Scholar's Advanced Technological System
chapter-787

Chapter 787: SOS?

Building a community with the same goal for the future was one of the fundamental philosophies of the Chinese. It was also the main principles proposed by the Chinese representatives at the 15th United Nations General Assembly.

China didn’t want to achieve world domination. Rather, they wanted the world’s future interests to align with China’s interests.

Of course, this wasn’t something Lu Zhou had to worry about.

As a scholar, he only had to focus on his own research.

However, as a scholar, he was still glad to see his motherland being integrated into the international community, which meant he could use his voice to influence this community…

The meeting lasted for an hour, and the two talked about a lot of things.

Owens was surprised at Lu Zhou’s vision for the lunar village. Lu Zhou was interested in some of Owens’ ideas on the development of space resources and business operation models.

Technology provided humans with tools to transform and manipulate natural resources. However, the way at which people should use these tools was a discipline in and of itself.

“The Living Planet seminar is going to be held in Prague, Czech Republic. If you have time, we’d sincerely like you to visit.”

“If I have time, I’ll think about attending.”

Lu Zhou smiled and nodded. He obviously didn’t give a clear answer.

Owens didn’t push any further. He shook hands with Lu Zhou and said goodbye.

…

The day after Lu Zhou and Owens finished their meeting, the news that China and the European Union reached a lunar resources development consensus swept across the Internet.

Everyone Daily posted a concept map of the lunar village.

On the other hand, Xinhua Daily announced in its latest newspaper issue the specific content that was discussed by the Chinese and the European Union on the development and exploration of lunar resources.

Surprisingly, the European Union recognized the bill signed by China at the beginning of last year, which was to control the profits of companies in the lunar resource mining field.

This bill caused a lot of controversies back then. It was even criticized by the Western media as a modern East India Company Act.

If it weren’t for the western countries’ desire to obtain China’s nuclear fusion technologies, they would have kept silent…

But now, the European Union recognized this bill and stated that countries should compete fairly and cooperate on the development of lunar resources. This was able to shut a lot of people up.

The Americans were especially shocked. They couldn’t believe this “betrayal” by Europe. The line that said “space 4.0 is the era of Ares” attracted a lot of discussions.

Even though Director Owens spoke euphemistically, some people were still offended.

The Ares program was heading toward the victory line, yet Owens still had doubts regarding the Ares program?

The Americans thought the Europeans were blind.

However, even though the Europeans seemed to be leaning toward the Chinese side, the United States had no time to take care of this matter.

While the China National Space Administration and European Space Agency were having their own discussions, New Virginia was stuck in a global Mars sandstorm.

Even Lu Zhou’s favorite “Mars Diaries” program was suspended.

However, Space-X didn’t state the true reason for the suspension of the Mars Diaries program. They said that the information transmission costs were too expensive and that they needed the bandwidth for scientific research.

After Space-X announced this on their website, a lot of people were disappointed.

The program was at its climax, and many fans were let down.

However, most people were understanding.

After all, scientific research was more important than creating an entertainment show.

Elon Musk stood in front of a camera and apologized to the “Mars Diaries” fans.

“It’s a shame that this sandstorm might last for a long time. I assure you that everything is going fine. The atmosphere density of Mars is only 1% that of Earth’s. Even though this sandstorm is tough, it won’t do any damage.

“Also, I’d like to use this opportunity to talk about something exciting.

“The new BFR rocket is about to depart. This time, we are sending a 16-ton experiment module to Mars!

“If you have something to say to our colonists, please send us a written letter! We will choose 100 letters and send them to Mars along with our experimental module. Our New Virginia residents will read these letters out loud on Columbia TV!”

The reporters burst into excitement as they all rushed forward and reached out with their microphones.

Letter to Mars!

That is so exciting!

Musk is a genius!

However, Johnson, who was tens of millions of kilometers away, had no idea that this disastrous sandstorm was being downplayed on Earth…

The oxygen and methane resources continued to decline, and the situation was becoming increasingly dangerous.

Of course, the US authorities had been trying their best. NASA even held several meetings regarding New Virginia’s rescue operation.

So far, Director Carson was presented with two solutions. One was to launch a new BFR rocket to Mars and send over resources that could help the colonists. The other was to find a way to get the colonists back on the BFS spacecraft, where they could continue living for a long time.

However, so far, it seemed like neither solution was realistic.

The distance between Mars and Earth was getting wider and wider. The best launch window to Mars was over. Even though they had BFR rockets available, it would take the rockets more than six months to reach Mars.

And it seemed like New Virginia could only survive for two more months.

Praying that the sandstorm would stop seemed to be the most realistic solution…

Inside the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, a text bubble popped up on Lu Zhou’s computer.

Xiao Ai: [Master, file 0021 is successfully decrypted!]

Lu Zhou, who was reading theses, looked at the text bubble and replied, “Send it to my computer.”

Xiao Ai: [Yes, Master ~ (๑•̀ᄇ•́) و✧]

In less than half a second, a folder appeared on his desktop.

Lu Zhou opened the folder and saw the file. Instantly, three letters caught his attention.

Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows and muttered to himself.

“SOS…?”

They sent out an international distress signal?

Things are becoming more and more interesting…