After the meeting finished, the Starlight aerospaceplane project was green-lighted, with Hou Guang in charge.
The days quickly went by, and it was soon the end of January.
After the long wait, the State Administration for National Defense, China National Space Administration, and other government units jointly announced the winning results of the manned moon landing bid.
Just like everyone had expected, the 50-ton low-Earth orbit delivery capable Skyglow won the bidding competition. This was the most important project of the entire manned moon landing project—the space launch vehicle.
Actually… the bet didn’t even matter anymore.
After seeing Skyglow’s excellent performance, anyone with a normal IQ would make the correct decision.
With 10 billion yuan of funding, Star Sky Technology’s urgent need for cash was quickly resolved.
According to the contract with Alibaba, Star Sky Technology repaid all of its debt and used the remaining funds to start making final preparations for the upcoming manned moon landing plan.
As for the lunar module, command module, service module, extravehicular spacesuit, lunar rover, moon communication satellite, and other components necessary for the moon landing project, these bids were won by dozens of other aerospace companies, such as China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation.
Many of these projects had already been completed. For example, the most important command module and the lunar module were completed in December last year. The big and powerful China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation had already displayed module samples.
As long as they had a large-thrust rocket with a delivery capacity of more than 24 tons, the moon landing project could be started.
Judging from Skyglow’s current carrying capacity, there was no doubt that this condition was met.
After some high-level discussion between departments, the moon landing launch was set to be a day before 2021 Chinese New Year.
There was less than a month until Chinese New Year. Star Sky Technology had to discuss and formulate specific launch plans with other companies that participated in the moon landing project.
This time, state funding was quite sufficient. The eye-catching performance of Skyglow during the test flight greatly boosted the confidence of domestic aerospace companies. All of the participating parties were moving forward with great momentum, preparing to give the country a special gift on Chinese New Year.
Early morning at the end of January.
Sun Chengping, CEO of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, arrived in Jinling with several other experts.
A black sedan parked quietly at the entrance of the space shuttle assembly center. Sun Chengping got out of the car and reached out his right hand enthusiastically.
“Nice to meet you, Professor Lu, I’ve heard many good things about you.”
“You’re too kind, CEO Sun.” Lu Zhou smiled and released his hand. He made an inviting gesture and said, “Let’s talk later, follow me first.”
The command module and the lunar module of this launch were both completed by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation. There was a very important issue to be resolved. This issue was the compatibility of the lunar module and the command module with the Skyglow aerospaceplane.
Whether the equipment could smoothly exit the cabin, whether the equipment could be successfully recovered, and whether there would be satellite interference during the mission… These issues had to be discussed and researched by professionals. If they didn’t solve these problems, the spacecraft might not be able to come back from the Moon, which would be pretty awkward.
The group of people followed Lu Zhou, and they soon came to the giant object parked in the shuttle center.
The experts from the Air Force Equipment Research Institute were shocked.
Especially when they saw the five ion thruster propulsion engines.
The bright metal shell represented the dreams of every aerospace scientific researcher…
Sun Chengping was stunned for a couple of seconds. He then asked emotionally, “This is Skyglow?”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “First time seeing it?”
“Not quite.” CEO Sun shook his head and said, “I’ve seen it a few times on TV, but it wasn’t as shocking on the TV screen.”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Do you want to sit inside? I promise it’s more exciting.”
Sun Chengping coughed and said, “… I’m good, I’m scared of heights.”
On the other hand, next to Skyglow, experts from the Institute for Advanced Study had already started to talk to the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation experts.
“… What is the highest carrying capacity for an Earth-Moon transfer orbit?”
Hou Guang: “The maximum is theoretically 25 tons.”
“25 tons?” An expert from the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation asked, “What plan do you think is the best?”
Hou Guang: “So far, the most reliable way is still lunar orbit rendezvous. Our suggestion is to integrate the command module to Skyglow and only extend the lunar module after entering lunar orbit. This will decrease the recovery process risks.”
There were four main methods for landing on the Moon—direct takeoff, lunar orbit rendezvous, earth orbit rendezvous, and Earth-Moon orbit rendezvous. In terms of safety, methods were ranked 1>4>2>3, and in terms of rocket performance, it ranked 2>4>3>1.
In fact, the Apollo spacecraft chose method 4, which was the lunar orbit rendezvous. The entire spacecraft was launched to lunar orbit, where one section—the lunar module—landed on the Moon, while the other—the command module—remained in orbit. After performing tasks on the Moon, the lunar module returned to orbit and entered Earth together with the command module.
After hearing Hou Guang’s explanation, the engineer nodded and rubbed his chin.
“Integrating the command module on the spacecraft? Interesting idea, we will consider it…”
Sun Chengping looked at the engineers standing next to Skyglow as he spoke emotionally, “I didn’t expect that I would be able to witness Chinese footprints on the Moon.”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “The Moon is only a beginning; we will go even farther in the future.”
Sun Chengping looked at Lu Zhou and asked in a confused tone, “Can I ask a question?”
Lu Zhou said, “What question?”
Sun Chengping: “Just out of curiosity, you have always claimed to be a mathematician, but your contributions in other fields have far exceeded your achievements in mathematics.”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Is that so?”
Sun Chengping: “Isn’t it?”
Lu Zhou thought for a while and said, “Whether it is controllable fusion or aerospace, these futuristic technologies will be developed by society sooner or later. All people need is a lot of resources, time, trial, and error. However, mathematics is a completely different beast. Even if a mathematical tool is invented, if there is no one to use that tool, the mathematics problems will never be solved.”
Sun Chengping smiled and said, “Then I’m even more confused.”
“Confused about what?”
Sun Chengping: “If you think mathematics is so important, why are you interested in aerospace?”
Lu Zhou: “Are you interested in my motivation behind researching this stuff?”
Sun Chengping nodded.
“I guess.”
Lu Zhou smiled and answered in a relaxed tone.
“That isn’t important.
“The important thing is that the problem is here, and it’s waiting for me to solve it.”
