This star is going to the moon

Chapter 252 Are the Chinese going to develop "powered exoskeleton" warriors? "Zhou Tian Xing Dou Da Zhen" (a powerful celestial array) begins launch!
To be honest, the American officials and executives in the conference room were somewhat dazed when they first heard the "Tomorrow's Astronauts" program.

WTF?

I thought our great America would let Hollywood do this, but I didn't expect you big, handsome Chinese people to do this too?

But the key point is that they haven't even put on any of these fancy programs yet, while the Chinese have already done it!
Although Elon Musk sold the first private space tourism business for the Crew Dragon spacecraft, four tourists will travel into space aboard the Crew Dragon and dock with the International Space Station.

As planned, the four tourists will participate in "educational" work with professional astronauts on the International Space Station before returning to Earth eight days later.

Staff revealed that the four tourists will conduct 25 different scientific experiments during their eight-day stay on the space station, while minimizing "interference" with the existing crew.

These four tourists were not all tourists; three of them were real estate tycoons, investors, and businessmen, while the other was a former NASA astronaut and the commander of this mission.

His role was essentially that of a commercial astronaut on the "Wooden Kite" spacecraft, except that he was not a dedicated commercial astronaut but was invited to participate in this mission.

He didn't have to pay anything; he was essentially the "driver" of the company's spaceship, while the other three tourists each paid $5500 million.

This reveals the difference in commercial space tourism strategies between the Crew Dragon spacecraft and the Kite space shuttle.

Private space tourism using the Crew Dragon spacecraft can't even be carried out once a year. In fact, only the first one has been sold so far, and there's no sign of a second one yet. It's estimated that no private space tourism will be sold for several years.

Therefore, SpaceX doesn't need to maintain its own commercial astronaut corps; it can simply invite retired astronauts and give them a little training when needed.

After all, the US has a very large astronaut corps, with several hundred astronauts in total. It would be too easy to find a retired astronaut in good physical condition.

The situation is different for Laos and China. So far, only the first and second batches of more than 20 astronauts have been publicly announced, including five retired astronauts.

Two of these five retired astronauts were instructors.

They were trained at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia, and one of them even holds the highest certificate for commander of the Soyuz spacecraft.

The other one also has an "International Astronaut" certificate.

Although they have never actually been to space, Yang Liwei was trained by them.

Only three people have truly retired and hold no official positions.

Then Lu Yun signed him into the company's commercial astronaut team.

If Lu Yun's space tourism plan is like Ma Yilong's, with no space tourism events even once a year, then these three retired astronauts will suffice.

But Lu Yun's plan was not so petty; he wanted more people to go into space, and he planned to do it once a week!
Those three astronauts are not enough, so we need to create a dedicated commercial astronaut team.

Now the Laos and China are far ahead!
However, only Elon Musk is really worried about this; the US government isn't.

After all, they weren't selecting air force pilots to fly space fighters, but rather private civilian pilots recruited from around the world, aiming for the title of "space flight attendant".

But another issue has caused concern for the US government, so a new department has been added to this space-related conference—the Federal Army.

The reason is simple: Blue Star Aerospace Corporation, having received a report from an undercover agent, has begun to use powered exoskeletons on a large scale.

The U.S. Army and the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) are quite interested in powered exoskeleton research around the world, as they are also working on related projects and are confident that powered exoskeletons will shine on the battlefields of the future.

However, their research progress is not ideal.

There were news reports about the "Super Warrior" individual exoskeleton system challenge from China, and they paid attention to it. There were indeed some impressive powered exoskeletons. But, to be honest, when it comes to truly groundbreaking technology, no one can compare to the Americans.

The Americans have all sorts of incredibly advanced and cutting-edge technologies that look dazzling.

However, all of these technologies are, without exception, "laboratory" level technologies.

No matter how good such technology is, if it cannot leave the laboratory and cannot be applied on a large scale, it is "useless" technology.

They may even face budget cuts and eventual project cancellation.

They assumed the individual exoskeletons in the "Beast Wars" competition were the same, but after reading the agent's report, the situation seems less than optimistic.

The situation is not optimistic for them.

"Based on our understanding of the Chinese, if they can use powered exoskeletons in factories on a large scale, then their military must also be using them on a large scale, perhaps even on a larger scale!"

"So, we might be facing their 'powered exoskeleton' warriors?"

"This won't do. Soldiers equipped with 'powered exoskeletons' are like 'super soldiers' to ordinary soldiers. If we don't have a way to counter them, we're doomed!"

"Gentlemen, perhaps it's not that bad. The report also mentioned that the scale of use in the factory is only small-scale, and not all employees have been equipped with them, so it may be a small-scale test. Furthermore, the report also stated that the powered exoskeletons in the factory move relatively slowly and are quite bulky, so they may not be suitable for military use."

"No, you don't understand the other side of the ocean. What they publicly display is technology that is one or two generations behind. They definitely have better powered exoskeletons, even if it's only in small batches. But if they equip a small special forces unit with them, the destructive power will be enormous."

"That is indeed the problem. The agents speculate that those in the factory are 'engineering type' or 'factory type' specially designed for the factory's needs, and there may be 'military type' designed for military needs. If so, then the military powered exoskeleton can not only carry heavier equipment and ammunition, but also wear more bulletproof plates. If the bulletproof plates cover a larger area, wouldn't that be the 'rogue warrior' or 'powered armor' in science fiction military themes?"

(Image from the internet. Normal body armor only has bulletproof plates on the chest and abdomen, while the Rogue Warrior has bulletproof plates all over his body. If you add a powered exoskeleton, it's a simplified version of powered armor Iron Man. Of course, this is just in theory.)
"hiss--"

"Gift crab!"

"No way, don't scare yourself..."

"Indeed, don't scare yourselves. We need more information!"

"Let's stop limiting ourselves to Earth's space program and get more of our agents out there on the move!"

"understand!"

Such meetings do not include "new space pioneers" like Elon Musk, and he has been busy lately with the escape test of the manned Dragon spacecraft.

If this test is successful, then the next Crew Dragon will be able to carry people in real flight.

Now that his competitor Boeing has faltered in the "commercial crew program," it's time for him to snatch the crew contract!
Lu Yun was also quite busy, as the first batch of satellites for the "Zhou Tian Xing Dou Da Zhen" space internet project he had previously proposed were about to be launched.

He was very optimistic about this project, and even changed the plot of "You Are My Glory" when it was being filmed.

The previous plot involved the female lead filming in the desert, where she frequently lost signal. So, the male lead went to visit her and took the opportunity to fix the temporary communication there.

Lu Yun's modification was very straightforward: he simply took a mini ground receiver for the "Zhou Tian Xing Dou Da Zhen" (a powerful array of stars) and connected it to power and wireless to make it work!

(End of this chapter)