I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

Qiongzhou, Tengyun Airport.

After initially experiencing the "crash" airport stage of taking off from the space launch site and adapting ordinary airports, the Aviation Development Commission closed a dual-use airport in Qiongzhou and renovated it to serve aerospace aircraft.

Now there are two aerospace planes, Tengyun and Liuyun, stationed here. Next week, Xinyuan's "Ruiyun" will also enter service, and three aerospace planes will be put into operation together.

"Tengyun" has carried out 31 flight missions so far, and it is still far away from overhaul. Therefore, after Ruiyun is also put into service, the three aerospace planes can make a very safe one flight every two days, even if counting Between scheduled maintenance and factory overhaul inspection, each aircraft can perform more than 60 flight missions a year.

The one currently flying is Liuyun, which belongs to the Air Force, but it is also used for space missions for the time being.

The later-made Liuyun has been optimized again and can carry 2+14 passengers, and its economy has also been slightly improved.

This is the first flight mission of Tianmu 4. The goal is to send the first 15 expert teams from five explosive device suppliers to space, still three people from each party.

There will be several subsequent flight missions that will send all 25 members involved in the blasting plan.

Current Congressman Bill Nelson looked carefully at the interior of "Liuyun", and then looked back at NACA astronaut and engineer Matthew Dominic who was looking around.

"Matthew, what are you looking at the ceiling for?"

Matthew looked around first. The people sitting in the back were all foreign astronauts, and the Chinese people were in the front. Then he lowered his voice and said:

"I'm looking at its internal design, which can provide a reference for our space plane."

"But if you don't study physics, why do you know about aircraft design?"

"Your Excellency, Congressman, I need to state that fluid mechanics is a subject with a very wide range of applications."

"Okay, okay... I haven't been to space for almost forty years. I just want to see what the moon looks like."

"But it's more fun to watch the moon get blown up by a hydrogen bomb, isn't it?"

"Maybe that's the case. I hope the Korean hydrogen bomb is more reliable and won't shoot down the spaceship we're on."

Bill was talking about the Ariane 5 rocket launched yesterday. This last one-time large launch vehicle of the European Space Agency took off from Guyana and sent a 2-ton orbiting probe "Peregrine Falcon" to the moon. ", - and a hydrogen bomb weighing 300 kilograms and yielding 1.5 million tons.

As a very senior senator, Bill knew that it was an earlier batch of equipment for the Royal Air Force. It should have been retired according to procedures, but now it was just a waste.

Choosing to detonate on May 9 was not only the result of discussions among experts, but also the urging of Dai Ying: the hydrogen bomb had reached its maintenance cycle in early July, and they did not want to spend any more money.

They have even been hinting to the Aerospace Development Commission that the belt can provide many nuclear warheads with a yield ranging from 30 to 5 million tons. Most of them are "redundant" equipment that is about to reach the maintenance period. Throwing it directly on the moon and blowing it up is less expensive than destroying and maintaining it. money.

In fact, the Hexagon has similar ideas. According to public data, Aramco and the United States still have nearly 6,000 nuclear bombs, but some of them are atomic bombs, and some are aerial bombs or nuclear mines, nuclear artillery shells, etc. stored in the Cold War.

There are only more than 1,000 missile warheads that can be used seriously for strategic deterrence. At least 1,500 hydrogen bombs can be "disposed" without affecting strategic security. It can also save a lot of costs and the benefits are very considerable.

After the three hydrogen bombs exploded in Tomimashima and everyone found that the public response was not as strong as expected, countries gradually relaxed and became less cautious about using nuclear bombs outside the earth.

However, United Mining does not want so many cheap nuclear weapons to mine. Too many nuclear bombs, especially small-yield nuclear bombs, will cause excessive radiation residue and affect the grade of the ore. A limited number of them will be enough.

The test nuclear bomb provided by Daiying was installed together with the "Peregrine Falcon" detector, and when needed, Jiuzhang or Dawn 1 would capture and dismantle it.

There is no doubt about its safety. The fuse that was modified by Yingying is very safe. There is no need to worry about the orbital explosion affecting all spacecrafts.

In fact, the impact of hydrogen bombs on the moon program is still quite large. Two of the three expansion modules of the Wutu Space Station have been built, but they are all waiting for the results of the nuclear explosion impact assessment before launching and docking. Most of the moon-related exploration plans Also suspended.

Bill couldn't help but think of the near-unanimous resistance of the scientific community to hydrogen bombs when he was young. If they knew that hydrogen bombs would one day be used to mine resources cheaply in the future, their attitudes would probably be very different, right?

…

Hexagon.

"Anthony, Colonel Anthony, please come out."

At the door of the Air Force Intelligence Office, a stranger, accompanied by the director of the Intelligence Office, shouted Anthony's name loudly. The young colonel, who didn't know what was going on, looked around for a few times before he stood up and walked over quickly.

The visitor looked him over, then introduced himself:

"I am David Usnow, and I am here to confirm one thing for you: You tracked and observed the UFO code-named NX17 at this time last year, right?"

The memory of a year ago suddenly emerged from the depths of his mind. NX17 has always been a stone that Anthony could not let go of. However, after the special office was disbanded, it was difficult for him to call the satellite and he could no longer conduct investigations. When he heard this code name again, he was instantly excited. stand up.

"Yes, of course, NX17 is..."

"I know everything."

David waved his hand to interrupt him, and then continued:

"All your conclusions are in the report. I have read those, and I will tell you one thing now: NX17 has appeared again."

"Where is it and when!"

Anthony was a little out of sorts, but he immediately understood where he was and quickly lowered his voice, opened his eyes wide and said with surprise:

"I knew it, I knew it was still there, it must have a secret!"

"Yes, it's still there."

The discovery of NX17 was a complete surprise for David. With the authorization from the president and the top military officials in the Hexagon, he was able to investigate all relevant information about XAP, and naturally discovered NX17.

His intuition told him that NX17 must have a big secret, so he hurriedly asked the intelligence agencies to collect it with all their strength, and then found that according to public information, the "counterweight" NX17 had "entered the atmosphere and crashed" more than half a year ago.

In order to leave no blind spots, the Intelligence Bureau called on the general artificial intelligence developed by the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and OpenAI to conduct a wide range of searches in the huge information database of the Hexagon Building.

A surprise happened. On December 16 last year, a signal that Anthony was searching for appeared in the logs of a reconnaissance satellite in synchronous orbit and a low-orbit satellite. Since there are records from the two satellites, it can be roughly determined The source of the emission was around the reconnaissance satellite and in its rough direction at the time.

Only artificial intelligence can patiently search through the vast amount of information, otherwise it would be impossible to know by manual means.

So the question is, if it is still NX17 that sent the signal, what did it fall into the atmosphere, and why did a "counterweight" float all the way from low-Earth orbit to synchronous orbit, which is a gap of more than 30,000 kilometers.

"Colonel Anthony, I now invite you to join the Thirteenth Office and restart the investigation of NX17."

"Of course...well, can't I refuse?"

"Colonel, when you hear this name, you have lost your choice."