Chapter 8 (Tumor of Quality 2): Bulldozer

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July 2029, Rocket City, Sazhou, Liang Country

Michael Max, at the helm of Acebay Space Technologies, commanded the world’s largest heavy-lift rocket—the Bird Hunter 5. With a diameter of fifty meters and a payload exceeding a hundred tons, its most astonishing feature was its reusability. Acebay seemed to have thrown open humanity’s gateway to the stars; commercial orders flooded in from around the globe.

The annual Acebay client appreciation gala was in full swing. Michael’s entrance immediately drew every gaze, and his rousing speech whipped the assembled guests into a fervor. As the evening shifted to a buffet-style dinner, guests mingled in small groups, glasses in hand, laughter and conversation swirling through the air.

The National Space Agency of Liang Country was, of course, Acebay’s most vital partner. Among the invited guests were Professor Braun and his daughter, Daphne Braun. Michael, smiling warmly, approached the two. After greeting the professor, he turned to Daphne.

“The clients tonight are a fascinating lot,” he said. “Let me introduce you to some of them in a moment.”

“Congratulations, Michael! The Bird Hunter 5’s successful reusable test is simply amazing!” Daphne’s face glowed with excitement. She then asked, “So, my intrepid explorer, is your next stop the Moon or Mars?”

“It seems my days of doing anything new on Earth are over,” Michael replied with a meaningful glance at Professor Braun, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “I suppose I’ll have to fulfill the other half of my dream—Mars.”

Delight flickered in Daphne’s heart. Ever since she’d joined the National Space Agency’s Lingxin Asteroid Probe Project, her research had focused on Mars and the asteroid belt.

Daphne’s doctoral thesis was titled “The Development and Regulation of Space Industry.” The so-called space industry was, after all, nothing more than finding better ways for humanity to utilize space resources. From the perspectives of engineering difficulty and cost-saving, exploiting the asteroid belt was perhaps more feasible than the Moon.

Michael picked up a glass of champagne from a passing waiter and led Daphne and the professor over to one of the interesting clients he’d mentioned. “This is Mr. Masao Asatani, president of Great Island Corporation from Fusho Country. Our collaboration with his company is quite unique.”

After introductions and a bit of polite conversation, the Brauns learned of Great Island’s remarkably creative project proposal.

Great Island, a leading construction engineering firm in Fusho Country, had begun developing intelligent construction machinery back in 2009. With the rapid advances in AI computational power, remotely operated smart machinery had taken a quantum leap forward.

By 2020, Great Island undertook a dam construction project in Fusho Country, relying entirely on remotely operated AI equipment. Excavators and bulldozers worked in flawless, round-the-clock coordination at the site. The company set a world record by completing the first large-scale structure constructed entirely without onsite human labor.

Starting in 2021, Great Island partnered with research institutes in Fusho Country to achieve ultra-long-distance collaborative operation of AI construction machines—control distances reached nearly ten thousand kilometers.

For telecommunications and remote operation, ten thousand kilometers and three hundred eighty thousand kilometers were no great technical leap. The ever-astute Daphne instantly grasped the intriguing implication Michael had hinted at, and exclaimed:

“President Asatani, are you planning to have Michael deliver your AI excavators and bulldozers to the Moon for mining?”

A proud smile spread across Masao Asatani’s face at this perceptive lady’s insight.

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Daphne Braun’s thoughts turned to her dissertation, and a trace of worry surfaced in her mind. The lunar surface is rich in rare metals, which would fetch enormous value if returned to Earth. The loose regolith makes excavation and sorting far less costly than on Earth, so even after paying Acebay’s astronomical transport fees, Great Island could still reap unimaginable profits.

That was the heart of Daphne’s dilemma. Humanity would inevitably tap into space resources, but how should it be done? What rules should govern commercial exploitation?

Daphne knew that, with her position, persuading President Asatani to postpone his plans would be almost impossible. Yet she couldn’t resist engaging him in a deeper conversation.

Meanwhile, Michael signaled for the professor to join him in a quiet corner. He asked, “I’ve signed a nondisclosure agreement—does Daphne know about the secret of the Tesla Theory?” After the professor confirmed with a nod, Michael continued, “Could you tell me about the lunar experiment you mentioned the other day regarding the Tesla Theory?”

The professor began outlining his experiment.

