Chapter 878 The improved rocket and the core module of the space station are successfully launched

The next day was the same as the last time I came here. I went directly to the launch center. The place was already full of people, and various data were displayed on the big screen. The only difference was that the data display was more accurate than before.

With the establishment of three satellite systems, rocket launches no longer require maritime survey ships as before, and only need to build a few observation stations in several countries with geographical advantages.

Other observation data can be measured through the satellite system, and even under the full supervision of the remote sensing satellite system, the entire launch video of the rocket can be captured.

In the past, as long as the various postures and videos of the rocket were out of the human line of sight, they could only be simulated and synthesized through the transmitted data, which still had a big gap with the real-time video of the rocket.

Probably before he came, there had been a long pre-launch inspection on the tower side, and it didn't take long for him to sit down before the launch preparations were all completed.

At the launch center, it was confirmed that all the work was in place, all the staff were present, and the launch order was issued directly. Unlike before, there was no thick smoke billowing in this launch.

There was no huge roar at the launch site. The rocket was slowly rising from the launch pad driven by a translucent high-speed airflow. If the shooting pictures were not very clear and the distance was very close, these high-speed airflows would not be visible at all.

Accelerated by a high-power ion thruster, the special substance loaded inside is ejected at a high speed of one third of the speed of light after being charged, giving the huge rocket a strong thrust.

Watching the rocket lift off slowly, everyone at the scene held their breath. Although this was an experimental launch and nothing was loaded inside, the rocket on the launch pad next to it was loaded with the core module to be launched.

If this test launch is perfectly successful, the next rocket will be launched immediately, and the on-site staff have already begun to transfer to the side rocket to perform pre-launch inspections.

The rocket was getting faster and faster in the air, and disappeared into the vast blue sky in a few minutes without a trace, but at this time the remote sensing satellite sent back the shooting picture.

In addition to the shooting lens that comes with the rocket, it can still let everyone clearly see the current state of the rocket, and the data that keeps beating next to it can more clearly explain the situation of the rocket.

When the rocket approaches the ionosphere, the first-stage rocket begins to fall off, and then the second-stage rocket will take over the power propulsion work, and the first-stage rocket begins to prepare to return.

The return this time is different from the last time. The previous stage was almost a free fall, because this can save energy. Later, a parachute is needed to slow down, and then cooperate with the engine's reverse thrust to further reduce the terminal speed.

This time it's different, but much slower than free fall.

After descending to a suitable height, the built-in parachute opened, and the speed suddenly slowed down. With the help of the reverse thrust of the engine, it landed on the recovery platform more lightly than before.

This time, there is no need to sprinkle excess propellant as before. The working fluid inside remains in the rocket, and these remaining working fluids can continue to be used later.

However, this time because there is no cargo, the total weight is relatively light, and argon gas is used. If you carry a large amount of cargo, you need a larger quality working medium, and you will use krypton gas. If you carry a heavier weight, you need to use it. Higher mass xenon gas.

The higher the quality of these inert gases, the higher the manufacturing cost. Even if Ye Shu gave them more advanced production technology, they can save a little bit, and they can't be wasted.

Immediately after the first-stage rocket landed, there were staff waiting nearby to return to the platform and bring the first-stage rocket back for inspection.

Just as the first-stage rocket completed its recovery, the second-stage rocket also completed its mission and began to separate from the third-stage rocket, preparing to return.

The third-stage rocket continued to carry the empty fairing and continued to follow the predetermined orbit. After reaching the predetermined orbit, it did not separate from the fairing as before, but directly carried the fairing together to prepare for return.

Regardless of whether it can return safely, at least the launch experiment has been successfully completed, and all the data have met expectations and met the launch requirements, which means that this rocket technology is safe and reliable.

However, there were no cheers at the scene. Everyone was watching the second-stage rocket return to work. Compared with the first-stage rocket, the first stage of the second-stage rocket still landed to the earth in a free fall.

When the speed reaches a certain threshold, the chemical thrusters on the rocket start working, using the remaining chemical fuel to slow it down. When the speed reaches another threshold, the carried parachute begins to open, reducing the speed even further.

