Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The entire country cheered for the successful manned moon landing.
China became the second country to land a person on the Moon, and a lot of other countries were envious.
Especially Russia.
As the second strongest aerospace nation, in 2017, the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities issued a four-step strategy for landing on the Moon. It claimed to put a man on the Moon in 2031 and carry out a 14-day scientific research mission… as well as building a research base on the Moon in 2034.
Even though this was widely regarded as a response to the United States’ Lunar Gateway program, the fact was that the Roscosmos was going through with its own program.
After all, aerospace wasn’t just the pride of the Americans, it was also the pride and joy of the Russians.
Even though it was impossible to recreate the greatness that was the Soviet Union, if the Roscosmos could accomplish what the Soviet Union failed to accomplish, many Russians would be satisfied.
Everyone thought that Russia would become the second country to land a man on the Moon.
However, that didn’t happen…
From the successful launch of Skyglow to the landing of the lunar module, and finally, to the successful return of the astronauts. Not only did this series of achievements scare the Americans, but it also frightened the Russians.
Russia felt like China was getting the upper hand…
The Roscosmos gave its congratulations in regards to China’s successful moon landing. It also quickly convened a closed-door internal meeting. It re-scheduled its moon landing program and applied for an increase in the budget.
Russia wasn’t the only country reacting this way; the European Space Agency also quickly held a press conference. It stated publicly that “it is time for us to land on the Moon”. The European Space Agency also announced a new set of manned moon landing plans, as well as cooperation projects with the United States in its Ares plan.
Like the life support system project…
Regardless, the underdog that was China completely changed the international aerospace field. Gone was the geopolitics and governance conflicts, and in came a new era of aerospace competition.
It was very hard to predict what would happen in the future…
The day after the heroes returned, the news channel was still playing videos filmed on the Moon, as well as documentaries on the Moon landing.
As for the three heroes who landed on the Moon, they were sent to the 301 Hospital in Beijing.
Even though their health was in good condition, they still had to go through the usual inspection procedures. After all, there could be hidden health problems.
Because they stayed in a low-gravity environment for a long time, it would take them a couple of days to adjust to Earth’s gravity.
As for Lu Zhou, he left the aerospace industry alone for the time being. His attention was on something else…
…
Underground basement in the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.
Inside Lu Zhou’s personal private laboratory…
A black sweater was placed on the experiment table… There wasn’t anything special about it, other than the fact that it was extra-soft and smooth.
No matter how Lu Zhou looked at it, it was just an ordinary piece of clothing. He even felt pretty comfortable wearing it.
He touched the sweater inside out and didn’t find any special mechanisms.
“Is this really just for wearing in the summer? What if people think I’m crazy for wearing this on the street?”
Lu Zhou believed that there was something else about this sweater. He refused to believe that the future generations had such a simple taste in fashion.
And given that the system had classified it as a sample, there had to be something different about it.
“… Thickness of 1.72mm, thermal conductivity of 2000w/ (m·k),” Lu Zhou said as he looked at the data measured on the high-precision thermal conductivity meter. He thought for a moment, then suddenly said, “Xiao Ai, fetch me my toolbox.”
[Okay! (๑•̀ᄇ•́) و✧]
A string of text popped up on the screen two meters away. Right after that, the robotic arm connected on the wall began to move. It accurately grabbed the toolbox on the ground, then placed it on the logistics vehicle. The vehicle quickly drove itself next to Lu Zhou.
Lu Zhou reached out and took out a pair of scissors from his toolbox. He found a spot near the sleeve. He then cut the sweater.
He was shocked.
It was like the pair of scissors was cutting a piece of steel plate. No matter how hard Lu Zhou tried, the scissors didn’t make a dent.
“This is weird.”
Lu Zhou threw the scissors aside and looked at the perfectly good sweater. He was full of surprise.
Seeing how Lu Zhou was perplexed, the flying drone flew over.
[Master, do you want Xiao Ai to help? 0.0]
Lu Zhou thought for a moment and said, “What idea do you have?”
[Why don’t we try a water jet cutter?]
Lu Zhou immediately slapped his head.
I almost forgot about that!
A long time ago, in order to keep Xiao Ai entertained, Lu Zhou added a bunch of industrial and experimental equipment in the underground laboratory. He obviously had basic equipment like a water jet cutter.
Lu Zhou immediately said, “Okay, cut 1cm off the left sleeve for me.”
[Okay! (๑•̀ᄇ•́) و✧]
The drone grabbed the clothing on the table and flew to the corner of the laboratory. The drone then placed the sweater on the water jet cutter, which was connected to the laboratory central server.
After the drone accurately placed the sweater on the processing station, Xiao Ai controlled the water jet cutter to release a high-pressure jet of water. A 1cm square of fabric was cut off from the sleeves.
After the device finished cutting, Lu Zhou stepped forward and picked up the 1cm square with a pair of tweezers. He carefully observed the fabric before placing it into a sample bag.
Even though there were quite a lot of different types of experimental equipment in the underground laboratory, large equipment such as the transmission electron microscopes were only found in specialized departments in the upper-floors.
Lu Zhou planned on giving this piece of fabric to Yang Xu and let him take a transmission electron microscope image and do an infrared spectrum analysis.
Lu Zhou quite trusted Yang Xu.
Both in terms of talent and trustworthiness…
Lu Zhou tidied up the laboratory. He put on his coat and was about to leave.
However, when he reached the door, he suddenly remembered something. He quickly returned to the experiment table.
“I nearly forgot about this.”
He picked up two sealed test tubes from the test tube rack; one was filled with a green liquid, the other was filled with a black liquid. Lu Zhou smiled and put the two test tubes in a sample bag, together with the piece of fabric. He then turned around and walked out of the door.