You were told to build a tractor, but you're building a rocket? Chapter 388 - 380 Toilet issues1

"Theoretically, we should be standing like this, with the floor actually being the wall," said Lin Ju.

ng Senlin "stood" on the cabin wall at the rear of the Starship Storm’s cockpit, facing the floor in the normal flight attitude, while the portholes and several other astronauts were above his head.

By now, it had been 260 minutes since Storm had detached from the space station.

The three engines were still accelerating, and according to the flight computer’s data, they would temporarily shut down in about 40 minutes. Then, the entire spacecraft would flip over and begin a deceleration process nearly 13 hours long, at which point the acceleration ng Senlin experienced would completely reverse.

Logically speaking, astronauts should not be allowed to move freely during the acceleration or deceleration phases of a manned spacecraft.

But Storm was a special case. Although it would set a new world record for the fastest trip to the Moon, the astronauts could not be expected to stay in their seats for 18 hours, going nowhere, especially since the acceleration wasn’t that high.

During the Apollo Spacecraft’s journey to the Moon, they were subjected to continuous gravitational pull from the Earth, decelerating them at an average of around 0.0347 ters per second, which was really too insignificant to worry about. On the other hand, Storm’s acceleration was nearly ten tis that—at 0.3 ters per second.

Tasked with observing the rear engines’ conditions, ng Senlin experienced this 0.03G gravity and felt it was quite decent. Once he had left his seat, his body really started "falling," and he regained a bit of the sensation of falling that he had never experienced in space before.

It was very slight, but already enough for the body to react, with the Moon’s gravitational acceleration being ten tis what it was now.

"Old ng, that ans we can finally use the bathroom without turning on the vacuum pump, right? Why not give it a try now?" Hu Dong’s guess ca through the radio but was imdiately dismissed by Zhuang Dai, the Deputy Commander of the Dawn 4 mission.

"I don’t think that will work; the toilet is still mounted on the floor, so the acceleration is backwards. Wouldn’t going now result in a ss?

To experience what it’s like without a vacuum pump, you’d have to use a disposable waste bag," he explained.

ng Senlin: "..."

Hu Dong: "..."

Ground Command Center: "..."

The spacious Starship Storm did not skimp on the Life Sustaining System, and it was equipped with a sealable suction toilet that ensured cleanliness in zero-gravity as well as preventing odors from spreading. The only downside was that unpredictable vacuum suction could give users a strange and indescribable experience.

But this was the best compromise under the current circumstances. A further step up would be the toilets at Forward Space Station, which were almost like using a toilet on Earth, but it would be a long ti before they could enjoy that luxury.

Lin Ju, who had been dozing off in the command center, perked up at the conversation above. He quickly picked up his tablet and started writing a mo:

"Design a variable-orientation toilet for Storm."

Shen Zuozhou, who was sneakily looking on: "..."

ng Senlin and Zhuang Dai had a heated discussion about whether to use a waste bag to experience gravity, but ultimately they decided to give it up, to avoid lingering odors that wouldn’t dissipate.

Then, ng Senlin checked the cabin pressure to ensure there were no leaks and carefully removed his helt.

The slight change in pressure at the mont the gap opened made his ears feel like he had just pulled out earplugs, and the humming noise of the spacecraft, which had been actively cancelled by the spacesuit, could finally be heard.

When the engines were not running, only the sound of a very small portion of equipnt working inside the H2 spacecraft could be heard, with most chanical noise being blocked by thick soundproofing. Any slight activity made it difficult to notice the sound of the cabin itself.

The Storm was different. The three A100 engines’ reactors, whether in propulsion mode or not, were always operational, adding a very regular deep hum, which beca more noticeable the closer one got to the rear.

At this mont, including the rear nozzles, they were all working at full capacity. The other six people, wearing masks, made no noise, leaving only the stronger and more powerful sound that was louder than usual in the cabin.

ng Senlin didn’t find the noise unpleasant; on the contrary, he liked it. It was like the great lungs of a Mongolian horse driving its chest cavity up and down as it galloped freely, or like the diesel locomotives he saw at dawn on the station platforms when he was a child: dull, but imparting a sense of great power.

The three reactors brought the entire spacecraft to life, generating a continuous flow of air that caused a slight vibration in the structure.

"ng Senlin, ng Senlin!"

Hu Dong called out several tis through the radio without receiving a response, then turned to see ng had removed his helt and was daydreaming with his eyes closed; Hu had to pull down his face shield to wake him up.

ng Senlin then realized that the headset had sohow co loose from his ear and hurried to put it back on.

"We have to prepare for taxiing and turning around in ten minutes, get up here fast!"

...

The Pentagon.

Claire was here with the Air Force, tracking the Storm. The intelligence officer brought the latest photo to her.

"This is a photo taken by Look-eye 12, it took only four minutes to print out."

"Look-eye" series was the military’s ultra-high precision surveillance satellite, using it to track and photograph Storm was quite creative in Claire’s view.

The photo underwent exposure treatnt, revealing the stars in the background, with a light cluster slightly larger than regular stars at the center – a bit blurry due to the overlap of three bright points.

The top left corner of the photo listed the satellite’s number, ti, and resolution, while on the right were the speed and bearing data combined with the ground antenna array.

12.7 kiloters per second, 70,000 kiloters away from Earth, with an acceleration of about 0.3 ters per second.

Their departure from low Earth orbit had taken an hour and a half to fly out 70,000 kiloters, a speed which was the fastest mankind had ever reached toward the Moon, averaging 12 kiloters per second.

Whether it could go faster was unknown; the trajectory of Storm was clearly different from normal spacecraft, as it had surpassed the second cosmic speed and was constantly correcting its direction, making it easy to lose track of it.

For Claire, the biggest shock wasn’t that Storm had launched without authorization, but that the nuclear engine had been working stably in space for almost five hours, a dramatic challenge to all traditional propulsion thods.

Whether it was SLS or Starship, both were far behind—no manned spaceflight had ever been able to accelerate for so long and travel such a distance.

Claire was stunned for a long while until John called on a special line.

"Bird, how are things?"

Claire, "I still believe Storm has no intention of landing on the Moon, and it’s uncertain how long it will take to reach the Moon. But if it continues accelerating as it currently is, it might arrive within 15 hours."

John, "Is it definitely the Moon?"

Claire, "Definitely."

Faintly, a few phrases like "not a lunar landing" were heard on the other end of the line before John’s voice grew slightly louder:

"The Aerospace Developnt Committee has just acknowledged that this is a planned lunar flyby mission, and the news has been announced to the dia. Do you understand? The Senate will convene a hearing imdiately, and you need to be there."

Claire (taking a deep breath), "Mr. President, I hope to at least serve until the Artemis project concludes; it would be detrintal to let Jim or Wallace to take over now."

John, "No, they are not going to ask for your resignation yet, but NACA must take action."