America.
Houston Ground Command Center.
The moment the voice from Mars was heard, thunderous applause erupted throughout the Houston command center!
God bless America!
Looking at the researchers standing up and applauding enthusiastically, Professor Chris's eyes welled up with tears, and he murmured to himself.
A relaxed smile appeared on Chief Commissioner Morton's face as he stood to the side.
He's kept his position as bureau chief!
Professor Chris slowly extended his right hand and gestured in the air.
The noisy applause and chatter in the Houston command center gradually subsided, and every researcher's face flushed slightly, their eyes gleaming with excitement as they looked at Chris.
Once the Houston command center was completely silent, Professor Chris swallowed hard, picked up the microphone, turned on the radio, and said softly, "Houston received! Congratulations! You are heroes of America!"
"Now, I declare the extravehicular activity (EVA) to commence!"
Perhaps due to excessive excitement, Professor Chris's voice was somewhat hoarse.
Even so, the nearly ten-minute-long conversation between Andrew and Professor Chris spread throughout the United States in that instant!
...
"The United States Never Gives Up! Project Pathfinder Successfully Deployed, Now Landing on Utopia Plains!"
Greetings from Mars! The US has made history once again!
One small step for America, one giant leap for mankind!
The United States will rise again!
The moment the Pathfinder series successfully landed on Mars, all the newspapers rushed to print their daily editions!
The overwhelming news instantly engulfed every American!
As President Abbott said that day: "I will not allow any American to be unaware of this news!"
The moment the news broke, countless American citizens spontaneously took to the streets to celebrate this historic moment!
Twitter's servers even crashed temporarily because of this!
"Hahaha! I knew it! Sometimes you have to push NASA a little, and they won't know how capable they are!"
"God be with America!"
"Is China still on the moon? Hahaha, by the time their lunar mission is complete, our American flag will already be planted on every inch of Mars!"
"How can you lose when the dragon is charging in?! Tell me, how can you lose?!"
"I declare the United States the victor in this space race!"
"I declare your declaration valid!"
"..."
...
Meanwhile, on Mars, in Utopia Plain.
The hatch of the Pathfinder 1 landing module slowly opened, and three astronauts, dressed in bulky spacesuits, descended the landing module down the gangway.
For the first time, human footprints appeared on the reddish surface of Mars.
“Let’s go, we need to speed things up.” Andrew looked up at the sky, then glanced at the time on his watch, and said in a deep voice, “It’ll be dark in a few hours.”
As the planet in the solar system most similar to Earth, a day on Mars is almost the same length as on Earth, except for about 40 minutes longer.
"It's probably too late today, isn't it?"
Bruno roughly estimated the time and said softly on the team's radio channel, "The deployment and setup of the Mars capsule will take at least ten hours."
Andrew frowned slightly and turned to Joey beside him: "Joey, how long can the supplies in the landing module last?"
After thinking for a few seconds, Joey quickly replied, "If we take into account the consumption during our extravehicular activity, we probably have enough oxygen for about two days."
"In other words..." Andrew's expression changed slightly, "to ensure safety, we must complete the construction of the Mars capsule before nightfall tomorrow?"
"I'm afraid that's the case."
Hearing Joey's answer, Andrew felt a heavy weight in his heart.
It seems like there's plenty of time, but due to the limitations of their spacesuits, they need to replenish their oxygen every three hours, not to mention the time spent traveling...
"How about this?"
After a brief moment of thought, Andrew quickly issued the order: "Bruno, you and I will install Mars Pods One and Two first. Joey, you're in charge of installing the air circulation module and the power supply module!"
The US Mars module consists of five frustum-shaped hulls.
Among them, the No. 1 module is the most crucial, as it contains a large amount of scientific research equipment, and even the main control computer is located in the No. 1 module.
Module 2 is the astronaut living quarters, Module 3 is a storage area, Module 4 is a Mars planting unit, and Module 5 is an airlock.
At that time, several astronauts will attempt to grow some crops on Mars to test the possibility of future colonization of Mars.
For ease of installation, the Mars capsule has an autonomous deployment capability.
What the astronauts need to do is install various functional modules and precision instruments after the Mars capsule is successfully deployed.
...
Meanwhile, at the Xia Kingdom's First Laboratory.
In just two months, a large factory was built next to the laboratory.
Unlike ordinary factories, these factories have no workers inside; they only have rows of flexible robotic arms and various kinds of machining equipment.
Lu Yongchang stood at the entrance of a factory building, looking at the scene inside, a hint of amazement flashing in his eyes.
Robotic arms deftly grab workpieces from the tracks, manipulating machine tools to rapidly process them into various parts.
"Even though I've seen this scene many times, I still feel like it's unreal..."
Fang Xu's exclamation came from the side: "I never imagined that one day, all production tasks could be handed over to computers."
"If this gets out... I bet a lot of workers will lose their jobs, right?"
Lu Yongchang chuckled and slowly shook his head: "It's not that exaggerated."
"Operating so many processing devices at the same time has basically reached the limit of zero."
"To expand this nationwide... we would need at least a computer with hundreds of millions of qubits."
Fang Xu was silent for a moment before speaking again: "At the current pace, the first batch of automated lunar mining equipment should be completed soon, right?"
Lü Yongchang turned to look at the security camera at the factory entrance: "Zero?"
The next second, an electronically synthesized voice that was almost indistinguishable from a real person's voice rang out: "Professor, it is estimated that it will take another 20 hours and 36 minutes."
Upon hearing the estimated time, Lü Yongchang's eyes lit up!
"Brother Xu, have Bai Yixuan and the others get ready. The lunar mining plan will officially begin the day after tomorrow!"
Before Fang Xu could reply, Ling spoke again: "Professor, there's a news story I think you might be interested in."
"What?"
A hint of doubt flashed in Lü Yongchang's eyes.
According to the latest news from NASA, the US Pathfinder spacecraft has successfully landed on Utopia Plain.
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