<h4>Chapter 337: Rapid Moon Landing</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio <strong>Editor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio


    It came too suddenly.


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


    ording to the established n, the first step to establishing a moonnding was to realize the orbit of the detection satellites around the moon. This step had been aplished in 20X7, 17 years ago.


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


    The third step was tounch arge, unmanned detector,nd on the lunar surface, use robots or mechanical arms to collect lunar soil, put it into the return capsule, andunch 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 ssified as an unmannednding operation. The true “manned moonnding” 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-dors 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-dors into current Z-dors, it was roughly equivalent to 300 billion Z-dors.


    Of course, technology was advancing and the cost of spaceunch 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-dors 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 moonnding was a n that had always stayed in the mouth. It had never even been implemented on paper. It was only possible that the Z’s wouldunch 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 moonnding mission, catching everyone off guard. Was this fake news? How high was its credibility? Was it true that there were astronauts from the Z nationnding 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 elerated and escaped Earth’s orbit, thrusting straight towards the moon.


    On a live television broadcast, an aerospace expert exined.


    “We are 100% confident that the Celestial Maiden’s manned mission to the moon will be sessful. For traditional manned moonnding methods, we would have tounch arge spacecraft with a weight of hundreds of tons to the moon. The spacecraft would consist of a lunar orbital module, anding 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 dors to do so.”


    Here the expert paused, then continued with a smile.


    “The Z nation could not afford a moonnding with such a high cost. We can’t afford to y expensive games. The reason we dareunch the manned moonnding mission now is that we found some ways to save costs. We are saving money by allowing the Celestial Maiden tond directly on the surface of the moon,mence scientific experiments, collect lunar soil, then perform a vertical takeoff and return to Earth. Logically, this way ofnding on the moon is difficult to achieve from the technical aspect, but we can aplish 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 elerate 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 sr panels to charge the batteries within space shuttle. Just the electricity generated by the sr panels alone can save us up to one ton of fuel. Fornding and leaving the lunar surface, we will be adopting verticalnding 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. Theprehensive cost of this mission will be no more than a billion dors. 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 atstnded firmly on the lunar surface. Opening the hatch, two astronauts from the Z nation walked off the space shuttle and nted a five-star red g on the surface of the moon.


    “We’ve seeded! We have sessfullynded on the Moon!” yelled Z nation citizens.


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


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


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


    On the inte, someizens were unable to react in that particr instance.


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


    Yeah right, it all happened too suddenly! Aplishing a mannednding 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 moonnding.


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