Chapter 1353: a.s.semble In s.p.a.ce!
At the astronomical observatory in Arizona, North America…
As a large-scale astronomical observatory built after 2020, this scientific research facility had the most sensitive radio telescope array in all of North America. Its accuracy could even track meteorite debris and s.p.a.ce junk only half a meter in diameter, as long as it was located near the Earth and Moon system.
As the latest and most advanced astronomical observatory in North America, this Arizona astronomical observatory was a civilian public scientific research facility that belonged to the American Astronomical Society. Its funding came from the Pentagon’s defense budget.
Since its funding was received from the military, the task of this astronomical observatory was not as simple as when it was first established.
According to an internal doc.u.ment from the Pentagon, this astronomical observatory only had 30% of its observation missions dedicated to finding habitable planets outside the solar system.
As for the remaining 70% of the observation missions, most of them were concentrated in the lunar transfer orbit. Needless to say, the purpose was obviously to monitor China’s activities in the Earth-Moon system.
Professor Reston stood next to the coffee machine, quietly waiting for the coffee to be ready. Suffering from a headache, he rubbed his eyebrows, trying to relax his nervous and overheated brain.
About a week ago, China launched the first components of the Mars landing program in accordance with a timeline that was made public to the international community.
Since that day, he and the observation team he led did not take a day off. They were on standby for almost 24 hours a day.
After all, there was no guarantee that China would arrange every launch plan according to the timetable that they disclosed to the international community.
Such things were not without precedent.
After all, they themselves had abandoned their schedules countless times.
As the person in charge of this astronomical observatory and a researcher employed by the Pentagon, he only had one mission, which was to observe and track every detail of China’s Mars landing plan. He had to collect as much intel as possible.
This task was personally given to him by the US Secretary of Defense at a meeting.
Because of this, from the moment he received the task, he felt an unparalleled pressure on his shoulders.
Fortunately, this period of time was finally about to be over.
The launch mission recently carried out was the third launch in China’s Mars landing plan. According to the launch plan they announced, this was the last launch.
When this was over, their work would finish for the time being.
“Starlight has successfully entered geosynchronous...o...b..t.”
“The third batch of components was released from the cargo hold…”
“The recovery was successful. The Magpie Bridge is speeding up its...o...b..t change.”
“Orbit changed successfully. The Magpie Bridge has successfully moved into lunar transfer orbit!”
A series of reports came one after another.
Professor Reston stood in the control room, listening quietly.
Even though this wasn’t good news for America’s aeros.p.a.ce industry, for some reason, there was a faint feeling of relief in his heart.
All of this is finally over…
His a.s.sistant walked in from the control room.
“Professor Reston.”
Professor Reston turned to look at his a.s.sistant and asked, “Yeah, what?”
“Professor Phil Goethe submitted an application to NASA. He will visit our astronomical observatory the day after tomorrow.”
Professor Reston frowned when he heard this unfamiliar name.
“Professor Phil Goethe?”
The a.s.sistant saw the confusion in the eyes of his boss, so he immediately explained, “He is a professor at the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology, as well as a distinguished engineer of NASA and the person in charge of the Lunar Gateway project. Not long ago, he made a high-profile announcement in an interview with the media, stating that the Chinese people’s Mars landing program was doomed to fail and that they had not made any adequate preparations for landing on Mars…”
The a.s.sistant paused for a moment. He shrugged his shoulders.
“Perhaps after seeing that the Chinese people’s plan has been going smoothly so far, he might be feeling a bit restless.”
Who cares if he’s restless?
Professor Reston had a smile on his face.
There was a hint of ridicule behind this smile.
He spoke in a cold tone.
“If he’s interested, let him come.
“But I don’t think this makes any sense.”
After that, he put the empty coffee cup on the table, walked past his a.s.sistant, and walked out of the control room…
…
On the third day that the Magpie Bridge successfully took over the components of the Mars landing program, Professor Phil Goethe arrived at the astronomical observatory in Arizona as scheduled.
The professor in his sixties stepped into the astronomical observatory and saw Professor Reston approaching him. Before Reston could even say h.e.l.lo, he asked straightaway, “How is the situation?
“Which step is their launch plan at?
“Is there anything unusual?”
“In my opinion, the whole Mars landing program is full of unusual signs. Which one do you mean?” Professor Reston shrugged as he was bombarded with questions. He said, “As for how far along their plan is, I think it is at the final stage of preparations.”
