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Humanity's current lunar missions are essentially pioneering expeditions.

It's just that the moon is too desolate for humans; not only is the journey there arduous, but we also can't survive independently there.

Yet, the moon is crucial, serving as a transit point for humanity's journey into the stars.

Even calling it a "station" underestimates the moon; it's more like a giant logistics base with industrial production capabilities.

Once humanity establishes a settlement there, it signifies our qualification to venture into the cosmos.

Its low gravity, lack of atmosphere, abundant mineral resources, and ample water resources allow humans to construct various facilities in space more affordably because its orbital entry conditions are much easier than Earth's.

However, these conveniences are long-term advantages; the initial survival and construction conditions are extremely challenging!

To date, humanity hasn't even utilized it to journey into the stars, let alone develop it or even survive there for extended periods.

For development, people need to live there first, but humans have only visited a few times, each time leaving hastily after a short stay.

Humans going to the moon is like paddling a canoe across the ocean to a deserted island, only to find it unsuitable for human habitation, lacking food, water, and shelter.

Unable to survive for more than a few days, without equipment or materials, and unable to build a house by hand, they can only return helplessly.

If there were a house on the deserted island, the feeling would be completely different.

With shelter, people would feel secure.

Unfortunately, humans can only paddle canoes across the ocean to that deserted island, and a canoe can't carry a house.

Similarly, on the moon, humans have been planning for a long time to build a forward base, allowing scientists to live there comfortably and study everything on the moon more diligently, paving the way for future large-scale development.

In the past, people could only enjoy promotional CGs and related films, but now...

It's actually about to become a reality!

All of this stems from a Tianxia Aerospace Administration space launch event.

The launch event featured a CG promotional video, confirming the launch mission and launch time of the first Long March 9 rocket.

Afterward, the official website uploaded this promotional video for everyone to watch and share.

[Tianxia and Pathfinder collaborate, Long March 9 will send humanity's first lunar test module to the moon!!]

As soon as this news came out, related fields exploded, then spread to other fields, and soon the whole world knew.

Of course, it's not that over seven billion Earthlings know, but that the news has reached every corner of the world.

Ordinary people may not understand the significance of this, only knowing it's very impressive; otherwise, the news wouldn't have spread throughout the world, but those involved directly had stars in their eyes.

They no longer cared about the Long March 9, after all, they are just space enthusiasts, like Tianxia military fans.

They already understood it thoroughly before, even if the carrying capacity data increased somewhat.

Many people had calculated the Long March 9's carrying capacity last year, and the result was that its carrying capacity still had considerable room for improvement; this increase in carrying capacity was expected.

What they cared about was this suddenly emerging lunar test module.

Its official name is "Moon Palace 2" Lunar Laboratory, analogous to the previous Tiangong 1 space laboratory, its role is to test a series of life support technologies, to provide technical verification for building a real "lunar living area" in the future.

But people know that as long as this thing can successfully land on the moon, it will be humanity's first lunar base!

Because from its name and data, you can see the ambition of Tianxia and Pathfinder Company.

Clearly, it's the first one, so why is it called "Moon Palace 2"?

That's because there is a "Moon Palace 1" on Earth, at Tianxia's Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, which is a ground-based comprehensive experimental device for a space-based life support artificial closed ecosystem.

It is a large-scale ground-based experimental system established to integrate and verify biological regenerative life support system unit technology, study system basic theory and methods, system design theory and methods, and system regulation technology.

In other words, this is for experimental use, at least ground experiments.

With ground testing, if you want to go to the moon for testing and data collection, wouldn't it be easy and cost-effective to build a smaller one?

But Pathfinder Company didn't, they went straight for a big one.

This "Moon Palace 2" weighs 50 tons, is 6.5 meters in diameter, and its height can reach 8 meters after the solar panels and landing gear below are unfolded.

Its landing engine is not below, but uses 4 "Cub" engines, installed on the 4 sides of the outer cabin wall.

Don't look down on it, 4 full-powered engines can provide 13 tons of vacuum thrust for soft landing.

Netizens who have played Kerbal Space Program know that this is another engine mentioned in Kerbal Space Program.

They nodded with satisfaction: "This is very Pathfinder."

This engine layout allows the Moon Palace 2's hatch to be only one meter above the lunar surface, just a few steps away.

Most importantly, its internal layout has two practical cabins!

Inside, it is divided into an airlock cabin, maintenance area, cultivation area, exercise area, work area, dining and entertainment area, sleeping area, etc., as well as independent bathrooms to ensure no cross-contamination.

It allows four astronauts to live comfortably without feeling cramped.

This configuration is simply luxurious!

You're telling me it's just an experimental module?

Do you believe it?

Anyway, I don't believe it.

We're going to call it humanity's first lunar base.

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In the past, aerospace experts calculated that if you want to explore and research something on the moon, such as finding water and mineral resources, studying the impact of the lunar environment on humans, etc., you must stay on the moon for at least 1 year.

And the designed lifespan of this so-called experimental module is 5 years.

Everyone knows about aerospace equipment, like the International Space Station, its designed lifespan is 10~15 years, how long has it been used now, and how long is it planned to be used?

Think about it.

Also, Moon Palace 2 is analogous to Tiangong 1, the space laboratory whose designed lifespan was 2 years, but it actually stayed in orbit for more than 4 years.

It is conceivable that this lunar base can be used for at least 10 years.

In these 10 years, they are sure that Tianxia and Pathfinder will launch other components, and finally form a larger lunar base, a real "Moon Palace".

Just like the "Tiangong" that will appear soon.

Nothing else, awesome!

It's just that this flight mission makes them very worried, why should the first flight test of the Long March 9 carry out such an important mission?

Not to mention the Moon Palace 2, as if to prove that it is here for testing, it does not carry any supplies inside, except for various equipment, it also carries 8 unmanned lunar rovers.

8 lunar rovers, simply awesome!

And each lunar rover weighs 500 kilograms, 8 vehicles take up 4 tons of weight, fixed one by one on the outer cabin wall of Moon Palace 2.

"Hasn't Tianxia always taken a steady route? Why is it so reckless this time?"

"That's right, is it stimulated by the recent actions of the Americans, in order to grab the title?"

"Probably not, the Americans have only released a bunch of animated simulations recently, except for the cheers of the onlookers, those who know a little bit know that they have basically done nothing substantive, would Tianxia make such a reckless plan for this?"

"You are too short-sighted, public opinion is also a way of competing, although the simulation animations released by the Americans only have the cheers of the onlookers, but there are many onlookers, if ten thousand people believe it, it would be terrible, three people can make a tiger, let alone ten thousand people."

"That's right, if the marketing accounts hype it up, it will be multiplied by ten thousand times, and one hundred million people will believe it, then Tianxia will vomit blood."

"I don't think Tianxia would be so reckless, maybe they are confident in their rockets, the first flight of the American SLS rocket will also launch the Orion spacecraft directly around the moon, are they also reckless?"

"Hey, the video is over, let's go watch the live broadcast, maybe we can ask this question."

Compared to a few minutes of video, the launch event lasted a long time, so they watched the video and then watched the live broadcast of the launch event. The live broadcast had a comment section and a question-and-answer session with barrages, and reporters also asked questions on the spot, and this question was quickly answered.

The launch event spokesperson smiled three times in a row.

"This is just a normal first flight test mission."

"It is not aimed at any specific institution."

"The so-called space race is even more fictitious."

Foreign netizens may not understand, but domestic netizens understand as soon as they hear it.

"Here it comes, the serious three-part series, steady!"

Sorry, there is only one update today, I will make it up tomorrow, and by the way, recommend a book to everyone, hehe.