Super technology leader

"I didn't expect this new plan. A Mars lander on top of the Starship? It doesn't even match!"

"Indeed, Space X's 'Starship' looks like future tech, while this official Mars lander looks like retro tech from decades ago. Assembling these two together is like combining a horse-drawn carriage with a Lamborghini."

"There's no choice. The manned Mars landing is too rushed, and neither Mars landing project is ready, so we can only combine them. Otherwise, the next Mars landing opportunity will be pushed back two years."

"In the end, humanity's space technology is just not good enough. We can only use this Mars window for Earth-Mars interstellar distance transfer."

At this time, we have to mention Pathfinder.

In the general public's perception, Pathfinder is already the leader in the field of Earth's aerospace. Its technology is certainly the most advanced. Whenever someone says 'human aerospace technology is not good enough,' they always bring up Pathfinder.

If even Pathfinder's technology is not recognized, then human aerospace technology is really... not that great.

"Hey, speaking of interstellar flight from Earth to Mars, didn't Pathfinder have an unmanned spacecraft before? Couldn't its ion thruster be used on the Starship? That would be great, you wouldn't need to carry much fuel, the continuous flight time is long, and the acceleration time is also long."

"That's from Tianxia, how could it be installed on American aerospace equipment? Although they 'broke the ice' last time, their relationship isn't good enough to share aerospace equipment, right? Besides, the Starship has been researched for many years, how could they change the engine temporarily?"

"That's right, it's not like changing an engine in a car. A car can still run with a smaller engine, but the engine of a spacecraft is of utmost importance. The entire spacecraft is designed around the engine, and most parts exist to cooperate with the existing engine. Suddenly changing the engine might even make it impossible to fly."

"Since we're talking about Pathfinder, does it really have no response to this Mars window?"

"How could there be no response? How did America's Mars landing plan come about? It just suddenly popped up. Pathfinder and Tianxia must also be working on this. They will definitely announce their own plan in a few days!"

"I think so too. America's plan proves some netizens' speculation that they have been hiding a lot of things, such as this private Mars landing mission. They only made it public when they couldn't hide it anymore. Tianxia is probably similar."

There's no choice. America has set a 'good' example. No matter how other countries pretend, people won't believe it. They unanimously believe that all countries have hidden major aerospace projects.

Even those countries that really don't have major aerospace projects are included.

Now people are 'rather believe it exists than believe it doesn't.' Regardless of whether it exists or not, they assume it does first.

After America announced its plan, it began to work intensively. The Starship rocket began to be rolled out of the factory, ready to be assembled on the launch pad.

This Starship rocket is different from the previous Starship rockets. Although they are all 'Starships,' they are actually divided into several versions.

Currently, there are Earth orbit cargo, Earth orbit manned, lunar landing, Mars landing, and oil transport versions. As for whether other strange branches will emerge in the future, who knows.

Moreover, except for the Earth orbit cargo version, the other versions are all in verification or testing and have not yet officially entered service.

Even this Mars landing 'Starship' was only recently manufactured and has only undergone some tests. It won't directly fly to Mars after being launched this time. After all, it's a new aircraft and it's going to perform a very important mission, so it will first orbit the Earth a few times without a payload.

After all, it's going to fly to Mars. Other tests that can be saved will be saved, but tests directly facing space still need to be done.

This is also one of the benefits of reusable rockets. Before performing important tasks, you can perform an 'on-site' test.

Recovered and reused rockets are not like those non-reusable rockets. Test flights of non-reusable rockets can only prove that there are no major problems with the rocket model, but they cannot guarantee that every rocket has no problems, because theoretically, every non-reusable rocket is a brand new rocket that has not been tested.

This test is unmanned, but people are still curious about the six astronauts.

The first batch of astronauts in various countries basically came from the military, and their professions were mostly 'pilots' because they are very disciplined, pay great attention to keeping secrets, and are already familiar with flying, making them suitable for training as the first astronauts.

However, after manned space technology developed, manned spaceflight was no longer a purely political mission, and professionals such as scientists and engineers began to become astronauts, and their proportion increased.

This time, America directly brought the mission astronauts to a 'retro configuration,' and it's even more complex than the retro configuration, which is just unheard of.

Navy, Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Space Force, six astronauts, involving five military branches.

