Chapter 293: Woc! Ice!
Lei Zong’s sponsorship was jokingly called by netizens an emergency purchase of redemption coupons from Apollo Technology.
After the specific amount was exposed by Caixin, this kind of talk became even more rampant.
Previously, netizens made sticker packs of Musk, White House, NASA Director, and others saying “How could Apollo Technology be so bad?”, and now the characters have been changed to Lei Zong.
And at Apollo Technology, after confirming sponsorship by Xiaomi, the lunar rover was undergoing its final paint scheme, using special materials for the paint scheme to ensure the LOGO could still maintain sufficient longevity in the moon environment.
On October 7th, the same as last year’s moon landing timeline, the last day of National Day, Apollo Technology’s 2022 manned moon landing officially launched.
Still Saturn V executing this launch mission, at Wenchang Space Launch Site, the Saturn V rocket towered into the clouds, its silver-white shell gleaming.
Because of the launch in Wenchang today, large numbers of tourists specially rushed from popular Hainan tourist spots like Sanya, Haikou, and Wanning to Wenchang to watch the Saturn V launch.
Hotels with excellent views for watching the launch had long been hyped to sky-high prices.
Even hotels with not-so-good viewing positions would call to ask if you wanted to rent a telescope, two hundred a day.
As for buying online, you couldn’t buy a good quality telescope at all, and in the end bought one from Meituan supermarket, only to find it couldn’t be used at all, forced to grit teeth and rent from the hotel.
So on Xiaohongshu, the top suggestion in strategy posts about watching rocket launches in Wenchang is: bring your own telescope.
Bring your own telescope, first no need to stay in sky-high priced hotels with good locations, second won’t get ripped off hard by the hotel.
Apollo Technology added fuel to the fire for local tourism in Wenchang.
“All systems normal, prepare for countdown,” the control center’s voice came through the headphones to Wei Xuhang and Li Cong’s ears, calm and firm.
Wei Xuhang turned to Li Cong: “I’m super super excited right now, we’re about to go to the moon!”
Li Cong grinned and said: “Yeah, even though I fantasized about going to the moon myself before, I thought it would be on a Long March Rocket, who would have thought my first time to the moon would be on Saturn V!
No wonder the Americans go crazy, thinking about it carefully, it would be strange if they didn’t go crazy.”
“The professor’s move really kills people and hurts their hearts,” Wei Xuhang chuckled, “The more NASA can’t replicate Saturn V, the more anxious they’ll get.”
Chinese citizens on Earth following this launch could never have imagined that before the rocket launch, the two Chinese astronauts were not discussing the mission or the moon landing, but mocking NASA.
Countdown begins: “10, 9, 8… 3, 2, 1, ignition!”
The rocket engines spewed blazing flames, the huge roar deafening.
Thrust pressed the two tightly into their seats, their bodies as if squeezed by an invisible force.
Wei Xuhang stared at the instruments, confirming the trajectory was normal.
Li Cong closed his eyes, feeling the vibrations, images from training flashing in his mind.
A few minutes later, first stage separation, second stage ignition, the spacecraft burst out of the atmosphere, entered low Earth orbit, Earth gradually appearing outside the porthole.
“This is still my first time to space, I originally thought my first time would be to China’s space station.” Li Cong sighed, overlooking Earth from the porthole.
“Orbit insertion,” Wei Xuhang reminded: “Li Bro, we’ll sigh slowly when we’re free, now we need to check the data item by item to ensure the systems are error-free.”
This wasn’t his first time to space, his movements extremely skilled.
So this time, Wei Xuhang was the commander.
Li Cong immediately said: “Roger! Propulsion system normal, navigation system normal.”
After completing checks in low Earth orbit, the spacecraft prepared for trans-lunar injection.
Wei Xuhang activated the automatic navigation system, the screen displaying complex trajectory curves.
“TLI countdown 5 minutes,” Li Cong reported, gaze locked on the timer.
Engines ignited, spacecraft accelerated, escaping Earth’s gravity, heading to the moon.
After thrust ceased, the cabin entered weightlessness.
Wei Xuhang floated to the porthole, gazing at the shrinking Earth: “Last time when I came with the professor and them, it was the same scene, seeing this again, it’s the same feeling, I feel how small we humans are, and how important the work we’re doing now is.”
Li Cong floated over, tablet computer in hand, glanced and nodded, then added: “Xuhang, for the next three days we have to stay vigilant, even though the navigation system is fully automatic, we have to be ready to intervene manually at any time.”
Wei Xuhang nodded: “Naturally, no one should rely entirely on the ground control center to take over at any time, let alone this time.
Especially the landing phase, the terrain of Shackleton Crater is no joke.
Besides, this redesigned Ben Yue Hao has had its communication system linked with Queqiao, so even on the far side of the moon we can receive signals from Earth, much more reliable than last time.”
