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

"Mr. President, the experts say no."

As soon as John sat down at his desk, Sullivan brought him extremely bad news.

The B61 nuclear bomb arrived at the base of the Pacific Fleet yesterday, and the Ohio-class nuclear submarine USS Wyoming has also docked and is waiting to be modified with missile warheads. Everything is going smoothly.

It is easy to adjust the equivalent, and the equivalent of 1.6 million tons was barely approved by Congress.

However, the International Atomic Energy Agency raised objections at this time.

The reason for the objection is that the equivalent is too large, exceeding the safety value of 1.3 million tons equivalent set by the control area by about 23%.

This does not mean that too much power will damage the facilities in the control area - those are solid fortresses that can directly withstand tens of millions of tons of energy. The main problem is electromagnetic pulse.

Edo is not far from Tomishima, the straight-line distance is less than 250 kilometers, and it is completely within the coverage of a million-ton hydrogen bomb.

The 1.25 million-ton equivalent of the last Lucia was supposed to have affected Edo, but because it was an underground explosion and did not spread that far along the atmosphere, it also caused a large amount of damage and downtime to electronic equipment within a range of more than 30 kilometers. .

Ami's bomb is an air blast operation, and all its power will be released into the atmosphere. The electromagnetic pulse will definitely affect Edo.

It is a large city with a population of more than 37 million. It is surrounded by a large number of industrial and Internet bases, and there are even several large airports.

In the event of a large-scale power outage or network outage in Edo, it will last for at least 40 minutes, causing immeasurable losses. It will also seriously affect the operation of the international community. It is not a simple island country problem.

The unanimous opinion of all experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency is that the maximum explosion height is 1.3 million tons, and the explosion height should not be higher than 7 kilometers. This way, it is possible to minimize the impact on densely populated areas and industrial areas. If the equivalent is possible, it is best to suppress it to 900,000 tons. the following.

"No, 900,000 tons is ridiculous."

John shook his head at this suggestion. Wouldn't that put Lucy in first place?

“What our experts say.”

"Well... they said that the IAEA's judgment was correct. Sir, we do have to consider these impacts. Edo is the most populous city in the world. If it falls into turmoil, we will be at a very disadvantageous position."

In Sullivan's view, the result was obvious. No matter what, they would not be able to brazenly disrupt the lives of nearly 40 million people. How different would that be from actually using nuclear weapons to attack?

The level given by the IAEA is barely acceptable. 1.3 million tons is still 50,000 tons larger than 1.25 million tons. The combined equivalent of "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" is not that much.

"Damn! It's all Lucians who are dishonest!"

John seriously doubted whether Lucia had known this for a long time, so she got stuck in the line and exploded to such a large extent.

But at this point, he has no choice, and Congress must accept this result.

"Okay, let McMaster, Kelly...they all come over later, and they must explain our difficulties to the congressmen."

"Okay." Sullivan nodded, and then said:

"One more thing, the Artemis III mission is about to begin. Please prepare for the live broadcast in advance. Robert promises that this time it will be absolutely foolproof."

As soon as he mentioned aerospace, John's mood immediately became a little bad, and his face immediately darkened:

"Where's the gravity ship he promised me? That...Gravity Dragon, why haven't astronauts sat on it yet and gone around in circles?"

"I heard that they are planning to make some optimizations. You know, this kind of thing is unprecedented. You see, the Chinese's Qianjin has been under testing for so long after it was built. The same is true for the Gravity Dragon."

"I hope so, but I still need it to spin first, it's only so small!"

John made an angry gesture with his index finger and thumb in dissatisfaction, and then opened it wide:

"Musk said he would use a starship to build a rotating space station that is equally heavy. No matter whether it rotates horizontally or vertically, in short, we need a big thing that can rotate!"

…

"Ringstar Laboratory?"

Zhong Cheng looked at the project book Lin Ju gave him in surprise and quickly flipped through the contents.

After a while, he put down the folder, his face full of curiosity:

"The gravitational wave observatory was Ye Changsi's idea, and you helped him expand it?"

"Lao Ye is the vice president. In fact, he is in charge of all matters. I trust him."

Lin Ju couldn't see any displeasure on his face. He joked about who Ye Changsi was and that working in the base was overqualified.

“Building a large-scale comprehensive science center was originally our plan, and the gravitational wave observatory is just a new addition, which is a good thing.

Besides, the layout of the Huanxing Laboratory is completely different from traditional laboratories. We are going to move a large number of scientific research facilities to space. Huanxing Huanxing, is it appropriate enough? "

"Then why isn't it called Halo Laboratory?"

"This trademark has been registered."

"..."

Zhong Cheng went back and flipped through the folder, lowered his head and said while reading:

"Gravitational waves, lasers, optical quantum technology, space medicine, material manufacturing... are all cutting-edge research, and the scale is not small. If you want to make a space capsule, regardless of its weight, the price of the equipment is very expensive.

Do you know how much the survey telescope’s budget has increased now? 9.4 billion, that is not the living cabin on the Qianjin, which can be mass-produced with only a few hundred million. "

"This is not a problem. The Ring-Star Laboratory is just a term. The space part is just to create a research environment for some fields in need. The main part is still on the earth."

"That's it..."

Zhong Cheng thought for a while and finally made a decision:

"The Aerospace Development Committee supports the construction of the Halo Laboratory. Didn't the Academy of Sciences also say that we can cooperate? Let's talk to them and see how much support we can get. Let's officially launch it after April next year!"

"Thank you Mr. Zhong!"

A smile immediately broke out on Lin Ju's face, and the financial and technical pressure to build a scientific research center was reduced by half.

The role of the Aerospace Development Committee has actually become more and more prominent, a bit like the NACA conversion.

In the past, when there was only a space agency, tasks were arranged from above, and the space agency itself would concentrate on conquering technology and completing tasks.

The current Aerospace Development Commission is responsible for formulating plans, and then letting the space agency and private enterprises bid to allocate tasks. It will also provide investment and technical support to potential projects, but it does not dictate or require direct profits from them.

This model can easily use the country's superior resources to help the overall development of the entire aerospace industry, but the premise is that the private aerospace industry must be really capable of doing practical things, and it can also greatly reduce the budget pressure on the original space agency.

However, compared with NACA, the Aerospace Development Commission also controls a space agency with both research and manufacturing capabilities. NACA is basically completely dependent on contractors. The difference is still obvious.