Spark

A week later, NASA headquarters.

Musk and Nelson sat together, and the real-time broadcast of the Chang'e-3 launch preparations was played on the screen in front of them.

The specially invited simultaneous interpreter stood in front of the screen, following the content on the TV and interpreting the interviews of the on-site reporters word by word.

"The fueling has been completed. Sure enough, it's still liquid hydrogen + liquid metallic hydrogen. The incident in Rasrakela has no impact on them at all. I even suspect that this is self-directed."

"After all, their recent actions in the Middle East are quite significant. It is said that the armies of several countries have already taken action and plan to cooperate with the United Nations' anti-terrorism operations in the Middle East."

"I can't believe that one day, they will actually take the lead in doing this."

"This is normal."

Nelson replied calmly.

"If they want to advance the Arab integration strategy, they must ensure the basic stability of the situation in the Middle East. To ensure the stability of the situation, in addition to binding them with economic and technical means, cultural 'secularization' is also very important."

"Are they opposing kbism? Wrong, they are opposing extreme beliefs."

"Besides, with this operation, they can truly intervene in that land. Why not?"

"In short, they did take advantage of it, but we can't be sure whether they directed or acted on their own."

"According to the current intelligence, the probability of self-directed and self-acted is very low. It is more like some kind of coincidence."

"Well, I don't care anyway."

Musk spread his hands and continued:

"For us, the most important thing now is how to land on the moon before they do."

"According to the original plan, Artemis should land within a week, but this time is a bit awkward. If we don't want them to get ahead of us, maybe we should land within the next one to two days."

"Is it difficult?"

Nelson asked.

"This is what NASA needs to worry about, why are you asking me?"

Musk asked, rolling his eyes.

"The technology used in the lander belongs to SpaceX. Of course you should make a basic judgment."

"My judgment is that you can log in at any time. The reason why it took so long is not your problem?"

Musk's tone was a little impatient.

In fact, he did have differences with NASA on the matter of "when to land on the moon."

He advocated landing immediately after completing the moon orbit. After all, according to the design of the lander, although it cannot meet the requirements of directly entering the Hohmann transfer orbit to land on the moon, it does not require orbiting for several weeks like the Indian plan. Lower the track slowly.

But NASA rejected his proposal—without giving any convincing reasons.

Musk knows very well that the reason for delaying is essentially a political and propaganda appeal, and he has no say in this area.

So, I can only let it go.

But now that he had let go, Nelson still had to ask himself "Is it too difficult?" at this time, which seemed to be a bit ungrateful.

After seeing his expression, Nelson had nothing to say. The two of them turned their attention back to the TV. At this time, the host had shifted from specific preparations to introducing the "project vision of Chang'e-3" ".

"The Chang'e-3 mission develops and launches the Chang'e-3 probe, which will achieve soft landing and patrol detection on the lunar surface, and carry out lunar surface topography and geological structure, mineral composition and chemical composition, internal structure of the moon, cislunar space and lunar surface Environmental exploration and lunar-based optical astronomical observations and other activities”

"As the main task of the second phase of the lunar exploration project, my country will realize the soft landing and patrol survey of extraterrestrial objects for the first time, and carry out investigations of lunar surface morphology and geological structure, lunar surface material composition and available resources, and detection of the earth's plasma layer. and three types of scientific exploration for lunar surface optical astronomical observation.”

"The Chang'e-3 probe consists of a lander and a rover and will be launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center by a Long March-3B improved carrier rocket."

"Long-winded!"

Musk frowned slightly.

"Why didn't they just say that Chang'e-3 went for helium 3?"

"Because they really didn't just go there for helium 3."

Nelson explained:

"To be precise, Chang'e 5 went there for helium 3, and Chang'e 3 was just to verify the moon landing technology."

"In addition, there is news that they will explore special ilmenite areas in craters on the lunar surface, collect helium 3 foam samples, and may even return with samples."

"But judging from the current situation, the design of Chang'e-3 does not seem to include this part of the function."

