Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 361 Their own is here.
"Dr. Smith, you are an expert. Is it possible for us to start from the landing site of this lunar landing and travel to the lunar south pole to conduct preliminary exploration of the south pole?"

Jonathan felt that the other person wasn't speaking human language.

As John Morgan Jr. just mentioned, they plan to land on the moon again at the location where Apollo first landed in 1969, which is at the latitude of 0.674°N and the longitude of 23.473°E.

Jonathan suspected that Scharvin hadn't studied history well, but he could only calmly reply, "Sir, that's probably a bit difficult. Our landing point is near the lunar equator, which is at least 2500 kilometers away from the lunar south pole."

Even if astronauts stayed on the moon for a full 7 days, they would still not be able to complete a full round trip.

The lunar rover in our Apollo missions, theoretically calculated, would take about 20 to 30 days to operate. Even though technology has advanced significantly, with improvements in batteries, motors, and suspension systems, lunar dust and low gravity will limit its speed.

At the fastest possible time, it would take us ten days to reach the lunar south pole. Considering the round trip, it would take at least twenty days. With the search and exploration phases, the time required would only be longer.

Given the carrying capacity of the rockets and lunar landers used in the Apollo missions, it would have been impossible for us to keep astronauts on the moon for such a long time.

Jonathan seriously suspected that Scharvin might be like the president—could Alzheimer's be contagious? If so, that would be terrifying.

The White House officials in charge of this matter should know that their landing in the 60s was at the equator, and now their target is Antarctica, right?
John Morgan Jr. added, "We could actually develop an autonomous lunar rover that we could operate from Earth via a communication system to explore our destination at the lunar south pole."

This could equip lunar rovers with map scanning capabilities, solar charging panels, and communication functions.

In this way, we can begin collecting geographic information about the lunar south pole.

Jonathan nodded and said, "That would be much more feasible."

It is equipped with lidar and a multispectral imager, enabling it to compress data and transmit it back to Earth in real time.

In terms of control, it must have both remote Earth control and autonomous exploration capabilities.

After all, communication quality is difficult to guarantee in the lunar shadow region.

John Morgan Jr. added, "NASA has always had the VIPER program, and this is a perfect opportunity to put it to use."

VIPER, short for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, is a polar exploration vehicle for investigating volatile substances.

The name is a bit of a mouthful, but simply put, it's a lunar rover, specifically developed for the lunar south pole.

Its predecessor was the Resource Prospector project, or RP for short. It started in 2013 and planned to explore the lunar south pole in search of water ice. It was originally scheduled to launch in 2020, costing hundreds of millions of dollars, but was eventually canceled.

VIPER continues to advance based on RP.

After listening to John Morgan Jr.'s explanation of what the VIPER project was, Sulvin turned his gaze to Melroy and asked, "Director Melroy, will the lunar rover developed by the VIPER project be useful this time?"

Melroy turned to her secretary, Grove: "Grove, please answer Advisor Scharvin's question."

Grove was sweating profusely when he replied, “Advisor Scharvin, the VIPER project is a very productive project that has been dedicated to exploring lunar resources and is being developed under the leadership of NASA’s Ames Research Center.”

It is equipped with its own lighting system and is the first lunar rover capable of operating in complete darkness. It can run on batteries in permanently shadowed areas until it reaches a sunlit area to recharge.

The mission will last 100 Earth days, with a battery-powered range of up to 20 kilometers. With solar charging, I believe it will complete the mission successfully.

Shalvin thought to himself, "Luckily, the Empire's legacy is rich enough, so it can come in handy."

"Okay, Mr. Morgan, please assess as soon as possible whether the carrying capacity is sufficient to send the VIPER rover to the moon. Make sure it gets to the moon; other exploration plans can be postponed."

We need to begin exploring the lunar south pole immediately; this is our top priority.

