Chapter 233 Overall Planning

On the third day after the plasma engine blueprints were fully digested, Lin Mo suddenly sat up in bed at four in the morning.

He had a dream.

In the dream, the sky ladder project was already built. A massive elevator cabin was slowly ascending along the cables, transporting various supplies to the "Tian-Shu" space station in synchronous orbit. Inside the space station, workers were busily assembling a massive spaceship—it was headed to Mars.

The spaceship assembly was finished, the hatch closed, the engines ignited, and it slowly departed from the space station, flying toward that red planet.

Then he woke up.

After waking, he couldn't fall back asleep, so he simply got up and walked to the window.

Outside the window, the night in the Gobi Desert was still thick. The outline of the tokamak-3 device was faintly visible under the moonlight, and in the distance, the construction site was brightly lit, with workers working through the night.

He stood at the window, replaying that dream in his mind over and over.

sky ladder project. Space station. Mars spaceship.

These three things were connected in his dream.

But in reality, they were separate—the space elevator was the first step, the lunar base was the second step, and Mars was the third. Step by step, according to plan.

But what if...

What if he could start preparing for Mars while building the sky ladder project?

What if, once the sky ladder project was finished, they didn't start building the Mars spaceship from scratch, but instead assembled it directly in orbit?

How much time would that save? How much money?

Lin Mo's heart began to race.

He turned back to his desk, opened his computer, and began to calculate.

At eight in the morning, Li Xiao pushed the door open and saw Lin Mo sitting at the computer, his eyes bloodshot but his spirit excited.

"Senior Brother, did you pull another all-nighter?"

Lin Mo looked up at her and suddenly smiled:

"Xiaoer, I have an idea."

Li Xiao was stunned for a moment: "What idea?"

Lin Mo said: "Call everyone for a meeting. Get Chen Xueming on a video call, and call Engineer Shen too. I have an important announcement."

At nine, the conference room was full of people.

Chen Xueming was on the other end of the video link, Engineer Shen sat on one side with several experts from the Aerospace Group, and Zhao Gang, Section Chief Wu, and Li Xiao sat on the other side. Everyone was looking at Lin Mo.

Lin Mo stood up, walked to the whiteboard, and wrote a few words:

Comprehensive Planning: sky ladder project + Mars

The conference room was quiet for a second.

Chen Xueming was the first to speak: "Old Lin, what does this mean?"

Lin Mo said: "It means that the sky ladder project and Mars can be pushed forward simultaneously."

He pointed to the words "sky ladder project" on the whiteboard:

"According to the original plan, it will take fifteen years to build the sky ladder project. After it is built, we start assembling the Mars spaceship in orbit. Assembling the spaceship will take another three to five years. In other words, the Mars mission is at least twenty years away."

He paused, drew an arrow next to "Mars," pointing toward "sky ladder project":

"But what if we start manufacturing the components for the Mars spaceship while building the sky ladder project? By the day the sky ladder project is finished, the components will also be mostly ready. Then we just use the sky ladder project to transport the components up and assemble them at the space station."

He drew a simple diagram on the whiteboard—ground factories manufacturing components, the sky ladder project transporting components, and the space station assembling the spaceship.

"This way, the timeline for the Mars mission can be moved up by three to five years."

Low murmurs erupted in the conference room.

Engineer Shen frowned: "Academician Lin, your idea is very bold. But there are a few problems."

Lin Mo looked at him: "Please, go ahead."

Engineer Shen said: "First, many components of the Mars spaceship are oversized. Can the elevator cabin of the sky ladder project fit them?"

Lin Mo pulled up some data: "The elevator cabin is designed with a load capacity of one hundred tons, and the internal dimensions are five meters in diameter and twenty meters in height. The Mars spaceship can be designed modularly, with each module kept within twenty meters, and transported in batches."

Engineer Shen nodded and asked again: "Second, the space station is currently designed to be only one thousand tons. Can it serve as both a counterweight and an assembly platform simultaneously?"

Lin Mo said: "It can be upgraded. The original space station design only had seven modules; we can increase it to twelve, adding a dedicated assembly section. The weight will increase to fifteen hundred tons, and the number of launches will increase to one hundred and eighty."

