The contest between Hua Nation and the United States in the aerospace sector had also sparked considerable discussion across domestic internet forums. In particular, debates over whether a Mars colony or a Lunar Orbital Space Station was more impressive had become especially heated.
Setting aside those who attacked or defended one side purely because of their own biases, quite a few people still offered rational assessments.
For example, those who believed the United States held the upper hand argued that the BFR rocket used the world's most advanced liquid oxygen-methane engines, with a maximum vacuum thrust of 138 meganewtons and a Low Earth Orbit payload capacity 4.6 times that of the Saturn V. By every metric, it completely outclassed the Auspicious.
Moreover, the Mars colony was tens of millions of kilometers away. The difficulty of transporting supplies there was simply not on the same level as supplying the Lunar Orbital Space Station, so the United States naturally had the advantage.
Those who believed Hua Nation held the upper hand, meanwhile, took a more pragmatic view. No matter how one looked at it, an enclave tens of millions of kilometers from the homeland, with launch windows only once every two years, could never compare to the "nearby" Moon.
Objectively speaking, both sides had valid arguments.
However, Lu Zhou did not pay much attention to the discussions surrounding the Lunar Orbit project.
At least in his view, those discussions were not particularly meaningful.
In the short term, whether Hua Nation developed lunar resources or explored distant Mars, losses were inevitable. Whether it was the helium-3 and titanium ore in lunar soil, or Mars's abundant iron ore and methane reserves, they were still distant promises.
Just as, centuries ago, before the pattern of the Age of Exploration had taken shape, no one knew