If the Space Force didn't occupy two spots because it's related to aerospace, it might be able to spare one person and then stuff in a soldier from another field.

America is like this, consistently achieving 'fairness! Fairness! And still f***ing... fairness!'

Originally, even if astronauts were selected from the Navy, they were selected from Navy pilots, but this time the Navy is really just the Navy.

Except for the two Space Force members and the Air Force member who are related to flying, the remaining three soldiers are purely combat professions, especially proficient in firearms and combat methods.

Coupled with the weapons they carry, many people think they are enough to turn the aliens on Mars into slag.

Some people did not express any objection to America carrying weapons to Mars, and even felt that they brought too few. They should have brought tanks to Mars and directly blasted the aliens into slag.

Aliens or something should be destroyed.

However, other people don't think so. They have great objections to this, believing that America is bringing Earth's affairs to Mars.

What affairs?

Of course, it's America's rotten habit of hitting whoever they see and robbing whoever they see, and this will definitely lead to war and disaster.

They should communicate well with aliens, even if it's first with courtesy and then with force.

But no matter what, these people's doubts and objections will not affect America's journey to Mars at all.

Time is advancing rapidly, and their tests are also proceeding quickly. Soon, the day for them to depart for Mars is approaching.

When they launched the tested Mars Starship into space again, a disagreement arose within the American Space Agency.

One side wants to use several Starships to send fuel from Earth to orbit, gradually refueling the Mars Starship.

Note that this consumes thousands of tons of fuel to transport more than one hundred tons of refueling fuel.

And they also plan to fly a faster Hohmann transfer orbit, so they need to fill the Mars Starship's fuel tank, so that the thruster can spray for a longer period of time to accelerate, and they can reach Mars orbit in about four months.

Different from the 'clumsy' side, the other side has a good idea.

Didn't the American Space Agency have an intention to break the ice with the Tianxia Space Agency? Why not let them take the lead and make a deal with Pathfinder?

Is there a more suitable place for refueling in orbit than the Tianting Space Station's fuel supply station?

These fuels come from the moon, and the production cost of hydrogen-oxygen fuel is similar to that on Earth. Methane production is a little more troublesome. After all, obtaining carbon elements on the moon is more troublesome than obtaining ice, and the cost will be higher, but considering transportation costs, it is still much cheaper than transporting directly from Earth.

If the Mars Starship can directly use the fuel inside, it can not only reduce refueling time, reduce the number of refuelings, but also reduce risks, and greatly reduce costs, which is extremely cost-effective.

The only two problems to be solved are... whether America is willing to refuel at the other party's place, and whether the other party is willing to let the Starship rocket use the fuel from the orbital supply station.

The first is to damage some of America's face, and the second is that the other party may not want to cooperate with America.

After intense internal discussions, their opinion is... ask first.

However, the technicians told the officials: "Don't move, we'll do it this time."

Soon, the Tianxia Space Agency saw that the American Space Agency took the initiative to contact them, and the person in charge of the contact was not a purely political official, but a high-level technician from the Space Agency, and their attitude was slightly lower, looking like a technical exchange, so they fulfilled their responsibilities and notified Pathfinder.

Tang Chao had no objection to this and said generously: "Yes, just pay the normal fee. Since we have opened a fuel supply station, there is no reason not to sell fuel."

Upon hearing this, the reactions of all parties were different.

Outsiders don't know Pathfinder's plan, but the high-level officials of the Tianxia Space Agency know it because they also participated in Pathfinder's new plan.

During the Mars window, there must be Mars-related projects.

Like America, Tianxia and Pathfinder also cooperated on a manned Mars landing mission.

After all, whether it's just landing on Mars or aiming at aliens on Mars, Tianxia must send someone to Mars.

It's best to arrive before America.

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However, unlike the cooperation on the American side, the Mars landing mission on the Tianxia side is completely led by Pathfinder, and Tianxia only needs to send four astronauts.

Whether it's Mars landing astronauts, soldiers, or researchers, there are no restrictions, just send four astronauts.

Pathfinder will take care of everything else.

And Pathfinder is still keeping most of the information about the project secret.

But it guarantees that it will reach Mars absolutely before America.

The Mars spacecraft on the American side was about to launch, but Pathfinder Aerospace had no news at all. The Tianxia side was already very anxious. Now that America wants to use the fuel from the fuel supply station, Pathfinder has agreed, and Tianxia is even more anxious.

