I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

At the same time as the "Usagi" core module was launched - that is, on the evening of June 25th, Aramco time, the "Blue Moon" lander was launched from the LC-39A launch pad by the Falcon Heavy.

The crew of Artemis 2 touched the lander that would carry their mission to the moon and prayed to themselves before it closed its fairing.

Every astronaut is a qualified engineer. They know very well how rushed the spacecraft they are sitting on and how big the danger is coming.

"But not as big as Neal and Buzz, right?"

Claire stood behind the camera and watched as three men and one woman took a group photo wearing orange spacesuits under a giant flag, and said this to express encouragement.

"You are heroes, no matter whether you can land on the moon or not. As long as the landing mission must be canceled due to conditions, no one will hold you accountable. The lives of the astronauts are the most important."

Then he paused: "If you have an accident, the Artemis 2 accident investigation team will stay at our headquarters for at least a year, so please be responsible for your own life. I also guarantee with my honor that even if the plan is advanced, , all launch preparation and testing procedures must be correct, and there must be no defects in the launch!”

In the direction visible from the windows of the five people, the urgently transported SLS rocket was being erected in the dark. Some possible testing projects had already begun, trying to shorten the preparation time.

Reed Wiseman: “But taking risks is also part of history.”

"As astronauts, we are always taking risks. The most indispensable thing in space is danger. A little accident can kill us." Black Victor added.

"No." Claire patted Victor on the shoulder. Although the latter was black, he was one of the few outstanding pilots and engineers. He could not feel the disgust that Nige felt from him.

"HALO and PPE have been launched, at least you are very safe there."

Unlike Dawn 3, the landing process of Artemis 2 is that the "Blue Moon" launched successively and the on-orbit fueling device first dock in the lunar orbit to transfer fuel, and then the former maneuvers to the "Gateway" space station to dock. Go to the HALO (Logistics and Accommodation Outpost Module) module and wait for the Orion spacecraft to dock with four astronauts on HALO.

After that, the astronauts will move to the "Blue Moon", complete the moon landing mission, and then return to dock with HALO.

The entire mission requires four dockings and three separations to complete, but due to the advancement of electronic technology, the problem is not big.

Just like the original world-line six-engine Long March 5 that slowly "assembled" the moon landing spacecraft by slowly adding small parts one by one, the advancement of orbital docking technology after the new century has actually significantly reduced the demand for rocket capacity.

"Portal", like "Black Rabbit", is an insurance for astronauts on the moon.

"But the space of the 'Portal' is less than 4 cubic meters, not 4 square meters, but 4 cubic meters, and the weight is 8 tons. Why does their 'Black Rabbit' weigh 50 tons?"

Seeing Victor's unappreciative retort, Claire silently branded him the newly canceled Nig label in her mind.

This problem is not the first of its kind for Victor. A few days ago, the parliament questioned why the total budget of "Black Rabbit" is less than 30% of that of "Portal" but it can be so large.

The people asking these questions are all people who are blinded by the exchange rate. A rivet costs 1 RMB across the sea and is worth 1 US dollar when shipped over. However, Aramco’s own production costs at least 3 US dollars, and the labor cost of hammering this rivet is at least 3 US dollars. Three to five times that of the opposite side.

So every time Claire sees someone saying that those people are doing whatever they want with only 1/10 of the budget, without taking into account the situation of the United States. Although it is true that the expenditure is much higher, it is certainly not that exaggerated.

Now John is vigorously promoting "Made in Aramco" to replace "Made in China". I heard that he will ask the central bank to raise the RMB exchange rate in the consultations in the second half of the year. By then, the contrast will not be so strong.

It is said that John is quite dissatisfied with the exchange rate of 6.8 and believes that 3 to 4 RMB per US dollar is more reasonable.

Claire, whose thoughts were disturbed by Victor's back talk, ignored the question with an unchanging expression, continued to fill the astronauts with chicken soup, let them rest, and then hurried to the launch pad.

The two largest contractors, Boeing and Lockheed, have also gone all out to send a large team of elite engineers to work non-stop and are conducting final inspections of the orange cans.

He went to the person in charge of Boeing and asked directly how long it would take before the launch.

The other person held out a palm.

"It takes five days to complete the testing process, and there are still some parameters that cannot be corrected before leaving the factory, and then it takes half a day to refuel and launch."

Claire: "Three days, including launch, which means we must be able to launch on June 29th, Beijing time. It can be half a day earlier."

Without waiting for the other party to shake his head, Claire continued:

"You treat one day as three days and rotate the work, that's nine days, which is enough time."

"We are already doing this, five days is already the compressed limit, and now the manpower here has reached maximum capacity."

"Then treat one day as five days. Whatever you want, a Brazilian dancer or a Cuban cigar? Anything else is fine. You can satisfy them all.

We need to win, God bless the Yankees. "

…

Class B base.

In the CEO's office, Ye Changsi looked at the innocent Xiao Gangtian with black lines on his head, and pointed at him vigorously: "You, you, you..."

Then he turned to look at Lin Ju who was very interested and said in horror:

"No, how can you name it after me?"

Xiao Gangtian: "Mr. Ye, no one can cover up your great achievements!"

"What happened in the previous life doesn't count!"

The two people continued to argue, while Lin Ju carefully read the detection plan submitted by Xiao Gangtian:

"Descendant" solar probe: a 1,500-kilogram solar probe that will detect the sun's surface and pass through the corona at high speed to collect more detailed solar activity data;

"Golden Crow" Mercury probe: 3,400 kilograms, designed to detect Mercury;

"Changsi" asteroid detector: 5,400 kilograms, detecting the "Lingshen" asteroid between Mars and Jupiter;

There are three detectors in total, which respectively detect the sun, Mercury and the asteroid belt. Among them, the "Lingshen" mission is mainly to survey its resources. Data shows that this is a planet almost entirely made of iron, nickel, gold and other metals. The asteroids formed weigh as much as 270 million tons, exploring the way for large-scale development in advance.

These three are regular exploration missions that fill the sequence, and they are all within the asteroid belt.

Celestial objects such as Saturn and Jupiter outside the asteroid belt are too far away and take too long to fly there. It is more appropriate to wait for future nuclear-powered propulsion devices to become cheaper before launching them. Moreover, those areas are currently out of reach.

The Voyager and other deep space probes promoted by NACA back then were because they caught up with the rare chance that several major planets in the solar system would form a line, and could use their gravity to accelerate once when passing through each planet. Now it is too difficult to simply launch a rocket. It's slow and not worth it.