Chapter 607
Wang Yifei: Why Can't I Take a Shortcut? To Be Your Pride
In September 2005, Bai Doufu was persuaded by her father to give up all entertainment activities and devote herself to her studies for the next year.
My goal is to become the top scorer in next year's high school entrance exam.
As long as Gong Yao is around, her chances of becoming the top scholar are relatively small.
But this also serves as motivation for her to work harder.
Both she and Gong Yao could take the entrance exams for the gifted youth program, but once they entered the gifted youth program, they would need to put in even more effort.
Some special programs for gifted children even require students to be prohibited from dating before the age of twenty.
In everything, there are gains and losses.
While Bai Doufu (Wang Yifei) was in seclusion, Wang Yifei released her latest album in both Chinese and English.
Now, releasing albums is even simpler for her. She just records the album, selects a few songs to shoot music videos, and uses animation or comics as the music videos for the rest.
It's as simple as it gets.
Now she is targeting the international market, or more specifically, the European and American markets.
It's not just because Chinese is now popular all over the world, but also because the US dollar is so easy to earn; she would be cursed if she missed out.
Moreover, she now collaborates with top global music creators and also writes several songs herself.
The songs are all of very high quality, so their popularity is naturally high.
However, she didn't do much promotion and rarely appeared in the public eye.
For example, for this album, she only appeared on a local TV station in Harbin for an interview, and that was it.
She doesn't really care how many albums she sells; she just wants to maintain a certain level of popularity.
As September drew to a close, "Avengers: Age of Ultron" successfully topped the all-time box office charts, setting a new record.
And it's still racing toward a record-breaking seven billion US dollars in box office revenue.
Interestingly, "Jason Bourne" has also surpassed it and has now reached a record of 5 billion US dollars.
I believe it won't be long before it surpasses "Kung Fu Panda" and becomes the runner-up.
If "Jason Bourne" were to hit mainland Chinese theaters in October, it might even surpass "Avengers: Age of Ultron" to become the new champion.
But whether it will work or not, nobody knows.
Time flies, and Wang Junxian and the other children are growing up. Meanwhile, Wang Duoyu has left Bingcheng and come to Ali Camp.
Buzz!
At Ali Camp Airport, massive jet aircraft landed smoothly on the runway and then proceeded to their designated parking apron under the guidance of the control tower.
"Professor, you've arrived!"
Several cars were already parked steadily on the tarmac, and everyone was looking expectantly at the large aircraft.
Not long after the plane came to a stop, Wang Duoyu was the first to step out of the cabin.
A group of people immediately surrounded him, offering their concern and care.
Wang Duoyu's purpose in coming here this time is that the lunar base has been activated, but a dispute has arisen.
The main reason is technical.
In the early 1990s, Mendel, the head of the Houston Space Center, proposed to the White House the construction of a lunar base.
Scientists agree that establishing a lunar base is crucial to supporting the idea of further large-scale exploration in space.
In order to establish a lunar base, American scientists conducted a fully enclosed simulation experiment similar to 'Biosphere 2' on Santa Catalin Island in South America.
The first phase of the Mendel Project was to launch satellites to survey the best locations for the base.
The second phase is the construction phase, which will involve sending infrastructure machinery such as cranes and excavators to the moon and using microwaves to harden the foundation.
The third stage is component assembly, which uses 21 giant pipes with a diameter of six meters and a length of eighteen meters to form three equilateral hexagons. The hexagons are filled with high-pressure air to house a huge 18-meter-high cylindrical chamber.
Personnel and equipment can be accommodated in pipes or cylindrical containers.
The fourth stage involves mining and utilizing resources such as oxygen, aluminum, iron, titanium, and silicon in lunar rocks to produce oxygen for daily life and raw materials such as metals and glass needed to expand the lunar base.
According to the relevant experiments of the plan, a small experimental chemical plant weighing 1 ton can process more than 10 tons of lunar rock into oxygen, metals and glass within a year.