"The most likely possibility is to achieve this goal with Chang'e-5. The Long March-9 rocket is prepared for this goal."

"Okay, okay - I know everything you said, I just think their statement is too hypocritical."

Musk said sarcastically:

"Listen to what they said, 'The main purpose of this mission is to conduct experimental verification', and 'Chang'e-4 will serve as a backup for Chang'e-3.' Obviously, they have no idea about this launch. Not a lot of confidence.”

"But this is normal. After all, they do not have any reliable technology accumulation in the aerospace field. It is already very good to be able to achieve this step."

"But they have LITV technology."

Nelson interjected.

"Technology is a whole. LITV represents engine technology, but what about the others?"

"No matter how powerful a car's engine is, if there is no steering wheel, no brakes, and no suspension system, it will not be able to run on the road. Even if it can run, the final result will only be a crash of the car and death of people."

"I don't want to argue too much with you. Anyway, let's watch the next live broadcast."

"The metallic hydrogen fuel would be really interesting if they blew it up before entering outer space."

After hearing Musk's words, Nelson silently shook his head.

On the TV, the host continued to broadcast.

"The launch tower is slowly opening, and we have entered the thirty-minute preparation phase."

"Comprehensive inspection of launch site begins."

"15 minutes of preparation, the rocket power-on test has been completed, which also means that Chang'e-3 has officially entered the countdown before launch."

"After 5 minutes of preparation, we saw that in the command room, all staff were already in place at their respective posts."

"1 minute to prepare. Audience friends, the exciting moment is about to come!"

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - fire!"

In the picture, the Long March 3 rocket suddenly ignited. At this moment, even Musk on the other side of the ocean couldn't help but sit up a little straighter.

The flames were so high that simultaneous interpretation could no longer keep up with the translation of professional terms. But at this time, the two of them could roughly guess the content of the voices reported in the news, even if they did not need translation.

"Xichang telemetry signal is normal! Xichang tracking is normal! Flight is normal!"

"Procedural turn!"

"Booster separation!"

"The booster separated and it seems to be going well."

Nelson spoke.

"Yes, 5 minutes, the most dangerous moment has passed."

Musk said with some disappointment.

In fact, as one of the de facto "leaders" in the industry, he is all too familiar with the dangers of various stages of rocket launches.

If the most dangerous time is the rising stage, then in the rising stage, the most dangerous times are around 10 seconds, 50 seconds, and 300 seconds respectively.

Ten seconds after launch, the rocket transitions from vertical ascent to the programmed turning stage. The Russian Proton-M rocket launch accident that just occurred last year was caused by a gyroscope failure during the programmed turning stage.

In addition, there is the maximum dynamic pressure, or MAXQ stage, of about 50 to 80 seconds. The most famous Challenger accident in history occurred during this stage.

In about 300 seconds, the rocket needs to perform multiple actions, including fairing throw, booster separation, primary and secondary separation, etc. Although each action is "unlimited", the complexity is high, and when superimposed, accidents may occur. The probability is not low.

But now that Chang'e-3 has successfully passed through these three stages, do you expect them to have any problems after the third-level separation?

That's basically impossible.

"Three-stage secondary ignition."

"Three levels of secondary shutdown."

"Yangtze-6 tracking is normal. Telemetry signals are normal."

On the TV screen, the shadow of Chang'e-3 is no longer visible from the surface perspective, but the camera on the rocket is still sending back the latest footage in real time.

"The weapon and arrow are separated."

Along with the announcement from the podium, Musk and Nelson sighed at the same time.

"it's over."

"The next step is to change orbit multiple times, enter the Earth-Moon transfer orbit, and start flying around the moon."

Musk said.

"It's such a pity that no accident happened at all. I thought that even if there was no big accident, there would at least be some minor problems."

"It's really not fun at all."

"Even if there is, they won't show it on the live broadcast."

Nelson spoke.

"Anyway, the next step is to see if they can successfully log in within a few days - according to the plan they disclosed before, it will be about one to two weeks?"

