This star is going to the moon

Chapter 411 The "Water Accumulation Base" After Chang'e 5's "Sky Space Base"

Seeing how a few headlines portrayed China's "unmanned probe landing on the moon" as "encroaching on American resources," space enthusiasts in the global space enthusiast community were speechless.

Science has no borders, but scientists do.

Most space enthusiasts can be considered to have no national boundaries.

After all, ordinary space enthusiasts do not participate in actual space technology research and development, nor can they influence the direction of a country's space program; they can only watch.

No matter which country it is, they are happy as long as there are space launches to watch and new space technologies to see.

It's okay if foreign space technology surpasses our own; in some cases, it can even be a good thing.

For example, in his previous life, Elon Musk created the "Starlink" space internet, which, like a "catfish," stirred up a new space landscape around the world, prompting China to also pay attention to this area and develop its own space internet.

Another one is Elon Musk's 9-meter diameter super rocket, which many Chinese space enthusiasts hope will be successful.

Because that thing was successful, China's 10-diameter Long March 9 super rocket project will definitely be approved!
That way, Chinese space enthusiasts will be able to see their own super rocket!
The American space enthusiasts in this life are the same; they are happy that Lu Yun's space shuttle is successful, and at the same time, it can also encourage the Federation to pay more attention to its own space shuttle.

For example, restarting the X-33 and Adventure Star single-stage-to-orbit space shuttle programs, or developing a two-stage-to-orbit fully recoverable spacecraft.

Even those "lazy" European countries have increased their investment in the aerospace industry and started developing reusable rockets.

This delighted space enthusiasts in those countries.

In the early days, space enthusiasts from various countries even hoped that the world would engage in another space race, so that human space technology could once again achieve great growth.

Back during the first space race, humans were already fantasizing about living in Martian cities by 2020. But when 2020 actually arrived, it was difficult for humans to even send people to the moon!
This is because the space race has ended.

And now, their wish has come true once again.

Of course, a space race must look like a space race, and the act of "slandering the space development of hostile countries" is inevitable.

You say that Americans have always done this, and even if you don't do it, they will still slander you?

That's fine.

After chatting among space enthusiasts around the world, they basically understood the situation. Moreover, the space enthusiasts from the United States are very familiar with American netizens and said that these people are just making noise online and will not actually go offline to fight the Chinese.

After all, the US carrier strike groups are unwilling to wander aimlessly within the first island chain.

Knowing this, everyone happily chatted about their lunar fantasies in the group.

Do you think there's really water in the Schalketon pit?

I feel there's an 80% chance of finding solid water ice, but we might have to dig deeper.

Indeed, there is a very high probability that there is water at the lunar poles, and Sharkton has always been a top priority. I even think it definitely has water ice, but it might not be easy to use in the future.

[Especially in the early stages of establishing the research station, with a 4-kilometer-deep meteorite crater, how to transport the mined ice ore out was a major problem.] [Yes, a 4-kilometer-long conveyor belt, or even 8 kilometers if angled, would have to be assembled section by section, and it's unknown how many transport trips would be needed to piece together a conveyor belt several kilometers long.]

It would be extremely difficult for humans to conduct industrial production on the moon.

[I even feel that a transport belt several kilometers long is too far-fetched. Humanity should probably return to the moon first, stay there for a week or two, and then think about other things.]

Indeed, the last time humans stayed on the lunar surface was for a maximum of 3 days and 3 hours at a time. Records need to be established gradually; mining should be considered later.

[I wonder if Wu Gang's landing at one of NASA's selected landing sites will have any impact on Americans. Can any American friends predict whether this will intensify competition?]

[They probably will, given that public sentiment has been stirred up and Deng Xiaoping has just taken office; he'll likely respond.]

[That's right, the Deng team will definitely react. Although the planned landing site is not the final landing site, there's nothing that can be done if other countries land there first. In fact, Shalkton is a hotspot, with many countries with unmanned or manned lunar landing programs wanting to land there. Now that China has landed first, and the US is actively engaging in a space race with China, Deng will definitely take some action.]

Yes, especially with Trump's original 2024 plan to return to the moon, now that the results are going to benefit Biden, he will definitely attach great importance to the lunar mission.

"Wouldn't that be quite a show?"

[However, the US doesn't seem to have any lunar missions planned recently. The SLS maiden flight and the Orion unmanned lunar orbit mission have been postponed to next year. Could it be that they're pushing forward with those commercial lunar landing programs?]

[That depends on how you define "recently." Anyway, there's a federal commercial unmanned lunar mission in July, with the Peregrine lander making its maiden flight aboard a Vulcan Centaur rocket...]

[Guys, let's not talk about that now. There's new news about Lu Yun. He gave an official interview and announced the name of the "Wu Gang" landing site...]

"...The area surrounding the landing site of our 'Wu Gang' No. 1 probe has been officially named 'Jishui Base' and has been submitted to the International Astronomical Union."

Lu Yun spoke eloquently into the microphone: "This name is in line with the name of the area surrounding the Chang'e 5 landing site, 'Tianchuan Base,' both directly adopting the name of the 'star official' of the Stomach constellation."

"This naming continues the cultural heritage of ancient star officials in modern aerospace engineering and marks the integration of traditional astronomical systems with contemporary scientific and technological achievements."

"And the 'accumulated water' is also related to the 'spaceship,' referring to the 'accumulated water inside the spaceship,' a metaphor for the storage of liquid resources and the improvement of the spaceship's ecosystem. This is very suitable for this lunar water-finding mission, and we hope it will bring good luck to the mission..."

The space program of Laos and China is indeed related to many ancient myths. It is not surprising for the audience to hear this. After all, the history is too long and the myths and legends are too rich. They can always find a suitable name.

On the contrary, if a space program adopts a rather casual or modern name, people will question its legitimacy.

Of course, there are also names that sound less dignified, such as "Zhou Tian Xing Dou Da Zhen" (周天星斗大阵), named by Lu Yunqi.

Sometimes... it's better to be more mature and prudent; it's really not reassuring to see young people causing trouble.

While the Chinese were having a heated discussion all day and night was falling, it was gradually getting light in the Americans' place.

The newly appointed White House President, Old Deng, is getting old and needs less sleep, so he receives the daily important information briefings very early on.

This includes the fact that China's probe occupied the pre-selected landing area for the US's return to the moon.

(End of this chapter)