Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 294 NASA's research is so useful!
Water is definitely one of the top elements in judging how friendly a planet is to humans.

Since the moon has no atmosphere, meaning it cannot have air, water is the most important element in the search for a base.

Even if you could mine oil inside the moon, oil wouldn't be as important as water, because the moon has no air.

In the unique environment of the moon, water cannot exist in liquid form; it can only exist in the form of ice.

The discovery of ice means that we are one step closer to turning Shackleton into a lunar base.

One piece of ice isn't enough; we need to make sure there's a lot of ice here.

As for what elements the ice contains, whether it contains microorganisms, bacteria, viruses, or whether the radiation exceeds the standard, these are all things that need to be investigated when returning to Earth.

Wei Xuhang and Li Cong are now enjoying the joy that this moment brings.

The ice in my hand shone like stars in the darkness of the moon's shadow, illuminated by my headlamp.

Wei Xuhang carefully placed the sample into a container, sealed it, and labeled it: "Sample No. S-01, Collection Date: October 10, 2022, Location: Shackleton Crater PSR-A".

"First sample secured!" Wei Xuhang said.

Meanwhile, a specially designed camera on his headlamp recorded the ice he captured and sent it back to Earth. The moment the control center in Wenchang saw the ice, it was like a boulder being thrown into a calm lake, causing an instant uproar.

"The Americans are really good people! Shackleton is indeed the perfect location for their lunar base, no wonder they chose it so carefully!"

"Now we can rest assured. The presence of a piece of ice most likely means that there is a lot of ice in this area. After all, ice cannot exist in isolation. What we need to determine now is its reserves and the ease of extraction."

"I want to know what NASA thinks about us finding ice in Shackleton Crater, where NASA's Artemis program spent hundreds of millions of dollars just on lunar site selection, only to have our carefully chosen location taken by us?"

"I bet Musk is going to go crazy again, and he'll probably tweet his criticism of NASA again, and criticize NASA's Artemis program for emphasizing sending minorities and women to the moon."

After the cheers, everyone at the Wenchang Control Center started chatting in small groups. With the most important task completed, the atmosphere immediately relaxed.

As for the astronauts returning to Earth, as employees of Apollo Technology, no one is worried about the reliability of the navigation system. The fuel transfer has already been completed, so there is no possibility that they will not be able to return to Earth.

When Bingjing's photos spread throughout China via major live streaming platforms and CCTV, Chinese netizens were equally excited.

With the popularization of science over the past period, everyone naturally understands the significance of discovering water.

A Chinese official in charge of foreign affairs posted a photo on Twitter of water ice that China had just discovered on the moon, with the caption: "America promised, China fulfilled."

Other officials with Twitter accounts retweeted the post.

Musk, witnessing this scene from his Austin mansion, was once again overwhelmed. Despite the White House's warning through Hoffman to be mindful, he couldn't help himself.

Hoffman is the founder of LinkedIn, a staunch supporter of the Donald Party, and a member of the PayPal Mafia, which included Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.

"I am delighted to see my Chinese colleagues find water, the source of life, on the moon. China's lunar rover is on the moon, but where is our lunar rover? Our lunar rover is on Earth!"

He included a photo of the Artemis lunar rover.

(In October 2022, NASA invited media to visit a prototype of their future Artemis lunar rover at the Black Dot Lava Flow near Flagstaff, Arizona, America. Photo credit: AFP)
Of course, the lunar rovers of this era were obviously much more advanced in design than those of the 60s, and the whole vehicle looked like a luxury RV.

But no matter how much you say your car is on Earth, someone else's car is already speeding and charging towards the moon.

NASA awarded a $5720 million contract to a Texas-based company called ICON, a 3D printing company that primarily uses 3D printing technology to build homes in Texas.

Our space agency awarded it a large contract because it wanted to study how to use 3D printing technology on the moon, but so far, the only thing available for this order is a concept drawing.

Friends, if you want to build a house on the moon using 3D printing technology, the prerequisite is that you can find water. And the Chinese have already started building a base in the most likely water-bearing crater. What about us? We are still building lunar rovers on Earth and researching how to use 3D printing technology to build houses on the moon.

