Chapter 1353

Astronomical Observatory of Arizona, North America.

As a large astronomical observatory built after 2020, this scientific research facility has the most sensitive radio telescope array in North America, and its precision can even trace meteorite debris and space debris only half a meter in diameter as long as it is within the Earth Moon system.

As the latest and most advanced astronomical observation center in North America, the Arizona astronomical observatory is a civil public scientific research facility under the name of American Astronomical Society. However, in fact, its funding comes from the Pentagon's defense budget and is directly under the jurisdiction of Taikong command.

Since we have all received funds from the military, the mission of this astronomical observation station can't be as simple as it was declared when it was first established.

According to an internal Pentagon document, only 30 percent of the Astronomical Observatory's mission is to find habitable planets outside the solar system.

As for the remaining 70% of the observation tasks, most of them are focused on the Earth Moon transfer orbit and the orbit around the moon. The purpose of this is needless to say, obviously to monitor the space activities of China in the Earth Moon system for the Pentagon.

Standing beside the coffee machine, waiting for the coffee to be ready, Professor Reston rubbed his sour brow and heart with some headache, trying to relax his over heated brain.

About a week ago, China launched the first components of its manned fire landing program in accordance with a timetable open to the international community.

It was from that day on that day that he and his observation team did not take a day off. They were on standby for almost 24 hours, even for an hour.

After all, no one can guarantee that the Chinese nation will arrange every launch plan according to the launch schedule that they have made public to the international community.

Such things are not without precedent.

Even they have done it countless times.

As the head of the astronomical observatory, as well as the researchers employed by the Pentagon, he received only one task: observing and tracking every detail of the Chinese plan to board the fire, and collecting as much information as possible from their launching activities.

The task was personally assigned to him by the American defense chief at a working conference.

Therefore, from the moment he received the task, he felt the incomparable pressure on his shoulder.

But fortunately, this period of time is about to be endured by him.

The latest launch mission is the third of China's plans to board a fire. According to the launch plan they announced, there is only one last time left if there is no accident.

By the end of the last time, their work will be finished.

"Xiaguang has been put into orbit successfully."

"The third batch of components is released from the cargo hold..."

"The recovery is successful. Magpie bridge is speeding up its orbit change."

"The track switch is successful, and magpie bridge has successfully entered the Earth Moon transfer track!"

One after another reports came.

Professor Reston, standing in the control room, listened impassively.

Although there is not a piece of good news for them, I don't know why, there is a light sense of relief in his heart.

It's finally over

Just as he was thinking about it, his assistant came in from the control room.

"Professor Leston."

Turning to his assistant, Professor Reston asked.

"What is it?"

"Professor Phil Goethe has applied to NASA for a visit. He will visit our astronomical observatory the day after tomorrow."

Professor Reston frowned at the strange name.

"Professor Phil Goethe?"

Read out the confusion in his boss's eyes, the assistant immediately said.

"He's a professor at MIT, a distinguished NASA engineer, and director of the deep space gate program. It was not long ago that he made a high-profile statement in an interview with the media that the plan to launch a fire landing on the other side of the Pacific Ocean was doomed to fail, and that they had not made any adequate preparations for landing on Mars. "

There was a pause, and his assistant shrugged helplessly.

"Maybe he can't sit still because the plan of the Chinese people has gone so smoothly so far."

What if I can't sit down?

When he heard this, Professor Reston could not help feeling a little funny.

Although this smile, with the helpless component in the majority.

He began with a deadpan tug at the corner of his mouth.

"If he's interested, just let him come."

"Although I don't think it makes any sense."

With that, he put the empty coffee cup on the table beside the console, then walked around his assistant and towards the outside of the control room……

The third day after the magpie bridge successfully took over the components of the third manned fire landing program, Professor Phil Goethe arrived at the astronomical observatory in Arizona as promised.

As soon as the old professor, who was in his sixties, stepped into the astronomical observation station, he saw Professor Leighton walking in front of him. He didn't even have time to call, so he opened the door and asked.

"How are things?"

"Where has their launch plan gone?"

"Is there anything unusual?"

"It seems to me that the whole plan is full of unusual places from beginning to end. Which one do you mean?" In the face of such a series of questions, Professor Reston shrugged his shoulders. "As for where their plan went, I think it should be the last stage of preparation."