Li Cong teased: “Do you feel more reassured being able to communicate with Earth’s control center, or having the professor on Ben Yue Hao?”
Lin Ran’s magic, partly due to Wei Xuhang constantly mentioning it during training, and partly due to Li Cong witnessing it personally.
Li Cong was still amazed by Lin Ran’s performance in astronaut training, the other simply didn’t seem human.
Wei Xuhang thought for a moment and said: “Still more reassured with the professor here, feels like no matter what happens, if the professor is on Ben Yue Hao, he could fly the ship back to Earth.”
During the three-day voyage, they took turns resting, monitoring systems, conducting small experiments.
Three days later, the moon’s gray-white outline appeared outside the porthole, the edge of Shackleton Crater casting long shadows under low-angle sunlight.
The spacecraft entered lunar orbit, executing lunar orbit insertion burn.
“LOI complete, stable orbit,” Wei Xuhang confirmed, “Wenchang Control Center, prepare for separation.”
“Separation planned at T+147 minutes 18 seconds!”
“Roger!”
During preparations, Li Cong asked: “Xuhang, can the landing system really be precise to within 50 meters?”
Wei Xuhang nodded firmly: “Our terrain-relative navigation system has undergone countless tests, the fuel tank has succeeded twice.
It’s sitting there waiting for us.”
At the precise time given by Wenchang Control Center, Wei Xuhang activated the descent engines, the screen showing the terrain map of Shackleton Crater’s edge.
The automatic navigation system began working, lidar scanning the surface, searching for a safe landing spot.
“Altitude 1000 meters… 500 meters…” Li Cong read the data, tension in his voice.
This was just a process, the previous three landings had already surveyed the entire area thoroughly, their landing site absolutely wouldn’t suddenly have boulders pop up.
Unless there was life on the moon, and these beings had a certain level of intelligence.
Li Cong stared at the radar: “Distance to fuel tank 70 meters. 50 meters. 20 meters.”
The lunar module touched down gently, vibration minimal.
The screen displayed “Landing successful”.
The two exchanged a glance, breathed a sigh of relief.
“Welcome to the Lunar South Pole,” Wei Xuhang said with a smile.
By now in China it was work time, for the second moon landing, almost no companies gave employees time off.
Everyone had figured it out, with Apollo Technology, moon landings were like everyday occurrences, if they gave holidays for every moon landing, China would have extra public holidays every month?
So despite hot online discussions, in reality, it was far from the nationwide celebration of last year’s first time.
Of course the public was still excited, after all from a farming perspective, this search for water ice was actually more significant.
Before it was to piss off the Americans, this time it was for our own farming on the moon.
No holiday, can’t I hide in the toilet and watch the live broadcast under the pretense of taking a shit?
Wear headphones, who can know I’m watching the live broadcast?
Therefore, Apollo Technology’s official live broadcast room easily had millions of viewers.
The moment the successful landing footage came from the south pole, the Bilibili live broadcast room’s bullet screen was uniformly smooth.
“Feels like practice makes perfect, this was too smooth.”
“Now I finally know what the Americans’ golden age in the 60s and 70s felt like, only you can land on the moon, every time successful, feels so good.”
“No wonder there are so many conspiracy theories online about the American moon landing, if foreign netizens watch our moon landing they’d probably doubt too, how are you landing so smoothly at the south pole.”
“Wonder what antics the Americans will pull this time, last time Musk split with the Donkey Party, the time before NASA changed leadership, this time won’t be the White House changing people, right?”
Whether in any platform’s live broadcast room or secondary streams, bullet screen discussions were heated, the most common word was smooth.
For space promotion, Apollo Technology didn’t choose the same strategy as NASA on branding, since brand authorization was their core profit source, but for promotion, after the exclusive Bilibili authorization ended, they chose to fully open live broadcast copyrights.
Simply put, anyone could rebroadcast their official live broadcast room footage, anyone could record their live broadcast room videos to make clips.
This strategy made Apollo Technology’s related videos widely disseminated globally.
It also made watching aerospace live broadcasts a very popular and mass-appeal thing.
After landing, Wei Xuhang and Li Cong saw the fuel tank through the porthole, the silver cylinder shining in the sunlight, about 50 meters away.
The live broadcast room also synced the fuel tank footage.
“So beautiful, if I didn’t know we launched it ourselves, I’d think it was some alien product!”
“Feels like farming, seeing a silver fuel tank gets me this excited, if on the moon I saw our own electromagnetic launch tower, solar panels, greenhouse vegetables and such, I’d die of excitement!”
The terrain at the edge of Shackleton Crater was rugged, instruments showing temperature dropping sharply from 54°C in sunlit areas to -203°C in shadowed regions.
