Reborn in 2011, I am the chief designer of aerospace.

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Seven seconds later, the monitor screen was suddenly engulfed by a blinding white light. The light lasted for less than a second before the camera system’s automatic exposure compensation managed to dim it.

For a fleeting moment, the secretary even wondered if the spaceship had exploded on the spot. Deep down, he secretly hoped for such an outcome, since many thorny problems could be easily solved if that were the case.

However, this was not the case. The ten giant nuclear engines roared to life, spewing out blue-white flames that were even more dazzling than the surface of the sun. The spaceship began to accelerate away, gradually disappearing into the distance at an initial speed of 200 kilometers per hour.

By interstellar travel standards, this speed is as slow as a snail's crawl, but on the giant screen, it delivers an unparalleled visual spectacle.

The tracking data from Country R then came in: the "Sky Odyssey" spaceship is accelerating at a rate of 0.1G, with its speed increasing by one meter per second. This is basically in line with the expected parameters, or at least consistent with the result they hoped for.

Country A has not upgraded its engines to a new generation; their performance remains the same as the original Mars mission plan. But now, the real critical question is how long their engines can keep firing.

"Alright, that's all for today. Meeting adjourned," Sun Liancheng said to the observers in the office. "I'll be checking on the progress in the situation room from time to time."

The secretary, another technical director, the scientific advisor, and several high-ranking military officials filed out and went to the situation room to await news. An hour later, the Odyssey spacecraft, which had now circled to the side of Earth facing away from the sun, finally reached escape velocity.

"That's not surprising," one expert remarked. "I really want a drink right now."

Country A's rocket engine needs to be continuously ignited for at least two hours to send the spacecraft into orbit toward Mars. According to real-time tracking data, if Country A shuts down the engine after two hours, it will take more than seven years for the spacecraft to reach Mars.

Initially, no one in the command center expected this outcome, but ultimately no one was disappointed.

However, three and a half hours after launch, the engine was still burning. The scientific advisor and the technical director exchanged a glance, and then looked at the secretary who was shrugging.

Telemetry data shows that the spacecraft is already traveling at nearly 20 kilometers per second. Based on this, its arrival time at Mars will be reduced to less than two years, which is much faster than predicted by those self-proclaimed experts.

As Sun Liancheng walked, he spoke into his walkie-talkie. When he caught sight of his secretary, he raised an eyebrow. The secretary gestured with her chin toward the monitor screen.

The spaceship was already extremely far from Earth, appearing as nothing more than a blinding blue-white dot in the field of vision, but its engines showed no signs of stopping or shutting down. The "Odyssey" continued to accelerate, speeding towards deep space.

"How's the situation now?" Sun Liancheng asked after hanging up the call.

"They're still accelerating," the supervisor replied. "They'll be there soon."

"Are you in such a hurry to get going?"

"It's too early to draw conclusions, but their speed has certainly exceeded our expectations."

Sun Liancheng stood in front of the screen for a long time, and after two minutes he instructed his secretary, "Connect me to the phone."

As time ticked by, the estimated time for the Odyssey to reach Mars continued to decrease. The five-hour timer finally reached zero, and suddenly, the blue and white dot disappeared. The monitoring camera took a second to refocus, and then the tiny outline of the spacecraft faintly appeared on the screen.

The Odyssey has completed its escape ignition and is gliding toward Mars along its inertial orbit. The telemetry status has been updated. Country A's nuclear thermal engines have provided the Odyssey with an astonishing speed increment of 20 kilometers per second, and it is expected to reach Mars in just one and a half years.

"This is absolutely unacceptable," Sun Liancheng said firmly. "The ideal situation is that both sides can arrive at the same time, but this balance is like a house built with playing cards, which may collapse in front of us at any time."

The worst-case scenario is that our plans are delayed, and they seize all available resources first. We must speed things up. We must do it, by any means necessary.

For two consecutive days, the secretary could only maintain his energy by taking naps, trying to piece together the latest intelligence on Country A's launch. Now, he has to rely on stimulants to keep going.

