Chapter 592 Prelude to the Space Race

In the restaurant near the University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, sitting at the table waiting for the food, looking at the words on the phone screen, Lu Zhou's expression was a little unnatural.

【Shock! Professor Lu, the chief designer of the controllable fusion project, is leading a manned mission to the moon? ! 】

[Lu Zhou: Our journey is the sea of ​​stars! 】

[His three words accidentally revealed a shocking secret! 】

【Chief designer Lu told the truth in one sentence, the ultimate goal of the moon landing plan is for it? ! 】

Lu Zhou: "???"

Didn't you say that you are not the chief designer?

Don't these reporters listen to people?

Noticing the stiff expression on Lu Zhou's face, Xu Yuanming suppressed a smile in his heart, coughed dryly and said, "Our journalists are more optimistic, it's better to be more optimistic."

Can a positive rumor be considered a rumor?

Putting down his phone, Lu Zhou sighed as he looked at the stewed soy knuckles on the table, "You really caused me a lot of trouble."

"Let's stop chatting, let's eat food, this elbow will not taste good when it's cold." Xu Yuanming pretended not to hear, opened the chopsticks, and said with a smile, "This restaurant only cooks with this dish. It’s pretty good, I used to come here to eat when I was in school. I didn’t expect that the taste hasn’t changed at all after so many years.”

Lu Zhou: "..."

The topic transfer is too blunt.

But for the sake of the meal he invited, he decided not to care about these details...

After dinner, Lu Zhou and Xu Yuanming arrived separately, and then got into the car waiting at the door.

"Take me to the station."

While starting the car on the road, Wang Peng asked, "Are we going back to Jinling now?"

Lu Zhou: "Well, I'm not at ease after leaving the lab for too long."

Wang Peng smiled and said, "Aren't you on vacation? Why are you still so busy?"

Lu Zhou smiled, but didn't speak.

Of course he would not say that what he is worried about is not some unfinished experiment, but an artificial retarded man who is having a great time playing with a new toy in his laboratory.

Of course, even without the unsettling factor of Xiao Ai, it's almost time for him to go back.

Wreckage No. 3 still has a lot of secrets waiting for him to discover.

Not to mention, that might be the key to his solution to the problem of landing on the moon...

When he arrived at the station, he directly boarded the nearest high-speed train from Shangjing to Jinling. After several hours of driving, Lu Zhou finally got off at Jinling South Station.

After changing to the black red flag, Lu Zhou did not ask Wang Peng to take him home directly, but sent him to Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

Because many experiments need to be guarded, the institute is not closed at night.

After letting Wang Peng go back first, Lu Zhou walked into the main building of the research institute alone, passed the alloy door at the end of the sample library corridor on the second basement floor, and came to the laboratory on the third basement floor.

However, when he walked into the laboratory and looked at the situation inside, he was completely stunned.

Hold the grass?

Bumblebee?

...

With the resumption of Huaguo's manned moon landing program, the implementation of the three policies has not only caused a sensation in the domestic media, but also attracted a lot of attention around the world.

In particular, the British "Daily Mail", one of the originators of the headline party and the favorite to make trouble, even reported this news with a quite inducing headline.

"Huaguo Moon Landing Plan! Prologue to a new space race? "

At the same time, Triple Alpha Corporation.

In the CEO's office on the top floor, Benderbauer, who was sitting on an office chair, looked at the newspaper in his hand, frowning slightly.

After a while, he spoke.

"It's not good news."

"They are still far from the second generation of controlled fusion, and you don't need to worry at all."

The one who spoke was Professor Burton Richter, an expert in particle physics at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. In addition to being a professor, he is also a member of the Advisory Board of Tri Alpha Energy Corporation and a winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics. .

Although he didn't get the news from the Daily Mail, he still knew something about it.

Just a few hours ago, Huaguo announced specific measures to implement the manned moon landing plan, and made a rare high-profile announcement that it plans to establish a permanent scientific research station on the surface of the moon to explore the helium-3 reserves in the lunar soil.

The outside world generally speculates that this is paving the way for the second generation of controllable fusion, but Professor Richter, who really understands how difficult helium trifusion is to achieve, is very clear that these speculations are just nonsense.

"No, what worries me is not the second-generation controllable fusion." Putting down the newspaper in his hand, Benderbauer leaned back on the office chair, and pressed his index finger between his eyebrows, "it's the Congressional Budget Committee..."

After the Huaguo STAR-2 demonstration reactor announced the successful ignition at the beginning of the year, the United States also quickly launched its own national controllable fusion project, choosing a site between Los Angeles and San Francisco to build a giant demonstration reactor device, and the first phase of the project Allocations have reached tens of billions of dollars.

In this demonstration reactor project, Trialpha successfully defeated its competitor, General Atomics, and won the order for heating components by virtue of the excellent heating performance of the reverse configuration of the FRC field.

If nothing else, this order will bring his company hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, and it will bring him a far more than hundreds of millions of dollars worth of growth on the Nasdaq board.

However, at this time, Huaguo suddenly announced in a high-profile manner the launch of the moon landing plan, and even announced the strategic layout for the exploration of helium-3 resources on the lunar surface. This will undoubtedly have an impact on the demonstration reactor project in California.

After all, scientific research funding is not unlimited, and no country can launch two super projects at the same time while maintaining a stable financial operation.

However, whether it is controllable fusion or the moon, the United States is unwilling to give up.

It is foreseeable that once the United States is pulled into this space race, Congress will almost certainly re-examine existing scientific research projects and budgets, and cut off some less urgent projects to ensure NASA's appetite can also be satisfied.

Like the relatively unimportant plasma heating components...

Perhaps it will be postponed until the main body of the demonstration reactor is completed, and it may be possible to re-tender.

For Benderbauer, this is obviously not a pleasant thing, and it is almost certain to happen.

He could even imagine that scene, how the NASA people cheered when they saw the news.

These people are worried that they have no excuse to ask Congress for money, and now they are comfortable. The country on the other side of the Pacific Ocean has already helped them put their excuses on their lips.

Just as Benderbauer was flipping through the newspaper with a heavy heart, the hand flipping the newspaper suddenly stopped.

His gaze was fixed on a certain line in the interview with Lu Zhou in the newspaper.

"Plasma engine..."

He was muttering something, and when he thought of something, his voice gradually became excited.

"Plasma engine! That's it!"

Throwing away the newspaper in his hand, Benderbauer suddenly stood up from the office chair, walked around the office with his hands behind his back, and said excitedly at the same time.

"Electric propulsion, controlled fusion, totally works! We can combine these two concepts!"

At least on PPT, it will not be very difficult to do.

"Sir, I'm not pouring cold water on you..." Looking at him strangely, Burton Richter reminded, "We haven't solved the most critical problem of controllable fusion, what are you planning to miniaturize? Go to the plasma engine."

Stopping in his tracks, Benderbauer looked at Professor Richter with a smile.

"My dear Professor Richter, of course I know that there must be bread before it can be warmed."

"However, it's not the past anymore. Before putting bread on the table, we must first convince those who support us that we can do it!"

"This is more important than anything else!"