Chapter 670 [

After Fang Hong finished giving orders, Tian Jiayi went to start preparations. Not long after she left the living room, Yu Qiu came over with a document. She is now in charge of the Natural Science Foundation of China.

Yu Qiu came to sit down next to Fang Hong and said: "The space agency and the Space Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences will take the lead in discussing and imagining a deep space exploration project called 'Landing the Stars and Nine Heavens'. I hope to seek financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of China, including ' Academician Ye, chief engineer of Chang'e series, and the scientific research team of Yinghuo-1 jointly formulated this comprehensive large-scale deep-space planetary exploration plan."

It is worth mentioning that "Yinghuo No. 1" is the first Mars exploration mission in China, and it is a deep space exploration project cooperated with Da Mao, but unfortunately, the first Mars exploration mission ended in failure.

On November 8, 2011, Yinghuo-1 set off from the Baikonur launch site on Damao’s Zenit-2SB rocket, and arrived at the target low-Earth orbit ten minutes later, ready to change orbit to Mars with full confidence.

After the first orbit change was successful, Da Mao's rocket had problems during the second orbit change and could not achieve the set orbit change goal.

It was originally planned that the engine on the probe would be ignited at the perigee time of 206 kilometers, and it would continue to change orbit to the Mars transfer orbit in the future. However, when the perigee was ready to accelerate the orbit change, the probe had not successfully changed orbit.

Now the results of the investigation have come out. It was Da Mao's chip failure, and its radiation resistance design was insufficient. The reason for the failure was that the detector chip was impacted by high-energy particles in the universe and failed, which made it unable to issue the predetermined instructions. The system crashed and restarted, causing the execution of the orbit change command to fail, and the domestic Yinghuo No. 1 was also unlucky.

Finally, the probe decayed into the Pacific Ocean at 17:45 on January 15, 2012 last year.

In fact, domestic rockets such as Changsanyi are capable of transporting Yinghuo-1 alone, but limited by the unfinished construction of the domestic deep space detection network and lack of experience in this area, they chose to cooperate with Da Mao in deep space. Therefore, they chose to take Da Mao's rocket and the Phobos Soil Probe to go to Mars together.

As a result, Da Mao's chip error made China's first Mars exploration dream break through low-Earth orbit.

Even the earth has not left, let alone go to Mars.

The failure of the first Mars exploration mission also cast a shadow over the domestic field of deep space exploration, which directly led to the suspension or shelving of subsequent plans. Don’t mention deep space exploration. Sufficient financial support.

Just when everyone was extremely frustrated, the Natural Science Foundation was born, which also rekindled the expectations of the domestic deep space exploration team.

The Natural Science Foundation of China, in the eyes of many people in the field of basic scientific research, is covered with the three characters "I am rich". The space laser gravitational wave detection project "Sky Mirror" started with an astronomical budget of 30 billion. The Sky Survey Space Telescope project even reached a frenzied budget of 100 billion.

With the failure of "Firefly No. 1", while summing up the experience and lessons, we are unwilling to give up deep space exploration. However, if there is no money for space exploration, it will definitely not work.

At this time, what the Natural Science Foundation of China lacks most is money, and the deep space exploration team also found that the Natural Science Foundation is particularly fond of space exploration, and especially likes to do big things.

If funding can be obtained from this agency, not only is deep space exploration expected to restart, it can even play a bigger role than Mars exploration.

Doesn't the Natural Science Foundation like to do big things?

Then make a big one for you, so in the past year, the planetary exploration project code-named "Landing the Stars and Nine Heavens" came into being.

The general plan of the "Landing for Nine Heavens" project is specifically named after the "Tianwen Series" for the planetary exploration mission. The word "Tianwen" comes from Qu Yuan's long poem "Tianwen", which expresses the perseverance of the Chinese nation in pursuing truth And perseverance, embodies the cultural inheritance of the exploration of nature and space, implying the long journey of seeking scientific truth and the never-ending pursuit of scientific and technological innovation.

