Washington, NASA Headquarters.

"These damn media don't even want their faces for click-through rates! They should be subject to control!" Charles Bor angrily threw the New York Times in his hand on the table. The recent news just thinking about it made his face full of burning red, hot and embarrassing. NASA has not shared the news on the official self-media Instagram in recent times.

Because I don’t dare, everyone knows the incident of shooting the first bird. This mutual spray incident can be said that NASA is the source of everything. Just look at NASA’s 7 million followers on Instagram, this should be good news, but during this period of time, even NASA will not dare to go out.

Are there few companies and institutions involved in the attack?

"Sir, it's not a bad thing. At least we have attracted 7 million fans during this period, and the cumulative fans have exceeded 10 million, which is worth celebrating." Bor's secretary said with a smile.

"God's good thing! Do you like to embarrass you, right? Do you think things are not bad enough?" Charles was so angry that he heard the secretary's words.

"Actually, we can make good use of this wave of fans, just wait for the opportunity to pass." The secretary smiled.

"For example..." Charles glanced at her and said.

Charles' secretary said: "We have not released the latest news on Ins for a long time. With this wave of fans, we can publish some of our news from time to time. For example, our astronauts on the Tianzhou can live broadcast their daily activities in space on YouTube. NASA can do something more people-friendly. Although we are government-oriented scientific research institutions, we must keep pace with the times and be more people-friendly. At least we can provide some help in applying for funds, and support is the key."

Charles, who gradually calmed down, suddenly realized, "That's true. XlouS has done a great job in this regard. Some time ago, it also released a video of the test flight. This company never missed the opportunity to attract fans. Although he did not need support to apply for funds, these fans can be transferred to his major companies to consume their products. The reason is the same. Leave this matter to you to deal with. Do you understand the image of NASA? For the sake of funding!"

"Yes, sir, for the sake of funding! Also, sir, don't forget the meeting ten minutes later." The secretary smiled sexyly, pointed at his wrist, and then left Boer's office.

Charles retreated a little depressed and then came to the conference room. The participants were basically present, including Elon Musk. In addition, there were also leaders from Alphabet and Bigelow Aerospace. The conference room was gathered in more than 20 people, most of whom were scientific engineers or astrophysicists.

The people here are all the top elites in the United States. They gather together at this moment to discuss the same topic - landing on Mars.

"The plan has changed. XlouS recently announced the big news that they are going to build a large space station on Mars. The purpose is unknown, but this information is very important to us." Charles Bor came to the meeting and looked around everyone and said: "Landing on Mars is indeed a political mission that occupies the main purpose, but if we think so now, we will lose!"

Musk, who was sitting next to him, said in a deep voice: "XlouS is going to operate a large space station in Mars orbit, obviously with a clear purpose. If we just send astronauts to the Mars surface and get the title of first landing on Mars, although it is a huge political victory, from a commercial perspective, we only spend so much energy and funds to leave footprints on the Mars surface, and this business is simply a loss to grandma's house!"

"But, what can be found on Mars? What can be commercialized?" another man said in confusion..

Charles glanced at the other party, "How do you explain that XlouS is going to orbit a thousand-ton superspace station in Mars? It will be operated for at least 25 years?"

Charles' rhetorical question left the other party speechless.

"We don't know what treasures are on Mars, but XlouS may know, otherwise why would Ren Hong do everything to formulate the "Gemini Plan"? Do you really think he has too much money to burn it?"

"I think it's very necessary to figure out the motivation of XlouS, which is very critical!" someone said again.

"This kind of thing is not something we should worry about, and we are not professionals in intelligence. The CIA has begun to intervene." Charles looked around and said, "What we have to do is to do our job. Although we don't know what XlouS has liked on Mars, at least it has given us a very important information, that is, there must be treasures on Mars. We cannot wait until the CIA obtains reliable intelligence before starting to formulate strategies. It was too late at that time."

"Mr. Boer, do you mean?" another NASA staffer asked curiously.

Charles was silent for a moment and then said, "We must prepare in advance. As Mr. Musk said, if we burn tens of billions of dollars of funds just to leave a footprint on Mars, we will lose too badly. We cannot follow the Soviet Union's footsteps. We will win hugely on the surface, but actually lose completely."

"So, we need to set goals higher. This time, the Mars plan not only needs to complete the goal of landing on Mars and complete a political mission, but also needs to establish our own Mars outpost base on the Mars surface. In this way, we have more time to deal with it. With an outpost base on Mars, when the treasure is discovered, we can also get a piece of the pie, so that we will not be able to do anything at the critical moment."

"Martian, there must be treasures, we don't know, but XlouS knows about babies!" Charles said with great certainty at the end.

At this time, a scientist among the attendees left his seat and walked to the large crystal screen on the wall of the front desk of the conference. The distribution map of the solar system appeared on the screen. He said: "Mr. Charles, it is almost impossible to complete the task of landing on Mars and establishing a surface outpost base at the same time. Three and a half months later, Mars will enter the closest distance to the earth. This is the golden launch window. If we want to build an outpost base according to Mr. Charles's requirements, it means that the entire plan needs to be re-formed. We need to send the facilities required for the outpost base to space. During this period, we have missed the time period of this golden launch window. If we want to catch up with Mars, we need to carry more fuel. The increase in the materials required for the outpost base means that we need more propulsion fuel, greater thrust, and higher investment, but it is basically impossible..."

After saying that, the scientist looked back at Charles, "I know it's urgent, but... I can only do it one step at a time and cannot tolerate sloppy. This is space activity!"

"Damn it!" Charles whispered, and he knew that this was an indisputable fact. He couldn't hurry up. Mars would not wait for you, and would stay away every second.

The discussion was in a deadlock for a while.

Elon Musk, who had not spoken for a long time, looked at the star map on the home screen. Just as everyone was silent, his eyes suddenly lit up, stared at the screen and said with a slight excitement: "I think it's OK!"

………

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Chapter completed!