Chapter 116: A Small Shock Of The New Era
Spitz Company Headquarters.
Mark was discussing with his secretary about accessing the Xinghai Quantum Communication Satellite when the telephone suddenly rang.
“Mark, when can the Hunter Nine Rocket launch into space at the earliest?”
The call was from Roy, who had just been rejected by Fan Ren, and his tone was full of anger at the moment.
Mark was a bit stunned by his question.
Ever since signing a series of transport services with Xinghai, Spitz Company’s Hunter Nine Rocket project had completely stalled.
In the face of Xinghai’s transport capacity, the Hunter Nine Rocket was like a toy, completely meaningless.
“The Hunter Nine Rocket hasn’t launched for half a year. Don’t you know that?”
For this Nasa person in charge, in the past he still needed to give the other side some face, but now Spitz Company no longer needed to rely on the other side for any technical support at all, so of course he wouldn’t indulge him.
“What? Damn it, why is this happening? Don’t you know that the Hunter Nine Rocket technology was provided to you by our Nasa back then? Why did it stop? Tell me, Mark! When can it launch into space at the earliest.”
On the phone, Roy’s tone gradually became irritable.
“If you want, it can be assembled in as little as two weeks, but now the relevant engineers have been transferred by me to the ‘Mars Project’ project department, and the Launch Vehicle Department has no meaning to exist anymore.”
Mark directly stated Spitz Company’s plans, without any reluctance towards the Launch Vehicle Department.
Presumably, Roy didn’t even know that Great Xia had nuclear fusion engines, right?
“Damn it, you’re wasting our previous technical investment.”
“Alright, if you need it, just send someone to take over the Launch Vehicle Department. To thank Nasa for the previous technical investment, Spitz Company will give you this rocket department for free to your US Space Agency. Communicate the rest of the acceptance work with my secretary.”
Mark directly hung up the phone. This rocket department was now just a burden to him, in an extremely awkward position. Handing it over to Nasa at this time was a very good choice.
Inside the US Space Agency, Roy listened to the busy tone from the phone and angrily kicked over the chair in front of him.
When had the director of the world’s top Blue Star aerospace US Space Agency ever had his calls hung up successively by the bosses of two private enterprises?
It was simply outrageous.
Standing in the office, Roy got angry by himself for a while, and finally sullenly set the chair upright and plopped down on it.
It was truly a different era.
He could only blame the US chiefs these years, each one eager to let Nasa go independent and fend for itself, with the aerospace budget being cut again and again. Otherwise, Nasa would not have shared its world-leading launch vehicle technology with a civilian aerospace company.
But now, when it was time to use it, he was shocked to discover that the damn Spitz Company had actually stopped the project.
Didn’t he know the importance of launch vehicles to the entire US aerospace!
Thinking of this, his anger that had just subsided couldn’t help but rise again.
But in the end, he fell silent. No matter what, the national policy required him to complete the construction of the space space station within a month, or his position would be at risk.
On the Earth-Mars route, a streamlined flying boat with a brilliant blue flame tail spraying from its rear was flying backwards with its butt facing the direction of Mars.
If any astronaut saw this scene, they could associate it with the fact that this spacecraft was performing a deceleration maneuver.
But at the same time, another question would pop up in their minds.
With Earth’s current aerospace capability, the fuel carried in spacecraft is precisely calculated for usage, and the usage process must be particularly meticulously managed.
How could there now be such a thing that recklessly uses fuel to accelerate in the first half of the voyage and decelerate in the second half in this ‘luxurious’ operation.
But the fact had truly happened.
This unmanned flying boat was the one Fan Ren had just developed for testing, an unmanned flying boat equipped with a nuclear fusion engine.
As the unmanned flying boat’s speed slowed, it began to slowly turn around, and the fierce flames spraying from the tail gradually extinguished.
At this time, the flying boat could maintain navigation in Mars synchronous orbit solely relying on inertial speed.
Soon, the belly of the flying boat opened, and a satellite half a meter long and wide was deployed.
This was one part of the flying boat’s mission this time: deploying an Earth-Mars relay quantum communication satellite.
With this satellite, Earth could send information to this relay satellite without delay, and through the electromagnetic wave communication satellite carried on the satellite, connect with Spitz Company’s space station in Mars synchronous orbit.
Not only that, this satellite was equipped with a small nuclear fusion reactor, designed for a continuous lifespan of 100 years, and had the capability to self-adjust its orbit.
After completing this step, the flying boat did not stop.
The engine nozzle at its tail once again erupted with plasma flames, and its speed suddenly began to increase as the boat body dove headfirst towards Mars.
Earth Space Hub.
Fan Ren sat in the independent office specially built for him, his gaze fixed on the display screen in front of him, with a direction joystick ahead of him.
The image transmitted on the screen was the real-time Mars surface scenery sent back by the flying boat 200 million kilometers away.
This flying boat was a little toy he designed.
At this moment, under his control, the flying boat was wantonly shuttling through the Mars atmosphere at a high speed of 30 Mach.
Soon, data was transmitted back: Mars dayside atmospheric temperature 30 degrees.
This was a temperature condition very suitable for human habitation.
However, although Mars had its own atmosphere, carbon dioxide accounted for the vast majority, which humans could not breathe, so they still needed to carry their own life support equipment.
The flying boat continued to speed forward under Fan Ren’s control and soon arrived above the vast plain area in the Northern Hemisphere known as the ‘Utopia’ plain.
This had always been the main landing area for human Mars probes.
Of course, it was also the predetermined landing point for Spitz Company’s ‘Mars Project’ this time.
Fan Ren maneuvered the flying boat back and forth over this plain, while the onboard radar of the flying boat continuously emitted radar waves in all directions.
Soon, a dense signal was transmitted back through the radar.
He couldn’t help but start smiling at the corner of his mouth.
Let me give you a little shock from the new era.
Thinking this, the flying boat quickly flew towards the signal location.
In the real-time footage from the display screen, the Mars surface was full of orange-yellow barren soil, but Fan Ren watched it with exceptional concentration. This was also the first time he had felt the shock brought by the alien planetary landscape so ‘personally’ through his own hands.
Not long after, at the end of the surface appeared a Star Transport Series Launch Vehicle standing upright on the sand.
Seeing it, Fan Ren couldn’t help but feel a sense of familiarity from the bottom of his heart.
Looking down, several Spitz Company astronauts had already completed the construction of the basic base.
The base was about 30 square meters, with the exterior wrapped in aluminum alloy coated with white paint.
A flagpole was planted outside, and the US Stars and Stripes flag was fiercely fluttering in the wind.
