157. The Spirit of the Mouse (Part 2)

"It's possible to deploy on the Moon now, or let them search for interstellar civilizations."

"Very good, we'll set aside the cost of living for these 1.7 billion people for now. We'll treat the migration to the Moon as a strategic mission. The Moon has plenty of helium; we won't lack energy. Let me do some calculations for you: We won't count the cost of shuttling back and forth with each spaceship launch to the Moon, but we'll need at least two hydrogen bombs with a blast yield of 160 million tons. And how many people can we send to the Moon at most in one trip?"

Rudolf looked at the other party and said:

"240 people."

"The Four Nations' thermonuclear weapon reserve won't exceed two thousand. Such a space program can last at most a thousand trips, without any mistakes, and we can send at most 240,000 people to the Moon."

"Two hundred and forty thousand people, while we have 1.7 billion people in dire need of a labor force stuck on Earth."