In 1936, Nikola Tesla submitted a paper titled “Dynamic Theory of Gravity.” Beyond his already-validated superluminal wave hypothesis, Tesla proposed a novel gravitational theory. Both Newton’s classical theory of gravitation and Einstein’s general relativity had been derived by observing objects in motion through space. Objects move at constant velocity in inertial frames, and accelerate toward the center of gravity in a gravitational field.

Tesla redefined both the inertial frame and the gravitational field, suggesting that all forms of motion arise from the distribution of energy density. A uniform energy density in the environment constitutes an inertial frame; a region with a high-energy-density “gravity source” will have an uneven, spherically radiating energy distribution, with intensity decreasing by the square of the distance.

Whether in an inertial frame or a gravitational field, the law of motion is this: as long as the surrounding energy density remains constant, an object will maintain uniform motion; if it moves from a region of lower to higher energy density, it accelerates, and vice versa, it decelerates.

Summed up in a single sentence, Tesla’s gravitational theory states: the motion of objects is caused by uneven energy density in the environment—objects move so as to approach and remain on lines of equal energy density, balancing the absorption and emission of energy.

More abstractly, an object’s motion is a mapping of the surrounding energy density distribution.

If an object maintains uniform motion, its trajectory must follow an equal-energy-density line—this could be a straight line in an inertial frame, a circle, or an orbital path in a gravitational field. For non-uniform motion, the trajectory must cross different energy density lines, and the gradient of these lines determines the direction and magnitude of acceleration.

Whether it’s a child’s marble, a falling apple, a rocket ascending, an electron’s quantum leap, or Earth’s orbit around the sun, all follow these principles.

Michael blinked in wonder at the professor. “So Tesla believed gravity isn’t generated by mass, nor caused by the curvature of spacetime, but is a phenomenon arising from uneven energy density? That would upend the foundations of physics!”

The professor nodded deeply. “I find Tesla’s gravity theory quite fantastic, even absurd, which is why I designed an experiment.”

In 1968, the National Space Agency’s lunar program was in full swing. Scientists noticed that when small spacecraft flew over the lunar surface at low altitude, their actual trajectories deviated from calculations; without manual correction, they would crash into the Moon.

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In 1972, after the Apollo 16 mission, astronauts released a small satellite into lunar orbit. The satellite’s path fluctuated wildly, revealing that the Moon’s gravity was far from uniform, until the satellite eventually crashed.

Decades of observation and calculation have since solved the mystery. The Moon’s surface gravity varies greatly. Contrary to intuition, the peaks have lower-than-average gravity, while valleys have higher-than-average gravity.

Scientists offered an explanation: these lunar valleys, known as “mare,” were formed by asteroid impacts. When an impact carved out a deep basin, the Moon’s mantle rebounded, causing subsurface mass to rise up at the impact site. This increase in localized mass is vividly named a “mass concentration,” or “mascon.”

The largest mascon on the Moon is located at the southeastern rim of a crater called Mare Imbrium. The depression is extremely deep—six kilometers below the lunar datum.

“Michael, if we used vast amounts of material—say, the space debris crowding near-Earth orbit—to fill Mare Imbrium’s six-kilometer-deep depression, do you think gravity there would increase or decrease?” the professor asked.

“Of course it would increase. According to scientists, there’s already a mascon beneath Mare Imbrium. Add more mass, gravity there would certainly increase,” Michael replied, intrigued by this novel way of dealing with space junk.

“No matter how outlandish Tesla’s gravity theory seems, it remains a scientific hypothesis because it is falsifiable. And, of course, possibly verifiable,” the professor replied.

According to Tesla’s theory, Professor Braun designed the “mascon experiment”: if, after filling Mare Imbrium, gravity does not increase, but instead returns to normal—lower than the gravity caused by the mascon—it would defy all existing gravitational theories and stand as irrefutable proof of Tesla’s model.

Regret tinged the professor’s voice as he told Michael that, while the experiment was sound in principle, turning the Moon into humanity’s landfill for space debris would spark enormous environmental and ethical controversy. Thus, the proposal had been shelved indefinitely.

A glimmer of understanding lit Michael’s eyes. “You’d like to use Great Island’s bulldozers to fill in that corner of Mare Imbrium?”

The professor smiled. “Yes, the bulldozers.”

&

Selected poetic lines:

How different it is gazing at the moon,
Tang dynasty, Su Ting

Wax and wane, the balance of two ends.
Yuan dynasty, Liu Shen

Only then do I know, beneath the cliffs and valleys,
Ming dynasty, Yan Zhengju

Tomorrow night the moon’s round image will be stamped anew.
Song dynasty, Shi Jujian

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