After the meeting, Jonathan was puzzled. Why did Grove look so serious, like he was constipated? Could there be something wrong with VIPER?
Shouldn't he be proud?
“Director Melroy, I’m sorry I didn’t report this to you at the White House earlier, but there’s a problem with the VIPER project.” Grove’s face was grim; he knew that at this point, he had to let Melroy know the details.

Melroy looked puzzled: "What's the problem?"

She had only been in office for a short time, and it was during this meeting that she learned about projects like RP and VIPER.

NASA has too many projects every year, and she simply doesn't have the energy or ability to oversee them all.

Not every manager is a superman who can be good at everything.

"The VIPER lunar rover probably won't be able to carry General Aerospace's Saturn V to the moon by the end of the year," Grove said.

Melroy was speechless: "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

You just said in the White House meeting that this project was very effective and could accomplish its mission well, but now it's said to be unworkable.

Grove murmured, "Director Melroy, this project, like RP, is just a concept."

"Concept?" Melroy repeated the word before asking, "What does 'concept' mean?"

Grove said, "The RP project was originally scheduled to launch in 2020, but after hundreds of millions of dollars had already been invested, the then NASA administrator decided to cancel it and hand over the resource exploration mission to a private company."

Due to budget constraints, timeline delays, and technical challenges, the RP was officially cancelled on April 27, 2018.

Although our records indicate that the RP project was cancelled, its technological legacy was carried over to subsequent projects, namely the current VIPER.

In the report, VIPER inherited a lot of RP's instrument design, but in reality, RP was zero; it was a project with only concept diagrams and PPT materials.

Similarly, VIPER is just a project with concept art and PowerPoint presentations.

It has no physical object, do you understand? If it has no physical object, how could it possibly carry a spaceship to the moon?
The former NASA administrator's original plan, like RP's, was to abolish VIPER under the pretext of budget overruns, thus consigning both RP and VIPER to the dustbin of history, until time had passed and no one remembered them.

If it weren't for this incident and Apollo technology, NASA would have announced on July 17, 2024, that it intended to terminate the VIPER mission due to overall funding constraints, future budget risks, and lander delays.

The reason given was also quite absurd: I've already spent $4.5 million, and continuing development would increase additional expenses. If we cancel, we expect to save $8400 million, so we're not going to develop it anymore.

They spent 4.5 million and then saved 8400 million. What incredible logic!

In reality, there was never any; there were only concept drawings, and there was never a physical product.

This is why Grove was so nervous on site. They simply couldn't produce the VIPER lunar rover by the end of the year. There were less than four months left until the end of the year; even a year and four months wouldn't be enough for them to build it. Melroy was stunned after hearing this: "Nothing at all?"

Grove nodded. "Yes, there's nothing there."

This is also a major reason why the US later entrusted the development of lunar rovers to Japan, because all they really had were PowerPoint presentations and concept drawings.

Melroy took a deep breath: "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

Grove said with a wry smile, "How would I know that someone could buy Apollo's moon landing technology?"
I thought I could get away with it this time, just like every time before.

"Didn't you think about what to do if you couldn't fool them?" Melroy asked.

Grove explained, "Everyone has always done it this way, and nobody thinks they can't get away with it."

Director, Artemis is a massive project, and this massive project can be handed over to a company, so that the responsibility can ultimately be shifted to the company.

Take the lunar rover as an example. We developed everything ourselves upfront, then handed it over to companies. We claim to have transferred our technological legacy to them. Do any company that received a NASA order dare to deny that?

In the original timeline, in February 2025, NASA issued a partner proposal announcement, seeking America's delivery and operation of the completed VIPER rover, thus completely terminating the VIPER project.

As for America, the company that received the order, can they honestly say they didn't even have a car? Didn't they have to obediently build one themselves to cover for NASA?

NASA has given them orders worth hundreds of millions of dollars; they could make a profit even if they built just one lunar rover themselves.

This is a trick that NASA has been using for decades.

Who knew that a catfish would suddenly dive into this stagnant pool, catching NASA officials completely off guard.

