Chapter 561 Chase
Moon, South Pole.
Inside a crater basin with a radius of tens of kilometers.
More than a dozen space capsules were piled up in a disorderly manner in a piece of sand. The logos on the space capsules were all Earth Union + XXX. Among them, the space capsules of Earth Union + Free Association were the most, followed by Earth Union + Ceris, Earth Union + Europa, and Earth Union + Lucia.
Apparently these space capsules were launched to the moon by the Earth-Union Society.
After they made a big mistake last year, they finally didn’t dare to let Musk and the Pentagon launch micro-communication satellites at will.
After all, just to clear out these space junk, they wasted nearly a year's worth of launch capacity for the Jeju Space Tower project.
It has to be cleaned up. If these space debris are allowed to continue to cause trouble, not only will the Space Union not be able to compete with the Sapiens company, but it will even be extremely difficult for spacecraft to pass through low-Earth orbit.
Therefore, they can only bear the consequences of their own actions.
Anyway, the spacecraft of Sapiens has armor and its own dedicated route, and some of the space debris on the route will be cleared during the launch window.
The Earth Alliance does not dare to use the same route as the spacecraft of the Sapiens Company.
Don't ask why.
The answer is that they have been cheated by the Homo sapiens company.
It is clear that the spacecraft of Mingren Company can pass safely, but when their spacecraft passed through that route, tiny space debris directly penetrated the protective layer of the fuel tank halfway, and then added a large amount of space debris to the low-Earth orbit.
Therefore, Dilian would never dare to use the same route as the Sapiens Company.
After all, the spacecraft of the Sapiens company is thick-skinned and made of very good armor materials, and there are death ray satellites guarding it, so it can naturally ignore tiny space debris.
But it is obvious that the Earth Union has no way of learning this kind of bold and skilled behavior.
As a last resort, the Space Network had to grit its teeth and invest a large amount of capacity in cleaning up space debris.
…
The Earth Alliance’s lunar South Pole base.
It was during this period that the space agencies of the four major powers pieced together and launched 21 launch vehicles in more than a year, five of which failed.
That is to say, the base currently has 16 space capsules.
There are currently no astronauts stationed at the base. Instead, robots are operated through remote control to explore the surrounding area, while the automated equipment inside the space capsule is used to carry out some simple and pre-set scientific research work.
Recently, the Earth Union finally made up its mind and decided to send five astronauts to the South Pole base of the Moon to carry out an eight-month scientific research.
The reasons why the Federation of Local Governments made this determination are very complicated.
On the one hand, Sapiens is expanding too fast on the moon. It has currently built three large bases and 17 small scientific research stations (single space capsule type) on the front side of the moon; there is also one large project and 11 small scientific research stations on the back side of the moon.
If the progress of the lunar project is not accelerated, the Earth-based Alliance may lose the moon completely.
On the other hand , there is pressure from within the four major forces. After all, this is a project with an investment of hundreds of billions, but now there is no sound at all. Many people are doubting the ability of the Ground Alliance.
In order to quell internal discontent, the Earth Alliance had no choice but to go ahead even though it knew that the infrastructure of the lunar base was not yet complete .
Another reason is that as space debris decreases, the launch mission of the Jeju Space Tower can be gradually adjusted.
At the same time, Ceris and Lucia's Jianmu Engineering in the Western Region also completed a space tower that was larger than the Jeju Island Space Tower.
This Jianmu space tower can carry an 800-ton carrier rocket and launch it on a high-altitude platform.
The project has passed three small-scale tests and is ready for official use.
As expected, pressure is motivation. In order to compete with the Zhiren Company and not to lose the future, the construction progress of Jianmu Engineering is extremely fast.
With so much additional carrying capacity, Geostationary Force gained a little more confidence and began to prepare for manned lunar missions.
Finally in June.
It was June 3rd, three days after the anniversary celebration of the founding of Sapiens.
A large carrier rocket took off from the high-altitude platform of the Jianmu Space Tower.
Kong De, the president of the Geo-Union Association, and several other senior executives were at the foot of the Jianmu platform in the Tianshan Mountains in the Western Regions. When they saw the carrier rocket safely launched on the big screen, they all breathed a sigh of relief.
"Zhang, when do you plan to launch the second spacecraft?" Kong De asked.
Although he is the president of the Space Federation, his actual job is mainly to coordinate the aerospace agencies of the four major forces and reconcile internal conflicts.
In daily work, the Geo-Union Association has no way to interfere in the daily management of the aerospace agencies of the four major forces.
The man thought for a while and flipped through the notebook in his hand: "The second spacecraft has arrived at the launch area and is undergoing the final inspection. If everything goes well, it is expected to be launched in ."
"OK." Conde nodded.
However, the man frowned and asked, "As for the astronauts, haven't you guys settled it yet?"
Hearing this, Kong De and others were also embarrassed.
Because just half a month ago, four Europa astronauts (not from the same batch) who were originally scheduled to go to the moon, went directly to the Suez branch of Sapiens while on vacation in Sicily.
This made the European Union furious.
Obviously these astronauts do not want to go to the moon. As professionally trained astronauts, they know the situation of the lunar South Pole base at that time.
If something goes wrong on the moon, it will be extremely difficult for the Earth-based mission to rescue the moon, especially in terms of time, which is a big problem.
So the four astronauts discussed it secretly and then ran away.
Now there is one less astronaut leading the first moon landings.
"If there is really no other way, let our astronauts go!" the man suggested.
However, NASA Administrator Bill, who was standing next to Conde, shook his head and said with a wry smile, "President Conde and I have discussed that NASA astronauts will replace Europa astronauts."
"Oh? That's fine." The man didn't force it.
After all, in this manned lunar mission, the four major forces had previously allocated personnel. Among the five astronauts, there was one from NASA, one from Lucia, and one from Europa.
At this moment, there was a burst of enthusiastic applause from next door.
Conde quickly changed the subject: "It seems that the launch was successful."
"This is just the first step. Let's not open the champagne at halftime." The man reminded calmly.
The others nodded as well.
After all, this manned lunar landing is of great importance. If it fails, it will be a huge blow to the Earth Union and the entire free world. They already lack confidence, and if they fail again, they will be doomed.
Therefore, this time the manned lunar landing must succeed and not fail.
To ensure that everything goes smoothly, three manned spacecraft and three cargo spacecraft will be arranged to go to the lunar orbit in three batches.
Even if there is a problem with one of the batches, the other two batches of spacecraft can still be used for emergency response.
These spacecraft will temporarily stay in the low-Earth orbit at an altitude of 800 to 900 kilometers, waiting for all spacecraft to be in place, and then fly to the moon in groups.
Although this plan is very conservative and slow, its safety is guaranteed.
Now the Earth Union and the free world really can't afford the blow of failure.
Apparently their caution was correct, because the very next day, the cargo lunar spacecraft launched by SpaceX was hit by space junk in low-Earth orbit.
