Chapter 693: Experts Have the Final Say

Beijing.

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

An old man with thin hair was sitting at his desk. After he finished reading the report in his hand, he shook his head and gently dropped the report on the table.

“This thing isn’t handled properly.”

Yesterday noon, the tender conference for the moon landing project came to an end. The conference information was quickly delivered to his desk.

Even though the moon landing project was being handled by a second-level government department, the Communist Party of China attached great importance to this project. The higher-ups had repeatedly asked about this project many times. Therefore, as the leader of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, he had to put 110% of his effort into this matter.

However, who would have thought that such a huge disagreement had already appeared…

Ion thruster propulsion or chemical rocket propulsion?

If possible, it would be better to go with both of those technical routes. Unfortunately, the moon landing project funding was limited. Even though the state’s investment was large, it wasn’t unlimited.

Choosing between these two was a difficult decision.

The middle-aged secretary looked at the leader sitting there in silence. He tried to figure out what the minister was trying to say.

Is he unhappy with Director Li’s approach?

Or does he not know what to do?

The secretary paused for a second and asked, “There is no contract for this bet, it’s just a verbal agreement… Should I discuss with both sides and let them take a step back and cancel the bet?”

The minister smiled and shook his head.

“There’s no need to do that.”

There’s no need to do that.

But weren’t you the one who said this isn’t being handled properly?

The secretary was muddled.

However, even though he didn’t know what to do, from his past experience from working in the department, he knew that his best option was to shut his mouth.

The minister glanced at the secretary and said, “Secretary Li, this thing isn’t being handled properly, but it’s not entirely wrong. The academic experts can argue however they want. We can decide after the argument ends.”

“Are you saying to leave them alone?”

“Not exactly.” The minister shook his head and said, “Compared to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, Star Sky Technology is still too small. To be fair, we should help Professor Lu.”

Because of Professor Lu’s reputation, he wasn’t worried about China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation using malicious strategies.

Letting the two companies compete fairly was beneficial.

The most important thing was that, no matter what, the state would still come out on top in the end…

The minister couldn’t help but smirk.

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation had been cruising along for too long; it was time to give them some pressure.

The secretary immediately asked, “How do you plan on helping them?”

The minister thought for a while before saying, “Contact the Air Force Equipment Department and ask if they’re interested.

“I don’t know a lot about space shuttle and ion thruster propulsion systems, and neither do you.

“Whether or not it is worth researching…

“Let the experts have the final say!”

…

Academician Zou obviously welcomed the cooperative research proposal from Lu Zhou.

The Institute of Computational Materials of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study was well-known in the field of materials science. Whether it was the facility, equipment, or the professionalism of researchers, it was ranked among the top in the world.

Not to mention the tremendous achievement of helping in the controllable fusion project, there was no reason for Aurora University and Harbin Institute of Technology to refuse the collaboration.

Also, aside from these resource advantages, being able to have a Nobel laureate involved in the project would mean more support at both the enterprise and national levels. This was much better than letting a single academician lead the project.

After signing a cooperation research and development agreement with the Harbin Institute of Technology, Lu Zhou got on a plane and returned to Jinling the next day. On his way back, he sent his researchers the information about the research project and assigned tasks to each research team.

Generally speaking, the research projects that were taken on by the Institute for Advanced Study could be divided into two parts. One was the “neural interface” and the other was the “bionics bone”.

The former was jointly handled by the Institute of Computational Materials and the newly established Institute of Information Engineering. This had the same priority as the “carbon-based chip” project that began a year ago. The latter was a cooperative project between the Harbin Institute of Technology and the Institute of Computational Materials and had a lower priority than the “lithium-air battery”.

As for the projects such as the servo motors and the neural electrical signal processing used in the robotic arms, the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study hadn’t recruited experts in this field, so Lu Zhou decided to step aside.

Even though these technologies were equally as important, they didn’t interest him.

There were so many research projects, it wasn’t like he could take on all of them, right?

Even if other people didn’t mind, his energy would be drained from all of these projects.

Of course, even though these projects were immensely interesting, most of his energy was still focused on aerospace.

After Lu Zhou’s flight landed in Jin Ling City, he didn’t even return home. He immediately went to the space shuttle assembly center and found the person in charge—Hou Guang.

Lu Zhou saw this the lanky chief engineer and was about to speak, but the chief engineer spoke first.

“I’ve heard CEO Chen talk about the bet you made.”

“Good, that saves me from explaining it.” Lu Zhou thanked Chen Yushan in his heart and said, “The schedule is tight, I know this is very difficult, but this is integral to our project. I hope we can get a working prototype by January next year.”

“January next year?” Hou Guang nodded reluctantly as he said, “I’ll do my best.”

Even though this task was difficult, it wasn’t impossible.

After all, he had personally witnessed the processing capacity of this factory.

Also, most of the engine components had been developed, and they could refer to the 863 plan technical reserves for the remaining technical problems. As long as the few key problems were solved, building a prototype shouldn’t be a big problem.

At most…

I’ll just spend a few nights in the office!

Hou Guang clenched his teeth and said, “There’s one more thing.”

Lu Zhou said, “What?”

“We are still missing an astronaut to test the prototype.” Hou Guang paused for a second and said, “Of course… There are a lot of things the astronaut needs to do, so it’s best if we get two.”

Lu Zhou patted his head.

“I nearly forgot about this… Okay, I’ll find a way to solve this. Is it urgent?”

Hou Guang said, “Not super urgent, but preferably within a month.”

Within a month?

Lu Zhou rubbed his chin.

There’s no way I can train astronauts in time.

Space shuttle pilots were much more in demand than ordinary pilots. Not only did they have higher physical fitness requirements, but they also had higher mental capability requirements. Finding or training a person capable of a flight mission like this was going to be difficult, especially because of the limited time and capital.

Lu Zhou looked a little awkward.

I don’t want to trouble him…

But it looks like I’ll have to use my connections…

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