At the current Ali camp, conservatives believe that the construction of the lunar base should be advanced according to the Mendel Plan, and that blind confidence is not advisable.
Because that's space, that's a lunar base, everything must be done with caution.
The radicals, on the other hand, believe that a large-scale, leapfrog approach should be taken, and that such a conservative approach is unacceptable.
It's important to know that Ali's camp has now mastered a controlled nuclear fusion device, and the cost of transporting ships between the moon and Earth can be reduced to as low as five thousand yuan per person per trip.
This cost is already extremely low.
Furthermore, since Want Want Group is also developing robots, it can increase investment and send more robots to the moon to complete the preliminary preparations for a lunar base.
But regardless of whether they are conservatives or radicals, they all have one big problem: technology!
The first is biosphere device system technology.
To establish a habitable base on the moon, it is necessary to simulate the Earth's living environment, but simulating such an ecological environment is extremely difficult.
The required technical support is not simple.
Second, there is the energy issue.
Controlled nuclear fusion devices can indeed significantly reduce costs, but they are not a panacea.
Thirdly, there are issues related to solar geomagnetic storms and space radiation.
Earth is protected by an atmosphere, but the Moon is not.
Building a base on the moon would expose it to various cosmic radiations, which would inevitably lead to many problems over time.
Fourthly, there is the issue of gravity.
The lunar gravity field exhibits significant non-uniformity, with positive anomalies in lunar maria, negative anomalies in lunar highlands, and tectonic anomalies.
The above four points are only the core technologies currently included; many details have not yet been finalized.
Wang Duoyu came here to solve this problem.
After resting for half a day, Wang Duoyu gathered everyone together for a meeting to clarify the direction.
The construction of the lunar base proceeded as planned. Whether radical or conservative, everyone had to serve the plan and could not cause trouble or give orders arbitrarily.
Speed is important, but so is moderation!
For half a month, Wang Duoyu was busy, just to solve these technical problems.
For things he could decide directly, he would make the final decision. For things that were truly impossible, he would simply let everyone discuss and reach a conclusion first.
For example, the biosphere device, according to Wang Duoyu, involves building such a biosphere model directly on Earth, and then using a spacecraft to pack and send the entire model to the moon.
If that doesn't work, we don't need to conduct the experiments on Earth; we can just send them to the moon for the experiments.
And it's not just about sending mice; we also need to send several kinds of animals and poultry to the moon for various experiments.
Most importantly, the physical condition of these animals and poultry must be monitored in real time, and any abnormal changes must be recorded.
Two weeks later, Wang Duoyu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
However, before he could rest for two days, news came back from the Mars landing project.
The distance between Mars and Earth is so vast that the transmission of information alone takes a very long time.
Given the harsher environment on Mars, immigrating to Mars is undoubtedly a pipe dream.
"Professor, the information transmitted back by the Zhurong probe indicates that there are indeed abundant water resources deep beneath the Martian surface; this has been confirmed at three locations already surveyed."
"According to existing data, there should be a large amount of water resources hidden tens of kilometers underground on the surface of Mars, but obtaining these water resources will probably not be so easy."
After listening to the report, Wang Duoyu nodded silently.
In this matter, it's already quite good that we've gained something.
Any more than that would be a luxury.
"First, we organize this information, then benchmark it against our existing technological capabilities, and then select and simulate Martian environment experiments based on these capabilities."
Upon hearing Wang Duoyu's instructions, the person in charge's eyes widened in surprise:
"Professor, that would probably require a huge investment of resources."
"No matter how much is invested, these are inevitable things; otherwise, sending excavation equipment to Mars would be a waste of effort."
That's tens of kilometers underground, so deep!
Drilling through such a place to get water would undoubtedly be extremely difficult.
Most importantly, the harsh environment on the Martian surface is simply unacceptable.
Prolonged sandstorms can bring large amounts of mud and sand, and can also bring terrifying weather conditions with winds exceeding level 18 for several months.
