Chapter 1487 Space Transportation Hub

The noise in the conference room gradually died down, but an indescribable tension still hung in the air.

Director Sun Yanlai's decision to adjourn the meeting was like a stone thrown into a calm lake, causing ripples. Experts left their seats in twos and threes, some talking in low voices, while others took out their phones and started making calls.

After one hour.

Zhou Pingjian stood in front of the window, looking at the sycamore trees in the compound of the National Space Administration.

The early summer sun shone through the gaps in the leaves and onto the ground, creating mottled shadows. He looked at his watch—12:17, more than two hours before the afternoon meeting began.

"Old Zhou."

A familiar voice came from behind.

Zhou Pingjian turned around and saw Wu Ji walking towards him with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Director Wu, why didn't you go to eat?"

"You didn't go either." The latter shook his head and walked to the window: "To be honest, the news just now was too sudden. I need time to digest it."

At this point, he paused for a moment, and after a few seconds he spoke hesitantly: "Do you think... Academician Chang's breakthrough can really change the rules of the game?"

Zhou Pingjian had already expected that the other party came to him for this matter, and just smiled: "Based on my understanding of Academician Chang, if he dares to announce it at such an important meeting, it will definitely not be just talk... But how much it can change, I have to wait until this afternoon to hear the specific situation."

Wu Ji nodded thoughtfully: "If it is true as Director Sun said, they have solved the key technical problems of space nuclear reactors, then the Mars plan may still have hope." His eyes lit up for a moment, but he immediately looked a little worried, "But things in the field of aerospace are often not entirely determined by technology or cost..."

Zhou Pingjian was not prepared to get deeply involved in the dispute between Wu Ji and Gu Yindong's routes, but just replied pointedly:

"Although Academician Chang is young, if you get to know him, you will find that... in short, he is definitely not someone who only focuses on technology."

In fact, he originally wanted to say that the other party was a "Newton-like figure."

But after giving it some thought, I felt that this evaluation might be too negative, so I abruptly changed my words midway.

As the two were talking, the door to the conference room was pushed open and a staff member poked his head in:

"Chief Engineer Zhou, Academician Chang has arrived and is waiting for you in the lounge."

Zhou Pingjian nodded to Wu Ji:

"I'll go check out the situation and talk later."

……

In the public lounge on the top floor of the Space Agency, Chang Haonan was standing in front of a row of shelves, holding a glass of water in his hand, admiring the various trophies and medals in front of him one by one.

Hearing the door open, he turned around with a familiar smile on his face.

"Old Zhou, long time no see." He walked quickly forward and shook Zhou Pingjian's hand.

"Such a big thing, why didn't you disclose any information in advance?"

Zhou Pingjian tried hard to keep a straight face at first, but he couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth after saying half a sentence, and he couldn't hide the smile in his tone at all:

"Do you know how exciting the scene was this morning? The Moon Faction and the Mars Faction were about to fight, but Director Sun suddenly announced that your reactor was a success, and the entire venue suddenly fell silent..."

Chang Haonan also joked: "For something like technical verification, how can the timing be controlled so precisely... Otherwise, I will keep the news secret for half a month next time..."

“No, no, no.” Zhou Pingjian waved his hands repeatedly: “It’s better to do it suddenly…”

After saying that, he changed the subject: "By the way, have you had lunch?"

"Not yet. I received the report from Huairou, sorted it out and came here directly."

"How can this be possible!" Zhou Pingjian immediately pressed the intercom on the table, "Xiao Wang, prepare two lunch boxes and come to the lounge."

After saying this, he turned to Chang Haonan:

"I haven't had time to eat yet, let's eat together."

Chang Haonan had been thinking about the meeting the whole way. Now he felt a little hungry when he heard about eating, so he didn't refuse.

It’s called boxed lunch, but considering the level of the unit, the meal standard is naturally quite adequate.

There are two floors, and everything is freshly made.

Only after watching the secretary leave did Zhou Pingjian turn to Chang Haonan:

"Come to think of it, shouldn't you be focusing on the hypersonic weapons project recently? How come there was a sudden breakthrough in the space nuclear reactor?"

Chang Haonan opened the lunch box and explained:

"It's a time difference issue... Actually, the technical route for nuclear reactor magnetohydrodynamic power generation was basically finalized last year... But you also know that for a project involving nuclear energy, theory alone is not enough. It must be fully verified by experiments."

He picked up a piece of fish and put it into his mouth, and continued, "After that, we spent more than half a year on the ITER principle verification, so it has been delayed until now... In fact, my main focus is indeed on the air-breathing hypersonic, and even the testing is handled by Academician Peng."

This answer actually has a hidden meaning.