“Prepare for EVA,” Wei Xuhang said, starting depressurization, “Pay attention to wearing spacesuits, and absolutely don’t go into shadowed regions, let the robot dog go to shadowed regions, we stay out!”
Li Cong replied: “Don’t worry, I know life comes first.”
The two put on spacesuits, checked oxygen and communication systems.
Li Cong’s hands trembled slightly: “First time walking on the moon, a bit nervous.”
“Normal,” Wei Xuhang comforted, “We’ll take it step by step.”
Hatch opened, Wei Xuhang stepped out first, boots sinking into soft moon soil.
He looked down at the footprints, sighing: “Is this the feeling Professor and Buzz Aldrin had last time? Truly amazing!”
Li Cong followed, feeling the wonder of 1/6 gravity.
He stepped carefully, avoiding a rock: “This terrain is way more complex than the training field.”
They dragged a small fuel transfer vehicle toward the fuel tank.
This vehicle’s role was to connect the fuel tank and lunar module, mainly composed of transfer pipes.
The fuel tank had a sealed interface connected to a high-pressure hose.
Wei Xuhang skillfully connected the hose, an operation repeated countless times on Earth, while ensuring no leaks: “Begin transfer.”
Li Cong started the pump, instruments showing fuel slowly flowing into the lunar module.
He watched the data, breathed a sigh of relief: “Looks very smooth.”
One hour later, transfer complete.
They disconnected the hose, secured the equipment.
Wei Xuhang patted the fuel tank: “In the future we’ll deal with this guy every time we come, it’s our lifesaver.”
Wei Xuhang held the national flag on his chest up to the camera, then pointed at the fuel tank, gave a thumbs up, indicating the fuel transfer was successfully completed.
China’s various live broadcast rooms instantly boiled over.
In the past there were all kinds of voices saying China’s moon landing was a replicate of Apollo Technology, nothing big.
Such voices concentrated in foreign media.
Including China’s ambassadors overseas, in public settings, whether interviews or international forums, had to face similar doubts: your moon landing is just a replicate, right?
Led by America, the controlled public opinion system tried every way to shape China’s moon landing as the knockoff empire’s another knockoff, turning good into bad.
Then through foreign media export to domestic sales, creating similar “nothing special” voices in China’s public opinion.
The public aren’t fools, just counter-ask why America can’t do it, is it because they don’t want to, and you can break the defense of these rhythm-leading bloggers.
But couldn’t deny it was indeed a replicate of Apollo moon landing, so rebuttals lacked full confidence.
Nothing but repeatedly emphasizing America can’t do it now.
But this time, using self-developed technology, unprecedented bold proposal, schemes various professional bloggers analyzed as pie-in-the-sky, completed so smoothly.
Since the fuel tank used reusable rocket tech, the entire launch cost was unbelievably low.
After the fuel transfer process in the live broadcast room, various bloggers rebroadcasting it spontaneously applauded:
“Too brilliant, we witnessed another miracle brought by Ran Shen, smooth fuel transfer, no leaks, no accidents, the entire process so smooth.
Our astronauts also smoothly landed near the fuel tank.
I’m thrilled to witness this personally, my YouTube video mocking Europe and America bloggers is ready to go, tonight I’ll record and upload, then make a defense-breaking compilation to post on Bilibili, show everyone how foreign YouTubers break defense this time!”
A certain Bilibili aerospace professional blogger had found a new niche.
Specializing on YouTube in videos mocking American tech, fluent English plus facts for real damage, specifically linking up with foreign aerospace bloggers to targetedly blow them up, then port the defense-breaking videos back domestic.
Forming a traffic perpetual motion machine, gained fans rapidly this year, over 300k subscribers on YouTube, over 2 million on Bilibili.
Because there are over 200 countries abroad, not just America, European netizens love watching American bloggers get broken.
“Tell everyone, next is the most important task of this moon landing, searching for water ice.
If we find it, great, then Shackleton Crater will be our turf, our base on the moon.
Afterwards we’ll slowly build the base centered here.
In terms everyone can understand, farming found a good plot, no need fertilizer, the land’s own fertility is enough.
If no water ice, then it’s iffy, very luck-dependent.” Another professional blogger explained amid excitement.
After fuel transfer, they began scientific tasks.
Primary goal was to detect water ice, possibly hidden in the crater’s permanently shadowed regions.
They took the lunar rover with Xiaomi logo off the lunar module, then unfolded it into a small rover.
Xiaomi’s logo clearly visible in the camera, various live broadcast rooms full of bullet screens like Lei Zong awesome, Xiaomi awesome.
At this time Xiaomi and Bilibili’s official accounts on various platforms were also rebroadcasting, with Lei Zong personally manning the live broadcast room for the best promotional effect.
