Chapter 298 Budget

"ADC will launch the largest unmanned probe in history to Mars."

On January 17, B4043 launched the Lightning again in the South China Sea and successfully sent the Mars probe into orbit.

The Aviation Development Commission notified the international community of the launch shortly before the launch, but before the "nuclear power" in the content caused a stir, the P3C that took off from the island country found something wrong.

The Lightning is launched with a big fanfare every time. Because the transport aircraft is very flexible in air launch, it is launched in the most fuel-saving place on the high seas, and there are two to four fighters escorting it every time it comes out.

The huge radar launch area of ​​the An-1250 can appear on the USAAF radar as soon as it takes off. This time is no exception. A P3C on a routine cruise quickly approached, and then the pilot found something wrong.

Although the P3C is an anti-submarine reconnaissance aircraft, it carries many kinds of payloads, including extremely sensitive radiation detectors.

Although the radiation of the Lihuo reactor is below the safety threshold when in operation, it can be detected from a distance by instruments. Based on the radiation and volume, nuclear experts can even know the power and type of the reactor.

B4043 was very fast. It turned back to the mainland after the launch, and then the Pentagon went crazy.

Before receiving the international notification from the Aerospace Development Commission, they believed that the Lightning was equipped with a nuclear reactor. In addition, Xinyuan had once publicized the nuclear-powered version of H2, so they naturally thought that the Lightning was modified with nuclear power and was a shrunken H2.

More importantly, the world has not launched a nuclear-powered spacecraft for decades.

RTG's isotope power generation does not count. It is simply small in size and power. The reactor is different. The huge power supply capacity is enough to support many types of space weapons envisioned by AAF.

So before the Aerospace Development Commission had time to send a message to announce the successful launch of the Lightning mission, the Pentagon took the lead and strongly condemned the Aerospace Development Commission for launching a militarized spacecraft into space...

Although it was discovered a few hours later that it was a mistake, after all, the Lihuo was going to Mars and could not be a militarized weapon, but it still made the world tense +10.

Both sides of the Pacific began to spit at each other again, and the Xinyuan No. 5A launched the comet thruster at the Xinyuan launch site at the fastest speed in such a messy atmosphere to avoid revealing flaws.

And it docked with the Lihuo in low-Earth orbit just two hours after the launch, otherwise it would be embarrassing if a remote sensing satellite of any country happened to scan the lonely comet thruster and asked the question "Why does a conventional power propulsion part have such a large heat source and radiation".

Fortunately, there were no accidents. After docking into a combination, the remote sensing satellite could not distinguish the two heat sources at a glance, and would not doubt it even if it found something.

However, the existence of "Lihuo" still added a lot of pressure to the world.

…

"Why is their probe so big and weighs 20 tons? We have launched more than a dozen probes to Mars, and the total weight is only this much."

John questioned Director Claire, who was still somewhat in awe of this man who would become the boss one day.

"Mr. John, this is the advantage of being a latecomer. In the past, we did not have rockets that could be launched repeatedly, so we naturally had to consider the cost-effectiveness. Moreover, the weight of their probe was only 10 tons, and after deducting half of the reactor weight, it was only 5 tons.

Now we have Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, which can also launch such heavy probes to Mars cheaply. Moreover, the first part of the 'Gateway' is about to be launched, which is the first lunar space station for mankind."

John's face softened a little when he mentioned the "Gateway". SpecaX wisely adjusted the launch date to January 22, and arranged it after his inaugural speech like the Dream Chaser mission.

I have carried out two space launch missions in a row at the beginning of my term. Who dares to say that I don't support space and technological development?

Seeing that John was in a much better mood, Claire took out the carefully prepared "Ares" plan demonstration results and budget trial evaluation report.

Although John was full of boasting during the election, more than two months made him sober up. He found many institutions to evaluate the Ares plan and finally let NACA summarize it.

Although Claire was worried about the current national strength, NACA and the military-industrial complex could not give up this order that would last for at least decades, so a lot of modifications and whitewashing were made.

In the revised Ares plan, in addition to competing for the honor of being the first to land on Mars, it is more important to break through more than 60% of new technologies to achieve the goal of taking aerospace science to the next level.

The specific plan content is still under discussion, but several indicators have been determined:

1. The Mars spacecraft must have a device that can generate artificial gravity above 0.3G to ensure the ability of astronauts to live for a long time;

2. The power for personnel exchanges is determined to be nuclear power, so as to save fuel and provide sufficient electricity;

3. The first batch of landing personnel must be at least 3 people;

4. Heavy and above rockets must be reusable to minimize costs;

5. The manned Mars spacecraft will depart from Earth no later than 2024.

As for the investment in the Ares project, NACA estimates that the total investment in the eight years will be around $120 billion, with no less than $10 billion per year in the first three years.

$120 billion, seems quite low?

This is of course a common method used by Amy to apply for budgets. The actual cost of a project is usually several times or even ten times the amount reported at the beginning.

John naturally knew this, but he didn't care much about the number. Even if it was $300 billion, it was just a small part of his next series of actions.

He nodded: "NACA did a good job, I understand, um, the moon, you will return to the moon next year, right?"

Claire: "The launch date of the third SLS will not be later than March 2018, I can tell you, yes."

John: "Then can you tell me how much money has been spent on the Artemis program so far?"

Claire: "Maybe... tens of billions of dollars?"

John said "Oh" and stopped talking. After a moment of silence, he let Claire leave and flipped through the more than 100 pages of reports submitted by NACA at random, and finally put it together with his speech.

He had already made a decision in his mind about the Ares plan, but Congress also threw a hot potato: ternary system.

Traditional electronics manufacturing giants have already felt the full malice of the ternary system and smelled the risk of losing the dominance of the chip market, and submitted a proposal that even the senators thought was a bit crazy.

From hardware to software, all-round restrictions will definitely cause strong shocks if they are really implemented, but we have to admit that it can indeed deal a devastating blow to many downstream manufacturers and consumer electronics markets.

John has been unable to make up his mind about this proposal, but he must respond, otherwise Wall Street will rebound uncontrollably.

With 24 hours left before taking office, John finally felt the weight of power.