Super technology leader

America, NASA's small conference room.

After concluding a joint meeting with senior politicians, top advisors, and generals, the NASA personnel also gathered for a meeting to arrange and adjust some issues raised during the previous meeting.

Those that need to catch up on progress should do so, ensuring completion before the deadline.

Suddenly unimportant tasks should be postponed, not taking up time from important tasks.

Things like restoring manned lunar landing capabilities, the test flight of the VentureStar spacecraft, the maiden flight of the Starship system, and experiments with space-based weapons equipment must all be prioritized.

"Now, the higher-ups are pushing for VentureStar's progress again. We must find a way to complete the ground tests as soon as possible, or we will definitely not meet the timetable set by those people."

As the director of NASA, these tasks were all weighing on Jim.

The aerospace industry has been turbulent in the past two years. Because of the existence of Pathfinder, NASA's absolute leading position no longer exists, and it has even been suppressed at times, so his position as director is not easy.

Fortunately, everyone knows that the director of NASA is not easy to be, so no one took over his job, and he has been the director ever since.

So, as the director, he can push the orders down to the lower levels.

Well, it's not really pushing, after all, he is just a director. He can't afford to offend some high-level scientists in NASA.

"We can think of ways to solve the progress problem," the head of the VentureStar project team said after pondering for a moment. "Currently, our ground tests have reached 90%, which can be said to be quite fast, and we have made everyone work overtime. So far, no one has taken a vacation."

"If we want to be faster, then we can only reduce some less... important ground tests. Everyone can take a look at our test catalog..."

As he spoke, the project director projected an image onto the big screen, which was the ground test project of VentureStar.

There were also some pictures behind, all of which were some scenes of VentureStar's tests.

Judging from its comparison with the surrounding environment, it is indeed the real VentureStar project, not the X-33 experimental aircraft for technology verification.

This VentureStar "spaceplane" is 40 meters long, has a wingspan of 42 meters, and a height of 10 meters with landing gear.

Its empty weight is 120 tons, the takeoff gross weight can reach 1200 tons, and the effective payload is 25 tons.

Compared with the Pathfinder company's takeoff gross weight, which is the same as its empty weight, and the carrying capacity of up to 25 tons, it can be said to be quite exaggerated, and it is also the source of confidence for NASA.

At the beginning, the main purpose of "VentureStar" was to develop an unmanned satellite launcher, but now its mission positioning has changed, so in addition to that, it has been given other subsidiary and optional uses.

It can be used as a passenger plane to carry passengers, and it is mainly for intercontinental and intercontinental long-distance flights. Also, because "VentureStar" adopts an unmanned design, passengers will be regarded as a kind of cargo to be transported, just like artificial satellites.

Even for aliens appearing in the solar system, the cargo it carries can also be equipment such as missiles, nuclear bombs, laser weapons, and electromagnetic weapons.

In simpler terms, "VentureStar" is expected to become a low-cost launcher that can quickly travel to and from space, and it also has a modular transport system design. What is transported can be artificial satellites, or passengers, or it can return to Earth and space stations, transporting necessary supplies and even weapons to the space station.

The reason why it finally crossed the "X-33" experimental aircraft stage and directly went to the ultimate version of VentureStar is because of the technological progress in recent years.

After technical argumentation, not only have the technologies that needed to be developed before been available, but some have been updated more than one generation, and the original technologies have reached a new level.

And after re-examining the previous design, it was found that some designs were outdated. After adopting new technologies to replace them, the performance of VentureStar was greatly improved.

Also because of those technological developments, they dare to remove some... less important projects.

"I think test project No. 6 can be removed. Its importance in the entire system ranks in the third sequence. Even if it is removed, it will not have a big impact. At most, there will be some communication problems when crossing the atmosphere, but the experienced mission execution team will cleverly deal with various situations. After entering space, they can replace the spare communication module."

"Indeed, I also agree with this, and this communication system has already been tested on the Dragon spacecraft. Although the platform has been changed this time, the Dragon spacecraft is also a reusable spacecraft..."

The problem of reducing ground test projects needs to be considered for a long time, and all aspects of the problem must be considered. After all, it is related to whether the VentureStar aircraft can successfully conduct its test flight, and even whether it can be successfully finalized and then mass-produced.

After all, sometimes the projects that can be deleted or not are the core of the entire project's success.

In addition to these, the things said at the previous meeting must be discussed.

The most important thing is to discuss the new space food.

They talked about new space food and the physical and mental health of astronauts at the previous meeting, but those politicians and generals didn't seem to care much. They were more concerned about when America would restore its manned lunar landing capabilities, and when America could have its own space armed forces to make the Space Force a real Space Force.

Those people don't care, but the scientists at NASA can't help but care, so they also discussed their new space food.

While they were discussing, the assistant sitting next to Jim suddenly received a message.

It was information sent by other assistants outside, and he was shocked when he saw it.

He quickly replied to the message and asked for details.

The more he asked, the more shocked he became.

After finally asking clearly, he quickly whispered to Jim: "Director, there is something you need to know. Interstellar Pathfinder Group has sent us an invitation through official channels... I don't know how to describe this invitation. It's not a normal business cooperation, nor is it an official note. You should take a look yourself."

As he said that, he handed the tablet computer with the information he had just replied to Jim.

Jim was also curious. His assistant usually had very high work ability, but now he was saying a bunch of nonsense.

As a result, when he saw it, his expression became more and more shocked.

"My God, Pathfinder is really giving us a problem."

He pinched his eyebrows in embarrassment, looked at the technicians who were still discussing how to make astronauts "physically and mentally healthy", and organized his words.

