As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 313 Going to Mars (asking for monthly tickets!)

It was because China was ahead in the lunar orbit program that America chose a more radical route in the Mars program to land on Mars.

America's previous annual investment in NASA was between 20 billion and 30 billion US dollars.

Their Chinese counterpart CNSA has a much smaller budget than NASA.

China's investment in the aerospace sector was only announced in 17, which was approximately 20 billion US dollars. That year, NASA's budget was 200 billion US dollars.

The CNSA budget of 10 billion yuan that was later circulated online was estimated by foreign institutions based on CNSA's launches.

In fact, CNSA's labor costs and manufacturing costs are much lower than NASA, which also leads to China's actual purchasing power exceeding the budget by a lot.

Even so, China's actual investment still lags behind NASA.

In recent years, NASA's budget has soared from 20 to 30 billion US dollars to more than 80 billion US dollars.

"So this time we chose to land on Mars in the middle of next year.

This Mars landing must succeed and cannot fail. We all know the consequences of failure."

"With such a full budget, the masters in Congress will not allow us to fail.

If we fail, everyone will have to step down.”

Faced with China's relentless pressure in the aerospace field, reporters questioned American officials in various public occasions.

When answered by both houses of Congress, the director of NASA responded: We will definitely send Americans to Mars in 2027.

Therefore, senior officials also maintained a consistent tone when speaking to the outside world:
"China has made remarkable achievements in the field of aerospace, but there is still a big gap compared with us.

It’s not that we can’t build a lunar space station in near-moon orbit, but NASA’s current goal is to go all out to Mars.

The moon is not our biggest goal, the whole NASA is preparing for Mars."

The director of NASA is appointed directly by the president, but must be approved by the Senate.

If NASA defaults on its promise, the consequence will be a replacement of personnel, from top to bottom.

There is a huge gap between landing on Mars and landing on the moon, much larger than the gap between Google and Baidu.

The most critical point is that there is a time window for traveling from Blue Planet to Mars, which is the closest distance between Blue Planet and Mars.

The Blue Planet and Mars come close together every twenty-six months.

If the fuel-optimized Hohmann transfer round-trip method is adopted, with Bluestar's 2020 technology, both the outbound and return trips will take about days, and the mission will have to stay on Mars for more than days.

It took a total of nine hundred days.

The first is the supplies that need to be carried, and the second is the challenge to the astronauts' mental health.

Fifty years ago, Apollo 75 took just hours to reach the moon.

If a large amount of supplies is carried, it will take longer.

Later, the Apollo 11 manned spacecraft carrying astronauts and supplies took more than four days to land on the moon.

"Nine hundred days, none of our astronauts have the mental capacity to endure such a long wait.

Based on current fuel technology, it can only support one person going to Mars.

A person has to spend a long 900 days in space. I think why not let the first astronaut to Mars not use the magic brain?
The unknown effects of using the magic brain on the human body cannot be predicted.

Armstrong only stayed on the moon for two and a half hours, but our astronauts will stay on Mars for five hundred days!

We have chosen a radical plan for the Mars plan, so we need to be relatively cautious in other aspects.

What I am worried about is that when astronauts use the magic brain, their thinking activities will become more active.

The psychological judgments made in the past will become invalid.

Although it seems that there will not be any major changes in personality after using the magic brain.

But on a lonely voyage of more than 900 days, even a slight change could have unexpected consequences."

NASA's plan is to use the magic brain on astronauts of the Mars program.

I hope to conduct a series of experiments around the magic brain on Mars.

For example, testing the delay time when viewing the magic forum.

It takes time for electromagnetic wave signals to transmit.

America's fifth Mars rover successfully landed on Mars in 2021. It took thirteen minutes to transmit images of Mars back to the blue planet.

They were very curious about whether there would be a delay in transmitting data from the Magic Forum back to Blue Star, and how long the delay would be.

This is very important, as it is related to determining the signal transmission method adopted by the magic brain.

