the lunar orbit as clean as possible.

After everyone secured themselves, the Storm began to break away. It took an hour to close the cargo bay and adjust its direction, and began to accelerate for the first time. Li Wei, the co-pilot, skillfully checked the heading data and chatted at the same time:

"According to the plan, we will go up again in December. How many hydrogen bombs will we bring at that time?"

Of course they all know what is happening on the ground. Wutu Space Station can connect to the Internet through satellite, but the delay is so high that it cannot play games.

Deng Lei: "I don't know if they will bring hydrogen bombs, but there will definitely be Koreans."

Li Wei: "We are actually the first to use a hydrogen bomb with a ring. We are buying five and getting one free for US$100 million each. Is this thing so cheap?"

Rayana, who had been eavesdropping, couldn't help but speak:

"Brother Li, Brother Deng, shouldn't you be most familiar with how much a hydrogen bomb costs? We don't know anything about it."

Alkarli: "I really want to see what a hydrogen bomb explosion looks like in lunar orbit. There must be a particularly large mushroom cloud. This is definitely the most precious picture in history."

"Then I'm afraid you'll be disappointed."

Deng Lei thought about it and realized that he was now considered a half-explosion expert.

"Mushroom clouds can be formed only when there is an atmosphere on the earth. On the moon, you can probably only see a very bright little sun, and it must be a deep underground blast, so the probability of seeing it is very low.

But I am very worried about whether the electromagnetic pulse will have a great impact on the orbiter, lest the space station and satellites we launch will be paralyzed. "

……

Cape Calaveral, Florida.

An Atlas V carries a Dream Chaser B1 space shuttle on top. This is the second Dream Chaser, codenamed "Resolution", and it is the second manned launch since the Dream Chaser space shuttle returned to flight. The mission will send 6 tourists and 3 astronauts to the International Space Station, and return 7 days later with 6 tourists and 3 astronauts whose missions have expired.

The cost of this launch is extremely expensive, because SpecaX’s previous two heavy Falcons have exhausted their inventory, and the remaining Falcon 9s have launch missions. For the time being, they cannot come up with a cheaper Falcon Heavy, so they can only use ULA’s Astros V rocket.

The launch process went very smoothly. Sierra Nevada Corporation CEO Eamon happily accepted the celebrations from investors and other wealthy people who bought tickets. The failure of the Dream Chaser six months ago has finally passed. It will surpass the Dragon spacecraft and become Aramco’s best manned spacecraft. space vehicle.

The only thing lacking is the launch platform. SpecaX's Falcon Heavy is cheaper but difficult to get. The two are still competitors. ULA's Atlas V is not only expensive but also has to be discontinued because the Russian-made RD180 engine is about to be used up and is in urgent need of new ones. Rocket.

However, Eamon is flirting with Jeff Bezos and plans to use the New Glenn rocket as a successor. During the transition period, the Vulcan rocket cooperating with Blue Origin and ULA can be used. ULA promised to give a good discount price.

While he was thinking about the future, an investor curiously pointed to another closed launch pad:

"What's there? It seems to be a rocket too."

Eamon narrowed his eyes and said calmly:

“I call it Musk’s washing machine, and he and Lockheed were going to use a rope to swing the spacecraft around in space to create gravity.

Well, it's like putting a person into a washing machine. The speed of being thrown up is about the same as that of a roller coaster rushing down the biggest curve. "

"That was really scary."

The investor clutched his chest, already feeling dizzy.

Eamonn: "But please rest assured, we are working with Blue Origin to develop a safe gravity space station, just like XAP."

(End of this chapter)