Given such severe weather conditions, it is essential to prepare contingency plans in advance.
Even a probe like the Zhurong needs to be prepared for it to be buried deep in the earth by sand.
In other words, the current controlled nuclear fusion device has not yet completed the research and development of miniaturized equipment; otherwise, Wang Duoyu would have installed a small sun device with unlimited endurance on the Zhurong ship.
After a busy month, Wang Duoyu finally finished his work.
But before he could leave the Ali camp, Liu Xiaoli came looking for him with several children.
Luckily, he was at Ali's camp, otherwise he probably would have been exposed this time.
He used the Ali camp as an excuse to actually go to the Somali peninsula.
Fortunately, he moved the laboratory back from Hideb's place.
"Big Fish, may I have a look at your spaceship?"
After arriving at the destination, Wang Yifei couldn't wait to find her father and make her request.
"You can visit, but you can't wander around. You have to listen to me." Wang Duoyu agreed, and Wang Yifei was overjoyed.
Bai Doufu didn't come, but the two little ones, Wang Junxian and Wang Sixin, did. Led by their older sister, they went to visit the spaceship.
That evening, at Ali camp, in Director Wang Duoyu's bungalow, Wang Yifei stared intently at her father:
"Big Fish, are you guys planning to build a base on the moon? Does that mean we'll be able to migrate to the moon soon?"
Upon hearing Wang Yifei's words, Wang Duoyu immediately understood her little scheme.
Clearly, she had learned some specific details by visiting the spaceship.
With the mission of colonizing the moon about to begin, it is an indisputable fact that a large number of astronauts will be sent to the moon.
After all, it would take at least a decade, or even several decades, to build a lunar base.
However, the precursor to the lunar base must already be in preparation.
In this way, it can be said that a large number of astronauts have been trained, or even completed.
In other words, the training of astronauts for lunar missions has now formed a complete industrial chain with extremely detailed standard procedures.
If Wang Yifei becomes an astronaut, does that mean she doesn't need four years of training?
In other words, you don't need to learn that much specialized knowledge.
"So, are you planning to immigrate to the moon someday?"
"No no no!"
Wang Yifei immediately shook her head like a rattle-drum:
"Big Fish Bro, I don't want to immigrate to the moon. I just want to travel around space. Hehe, I heard that Want Want Group is about to launch a space travel tourism project, right?"
"I can just pay to participate then, hehe. That way, I won't have to waste four years learning so much about space."
Boom!
The next moment, her smooth forehead came into intimate contact with her father's knuckles.
A sharp rap on the head made Wang Yifei's eyes well up with tears, and she asked in a very aggrieved tone:
"Dad, why did you hit me?"
Wang Duoyu glared at her:
"Hitting you would be too lenient. Why do you always like to take shortcuts?"
"Why can't I take a shortcut? The tourism projects launched by Want Want Group are meant to provide options for people to choose from, so why can't I buy them? Is this project unsafe?"
That made a lot of sense, and Wang Duoyu was speechless for a moment.
After a while, he sighed and said:
"The project is very safe. Of course, our Want Want Group needs a good reputation, and we would never provide an unsafe project."
"Moreover, many of Want Want Group's shareholders will personally travel to outer space at that time."
"But you're different. You already promised to become a qualified astronaut after you graduate from university. I had high hopes for you. You made such a boast, and now you're telling me you're not going to be an astronaut?"
Wang Yifei was immediately taken aback, then burst out laughing.
She felt that her forehead didn't hurt so much anymore. So she was so good in her father's heart.
To become one of her father's sources of pride, hehe, that's really not easy.
Over the years, although she often heard her father praise her, those praises were all superficial. How could they compare to the praise she received today?
"You can still laugh?" Wang Duoyu said angrily, exasperated. His daughter, however, just giggled and hugged him from next door, acting all cute.
"Big Fish, I forgive you, but I really don't want to be an astronaut anymore. I believe I can spend four years achieving something and make you proud too, hehe~" (End of Chapter)