Chapter 73: What Can I Bring?
Those light spots shone in the vast and deep space for less than ten minutes before extinguishing.
Thus, Jiang Yang knew that the propulsion phase had ended, and the missile body had separated from the warhead.
They had completed their mission, accelerating the warhead to a speed of more than ten kilometers per second and sending the warhead into the predetermined orbit.
They would fly straight toward the Moon along this orbit, slowly adjusting their trajectory over more than 20 hours, precisely targeting that special area on the Lunar Mare Tranquillitatis Plain.
Watching those 50 light spots disappear, Jiang Yang let out a soft breath.
He knew that up to this moment, they had done almost everything they could.
Next, the only thing they could do was wait quietly, waiting for these nuclear bombs to fly to the Moon, waiting for the arrival of 12 o’clock tonight.
If the nuclear bomb bombardment succeeded in destroying that underground cavity and the special creation inside that caused human annihilation—whether natural or artificial—there was no need to say more.
Human civilization would continue, and they would slowly clean up the mess created by the ten days of mobilization afterward.
Jiang Yang knew that at this stage, the nation’s aerospace industry had been almost completely destroyed due to this kind of overdrawn exploitation, and there were still unknown troubles in the future.
But those matters could be left to the people who successfully survived the apocalypse to worry about.
If the nuclear bomb bombardment failed to take effect and the apocalypse still arrived, then they wouldn’t even have the qualification to worry about cleaning up the mess.
The people of this life only needed to consider the above two possibilities.
But as the only cycler, Jiang Yang knew he had another matter to consider.
If this life’s Salvation Plan still failed, then… what could he bring to the people of the next life?
He looked at Professor Chen Yusheng: “Excuse me, how is the condition of our astronauts now?”
Professor Chen Yusheng said in a low voice: “In another 7 hours, the spaceship will reach the apogee of the orbit, where it will perform a second maneuver, after which it will orbit Earth at 0.8 kilometers per second with a cycle of about 63 days.
Currently everything is normal, the spaceship is in good condition, and the astronauts are in good condition.”
Jiang Yang looked at Professor Lu Zhaoming again: “How is the situation at the Sen Mountain neutrino base?”
“The main construction has been completed, and the final equipment debugging is currently underway, expected to be completed within 6 hours, after which it can enter observation mode.”
Jiang Yang nodded lightly, his gaze turning again to the image of the lunar underground cavity on the large screen.
At this moment, it could only be said that they knew there was an underground cavity there. But almost everything about this cavity was uncertain.
Unknown specific location, unknown size, unknown distance from the surface, unknown depth…
A single set of seismic wave data was too vague and general. Even with eight moonquake detectors responsible for data collection, it was impossible to achieve sufficient precision.
This was not a matter of insufficient data, but too much data, often contradictory with each other, making it impossible to know which data was real.
And the related data on this underground cavity, if the nuclear bomb bombardment ultimately failed and the time loop restarted, would obviously be extremely important for the people of the next life.
“Professor Li, is there a way to make the data on this underground cavity more precise?”
Professor Li Jiaming sighed: “It’s hard to improve precision based on existing data. Unless we have new impactors to generate data again…”
Jiang Yang fell silent.
On Earth, people could easily detonate explosives and improve precision through repeated tests.
But on the Moon… how could it be done?
Don’t forget, at this moment they had no means left to trigger a moonquake on the Moon.
Professor Lu Zhaoming suddenly spoke with a solemn expression: “No, we still have a way.”
Jiang Yang looked at him in some surprise.
The last intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering payload to the Moon had already flown away; how else could they trigger a moonquake on the Moon?
Even if they could, the speed wouldn’t catch up with the missiles, and once the nuclear bombs exploded on the Moon, it was certain that all lunar rovers would be reduced to ashes.
Facing the gazes of almost everyone in the control hall, Professor Lu Zhaoming slowly said two words: “Satellite.”
Jiang Yang was stunned, then suddenly understood, feeling immediately excited.
Right, there are still satellites; how could I forget the satellites?
“Not counting the four lunar satellites recently launched, our country originally had two more in lunar orbit.
A total of six satellites; we can modify their orbits and let them act as impactors crashing into that area.”
His expression was somewhat dim: “The current mess is already bad enough; losing six more lunar satellites wouldn’t matter.”
Lice are plentiful and don’t itch, debts are heavy and don’t worry.
Even the entire aerospace industry had almost been destroyed; would they care about merely six lunar satellites?
Once the apocalypse was truly survived, then consider how to clean up the mess.
“While the nuclear bombs haven’t reached the Moon yet…”
Before Jiang Yang could finish speaking, he was interrupted by Gu Changshan.
His expression was full of seriousness: “Professor Lu, you’re wrong. The satellites we can use are not 6, but 12.
Don’t forget, there are still 6 satellites on the Moon belonging to other countries.”
Jiang Yang instinctively said: “Will they agree? In this life, we haven’t launched intercontinental ballistic missiles for deterrence.”
Sun Changhe showed a faint smile at the corner of his mouth: “They will agree.”
“Hm?”
Jiang Yang thought for a moment and asked: “Do we need to announce the apocalypse to them?”
Besides publicly announcing the apocalypse, Jiang Yang couldn’t think of how to gain cooperation from foreign countries without using violent means.
Those are lunar satellites!
Even a single Earth satellite costs an extremely high price, let alone on the Moon.
Moreover, usually, launching the same payload costs foreign countries more than domestic; a foreign lunar satellite probably costs over 10 billion.
Sun Changhe smiled and shook his head again: “No.
The matter of the world apocalypse, we will seal until the last moment.
If the apocalypse is successfully survived, there is naturally no need to announce it. If it fails, we will still seal it.
We hope that even if the apocalypse ultimately arrives, our civilization can face death in order, rather than in chaos and sin.
Our civilization has continued on Earth for thousands of years; this is our… dignity.”
Jiang Yang nodded silently.
Based on the characteristics of those foreigners, if the apocalypse intelligence was announced to their leaders, it would probably spread worldwide in a few hours. Since that’s the case, it could only be prevented at the root, telling no one.
But in that case, how could they get them to cooperate?