He knocked on the table, "Everyone, listen to me, something very important."

As soon as this posture came out, the buzzing crowd just now quieted down.

"The thing is like this, I already have some ideas about what you were discussing just now, but it was Interstellar Pathfinder Group who took the initiative to find us, and it was their boss - Tang Chao."

"Mr. Tang Chao just talked to me personally, saying that he plans to transfer the technology of a new generation of space food to us."

"The new generation of space food contains more technology than we imagined. Maintaining the original shape is only the most basic technology, and it is only related to transportation technology. Its real technology is to allow astronauts to eat the same taste as on Earth, and even new drug formulas can reduce the occurrence of human space sickness and make the human body more adaptable to the space environment..."

"And the 'food restoration machine' that I saw before, its manufacturing cost is not as high as we expected. As long as there is space in the space station, you can install one with very little cost..."

"..."

Jim said a lot, and finally he talked about the place that made him embarrassed, "According to Mr. Tang Chao's meaning, he is sharing technology in the name of a community of human destiny, not authorization, so all the technology is free."

"For the aerospace community, this is a surprising situation. Pathfinder Company and Mr. Tang Chao have a high level of spiritual realm. I used to only feel that he was a technological genius, but today I have a new understanding of him."

"It's just that besides our NASA, it's hard to say whether other places recognize this 'community of human destiny'. Everyone has lived in America for so many years, you should know..."

Listening to the director's narration, everyone at the scene was dumbfounded. As people from NASA, and most of them were technicians, they were very happy about technology sharing.

They have thought more than once, what if all the aerospace institutions on Earth cooperate?

The technologies they each have are made public, so that everyone can have good aerospace technology, and then each choose a field to study, the progress will definitely be very fast, and finally come a few in one, maybe a real spacecraft has come out now.

Never do repetitive technical research, that would be a waste of resources and time.

Unfortunately, it is not the technicians who dominate the world.

And now, Pathfinder has put forward the concept of "community of human destiny" and, based on this concept, wants to make some technologies public.

This...

Originally it was a great thing, and the American high-level officials would definitely be happy, after all, free technology, they would even laugh at Pathfinder as a big fool.

But it is impossible for them to agree with any community, even if there is this community, then America must be the leading brother, and it must be the kind that has the final say.

Still that kind of has the final say.

"You go do that, he goes do that, you have to give me tribute, he has to give me gifts, and I, lie down and wait to collect money."

Thinking of those pictures, everyone in the conference room was worried.

Technology is definitely needed, because it can really make their space food technology rise a lot, plus the single-stage-to-orbit VentureStar spaceplane is about to test fly, all the technologies are available.

It's just that technology can't be taken for nothing, how to "return the gift" is really difficult for them.

While they were worried, Tang Chao, the instigator, had already talked to many high-level officials of the space agency. Compared with the tangled situation in America, most other space agencies were interested in this plan.

They also watched the previous video, and tried to analyze it, and they also analyzed a lot of things.

And Tang Chao talked to them more and the technology was more deeply rooted.

Of course, Tang Chao is not really so selfless, and the community of human destiny cannot be achieved by simple technology sharing.

To be honest, the human group is really cheap, and free things will never be cherished.

Especially when very valuable things are shared for free, people will be flattered, but when time passes and free becomes a norm, most people's thoughts will undergo amazing changes.

So there must be a strategy.

Free things are only used to catch fish, and when the fish are hooked, there are more exciting things waiting for those fish.

It may be a stick, it may be a fishing net, it may be a cutting board, or it may be a luxuriously decorated fish tank.

Tang Chao's congratulations later were very powerful.

After he finished talking to the director of a space agency, he stood up and stretched deeply in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.

"Ah~"

"Butler, put out the previous space station model and put it in front of me."

"Okay, BOSS."

The glass of the living room's floor-to-ceiling window is actually a transparent display. After Tang Chao said the order, several space station models were displayed.

These space stations are different from the current space stations, but look similar to the "Tiangong Space Station" he is building. Their common feature is that they all have rotating simulated gravity cabins, large and small.

Some even don't know if they count as space stations, because they have thrusters on them.

Tang Chao scanned all the space stations, and finally focused his attention on the Tiangong Space Station. After all, that was the first finalized space station with a rotating simulated gravity cabin.

It is a cross-era "upgrade".

"This is still a classic, just use it as a fishing net."

He swiped his hands on the floor-to-ceiling window, pushing all the other space station models aside, leaving only the Tiangong Space Station.

Then zoom in, observe, zoom in again, and observe carefully again.

He pressed it a few more times, and the model gradually showed virtual and real changes.

The solidified part is the part that has been made so far.

In this regard, Pathfinder Company and the Tianxia National Team have information sharing, and the number of modules built is updated in real time.

Judging from the current state of the model, the overall progress is quite good, much faster than the previously planned process.

So what he is thinking about now is when to make this project public, whether to make it public according to the plan at the time? Or discuss it with the National Team recently and make it public according to his new plan?

This is a question worth thinking about.

After thinking about it, he still plans to communicate with them, after all, more communication can reduce misunderstandings, and many misunderstandings are caused by lack of communication.

No matter what you do.

And the community of human destiny has always been something that Tianxia has mentioned, although... it is not much different from the meaning mentioned by Pathfinder.

But it's almost the same, you can integrate it.

Time will not stop for anyone, it is always moving forward. A few days later, America's Space Fork's Starship system successfully made its maiden flight, marking that mankind has another super-heavy launch vehicle.

However, although the name is very powerful, it is still not very helpful for mankind's deep space exploration. The key "space refueling" technology has not been broken through, and it can only rotate in Earth orbit.