Phil Goethe looked at the younger researcher in front of him with a stiff expression. He spoke with a struggling tone.
“… The final stage?”
“Yes.” Professor Reston nodded and said, “About half an hour ago, the Chinese had successfully s.h.i.+pped the last batch of components to the Moon Palace, just like they disclosed in the original schedule. We all thought that they might temporarily adjust the launch time to circ.u.mvent our investigation activities on them, but now, it seems like they do not care about our prying eyes at all. Not only did they stick to their plan, but…”
Professor Phil Goethe said, “But?”
A bitter and helpless smile appeared on Professor Reston’s face.
“… But it’s as if they deliberately wanted us to observe them.”
Professor Phil Goethe fell into silence; he didn’t know what to say.
Half a month ago, he was confident that China’s announcement of the Mars landing plan was to provoke NASA and use this to start a new round of s.p.a.ce compet.i.tion, to achieve some kind of political goal. And if they really launched according to such a hasty timeline, this immature plan was destined to be a failure.
But it seemed that was all his own imagination.
They didn’t even have the intention of hiding, as if they didn’t pay attention to their opponents at all.
Professor Reston looked at the silent old professor. He suddenly spoke.
“Let’s stop talking at the entrance. Since you’re already here, come on inside.
“If I’m not mistaken, they are probably thinking of a way to put those parts together into a colony s.h.i.+p, then send it to Mars.”
He spoke in a joking tone. The serious atmosphere around him relaxed a little because of his joke.
Everyone knew it was difficult to a.s.semble a s.p.a.cecraft weighing hundreds of tons in the lunar orbit. This was something that anyone in the aeros.p.a.ce industry knew.
a.s.sembling the three parts into a s.p.a.cecraft on the Moon Palace was akin to using an AK47 and shooting at a bullseye target hundreds of meters away.
There was no independent dynamical system, and its...o...b..t was constantly adjusted according to the CCD cameras and dynamic vision measurement system on the s.p.a.cecraft. If they were not careful, these components could crash into one another and become s.p.a.ce junk.
He was more inclined to believe that the Moon Palace s.h.i.+p was actually a slightly smaller and fully a.s.sembled s.p.a.cecraft, which had already been sent to the Moon Palace for fuel replenishment during the first component launch.
The next two launch missions were to send some simple life-sustaining devices to the Moon Palace. This would be carried by other s.p.a.cecraft and launched in batches to Mars...o...b..t for deployment.
However, while he was thinking, the three white dots floating around the Moon Palace on the radar screen in the command room gradually became closer together, as if they were under some kind of force.
Professor Reston had just brought Professor Phil Goethe into the control room when he noticed the unusual situation on the radar screen and frowned.
At first, he thought it was a problem with the radio telescope array.
However, he soon realized that this was impossible. The engineer responsible for the overhaul of the equipment this morning performed maintenance on the radio telescope array.
Professor Phil Goethe, who was standing next to him, apparently also noticed the abnormality on the radar. He muttered to himself, “… What the h.e.l.l are they doing?”
“I don’t know…” Professor Reston realized the seriousness of the problem. He immediately looked at his a.s.sistant and asked, “Can we apply for permission to use the Universe-2 optical observation satellite?”
The Universe-2 optical observation satellite was a s.p.a.ce observation satellite commissioned by NASA to s.p.a.ce X had launched in 2022. It used high-resolution lenses to photograph the planets in the solar system.
Of course, this satellite, just like the Arizona astronomical observatory, was mainly focused on observing the Moon.
Precisely speaking, 70% of its activities were focused on the Chinese astronauts on the Moon.
“It should be okay… I’ll go ask.”
The a.s.sistant quickly jogged out of the control room.
He didn’t make his boss wait for a long time; he quickly ran back from the outside.
“NASA approved our application!”
Professor Reston immediately said without hesitation, “Connect to the Universe-2 optical observation satellite! Focus on the Moon Palace!”
Thousands of kilometers away, a cylindrical satellite began fine-tuning its camera angle, locking its lens on the Moon Palace.
When the camera was finally aimed at the Moon Palace, everyone in the control room was stunned by the picture in front of them.
They’re really f*cking a.s.sembling a s.p.a.cecraft?!
WTF?