This perfectly explains where NASA's money goes. NASA has virtually unlimited funds, and they can squander them at will. They can explain any project away with a mere "foresightful research."

They always create projects out of thin air that are completely unrealistic in the present day, and then you can't verify or disprove the project for a long time. They say that their technology is able to 3D print a base directly on the moon using lunar soil.

This is NASA now, an agency that only knows how to spend the budget and not how to save it. It's time for a change! The change starts with the November elections for the House and Senate! Let's give the White House a shout-out! Our Artemis program needs leaders who can truly lead us to victory!

(Rendering of a lunar 3D print provided by ICON to NASA)
Although DOGE doesn't exist yet, Musk has already begun using his influence and appeal to expose some of NASA's seemingly absurd projects.

This Texas company called ICON is actually even more outrageous than Musk described, because they make 3D printed buildings on Earth. Just because Kirk Clinton, a scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Center, was interested in 3D printing, ICON was able to receive orders to build 3D printed buildings on the moon.

Compared to CNSA, NASA has an enormous budget, but its spending is also incredibly high.

"By the way, I recently received some news that although our Chinese counterparts have sent spacecraft to the lunar south pole and now astronauts to the lunar south pole, NASA's Artemis program only says it will go to the south pole."

But NASA, the great NASA, has already found three solar cell manufacturers to design solar panels for the lunar south pole. I have only seen one of their designs, and the company is called Astrobotic. Their design is so stupid that it is obviously flawed. I don’t know how such a design passed NASA’s review.

My friends, I hope you won't be as foolish as NASA, and I hope you can discover the problems with this plan yourselves before it's declassified.

(A conceptual illustration of a lunar south pole solar power generation solution provided by Astrobotic to NASA. Because the sun can hardly shine from above at the lunar south pole, they designed vertically placed solar panels. The Astrobotic panels are about 18 meters high and connected by cables several kilometers long. These solar arrays will be fixed to vehicles, which can then move them to different locations.)
Musk unleashed a barrage of criticism on Twitter, denouncing NASA and presenting two classic NASA projects for netizens to judge.

On Twitter, Musk criticized NASA's projects, saying that they had spent a lot of money on preliminary research before even going there, while the budget for going to the moon was given to Boeing and Lockheed Martin, resulting in a complete mess.

China doesn't have much relevant research, while others have already found water ice.

The contrast between what China's aerospace industry and NASA are doing is so stark.

Are NASA's research projects meaningful? Of course they are. Without NASA's projects, China wouldn't have been able to reach Shackleton Crater.

But in the eyes of Americans, this is competition, a space race, and isn't this behavior purely self-defeating and beneficial to others?
To foreigners, Apollo Technology is a branch of China's aerospace industry. According to some bloggers who claim to be experts on China, Apollo Technology was a company specifically spun off from China's aerospace industry and given to Lin Ran to lead in order to increase its flexibility.

It is still essentially China's space program.

American citizens' discontent with NASA has reached a breaking point.

Let's turn our attention back to the moon. After finding the first sample, Wei Xuhang continued searching in the shadowy areas.

His gaze shifted to the dark, shadowy area. "According to the lunar rover's orbital data, there should be several more high-signal points."

Following Li Cong's instructions in the voice message, he continued towards the next target point. The subsequent exploration did not go smoothly.

At the second point, the LDA signal was displayed, but during drilling, the drill bit got stuck in a hard basalt rock, making a screeching sound.

Wei Xuhang quickly switched to manual mode, reversed the drill bit, and cleared away the debris.

"This place is full of surprises," he thought, wiping the mist off his mask.

He then immediately checked the drill bit and, after confirming it was undamaged, moved to a new location.

"Li Cong, there is basalt below the PSR-B point."

"Received!" Li Cong marked the locations on the control panel of the lunar rover. For points like these that seemed to contain water ice but turned into rock when drilled down, their plan was to have a larger machine deal with them next time.

