When I am reborn, I just want to be a top student

Jiuquan, Galaxy Space Launch Center.

The celebration was short-lived.

On the night of the successful launch, Yang Anchao gave his team a few hours off and let everyone have a good meal in the canteen.

At the same time, everyone received a 10,000 yuan red envelope.

It wasn't a lot of money, but everyone was very happy to receive it.

If we successfully land on the moon, there will be a prize of hundreds of millions, and this time it's the biggest prize.

Given Wang Donglai's reputation, no one doubted that he would be reluctant to part with it.

However, while the celebrations are underway, the mission continues.

Pioneer 1 is heading toward the moon at a speed of 10.9 kilometers per second and will arrive in four days.

Over these four days, it will make three mid-course corrections to ensure the accuracy of its trajectory.

After arriving on the moon, the most crucial step is to complete a soft landing on the lunar surface.

That wasn't landing, it was "dropping".

The 60-ton rocket body had to initiate its thrust at an altitude of tens of kilometers above the lunar surface, decelerating and adjusting its attitude at the same time, and finally landing steadily on the lunar surface at a near-zero speed.

If any link in this process goes wrong, the whole arrow falling to the moon will turn into the whole arrow hitting the moon.

The rocket would crash onto the moon at a speed of hundreds of meters per second, turning into a pile of scrap metal worth billions, and GalaxySpace would become a laughing stock worldwide.

Therefore, the real test has only just begun.

The next morning, Yang Anchao woke up to find that he had slept on the sofa in his office all night.

He was covered with a blanket; it was unclear who had draped it over him.

The ashtray on the table was piled high with cigarette butts, the water in the teacup had gone cold, and next to it lay a track data report that still held the warmth of the printer.

He rubbed his temples and picked up the report.

The data was updated at 3 a.m. - Pioneer 1 has been flying for more than ten hours, about 400,000 kilometers away from Earth, and its speed is stable at 10.9 kilometers per second.

The first window for mid-process revision is 2 PM today.

The correction is very small, requiring only a few seconds of operation from the attitude control engine to fine-tune the velocity vector by a few tenths of a degree.

He put down the report, stood up, and walked to the window.

Outside the window, the sky over Jiuquan was gray and gloomy, with endless stretches of Gobi Desert in the distance.

He recalled that when he first arrived in Jiuquan, the weather was just like this.

Back then, he was just a young lad who was assigned to the telemetry and control station. His daily work consisted of staring at the fluctuating numbers on the screen, recording, reporting, recording, and reporting.

It's so boring it's maddening.

His mentor was an old aerospace engineer surnamed Zhao, who didn't talk much.

Once he asked Master Zhao, "Master, what are we doing this for? We spend our whole lives in this godforsaken place, without even a decent home."

Master Zhao glanced at him and said only one sentence: "What's the point? We're hoping that one day our rockets can fly to the moon."

At that time, he thought Master Zhao was talking in his sleep.

Now, that rocket is on its way to the moon.

But Master Zhao is no longer with us.

He passed away quietly, a few years after he retired.

Yang Anchao went to see him one last time. The old man was lying in the hospital bed and could hardly speak anymore, but when he saw Yang Anchao, his cloudy eyes suddenly lit up.

He held Yang Anchao's hand, his lips moving as if he wanted to say something.

Yang Anchao leaned closer and heard the old man, with his last strength, utter a sentence: "Little Yang...go and see...what's on the moon like..."

Yang Anchao did not cry at that time.

He grasped the old man's hand, nodded vigorously, and said, "Master, I will definitely go."

Now, looking out at the gray sky, he suddenly felt his eyes getting hot.

At 2 PM, the first mid-way correction took place on time.

In the command center, Yang Anchao sat in front of the main control console, with the real-time orbital data of the Pioneer 1 displayed on the screen in front of him.

In the background, the system is running an orbit prediction model, calculating the deviation between the rocket's actual position and its theoretical orbit every second.

"Pathfinder One, this is Jiuquan, preparing for the first mid-course correction."

Yang Anchao's voice was transmitted to a rocket 380,000 kilometers away via a quantum communication terminal.

0.2 seconds later, the telemetry data was updated, showing that the rocket had received the command.

"Attitude control engine started, working for fifteen seconds."

The voice of the guidance team leader came through the loudspeaker.

On the screen, the curve representing the rocket's velocity vector began to shift slightly, like a thin needle gently swaying on a clock face.

Fifteen seconds later, the attitude control engine shut down, and the offset of the velocity vector reached the preset value.

"Correction complete, track deviation returned to zero."

The voice of the guidance team leader carried a hint of barely suppressed excitement.

Yang Anchao did not speak immediately.

He stared at the recalibrated trajectory curve on the screen for a full ten seconds.

The curve is so smooth it looks like it was drawn with a ruler, perfectly matching the theoretical trajectory.

