Hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, in Lunar Orbit.
Not far from the Moon Palace spacecraft space station, a silver-white hexagonal truncated-pyramid device was dropped from the cargo bay beneath the Queqiao spacecraft and fell toward the lunar surface.
Several months earlier, the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study had partnered with several domestic research institutions to launch a project for developing automated lunar surface mining equipment.
Now, the project had made some progress. This device, named "Pioneer" and valued at 300 million RMB, was one of its research achievements. It was mainly responsible for the initial extraction of titanium-rich lunar rock.
If the equipment could be successfully deployed and operated, the Lunar Orbital Construction Committee would next consider deploying automated vacuum consumable-electrode arc melting equipment on the lunar surface. The mined titanium ore would be processed into titanium ingots and even titanium alloys to meet part of the structural material demand for the Moon Palace spacecraft's Phase II project and lunar research facilities.
Drawn by lunar gravity and propelled by inertia, the silver-white truncated-pyramid device slowly approached the surface.
As it drew closer and closer to the Moon, the two staff members stationed aboard Moon Palace and the pilot aboard Queqiao all tensed up.
"Impact countdown... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Landing successful!"
"Deploy the stabilizers!"
The instant the silver-white structure touched the lunar surface, gray lunar dust was blasted skyward by the mining equipment's impact.
The stabilizing legs on the sides of the device swiftly unfolded, driving into the lunar rock beneath it like four hooks.
The two Moon Palace staff members, who had not dared take their eyes off the screens for even a moment, finally let out breaths of relief. After a quick high-five, they immediately returned to their duties.
"This is Moon Palace. The experimental automated