Looking at the slightly younger researcher in front of him with a stiff expression, Professor Phil Goethe said difficultly.

“…… Last stage? "

"It is." Professor Reston nodded. "About half an hour ago, those Chinese people had successfully transported the last batch of components to the Moon Palace, just as they had disclosed in the schedule of the fire landing plan. We all thought that they might evade our investigation by temporarily adjusting the launch time. But now it seems that they didn't pay attention to our snooping on them, not only didn't make any changes to the launch plan, but even... "

Professor filgord: "even?"

A smile full of bitterness and helplessness appeared on Professor Reston's face.

“…… Even, it's like it's deliberately placed there for us to see. "

Professor filgord fell silent and didn't know what to say.

Just over half a month ago, he was optimistic that the announcement of China's launch of the fire landing program at this time was probably a provocation to NASA, and a new round of space race would be initiated to achieve some kind of hidden political purpose. And if they do start the fire landing plan according to such a "hasty" schedule, this immature plan is bound to be a tragedy of failure.

But now, it seems, it's just my own imagination.

Let alone fail, they even have no intention to cover up, as if they did not pay attention to their nominal rivals at all.

Looking at the speechless old professor, Professor Reston was silent for a while, then suddenly he continued.

"Let's not stand at the door and talk. Since everyone has come, come in and have a look."

"If I'm right, they're probably trying to piece those parts together into a whole colonial ship and then shoot it to Mars with the astronauts."

In the second half of the sentence, he said it in a joking tone. Although it was not comforting, the dignified atmosphere around him was a little lighter because of his joking.

How difficult it is to assemble a hundred ton spacecraft in the orbit of the moon? It doesn't need him to say anything more. It's something that anyone who has a little knowledge of aerospace knows.

Assembling three pieces of parts into a spaceship on the Moon Palace sounds like shooting an AK47 at a target several hundred meters away, and all the bullets end-to-end into the same target hole.

There is no independent power system, and according to the CCD camera on the spacecraft and the dynamic vision measurement system to constantly adjust its orbit, a little inadvertently these parts will collide into a mass, become deadly space junk.

In contrast, he prefers to think that the Chinese designed fire boarding spacecraft is actually a spacecraft slightly smaller than the Xiaguang spacecraft, which was sent to the Moon Palace for fuel supply at the time of the first launch plan.

The next two missions are to send some simple ground-based life support devices to the Moon Palace space station, ready to be carried by other spacecraft, and launch them to Mars in batches for deployment.

However, as he thought about it, the three white dots floating around the Moon Palace on the radar screen in the command room gradually came together under the traction of some force.

Just walked into the control room with Professor filgord and noticed the unusual situation on the radar screen. Professor Reston frowned.

At first he thought there was something wrong with the radio telescope array.

However, he soon realized that this was impossible. This morning, the Engineer in charge of equipment maintenance just maintained the radio telescope array of astronomical observation station.

Professor filgord, who was standing next to him, apparently noticed something unusual on the radar, muttering to himself in a low voice.

“…… What the hell are they doing? "

"I don't know..." Gradually realizing the seriousness of the problem, Professor Reston immediately looked at his assistant and asked, "can you apply for permission to use the universe-2 optical observation satellite?"

The universe-2 optical observation satellite is a space observation satellite commissioned by NASA to be launched by space-x group after 2022. It mainly takes pictures of planets in the solar system through high-resolution lens.So far, of course, the satellite, like the Arizona Astronomical Observatory, has focused 70 percent of its observations on the moon.

Or, to be precise, 70 percent of the missions are focused on Chinese astronauts who are on the moon.

"No problem I'll ask. "

Dropping that sentence, the assistant trotted out of the control room.

He didn't let his boss wait for a long time. He ran back from the outside.

"NASA approved our application!"

At this point, Professor Reston immediately said without hesitation, "connect to the universe-2 optical observation satellite! Focus on the moon

Hundreds of kilometers away, a cylindrical satellite fine tuned its orbit and pointing angle, locking its lens on the Moon Palace.

When the lens is focused on the Moon Palace and the focus is completed, everyone in the control room is stunned by the picture in front of them.

Are you really assembling a spaceship?!

WTF？！