Two hours later, in the science advisor's office, the three men, though they had drunk plenty of coffee and filled their stomachs, still looked worried. The secretary rubbed his temples and asked:

"So, there's really no way to speed up the journey? Can't you two geniuses come up with a single solution?"

The technical director frowned: "This is completely useless. The energy consumption of orbital flight with constant thrust throughout is ridiculously high. Even if we could forcibly increase the spacecraft's power by 50%, we could only shorten the flight time by a month at most. This small time difference is simply not enough to make a difference. Moreover, we can't do it technically."

The science advisor was munching on his third sandwich when he suddenly looked up. His secretary, seeing this, muttered to herself, "Where did this guy put all that food in his mouth?" The advisor spoke up, "Didn't you guys optimize the orbital path to be the shortest possible?"

"Are you kidding me? The 'fastest' we're asking for is already the 'fastest' in terms of physical limits. But if double-checking will put your mind at ease..." The supervisor glanced at the time. "It's late at night... He should be home by now. I can contact the orbital calculation expert immediately."

"Hurry up," the secretary urged.

After the call was connected, the expert replied: "Please wait a moment. I am reviewing the simulation optimization plan you requested six months ago. This is the version that best meets your needs at that time. It can reach the target as quickly as possible. After all, the core indicator you requested at the time was 'fastest'. You wanted to shorten the flight distance to the shortest possible time, thereby significantly reducing the consumption of life support system resources."

"is that so?"

The expert continued, "But your conditions have changed now, at least implicitly. You're no longer looking for 'the shortest flight time,' but rather 'the earliest arrival on the calendar,' right?"

The secretary chimed in, "What's the difference?"

While dragging the orbital curve on the screen, the other party adjusted the launch date and recorded the estimated arrival time: "The difference is that this spacecraft has a huge Delta-v margin, so it has an ultra-long launch window of up to five months."

If the goal is to minimize flight time, the optimal launch point is at the end of the launch window, which is December of next year. But what if we could launch earlier, in July? I need to run some specific data before I can give a definitive answer.

Although launching earlier will lengthen the overall flight time, it will at least allow the aircraft to arrive at Mars before Christmas. Compared to a December launch, the actual arrival date will be about a month earlier or later.

In other words, if the launch is moved to July, we can advance the expected arrival time by a full four months. Of course, this is only a rough estimate at present, and the final conclusion will depend on more refined simulations and calculations.

"Then let's calculate it right away."

"However, there is a prerequisite," the expert cautioned.

The secretary's tone betrayed a hint of impatience, clearly indicating her extreme aversion to hearing any more bad news: "What are the conditions?"

The expert's smile vanished instantly.

"The spacecraft must make a perihelion flyby. If you plan to launch at the end of July, Mars will be far from the Sun. This means that after launch we cannot fly directly to the outer solar system, but will instead go in the opposite direction and fly straight to the Sun."

As it passes the sun, it uses its gravity to perform a slingshot acceleration, ultimately propelling the spacecraft toward Mars on the other side of the sun.

"How close was the distance you meant by 'passing by'?" the supervisor pressed.

"The exact value cannot be determined at the moment, but based on the preliminary charts I have generated, the perihelion should be somewhere within Mercury's orbit, about 0.2 astronomical units from the Sun."

"Thanks, contact me again after you've finished building the optimization model." The supervisor then ended the call.

The science advisor turned to him and asked, "Can we really move the timeline forward that much? Compress the fourteen-month preparation period into nine months?"

"As long as the simulation test goes well, we can basically finalize it. As for the close-range solar flyby operation, we still need to design a heat protection module specifically for the spacecraft."

The secretary sneered, "I bet your engineers will absolutely 'love' this task."

Before dinner, Mi Nan received a video call from her scientific advisor. Judging from the background, he was in his private office, which was just a narrow cubicle used for confidential conversations.

"May I interrupt you for a moment?"

"Perfect timing," Mi Nan replied. "We've just finished another round of control system simulation, and everything is going smoothly so far."

