Chapter 1027: Mars Colonization Plan
Even the closest calculated distance from Mars to Earth was hundreds of times the distance between Earth and Moon. A distance that would even take light three minutes to travel. Under the current technical conditions, it was unrealistic to establish a supply line to and from the Mars colony and Celestial City.
At present, the research plan developed by the Aeros.p.a.ce Research Inst.i.tute in the apocalypse was to design an engine capable of making return trips between Mars and Earth. The engine must accelerate a million-ton transport s.h.i.+p to escape velocity 60,000 kilometers per hour, so the duration of the trip would be between a week to half a month. Although the technical barriers were overcome long before the war, no engine drawings were available for reference. So the engine must be redesigned based on the technologies of their predecessors.
Jiang Chen felt this was the greatest misfortune.
The Zhenghe s.p.a.ce Colonization s.h.i.+p could accelerate to one-tenth of the speed of light. However, the researchers involved in the design of the engine were invaluably talented and definitely didn’t stay on the wasteland.
Since establis.h.i.+ng a supply line was impossible for the time being, it meant that the colony on Mars must be self-sufficient. It must have a higher resource utilization efficiency than the lunar base, and the production cost of its equipment reflected the challenge.
At the end of the tour, Kelvin gave Jiang Chen a number.
The cost of the entire facility totalled 25 billion XND, and 90% of the structure must be manufactured through industrial 3D printers. It only took 20 people to burn off the market value of his public company which made even Jiang Chen feel the pain.
On the first Friday after his return to Xin, it was time to launch the Mars Colonization Plan.
On top of the offsh.o.r.e platform of Celestial City, Jiang Chen sent twenty colonists to the s.p.a.ce elevator. After shaking hands with them, they were personally presented with commemorative medals in recognition of their contributions and sacrifices for the s.p.a.ce industry.
Upon arrival in Celestial City, they would receive a week of training. At the end of the training, they would board the s.h.i.+p and sail to Mars tens of millions of kilometers away.
For now, it was a one-way ticket. In the next few years or even a dozen years, they would spend their lives on the barren Mars. At least until return flights were possible, they wouldn’t be able to see their loved ones even once.
The scenes of parting were touching. All the people present were in tears, witnessing the families of the heroes and heroes saying goodbye. Media from all over the world recorded this historic moment and spread the news to every corner of the global community.
The responses from NASA and s.p.a.ceX were quite calm after Celestial Trade beat them to a completely manned mission to Mars. They had fully prepared for this day since the completion of the s.p.a.ce elevator.
s.p.a.ceX silently canceled their Mars mission originally scheduled to start in 2020 and focused on adjusting its business focus to the development of asteroid resources.
However, all this had nothing to do with Jiang Chen. Regardless of whether s.p.a.ceX adjusted its business strategy, he never considered them a compet.i.tor in the s.p.a.ce race.
As for the reactions of the UA and Hua, he also hadn’t considered them too much.
After end of the ceremony, Jiang Chen cleared all of his plans and spent his weekend leisurely. He woke up naturally in the morning, spent the afternoon surfing or just lay on the private beach sunbathing. As for the evenings, even if he didn’t want to, he would be dragged into the gentleness of his girls.
Occasionally, only occasionally, when Xia s.h.i.+yu couldn’t handle his embrace, she would seek help from Ayesha who happened to be peeking. It was only when she woke up the next day when she would feel ashamed of everything that happened last night.
Good times always flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was May.
With Celestial Trade joining the regional conflict, the Ukraine war situation welcomed a historic turning point. Following Jiang Chen’s orders, Celestial Trade soldiers who helped to advance the front line to the east bank of the Dnieper River stopped all attacks. They began to take a defensive stance. Other than maintaining air support, most of the ground forces had withdrawn from the front lines.
It wasn’t the time to win.
NATO wouldn’t allow Ukraine to fall to the east, and Jiang Chen didn’t like the idea of satisfying the polar bear at once. However, he couldn’t be too obvious with his reluctance. After all, his employer paid money. Fortunately, Arrow sent 20,000 mercenaries to Ukraine and launched mobile warfare against the militants in the northern towns. This also gave an opportunity for Celestial Trade to maintain the stalemate.
Perhaps Celestial Trade’s reluctance gave the Arrow commander an illusion of “winning”. At the end of April, the two divisions of the Ukraine Army launched a new round of attack.
A total of 120 tanks, 327 armored vehicles, 27 armed helicopters and 10 fighters partic.i.p.ated in the war. Steel shambles and tarred black smoke spread throughout every inch of the eastern suburbs of Dnepropetrovsk.
If it wasn’t for the two Celestial Trade brigades’ timely rescue, they would’ve almost done it. Both sides suffered a lot of casualties with Ukraine ending up in defeat. The two divisions returned to the west bank of the Dnieper River.
Because of the tragic defeat of the Ukraine Army on the east bank, the Ukraine president was almost forced to step down. However, with NATO support, he managed to stay in office.
The two sides were deadlocked on both sides of the Dnieper River, and no one could gain an inch. The situation finally eased.
In addition to carrying out the airstrike mission, Aurora-20s occasionally snuck into the airs.p.a.ce of Poland, Frankberg, and even France. Following Jiang Chen’s orders, they cooperated with Ghost Agents to search for Carmen’s whereabouts.
Carmen was certainly devious. Since the a.s.sa.s.sination at Pilsner, he seemed to have disappeared. All the events in which he must appear in public were given to his spokesperson or professional manager. He completely hid behind the scenes. Occasionally, he resurfaced only to quickly disappear again.
Even with the help of high-tech investigative means, it was difficult to pin a person’s whereabouts in ma.s.sive Europe. What’s more, with the strong grasp of Freemasonry inside its home base, the organization’s power integrated and was entrenched into every aspect of the continent. If Carmen didn’t want to reveal himself, the possibility of catching him was almost zero.
Ghost Agents operating in Europe previously captured traces of Carmen’s activities in Switzerland and Finland, but when they arrived, he had long escaped.
But it wasn’t like they gained nothing.
On the morning of May 4th, Monica Geller, who returned from Europe to Coro Island, brought two interesting pieces of news to Jiang Chen…