“Everyone see, this is the Xiaomi lunar rover we sponsored! Fully embodies our determination in car manufacturing, isn’t this car cool?
100:1 and 50:1 models replicating the Xiaomi lunar rover are already in the factory, first ones made will go online in Xiaomi mall.
Everyone can’t buy Xiaomi cars, can’t buy Xiaomi lunar rovers, we’ve been troubled by this a long time, I thought, can we let everyone get a Xiaomi lunar rover model to tide over first.
Hope all Mi Fans friends like it.” Lei Zong said in the live broadcast room.
Bullet screen uniformly “buy”.
(In 1923, Homer Eon Flint designed a lunar rover in his novel “Out of the Moon” that looked like a large, two-legged, bird-like thing that could walk on the moon.)
The rover equipped with drilling equipment and spectrometer.
The two drove the lunar rover toward the shadowed region.
Not entering, just probing at the edge.
“Rover activated,” Li Cong operated the remote: “Target that shadowed area.”
The rover moved slowly over rugged terrain, camera transmitting blurry images.
Suddenly, the spectrometer signaled: “Water molecules detected!” Li Cong shouted excitedly.
Wei Xuhang walked over, checked data: “This is water ice! Let’s go, back to lunar module to change into cold-resistant spacesuits, we must confirm personally!”
The two drove back.
Moments later, Apollo Technology’s official live broadcast anchor explained: “They discovered water ice! Now our astronauts are changing to low-temp spacesuits to probe the shadowed region personally, let’s wish them luck in advance!”
At times like this, luck really matters.
If different people, maybe not so smooth.
The two put on cold-resistant spacesuits, carried portable drilling tools, drove the lunar rover back to the edge.
Then Li Cong and Wei Xuhang exchanged a glance, Li Cong said: “I’ll go!”
Wei Xuhang shook his head: “This time let me!”
His tone firm and non-negotiable.
Wei Xuhang then took a special headlamp from the lunar rover’s storage box, strapped it on, plunged into the shadowed region.
Then buckled a rope to his spacesuit, the other end locked to the lunar rover.
“If I have an accident, remember to pull me back!” Wei Xuhang laughed.
Li Cong shouted: “Don’t worry, I’ll definitely bring you back!”
In the darkness, Wei Xuhang relied only on the headlamp for light, carefully avoiding rocks.
The bulky gear restricted his movements, helmet visor occasionally fogging with a thin mist.
He held the lunar dielectric analyzer and portable infrared spectrometer, the former emitting electric field into the moon soil to measure its dielectric constant.
Water ice’s dielectric properties differ from dry moon soil, showing a unique peak.
What Wei Xuhang needed to do was further scan to find the strongest signal area.
The spectrometer would help confirm water ice’s molecular signature.
Wei Xuhang moved carefully, boots leaving clear footprints in moon soil, kicked-up dust slowly floating in low gravity.
The dielectric analyzer’s probe moved slowly above the ground, emitting a faint hum, screen displaying a string of numbers.
“Keep the probe parallel to the ground,” Wei Xuhang silently reminded himself, staring intently at the screen.
Slowly advancing toward the distant anomaly direction.
Suddenly dielectric constant jumped to 4.5, far higher than surrounding 2.8.
Wei Xuhang’s heart pounded.
He took a small red flag from his waist tool pouch, stuck it into the moon soil.
He continued scanning, found three potential water ice spots.
Back at the first marker, Wei Xuhang picked up the portable near-infrared spectrometer, aimed at the marked area. Laser beam swept the moon soil, screen showing absorption spectrum.
Clear absorption band at 1.5 microns, water ice’s characteristic signal.
If on Earth, Wei Xuhang would have jumped up.
“Wenchang Control Center, I’ve found water ice!”
Moments later, voice from Earth hundreds of thousands km away: “Good, signal matches, now collect samples.”
Wei Xuhang picked up the lightweight drill, about 1 meter long, with battery-driven drill bit.
He crouched, aimed drill bit at marker, activated switch.
Drill bit emitted low buzz, vibration transmitted up his arm. He gritted teeth, steadied body to prevent losing balance in low gravity.
Moon soil particles splashed, revealing simulated samples embedded with ice crystals below.
“Be careful, don’t let ice crystals expose too long,” Wenchang Control Center reminded.
“Roger!” Wei Xuhang pulled out a sealed container.
Under headlamp light, ice crystals refracted faint glow.
Wei Xuhang carefully extracted core sample, a 10 cm long cylinder, ice crystals sparkling in moon soil.
“Wenchang Control Center, Li Cong, crystal clear! Definitely ice!”
Radio first carried Li Cong’s voice: “Great! Remember to stay safe!”
Then Wenchang Control Center: “Well done, remember to preserve it! This is key to our future moon base!”
