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

Deng Lei, who was in immersion mode, kept holding his watch. When he could see the Pacific Ocean, he concentrated on looking for abnormalities in the vast sea.

However, he also knew that this was a useless effort. Not to mention that the Eastern Hemisphere was now facing the sun. Even if his back was turned to the sun, it was unlikely that he would see the light from a small rocket.

Only the ultra-large-area CCD of infrared remote sensing satellites can accurately capture the target at the first time, especially agricultural production estimation satellites.

In fact, the difficulty of agricultural production estimation satellites is much higher than that of anti-missile monitoring satellites. Although they are both infrared remote sensing satellites, the accuracy requirements for agricultural production estimation are extremely high.

When crops are damaged by insect pests or floods, and the rice ears are less plump or drooping, the temperature observed from space will fluctuate slightly by a few tenths of a degree Celsius. Agricultural yield estimation satellites need to span hundreds of kilometers to eliminate countless interferences and accurately The condition of crops can be judged by the extremely weak changes in infrared radiation. On the contrary, the flames when the missile is launched are like blazing torches in the dark, which is extremely difficult for people to ignore.

Otherwise, it is important to develop modern agriculture...

Of course, Deng Lei's eyes were not infrared CCDs. He started looking for them at 10:50. After 15 minutes, he couldn't find any abnormalities. He once suspected that the headset was malfunctioning.

Just when he was about to turn off the immersion mode, a tiny but dazzling white light spot suddenly appeared on the slow-moving blue land.

The light spot originated from the edge of Honshu Island and occupied about one-tenth of the entire Honshu Island in an instant. It was like a hole in the color projection screen, emitting bright white light.

But this only lasted for more than ten seconds. The white light quickly turned to yellow and the brightness dropped sharply. It was replaced by a cyclone that gradually expanded outward. Deng Lei knew that it was the shape of a mushroom cloud.

The growing mushroom cloud was much more spectacular than the light from the explosion, covering almost the entire northwest of Honshu Island. He could imagine how shocking it would look from the ground.

His sight remained on the explosion point until the Dawn-1 spacecraft, which had entered the middle and late stages of acceleration, entered the southern hemisphere and was out of sight.

…

Florida.

"No! I don't want to see this kind of thing again!"

Victor sat in the command module of Artemis 3 and started complaining directly on the radio.

It is now 9 a.m. Central Time on the 20th. When the nuclear bomb exploded eleven hours ago, NACA saw a spacecraft leaving the Tiangong Space Station and flying towards the moon.

Dawn 1's operation was not announced in a low-key manner until half an hour before departure. Only then did NACA realize that they had dispatched the advance team in advance without any moral ethics.

So Artemis 3 will arrive on the moon on the same day as them?

Not to mention how John turned into a desktop cleaning master. Although Robert had no advance launch plan, he also asked Victor to "not waste time doing unnecessary things."

This feeling of being forced into competition immediately brought back unpleasant memories for Victor, and for him this kind of thing has already formed PTSD.

"Victor, this is our obligation, and NACA will not reduce any pre-landing procedures this time, so there is no need to worry about accidents."

Deputy Chief Jim tried to comfort him, but Robert remained silent and expressionless.

He has determined that his Chinese colleagues are deliberately targeting him. Otherwise, would they be rushing to the moon to spend Christmas Eve?

Maybe those colleagues laughed and named this flight "Operation Santa Claus", then changed the code name of Dawn 1 to "Elk", and deliberately went to the moon in advance to deliver Christmas gifts to Artemis 3?

But everyone at NACA will not accept another risk. The heavy losses that were almost caused in July have made the entire Aramco aerospace industry treat manned flights with unprecedented seriousness and caution. It is estimated that it will take four to five years to barely forget the haze of Artemis 2. .

Robert can only hope that Victor and others will have better luck, even if they are a minute early, it is a good thing.

"ten, nine..."

The launch pad where SLS was launched five months ago sounded a countdown again, and a large amount of white mist began to emerge from the tail of the SLX rocket.

As a giant rocket with the second largest number of engines and the third largest thrust in the world, the first-level technology originally prepared for starships has become fully mature, and its reliability as a disposable rocket has passed.

33 liquid oxygen methane engines started in an orderly manner, driving the Artemis 3 crew on their second journey to the moon.

On the journey to the moon, two teams once again travel together.

…

The success of Artemis III made Robert relax a little. In his opinion, the darkest page of NACA had been turned and everything was on track.

He did not stay long in Houston and returned to the headquarters again in the evening, where more things were waiting for him.

The first is the lunar plan, which also includes the lunar blasting plan. I wonder if I am addicted to nuclear bombs. Hexagon revealed that United Mining may conduct a lunar nuclear test as early as March.

Compared with the three "little things" on the earth, the "engineering explosive devices" of the lunar project are the heavyweights.

The third air-burst hydrogen bomb exploded yesterday had a yield of 1.32 million tons, which was just right on the red line calibrated by the IAEA.

Even if the explosion height was deliberately lowered, it is said that the flash of the nuclear explosion can still be seen from high-rise buildings in Tokyo. Unprotected civilian communications and power facilities in the entire controlled area were paralyzed. The media claimed that it caused at least two trillion daily damage. Yuan of permanent loss.

What about the moon? A yield of 1.5 million tons is just an appetizer, and there are even crazy plans with a yield of 100 million tons. Robert doubts that the explosion will affect spacecraft in Earth orbit.

This plan alone gives Robert a headache, not to mention the upcoming construction of the lunar base and the Mars exploration plan in the first half of next year.

Just after finishing processing the pile of documents, Boris from the Mars exploration team came to the door again.

The intensive Mars exploration plan of the Aerospace Development Commission is no secret, and NACA is naturally following up with gritted teeth. However, the specific process is still responsible for Boris, who is extremely familiar with Mars.

Robert briefly scanned his plan and felt that there was no big problem, but when he saw Boris closing the door, he seemed hesitant to speak.

"What happened Boris? If the funds are not enough we can add more."

Boris hesitated for a long time and said something completely unexpected to him:

"Director, our Mars satellite intercepted an unknown signal. Judging from the format, it does not belong to any Mars probe we know and cannot be decrypted.

Although it looks very much like a naturally formed star emitted, we judge that there is a 90% chance that it has been modulated by intelligent life, and I suspect that the emission source is near Mars. "