This star is going to the moon

Chapter 439 Rule Maker - Lu Yun, Lao-Chinese Leader of the International Lunar Research Station (Two-in-One)

"Hayabusa 2 is really living the high life! He's actually giving gifts, hosting parties, and campaigning for votes in private. I just happened to see it at noon today!"

"Wow, it seems that Xiao Rizi knows he has no advantage but is still unwilling to give up, so he resorts to these kinds of underhanded tactics."

"It's alright, we're following the proper path. Lu Yun's individual 'World Space Award' is already a done deal, and the team award... actually, he doesn't care about either award. After all, as a member of the International Astronautical Federation, he can vote for himself, but he didn't even come..."

"Indeed, Comrade Lu Yun seems to care little about honors and such; he only values ​​actual achievements."

"Yes, I've met Lu Yun. He's the kind of person who doesn't care about honors. He doesn't make films according to the standards of award judges, but only to satisfy the majority of the audience. It's the same with participating in technological research and development. He's just doing it to fulfill his dream of reaching for the stars. Honors are just icing on the cake."

"There's nothing we can do about it. Comrade Xiao Lu may not care, but we can't ignore it. World-class honors are very important to the country; they're needed when ranking countries around the world..."

"Alright, alright, that's enough, time to vote..."

………………

According to information obtained by reporters in Paris, voting for this year's "World Space Awards" individual and team awards has concluded. The individual award went to Lu Yun, and the team award also went to Lu Yun... and his "Wooden Kite" class space shuttle development team!

The voting results in Paris came out at 3 p.m., while in China they were at 9 p.m., which is when many people are surfing the internet.

So when this information was released, it quickly became a trending topic on major websites.

【Holy crap, is this for real?】

[It's true, you can already find it on the International Astronautical Federation's official website!]

Wow, the foreigners have finally figured it out this year; they actually gave us the highest honor in the world of spaceflight?!

[We received a team award for the Chang'e 4 lunar landing, but we didn't expect to receive both an individual and a team award this time.]

[The individual award going to Lu Yun is a foregone conclusion, while our competitors for the team award are the US and the European Union. All three sides will definitely vote for us. The European Union has always wanted to break free from US influence and interference, and now many of their countries are using Lu Yun's reusable rocket technology, so they will definitely vote for Lu Yun.]

No wonder. Europe has a history of wealth and power; they certainly aren't willing to be America's little brother. Now that someone is challenging America, they're bound to do something sneaky.

[Haha, anyway, we've won the highest award in the aerospace field. Let's see what those who looked down on us have to say now!]

[Lu Yun is awesome!]

Our country is still too concerned about foreign awards. I wonder when we can create our own awards and let foreigners compete for them; that would be true strength.

Indeed, just like the Oscars, which originated as an American academic award, have now become the world's biggest film award. Film industries around the world consider winning an Oscar an honor, and many directors and actors in our country are also eager to win one. If they don't win, they are ridiculed as having terrible and outdated films.

[The same goes for the Nobel Prize. People always compare a country's strength to the number of Nobel Prizes it has won, especially those from smaller countries. But are many of our country's scientific and technological achievements really not Nobel Prizes because they are rubbish, or for other reasons?]

[Whether or not you can win a Nobel Prize depends not only on technical factors, but also on a lot of luck. Historically, there have been many instances where several teams researched the same project and got stuck, but some teams were lucky enough to solve it a few days earlier and then won the Nobel Prize.]

[Some teams achieve a passing grade of 60 points on their projects, which is enough to qualify for a Nobel Prize, but they are not satisfied and want to achieve 80 points. Meanwhile, some teams apply for the Nobel Prize immediately after achieving 60 points, and the first team misses out.]

Have you noticed that Lu Yun doesn't care about awards at all? He didn't even go to the World Space Award selection ceremony this time; instead, he sent the project's deputy chief designer with a few other people.

[Haha, that's because Lu Yun is now a trendsetter in certain aerospace fields; he's the one who sets the rules, and he doesn't care about these trivial things at all.]