"I'm going to the next location now. I saw a good signal from the lunar rover." Wei Xuhang said before slowly moving to the new location.

This time, the sample was successfully extracted, and spectral analysis confirmed that the water ice content of the sample was as high as 20%.

To ensure comprehensive data, Wei Xuhang probed five points within the shaded area and collected three high-quality samples.

Each drilling operation requires extreme caution, avoiding rocks and uneven terrain.

The whole process was surprisingly efficient.

Li Congze was responsible for constantly switching between the LDA and the spectrometer on the lunar rover, recording data at every point.

"These samples are enough for us to study properly when we get back to Earth."

Wei Xuhang, who had successfully returned to the lunar rover, looked extremely tired. Li Cong took the container from him and secured the last container to the lunar rover.

"Xuhang, you're incredibly lucky. Not only did you find the water ice, but you also found three locations in one go."

"With the water ice at these three locations, the next time we come to do the survey, it won't be people, it will be machines!" Li Cong exclaimed.

Li Cong felt that no one's success is without reason. The fact that the other party was able to surpass Qian Fei and Zhao Jianguo to become one of the three lunar landing team members showed that luck was also part of their strength.

This time, working on a mission with the other party, Li Cong finally understood what it felt like to have a smooth mission.

He had heard stories of China's astronaut predecessors, and each time there was a little surprise.

Surprisingly, nothing unexpected has happened during this trip to the moon with Wei Xuhang.

Li Cong thought to himself, "The other person probably has to be an astronaut until they can't do it anymore. Good luck is their greatest talent."

"Yes, we found water ice at three locations this time, which means there is a high probability that there is enough water resources here. In the future, we will increase the exploration of the entire area and the investigation of various indicators."

To ensure this place can serve as a base, several elements are needed. As for sunlight, given its geographical location, it's safe to say that there is ample sunlight here, even on Earth.

Therefore, it is also necessary to ensure the presence of water, a low probability of meteorite impacts, few new meteorite craters in the entire area, low difficulty in building communication facilities in flat areas, and suitable solar wind and radiation parameters.

Some of these can be measured with the equipment brought this time, but the exploration vehicle will be brought up next time after the water ice content is determined.

It's somewhat similar; the greater the chance of it becoming a lunar base, the more resources will be invested there.

Suddenly, the lunar rover's alarm sounded, indicating that the battery power was low.

“Even though it’s an off-the-beaten-path area, the sudden drop in temperature is causing the power consumption to be faster than expected,” Wei Xuhang frowned. “We need to get back to the sunny area as soon as possible.”

They carefully drove the lunar rover back along the path they had taken.

The car headlights swept across the rugged terrain.

Back near the lunar module, the solar panels began to recharge.

The two breathed a sigh of relief, stood beside the lunar module, and gazed at the shadowy area in the distance.

"Wenchang Control Center, the mission to find water ice is complete," Wei Xuhang reported to the mission control center through his headset. "We have confirmed the existence of water ice and collected three core samples."

The control center responded: "Received, well done! The sample will provide crucial data for the future base. Prepare to return to the lunar module to rest. We will carry out the next mission in five hours."

The next task is the scientific exploration mentioned earlier.

The edge of Shackleton Crater.

The sunlight hung low on the horizon, cutting the rugged lunar surface into a picture of light and shadow.

The lunar module rested on a sun-drenched high ground, its silvery-white exterior reflecting a soft glow.

The distant, permanent shadow was as dark as an abyss, and there was not a sound in the air except for the astronauts' breathing echoing in their headsets.

This strange feeling gave the astronauts, who had finally caught their breath, a peculiar sensation.

They were banished to the edge of the universe.

Although this place is only 38 kilometers away from Earth, on a cosmic scale, they haven't even left their residential compound yet.

But their senses told them they were in a place devoid of humans, a place so desolate.

Their work lays the foundation for a permanent human presence on the moon.

The two feelings intertwined, so the two astronauts in the lunar module remained silent, simply enjoying the tranquility of the moment.

They are preparing for the final exploration mission.

(End of this chapter)