As nations deployed every means at their disposal, openly and covertly, a worldwide surge in pregnancies began!
Estimates suggested that within about a year, this surge would become a baby boom. Besides building more childcare facilities, nations naturally put immigration in the wake of the population explosion on their agendas.
The New World was the first crewed spacecraft built specifically for immigration. Equipped with a comprehensive ecological recycling system, it could transport up to 500 people at a time.
The New World... the name clearly embodied humanity's ambitions for this migration.
Its maiden voyage would carry 50 carefully selected astronauts and a large quantity of survival supplies to the newly completed Lunar New City.
Most of these 50 were existing astronauts or astronaut candidates from various nations. Highly capable and possessing some experience of surviving in space, they were ideal testers and trial residents.
Their mission was much like that of hotel testers: live and work in the new city for a while, suggest improvements and refinements, and blaze a trail for future large-scale space migration.
Three familiar faces stood among the orderly ranks...
"This is so boring. What's the point of these speeches that all sound the same? They might as well let me go up there and make some jianbing!"
"Shut up, Tom! Don't disrespect Mr. Albert!" Jerry turned his head slightly to glare at him, while Butch beside them looked equally resigned.
"Okay, okay. Respect or whatever, I don't care. I just want him to finish this boring speech so we can hurry off to the moon and try out our new lives." Tom shrugged.
After the explosive rise of virtual control technology, astronauts like Tom had found themselves in a rather awkward professional position...
With a Virtual Helmet on, anyone could roam any planet in the