Chapter 250 - Chapter 250: Another Major Event
Chapter 250: Another Major Event
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
An hour later, Tang Rui piloted the spacecraft on a lunar orbit mission.
“It’s all lies.”
After circling the Moon dozens of times and scanning with various detection equipment, he found no alien constructs.
The debris detected were all from human missions, including those from failed landings.
“Red Lotus, prepare to deploy the mechanical dogs.”
“Okay, Master.”
After Tang Rui finished speaking, he lowered the altitude and speed, activated the isolation chamber, and released the air.
Once the air was evacuated, the spacecraft’s side hatch opened, and mechanical dogs with electric thrusters flew out.
Under the reverse thrust of the electric engines, the mechanical dogs landed with some impact but suffered no damage.
Tang Rui circled the Sea of Storms.
He deployed all the mechanical dogs around the large crater in the Sea of Storms, then had Red Lotus control them to extend probes from inside.
The next second, the data from around the Sea of Storms began to aggregate.
“Is this subterranean ice water?”
Tang Rui, looking at the expanding geological structure map, immediately noticed the water resources.
Compared to the Moon’s mineral resources, water was more valuable; there was no comparison.
But when Tang Rui zoomed in on the subterranean ice water, he realized it must have been left by an asteroid impact.
The geological structure map clearly showed an evaporative expansion structure around the ice, along with small vent channels.
However, these channels disappeared 120 meters below the Moon’s surface.
Clearly, the ice was trapped underground when the lava layer above it blocked the vents during thermal expansion.
Upon closer examination, it could be inferred that an ice asteroid impacted the Moon, and its remnants were buried before they could evaporate.
The remnants likely expanded and turned into vapor upon impact.
But without a path to escape, they re-condensed into ice underground after cooling.
So, this wasn’t water originating from the Moon.
Regardless, the origin of the water wasn’t important; its presence was what mattered.
“Red Lotus, simulate the surrounding geological structure to see if more ice water can be found,” Tang Rui said to Red Lotus, as finding more subterranean ice water would make this the best location for a lunar base.
Minerals are abundant on the Moon, but water is rare.
While Tang Rui searched for water resources, a NASA department discovered anomalies on the Moon.
Earlier, NASA had sent many probes to the Moon.
Though most were now damaged, NASA had recently been eager to return to the Moon, launching more probes.
This department was responsible for lunar exploration, geological analysis, and monitoring.
Typically, they had little to do.
They just needed to collect data from the Moon, download it, analyze it slowly, and publish a few papers.
But tonight, the duty officer noticed anomalies in the data.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
A lunar earthquake?
The data was concentrated around the Sea of Storms, with identical wave amplitudes and strengths.
And the sources were evenly spaced.
What was happening?
Aliens?
As experts in lunar research, they had found many unexplainable anomalies.
These weren’t unscientific, just unexplained by current science.
Tonight’s event wasn’t the first, but it was the first time it was clearly monitored.
This couldn’t be man-made.
The current lunar probes, all with their own missions, couldn’t produce such signals.
“Manager, there’s a big issue,” the duty officer immediately contacted NASA’s manager to report.
Why say ‘again’?
At the same time, China’s space command center, particularly the Moon project team, also noticed the lunar anomalies.
Then everyone had the same thought: this wasn’t man-made.
Trouble was brewing.
“Master, there’s a video call from Earth. Should I connect?” While Tang Rui was closely observing the lunar geological structure, Red Lotus suddenly informed him of the call.
“Who is it?” Tang Rui asked, frowning.
“It’s from Lin Chao.”
“Connect it.”
Whoosh!
Lin Chao’s projection appeared before Tang Rui, who was in his office.
Lin Chao, seeing Tang Rui’s surroundings, wasn’t particularly surprised, as the spacecraft’s interior looked somewhat like his own base.
Lin Chao assumed it was Tang Rui’s new lab or lounge, given Tang Rui wasn’t wearing a helmet and nothing was floating behind him. Who would think it was outside Earth?
“Brother Lin, what’s up?” Tang Rui asked directly.
“Urgent notice from above, a meeting in Xichang in an hour. If you’re not busy, come over.”
“Urgent notice? A meeting in Xichang? Is there a crisis in outer space, like an asteroid hitting Earth?” Tang Rui asked curiously.
A meeting in Xichang clearly involved space affairs, and its urgency suggested it wasn’t about research. Space-related and urgent typically meant a space crisis.
“I don’t know the details. The meeting content is highly confidential, and I’m not authorized to know,” Lin Chao said helplessly.
Normally, as Tang Rui’s contact, Lin Chao would have high security clearance.
But he knew nothing about this meeting, indicating its high level of secrecy.
“Okay, I got it. I’ll head there now.”
“Great, the flight path is approved. Just fly your fighter jet.”
“Okay, I’ll leave invisibly….”