Chapter 337: Rapid Moon Landing

It came too suddenly.

Before the delta-winged space shuttle took off, the Z nation had never made any official announcements about any plans to perform a manned landing on the moon.

According to the established plan, the first step to establishing a moon landing was to realize the orbit of the detection satellites around the moon. This step had been accomplished in 20X7, 17 years ago.

The second step was to realize the unmanned probe’s landing on the lunar surface, deploy small lunar exploration vehicles and let it roam about the surface of the moon. This step had been accomplished 11 years ago through the launch of “Chang’e 3.”

The third step was to launch a large, unmanned detector, land on the lunar surface, use robots or mechanical arms to collect lunar soil, put it into the return capsule, and launch the return capsule carrying the lunar soil back to Earth. This step was attained in the year 20X0.

These steps had no affiliation whatsoever with human astronauts, however. Even a rover bringing back lunar soil was still classified as an unmanned landing operation. The true “manned moon landing” operation was arranged after the year 20X0.

The Z’s were too pragmatic, they would never engage in things that would make them lose money. During the M-Russia Cold War in the 1960s, the M nation had conducted manned moon missions of 10 billion M-dollars per instance, seven times in a row. Only the M’s could afford to be so capricious with their wealth. Converting the purchasing power of 10 billion M-dollars into current Z-dollars, it was roughly equivalent to 300 billion Z-dollars.

Of course, technology was advancing and the cost of space launch activities was constantly decreasing. If a manned mission to the moon was to be implemented at the current stages, the Z nation could send a group of astronauts to the moon at approximately 100 billion Z-dollars per instance.

This wouldn’t cut it for the Z’s. It was still way too expensive. Paying a hundred billion bucks just to bring a hundred pounds of lunar soil back to Earth was uneconomical. Any expert would criticize that course of action for being a waste of resources and a vanity project.

For this reason, the manned moon landing was a plan that had always stayed in the mouth. It had never even been implemented on paper. It was only possible that the Z’s would launch such projects when the time was ripe.

This time, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of Z had suddenly begun building the “Celestial Maiden” space shuttle and announced the manned moon landing mission, catching everyone off guard. Was this fake news? How high was its credibility? Was it true that there were astronauts from the Z nation landing on the lunar surface? Everyone was full of doubts, it was only 20X4 after all.

But this was indeed concrete truth.

After the Celestial Maiden had entered outer space, the space shuttle swiftly connected with the “Tiangong-3” space station. The space station replenished the “Celestial Maiden” with fuel and supplemented her with some resources. Immediately after, the Celestial Maiden accelerated and escaped Earth’s orbit, thrusting straight towards the moon.

On a live television broadcast, an aerospace expert explained.

“We are 100% confident that the Celestial Maiden’s manned mission to the moon will be successful. For traditional manned moon landing methods, we would have to launch a large spacecraft with a weight of hundreds of tons to the moon. The spacecraft would consist of a lunar orbital module, a landing cabin, and a return capsule. It would carry mostly fuel. Astronauts could only conduct activities about the surface of the moon for two to three hours, bringing back less than 100 kilograms of lunar soil. It would cost two to three billion dollars to do so.”

Here the expert paused, then continued with a smile.

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“The Z nation could not afford a moon landing with such a high cost. We can’t afford to play expensive games. The reason we dare launch the manned moon landing mission now is that we found some ways to save costs. We are saving money by allowing the Celestial Maiden to land directly on the surface of the moon, commence scientific experiments, collect lunar soil, then perform a vertical takeoff and return to Earth. Logically, this way of landing on the moon is difficult to achieve from the technical aspect, but we can accomplish it because the detonation engine installed on the Celestial Maiden has three times the fuel utilization efficiency than that of rocket engines. The 20 tons of fuel carried by the Celestial Maiden is equivalent to the 60 tons of ordinary spacecraft.”

The expert smirked.

“Moreover, the Celestial Maiden is bringing along with her ‘High Energy 1’ batteries that have the highest energy density. The huge energy storage can supply energy for several ‘Hall effect thrusters’ at the shutter’s rear. Hall effect thrusters are also known as ion thrusters. They use an electric field to accelerate particles which will then be ejected at velocities of more than 100 kilometers per second. Compared to other engines, it saves up to 90% energy while producing the same amount of thrust.”

Audiences watched their televisions in awe, listening to the expert speak with their mouths wide open.

“The Celestial Maiden is carrying the most efficient solar panels to charge the batteries within space shuttle. Just the electricity generated by the solar panels alone can save us up to one ton of fuel. For landing and leaving the lunar surface, we will be adopting vertical landing and takeoff, realizing them through the small thrusters at the bottom of the Celestial Maiden. The Moon’s gravity is only one-sixth of Earth’s, so the Celestial Maiden can perform takeoff without requiring too big of a thrust. The two astronauts can stay on the moon for more than 12 hours and return with more than a ton of moonstone and lunar soil. The comprehensive cost of this mission will be no more than a billion dollars. We have 100% confidence in this mission.”

30 Hours Later

Under the watchful gaze of billions of witnesses around the world, the Celestial Maiden descended, gradually decelerating, and at last landed firmly on the lunar surface. Opening the hatch, two astronauts from the Z nation walked off the space shuttle and planted a five-star red flag on the surface of the moon.

“We’ve succeeded! We have successfully landed on the Moon!” yelled Z nation citizens.

“Unbelievable, I dare not believe that this is real”

“For thousands of years we have dreamt to land on and explore the moon, has it just been achieved that easily?”

The whole of the Z nation was smeared in jubilance. Some were cheering, while some could not believe what they were seeing. Many had faces covered in tears.

On the internet, some netizens were unable to react in that particular instance.

I’m feeling nothing at this moment, just puzzled.

Yeah right, it all happened too suddenly! Accomplishing a manned landing on the moon without any prior notice, I didn’t even have time to brew my tears.

I too wasn’t mentally prepared for this. I have yet to establish any feelings. I feel that this is very awkward.

It feels so very rushed!

I’ve only heard of rapid firing, I’ve never heard of a rapid moon landing.

With countless netizens spreading and spoofing the news, the Z nation’s significant and grave mission to the moon was branded as “a rapid moon landing” by the mass majority. Watching the live TV broadcast, looking at the Z nation’s astronauts playing and jumping on the lunar surface, all the M’s were dumbfounded and had collectively suffered a major blow.