Chapter 789: Ion Thruster Propulsion System?

Normally, the United States was the one that criticized other countries.

The president didn’t expect to be attacked by Chinese media like this.

[Mars encounters rare global sandstorm, “New Virginia” colonists are in danger!]

In this report, Everyone Daily quoted researchers from the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, who said the sandstorm could last for months.

The most significant impact was that the sunlight reaching Mars would be decreased by 70 or even 80 percent. This caused power generation problems.

The Mars colonists wouldn’t have enough energy to sustain their daily activities.

This meant that the life support system wouldn’t have any solar power!

If this problem remained, they would only be able to survive for another two months before the oxygen and methane tanks were depleted…

As soon as the news broke out, there was an uproar in North America.

New Virginia is being buried in a sandstorm?

WTF?

What angered Americans wasn’t the sandstorm itself; instead, it was because this was the first time they heard about this!

Just a week ago, they were still sitting in front of their TVs, drinking beer and eating chips, watching the Mars Diaries program on Columbia TV. They envied the lives of the Mars colonists.

But now…

They weren’t envious at all!

Many people who signed up for the Ares program were glad they were not chosen.

Not only did they regret signing up for the program, but they were also furious!

The day after Everyone Daily Foreign Edition released the news, intense discussions happened on major social media platforms such as Facebook.

People began posting screenshots of their withdrawal from the Ares program registration, stating that they were deceived by NASA and the US government. They said that NASA was conducting inhumane experiments!

The people that said things like “the Americans are already landing on Mars, yet China is still stuck on the moon?” quietly disappeared.

Of course, there were people who had a different opinion.

For example, those patriotic Americans who thought that “the BFR rocket will bring our heroes home!”…

Regardless, it was obvious that NASA tried to cover up this story.

On the other hand, the public interest for Space-X started to deplete. According to the statistics, the number of registered volunteers for the Ares program, which was originally announced on the official website, was close to the 20 million mark. However, in just one day, the number fell to 5 million, and it was still dropping.

Space-X and NASA had shut down the registration channels on their websites, and their websites no longer displayed how many people were registered…

Outside the NASA building.

Major media trucks filled the entire building parking lot.

Reporters with their cameras and microphones surrounded the building.

“Mr. Carson! What’s the current situation in New Virginia?”

“Why is this happening just two weeks after our colonists landed on Mars? Didn’t NASA inspect the climate before approving the launch program?”

“Is NASA even planning on saving our colonists? Why are there no rescue launch missions arranged? Are you really going to abandon our heroes?”

“We have the right to know the truth!”

As Director Carson looked at the microphones surrounding him, he began to sweat from his forehead, and he even began to feel a little nauseous.

He took a deep breath and tried to appease the reporters.

“We will release a statement shortly! But now is not the time! I can say that our colonists are safe right now! We have the world’s most advanced artificial biosphere technology. Even if this sandstorm lasts for a year, our colonists will be safe!”

However, most people didn’t buy what Director Carson was saying.

They thought about the suspended “Mars Diaries” program and had a rough idea of the real situation.

The situation in New Virginia wasn’t looking good.

Moreover, the colonists might not be able to survive for much longer…

…

It was difficult to keep a global sandstorm on Mars a secret. After all, any powerful astronomical observatory centers could point their telescopes at Mars and observe what was happening.

However, most space observatories didn’t think of the serious impacts this would have on the New Virginia colonists.

That was until the Everyone Daily Foreign Edition report, which revealed the truth…

Director Carson finally got rid of the annoying reporters. He walked toward the NASA building and went directly into the command center room. The secretary-general of NASA quickly spoke to him.

“The situation is not looking good. Julia is Dutch. The Dutch government has expressed its concerns regarding the latest developments of the Ares program. Last night, the French also publicly stated that if we can’t give them an explanation of the New Virginia situation, they might consider closing their Ares program registration… The French president said that the citizens want nothing to do with New Virginia.”

“Sh*t, who cares if the French is involved or not!”

Even though Director Carson seemed like he didn’t care, his face said otherwise.

This was a diplomatic level problem.

Europe was an important ally of the United States, so they couldn’t just ignore their feelings.

Not to mention the real issue wasn’t the diplomatic relations, it was the overwhelming public opinion.

If they couldn’t save the colonists, the president wouldn’t be able to win the next election, which meant he would be fired as the NASA director.

Even though they wanted to save the colonists…

They were not able to.

Director Carson walked into the command room and took a deep breath. He thought about what to say to the staff members working here.

However, his assistant rushed over to him while carrying a laptop.

“Director, you have a video call.”

Director Carson asked, “Who is calling?”

“The IP address is from the other side of the Pacific Ocean…” The assistant gulped and said, “I think it’s from Jinling, China.”

Carson’s pupils narrowed. He had a rough idea of what was happening.

He opened the laptop and hit the enter button.

The video call was connected.

A familiar face appeared in the center of the video.

“Hello, Mr. Carson, it’s nice to see you. It looks like you’re in a bit of trouble.”

Director Carson stared at Professor Lu through the screen. He didn’t even bother asking how Professor Lu got his Facebook account. He said, “Yeah, but you don’t have to worry about it, we can solve it ourselves.”

“Oh, really?” Lu Zhou smiled and said, “By the way, 72 hours ago, you missed your orbit transfer window. If you wanted to send a BFR rocket now, the situation might not be optimal. I did some calculations on the flight process and uploaded it to arXiv. You can look at it if you want.”

Director Carson nearly spat out blood.

Doing some calculations for fun was fine.

But he couldn’t believe Lu Zhou posted it on arXiv.

Because of Lu Zhou’s influence on arXiv, by tomorrow, reporters would be swarming to his front doors with this new juicy piece of information…

Director Carson stared at Lu Zhou’s annoying face and asked, “Are you making fun of us?”

“Of course not, we are deeply saddened by your circumstances.” Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “By the way, do you want to learn about our ion thruster propulsion system?”

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