Reborn Before the Apocalypse: My Backing is the Nation

Chapter 185 Miniature Rocket (Seeking monthly votes!!!!)

"Yes!"

The rocket engineering team and astronaut Zhuo Fangting responded simultaneously.

People rushed to the rocket warehouse as quickly as possible, discussing and calculating as they completed the selection of the rocket bodies.

Ultimately, the engineering team decided to carry out this mission with a rocket that Jiang Yang considered extremely small.

It wasn't even a normal rocket shape; it was just a cylinder, lacking the cone-shaped top that one would expect from a rocket.

It is only 3.5 meters tall and about 0.7 meters in diameter, which is equivalent to a not-too-thick tree. A person can wrap their arms around most of it.

This miniature rocket gives the impression of being small and weak at first glance, like a toy.

Now, we are going to rely on such a toy-like thing to launch Zhuo Fangting, whose total mass, including his own weight, mechanical spacesuit, and some necessary supplies, exceeds 200KG, into lunar orbit.
At this moment, rocket engineers have disassembled the rocket body, removed all electronic equipment, and begun to "lay" solid fuel inside.

The way these solid fuels are laid out will determine when the rocket burns at a fast rate, when it burns at a slow rate, when it makes minor adjustments in which direction, and so on.

Once ignited, all subsequent fuel and propulsion processes require no external intervention. Just like fireworks, once the gunpowder is loaded according to a predetermined method, the shape and color they explode in the sky no longer require human intervention.

Jiang Yang closed his eyes, trying to banish the absurd feeling that the rocket was too small from his mind.

He knew that although the rocket was small, it was perfectly capable of performing the task in the lunar environment.

Because the Moon has very low gravitational acceleration and no atmosphere, lunar rockets can be dozens of times smaller than Earth rockets to launch the same payload into orbit.

Smaller size and mass also mean reduced complexity.

It only requires some relatively simple mechanical structures to meet the requirements, and even with such a tight schedule, it can still be completed through some manual processing.

In just over half an hour, the miniature cylindrical rocket was ready. Meanwhile, Zhuo Fangting had also completed his preparations.

He put on a full mechanical spacesuit and brought enough supplies.

The miniature rocket was quickly pushed into the launch bay. Under the operation of automated equipment, the dome above the Moon City base automatically retracted, exposing the rocket in the launch bay, as well as the numerous people in spacesuits, to the vast starry sky.

The ubiquitous electromagnetic interference struck instantly, severing all communication between people.

However, now that everything is ready, there is no longer any need for communication.

In the silence, Zhuo Fangting turned around, saluted Jiang Yang, Sun Changhe and the others in front of him, then turned around and climbed up the ladder to the top of the miniature rocket.

There was no rocket arrowhead there, only a small platform with a diameter of 0.7 meters and an area of ​​less than 0.4 square meters.

On this small platform, he raised his knees, hugged himself with both hands, and tried to curl up his body as much as possible to shrink completely into the platform.

But the platform was too small; even though he had used all his strength, his feet and a section of his calves were still exposed.

But actually it doesn't matter, it doesn't really matter.

Several aerospace engineers also climbed up and secured him firmly to the top of the rocket with ropes to prevent him from falling during the subsequent violent acceleration.

The climbing frame has been removed; all preparations are complete.

Zhuo Fangting remained motionless at that moment.

The rope was tied too securely, and it was impossible to move it.

Through the helmet of his spacesuit, he clearly saw Professor Chen Yusheng make a hand gesture to the rocket engineer. There was no solemn countdown, no repeated checks and confirmations, no navigation or communication systems—nothing at all.

The rocket engineer stepped forward, grabbed the rope at the bottom of the rocket, and pulled hard.

After that, just like when we were kids playing with firecrackers, lighting them and running away quickly, everyone, including Sun Changhe, Chen Yusheng and others, left the launch chamber and went behind the explosion-proof glass.

Now he was all alone.

Zhuo Fangting took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and waited silently.

Although he couldn't see what was below, he could still sense the light below getting brighter through some reflections.

A slight tremor came from the arrow below.

The next moment, a powerful force suddenly struck, and the familiar overload pressure appeared instantly. After that, the scene Zhuo Fangting saw changed from the Moon City launch pod to the long, narrow Moon City base covered in lunar dust, and the gray-black canyon cliffs.

The field of vision continued to rise rapidly, and soon the vast lunar landscape appeared before them, before quickly shrinking back down.

The sun, which had been hanging below the horizon and only partially visible, suddenly revealed its full form, radiating light so intensely that it was impossible to look directly at it.

The intense heat shone directly on Zhuo Fangting. Instantly, the cooling source inside the spacesuit began to melt, dissipating the heat and ensuring that the temperature inside the spacesuit remained comfortable.

The immense overload pressure continued. But for Zhuo Fangting, it meant nothing.

I can withstand the overload pressure during rocket launches on Earth, so what's a little pressure here?

He waited silently like that.

In less than a minute, the overload pressure suddenly disappeared.

His body suddenly relaxed, and a feeling of weightlessness instantly enveloped him.

call……

He knew that his speed had been accelerated to about 1.7 kilometers per second, and he had entered an orbit about 55 kilometers above the lunar surface.

From this moment on, I became a true human satellite, and every 108 minutes or so, I would orbit the moon once.

That is to say... 108 minutes later, I will once again arrive above the canyon where Moon City is located.

The end of the world is not far away, and I only have two more chances to fly across that canyon.

The information must be transmitted back during these two leaps.

Extending his only movable arm, Zhuo Fangting grabbed the deliberately left end of the rope and pulled hard.

In an instant, all the ropes that had been binding him were untied.

He held onto the rope to secure himself, "standing" on the small platform at the top of the rocket, and then pushed off forcefully.

The next moment, his body and the rocket body were moving away from each other at a speed of about 5 meters per second, so there was no longer any need to worry about colliding with it.

He raised his head and, in the weightless environment, cast his gaze upon the vast sky, searching for any trace of Earth.

(End of this chapter)