Previously, the number of magic brains was limited, and the distance between the moon and the blue planet was too close, so similar experiments could not produce obvious distinctions.

Now that these conditions are ripe, NASA wants to conduct a series of experiments around magic on Mars.

I also want to test whether magic can be used on Mars and how strong it is.

This is the most important purpose.

Although other countries could not know the full picture of what happened in London, they all had their own channels to roughly know what happened in London.

And the magic is only effective within London, which not only they know, but also has been confirmed by London.

Therefore, American suspected that the magic brain provided by Merlin and the spellcasting ability obtained through the magic brain would become ineffective when they arrived on Mars.

In addition, there is also the difference between the effectiveness of spells on Mars and Blue Planet.

A wizard who obtains spellcasting ability through the magic brain has no mana, and there is no meditation method that can improve spellcasting ability.

American mages could not find what influenced the strength of their spells.

“It would cost a lot to get a person to Mars, and we need to achieve as many strategic goals as possible.

Magic is the most important research subject in the next era, and this landing on Mars is a great opportunity for us to widen the gap with other countries in magic.

I believe that American astronauts will not be defeated by this little difficulty.

And he was not allowed to become a mage on Blue Star before going up there, but to use the magic brain to become a mage after he arrived on Mars."

NASA's chief scientist did not finish his words. His subtext was that even if the astronauts had psychological problems on their return journey after using the magic brain, the loss would not be great.

As long as their goals can be achieved, the loss of an astronaut is an acceptable price to pay, even though astronauts are expensive to train.

Anyway, after the magic brain user dies, the corresponding usage rights of the magic coin will be released.

All NASA executives present understood this level of subtext.

"I think this can be done. We are entering the final round of astronauts, and I believe they can complete the mission successfully."

There are four astronauts on the final shortlist for NASA's Mars program.

On the eve of landing on Mars, the four astronauts will be ranked by drawing lots and the space plan will be carried out in order.

By default, No. 1 will implement the Mars Plan, but if No. 1 fails the physical examination, No. 2 will take over, and so on.

As for why such a primitive method as drawing lots was used, it is because space travel is similar to navigation. Space travel is nothing more than navigation in the 21st century.

The planners who are determined by luck can also make use of their good luck in the subsequent execution of the plan. The 18 astronauts selected for the Apollo program were determined by drawing lots.

When it comes to the physical and mental qualities of this one in millions of people, luck is even more important than any other condition and becomes the decisive factor.

“Let’s follow this plan and let the astronauts carry the magic brain into space while reserving the right to use a magic coin.

We set the exchange location of the magic brain as the astronauts' landing point on Mars.

We've always had questions about Merlin's teleportation abilities.

Although the radio signals we received that year were from Pluto, this was only a calculation.

It is very likely that the mage can fake the source of the signal, so we need to verify through experiments whether Merlin can achieve such a long-distance transmission of items. "

In the Mars program's first landing on Mars, those who seek stability are in the minority, and the majority are radicals.

Even though NASA has diverted some overly radical elements to commercial airlines such as SpaceX, radical elements still make up the majority of the agency.

There are also a large number of fanatics lurking inside who believe that explosions are art.

In fact, the main reason is that the technology is not mature enough. If the technology is mature enough, astronauts can enter a dormant state during the journey.

Just like a good night's sleep, astronauts only need to stay awake before entering orbit and after leaving orbit.

Apart from this, you can enter sleep mode during the journey.

If hibernation in space can be achieved, it will not only greatly alleviate the psychological pressure of astronauts, but also significantly reduce the amount of food that needs to be carried.

However, there are still some technical difficulties that make it impossible to realize space hibernation technology.

Mainly because in space, the cockpit is very small, and living in a narrow and light-less space can feel cramped and depressing.

Although NASA has launched three relay communication satellites into Mars orbit in recent years.

Astronauts can connect to the Internet on their way to Mars and use WiFi to connect to the blue planet's network.

The delay is relatively high, but it does not affect astronauts' browsing of the web and chatting.

But NASA does not dare to open this permission because it wants to reduce external stimuli to astronauts.

