While Keiichi Nagaoka was feeling despair about losing an order worth tens of billions of yen, there was a festive atmosphere more than 300,000 kilometers away on the Moon.
Wu Gang was under the watch of the Moon Palace and all the staff at the lunar scientific research station. He was wearing a spacesuit as he skillfully operated a heavy engineering vehicle with two pairs of robotic arms. He placed the assembled parts on a T-shaped track excavated by the tunnel boring machine.
“Good job!”
When Wu Gang heard the voices of excitement from the communication channel, he smiled lightly and controlled the joystick skillfully. He then steadily disconnected the mechanical arm and retracted it.
He had done this countless times, so obviously, he would never make a mistake.
After reversing the vehicle around ten meters, Wu Gang turned off the engine and looked at the skyline while squinting his eyes.
This track was hundreds of kilometers long, almost perfectly straight.
The track looked like a thin, silver needle. It was buried in the lunar soil, with the top pointing toward the lunar transfer orbit.
According to the engineering data disclosed by the lunar scientific research station, the deepest part of the track was 1km deep in lunar soil.
Due to the protection from the lunar soil surface, this track could avoid being damaged from meteorites as much as possible while meeting launching requirements.
Basically, their tunnel was pierced through the Moon, although it was only on its surface.
Minerals mined from the Moon would be able to pass through this vacuum track, underneath the lunar soil surface, and shoot directly to the lunar transfer orbit using electromagnetic acceleration. This saved a lot of chemical propellants.
Once lunar mining popularized, this track would become the transportation hub for the entire lunar transfer orbit. This would accelerate Earth’s advancement toward a multi-planet species!
There was no doubt that this was one of the world’s greatest engineering feats!
This was a wonder in aerospace engineering!
However, this track was not yet complete.
There was only one section left.
…
The lunar scientific research station.
Wu Gang drove the heavy engineering vehicle into the garage. He took out the key from the ignition and opened the door.
He stepped on the vehicle’s robotic arm and grabbed the handle by the door with his hand. He then leaped forward and jumped out of the engineering vehicle.
Strictly speaking, this was not compliant with the operating guidelines. The correct way should be to climb down the ladder. However, after staying on the Moon for a long time, people often forgot about their fears of height.
If this were on the Earth, jumping down from a height of three or four meters would break someone’s leg.
But here, this was nothing more than a tiny jump.
After taking off the outer spacesuit, Wu Gang put on his inner spacesuit with an electromagnetic gravity belt. He then went through the airlock and into the lunar scientific research station.
The young man named Xu Chengli was running over with a can of water.
“Thanks.”
Wu Gang took the water can and strapped it to his chest. He then took out a straw and took a sip of the water.
As Xu Chengli went up the elevator with Captain Wu, he spoke with a smile.
“The Labor Day celebration show is about to begin soon. Today, the kitchen staff made cabbage and pork dumplings. If you don’t need a rest, let’s head on over there.”
“No need to hurry.” Wu Gang took out his card and swiped it on the elevator door. He pressed a floor number and asked casually, “Speaking of which, did the Moon Palace send us their schedule?”
“Not yet! But captain, aren’t you going to take a break?”
“Break?” Wu Gang looked back at the rookie engineer and said with a smile, “Why waste any time? I just want to finish this project quickly.”
“What happens when you’re done?”
“Then I’ll go back to Earth for a while.” After a moment of silence, Wu Gang looked up at the beating numbers on the elevator display as he spoke with a trace of nostalgia in his eyes.
“My kid is going to high school soon. I haven’t been home in a long time.”
No matter how far away you go.
You’ll always miss home…
…
The more lonely people were, the more they desired a disciplined ritual.
This was the only way lonely people could still feel connected to the rest of the world.
In some sense, the people on the lunar scientific research station were a group of marginalized people, exiled from civilization. The one-second delay made real-time communication extremely difficult. The expensive communication costs limited the amount of ground information they could receive.
People that lived here could make a half-hour phone call with someone once a week; this was the best the Lunar Orbit Committee could do.
Also, in order to ensure that the staff living here were in a good state of mind, the management staff of the scientific research station did everything possible to organize various social activities and tried to make the people living here feel the joys of festivals and the warmth of home.
As Yu Fei stood at the cafeteria entrance and looked at the crowded tables, he had a smile on his face.
As the head of the lunar scientific research station and part of the first group of “colonists” who arrived on the moon, he personally watched this place become livelier day by day. He believed that one day in the future, the lunar surface scientific research station would become a lunar village. It would be a lighthouse for humans to spread the fire of civilization to more distant worlds…
He heard a voice come from behind.
“Commander Yu, why are you standing here, aren’t you going to eat something?”
Yu Fei looked back and saw Dr. Yang Xingyu waving at him.
“I already ate.” He continued with a polite smile, “By the way, Dr. Yang, how is your project going?”
“It’s going very smoothly.” Yang Xingyu spoke with a smile, “The Dr-111 active material enjoys the environment on the Moon. By controlling the ratio of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and oxygen, we have figured out the most suitable gas environment for their growth. It shouldn’t be long before we can try to use these organisms to transform the organic matter recycling system for our station.”
“That’s great! If you need anything, please tell me.” Yu Fei looked at Dr. Yang and said solemnly, “Whether our scientific research station will become a colony or not depends on the progress of your project.”
“Commander Yu, you’re too kind. Dealing with the metabolite cycle is only a portion of the prerequisites for the large-scale transport of resources and labor to the Moon. If we truly want this place to thrive, there are still more problems waiting for us to solve.” After a pause, Yang Xingyu said, “Speaking of which, how is the construction of our lunar mass driver? When will it be completed?”
This huge project started two years ago. Yang Xingyu still remembered the first time he saw the words “lunar mass driver” in the headline of Everyone Daily.
Two years had passed since then. The lunar collider was already complete, so he wondered how this “lunar cannon” was doing.
Yu Fei had a smile on his face when he heard Dr. Yang Xingyu.
The lunar mass driver was probably his greatest achievement during his tenure as the head of the lunar scientific research station.
He looked at Dr. Yang Xingyu and said, “It should be completed before National Day!”
