Chapter 946 - Not Just For Farming

The recent space elevator created a frenzy on the Internet, and thus, the Bennu asteroid didn’t draw much attention.

From Doomsday 2000 to the unremarkable Christmas in 2012, people were no longer bothered by the different end of world conspiracies.

Even if Jiang Chen stood in front of the media and told them there was an alien ship from the universe sailing to them 20.5 light years away for nearly a century, people would probably just smile and label the president richer than most countries with “humorous” and “love to joke.”

Because of this, while the criticism against Celestial Trade’s irresponsible actions was harsh, it wasn’t intense by any means.

However, this didn’t mean some countries would give up this point of attack or stop criticizing Celestial Trade on the “space hegemony.”

For example, the UA, their partner EU, and Latin American countries didn’t stop.

ESA first protested the “irresponsible” behavior of Xin and asked Xin to explain the incident at the United Nations General Assembly in September that year.

Hua only expressed a statement that it was paying close attention to the progress of the incident and believed Xin would properly handle the issue of the Bennu asteroid. Considering the recent cooperation with Celestial Trade on the microgravity laboratory project, the diplomatic language of Hua remained relatively peaceful. However, it expressed some dissatisfaction about pulling Bennu into the Earth-Moon system without the knowledge of the international community.

The stance of the UA was quite tough, requiring Xin to immediately produce evidence to prove the safety of Bennu asteroid, otherwise, NASA would begin to investigate plans to destroy the Bennu asteroid in outer space.

When Jiang Chen heard the word “trouble” from Zhang Yaping, he suddenly laughed and scoffed.

“Destroy? I’ll let them destroy it, but can they destroy it?”

The difficulty of landing on an asteroid would be much more difficult than landing on the Moon. It would be even more difficult to transport enough explosives to blast the asteroid. Jiang Chen certainly trusted that NASA had the strength to calculate the orbit of the asteroid and trusted that SpaceX had the ability to send explosives up there.

But!

Sending dozens of special explosives up and installing them properly? Just with the toothpick known as the Falcon 9? If UA allocated one-tenth of its military budget to SpaceX, gave them two years to come up with a plan, two years to implement the plan, he was confident they could probably blow Bennu up.

Anyway, his space elevator wouldn’t help transport explosives.

Jiang Chen’s reply to Zhang Yaping was also very simple.

“There’s only one way to resolve this—drag this on.”

“We already started the mining program ahead of schedule, and we will publish an edited asteroid mining video soon after.”

“They’re worried about being hit by the asteroid on the head? Then let them take a good look at the gap between indigenous and civilized people. When they see our ability to dissect the asteroid, they won’t be suspicious any longer.”

“I’ll have to go to Future Mining. That’s it from me.”

…

In the Capitol, William James in a Marine Corps uniform was led by a female secretary to the door of a conference room.

He had just returned from Coro Island, and as soon as he got off the plane, he was invited by his superiors there.

The female secretary nodded at him, pushed the door of the conference room for him then retreated to the side.

James said thank you and walked in the door. When he saw the people in the conference room, he was completely blownaway.

He definitely recognized NASA’s director Bolden. Sitting next to Bolden was the Head of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Anthony Cregan, a skinny-man with a hooked nose and freckles.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, also known as DARPA. There was another nickname for this remarkable department, known as “S.H.I.E.L.D.”

As for the two people sitting at the head of the table, they were even more powerful.

One was the current Secretary of Defense, Ashton Carter, and the other was President Hill.

Taking a deep breath, William James was preparing to salute to his immediate boss, but Mr. Carter didn’t plan to waste any time and immediately said, “Mr. James, we want to hear what you’ve seen in Celestial City.”

William James certainly wouldn’t refuse. The reason why the UA government sent the Marine Corps to go to the ceremony was to obtain intelligence.

The soldier nodded. After swallowing, he began to narrate.

“After about a five-hour voyage, we arrived at the space station located at the synchronous orbit, which is Celestial City.”

“It’s a bit slower than rockets.” Mr. Cregan lowered his voice and said to Hill, “Our Falcon Rockets would only take half an hour to complete the journey.”