"Okay, the next revision window is tomorrow morning at nine o'clock. Everyone, take turns resting as scheduled."

Over the next three days, the Trail Blazers made two more mid-course corrections, each time with clockwork precision.

Wa was monitoring various parameters of the rocket in real time from the background—fuel balance, engine temperature, attitude control system response time, and quantum communication terminal signal strength.

Every parameter was within the normal range, and none of them showed a red light.

In the early morning of the fourth day, Pioneer 1 reached lunar orbit.

The command center was once again filled with people.

This time, the atmosphere was even more tense than during the launch.

At launch, the rocket is still "at its doorstep," so if problems arise, there are still ways to remedy them.

Now, the rocket is 380,000 kilometers away, and any command sent out will take 0.5 seconds to receive a response.

0.5 seconds is just the blink of an eye on Earth, but in the aerospace field, a delay of 0.5 seconds means that control must be "semi-autonomous"—the rocket cannot rely entirely on real-time control from the ground; it must have its own "brain."

The "brain" of the Pioneer 1 is the AI ​​autonomous navigation system independently developed by Galaxy Technology.

This system ran tens of thousands of lunar soft landing simulations on Wa's quantum computing platform, learning all conceivable failure modes.

It can autonomously select the best landing point based on real-time terrain data at an altitude of tens of kilometers above the lunar surface, and then precisely control the thrust of the retro-thrust engine and the swing angle of the attitude control engine to steadily "place" the 60-ton rocket body on the lunar surface.

However, simulation is just that—simulation. The complexity of the real lunar surface will always exceed the predictive capabilities of any model.

Craters, rocks, slopes, gravity anomalies—any unexpected factor could lead to a failed landing.

"Kaituozhe 1 has entered lunar orbit and is preparing for its final orbital correction before landing."

The guidance team leader's voice was steady, but you could tell he was trying to control his breathing.

Yang Anchao stared at the three-dimensional map on the screen that represented the lunar surface terrain.

The map was created by the high-resolution camera onboard the Pioneer 1 during its lunar orbit, capturing images in real time. The resolution is 0.1 meters, allowing you to see rocks on the lunar surface as small as a washbasin.

The planned landing site is near the Shackleton Crater Chain on the far side of the moon, where there are large, relatively flat areas and are close to permanently shadowed regions with abundant water ice resources, making it an ideal location for building a lunar base.

"The AI ​​autonomous navigation system has locked onto the landing point, with coordinates of 89.4 degrees south latitude and 112.7 degrees east longitude. The landing point is flat with a slope of less than 2 degrees, and there are no rocks with a diameter of more than 0.5 meters within 50 meters."

Yang Anchao took a deep breath and commanded, "Initiate landing procedures."

On the screen, the Pioneer 1 began to adjust its attitude. The attitude control engine emitted tiny flames, like an invisible hand gently adjusting the angle of the rocket.

Several tens of seconds later, the rocket changed from a horizontal flight state to a vertical state, with its tail pointing towards the lunar surface.

Then, the reverse thrust engine ignites.

It wasn't the earth-shattering orange-red flame of a launch, but a gentler, more stable blue flame.

The thrust was not large, but it was continuous and precise, gradually reducing the rocket's descent speed.

The altitude is 1,200 meters.

The speed dropped from hundreds of meters per second to tens of meters per second.

The AI ​​autonomous navigation system begins scanning the real-time terrain around the landing site, comparing the data with pre-stored high-resolution maps.

If it detects previously undetected rocks or craters around the landing site, it will automatically calculate the optimal avoidance path and adjust the thrust direction of the attitude control engine within milliseconds to move the rocket to a safer position.

Altitude 800 meters, speed 30 meters per second. Everything is normal.

At a height of 500 meters, the speed is 20 meters per second.

The AI ​​did not trigger any evasive maneuvers—the planned landing site was perfectly flat with no obstacles in the vicinity.

The altitude is 200 meters and the speed is 10 meters per second.

Yang Anchao gripped the edge of the control panel tightly.

The entire command center was so quiet that you could hear each other breathing.

Everyone was staring at the small dot on the screen representing the rocket, watching it slowly approach the lunar surface.

The height is 100 meters and the speed is 5 meters per second.

The flames from the reverse thrust engine blew up dust from the lunar surface, like a gray flower blooming in the vacuum.

Because there is no air, the dust does not disperse but instead splashes in all directions in a parabolic trajectory before quickly falling back onto the lunar surface.

The height is fifty meters, and the speed is two meters per second.

The height is 20 meters, and the speed is one meter per second.

The height is 10 meters and the speed is 0.5 meters per second.

The height is five meters, and the speed is 0.3 meters per second.

The height is one meter, and the speed is 0.1 meters per second.

Landing!
On the screen, the number representing the rocket's speed jumped to zero.

