It's normal to develop some black technology in the future, right?

Chapter 390: Bad things can also turn into good things~

The International Space Station has been around for so long that it should have been retired long ago, but it has been floating in the sky because NASA has been unable to build a replacement.

The International Space Station was originally scheduled to retire in 2024, but it was later extended to 2028, which is next year. By 2027, everyone felt that next year was still a bit too soon. The "everyone" here is NASA to be exact.

NASA felt that it was not prepared. Most of its resources were spent on returning to the moon, and it had no resources to build a new space station.

It's not that America and its allies can't build a space station if they work together.

It's that they have too many ideas for the next generation of space station. They want it to be at least as good as China's, and even better than the Guangjia. They also want to do it in one go and directly launch the space station into near-moon orbit.

The International Space Station cost $100 billion, and it is unrealistic to expect to squeeze more dollars from Congress for the next-generation space station.

NASA wants it all. It wants to do a big job even though it has no money, but it doesn't dare to buy it from China.

Offer China $100 billion to buy it, and China will definitely get it for you.

But this road is blocked. If NASA dares to give the bid to a Chinese enterprise, the director of NASA will suffer the same fate as Joseph, the director of the French Space Agency, and be hit on the head on the street.

Under such circumstances, the new generation of space station has been delayed in being finalized, and NASA is happy to see this. They also lack the budget to build a space station, so they might as well let the International Space Station serve for a while longer.

It was trembling at an altitude of 2030 kilometers, with constant alarms and endless small problems. But considering that everyone has been maintaining it, it should have no problem lasting until . NASA has always held on to this fantasy.

All relevant people, from NASA to the European Space Agency, and then to people in Russia, Maple Leaf Country and Japan, can vaguely feel that it will be finished sooner or later, but no one dares to make a decision and say that we must retire the International Space Station right now.

This thing that costs $100 billion and is the face of the Free Alliance, once it explodes, there will be only two space stations in space, and both belong to China. Where will everyone put their faces? How can they ask their own Congress for future space budgets?

The only country that doesn't care is France. France has shares in the Light Mech, and this fact has been repeatedly emphasized in the French local media. On French social media, space enthusiasts even made a rendering of the Light Mech with the French flag painted on it.

"I want to ask a question. Since there is only an escape capsule that can accommodate four people, why do we need to send 4 astronauts to work there?" The President was speechless.

The problems we face now are so serious.

From what the staff said just now, it is clear that the 12 astronauts on board can only hold on for 6 hours before they face the risk of running out of oxygen.

Only four people can take the escape capsule and drift in the universe, waiting for the Dragon spacecraft to rescue them.

So which eight people died?
There are not only American astronauts, but also European allies, big hairy astronauts, and even a Japanese.

Are we going to let all the astronauts from other countries die?

The President felt his blood pressure was rising. He had just delivered his victory speech when a humanitarian disaster broke out on the International Space Station: all the American astronauts survived, but all the foreign astronauts died.

Doesn’t this seem even more ridiculous than ever?

"Where is Elon? Ask him to find a way and start the emergency rescue plan." The President knew who to find at this time.

"NASA has shared the details with Elon." The aide said after a moment's hesitation, "So Mr. President, Elon may not be able to attend the celebration later.

Also, does the victory speech need to continue?"

"Of course." The president would not miss any opportunity to show off.

"The media is not very friendly to us, and this matter will definitely not be hidden from the media." The aide said: "When the media hypes it up, the impact of this matter may not be very good."

"If I don't give a victory speech, the damn media won't hype it up?" the president complained.

It feels good to be in charge of the White House, both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court at the same time, but the only one who doesn't give him face is the media, or to be more precise, the traditional media. The traditional media will report all kinds of White House scandals as soon as possible, but the personnel turnover and "long history" of the White House make it impossible for them to keep any secrets at all.

What happened was like a sieve, and even some scandals were known to the traditional media faster than he was.

Not to mention that there are quite a few Donald Trump supporters in NASA, so it would be impossible to conceal this matter from beginning to end.

"If we don't give a victory speech, combined with this ISS scandal, our long-awaited major victory will be a mockery.

During my victory speech I will openly disclose the current crisis facing the International Space Station and announce that we will resolve it within 6 hours.

In this way it is not a failure, but a victory again and again.

This is Americana's flexible response capability. We can rescue the 6 astronauts on the space station at any time within 12 hours.

This is the real-life rescue of Mars." The president, who has been in the media industry for many years, is very clear about the aesthetics of Americans. This kind of heroic story is in line with the aesthetics and value orientation of Americans.

He realized that if they could just work this out, they could turn a bad situation into a good one.

Isn't it the efficiency of the government that America is criticized for? Especially with the Chinese as a reference, and recently the Chinese are helping European countries build infrastructure in Europe, the contrast is even more obvious.

In the past, only self-media bloggers came to China to shoot China Travel videos to promote how great China’s infrastructure was. This was an indirect reflection of government efficiency, and the dissemination was not wide enough. After all, the group interested in China Travel was limited, and the rednecks were not interested in this type of content.

As for the Chinese people building infrastructure for Europe, the same video has different levels of impact and shock.

Although this White House has done a lot of work to address the problem of government inefficiency, compared with the older Chinese, the public is still indifferent.

Now I feel okay. I can use the pillow when I feel sleepy.

It takes 6 hours to rescue the astronauts, and this number of 6 hours will be repeatedly emphasized.

When the Donald Trump was in power, it took them more than 6 days to rescue the astronauts sent up by Boeing, but now that he is in the White House, it only takes hours.

The President was counting on his fingers how long two hundred days was: "How many hours are two hundred days?" the President asked.

