Shan Qiuyu stood up straight. "Alright, I've said all I need to say. You can discuss it now, and raise any questions you might have."
Several arms shot up from the audience.
"You!" Shan Qiuyu pointed randomly at someone.
"Director Shan, when will the warship be ready, when will we depart, and when will we arrive at Mars?" he asked three questions in a row.
Ling Xiao couldn't suppress his urge to comment. He leaned over to Ou Zhanpeng and whispered, "Hey, the Earth is in such a mess, and they still have time to worry about Mars?"
Ou Zhanpeng's gaze was surprised. "What, you don't think we should be concerned?"
"Not exactly," Ling Xiao immediately denied. "It just feels a bit off."
Ou Zhanpeng was rational. "Space forces handle space, and ground forces handle the ground. It's perfectly normal."
On stage, Shan Qiuyu answered carefully. "The next favorable launch window for Earth-Mars is at the end of June. The warship is expected to be completed by the end of May. If everything goes smoothly, we should arrive at Mars in mid to late November, five to six months behind the aliens. If we miss the late June window, it will be too late next year." Shan Qiuyu clarified all the questions and then asked, "Any other questions?"
"I have none," the person replied and sat down.
"What about others?" Shan Qiuyu asked again.
"May I ask when the new ship started construction, and why we haven't heard any news about it?" a voice inquired.
In this era of highly developed media, the construction of every new ship received attention from countless media professionals, making complete secrecy impossible.
"I don't know the exact time, but it seems it was last November, or maybe December."
The audience erupted with a buzz, and everyone couldn't help but start discussing.
The construction of a space warship was far more difficult than that of an aircraft carrier, requiring not only a very long construction period but also consideration for the assembly of the warship.
Simply put, the warship would be divided into several modules, encapsulated according to specified standards, launched one by one, and then assembled in outer space like building blocks at an appropriate orbital altitude.
The current largest carrier rocket had a payload capacity of 260 tons, meaning each module's mass must be controlled to under 240 tons.
Why not 260 tons?
Because 20 tons of margin was needed for the encapsulation materials.
The harsh environment of outer space necessitated careful packaging to ensure the integrity of each component.
The training ship "Shanmai" had a total mass of just over 3,000 tons. Theoretically, it required 13 launches by heavy-lift rockets. In reality, due to the design and shape of each module, a total of 19 launches were needed, taking three months.
The "Jidi" had a total mass of about 7,200 tons. Theoretically, it required 30 launches, but in reality, 44 launches were made, taking five and a half months.
This was only for the warship itself. Personnel, supplies, and ammunition required additional transport missions.
Aerospace was inherently the most expensive systematic engineering. Space warships were the pinnacle of the aerospace pyramid. If the cost of launching a single space warship were converted into currency and piled up, it would undoubtedly be heavier than the warship itself.
It was no exaggeration to say that space warships were exclusively the domain of great powers. Any nation with even slightly inferior comprehensive national strength would not dare to contemplate building space warships.
This was the reason why, when alien warships appeared, there were only two fleets, totaling eight warships, in Earth's outer space.
While the attendees were not privy to the specific data of the new ship, Shan Qiuyu had mentioned that the "Jidi" was not suitable for long-distance missions. This implied that the new ship's total mass would certainly exceed that of the "Jidi."
Assuming the new ship's total mass was 10,000 tons, it would theoretically require 42 launches to send the warship into space. The actual launch count was estimated to be around sixty.
Subsequent personnel and supplies would require at least a dozen more transport missions.
With China's manufacturing speed, building the warship wouldn't be difficult, but sending the new ship into space through over 70 launches was not so easy.
Currently, only the Qiongzhou Base could launch heavy-lift rockets. The deployment and recovery of these rockets, the collection and transportation of massive amounts of fuel, and coordination in other aspects all required time. Launching once every three days was already the limit for Qiongzhou Base, meaning it would take a full seven months to launch all the components of the new ship into space.
From last November to this June, it was only eight months. In other words, the military had to start launching spaceship components in December of last year, without any unrecoverable errors, otherwise, the new ship couldn't be launched before June.
Mind you, this was just for launch, not for assembly!
It was understandable if others didn't know the situation, but Ou Zhanpeng and Ling Xiao had returned to Earth in early February. They were keenly aware that there were no warship modules waiting for assembly in orbit, nor had they heard of any intensive heavy-lift rocket launches from Qiongzhou recently. With only two months left, how could the new ship possibly be launched before June?
This was practically a hellish difficulty!
Ou Zhanpeng immediately thought of a possibility and raised his hand to ask, "Are it just us for the new ship?"
"Yes, for now, it's just you," Shan Qiuyu confirmed.
Ou Zhanpeng felt utterly bewildered. A training ship had a full complement of 420 people, and the "Jidi" had a maximum of 380. Yet, the new ship only had forty to fifty people present. Did this mean the new ship was far less massive than imagined?
"What is the displacement of the new ship?" he immediately voiced his confusion.
There was no water in space, so there was naturally no displacement. This was just a continuation of previous habits and meant the same thing as the warship's mass.
Shan Qiuyu gave Ou Zhanpeng a deep look. "The full displacement of the ship is 9,800 tons, standard displacement is 15,800 tons, and full load displacement is 18,800 tons. These are the figures I know; detailed information is still unclear."
Another uproar ensued from the crowd. This mass was even higher than expected. With completion due in June, was there enough time?
"A warship over ten thousand tons, and only this handful of people?" Ou Zhanpeng could hardly believe his ears. If it weren't for the fact that the person in front of him was indeed the familiar Shan Qiuyu, he would have thought he had encountered a swindler.
"It is indeed a bit short," Shan Qiuyu affirmed Ou Zhanpeng's statement. "However, from what I know, the new ship has a very high degree of automation, so the manpower required is far less than traditional warships. You are all elites drawn from various units, and each of you can perform multiple roles, fully capable of operating the warship."
Everyone was stunned. Was this how elites were utilized? What kind of absurd reason was this?
Actually, Shan Qiuyu had concealed an even more important reason: the overall strength of the space forces was insufficient to spare too many personnel. Moreover, the enemy was merely a defeated foe, deserving of some attention but not enough to warrant an all-out effort.
Even if, worst-case scenario, the new ship were destroyed by aliens, the loss wouldn't be too great, nor would it cripple the space forces.
However, these inner details didn't need to be stated so clearly.