Altitude zeroed out.

The pressure sensors on the landing legs transmitted data back – the rocket body has landed steadily on the lunar surface, all four landing legs are bearing weight, the rocket body is vertical, and the tilt angle is less than 0.5 degrees.

The command center was silent for a full three seconds.

Then, applause broke out.

It wasn't the explosive, resentful applause of a successful launch, but a deeper, more awe-inspiring applause.

It's not because of excitement, but because of witnessing.

They witnessed the first rocket in human history to land on the moon intact, landing steadily.

This is not an ordinary landing; it is the beginning of a new era.

Yang Anchao did not applaud.

He simply sat in front of the control panel, watching the orbital curve on the screen that stretched from the Earth to the Moon, and watching the small dot of light representing Pioneer 1 quietly resting on the lunar surface, motionless.

He thought of Master Zhao, the old aerospace workers who used abacuses to input data on the Gobi Desert, and Wang Donglai's words that "the sunrise on the moon is different from that on Earth."

His feelings at that moment were incredibly complex.

Excitement, exhilaration, and so on are not enough to describe it.

After calming down a bit, he picked up his phone and immediately dialed Wang Donglai's number.

"Mr. Wang, Pioneer One is a success!"

Wang Donglai's voice came from the other end of the phone, still incredibly calm: "I saw it!"

"You did a great job, this is everyone's achievement!"

"I've already given the orders for the 200 million yuan project bonus; it will be deposited into the account tomorrow!"

"You are all heroes!"

Yang Anchao held his phone, listened to Wang Donglai's words, and looked at the small point of light quietly resting on the moon's surface on the screen. Suddenly, he smiled.

Then he stood up, addressed everyone in the command center, and said, "Gentlemen, we have made history."

"There's another piece of good news: President Wang has decided to allocate 200 million yuan as project bonuses!"

These words caused an uproar among everyone in the command hall and the entire launch center.

Two hundred million, which they split among themselves.

And there are other bonuses, with each person receiving at least a million, how could they not be excited?

At the same time.

The news of Pioneer 1's successful landing on the moon spread around the world within minutes.

"That's so cool, we finally have our own base on the moon."

"Who said this was impossible before? Step forward and let me slap you twice."

"I knew Academician Wang must have confidence if he dared to say it!"

"Holy crap, I suddenly remembered! Does this mean the year-end plan will officially begin?!"

"Does this count as reclaiming the moon?!"

"Upstairs, that definitely counts! Whoever takes it first gets it!"

"As a space enthusiast, I've waited far too long for this day!"

"Wang Donglai, a god forever! Yang Anchao, a god forever! Galaxy Aerospace, a god forever!"

"Did you notice the name printed on the rocket? Trailblazers One. We are the trailblazers, not the chasers."

"This is a major achievement in the history of human spaceflight!"

"NASA, what are you doing? Others have already landed their entire rockets on the moon, and your SLS hasn't even taken off yet!"

"As an American, I am truly saddened. We were once leaders in space exploration, but now we can only watch others make history."

"Don't be sad, they are really amazing. We never even thought of the idea of ​​the whole arrow hitting the moon. It's not a technical problem, it's a problem of imagination."

"Is Wang Donglai an alien? How can he think of so many things that others can't?"

"Upstairs, he's not an alien. He's just more daring in his thinking and more daring in his actions than any of us."

And when it was discussed on Earth.

The lunar base terraforming officially began immediately after Pioneer 1 landed on the lunar surface!
This was not a simple "modification," but the first large-scale construction ever carried out on the moon in human history.

The Pathfinder 1 rocket itself was the prototype of a base—the interior of the 60-meter-long, 9-meter-thick rocket body was a ready-made pressure chamber after the storage tanks were emptied, the interstage sections were opened up to create a spacious public activity space, the instrument compartment was converted into a central control room, and the fairing was converted into an airlock.

But these are only the first steps. The real transformation requires adjusting the rocket body from a vertical position to a horizontal position, laying it horizontally on the lunar surface, then covering the rocket body surface with lunar soil to form a radiation protection layer, and then deploying solar photovoltaic panels, communication antennas, and heat sinks around the rocket body.

All of these tasks were performed by the four intelligent robots aboard the Pioneer 1.

These four robots were specially designed by Galaxy Technologies for lunar operations and are codenamed "Yu Gong" – because their job is to transform the lunar surface little by little, just like the story of Yu Gong moving mountains.

They have six flexible robotic arms that can walk stably on the rugged lunar surface. Their "brain" is a simplified version of Nuwa's, capable of autonomously planning work paths based on preset mission objectives.

Their energy comes from Xuanwu batteries, which can work continuously for 72 hours on a single charge.

They are not afraid of radiation, extreme temperature differences, or the wear and tear of lunar dust.

They were the first "construction workers" sent by humans to the moon. (End of Chapter)