SpaceX received technical support from the DARPA department when developing the Falcon series rockets, so the term “our Falcon Rocket” used by Cregan wasn’t wrong. But when he said that, Bolden glanced at him, said nothing, and moved his gaze away after two seconds.

Hill nodded and didn’t speak, but continued to focus on James, waiting for the soldier to continue.

“After arriving at the terminal, Celestial Trade sent a tour guide to take us inside Celestial City.”

“According to him, the entire city was a ring, and the ring was also the counterweight of the space elevator. There were subways, living units, and external space stations…”

William James paused, and there was a hint of fascination in his eyes.

“The most shocking thing was that they moved farmland to the space station.”

The high-level officials present all stared at each other. Only Cregan had a disdained look and began to play with his pen.

“There was also a planting unit on the International Space Station. This is nothing special. It’s nothing to be shocked about. We saw the pumpkins shipped back from the International Space Station a decade ago. Was there anything else besides this?”

Hill and Ashton also nodded.

Just planting vegetables in space wasn’t novel technology. As early as ten years ago, the UA had solved this problem in the laboratory. Fourteen years afterward, it approved the establishment of a space farm in the UA section of the International Space Station and successfully planted a variety of surface plants such as cabbages and carrots.

Compared with these insignificant technologies, they were more concerned about the potential value of Celestial City from a military and economic point of view.

Of all the people present, only Borden was indifferent. Returning from the Outer Space Summit, he clearly understood how ahead Celestial Trade was in space technology.

It wasn’t good to go against the boss, but William James felt it was necessary to remind everyone in the room, so he said in a quiet voice, “But they have an area of two thousand acres…”

The conference room was quiet, and even a needle falling on the ground could be heard.

The pen being spun already dropped on the notebook, and Cregan’s mouth opened slightly, closed, and opened again, like a robot.

Hill had no expression—she was expressionless—because she didn’t know how to express her shocked state.

Even Bolden’s expression changed drastically. Even though he was prepared, he was also stunned by Celestial Trade.

Is it easy to grow vegetables in space? It’s really simple.

But what about large-scale farming? These are two totally different concepts!

An external space station with an area of more than two thousand acres? Can this really be called a space station?

Seeing that as his own boss, the defense minister, didn’t have a pleasant expression, William James hesitated and whispered, “…should I continue?”

“Go on then,” Hill ordered.

Seeing Ashton nod, William James went on.

“Most of the space station is made up of open space. We only saw a single two-thousand-acres farmland.”

The people present there were relieved. It seemed this kind of astonishing technology might be difficult to manufacture. Even with the financial resources of Celestial Trade, they could only build one.

But then, William James’ next words made everyone’s moods that just improved slightly enter into a state of despair. Cregan’s chin, which had finally closed, dropped open again.

“I asked the tour guide why the open spaces weren’t all planted with wheat. He told me this type of external space station has many uses, not just farming. They’re going to build houses and build factories. Just because there are very few people currently in Celestial City, and there is no need to develop so many agricultural areas…”

Just then, William James’s speech was interrupted, and an assistant-looking man pushed the door open and rushed into the conference room.

With so many dissatisfied looks, he couldn’t be bothered at the moment. He took out his iPhone from his pocket and looked up at Hill in a dignified manner.

“What? Mr. Eric, don’t you know we’re in a meeting now?”

“Celestial Trade just made a new move! You asked me to follow them closely. Believe me, I definitely didn’t mean to interrupt the meeting. Please allow me to take up three minutes!”

The man named Eric clicked on his phone a few times then presented the phone to Hill.

It was a video, and it looked more similar to an edit from a sci-fi movie…

Hill frowned. Why did the assistant break into the conference room to show her this Hollywood movie? Ashton glanced at the video and didn’t take it seriously at first, but he seemed to have discovered something, and soon, his expression gradually became more interesting.

Bolden’s expression became blank as soon as he saw the panorama view of the asteroid.

For a while, his stiff facial muscles twitched, and he whispered, “This is the Bennu asteroid… The video doesn’t look like special effects.”

Hill, who was enjoying the video, shouted out as if she had just seen a ghost.

“That’s impossible!”