The Start Of Technology Live Broadcast To Build Rockets

Chapter 66 – Pan-Star Project

Through Wang Qing, Du Xingyu contacted the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii.

This astronomical observatory is one of the main points of implementation of the U.S. “pan-satellite plan”. The pan-satellite plan is an astronomical plan that uses a panoramic survey telescope and a rapid response system to make optical measurements of all-sky objects.

“We have four ultra-wide-angle telescopes with a diameter of 1.8 meters, which patrol the starry sky every four to seven days, and compare with the results of previous inspections to find asteroids or comets that are threatening to the earth.” Haleakala Observatory, At the same time, Beth, a female professor at the School of Astronomy at the University of Hawaii, said to Du Xingyu in a video call.

“In fact, through this project, we have discovered some new Kuiper belt asteroids or celestial bodies.”

Du Xingyu said in English: “Then Professor Beth, have you found any asteroids with abnormal trajectories recently? That is a threat to the earth.”

Professor Beth shook his head and said: “No, our observations of the Kuiper Belt are also very limited. The original intention of our Pan-Stellar Plan was to observe asteroids or comets that may pose a threat to the Earth in the Kuiper Belt.”

“If there is really an asteroid that was thrown out of the Kuiper Belt and flew to the Earth, it would be difficult for us to directly observe it within a few tens of kilometers in diameter. Unless it is already at the distance of Uranus or Neptune to the Earth, we It is possible to observe it in advance.”

“It takes about twenty years for the celestial body at that distance to fly to the earth. At that time, we can only pray to God, right?”

“I hope it won’t be so.” Du Xingyu said.

He breathed a sigh of relief, since this is the case, at least he still has some time before observing the asteroid hitting the earth.

“Professor Beth, I have enjoyed the communication with you. If there are important observational news in the future, if conditions permit, I hope we can continue to communicate.” Du Xingyu said.

“Very happy.” The other party did not refuse.

…

“Will the things I foresee happen?” Du Xingyu wondered. If we follow the original development trajectory, China will land on the moon in ten years, and asteroids will destroy mankind.

But now it seems that this kind of thing should not happen in ten years.

He asked about the technology simulator, wanting to know the answer.

The science and technology simulator replied: “The space-time annihilation bomb is a cosmic rule weapon and has no entity. My ability can only collect information in the universe to make preliminary speculations. You have deviated the trajectory of this space-time development from the original world. Orbits will also have an impact on time and space annihilation bombs.”

“The disaster that will destroy mankind will definitely come, it’s just a matter of time and method.”

“Then you can’t predict more?” Du Xingyu asked.

“I need to collect more information in this time and space.” The technology simulator said, “The universe is made up of matter and energy. The trigger of the time and space annihilation bomb will definitely affect the matter or energy in time and space. These are all information. ”

“If enough information is collected, it is possible to make more detailed predictions.”(Read more @ wuxiax.com)

“How to collect information?” Du Xingyu continued to ask.

“Go to space.” The technology simulator said, “The particles and energy in time and space will carry information. I can collect more information if I travel in space for a sufficient distance.”

The open area of ​​space is not nothing. All kinds of radiation are the celestial bodies in the universe continuously spreading energy and information. Sunlight is the electromagnetic radiation visible to the human eye. In addition, there are all kinds of particles and dark matter that are invisible to humans.

Du Xingyu thought, he had already entered the moon, and the technology simulator still failed to collect enough information. Longer-distance space travel, based on the current situation, then, only to Mars!

Go to Mars! Du Xingyu made a decisive decision and resigned his position at the moon base to the bureau. Now that the construction of the moon base is on the right track, he doesn’t need to worry about it anymore.

Du Xingyu devotes all his energy to the mission to Mars. In more than half a year, Mars and the Earth will once again move to orbits at similar distances. At that time, a window period for exploring Mars will usher in.

Last time, the Tianwen-1 Mars rover and rover launched by China Space Administration had landed on the surface of Mars and obtained some information about Mars.

This time, the space agency intends to continue launching unmanned probes and rover to prepare for landing on Mars.

But Xingyu Du suggested that this time the manned spacecraft should be launched directly to land on Mars for scientific research!

“Flying to Mars, exploration satellites, Mars rover, etc. are all mature.” Du Xingyu thought, “There must be no problem with landing. With experience on the moon, it is not a problem to establish a simple Mars base.”

“The biggest problem, then, is to build a Martian spacecraft!”

The spacecraft to Mars is different from the lunar spacecraft. The lunar spacecraft needs to make short-distance space voyages and has low requirements for speed and material carrying.

And when Mars is the closest to the earth, it will be more than 50 million kilometers, which is more than 150 times the distance between the earth and the moon!

This has higher requirements for the spacecraft, requiring it to have a faster speed, stronger load capacity and sailing distance!

“The overall design of the spacecraft should not be difficult. The most difficult thing is the propeller.” Du Xingyu quickly found the problem.

Judging from the current experience of humans exploring Mars, it takes about two hundred days for an unmanned spacecraft to fly to Mars.

This is because of the long distance. In order to reduce fuel consumption, the spacecraft has to fly along the “Homan transfer orbit” of Earth and Mars, that is, an elliptical transition orbit that is tangent to two concentric orbits in the same plane.

On this orbit, the spacecraft has to accelerate or decelerate twice in an elliptical orbit, which increases a lot of extra navigation distance.

In this way, a lot of time will be wasted. In Du Xingyu’s vision, the speed and time of space travel from Earth to Mars are more important than fuel consumption.

If you walk a straight distance and use more advanced thrusters, the time from Earth to Mars will be shortened to one-sixth of the original!

Du Xingyu has turned on the technology simulator, and he called out the original nuclear thermal rocket thruster.

The nuclear thermal rocket thruster absolutely meets the speed requirements. It can accelerate the spacecraft to the third cosmic speed in a short period of time, which is enough speed above 16.7 kilometers per second.

The speed of current chemical energy rockets is generally about 10 kilometers per second, and a large amount of chemical fuel needs to be carried.

But in space navigation, spacecraft mainly rely on inertia to advance. If they continue to accelerate, the nuclear thermal rocket will also consume liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. As the distance is long, the fuel will be insufficient. This is why the speed of spacecraft so far has not been fast, and it has to rely on the gravitational force of the planet to accelerate. It is impossible for existing spacecraft to carry so much fuel!

“In contrast, nuclear thermal rocket thrusters are more suitable for flying in the atmosphere and near-Earth space. Mars spacecraft need to fly in the earth’s atmosphere, space and Martian atmosphere, and nuclear thermal thrusters can be used to fly in the atmosphere away from the planet’s gravity. ”

“Flying in space requires a propulsion system with higher energy conversion efficiency.” Du Xingyu soon thought of the nuclear power rocket in the rocket science and technology branch!

Nuclear power rockets, as the name suggests, use nuclear energy to generate electricity. And these electricity are used to create electromagnetic fields, control electric ion jets, and start ion thrusters!

In other words, this will be an ion thruster for nuclear power energy!

The ion thruster can ionize the working medium, and accelerate the ejection of ions under the action of a strong electric field, and use the reaction force to push the satellite to perform attitude adjustment or orbit transfer tasks.

The ion thruster has the characteristics of high specific impulse, high efficiency, and low thrust. Its energy conversion efficiency is extremely high. It only needs a small amount of mass to give the spacecraft higher acceleration, and it is more suitable for long distances than traditional thrusters. Space travel.

Conventional solar panels simply cannot meet the acceleration requirements of the Martian spacecraft, while nuclear power can supply stable power for a long time.