Die on Mars

"The length is eighty-eight meters. Excluding the power system module, the total length of the main truss and engine is sixty-three meters."

"The power module has a mass of ten tons, accounting for 2.44% of the total mass of Orion 2. The total mass of the command main module is seventy tons, accounting for 17.11% of the total mass of Orion 2. Obviously, these masses can be reduced. The entire spacecraft is 80.44 % of the mass is concentrated on the power module."

The old cat was pacing back and forth in the Kunlun Station hall, holding a model of the Orion spacecraft in his hand and talking to himself.

"Old cat, the finite element analysis is completed, and the angle of attack calculation is also completed." Tang Yue dozed on the table, woke up in a daze, and looked at the monitor, "The whole line is red!"

"Where's the specific impulse...and the engine specific impulse data..." Old Cat turned around and frowned, "The whole line is red?"

Tang Yue wiped his saliva and nodded, "What do you mean? What does this mean? Is it a good thing?"

"It means it exploded." Old Mao came over and took a look. Sure enough, all the numbers on the display exploded and were completely out of the normal range. "It means that if the Orion 2 spacecraft enters the atmosphere with an angle of attack of twenty degrees, then its The No. 3 propellant tank will separate from the main truss, causing the oxidizer delivery pipe to break, causing leakage, and finally causing an explosion...nine Raptor 10D engines exploded at the same time."

"Oh, okay." Tang Yue scratched his hair.

"Adjust the angle of attack and recalculate!"

Old Cat instructed.

"How many?"

"One second." said the old cat.

"One arc second?" Tang Yue asked, "Adjust to nineteen degrees fifty-nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds? What is the difference between this and twenty degrees?"

"It makes no difference, but it's worth a try."

Tang Yue adjusted the parameters and the workstation continued to work.

After a few seconds, a warning pop-up window popped up.

"ERROR!"

"It crashed again." Tang Yue silently restarted the process and entered the cleared parameters one by one.

During this period of time, the HP workstation has been continuously overloaded. Although Lao Mao has criticized it for frequently giving up its burden, objectively speaking, this computer has indeed worked hard and achieved great results. The CPU comrades have given full play to the spirit of hard work, like the fluid mechanics track. Such complex calculations of dynamics often require hundreds of parameters to be simulated. Without the help of a workstation, Tang Yue would be able to do the calculations with pen and paper until next year.

"Old cat, you should be kind to the computer. It doesn't want to crash on its own. It's just the same thing. There's no need to worry about it."

"Don't speak for it." The old cat curled his lips, "It's just hypocrisy."

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"...Three, two, one, the engine is shut down." Maidong reported, "The joint space station has entered the predetermined orbit."

"OK, Kunlun Station received it." Lao Mao and Tang Yue looked at the cursor on the display. The latter successfully entered orbit as planned. "Miss Maidong, you have successfully entered orbit."

In a routine orbital adjustment, the Orion 2 spacecraft used its own engines to raise the height of the Joint Space Station by six meters.

The United Space Station has to adjust its orbit every once in a while, but it does not have power itself and needs to rely on the Orion spacecraft to provide thrust to slightly raise its altitude. Sometimes this job is left to Orion 1. It's time to leave it to Orion 2.

Maidong exhaled.

"Tang Yue, Mr. Cat, can we start dismantling the Orion spacecraft today?"

"Ophiopogon japonicus, you should rest first." Tang Yue said, "Eat something and wait for the sun to rise."

After the Eagle lander is disassembled, the tasks undertaken by Maidong will be even more arduous. In order to ensure safe entry into the atmosphere, Orion 2 needs to remove all the power modules and main modules to shorten the length and weight of the spacecraft.

The power module is 25 meters long, a sturdy metal truss with eight solar panels and supporting servo management mechanism, with a total width of 60 meters. It is the most conspicuous and bulky part of the Orion spacecraft, but its mass is It is the lightest, with a mass of only ten tons.

The central main module is the center of the Orion 2 spacecraft. It has a total length of 30 meters and a total of eight cabin sections that are docked with each other. It is quite large in size. Functionally, it is no different from the space station. It is just the main module of the Orion spacecraft in terms of purpose. The cabin section is more focused on the life support of personnel, and most supplies are stored here, while the joint space station is responsible for the vast majority of scientific research tasks.

Modular design is the mainstream of today's spacecraft development direction. The Mars plan has set off a new wave of aerospace technology development. One of them is the standardized universal interface. The Orion and the space station cabins use universal interfaces for docking.

After Orion, a spacecraft that conducts interstellar voyages, comes into service, the boundary between the spacecraft and the space station becomes increasingly blurred. Any cabin on the Orion spacecraft can be disassembled and incorporated into the space station. Expanding the size of the space station is like building blocks. Convenient.

"Which part should be removed first?" Maidong asked, "Remove the solar panels? Or remove the main module section?"

"First remove the cabin section of the central main module, and then remove the power module. But don't worry, this thing is still quite troublesome, especially the power module. I haven't thought of any absolutely safe method." Lao Mao replied, "Let's take one step at a time. Take it one step at a time.”

The power module is a behemoth that is twenty-five meters long and weighs ten tons. If it is not handled properly, it can destroy the entire space station.

Although the modular modification of the Orion spacecraft sounds like putting together building blocks, the actual operation is actually dismantling a building - it is big, heavy, time-consuming, labor-intensive and dangerous.

The joint space station does not have the conditions to dismantle the trusses. Ophiopogon japonicus lacks the necessary tools and facilities. The power module is simply composed of trusses and battery panels. It is basically a skeleton sub-mechanical mechanism. For something like this without a docking interface, the The super-big arm is helpless. After all, the latter is not a real claw and cannot grab the truss like chopsticks.

The Earth Space Station is the dock for the Orion spacecraft, and all repair and disassembly work should be carried out in Earth orbit. In order to deal with the more than 80-meter-long truss, the new ISS has specially built a set of fixed frames and towing cables, which can be Construction in weightless low-Earth orbit, and safe operation of these dangerous large iron frames.

"There are eight cabin sections in the central main module. How many of them need to be dismantled?"

The eight cabins of the main module are located in the middle of the Orion's main truss. The most important of them is the command module, where the spacecraft's system computer is located. It is the core of Orion.

The other seven cabins are the crew cabin, including the living cabin and material storage cabin. From the earth to Mars, even if it takes the fastest high-thrust transfer orbit, it will take more than three months on the way. On the Orion spacecraft The supplies must be enough to sustain a team of six people.

"Except for the command module, all other cabin sections have been removed." Old Mao said simply, "But they cannot be discarded. We have to pick out the flexible inflatable cabin and use it as a buffer airbag for the final landing."

"How to use the inflatable cabin as an air bag?" Tang Yue asked, "I remember that previous detectors inflated the air bag quickly at a height of a hundred meters above the ground. Can these cabins be used in the same way? Do we have an air pump?"

"Of course not." Old Cat shook his head, "We don't have an air pump."

"You want to strap the inflated capsule directly to the lander and then enter the atmosphere?"

"That's right."

"Holy crap, you want the Eagle spaceship to jump off with a few big balloons tied to it? Those balloons won't be blown up? Will they be blown away?"

In Tang Yue's mind, inflating the air bag is the last step. When the distance from the ground is less than 100 meters, the buffer air bag is inflated again.

But the old cat didn't think so. It was ready to let the lander fly down with a balloon tied to it.

"Tie it tighter. We can handle Orion's vertical landing. What's the point of tying a few balloons?" The old cat was very calm. "You don't care about life and death. If you don't accept it, just do it."