Tang Chao was still calm about this.

"Don't worry, let them fly for a while first!"

"Even if they fly a month earlier, we will still reach Mars before them!"

If Pathfinder Company said this, the Tianxia side would definitely not agree, but when Tang Chao said this, the Tianxia side immediately agreed.

So they went back to prepare with peace of mind, ensuring that four astronauts could board the spacecraft to Mars at any time.

On the American side, the officials were very surprised that this time, without their participation, the cooperation with Tianxia and Pathfinder was achieved so quickly.

It's really amazing.

The scientists at the Space Agency didn't want to say anything and didn't want them to get involved too much, so they urged them to carry out the refueling mission according to plan as soon as possible.

When refueling, the Mars Starship and the Mars lander had already docked, and the six astronauts drove the Starship to the side of the refueling station and then entered the Mars lander to wait.

To avoid accidents.

This cooperation is very limited, just a normal purchase of fuel, so it is not appropriate for both parties to go to each other's aerospace facilities.

The Starship carries weapons, and the astronauts are all American soldiers, so Tianxia and Pathfinder will definitely not let them land on the Tianting Space Station.

And the Starship has various secrets of America and Space X, so they don't want Tianxia and Pathfinder's astronauts to enter the Starship.

So greetings were made in the communication channel, and there was no need to meet.

After the Starship was parked, the fuel supply station extended several robotic arms to perform some simple fixing on the Starship, and a fuel refueling person "drove" the fuel port, carrying the fuel delivery pipe, and flew towards the Starship's thruster.

The Starship's orbital supply port is near the thruster, which is equivalent to being on the butt. When it uses the oil transport version of the Starship for refueling, the Starship's butt docks with another Starship's butt, and then the fuel delivery pipe is inserted into the receiving pipe.

How should I say this posture, it's very similar to... that thing.

Ah, but no matter what, it's good to be able to refuel.

When refueling, all six astronauts are in the Mars lander. If anything unexpected happens, the Mars lander can immediately separate from the Starship and then wait for rescue.

Although the astronauts were asked to sit in their seats, fasten their seat belts, and not move, it didn't prevent them from observing the industrial area of the Tianting Space Station up close through the portholes.

Even if they can't see the whole thing through the portholes, they can control the external cameras to view it.

"The scale of this industrial area is really large, it feels several times larger than the International Space Station."

"Actually, its solar panel array has a wingspan of 120 meters and a cabin length of 100 meters, which is not much different from the International Space Station's length of 110 meters and width of 80 meters, but its cabin diameter is too large, generally more than ten meters, which is thicker than the Starship's diameter of 9 meters, so it feels very large."

"Indeed, a Starship with a diameter of 9 meters and a length of 50 meters is docked at the International Space Station with a cabin diameter of only 3 or 4 meters, which is definitely a behemoth, but when parked next to the industrial area, it is so small in comparison."

"It's not just the size, look at that constantly rotating simulated gravity cabin, what I envy is that thing. If the Starship also had that installed, our journey would be much more comfortable, and we could even enjoy it a bit."

If the thoughts of the four astronauts from traditional military branches are still more inclined towards regular astronauts, then the two full-time Space Force astronauts are different from them.

"What's the use of envy? We can't steal it. Although we carry weapons, this is not Mars where Earth's laws don't apply, and the other party is Tianxia, so we can't act rashly."

"Hmph, Tianxia hasn't made a move yet, it seems there really isn't a Mars landing mission. So, as long as we go to Mars this time, capture the aliens, and obtain their technology, then the Earth, and even the entire solar system, will belong to America!"

None of the six astronauts selected for the Mars mission were fools. They all knew that, currently, Tianxia and America couldn't possibly have any conflicts on Earth, so the four traditional military branches didn't care and could view the Heavenly Court Space Station as normal astronauts.

But the Space Force was different. Many people were convinced that space would become a new battlefield, and the Space Force was born for this purpose.

The Space Force itself believed this as well.

Therefore, orbital shuttles, Mount Yi rockets, the Heavenly Court Space Station, lunar bases, and the like, no matter what others thought of them, were all military facilities in the eyes of the American Space Force!

Moreover, they were evil military facilities that could attack America at any time!

Yeah, that's what they told the higher-ups. If they didn't say that, they wouldn't be able to get military funding.