Chapter 256 Go to the Mars

"Land Warrior?"

In the outer circle of the booth, a Pratt & Whitney staff who came to sell their own civil aviation engines thought of something and blurted it out.

Land Warrior, the "Land Warrior" individual combat system proposed by Aramco in 1991, includes a series of equipment including powered exoskeletons and combat robots. However, it was almost canceled several times, but many people know about it.

Is Warrior One the Chinese version of "Land Warrior"?

Northern Ordnance and Aerospace Science and Industry immediately thought of the practical value of Warrior One, and the image of Warrior One carrying the 89 heavy machine in a street battle raid appeared in their minds.

As a model example of artificial intelligence, Warrior 1 attracted a lot of attention on the first day of the exhibition.

…

Dayton Airport, Ohio.

Sierra Nevada Corporation joins Lockheed Martin and most of NACA's Dream Chaser personnel in welcoming visitors.

The visitors were a team of seven or eight people, the leader of whom was in his fifties and very energetic.

Dozens of people gathered in the hangar and it didn't seem crowded. This was an airport prepared for the Dream Chaser series of space shuttles. A comprehensive hangar was specially built to integrate inspection, maintenance, and renovation, covering a large area.

The Dream Chaser B1 space shuttle, which has completed its first flight, is being hoisted in mid-air and is undergoing further modifications inside.

There are still: 3 days until the boss election day.

"Mr. John, this is the Dream Chaser. It is installing follow-up equipment and will conduct a fully unmanned test flight in 15 days. It will be able to achieve manned flight next time."

The official in charge of NACA's Dream Chaser project proudly introduced it to the visitors, who nodded repeatedly and raised their heads proudly:

"Yes, I know this is the new shuttle, and Amy spent five years without a shuttle, and now we have her again, which is good, very good.

The space shuttle is the symbol of advanced space technology, and I know we are still great. "

John tilted his head and cast a questioning look at the staff. After receiving a nod of permission, he wiped his hand on the red tie, and then gently placed it on the bottom insulation tile of the Dream Chaser.

Feeling the cold touch of the insulating ceramics, John turned his head and said:

"This is our H1. On behalf of John's company, I would like to provide a free donation of US$5,000 per person to all Dream Chaser workers, all of you. As an Aramco citizen, I commend you for your hard work."

Although he is one of the only two candidates, John does not regard himself as a preparatory BOSS and is very cautious in his words.

When it comes to cash rewards, John's tall figure of 1.9 meters becomes even more majestic in the eyes of everyone. They feel that although this former state legislator accompanying him is a bit unreliable, he still supports the aerospace industry!

"Thank you. On behalf of everyone, I would like to thank Mr. John for his selfless donation..."

Eamonn, the general project leader of the Sierra Nevada Company, held John’s hand, and then listened to the latter continue:

"I guess Dream Chaser must have a business plan, right?"

Eamon: "Of course, Sierra Nevada Company is a company dedicated to transporting people to and from the earth, so it naturally has plans in this regard."

John: "I had previously planned to go to space on the H1, but if you could do a tourist flight next year, I would pay $30 million."

"...wow," Eamon didn't expect that a passenger would come to his door and be willing to pay such a high price, and he was immediately touched.

"Thank you for your support of Aramco's space career, as you said, this is exactly..."

"Ami rises! Right?"

John didn't care at all about spending 30 million US dollars. Nowadays, more and more rich people are going to space, but many of them go to the Oriental International Space Hotel. He is more willing to support his own company and let the glory of freedom shine on the world again.

As a die-hard idol of Texas rednecks, the image John has established has always been dedicated to protecting local interests and shifting his focus to people's livelihood and social environment, which is very different from the traditional white elite like Diane.

Don't be right and only protect the small profits of the common people. Although it is not in line with traditional values ​​at all, John still does not intend to change.

After all, he had become a state legislator and knew what people really cared about.

The only variable was the Dawn Project, which forced NACA to start and accelerate the Artemis moon landing program in advance. After a year, the competition has entered a white-hot stage.

The launch of the Long March 10 in August reminded countless old AmeriCorps people of the greatness of the Apollo program. The astronauts of the Apollo program who were not yet dead frequently appeared in the media to fight against the moon landing conspiracy theory. There have been Buzz Aldrin, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, went on a lecture tour in middle schools across the country, trying to inspire people to dream of space.

John and Diane's campaign slogans also inevitably included space elements, which in the former's view is likely to be an extremely important key point.

In the week before Election Day, John visited multiple aerospace companies and continuously made donations. After all, as a state legislator and his family business, there was no shortage of money.

Dream Chaser is the last stop, and he has thus clarified the basic structure of the current space race:

CASA, with less experience and a late start, is making rapid progress. Although some technologies are still lacking, it is rapidly maturing through strong industrial capabilities and a rich talent system, and its achievements in some aspects have surpassed NACA;

XAP, a mysterious and powerful aerospace company, is suspected to be supported by the world's Chinese elites, has a lot of rich technical background and strong strength;

CASA+XAP is basically the main red team, and the others are small fish and shrimp; the blue team is mainly NACA, a consortium of more than ten giant companies, and European forces. From the perspective of technology and scale, I have the advantage.