Indeed, many countries are now using Lu Yun's "large-scale technology integration theory" and some open-source reusable rocket technologies to develop their own reusable rockets. They might even lease or purchase the "Wooden Kite" class space shuttle in the future, or even develop their own space shuttles according to the "Wooden Kite" standard...

While netizens were discussing the news, Rowoon was filming a night scene, so his phone wasn't nearby. He only saw the good news after filming was over.

However, Lu Yun really doesn't care about these things.

Of course, he will definitely be present at the awards ceremony, since it takes place at the International Astronautical Congress, which he attends every year.

Lu Yun didn't care about these things. What the country really needed was not only to receive various honors, but also to carry out various forms of publicity.

Because this is part of national strength, it must be promoted.

This coincided with the unveiling ceremony of the first batch of scientific images of the Tianwen-1 probe landing on Mars, held by the China National Space Administration in Beijing.

In addition to the few group photos taken by the Mars rover when it first arrived on Mars, more video footage was released this time.

For example, images of the lander landing moment, various terrain features, Martian rock formations, and the landing capsule and parachute photographed by the "Nezha" Mars rover.

(picture)
The release of the first batch of scientific images marks the complete success of Laos-China's first Mars exploration mission.

That wasn't the end of it. Within a week, the Chinese government announced another major move.

That is, the China National Space Administration and the Russian National Space Corporation jointly hosted the Global Forum on the Roadmap for International Lunar Research Stations.

The "roadmap" and "guidelines" jointly released by the two countries to the international community introduce the concept, scientific fields, implementation methods, and cooperation opportunities of the International Lunar Research Station, which will help international partners have broad opportunities to participate in the planning, demonstration, design, development, implementation, and operation of the International Lunar Research Station.

Although the roadmap for the international lunar research station was jointly released by the two countries, it is actually a joint project between Laos and China and many other countries, including Russia.

The research station will eventually become a comprehensive scientific experimental facility that can operate autonomously on the lunar surface and in lunar orbit for long periods, with short periods of manned participation, and is scalable and maintainable.

The research station consists of five major infrastructure systems: the Earth-Moon transportation system, the lunar long-term operation support system, the lunar transportation and operating system, the lunar scientific research facilities system, and the ground support and application system.

It possesses capabilities in energy supply, central control, communication and navigation, space-to-ground transportation, lunar scientific research, and ground support, and can support multi-disciplinary, multi-objective, and large-scale scientific and technological activities such as scientific exploration and research, resource development and utilization, and cutting-edge technology verification.

The International Lunar Research Station will conduct multidisciplinary and multi-objective scientific research activities, including lunar exploration and utilization, lunar-based observation, basic scientific experiments, and technological verification.

Based on the principles of "overall planning, phased implementation, and simultaneous construction and use," the International Lunar Research Station will be implemented in three phases.

(Illustration of the first phase of the International Lunar Research Station project)
The first phase of the International Lunar Research Station project involves unmanned exploration, expanding upon the Chang'e-7 and Chang'e-8 missions. This expansion includes Russia launching one or two landing probes.

Countries that join later and have strong space capabilities can also launch their own probes.

If you don't have the capability, you can install the equipment on the detectors of the Chinese and Russians.

Even if someone has no real talent, you can still show your support and cheer them on.

The second phase is to build a three-dimensional communication and detection network, including a lunar orbital space station and a comprehensive communication, navigation and remote sensing constellation. This will not only enable the exploration of the Sun-Earth-Moon space environment and scientific experiments, but also serve manned lunar landings and deep space explorations such as Mars and Venus.

The second phase includes China and Laos' first manned lunar landing mission.

The third phase of the International Lunar Research Station project will involve building a manned, application-oriented lunar research station, gradually upgrading it from a research-oriented experimental station to a practical, multi-functional lunar base.

Just like the International Space Station today.

In other words, besides cooperation on some equipment, other participating countries can even realize their own dream of manned lunar landing by boarding a lunar spacecraft!

As soon as this plan was announced, the Americans reacted immediately!

After all, it was the leader of the International Space Station, and it knows what it feels like to be the boss!
So NASA and the White House immediately held an emergency meeting.

"I'm not even going to act anymore!"

