You were told to build a tractor, but you're building a rocket? Chapter 692 - 673: Good Luck to You

"Five thousand one hundred forty... with a 2.5% margin of error."

Deng Lei looked at the numbers on the laser rangefinder and then confird them with a GPS.

The location of "Robin Hood’s" test explosion was at the center of the mining area, using a semi-buried detonation primarily affecting the lunar surface.

The goal was to also test the grand idea of using nuclear explosions to modify the terrain; although this explosion wouldn’t create a large plain, as long as the observational results were roughly accurate, it indicated that using nuclear bombs for construction was sowhat feasible.

There were seven unidentified experintal devices near the "Robin Hood" explosive device, four dostic, two Arican, and one Russian.

All the experts chose to skip over them when ntioned, simply placing them according to specifications and scattering observation instrunts all around the core area.

There were also two mini-satellites, specially reinforced for protection, in orbit, tasked with photographing the explosion from space.

The ignition ti was set for 20:15 on May 9th, Beijing ti, when the Black Rabbit Space Station and so crucial spacecraft would be orbiting on the other side of the explosion site, avoiding most of the impact.

As for the impact on Earth’s orbit, there was no need to worry; since the Moon is tidally locked, always showing the sa face to Earth, and the mining site was on the far side, there would be no substantial effect over a distance of 380,000 kiloters.

By Deng Lei’s side was Tim, a UK astronaut gripping a long bar-shaped object tightly.

He was holding the safety state removal key, which needed to be inserted into the special slot on "Robin Hood" to unlock it 8 hours before the explosion. He was solely responsible for its safekeeping, while the Royal Air Force would issue a delayed ignition command 1 hour prior, automatically triggering the detonation on ti.

It was still 9 o’clock, with a little over two hours before Tim needed to insert the key. He kept himself away from the group, ready to receive orders from London at any mont.

The atmosphere on both the Moon and Earth was actually a bit tense and full of anticipation, stemming naturally from Arica’s sudden provocation. Although it had been suppressed, no one could guarantee there wouldn’t be a last-minute upset.

Only at 19:00, once the delayed ignition order was issued, everything would be set in stone. To stop the explosion at that point would require John himself to co to the Moon and dismantle the nuclear bomb by hand.

While waiting for Tim to release the key, the third set of 7 astronauts who had landed could only carry out repeated checks and casually chat about all sorts of topics, wisely avoiding the recent events on Earth.

"Hey, wasn’t Artemis V supposed to be here to assist us? I heard it’s been delayed until the end of May?"

Claire’s ambitious "Centaurs" project had been announced publicly well before the launch of Artemis IV. Everyone expected Arica to return to its forr glory with a lunar mission every two months, and Artemis V should naturally have launched by the end of April, according to the schedule.

However, on April 22nd, NACA suddenly declared that due to United Mining’s hydrogen bomb test interference, the Artemis V mission would be postponed to late May.

While the public might have been convinced, everyone inside United Mining knew that Arica originally planned to send experintal devices with Artemis V to the mining site to conduct a landing mission, and the Aerospace Developnt Committee had maintained an acceptance of this plan in prior exchanges.

But for so reason, they suddenly gave up, pushing it back by a month.

The curious Tomarsov, who couldn’t sit still, asked the others and imdiately received a reply from Nikolai Taral, the French astronaut and engineer:

"Ha, of course, it’s because ESA ran out of supplies."

Taral was a mid-level official within the European Space Agency and clearly knew a lot:

"The Orion spacecraft used for the Artemis program is a joint production of NACA and ESA. Lockheed Martin is responsible for the command module, and we originally only planned to produce six service modules. The one for Artemis IV was barely rushed out on ti."

"They still haven’t found a way to replace the service modules produced by the European Space Agency, and this delay is also because ESA is short-staffed," he said. "We’re putting all our efforts into manufacturing the Hers spacecraft, which has the highest priority."

"I also heard that Tim was originally chosen for Artemis IV, but that poor sucker Cole got stuck taking his place, haha..."

"Taral, I joined the Skylight mission through a selection process a long ti ago," he said. "United Mining started buying insurance for half a year ago!"

Two people from the UK and France started arguing over the radio in a light-hearted manner, initially trying to communicate in their awkward Chinese, but eventually, they both switched to speaking their own languages at an incomprehensible speed.

Deng Lei ignored the two jokers and connected to a separate channel for Yushu Base.

"This is Li Wei."

"Are you and Xiao Fu ready?" he asked. "Geology experts say it might cause an earthquake."

"Don’t worry, we are two hundred kiloters in a straight line from it," he replied. "We’ll both be wearing spacesuits, but after that, we won’t be able to communicate as clearly for a while."

Following the explosion of ’Robin Hood’, it was foreseeable that the GPS composed of cube satellites and mini satellites, as well as the entire Moon communication service, would definitely be severely impacted. The fragile small satellites orbiting at a minimum of just a dozen kiloters high would be the first casualties of soft X-ray radiation and electromagnetic pulses.

This GPS system had already beco very popular among the astronauts, who felt as lost without it as if they were driving without looking at Google Maps, always afraid of ssing sothing up.

Deng Lei said, "Soon we’ll be able to pick up trinitite on the Moon too. I rember we have special protective boxes in our supplies that should be able to carry it."

"Then you’ll have to file a report and apply for a set of disposable spacesuits first," Li Wei replied. "And don’t forget to send the coordinates of the Moon rover when you leave; I’ll have Explorer co back for it."

The six New Explorer Robots carried by the Dawn Two were also on Jiuzhang Spaceship, along with two new Lunar Rovers. They first helped complete the nuclear explosion preparation task, then they needed to hurry back to Yushu Base to take cover when Chapter 9 retreated.

"Understood... you know, the spider robots riding motorbikes is really quite interesting... Over and out, please report any situation imdiately."

"Good luck, Captain Deng."

...

The Pentagon, Office Thirteen.

The subsequent follow-up on NX17 was no longer David’s concern; internally (within the Earth), it was more appropriate for the more specialized intelligence agencies to take charge.

Now, David was sitting in front of a bank of screens, where rows of fluctuating radio spectrums were continuously changing.

These were signals from several Mars probes, which were doing their utmost to locate the signals that had appeared during the M event.

If signals could be detected within a minimum of three days and a maximum of seven days, it would basically prove that David’s "energy threat theory" was valid and that every ti humankind used a nuclear bomb, it was like striking a match in the dark.

If travelling at the fastest speed, the current delay from the Moon to Mars is 187 seconds. Assuming that the alien detection source was on Mars and imdiately relayed the signal, the Mars probes would need just over six minutes to send the signal back to Earth. The earliest warning from the satellite could be received by Arica Central Ti on the 9th at 8:23 AM.

David checked the ti. It was only 00:10 AM now; Tim should be plugging in the key and then racing back to the Jiuzhang Spaceship to head to the space station.