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

"F**K, this is definitely the most expensive thing ever."

John looked at the "good news" just submitted by NACA and kept complaining to Sullivan next to him.

A month has passed since the A105 nuclear engine was shipped to Boeing's Seattle factory, and good news finally came.

After a team of more than 200 people worked day and night, the A105 engine has been successfully combined with the repaired space shuttle.

Just three hours ago, the nuclear engine provided a steady stream of power to the space shuttle for the first time. It is expected to complete all necessary debugging and safety tests before April, and carry out manned launch missions from May to June.

It is worth mentioning the installation process of the A105 engine. It first needs to be fully tested at the test site before being shipped to the factory for final assembly. It will not stop burning from its first operation until the expected 10-year scrappage period.

In order to save volume and precious weight, the A105 reactor not only uses higher concentration nuclear fuel, but also has a non-replaceable design. However, NACA is confident that it can completely squeeze out the value of an expensive engine within 10 years.

The safety when the engine is not working has also been confirmed. The conventional radiation value of A105 is lower than the normal value, and no safety accidents occurred.

It seems that the FATS plan is going very smoothly, but the fly in the ointment is the current quoted price - US$9.97 billion.

Including the manpower required for the repair and transformation of Endeavor, as well as the cost of re-developing accessories, plus the cost of the A105 engine, the cost of nuclear power transformation of the space shuttle alone is infinitely close to 10 billion US dollars, much higher than the original Set at US$3 billion.

Even more annoying is the launch problem. The SLS rocket cannot launch the space shuttle, and new storage tanks need to be produced. The total cost of Endeavor's first launch is expected to be as high as 11.5 billion US dollars.

Although most of these costs are research and development expenses, and continued production can be significantly reduced by amortization, the rocket that launched the space shuttle cannot be reused for the time being, and NACA is unwilling to accept the original extremely expensive quotation. Boeing is looking for other ways to use it. Launch a space shuttle.

John felt a headache when he saw those dazzling quotations. Even if the aerospace budget would receive unhindered support due to the M incident, it did not mean that he could really spend money regardless of finances.

If he fails to cause public resentment, he will most likely be pushed out as a scapegoat. This is by no means an attack of persecution paranoia.

He hoped that Sullivan could think of some solutions, but unexpectedly the latter said:

"Sir, Endeavor is not the most expensive. Once Discovery and Atlantis are completed, its cost will be reduced to US$5 billion. However, there is one thing that will cost more than US$10 billion in materials alone. "

"Ha, is the Navy going to add nuclear submarines or nuclear aircraft carriers? Damn it, wasn't it already mentioned!"

"No, not this."

John pointed to the stack of documents he brought over:

"DARPA, the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, because of the success of the A105, they have officially decided to invest in the research and development of a nuclear-powered version of the starship spacecraft. The project name is NSS (Nuclear StarShip). It is waiting for Congress and you to approve it."

John had known about DARPA's plan to develop a nuclear-powered starship for a long time, but due to several failed launches of the starship and JFT's progress problems, it was once thought to be a long way off.

After the failure of the last Starship SN25, Musk assured them that the fifth launch would be able to reach orbit. At the same time, JFT delivered a usable nuclear engine to Endeavor. DARPA finally made up its mind to carry out the NSS program.

Of course, this is also due to the M incident. Deep space navigation must have a large nuclear-powered spacecraft the size of the NSS, sooner or later.

The NSS is not equipped with the A105 engine, but the redesigned "Helios 5" nuclear engine based on the "Helios 2A". The thrust is increased from 97 tons to 110 tons, and the specific impulse is increased to 910 seconds.

NSS is expected to use 9 "Helios 5" engines with a total thrust of 1,000 tons and a take-off mass equal to that of a starship.

Ignoring the still-unknown horrific research and development costs, nine high-thrust nuclear engines alone are enough to understand the high cost. Even 10 billion US dollars is considered optimistic.

The entire NSS program requires a budget of US$30 billion when launched. In the end, 10 to 20 NSS spacecraft will need to be manufactured, and all must be completed before deep space construction can begin.

John almost suffered a cardiopulmonary arrest when he saw this rough plan. When the "Constellation" project was first established, he thought it would be an enhanced version of "Ares, the God of War", but it was not until now that he realized how big the gap was.

The "Constellation" plan, which may seem fanciful to outsiders, is exactly the limit of what NACA can achieve based on realistic imagination, but the prerequisite is absolutely crazy and continuous investment, and now it has begun to show its ferocity.

Such a large amount of money certainly cannot be transferred from normal fiscal expenditures. Only raising (printing) debt (banknotes) can provide the required funds.

When it comes to borrowing, Sullivan also brought the latest news from the Federal Reserve:

"...Based on the needs of the 13th Office, the Federal Reserve believes that it will increase the national debt ceiling by another 50%, continue to expand the scale of additional issuance, and maintain interest rate increases."

How does the federal government get money by printing money? Of course, instead of printing them and spending them directly, the federal government first issues treasury bonds and then prints money to purchase the treasury bonds, thereby indirectly obtaining additional fiscal revenue.

In March last year, about a year ago, the federal national debt was 20 trillion US dollars. After several interest rate hikes and adjustments, it has expanded to 23.5 trillion US dollars. The Federal Reserve plans to increase issuance to 30 trillion US dollars in the next year, and in 2020 reached $40 trillion.

In this way, the federal financial dilemma will be greatly alleviated, and it can barely keep up with the snowballing space program.

The continuous issuance will reach its peak in the 1930s, and there will be only two results waiting for them:

Either an alien crisis will be triggered to get rid of the mess and re-establish order, or the market will refuse to pay and trigger the collapse of the global financial order, eventually leading to war.

Either way can be accepted, no matter how good the expected situation is, it won't be much better.

Thinking of this, John was glad that he would step down before the snowball exploded, otherwise his historical evaluation might be extremely bad.

While rejoicing, he suddenly thought of something and asked Sullivan:

"Jack, how is the financial situation of the Chinese people? Their situation shouldn't be too good, right?"

Sullivan: "Wait a minute, they will publish their annual report soon, but based on the observations of some of my economist friends, they discovered something very interesting."

"What is it?"

"The ratio of their military spending to GDP has always been around 1.5% before, never exceeding 2%. However, according to think tank findings, they have added a lot of huge expenditures in 2017, and this number may reach 2.2%.

Also, XAP seems to still be accepting huge investments from their military, and experts predict that it may rise to 2.5% or even higher this year. "

"So many, do they want to overturn the world?"

"It's hard to define, but looking at the technology they're showing at festivals, it's really close to that."

"I know, it's wireless power transmission. Damn it, when will my artificial moon shine in Ami's night sky!"