"The Chinese also said they wouldn't engage in a space race, what does that mean?"

"Exactly! Nobody understands the space race better than us. They've officially started dividing into factions, just like NATO and the Warsaw Pact back then!"

“That’s right. I think this international lunar research station roadmap is aligned with our Artemis Accord.”

"Fortunately, their plan has just been announced, and currently there are no other signatories besides China and Russia. Our Artemis Accords already have 10 signatories, including countries with good spacefaring capabilities like Japan and Italy."

"The number of signatory countries doesn't really matter. The key is the strength of the countries. We are undoubtedly the world's leading spacefaring nation, while China and Russia are second and third, respectively. The European Space Agency is fourth, but it has 22 member states, yet only three countries have signed the Artemis Accords."

"Yes, we need to bring powerful spacefaring nations into the Artemis Agreement as soon as possible, such as India. I've seen data showing that their spacefaring capabilities have increased rapidly in recent years, and they will be carrying out their own manned spaceflight program next year. If successful, they will become the fourth country in the world to independently master manned spaceflight technology, second only to us, Russia, and China."

“Well… Mr. Smith,” the NASA technician said, “it’s a bit hard to say about Indian space technology; you can’t completely trust their PowerPoint presentations.”

"Moreover, even if they achieve manned spaceflight, it is not 'independently controlled,' because we participated in their manned spaceflight program and they also purchased a lot of our technology and equipment."

“…Alright,” Smith said, “but India’s space capabilities are quite good globally, and they are also well-rounded, unlike other countries that can only provide us with supporting services. So I still prefer to bring them into the Artemis Agreement.”

“That works. India is also a major democratic country, which fits our criteria for winning them over. However, they have big appetites, so we need to apply for some resources.”

"Yes, I will report to the President."

"Actually, the main contributors to the international lunar research station that China and Russia are cooperating on are China. After all, we are currently cooperating with Russia on the International Space Station, and we know how much its aerospace technology has declined. It is not the same as it was decades ago. So we can mainly deal with China."

"Lu Yun is one of the key figures in the Lao-Chinese manned lunar landing mission. Should we...?"

"No, this is not decades ago anymore, and the Chinese are not like the Russians. Doing that kind of thing would have too much of a negative impact."

"It's not that it's impossible, it's just a matter of how to make it more discreet."

"No, no matter how secretive we are, if anything happens to Lu Yun, we will be the biggest beneficiaries. Even if we didn't do it, we would still be the ones to do it, not to mention that we are capable of doing it!"

"Let's talk about that later. I'll give the President a summary report of today's meeting first..."

While the Americans were having their meetings, other countries around the world were also having theirs.

The US Artemis Accords were released last year, and seven countries signed them immediately. However, almost a year has passed, and the number of signatories has only just exceeded ten.

Actually, the Americans had contacted quite a few countries before, but everyone's response was the same...

"This is a pretty great plan, please let us consider it."

The main reason is that everyone knows what kind of people the Americans are; cooperating with them means you have to put up with their constant interference and meddling.

Therefore, they certainly won't easily sign a contract with the Americans until they're driven to a dead end and receive enough benefits.

Most importantly, they also wanted to see what the Chinese side would do.

After all, everyone knows that China is actually engaged in a new round of space race with the United States, and now China is leading in low Earth orbit, just like the other pole in the past, but is slightly behind on the moon.

However, as China also announced its own timeline for a manned lunar landing, apart from those who were just watching the spectacle and actually believed it was 2026, those who know a little about the subject can calculate the timeline and know that China may also be able to land a man on the moon in 2024.

This is a direct confrontation with the US's return to the moon program.

Currently, China is leading in low Earth orbit and keeping pace with China in lunar exploration, so they want to...

They'll help whoever wins!
There had been rumors before that China and Russia were planning an international lunar research station, so they wanted to wait and see how things went.

And now the wind we've been waiting for has finally arrived.

Therefore, many countries plan to wait until next year to make a decision.

Because two heavyweight rockets will be making their maiden flights next year: the US's SLS lunar rocket and China's Long March 10 lunar rocket!
Perhaps the balance of power will become clear next year...

(End of this chapter)