Melroy knew about NASA’s chaos, inefficiency, and corruption, but having previously managed the astronaut training center, she hadn’t experienced it so deeply.

Now she finally understands a little better how Musk felt last year.

Last year, Musk came to NASA and had a meeting with them. After the meeting, he went back and tweeted a lot. One of the tweets that impressed Melroy the most was: "The Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient because it is a job maximization plan, not an outcome maximization plan. We need something completely new to compete with China!"

She even found that Musk was being too conservative. Musk criticized NASA for using a $1400 million budget to build an LGBT community display system, saying that at least there was something there, something you could see.

What she's hearing from Grove about the lunar rover project is nothing at all.

On paper, in news reports, and in the internal management system, there exists a lunar rover called VIPER. It has been built and is only missing the final drill bit, because it needs to drill through the lunar soil. The plan is for the drill bit to go as far as one meter below the lunar soil to take samples.

All that's missing now is the drill bit.

But in reality, there was nothing.

There was nothing there—no neutron spectrometer system, no lunar operational mass spectrometer, no lighting system, no rover, no constant-state system, etc.

Melroy really couldn't figure out how to explain this to the White House, and if this mess were to be exposed, she would be the first to leave.

“Chief, this isn’t something that can’t be solved; it’s easy to resolve,” Grove said.

Melroy looked puzzled: "There are only four months left, how can this be resolved?"

Grove said earnestly, "Of course it's easy to solve. If John Morgan Jr. can buy Apollo technology from China, why can't we buy a lunar rover from China?"

"Yes, that idea made Melroy realize something: 'Yes, we can buy them too!'"

"Because of the mission change, we need to launch a lunar rover. We can use this as an excuse to give General Aerospace a $5 million order, and then let them use that $5 million to report our needs to Apollo Technologies, so that Apollo Technologies can build and ship the lunar rover before the moon landing, right?"

"China has been to the moon so many times; they must have similar products. With a few minor modifications, or even starting from scratch, they could easily develop one in four months."

Calmness and wisdom returned to Grove's mind, and the panic he had felt when he was suddenly asked in the White House conference room had vanished without a trace.

He understood: Melroy was a woman with a strong desire for power and would definitely not overturn the table.

Grove guessed half right, but Melroy suddenly became firm: "Secretary Grove, you are in full charge of this work. I need to see the VIPER lunar rover on the moon."

"Director, about the order for General Aerospace?" Grove understood what the other party meant; it was clear that he didn't want to get involved in anything, not even the slightest bit.

He realized that although the other party wasn't very clear-headed, their ability to seek advantage and avoid harm was maxed out.

"You'll be in charge of everything, including general aerospace. If there's a need to modify VIPER, or if there are any problems with the existing technology, you'll proceed according to the mission-first approach."

In Apollo Technology's office, Lin Ran called Li Xiaoman over, wanting to share some fun news with her.

Lin Ran's computer showed NASA's official website, and the website's interface featured a project called VIPER: "Sister Xiaoman, take a look."

Li Xiaoman moved closer to him, looked at it carefully, and asked, "What's wrong? Isn't this their Artemis lunar rover?"
That's pretty sci-fi, isn't it?

(Conceptual image of the VIPER lunar rover, from NASA's official website; the project has been discontinued.)

Lin Ran then opened his email and simultaneously clicked on the attachment: "Take a look at this again."

Li Xiaoman first glanced at the email content. The email address was John Morgan Jr.'s. She had received emails from this address before when she went to Hong Kong to help Lin Ran with the property transfer.

Then she continued looking at the attachment, which was a PDF file. The first page contained a concept image of a lunar rover, exactly the same as the one she had seen on NASA's website.
"This is?"

Lin Ran said helplessly, "That's right, this is NASA's lunar rover. John Morgan Jr. wants us to help them build one."

Li Xiaoman asked in confusion, "Don't they have their own lunar rovers?"

Lin Ran pointed to the concept art on the screen: "Their own is here."

(End of this chapter)