At this time, the chemical fuel is basically used up, because in order to reduce weight, the chemical fuel loaded on the second and third stages of the rocket is not much.

At this time, the further deceleration and attitude adjustment are all taken over by the second set of power system ion thrusters. Compared with the chemical power system, the ion power system is obviously more precise in control and more beneficial to attitude adjustment.

Without any suspense, the second-stage rocket landed on the return platform easily. After watching the video at that time, I felt that there should be no problem, and the landing force was lighter than that of the first-stage rocket.

The landing of the third-stage rocket does not have to be just right as before, and the entry point is not as harsh as before, so after a circle in the sky, I immediately took the fairing to find the right time to perform the landing mission.

The whole process is also smooth and flowing. It easily leaves the space orbit and falls freely towards the predetermined route. When it reaches a certain speed, it starts to burn the only chemical fuel and starts to slow down to avoid excessive speed.

After landing below the ionosphere, the reverse propulsion will be taken over by the ion power system, and the ground microwave power transmission system will be seamlessly connected to the third-stage rocket to provide powerful power support.

There is nothing to say later, just like the previous two-stage rocket, with the help of parachute and reverse thrust, it easily landed on the return platform.

According to the preliminary information sent back by the on-site personnel, the damage of these rocket bodies is lower than that of the previous rockets, and the service life of the rockets should be longer.

At this time, warm applause finally broke out in the launch hall. With the safe recovery of the third-stage rocket, the entire experimental launch process was finally successfully completed.

The next step is to take a break. The launch of the core module will be carried out tomorrow, or the launch of the core module will be carried out immediately. Someone asked him for his opinion, and he respected their decision.

Finally, for the sake of caution, the launch of the rocket that was originally ready for work was suspended, and the rocket was ready to be tested after returning. If there is no problem, it will not be too late to launch tomorrow.

After returning, Ye Shu felt that the rocket actually had room for improvement. The chemical energy was burned and released in this way, and a large amount of energy was wasted in the form of heat.

If the loss of heat energy is reduced, the chemical energy carried by the second and third stages of the rocket will be less, the load of the rocket will naturally be larger, and the launch cost will be lower.

The solution is to use a thermoelectric conversion device to convert the chemical energy of fuel combustion into electrical energy, and then use the magnetic field generated by the electrical energy to drive the ions to work.

The airflow ejected in this way is a cold airflow. Using a high-efficiency thermoelectric conversion device, the energy loss is actually not much, less than 2, which is completely insignificant compared with the wasted heat energy.

The principle is actually very simple, but it is not easy to do. The main thing is how to achieve precise control in the process of converting chemical energy into electrical energy, and the power must be large enough.

But for him, as long as the thinking is correct, technical problems are not a problem. Back at the residence, Ye Zishu directly entered the virtual laboratory and began to improve the rocket.

The first is the thermoelectric conversion device. The technology previously given to Kirin Energy Industry Group may not be suitable for rockets, and alternative materials need to be found.

The second is to precisely control the combustion of chemical fuels. It is necessary to ensure that the electrical energy converted from the chemical energy burned just meets the power demand of the entire system, neither too much nor too little.

Too much is actually a waste of fuel, too little power will not be sufficient, and it will easily cause loss of control. If the launch fails, the loss will be very large, and the gain outweighs the loss.

The last is the energy coordination control system, which efficiently coordinates every link of energy conversion and use without any problems, which is the key to the success of the overall new power system.

As for the ion thruster, there is no need to change it. The current set of thrusters is sufficient, and there is not much room for improvement.

The improvement is nothing more than further increasing the speed of the ions, but the closer the speed is to the speed of light, the higher the energy consumption required, and there is not such a long distance to accelerate it.

Now being able to accelerate to one-third of the speed of light is already the limit, at least in the ion propulsion system on the rocket, there is not much room for improvement.

After half an afternoon and evening, he finally completed the new rocket plan in the virtual laboratory, and verified the technology, achieving the effect he wanted to see.