The "Tianwen Series" uses "Looking at the Stars and Nine Heavens" as the graphic logo of the project, and arranges the eight planets in the solar system in sequence, implying the exploration of the major planets in the solar system. has plans.

Doesn't the Natural Science Foundation like to do big things?

Is this big enough?

But at this moment, Yu Qiu opened the file and looked down to browse the content and said: "The Nine-day Plan for the Stars is aimed at the exploration of the major planets in the solar system. At present, two deep space exploration plans have been proposed, one is for the exploration of Mars, and the other is for Exploration of Saturn."

Hearing this, Fang Hong nodded, and said concisely: "Let's listen."

Yu Qiu turned over a few pages of the document and said slowly: "The goal of the Saturn exploration plan is to detect the entire Saturn system, focusing on the detection of Saturn's moon Titan. According to the plan, it will be launched in 2016. Using the gravitational slingshot effect to accelerate the probe, it needs to fly over Venus twice, then fly over the Earth, then fly to Jupiter, and finally fly to Saturn. The total flight distance exceeds 3 billion kilometers and lasts nearly eight years. It is expected to be captured by Saturn’s gravity in 2024. .”

Saturn, a planet in the outer solar system that is far away, wants to send the probe there, only relying on the power and fuel of the rocket itself. It is absolutely impossible to do it with the current level of human technology, and the old beauty can't do it.

Whether it is the longer-term "Voyager" program or the "Cassini" program currently performing exploration missions on Saturn, it is impossible to reach the destination with only the fuel it carries. The reason why the probe can be sent there is, All use the "gravitational slingshot" to obtain additional acceleration.

The probe is tantamount to accelerating itself by the gravitational force of the planet, so that it can obtain faster speed and consume less fuel, and it is possible to detect planets in the outer solar system.

If the Saturn exploration plan of the "Landing for Nine Heavens" project is to be implemented, it also needs to use gravity to accelerate itself.

According to the specific plan flight route given by the Saturn exploration plan:

After being launched from the bottom gas, the first time to fly to the orbit of Venus to obtain a gravitational acceleration of 3.7 km/s; the second time to fly to the orbit of Venus to obtain a gravitational acceleration of 3.1 km/s; , to obtain a gravitational acceleration of 4.1 km/s.

Next, it will fly over the orbit of Mars, but the planned flight route will not meet Mars, because it will not meet Mars when flying over the orbit of Mars during this time window, so it is impossible to detect Mars along the way.

Then pass through the asteroid belt, and then visit Jupiter, and finally fly over Jupiter’s orbit to obtain a gravitational acceleration of 2.1 km/s. It took nearly five years before and after, and the probe entered a dormant state for about three years after that, heading towards Saturn. flight.

The journey from Earth to its final destination, Saturn, will take nearly eight years.

Exploring Saturn is the ultimate mission, but during the five years of free-for-all acceleration with the help of a gravitational slingshot, it is natural not to give up such a good opportunity to visit the two planets Venus and Jupiter at close range. These two planets have launched preliminary explorations. For example, when flying over Jupiter, they also plan to study Jupiter’s magnetosphere by the way.

The Saturn exploration program can be said to be ambitious, but it is also extremely difficult.

You should know that the "Cassini" probe, which is still on mission at Saturn, has 17 countries participating in the program, and it is also one of the largest international cooperation projects since mankind entered the space age.

If you want to carry out the exploration plan of the Saturn system in China, you can only play by yourself. People in Europe and the United States will definitely not take you to play. The International Space Station, satellite navigation systems, etc. will reject you.

Therefore, if the country wants to carry out space exploration projects, it really can only rely on itself. However, since the "Firefly One" project that it cooperated with Damao failed last year, it doesn't want to cooperate with other countries.

They were all unreliable, and finally found that they were the most reliable.

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