What if some information on the blue planet irritates the astronauts and causes unimaginable consequences?

Especially on a journey of 200 days, such impacts need to be reduced as much as possible.

However, considering such a long journey, NASA has equipped the astronauts with some entertainment facilities.

This includes brain-computer connection VR that is physically disconnected from the Internet and comes pre-loaded with some games.

I also brought an Amazon Kindle. Books can make people feel calm during the journey.

The substantial increase in the budget provided by America to NASA has brought about a high level of prosperity in the commercial aerospace sector.

Originally, many of America's commercial airlines served NASA.

The same is true in China. For listed companies in the aerospace field, the largest customer is CNSA.

Influenced by this good news, SpaceX's Starlink project took shape earlier than expected.

Starlink is nominally a satellite Internet created by Musk - a civilian infrastructure, but in fact it can play a strong role in the military.

During a large-scale operation in early 2022, it was originally thought that the Internet would be cut off by blowing up the basic network infrastructure, but the other party used Starlink to continuously transmit information.

SpaceX uses very low rocket launch costs to send satellites into space in batches.

As early as five years ago, in 2021, SpaceX launched about 60 Starlink satellites each time.

Previously, Musk had launched about 2250 Starlink satellites, accounting for half of the total number of Starlink satellites launched in Bluestar’s history.

Musk originally planned to complete the launch of 2027 Starlink satellites in November 11.

Influenced by the high prosperity of the entire commercial aviation sector, 2025 Starlink satellites had been launched by the end of 12000.

By the end of 2026, this number has become 15000.

Starlink has covered all areas of the blue planet. From the North Pole to the South Pole, from the Sahara Desert to Mount Everest, Starlink's satellite communication services can be used.

From the perspective of Internet speed, Starlink's transmission speed is only a few thousandths of 5G, and the effect is similar to 4G.

The technical principle of Starlink satellite to achieve network transmission is very simple.

One of the most important indicators of network communication is traffic density. 5G can provide 100Tbps of bandwidth per square kilometer.

It relies on a large number of base stations for security.

If you feel that 5G is similar to 4G when using it, you are not experiencing the advantages of 5G.

This is because there are not enough 5G base stations around you.

Each 5G base station built by China can provide 15Gbps of bandwidth, while each satellite in the Starlink project can provide 20Gbps.

If we compare them alone, the effect of a single Starlink satellite is better than that of a base station, but the problem is that the two are completely incomparable in terms of quantity.

As of 2022, China has built nearly 160 million 5G base stations.

It will continue to increase in the future based on demand.

The Starlink project is expected to complete only 12000 satellites.

In other words, in terms of hardware quantity alone, Starlink is only one thousandth of 5G.

But the most important thing about Starlink is its application in uninhabited areas.

In uninhabited areas, you cannot build a base station there, but Starlink can achieve 4G network speed signal transmission.

At least live streaming is completely sufficient.

In other words, wilderness live broadcast novels, from the perspective of 2020 technology, do not seem to be very realistic.

Where is the internet in the wilderness?
But by 2026, 15000 Starlink satellites in orbit around the blue planet will continue to provide communication services to areas without base stations.

Wilderness live broadcast has become a very popular channel, and human curiosity is fully reflected in it.

Although the price of 100 million yuan per month is a bit expensive for ordinary people.

But for companies operating in unmanned areas, this price is too cheap.

At the same time, for the ruthless bloggers who do live broadcasts in the wilderness, they earn far more than 100 million yuan from live broadcasts.

It has enormous uses in emergency communications, disaster response, and the military.

Of course, the military use here only refers to communications in extreme situations. The boasting on the Internet about Starlink satellites intercepting nuclear warheads is pure bragging.

Starlink is still very, very far away from achieving this, and it is almost unrealistic.

And from a business perspective, this thing doesn't make money.

Because the cost is too high, the installation fee is 500 yuan, and the monthly usage fee is 100 yuan.

It’s free for two days only, please give me your monthly vote!

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(End of this chapter)