The Start Of Technology Live Broadcast To Build Rockets

Chapter 68 – Nuclear power ion thruster test run

Seeing Du Xingyu’s excitement already at work, Xu Lianqiu showed an expression of “it is true”. She wanted to say that to celebrate Du Xingyu’s becoming an academician, she would go out for a meal or something, but before she could say anything, Du Xingyu had already started. Already working.

“Lian Qiu, call someone for me, and have a meeting in the conference room!” Du Xingyu is already preparing documents. These days, he has been developing the Martian spacecraft on the simulator and has gained little.

“OK!” Xu Lianqiu was also unambiguous, and immediately went to notify the main members of the Mars mission team to discuss the Mars landing plan in the conference room.

In the conference room, Du Xingyu and everyone discussed the implementation plan of the Mars mission.

“There are still six months before the window period, six months, and the most difficult thing is the manufacture of the Martian spacecraft.” said team member Zhang Yan, who had previously cooperated with Du Xingyu on the development of aerospace aircraft and also participated in the design of lunar spacecraft.

“The main design of the spacecraft can refer to the previous Lunar spacecraft Lunar.” Du Xingyu said, “The only area that needs improvement is power and endurance! I have a preliminary plan, which is to use nuclear heat and nuclear power hybrid propulsion…”

Du Xingyu explained his simulated plan to everyone, “The nuclear power ion thruster is the core part of the whole plan. As long as the nuclear power ion thruster is completed, I don’t think it will be a big problem in other aspects.”

Everyone has experience in the design of the main body of the spacecraft, the command module, the propulsion module, and the landing module. This time the progress is much faster than before.

The experiments on Mars landing and Mars surface survival simulation were also handed over to a dedicated team.

Du Xingyu and many people in the team are already acquaintances, and everyone has become more accustomed to his thinking and way of doing things. The Mars spacecraft project was confirmed in the shortest time.

“Yinghuo Mars spacecraft” is the name of the Martian spacecraft they determined. Du Xingyu is the chief engineer of the design, He Jingcheng is the chief commander of the Mars landing mission, and the others perform their own duties.

…

On the science and technology simulator, Du Xingyu is still continuing the research and development of nuclear power ion thrusters.

At this time, the basic design structure of the nuclear power particle thruster has been developed by him, and the nuclear reactor, circulating cooling, electric energy conversion system, and radiation protection device have been designed.

Using the electrical energy converted from nuclear energy, a continuous electromagnetic field can be generated in the engine to accelerate the ions ionized by the working fluid.

“Inject 100,000 energy points to simulate a radio frequency generator.” In Du Xingyu’s mind, he constructed a radio frequency generator different from conventional ion thrusters.

Conventional ion thrusters directly use electromagnetic fields to accelerate ions to obtain high specific impulse and micro thrust. However, in the nuclear ion thruster designed by Du Xingyu, the radio frequency generator will heat the ions to one million degrees Celsius, allowing these ions to gain more Energy, so that when they rush out of the magnetic field, they will also get a higher specific impulse, that is, more impulse per propellant.

The specific impulse of the ion thruster is far better than that of the conventional rocket thruster, but its thrust is unusually small. If it is on the earth, the thrust of the ion thruster is almost negligible.(Read more @ wuxiax.com)

But when the ion thruster is in a vacuum with low planetary gravity and no air resistance, it will continue to accelerate the spacecraft, doing things that conventional thrusters cannot do.

In the simulator, a high-speed ion stream is ejected from the tail of the thruster, generating super-high acceleration for the ion thruster, and this reaction continues.

Science and Technology Simulator: “Simulation is successful, do you start crisis simulation?”

“Turn it on!” Du Xingyu put in the energy point again and began to simulate the state of the ion thruster under various crisis situations.

…

Two months later, the China Institute of Atomic Energy and the small nuclear fission reactor materials used for nuclear power ion thrusters were all ready and sent to the spacecraft research institute by special vehicles.

Here, all the materials and parts of the nuclear power ion thruster are in place, only waiting for the addition of small nuclear fission reactors.

In the test workshop, the staff used automated equipment to assemble the nuclear power ion thruster according to the structure diagram, and the space agency experts were waiting patiently here.

After the assembly is completed, it is the test run of the nuclear power ion thruster! Success is directly related to whether this manned mission to Mars can be carried out!

“The nuclear reactor should be able to discharge stably. The key lies in whether the electromagnetic field and the radio frequency generator can continuously and stably control the ion injection!” Before the test run, the old expert Zhou Ziang of the Institute of Atomic Energy and the others analyzed.

“Before us, no country has successfully completed this technology!” Liu Yuan said, “As long as the test run is completed today, we can break the international monopoly on ion thruster technology and move to a new height!”

“It would be great if the experiment was conducted in space. It is difficult for ground-based laboratories to simulate a vacuum state.” Zhang Yan said with emotion.

The specific impulse of the ion thruster is large, but the thrust is small, and it is easy to be disturbed in the ground environment. It’s just that there is no suitable experimental equipment for the lunar base, so it can only be tested in the ground test workshop for the time being.

Others are nervously looking forward to the fact that if this is a success, the power and endurance of the long-distance spacecraft will no longer be the constraints of human beings, and they can explore farther space!

“The report shows that the nuclear power ion thruster has been assembled, and all indicators are intact, and testing can begin!” The workshop supervisor reported.

“Let’s get started!” After Du Xingyu finished speaking, everyone entered the control center, which is full of computers and instruments, and can observe various data of the nuclear power ion thruster in real time.

“The countdown is five, four, three, two, one! Start the nuclear ion thruster!” He Jingcheng shouted and pressed the start button.

As the control rods in the nuclear reactor slowly rise, neutrons bombard the americium nucleus, causing it to produce a fission chain reaction, and powerful energy is released.

Through the high-efficiency electric energy conversion machine, this energy is converted into electric energy. At the same time, the circulating cooling system of liquid hydrogen maintains the temperature of the device and prevents the temperature of the nuclear reactor from getting out of control.

A strong electromagnetic field has been generated and the working fluid has begun to ionize. The hernia is ionized into a stream of positively charged high-speed ions. The frequency of the radio frequency generator is adjusted to the same rotation frequency of the ions, and the charged ions are heated to a high temperature of one million degrees Celsius in a short time.

Countless high-speed and high-energy ion streams are ejected from the tail of the ion thruster, creating a super high specific impulse in an instant, and the energy conversion efficiency is more than ten times that of conventional rocket thrusters!

“The reaction is stable and the high-speed ion current is stable.” He Jingcheng whispered in the control center.

Everyone didn’t speak, and the short-term ion current did not mean that the test had been successful, and it was successful if the ion propulsion was maintained for a long time.

As time passed, everyone’s breathing seemed to relax.

Ten minutes later, it was still stable.

Thirty minutes, no abnormalities.

One hour is already the time point for the successful theoretical speculation of this test drive. Everyone stood up unanimously, waiting for the moment when the result was announced.