Engineer Shen was silent for a few seconds, then said:

"Third, and most importantly—what is the significance of doing this? Is moving the Mars mission up by three to five years worth investing so many extra resources?"

Lin Mo looked at him, his gaze calm:

"Engineer Shen, you've been in aerospace your whole life, you should know better than me. In aerospace, every year we can shave off means one less year of waiting and one more year of possibility."

He paused, his voice raising slightly:

"My teacher, Academician Wang Zhenguo, is eighty-three this year. He waited his whole life to see Nuclear Fusion succeed. He might not live to see Mars. But if we move it up by five years, those seventy-eight-year-old, eighty-year-old aerospace veterans might just be able to see humanity land on Mars with their own eyes."

The conference room went quiet.

Engineer Shen's eyes were slightly red.

He lowered his head, remained silent for a long time, then looked up:

"Academician Lin, you are right. I support it."

Chen Xueming raised his hand on the other end of the video: "Old Lin, I have a question too."

Lin Mo said: "Go ahead."

Chen Xueming said: "The orbit design for the Mars spaceship needs to match the space station orbit of the sky ladder project. If the space station's position changes, how will the spaceship dock once it's assembled?"

Lin Mo said: "That's a good question. That's why we need unified planning—the orbit of the sky ladder project, the position of the space station, and the assembly sequence of the Mars spaceship all need to be calculated in advance."

He looked at Chen Xueming:

"Xueming, I'm leaving this task to you."

Chen Xueming was stunned: "Me?"

Lin Mo said: "Yes. You are in charge of orbital calculations. The space station of the sky ladder project must be stable, and the launch window for the Mars spaceship must be accurate; the two must coordinate perfectly. This is something only you can do."

Chen Xueming's eyes reddened, but he nodded vigorously:

"Okay. Leave it to me."

The discussion lasted for an entire day.

By ten at night, the new planning proposal had taken initial shape:

Phase 1 (2038-2045): Main construction of the sky ladder project, simultaneous launch of Mars spaceship module development.

Phase 2 (2045-2048): Completion of the sky ladder project, Mars spaceship components transported to space in batches and assembled at the space station.

Phase 3 (2048-2050): Mars spaceship testing, personnel training, selection of launch window.

Phase 4 (2050): Manned Mars mission officially launched.

Lin Mo wrote the final line on the whiteboard:

"2050, humanity lands on Mars."

He turned around and looked at everyone present:

"Everyone, from now on, our goal is no longer the sky ladder project twenty years from now, nor Mars thirty years from now. It is Mars twelve years from now."

He paused:

"Twelve years."

The conference room was quiet for a few seconds.

Then Li Xiao was the first to speak:

"Senior Brother, I'm with you."

Chen Xueming said on the video: "Old Lin, I did the math. If we follow this plan, I'll be sixty-three when the Mars mission happens. I can still climb."

Everyone laughed.

Zhao Gang kept a straight face, but the corners of his mouth were trembling slightly:

"Dr. Lin, I might not be able to go. But I guarantee that not a single person who sends you up will be missing."

Section Chief Wu pushed up his reading glasses:

"Academician Lin, I'm sixty-six. I'll be seventy-eight in twelve years. I don't know if I'll still be alive to see it. But I will try my best to live."

Lin Mo looked at these people and suddenly felt a lump in his throat.

He took a deep breath and said:

"Okay. Then we go together."

Late at night, Lin Mo stood alone at the window.

On the table, that bottle of Mars soil stood quietly.

He picked up the bottle and shook it against the moonlight.

Twelve years.

2050.

He would be forty-seven.

In the prime of his life.

Perhaps he could really go himself.

He put down the bottle and looked out the window.

In the low sky to the southeast, that dark star was still flickering.

But this time, he wasn't looking at that.

He looked in another direction—the direction of Mars.

It was also flickering, brighter and redder than that dark star.

Like a red eye, in the depths of the universe, quietly watching the Earth.

Watching this sky ladder project.

Watching this group of people.

Watching that little bottle of soil.

Lin Mo said softly:

"Twelve years from now, I will come to find you."