Chapter 1265: NASA announces the failure of the plan

Chapter 1265: Announcing the Failure of NASA's Plan

The moment he heard Ren Bingda's proposal, Bodi couldn't help but rolled his eyes, thinking that you guys have a good plan and are going to give us a buy one get one free deal.

But after returning his eyes to the full-size model of the WS-20 not far away, he quickly realized a problem.

My own thinking habits seem to be unable to keep up with the development of the situation——

In the past, in the cooperation between Rolls-Royce and China, whether it was Spey, Ciro Group or Trent 900, the status of both sides was always unequal.

However, before they knew it, by this time, both sides were already standing in roughly the same position.

Of course, from a group level perspective, Rolls-Royce’s technological background is undoubtedly deeper, and its brand image in the industry is undoubtedly more valuable.

But if we only talk about the NGME project, it is already a situation where "it is completely impossible to operate without China".

It doesn't even have a fallback like the Trent 900.

Instead, from the very beginning of the project, the other party's participation is needed to set up this situation.

From this perspective, the other party's proposal to add a cooperation project is not really a request for buy one get one free.

At least, it's a serious suggestion worth reporting...

For a moment, the two of them lowered their heads in thought, and no one broke the silence again.

A few minutes later, for some unknown reason, a group of visitors suddenly gathered around the model booth, which everyone thought no one would pay attention to.

Bodi obviously didn't want to make a big deal out of it, so he quietly got out of the crowd and quickly left the Chinese exhibition area with a group of delegation members.

……

The A380's public appearance at the Singapore Air Show did attract a lot of public attention.

But the air show itself only lasts three days, so the enthusiasm comes and goes quickly.

Moreover, some media outlets such as Peninsula and RT, which are eager to watch the fun, continue to add fuel to the fire.

In short, it didn't take long before the threats facing the International Space Station were once again put on the table.

And given the current situation, every time the Russians launch a Soyuz or Progress spacecraft, they may have to mention that "due to the threat of space junk 40396, it is necessary to set up additional risk avoidance procedures during the docking process and reserve a portion of fuel in each payload to prepare for the International Space Station's orbit change" and so on.

In other words, this matter may not be as easy to resolve as previously estimated.

Even Chief Michael Griffin couldn't help but feel a little headache.

Logically speaking, he revitalized the budding commercial space industry through this unexpected incident and also secured a large budget from Congress for the next few years. It was a big win no matter how you look at it.

However, the good times did not last long.

Just recently, in late March, SpaceX's highly anticipated Falcon 1 rocket caught fire during its first launch mission, and the problem happened to be the most critical, reusable first-stage rocket in the plan.

Although according to the subsequent summary of the cause of the accident, this failure was entirely due to negligence in the final assembly and launch preparation process and had nothing to do with the rocket engine, and even the funds provided by NASA have not yet arrived, this launch was a purely commercial act, but opponents in Congress did not care about these and immediately began to question the rationality of Griffin's promotion of the commercial space program.

Now public opinion has begun to criticize him again over the threat posed by space debris.

Griffin felt he had to do something.

But the U.S. space industry has been in bad luck recently, and he doesn't have the confidence to suddenly do something eye-catching.

So more than two months have passed, and NASA has been in a state of being criticized and cowering.

Fortunately, there was no fatal evidence left behind, so apart from being annoying, it did not affect Griffin's status and subsequent plans.

And at this critical timing, an investigation report was delivered to his desk.

"Your Excellency the Director."

Assistant Meyer tried his best to control his expression, but his excitement could still be seen from his slightly hurried speech:

"We found out through special channels that China recently placed a high-value order with Star Corporation. In addition to some structural parts that are obviously just for the sake of numbers and conventional satellite functions, it also includes a space-grade image acquisition module and four things called 'distributed node flexible grasping systems'."

Although the habit of naming a project with a long list of ambiguous nouns was a bad precedent started by the Americans themselves, Director Griffin could not help but frown when he actually heard this long list of inhuman nouns.

"distributed……"

Because Meyer spoke so fast just now, he couldn't even keep up with the other party's rhythm.

“Distributed node flexible grasping system…”

Meyer repeated it, then went on to explain:

"Our sources didn't know what it was at first, but based on the orders that Star Company sent to its sub-contractors, it was likely a very large net made of polymer."

When Griffin first heard this, he thought he was wrong, so he flipped through the thick report from the back to the front. After spending a few minutes, he finally saw a schematic diagram drawn based on his speculation.

Then he was sure that his understanding was correct.

It really is a web.

"So their project is called 'Space Fishing Ship', and it's not just a random name?"

Griffin was a little overwhelmed.

But as a NASA leader who was originally an engineer, he quickly shifted his attention to specific technical issues:

"But how are they going to solve the problems of net shape control and entanglement and rolling?"

Griffin flipped through several pages to make sure that the report did not mention such professional details.

NASA also considered the idea of ​​using a space flying net to capture spacecraft in the 90s.

But on a political level, using a spacecraft that can stay in orbit for a long time to intercept another spacecraft can easily be classified as a space weapon, which is far less likely to skirt the law than a direct-ascent anti-satellite missile.

On the technical level, the deployment and flight of the flying net in space orbit, as well as the impact on the entire flexible system after collision with the target are very complex, and the capture success rate is far less optimistic than imagined.

Of course, these can actually be overcome.

What is even more troublesome is that the co-orbital capture process for the purpose of non-direct killing lasts for a very long time, and the opponent's aerospace measurement and control system will quickly discover this uninvited guest and then perform defensive actions such as orbital change maneuvers, making similar technologies almost completely impractical.

Therefore, after launching several projects that did not lead to any follow-up, they quickly gave up further investment and turned to other more effective "hard kill" methods.

The X37B, known as the "air and space fighter", is one of the results.

However, no one would have thought at that time that there would actually be a piece of space junk that was given extra value and was worthy of a special space launch mission to deal with it.

After some thought, even Griffin had to admit that even though there were still many specific problems, when facing a large-scale space debris rotating at high speed, the rope net solution was indeed more realistic than the robotic arm solution, and more importantly, it was much safer.

Even if the capture fails, due to the flexible characteristics of the rope net, the carrier will not be in any fatal threat and can even make a second attempt.

"Is it possible to obtain more specific information about their... uh... distributed node flexible grasping system?"

Meyer thought for a moment:

"We may need to consult the intelligence department for details...but since it is produced in Europe rather than China, I think as long as it is not a core part, it should only be a matter of time."

After getting this answer, Griffin's mind instantly became active:

"China can only carry out about ten space launches each year now, and I've seen their mission schedule before. The launch windows until the end of this year are already full, which means there are no relevant plans in the short term..."

"If we can obtain relevant information about this capture system, then the Chinese will definitely not be our opponent in terms of the efficiency of space launches..."

Thinking of this, he raised his head and prepared to give Meyer new instructions.

However, before he could finish his words, the phone rang urgently.

Griffin picked up the phone and heard the voice of NASA's press officer:

"Director, the Chinese Space Agency suddenly issued a new statement saying that the solar storm in two months is expected to cause the orbital altitude of space debris 40396 to drop sharply, and the International Space Station is facing a serious collision threat... Considering that NASA still has not come up with a practical solution, therefore..."

"So they are forced to believe that our solution has failed..."

The sudden news stunned Griffin.

???

My plan failed?

But how come I don’t know?

and many more……

When do I have plans?