With the improved rocket, under the same effect, the fuel carrying capacity has been reduced by nearly 40, and the task can be completed by changing from the previous three-stage rocket to the two-stage rocket.

In addition to the complexity of the energy system, other systems are lower than the previous rockets, which also reduces production, transportation and maintenance costs.

This rocket system should be the limit of what can be done at this stage. With this rocket system, the subsequent lunar exploration program and Mars exploration program will become easier.

If there is still room for improvement, it is to adapt the ion thruster to more working fluids, especially for Mars exploration.

It is not difficult to send a probe to Mars, but it is very difficult to bring soil samples back from Mars. It is of great significance if we can use the atmosphere of Mars to supplement power.

Of course, it is also possible to use the substance after chemical fuel combustion as a working medium instead of using inert gas as a working medium. This is what he thinks is worth improving.

However, this has nothing to do with the rocket, but it can be used on the Mars return vehicle. He will study it later, hoping that the first time the probe lands on Mars, it will be able to bring back the Martian soil. This will be a great breakthrough.

In fact, he believes that bringing back Martian soil is mainly to demonstrate scientific and technological strength. If it is really necessary to study the structure of Martian soil, there is no need to bring back soil at all. Researching more advanced material analysis instruments is more practical and the cost will be lower.

This practice of symbolic significance greater than actual significance is also positive in some respects. At least the international status will be significantly improved, and it will also be a clear watershed among aerospace powers.

After uploading the new rocket technology plan to the technical database of Baihu Technology Company, when having breakfast the next day, he briefly talked to the management and asked him to organize a rocket research and development team to conduct research.

Today, the core module of the space station is officially carried into space. The core module is the core of the entire space station, which is the middle spherical part similar to a flying saucer, and the cost is also very high.

In the cost of the entire space station, the cost of the core module accounts for 10, and the control center, magnetic field generator, space station rotation power system, etc. of the entire space station are located in the core module.

Of course, other space capsules also have distributed systems. In a real emergency, they can operate independently without relying on the control system of the core module.

In view of the importance of the core module, even if the rocket launch experiment was very successful yesterday, the test results after yesterday's recovery showed that the effect was far greater than their expectations.

But everyone at the launch center site today is still serious, and everyone is preparing step by step, even the senior management of Baihu Technology Company is also worried.

Ye Zishu didn't wander around either. He found a place to sit down, and then began to close his eyes and meditate. In fact, he went to the virtual library and took the time to learn something, which was much better than just sitting.

After the preparations were ready, the launch started immediately. Ye Zishu also sat down at this time, staring at the screen. The scene was the same as yesterday, but his heart was not as relaxed as yesterday.

The entire launch process was not long. In less than ten minutes, the launch mission was completed and the core module of the space station was successfully sent into the predetermined orbit.

The next recovery will take some time, and Ye Zishu did not go back. After watching the entire recovery process, the fairing is the same as last time, and it has been safely recovered with the third-stage rocket.

The two successful launches have fully proved that this rocket launch system is safe and reliable, and the subsequent launch work can increase the intensity and increase the launch frequency.

The total weight of the core module is actually very large, as high as 120 tons, which exceeds the low-Earth orbit load of the old M Saturn V rocket, but the total weight of the rocket is much lower than that of the Saturn V, only about 1,000 tons.

To launch other space capsules and parts, instead of using such a high-thrust rocket, they will be replaced with other lighter-weight rockets. Although there are more launches, the cost is generally more economical.

After watching the entire launch and recovery process, Ye Zishu and the people in the launch center expressed their gratitude, and then left the launch center with the management staff.

The next work does not need to be watched by him, nor does the company need to be watched by the management. Everything can be carried out step by step, and there is no point in staying here.

The rocket launch was carried out here for two consecutive days, and it was naturally captured by satellites from other countries. The entire launch process may also be under the monitoring of other people's satellites.

This kind of launch mission is generally notified to the international community before launch, and even the launch trajectory will be announced to allow other spacecraft to avoid and avoid collisions.

This launch still attracted widespread attention. The construction of the space station of Baihu Technology Company will kick off the new era of space development, and it also shows that their plan is really advancing without any discount. in advance.