In terms of spacecraft, SLS is benchmarked against Long March 10, Dream Chaser is benchmarked against H1, FATS plan is benchmarked against H2, Super Heavy-Starship is benchmarked against Xinyuan 3, Jingwei Satellite Network is benchmarked against Starlink, and ISS is benchmarked against Tiangong, which is roughly the same.

Centrifugal space stations lag behind, super giant rockets lag behind, and manufacturing capabilities lag behind.

Especially the last one, the fact that it took only 10 months from the establishment of the project to the launch of the Long March 10 was a great shock to the industry. This means that the manufacturing time of the Long March 10 will not exceed 6 months, or even only more than 4 months. If they work hard, they can launch three times a year, surpassing Amei during the Apollo program.

After sorting out these, John knew what he should do.

After leaving Ohio, on November 3, two days before the election, John and Diane had their last election debate at Texas Tech University.

Diane quietly watched John interact with the crowd and just looked at the manuscript silently.

TV debates are a classic part of the boss battle. Both sides have to debate from multiple fields and take the opportunity to express their work routes to win voters.

Diane is obviously sure to win. Even though John is very popular, he is just a successful real estate businessman. She has been dancing in the political arena all her life and knows better when to do what.

The host started with the economy, culture, and medical care. Although John also has a staff team, he obviously does not have the experience of Diane who has been in actual operation. It didn't take long for him to be at a disadvantage.

Compared with Diane, who was calm and clear, John seemed too impatient. He was in his fifties and younger than Diane. He even said that Diane "didn't look like a boss, she didn't have the energy."

Diane countered: "As long as he visits 112 countries, negotiates a peace agreement, a ceasefire agreement, helps release dissidents... or even testifies to the congressional committee for 11 hours, he will come to talk to me about energy."

The atmosphere between the two sides was obviously not very harmonious. Fortunately, the host ended the current topic and led to the last one: space.

Diane's answer basically continued Xiao Hei's view on the Artemis mission, believing that NACA is the light of freedom, and especially emphasized that the Artemis program is different from the "stereotyped" Apollo program, and it is to send women, blacks, and unspeakable people to the surface of the moon.

This 100% correct statement received a lot of applause, and then waited for the response from Michael Jackson's friend.

John lowered his eyebrows and glanced at the manuscript prepared by his staff, then turned it over and faced down.

"Gentlemen, citizens of the United States who grew up in freedom, I want to tell you that, as they describe it, the second space race has begun.

This is different from the past. It does not mean that we spend a lot of effort to send humans to space and to the moon just to get 'the NO.1'. What we will do is to build new homes on the moon and Mars and find new colonies.

Six Artemis missions, 24 astronauts, twice as many as the Apollo program, but this is not enough. Our goal should be to send 240, 24,000 people on spacecraft and let them fly into the universe, just like the ancestors who crossed the Atlantic during the Age of Exploration.

Its significance is far greater than we imagine..."

John's words were not gorgeous, but Diane keenly perceived what he wanted to express: Diane regarded the space race as just part of the election. Like the previous mainstream thinking, she believed that the formal moon landing had limited significance, and the people were more concerned about the affairs on the earth;

But John obviously regarded the space race as the main task, which was quite a bit like a war at all costs.

This young man...is not going to do something big?

Diane felt a little uneasy, and her intuition told her that John was about to say something shocking.

Compared with her formulaic speech, John tried to use popular sentences to bring space closer to civilians. After all, the education level of the Texas rednecks who believe in the flat earth theory and shoe religion is still slightly behind the elite.

Fortunately, many of the audience on the scene today are students from local universities, and the effect is good. The emotions are well mobilized, and John finally started to release the big move:

"... No one knows how to be a boss in the space age better than me. If I am elected, I will take the Dream Chaser space shuttle into space next year!"

Audience: Crazy applause (shock.JPG).

This is much more exciting than listening to current political news. Sure enough, John can make things happen. It sounds like a good idea for the Amei boss to go to space.

John was very satisfied with the response. He shouted out his decision after discussing with his staff for a night and visiting many NACA officials:

"The moon is just a small step for humans to explore extraterrestrial planets. It is not suitable for human survival. It is just an outpost of our home, desolate and small. The Artemis project is just the beginning.

The goal of the 21st century should be to colonize the solar system. We should head for the Earth-like planets that are most likely to be colonized, build colony cities with more than 1,000 people, and completely free mankind from dependence on the blue planet!

I want to promote the entire civilized world to carry out the Mars colonization plan of the "God of War Ares"! The entire Ares plan will be completed by Aramco, creating 1 million jobs, solving the unemployment problem of at least 5 million families, and at the same time launching a new era of $2 trillion infrastructure plan to move towards the interstellar era!

In 8 years, we will send humans to Mars before 2024 and establish the first long-term colony! ”

“We choose to go to the Mars, not because it's esay but because it's hard! We choose to go to the Mars in the next 8 years, overcome all difficulties and become great again!

(We choose to go to Mars, not because it's easy, but because it's hard! We choose to go to Mars in the next 8 years, overcome all difficulties and become great again!)”