Super technology leader

The last wave of lunar landings was more than fifty years ago, back when the Americans and the Soviets were competing for dominance. After realizing that there wasn't much benefit to landing on the moon, humanity stopped.

Or rather, the Americans no longer needed to use lunar landings to increase their influence and show off their strength.

After all, the initial manned moon landings didn't really mean much to most of humanity.

Even for the American leadership, it was the same; securing the first landing was enough, and the subsequent ones were clearly in the realm of "losing money."

The main reason was that their opponent was uncompetitive. In the early stages of the space race, the Americans were being beaten down, but when it came to manned lunar landings, the Soviets got stuck. Later, the Americans soared, and the Soviets never managed to put a man on the moon before they collapsed.

With the opponent not landing on the moon, it was equivalent to giving up. For the Americans to continue spending money on the lunar landing program would have been foolish, so both sides started a new battleground and fought in the space station domain.

The lunar landing was naturally left behind.

However, with the development of technology and the progress of the times, the importance of the moon has become increasingly prominent.

Not to mention the increasingly successful nuclear fusion project, the moon has a large amount of pollution-free nuclear fusion fuel, enough for humans to use until the end of time.

For this reason, it's the moon's turn to be occupied.

Not to mention the alien matter involved.

The aliens are currently staying obediently on Mars, but who can say whether they have summoned a fleet?

If an interstellar war really breaks out, the moon, a satellite orbiting Earth, will be a strategic location.

If military facilities can be built on the moon, it can definitely become a bridgehead for humans to resist aliens.

Even internally, it is an absolutely awesome military fortress.

Controlling it is equivalent to controlling the air supremacy of modern warfare.

Initially, both countries' manned lunar landing plans included this purpose, but with the technology at the time, it was not easy to get up there, let alone build anything. Moreover, the moon is close in cosmic terms, but from a human perspective, it is still too far away.

A round trip takes several days. For humans who have always emphasized "rapid strike," even a strategy of striking globally in a few hours is considered too long, so the military operation time for a lunar base is intolerably long.

However, after decades of not paying attention to the moon, and not wanting to spend 10 billion to do something worth 100 million, the original crude rockets and equally crude lunar landing equipment certainly cannot be used. But redesigning and manufacturing cheaper rockets and lunar landing equipment takes time.

Fortunately, private aerospace forces have emerged at this time, which is much better than before. So, there is a phenomenon of national teams paying for orders, and then various private aerospace companies competing for them.

Gradually, the current situation has emerged.

Currently, there are several new types of lunar landing equipment around the world, but the equipment of the Russians, Europeans, and Indians are still in the design stage. Most of them are currently just PPTs. The ones that are actually being manufactured are three from the Americans and one from Tianxia.

The one from Tianxia is naturally the Voyager's "Benyue" lunar lander.

Among these four spacecraft, netizens are most optimistic about Voyager and Space X.

Because ordinary netizens are the most superficial and fickle group.

The other two lunar landing devices of the Americans look very likely to succeed because their essence is not much different from the equipment used for lunar landings decades ago. Although the technology has certainly been upgraded, in terms of appearance, it is still the ultimate pragmatism.

A typical "illegal construction" style.

Many people felt that the original American manned lunar landing spacecraft was not worthy of the name "spacecraft" because they looked unappealing. Many devices were exposed, and the landing legs, reinforcement rods, and antennas stretched out arbitrarily.

The most important thing is that the manned cabin had to accommodate people, equipment, and fuel tanks, so it really had a bump here and a dent there. In order to minimize weight and reduce manufacturing difficulty, it didn't bother with any curves and directly slammed flat panels on top.

In this regard, the lunar landing spacecraft of the Soviets, who may not have successfully landed on the moon, was more beautiful. Its power jet module was a bit crude, and the fuel tanks were exposed, but its manned cabin was beautiful.

Compared to the messy polyhedron manned cabin of the Americans, at least its manned cabin was designed and looked like a sphere overall.

Of course, the main reason is that the Soviet lunar landing spacecraft was relatively small, weighing only 5 tons and carrying only one astronaut, making it "relatively" simple to design.

The American lunar landing spacecraft weighed 16 tons and had to carry two astronauts, so the requirements were naturally higher. In order to make it complete its mission, other aspects were naturally neglected, and it had to be able to fly, land, and carry people first.

Now, the other two American lunar landing spacecraft are similar to those spacecraft at that time, with only some technological advancements, but the appearance... very traditional.

Netizens are mostly superficial, so-called "three views follow the five senses." Some netizens look at people this way, and they also look at technological equipment this way.

Of course, people and machines cannot be compared. People who look good are not necessarily good people, but if the appearance of a machine is high, it really means that the technology content is high, and the "combat power" is stronger.

In this regard, Space X's Starship lunar landing spacecraft wins. It maintains a consistent "bullet" shape, smooth and simple, and all white, which looks very beautiful.

Moreover, it can be reused. It uses a booster to take off from Earth, and then launches two fuel-supplement "Starships" to refuel it, so it can fly to the moon.

After landing on the moon, unloading people and goods, refueling, it can take off and return to Earth.

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The idea is very good, but... too much preparation is needed in the early stage.

So, in the eyes of industry insiders, the other two "retro" programs have a higher success rate, just in terms of returning to the moon.

However, the progress of the three programs is similar. Although the Starship rocket has won in low Earth orbit, the outcome of the three companies on the lunar side has not yet been determined.

The deadline for the American return to the moon is also approaching, and I don't know which one will be chosen in the end.

On the Voyager side, the "Benyue" lunar lander has been inspected to the last few items. After the inspection is completed, it can be transported to the launch center.

The "Benyue" lunar lander is 12 meters high, 4 meters higher than the Moon Palace II on the moon that does not deploy solar panels, but it weighs 10 tons less, only 40 tons.

Because the diameter of Moon Palace II reaches 6.5 meters, while the diameter of the "Benyue" lunar lander is 5.5 meters.

Also, because it has to carry people, its "belly" is relatively empty, at least without stuffing in eight lunar rovers.

Its shape is also similar to a bullet shape, but relative to the completely smooth Starship lunar lander, it has added a lot of external equipment on its shell, so it is a design between the "old-fashioned lunar lander" and the "sci-fi lunar lander."

This makes it have both appearance and strength, and allows Voyager to easily manufacture it.

From the beginning to the present, it hasn't been a year.

Compared to the Starship lunar lander, which is like a "telephone pole," standing up quite high, with the manned cabin still on top, and relying on an elevator to exit the cabin and land on the moon, it is much shorter. In addition, the fuel tanks and thrusters are hung around, allowing its cabin door to be placed at the bottom, and landing can be completed by walking three or four steps.

Moreover, it can also be reused.

As long as fuel is replenished on the moon, it can easily travel between Earth orbit and the lunar surface.

Chapter 2 at 11:30