I am very busy now and will be very busy in the future, so I will not compete with you in the aerospace department for the dominant position in the project.

At least in the first phase.

In fact, due to the particularity of space launch missions, general payload development units have no chance to lead the entire project.

But after all, Chang Haonan had previously been in charge of the development of the relay communication satellite network, so he was not included in the "general" category.

"I've heard a little bit about the tests that Academician Peng and his team are doing in the Netherlands," Zhou Pingjian said thoughtfully, "but I always thought it was related to tritium proliferation technology, but I didn't expect it to involve space nuclear reactors."

Chang Haonan nodded: "It is carried out simultaneously... The testing conditions at HFR are relatively complete, and our test sequence is very advantageous this time, so we not only have the opportunity to verify the tritium multiplication technology, but also complete the key test of starting a nuclear reactor without an external neutron source... In addition, the design of this reactor actually draws on a lot of plasma confinement technology in fusion research."

Zhou Pingjian's eyes lit up: "So, you have solved the problem of starting a nuclear reactor in a space environment?"

"That's right." Chang Haonan put down his chopsticks and took out a document from his briefcase. "Depending on galactic cosmic rays and solar cosmic rays, during the period when the solar corona and solar flares are generated, there is enough energy to stimulate the materials inside the reactor to spontaneously reach critical conditions."

Zhou Pingjian took the document and quickly glanced at the data charts on it, with obvious excitement flashing in his eyes: "These parameters...are several orders of magnitude higher than the space reactors of the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War?"

"Yes, the key is that we use a brand-new disk-type magnetohydrodynamic generator design, which is essentially very close to nuclear power plants on Earth." Chang Haonan replied, "The traditional space nuclear power source uses thermocouples or thermionic technology, which is essentially static thermoelectric conversion, and its efficiency is not even a fraction of dynamic conversion..."

Just as the two were discussing the technical details in depth, the door of the lounge was pushed open again.

Director Sun Yanlai walked in.

"Academician Chang, we've finally been waiting for you!" Director Sun shook Chang Haonan's hand enthusiastically, "You've brought us a big surprise this time."

Chang Haonan stood up and said, "Director Sun, the experimental results came out too suddenly, so I can only notify you temporarily."

Sun Yanlai waved his hand: "For this kind of technological breakthrough, the more sudden it is, the better!"

As he said that, he sat down next to the two of them.

However." His expression became serious. "This afternoon's meeting will determine the direction of my country's aerospace development in the next ten years. Are you sure that this reactor technology is mature enough to support the construction of a large space station?"

Chang Haonan nodded without hesitation:

"There is absolutely no problem with the technology, but due to experimental conditions and safety issues, we can only do the principle verification step on Earth. Engineering verification can only be launched into space... and it can't even be done in low-Earth orbit."

"Great!" Sun Yanlai patted Chang Haonan on the shoulder. "With this technology, we don't have to choose between the moon and Mars." He turned to Zhou Pingjian and said, "Old Zhou, do you think that the deep space exploration transfer station concept proposed by Academician Chang before is now possible?"

Zhou Pingjian hesitated a little, but gave a clear answer: "If the energy supply problem is solved, the biggest problem will be the ability to launch spacecraft from the earth to the L4 point."

"That's exactly what I wanted to say." Chang Haonan took over the topic, "So I recently optimized the design of the transfer station. Considering the current limitations of carrying capacity, we can build it in stages, starting with a small fuel filling station and gradually expanding functional modules. In addition, if possible, we can also consider international cooperation plans to share risks."

Sun Yanlai nodded thoughtfully:

"This is a very pragmatic idea. However, how to balance the allocation of resources for lunar and Mars exploration will require discussion at the afternoon meeting." He looked at his watch. "It's almost time. Let's go to the meeting room. Academician Chang, you will open the meeting this afternoon and give a detailed introduction to this reactor technology."

The three of them went out and walked quickly towards the conference hall.

"As long as the superiors allow it in principle, you don't have to worry about international cooperation." On the way, Zhou Pingjian assured, "We have accumulated enough experience in the past two years."

Sun Yanlai, who was walking in the front, slowed down, turned around and said with a smile:

"During this period, the funds injected from abroad, especially from the Gulf countries, have helped us a lot."

Chang Haonan raised his eyebrows. "It seems that... international cooperation is progressing faster than I thought."

"After all, our partners are more anxious than we are." Zhou Pingjian's voice was filled with undisguised pride, "Especially Saudi Arabia. The Xingyue research module they invested in even entered the formal research and development stage earlier than our own experimental module. The advance payment was received within a week after the contract was signed, which was faster than the Ministry of Finance's appropriation, setting a record for the fastest project of its kind..."