Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
In the 1990s, the Americans tried to build a miniature artificial ecological system in the desert north of Tucson, Arizona. Its purpose was to conduct ecological and environmental research in a closed environment as well as to help humans understand how Earth operates by simulating its ecological environment.
This plan was originally proposed by a rugby player and received investments from several consortiums, including Rockefeller, totaling US$150 million. It was quite a commotion at that time.
Unfortunately, the final experiment results weren’t as sensational as the proposal. A year after the experimental team started their work at the Biosphere 2, they declared the project a failure. They had to withdraw from the project.
The only conclusion drawn from the experiment was that Earth might be the only suitable planet for humans.
Overall, this plan was undoubtedly a failure. Not only did Biosphere 2 fail to form a stable and independent ecosystem, but it was even transformed into an ecological hotel after the project was abandoned.
However, back then, this idea was quite groundbreaking. A lot of technologies were invented because of this project, which had been applied to many other fields.
Judging from the missions arranged by the system, there was a 90% chance that the third stage of the mission chain was to establish a permanent or semi-permanent research station on the Moon. Even though Lu Zhou hadn’t completed the Moon landing yet, that didn’t stop him from preparing for the future.
Not to mention that there were side missions in the first stage, such as “planting on the Moon”.
Therefore, after some discussion with the experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the China National Space Administration, and the Ministry of Science and Technology, the “Garden” artificial biosphere project was born.
Compared to China’s Biosphere 2, the “Garden” plan had a clearer goal, which was to pave the way for space colonization.
Based on a series of external factors such as climate and environment, the location of the Garden Biosphere A was chosen to be in the Dzoosotoyn Elisen Desert and at the center of the Junggar Basin. The biosphere would be contained in a semi-spherical building, and it would be completely isolated from the outside world.
Of course, because of various factors, Lu Zhou didn’t plan on copying Biosphere 2’s plan, which was to establish a complete ecosystem copy of Arizona. Instead, Lu Zhou’s plan was to set “limited input of minerals, freshwater, and biological resources”. The goal of his experiment was to reduce the input of resources by as much as possible.
Even though Lu Zhou had a specific implementation plan for this project, he wasn’t personally responsible for this project. Instead, he chose to cooperate with several universities such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences and China Agricultural University. He also selected one person from China Agricultural University to be in charge of research…
After Lu Zhou stayed at the 150 Regiment Camp for the night, he met with Jinling researchers the next day. He gave them a brief explanation of the work. He received a call from China Agricultural University, which informed him that the researchers had arrived in Wushi.
Junggar Basin was quite far from Wushi, but Lu Zhou wasn’t in a hurry. After lunch, Wang Peng drove Lu Zhou and an army guide around the desert area to examine the terrain around the area.
When it was almost night time, a desert-colored military jeep and water truck appeared on the desert horizon. They slowly approached the checkpoint.
Coincidentally, Lu Zhou just came back from his terrain examination. He got out of the car and walked toward the desert-colored jeep. When he walked up to the car, a slim, middle-aged man who was wearing glasses and a windproof coat walked out of the car while carrying a dirty rucksack.
The middle-aged man instantly recognized Lu Zhou. He threw his rucksack over his shoulder and smiled.
“Nice to meet you, Professor Lu! It’s an honor!”
“You’re too kind,” Lu Zhou shook his hand and made an inviting gesture. “This isn’t the place to talk, let’s go inside.”
Other than the guy carrying survival necessities and food, there were two other PhD students in the car. They didn’t look very good, and it seemed like they didn’t sleep well.
Due to the strong wind and sand outside, everyone in the group was tired. Lu Zhou invited them to a warehouse and went to find the tea set. Yan Yan, who was wearing a military green casual outfit, walked in the warehouse.
“The water is boiling, go sit down, I’ll help you.”
Lu Zhou nodded toward Yan Yan and said, “Thanks so much.”
“No worries.”
Yan Yan flipped her hair and poured a cup of tea for each of the four people sitting in the room. She then left the teapot on the table, turned around, and walked out of the door.
Lu Zhou was sitting at a desk. He pulled out a resume and looked at the middle-aged professor, who was sitting professionally on the sofa. He compared the professor with the photo on the resume.
The professor was somewhat embarrassed by Lu Zhou judging him, so he coughed and asked, “Is there a problem?”
“Nothing, I’m just confirming.” Lu Zhou smirked and put down the resume. He looked at the professor and said, “Welcome to Dzoosotoyn Elisen Desert.”
The Agricultural University professor sitting in front of Lu Zhou was called Hu Yang. He had a down-to-earth and diligent demeanor.
Lu Zhou hadn’t met him prior to this; he had only seen Hu Yang’s photo on the resume, and he had a brief understanding of Hu Yang’s research direction and academic background.
Generally speaking, his resume was relatively standard. Just like most scholars who were in unpopular research areas, he wasn’t in the Changjiang Scholars Program, nor did he have a chance of becoming an academician… But this wasn’t the stuff Lu Zhou cared about.
After all, it would be strange for an agricultural researcher to have a stacked resume.
After Lu Zhou briefly looked at his resume, he decided to let him manage the project.
The reason was that not only was this area Hu Yang’s expertise, but Hu Yang was able to stay in this research area for many years, which meant he had a certain amount of persistence and tenacity.
This job was very difficult, and one would have to stay in the hamada desert for years, which would take away their youth and life.
Other than him, no one else applied here.
Therefore, Lu Zhou didn’t have a lot of choices.
After two minutes of small talk, Lu Zhou put down the teacup and went into the main topic.
“I’ll skip the formalities, I’m sure the Agricultural University has already told you about the Garden project.”
“Yeah,” Hu Yang nodded and said in a serious tone, “I received the project two days ago, and I immediately came here.”
“Thanks for coming in such short notice.”
“No worries,” Hu Yang smiled nervously and said, “I have to travel to test fields all the time, whether it’s the desert or city, it’s the same to me!”
Lu Zhou nodded and continued, “It’s admirable that you think that way. It’s not easy to make a decision like this, you must have thought about it for a long time. But I still have to emphasize some things. This project is important to China’s future aerospace industry. It will not be easy.”
Lu Zhou paused for a second before he continued, “Before you decide to take on this scientific research project, I hope you know that for the next few years, or even decades, you will be isolated from the world, and I’m afraid you’ll only be able to take a vacation once or twice a year.”
The two PhD students sitting next to Hu Yang held their breath, but they soon relaxed.
Even though they were in a difficult field, they didn’t have to work as hard as their boss.
After all, they would graduate in a few years. At most, they would only stay here for two years.
As for Hu Yang, his expression didn’t change.
He nodded and spoke without hesitation.
“I’ve thought it through.”
Lu Zhou looked at him solemnly.
“Then… please take care of this project.”