The science advisor briefed her on the unexpected developments in the mission to Country A, as well as the contents of the emergency planning meeting the previous night.

"That's the situation. I'll send you the new orbital model now."

Mi Nan quickly scanned the charts and timelines that had been sent and studied them carefully.

"Okay, that's a brilliant move, cutting the flight path so close to the sun, right?"

"That's right. The spacecraft design team needs to install a heat shield during perihelion flyby to prevent the cooling system from overloading. This shouldn't be too difficult. We plan to deploy a 'sunshade' made of aluminized plastic film, which can reflect 90% of the extra heat radiation, and then jettison it on the return journey. Speaking of heat, how will this affect the cooling system you're responsible for?"

Mi Nan pondered for half a minute.

"How about we try something different? I estimate we can reduce the heat radiation emissions by 25%, but this extreme condition can only be maintained for about two weeks, provided that the spacecraft is within a quarter of an astronomical unit of the sun."

Doing so will indeed require reducing some propulsion, potentially delaying our journey by two or three days. However, compared to the four months we've gained, this loss is negligible. A difference of two or three days won't affect the overall situation at all.

The science advisor nodded: "I'll have you connect with the propulsion systems engineers. You can send back the improved thrust curve, and I'll integrate it directly into the new model."

Mi Nan asked, "Do we really need to launch five months earlier? I mean, do we really have to launch as soon as the launch window opens?"

The science advisor sighed. "To be honest, I'm not sure either, maybe it's not necessary. But the current exploration mission has exceeded our original plan. We don't know what's there, nor how much time we'll need to investigate before returning. We don't want a direct conflict with the people of Country A; that's the kind of trouble Director Sun is most eager to avoid."

"Understood," Mi Nan replied.

The science advisor continued, "This raises a crucial question: can you complete your portion of the project within nine months?"

Mi Nan countered, "What would happen if I said no?"

"Sun Liancheng can't stand being told 'no' by others. If I have to relay your refusal to him, he will definitely make me immediately look for a replacement," the scientific advisor bluntly stated. "And as long as I look long enough, someone will eventually be willing to take on this mess, even if it's just for this rare opportunity to rise in rank."

Mi Nan sighed.

"Without a doubt, but they absolutely cannot do it. Newcomers have neither the time to familiarize themselves with my existing designs nor the time to come up with their own new solutions from scratch."

The science advisor nodded.

"I think so too. So, even if you don't feel confident, the chances of success are definitely higher if you take the lead than if someone else takes over halfway. So, whatever, let's take on this challenge."

Mi Nan was anxious and uneasy. In her opinion, to carry out a death schedule that she did not agree with at all was to ruin her future. On the other hand, giving up halfway would also completely destroy her professional reputation.

She felt it was like a game theory problem: if she quit now, she could preserve her so-called professional ethics, but she would be doomed in the workplace; if she gritted her teeth and persevered, there might still be a glimmer of hope, and no one would know that she was actually not confident at all.

However, her intuition told her that this was a gamble she was destined to lose, with very little chance of winning.

"I've done my best."

The consultant breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank you. I really wanted to say, 'Even if you mess up, no one will blame you,' but we all know that's nonsense. If we fail to reach Mars before Country A, everyone will be condemned for all time."

Director Sun's job is in jeopardy, and he'll definitely drag all of us down with him. That's all for now, we'll talk later.

The scientific advisors cut off communications.

Frustrated, Mi Nan slammed the coffee cup to the other end of the room. Unfortunately, the cup missed its mark and didn't shatter on the whiteboard. Instead, it landed with a thud in the corner of the carpet.

To hell with it, she was completely unable to concentrate on work tonight. She closed the task sheets on her computer, pushed back her chair forcefully, and walked straight out of the office. Starting tomorrow, endless hell awaited her.

Song Xingye launched a ranging probe from the central axis of the space station, sending it into space one kilometer away.

Over the past year, significant progress has been made in the renovation of the Xihe space station.