You were told to build a tractor, but you're building a rocket? Chapter 533 - 522 Trial Explosion1

Following the huge successes of the Dawn and Skylight projects, the ambitious Mars mission beca the next target chased by aerospace professionals. They imdiately began expanding upon the previous "Tianwen" series of projects.

The earlier Tianwen No. 1 to No. 4 Mars rovers remained unchanged, and the scientific payloads they were going to carry had already been planned and had entered the manufacturing phase, with plenty of ti to spare.

Then, at a recent regular eting, the Tianwen No. 25 mission was proposed.

The proposal was based on three technologies that were already taking shape: humanoid robots, a fully automatic fuel synthesis system, and the "Chapter 9" spacecraft.

First were the dozen or so modular autonomous devices, undergoing validation on the ice and snow for the lunar mission. They were programd to simulate lunar conditions as much as possible, even requiring periodic sprinkling with simulated lunar dust, to conduct comprehensive validation work.

Thus far, the tests had been very successful, all equipnt had been working well, and the production of hydrogen and oxygen, as well as thane, had t the standards completely.

This system only needed a few minor improvents to be able to operate on Mars, so it could also be considered as a small progression in the construction of the Martian base.

Then there was "No. 14", the robot secretly moving about on the Moon. In truth, there had been so concerns on the ground when it was decided to send it aboard Dawn III.

After all, "No. 14" was essentially a modified No. 2 robot fitted with a rudintary spacesuit, hastily assembled with many imperfections. Yet, to date, it was still hopping and bustling around the Moon, actively exploring.

"No. 14"’s main task now was to collect cave information from the crash site of Artemis II, working alongside an Explorer. After modifications, the latter could recharge itself using its onboard isotope battery, and it had explored a cave system several kiloters long, with the deepest point reaching 150 ters, sending back a wealth of valuable data.

If "No. 14", pushed into service, could work so well, then wouldn’t it be possible to use robots on a larger scale on Mars, which was even more "gentle" than the Moon?

Therefore, the mission for No. 5 was to send over ten robots and at least 50 tons of heavy equipnt to the Martian surface, including devices with functions such as fuel production and 3D printing, to achieve the goal of having robots build a Martian outpost and stockpile supplies over several long years, reducing the preparatory work for manned exploration.

The ans of transport had already been considered – using the XH40. However, the maximum takeoff weight was limited to 200 tons, so that, with no other design changes, there would still be a cargo capacity of around 60 tons, ample to load the necessary equipnt and robots.

This capacity would be just right for transportation to Mars via the New Yuan No. 4 rocket, ensuring a safe landing. There would also be the ability for re-entry with a small payload, so that if a future Martian spacecraft encountered problems, this ship could still carry people to Mars after refueling.

The Tianwen No. 5 project could be ready before the launch window, using technology that was either already available or soon to be finalized, making it quite feasible.

But this also ant a substantial increase in mission costs and risks.

China had not yet had a single successful Mars mission. There was no probe that had even touched Martian orbit – to attempt sothing so big on the first try, what if it failed?

The Aerospace Developnt Committee was now discussing this very issue. If they were to proceed, then preparation for No. 5 would have to start imdiately to be ready in ti. Any delay, and they would miss the launch window, so a swift decision was necessary.

Academician She’s inclination was still against it. The proposal of the No. 5 mission had already shown that many within the Aerospace Developnt Committee had the ntality of wanting to "make a big splash" and "reach the heavens in one step". He was very clear about the consequences of such thought prevailing, and thought it would not be bad to curb it.

Besides, China was already sufficiently ahead. In his view, there was no need to rush this ti; wasn’t there another launch window in 2020?

The third launch window in 2022 was only five years away. China’s space program, just five years after landing on the Moon, being fast enough to set foot on Mars was already quite an achievent. He believed Arica would need at least ten years.

As for Lin Ju’s opinion, there was no need to guess – the radicals at the Aerospace Developnt Committee had rely hinted at the idea and he had already flown in, making his stance quite evident.

Perhaps it was because the Cloud Ascend project had its first flight within the deadline promised by Xie Liaofu, Academician She felt that the "old guard" of Aerospace would beco increasingly rare in the future.

...

Edo.

Noise from a crowd erupted outside the hotel where the IAEA expert group was staying. Tomarsov, who was having breakfast, lifted the curtain and saw a large group of people walking past on the street, carrying propaganda placards.

He couldn’t make out what they were shouting or recognize the slogans, but he could barely see the drawing on the large placard at the front of the crowd, which seed to depict an airplane with a big red cross over it.

He called a waiter over and said a few words, and the latter quickly ran out. After a while, he returned and whispered sothing in Tomarsov’s ear, which made him stiffen and then burst into a chilling laugh.

The others glanced over, and Academician Zhou, sitting closest to him, asked curiously,

"What happened?"

Tomarsov, laughing so hard he was bending over backward, then clutched his stomach and said,

"Zhou, do you know what they’re protesting? They’re protesting the Aero-Space Plane!"

"What? Why protest the Aero-Space Plane?"

"Because they believe that the one that flew over a month ago was Cloud Ascend, so the Aero-Space Plane is the source of all the chaos, and they must be compensated by the Island Country before they can fly again."

"..."

Academician Zhou was also left speechless by this bizarre reasoning; what kind of thought process was this?

In the end, he chalked it up to the Islanders’ possibly abnormal ntal state and dismissed it, turning to more serious matters.

"Yuri, what about the results of your calculations?"

"Oh, I think there shouldn’t be many errors, 150,000 to 200,000 tons yield would be quite appropriate."

This matched his own calculations, and Academician Zhou nodded and said,

"Then let’s go with that, make sure the officials announce it soon, as our first phase of the task is already complete."

He and Tomarsov were talking about the first air-burst hydrogen bomb planned to be used in Fukushima which was mainly for verification purposes, an adequate yield was sufficient.

Whether a hydrogen bomb can effectively clean up nuclear radiation was still just a possible hypothesis, and there were many thods of cleanup. Currently, there were two considered feasible: one is the high energy release from a very large yield two-stage hydrogen bomb inducing the decay of residual radiation release capabilities; the other involves using a neutron bomb, bombarding the residual radiation with neutron streams to cause it to decay.

Both approaches would only need one test, as the two-stage hydrogen bomb could also produce a neutron stream.

And with the research progressing, experts were almost certain about the limits of cleanup effects: short-term radiation levels would rise to 10% of pre-airburst levels, but radiation produced by the hydrogen bomb would quickly decay to levels tolerable for human beings within one to two years, reducing contamination by at least 85%, and the technical feasibility was solid enough to support initiating specific experints.

However, in fact, when the expert group expressed the intention to use hydrogen bombs for radiation cleanup, the Island Country’s governnt showed extre opposition, yet they dared not make a fuss, since Nakayama Juji’s inquiry into John’s opinion was t with the answer, "trust the experts’ judgnt."

Trust my ass!

These days, the expert group had been receiving the highest level of hospitality, not only staying in the best luxury hotels but also receiving dedicated services, all to get them to change their minds.

On the surface, the expert group appeared to be embracing all cors, seemingly halting their inspection work, but in reality, they were compiling data and sending it back to their own countries for model calculations.

The objective of the IAEA’s mission was clear; there was no way a few experts could be easily bribed.