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

On the morning of July 3, Shuguang-3 detected some radio signals.

The emission source of these signals is not far from them, and they are very regular call signs, which can be recognized and played without cracking the FM tuner.

“Dawn Three, it’s Artemis, Reid Wiseman (This is Artemis, I’m Reid Wiseman)

Dawn Three, it’s Artemis, Reid Wiseman”

It seems that these aliens not only transmit radio using international standards, but also speak English... Of course not, the signal comes from Artemis 2, and Commander Reed Wiseman is calling Dawn 3 on the public channel.

Under the gazes of Fang Lin and Ding Jihua, Zhang Zhiguang picked up the microphone and put it on his chin, and also tuned to the same frequency:

"This is Shuguang 3. On behalf of everyone on board, I say hello to you."

Time goes back half an hour.

Both the Orion spacecraft and the Dawn spacecraft are equipped with synthetic aperture radars with extremely high detection range and resolution. This is not only used for docking missions, but also for detailed detection of landing sites on the lunar surface when orbiting the moon.

Space is not affected by the curvature of the earth, air, and mountains like the atmosphere. As long as radiation and clutter are properly dealt with, the empty vacuum is very friendly to radar, and the detection range can easily be increased dozens of times.

Abnormal signals appeared on the radars of Artemis 2 and Dawn 3 almost at the same time, and they quickly understood who this anomaly was.

Reed Wiseman called directly on the radio without permission from the ground, and Dawn 3 responded quickly after holding a small branch meeting.

No one on Artemis 2 can speak Chinese, and although the crew of Dawn 3 can speak Chinese, they obviously have no intention of responding in English.

Dawn 3 could understand what Reed Wiseman said without much effort, while the four people on the Orion spacecraft on the other side had to surround the translator in Victor Glover's hand.

Each astronaut has a certain load to carry personal belongings when setting off, and Victor chose to put a translator inside.

Although the machine translation seems a bit laborious, you can still understand it, but you have to wait for a while.

"Victor, is this an authentic iFlytek product? Why is it so slow?"

"Man, this is space!"

"But it is advertised for offline use."

As Jeremy Hanson quarreled with Grover, he glanced out the window.

From the moment communication was established with Dawn 3, the atmosphere on the Artemis 2 spacecraft became much more relaxed.

Compared with Dawn 3, they had been under a lot of pressure in the past dozens of hours, and they were more or less anxious.

Who could have imagined that they had to repair the lander before landing on the moon? According to information provided by ground engineers, the entire maintenance process will last 3 to 6 hours, which is a severe test for their physical fitness and spirit.

The communication with Houston has almost always been about how to repair the "Blue Moon". Now the communication with Dawn 3 is like the crew of a broken ship meeting a passing cruise ship. Knowing the other party's existence can make people feel at ease.

Through the changes in the relative coordinates on the radar, Wiseman analyzed the approximate orbits of the two spacecrafts and learned that it should be the nearest intersection. The closest distance was less than 2,000 kilometers and could last at least one hour. Stable communication.

The four people took turns talking on the radio, talking about everything except the mission itself, leaving the three people on Dawn 3 confused.

Are all foreigners so enthusiastic? We have only been away for two days, so we don’t miss humans so much, right?

It wasn't until the distance became farther and the signal became weaker and weaker that Koch finally hung up the communication.

Zhang Zhiguang compiled the entire communication recording and sent it back to the ground. He always felt that something was not right.

Astronaut training must include extremely rigorous psychological tests, and from the call just now, it was obvious that the crew of Artemis 2 was a little... anxious? Still worried?

This shouldn't happen to the astronauts selected for the moon landing, something must have happened.

…

Huayin.

"Baddis, how is the progress of the Veneto rocket?"

"Uh, progress... is in progress..."

Seeing the other party's hesitant answer, Serev felt a little uncomfortable.

This is his first day in Huayin. As a representative of the main domestic private aerospace contractor, he is providing technical consultation. As soon as he arrives at the place, he first conducts a thorough investigation of the aerospace scale and technology of the major technical partner countries.

First, it started with the Veneto rocket jointly developed by Italy and R\u0026D. Five months have passed. As a "quasi-successful" rocket whose engine, rocket body and recovery technology have been solved, it will not be long before the first rocket makes its first flight. Bar?

However, Badis's evasive expression made him frown, and he was forced to tell the truth after questioning.

"Right now... we are building a first-stage prototype rocket casing for testing."

Serev: "The 5.4-meter-diameter rocket body is Ariane 5's mature technology. You should have started this work three months ago!"

Badis: "That's true, but the rocket body is very time-consuming to manufacture, and it requires help from Germany for testing, which often requires coordination among three countries...

But the first flight will definitely be achieved next year, and we are already working hard to improve efficiency. "

Serev didn't know what to say when he thought that the 18 engines built last year would be kept in the warehouse for another year.

He looked at Antoine, the representative of Lai Guo Aerospace. The core-level progress was delayed, so there couldn't be a problem with the EAP, right?

Antoine felt a little embarrassed under Serev's burning gaze:

"The EAP will be completed this year according to our plan. The combustion chamber is under construction, so it should be in time. And for the time being, our main focus is on the Hermes space shuttle."

"What about the shuttle?"

"We started manufacturing static test prototypes last month."

"..."

Serev left the temporary conference room in despair, and met Shen Zuozhou who had just completed the work of connecting with Lucia.

The two walked into the superior's rest room together and sat down on the sofa.

"How about it? Tomorrow we will start with the scale of the lunar base and the allocation of launch mission shares. Do you have any ideas?"

Shen Zuozhou: "According to my communication with Director Borisov, the only large-scale carrier rockets currently in service are the Proton and Angara A5 rockets. The former still has a lot of inventory, and the latter can be launched twice a year, but both Only unmanned probes or small payloads can be launched.

The large rocket under development is the Hurricane rocket. They say it will make its first flight in mid-2018. If it is put into use, it will be a giant rocket like the Long March 10, and it can be reused and launched with a high frequency. "

Superior: "Do you think they can be put into use on time?"

Shen Zuozhou was hesitating, but Serev took the lead and said, "I can't believe Mao Zi's words."

"..."

"..."

"Let me talk about Italy and Italy. My opinion is that their launch capabilities will be close to zero in two or even three years. At most, they can launch satellites into lunar orbit. In fact, Lucia is almost in this state and can launch frequently. Small and medium-sized rockets are simply useless for lunar missions.

In fact, if we only consider the help to the moon base, the combined power of the three countries is not as good as Aberdeen's contribution to us. "

Serev ignored the helpless expressions of the two and continued:

"Among the four countries, we are the only ones with large-scale construction and manned landing capabilities. They can at most provide some equipment. For example, Lucia can provide some cheap isotope batteries or European chemical equipment, which are pretty good... In fact, it is not too different. What we lack most is probably capital rather than technology.”

Superior: "But if that's the case, they may not be willing to accept such cooperation."

Serev: "Then agree to them. Anyway, no one can complete the tasks other than these except us. The result is the same; the only person in the world who can stand in the same echelon as us is Ami.

They will accept cooperation, for sure. "

The words obviously meant something, and the superior quickly figured it out.

"You mean Tianmu No. 2."

"Yes, we not only need to complete the Tianmu-2 mission, but also vigorously publicize it to let them know that we can carry out large-scale lunar operations without relying on cooperation. It is never Su... we are seeking cooperation, but they need to rely on us. Only in this way can we keep up with the aerospace era.

Before the breakthrough of giant launch vehicles, there was not much difference in the voice of these countries, and we treated them equally. "