"4800 hours," the aide replied.

The President was very happy and said with a smile: "6000 to 6, our efficiency is a thousand times that of the donkey party!"

4800 hours, rounded to hours, the president is very good at math, he knew the slogan right away. It's not that America is inefficient, it's that the Donkey Party is inefficient, the Elephant Party, especially the one he leads, is so efficient.

It takes the donkeys 2 hours to rescue 6000 astronauts, but it only takes them 12 hours to rescue 6 astronauts.

The staff watched the President's expression change, first from silence, helplessness and anger to the current smile. They felt that this was why they could only be staff members while the other party could be president.

The ability to turn bad things into good things, manipulate public opinion and go against the mainstream media is not something he possesses.

"It's terrible," complained Danish astronaut Andre. Almost every compartment where people could stay was leaking. They were now wearing space suits and using the oxygen in the suits to supply themselves with oxygen.

Andre felt that he was very unlucky.

"Damn it! It was bad enough the last time Williams and Wilmore came, but this time is a hundred times worse than that," echoed American astronaut Dyson.

Williams and Wilmore refer to the two astronauts sent up by Boeing last time. They stayed in the International Space Station for more than 200 years before returning.

Before going up to space, they planned to stay for only 8 days, so they only brought a small amount of clothes and toiletries.

Unable to return, they had to borrow spare clothes from other astronauts.

Clothes are a small matter, going to the toilet is a big problem.
Going to the toilet in space is a very troublesome thing. Because the environment in space is special, everyone needs to use special equipment when going to the toilet.

With the addition of two people, a lot of pressure was put on the equipment. The toilet was once overwhelmed and damaged, resulting in the leakage of excrement.

In addition, after two new astronauts joined the space station, there was a shortage of beds and everyone had to sleep in shifts.

Even though Williams and Wilmore have caused so many accidents on the International Space Station, they are still much better than this one.

No matter how much excrement floats in the air, it will not cause any life-threatening situation.

Now they are facing a life-threatening crisis.

Thomas said with a smile: "At that time we said Williams and Wilmore were the most unlucky astronauts. Now it seems that we are even more unlucky than them."

The two men developed serious physical symptoms during their stay in space. Williams, a woman, had her face become thinner than a cone, while Wilmore, a man, had his head grow bigger and bigger.

"What do people on the ground say?" Megan was in no mood to discuss Williams and Wilmore. She just wanted to know how she could go back.

Everyone is still able to maintain superficial decency, and no one is rushing to grab the escape pods because they are hoping for rescue from the ground.

You must know that everyone here knows very well that the escape capsule can only save four people, and there are a total of 12 astronauts on the International Space Station.

Faced with such a life-and-death crisis, male astronauts naturally have physical advantages. Can the gender political correctness of female astronauts really play a role at this time?

Megan doesn't have that confidence.

"NASA reassured us by saying they would fix the problem as soon as possible," Thomas said.

Andre, a Danish astronaut, was furious when he heard this: "To be honest, I can't be at ease.

Williams and Wilmore were in such serious condition that NASA was not thinking about how to get them back, but about proving that her life was not in danger. "

Any astronaut who has witnessed the experience of Williams and Wilmore will have no complaints about NASA.

Even after Williams returned to Earth, he developed serious psychological problems because he learned about what NASA had done during the more than 200 days they were drifting in space.

The most classic example is that they have physical problems and are no longer in human form. The NASA experts on TV did not discuss how to save them, but rather:

"That's because Williams has spent 152 days in microgravity in space, and similar changes can be seen in some people who live at high altitudes for long periods of time. Her cheeks are sunken, probably the result of overall weight loss.

From this we can infer that she has been in a calorie deficit for a long time.

Because in space, the human body needs to adapt to the change in gravity and maintain body temperature in cold and harsh conditions, so the human body will burn more calories. In order to prevent muscle and bone loss, they also need to exercise about 2.5 hours a day, which will burn more calories.

She may be experiencing a calorie deficit.”

"But while the condition shown in the photo is definitely unhealthy, her life is not in danger."

That's right, NASA specially invited experts to prove that their lives were not in danger.

This is what NASA did. As a Dane, Andre was really worried and believed that NASA could really rescue them within six hours.

Megan complained: "There shouldn't be so many astronauts in space, 12 people. The more people there are, the more difficult the rescue becomes."

"It's because the International Space Station is about to be retired, and all countries want to squeeze out its surplus value as much as possible before retirement." Thomas explained, "No one would have thought that such an emergency would occur this time.

I still can't figure out why the cracks that were repaired before suddenly broke apart this time, and the extent of the cracks is even greater than last time."

Dyson smiled bitterly and said, “Could it be the same unexpected situation that Williams and his team encountered last time?

The key alloy for patching the loopholes changed hands several times before finally choosing an Indian manufacturer?
Is there a concentrated outbreak of problems with inferior alloys purchased from Indian manufacturers this time? "

The last time, Boeing approached India and wanted to purchase relevant parts from the Chinese through Indian parts suppliers, and then affix a Made in India label before shipping them to Boeing.

As a result, although the Indian parts manufacturer claimed that the valves supplied to Boeing were titanium alloy valves, in fact, in order to save costs, India actually shipped aluminum alloy valves to Boeing. Boeing then installed and used the valves without careful inspection, which eventually led to valve failure and helium leakage.

“I remember that in 24 years, NASA developed a plan to evacuate astronauts in an emergency as a contingency plan for major situations in the future.

Where is the emergency plan? This should be a serious situation, why is the emergency plan not working?" Andre couldn't help asking, "I don't care whether the damn Indians have screwed NASA again, I only care about how we can get back?"

(End of this chapter)