"At this point in time, it's enough for us."

"I will make arrangements later. Artemis will officially launch the moon landing. We will take advantage of the popularity of Chang'e 3 to make a big news."

"I don't know what they will think. It took such a long time to prepare, but in the end we were the first to do it."

"Maybe it's going to break down."

Musk said with a smile.

Nelson shook his head.

"The officials will not collapse. After all, they have never explicitly said in their public statements that they want to 'land on the moon' before us. This is their caution."

"Well, maybe it should be called timid?"

"Maybe, but that's not our concern anymore."

The expressions of the two relaxed.

Yes, for them and the United States, the successful entry of Chang'e 3 into orbit is a big event, but it is not so big that they will be depressed about it.

So what about entering orbit?

We're going to the moon soon.

Thinking of this, Musk picked up the remote control at hand and planned to turn off the TV and leave the office.

But at this moment, he suddenly discovered that the picture on TV was a little unusual.

It was a 3D simulated trajectory map, and there seemed to be something wrong with the lander's track displayed on the trajectory map.

Missing voyages around the moon.

He couldn't help but frown, then turned to Nelson and asked:

"Did we miss something?"

Nelson shook his head blankly, looked at the simultaneous interpreter who was still standing in front of the screen and asked:

"What are we missing?"

The simultaneous interpreter looked confused, and he didn't know where to start from.

After all, his job is not to record, but to translate.

But fortunately, not much time had passed, and he could still roughly recall what he had just seen.

So he replied:

"Um, let's start with the separation of weapons and arrows?"

"Start from the separation of weapons and arrows!"

Nelson said immediately.

"Well, after the weapons and arrows were separated, they continued to track for a period of time, mainly tracking data from various regions."

"BJ is flying normally, Yangtze River 5 has found the target, Yangtze River 6 is tracking normally, uplink. Uplink load."

"Uplink carrier."

Musk prompted.

"That's right, send the uplink carrier wave, and then the detector establishes cruise normally"

"The cruising attitude is normal, what next?!"

Musk's tone became a little anxious, because from the live TV screen, he could clearly see that things had begun to exceed his expectations.

"The lander's buffer mechanism deployed and entered the transfer orbit."

"It should first enter the transfer orbit, then deploy the buffer mechanism, etc. Where is the solar wing?"

At this time, Nelson also realized the problem.

"The solar wings didn't unfold?!"

The expressions of the two people were so severe that the simultaneous interpreter couldn't help but feel afraid. After hesitating for a long time, he stammered:

"No I didn't hear the sun wings unfold."

At this time, a long and boring science popularization was still going on on TV. Musk pointed at the screen and asked:

"What are they talking about now? Tell me!"

"Transfer orbit! Talking about transfer orbit, Hohmann transfer orbit is a method of changing the orbit of a spacecraft. It only requires two engine thrusts on the way."

Hohmann transfer orbit.

Musk froze on the spot.

The expression on Nelson's face was as if he was mourning for his heir.

Everything is clear.

The Chinese had no intention of landing according to the normal method.

The "experiment" they called turned out to be not an experiment on a "moon landing technology" at all, but a "moon landing technology with the highest efficiency"!

By analogy, going directly to the moon through the Hohmann transfer orbit is equivalent to a car passing directly through a narrow gate at a high speed of 200 miles without any adjustments.

Why do this? Why not choose a safer way?

There is no doubt that this is a technical foundation

Sure enough, Chang'e-3 is not that simple at all.

It is a pioneer, but not a pioneer in lunar exploration, but a pioneer in "lunar development"!

What it verified is the first problem that needs to be solved for large-scale development of the moon.

As for the so-called sensors and the so-called lunar soil analysis instruments, they are actually secondary.

In front of it, Artemis is like a joke.

Musk and Nelson looked at each other, neither of them speechless.

At this time, Artemis, for whom they had high hopes, was still in the lunar orbit, spinning around and around.