Chapter 277 A New Beginning
October 5, 2040.
Beijing, sky ladder project Headquarters, Grand Conference Room.
Lin Mo stood in front of a whiteboard, with over a dozen people seated before him. Chen Xueming, Li Xiao, Zhao Gang, Section Chief Wu, Liu Jianguo, Wang Lei, Xiao Zhou... and several engineers newly transferred from the Aerospace Group.
The conference room was quiet as everyone waited for Lin Mo to speak.
A massive diagram of the solar system hung on the wall, with planetary orbits extending outward from the Sun to Pluto. The most striking feature was the Martian orbit—that red line, which was only fifty-five million kilometers away at its closest point to Earth.
Lin Mo picked up a marker and wrote two large characters on the whiteboard:
Mars
"The sky ladder is complete." He turned around and looked at those present. "Next, it's time to go there."
Chen Xueming stood up abruptly, his eyes terrifyingly bright. "Old Lin! Finally, the wait is over!"
Lin Mo smiled. "Sit down, I haven't finished yet."
Chen Xueming sat down, but he was restless, as if there were nails under his seat.
Li Xiao laughed at him from the side. "Senior Brother Chen, what are you so excited about? It's not like we're leaving right now."
Chen Xueming glared at her. "What's wrong with being excited? I've been waiting three years for this day!"
Wang Lei whispered, "Director Chen, me too. I've dreamed of going to Mars."
A wave of laughter rippled through the conference room.
Lin Mo raised his hand to signal for silence, then took a stack of blueprints from his briefcase and spread them on the table.
It was a massive blueprint, densely marked with various data. In the most prominent position was a thruster structure never seen before—it wasn't a traditional chemical rocket, nor an ion thruster, but a completely new design.
"This is..." Liu Jianguo leaned in, his eyes wide.
"Plasma Engine," Lin Mo said. "The complete blueprints."
The conference room fell silent for a second.
Then it exploded.
"Plasma Engine?!" Section Chief Wu nearly jumped out of his chair. "Can this thing really be built?"
Lin Mo nodded. "It can. But it will take time."
Chen Xueming stared at the blueprint, his breathing growing heavy. "Old Lin, how much thrust does this thing have?"
"A specific impulse of over ten thousand seconds, twenty times that of a chemical rocket." Lin Mo pointed to the data on the blueprint. "With this, it will only take three months to get from Earth to Mars."
Three months.
Traditional chemical rockets take seven to eight months to reach Mars. Moreover, they can only launch during specific windows; miss one, and you have to wait two years.
With a Plasma Engine, it's three months, and you can depart at any time.
Liu Jianguo murmured, "If this is real, Mars is no longer a dream."
Lin Mo looked at him. "It's not a dream. It's a plan."
At three in the afternoon, the discussion in the conference room reached a fever pitch.
Li Xiao stood before another whiteboard, pen in hand, drawing the Earth-Mars transfer orbit. Complex curves and numbers flowed smoothly from her pen like an abstract painting.
"The Earth-Mars transfer window appears every twenty-six months." She pointed to the curves. "The most ideal window is January 2042, fifteen months from now."
She turned around and looked at Lin Mo.
"Senior Brother, if we can build the Plasma Engine within fifteen months, we can catch that window."
Lin Mo nodded. "We can."
Chen Xueming asked from the side, "Is fifteen months enough?"
Section Chief Wu thought for a moment. "The engine core is doable. But we also need the accompanying spacecraft, life support systems, landers... all that in fifteen months is a stretch."
Lin Mo looked at him. "Who said we're building it all at once?"
Section Chief Wu was stunned for a moment.
Lin Mo walked to the solar system diagram and pointed to the Martian orbit.
"Step one: send unmanned probes. Verify engine performance, test landing technology, and survey landing sites." His hand moved to the Martian surface. "Step two: send supplies. Fuel, water, food, and equipment will be transported in advance. Step three will be the manned mission."
He turned around and looked at the group.
"A three-step approach. Every step has redundancy, and every step leaves a way out."
The conference room was silent for a few seconds.
Then Liu Jianguo said, "Chief Designer Lin, you're... applying the experience from the sky ladder project to Mars."
Lin Mo nodded. "Exactly. How we built the sky ladder is how we will go to Mars."
At six in the evening, the discussion came to a temporary close.
Chen Xueming walked to the window and watched the sunset outside. Autumn in Beijing was beautiful; the sky was high, and the clouds were dyed orange-red.
Lin Mo walked over and stood beside him.
"What are you thinking about?" Lin Mo asked.
Chen Xueming was silent for a few seconds before saying, "Thinking about Academician Wang."
Lin Mo looked at him.
Chen Xueming continued, "When he was young, China's aerospace projects were canceled. He told me that was the regret of his life."
He turned his head to look at Lin Mo.
"Old Lin, this time, we won't be canceled, right?"
Lin Mo shook his head. "No."
"Why are you so sure?"
Lin Mo pointed to the city outside the window, to those lights.
"Because we aren't doing this alone."
Chen Xueming was taken aback for a moment, then he smiled.
"True."
At eight in the evening, Li Xiao was still calculating.
Three computers were set up in front of her, their screens filled with dense data. Earth-Mars orbits, gravity assists, launch windows, fuel consumption... every item needed to be precise to six decimal places.
Wang Lei walked over with a cup of coffee and placed it gently on her desk.
"Director Li, you haven't eaten yet."
Li Xiao didn't even look up. "I'm not hungry."
Wang Lei sighed. "Master Liu said if you don't eat soon, he'll deliver it personally."
Li Xiao's hand paused for a moment, then she looked up at Wang Lei.
"Master Liu really said that?"
Wang Lei nodded.
Li Xiao was silent for a second, then stood up. "Let's go, time to eat."
Wang Lei smiled.
As the two walked toward the Canteen, they passed the conference room. The lights were still on inside, and the voices of Chen Xueming and Liu Jianguo could be heard faintly as they continued their discussion.
Li Xiao stood at the door and watched for a while.
Chen Xueming was leaning over the table, gesturing wildly while explaining something on the blueprint. Liu Jianguo was nodding beside him, occasionally interjecting.
She suddenly smiled.
Wang Lei asked, "Director Li, what are you smiling at?"
Li Xiao shook her head. "Nothing. I just think... these people are really great."
At eleven at night, Lin Mo stood alone by the window of the Chief Engineers Office.
The stack of Plasma Engine blueprints sat on the desk, looking a bit worn from being flipped through. Beside them was a thick stack of preliminary orbital calculation results that Li Xiao had just delivered.
Outside, the night view of Beijing was brilliant. The flow of traffic on Changan Avenue was like a river of light, and Tiananmen Square in the distance was brightly lit.
His phone rang.
It was a message from Wang Zhenguo:
"I heard you're planning to go to Mars?"
Lin Mo smiled and replied:
"Teacher, you're certainly well-informed."
Wang Zhenguo replied quickly:
"I'm old, this is all the skill I have left. If you want to go, then go. Don't leave any regrets."
Lin Mo looked at the message and was silent for a long time.
Then he replied:
"Rest assured, I will definitely go."
Putting away his phone, he continued to watch the night scenery outside.
Fifty-five million kilometers away, that red planet was quietly rotating.
In three years, they would go there.
In ten years, there would be human cities there.
In a hundred years, it would become another home.
He turned around and looked at the solar system diagram on the wall.
From Earth to Mars was only the first step.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune... and the even further reaches of deep space, as well as that mysterious signal from twelve light-years away.
The road was still very long.
But they were already on their way.