Great Country Academician

After the Xinghai Research Institute was formally established, Xu Chuan's job became three points and one line.

Living in a villa at the foot of Zijin Mountain, teaching and instructing students on the campus of NTU, Xinghai Research Institute handles initial project work.

In addition to these, the rest of the time is used to study the new atomic doping structure mechanism and multi-orbital strong correlation system found in the KL-66 material.

In this way, nearly a week has passed, and there is still half a month to go, and it will be the New Year's Day of the new year.

Xinghai Research Institute, in a conference room of the Institute of Astronautics.

Xu Chuan sat on a chair and listened to the report by Weng Yunzong, the chief executive of the Aerospace Institute.

Although the instruction documents for restarting the manned spaceflight and even the lunar exploration projects have not yet been released, the relevant projects fall on the Xinghai Research Institute, or like the controllable nuclear fusion project, a new research institution has been established here. It's a sure thing.

As for the development of aerospace technology, for Xu Chuan, the importance can almost be ranked first after the completion of controllable nuclear fusion technology.

After all, the sea of ​​stars is the most desirable direction.

"At present, the engines in the aerospace field mainly include chemical fuel propulsion engines used in the atmosphere and electric propulsion engines used in outer orbits."

"Fossil fuel rockets mainly use liquid oxygen kerosene fuel, liquid hydrogen liquid oxygen fuel, liquid oxygen methane fuel, unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine fuel and solid fuel. The fuel used in our Long March series rockets is mainly liquid oxygen kerosene"

In the conference room, Weng Yunzong made a simple and general report on the current aerospace direction of various countries.

Through the meetings he participated in these days, through Weng Yunzong's mouth, and through some information he consulted, Xu Chuan has a general understanding of the aerospace industry and related developments at home and abroad.

After listening to this, he said, "From the information you reported, liquid hydrogen and oxygen should be the most suitable fuels for the development of space shuttles."

Weng Yunzong nodded and said, "Well, liquid hydrogen-oxygen fuel is indeed the most commonly used rocket propellant fuel with the highest performance at present."

"However, due to the ultra-low temperature properties of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, both storage and use are quite troublesome. Our domestic technology in this area is relatively backward."

After slightly hesitating, he looked at Xu Chuan and said, "With all due respect, Academician Xu, although our domestic aerospace technology has developed quite fast over the years, after all, it started relatively late. There is still a big gap between countries."

"At present, the launch vehicles we develop, whether it is the Long March series or the Shenzhou series, basically have a carrying capacity of less than 30 tons. We don't have much experience with high-capacity launch vehicles of more than 30 tons."

"And if it is to develop space shuttle technology, the large-capacity launch vehicle involves plus space shuttle-related technologies, and there are too many things involved."

After a pause, he continued: "Although it is hard to say that raising others' ambitions and destroying one's prestige is hard to hear, but judging from our current domestic aerospace technology, if we want to complete the manned moon landing, especially through the space shuttle technology, It’s almost impossible to do.”

Hearing this, Xu Chuan didn't pay much attention.

As far as the facts are concerned, the development of the aerospace field is indeed as Weng Yunzong said.

Because spaceflight, especially manned spaceflight and moon landing, is difficult to bring equivalent returns, aside from the Misu Cold War period in the last century, countries behind space technology basically did not have much investment.

Take Huaguo as an example. At present, the budget for Huaguo's aerospace industry in 2020 is only 13 billion RMB, which is less than 15 billion RMB. Various items such as Tiangong are added together.

That sounds like a lot, but it's actually quite a bit less.

You know, in the last century, the United States formulated the Apollo program in order to achieve manned landing on the moon, and the total investment in it exceeded 22 billion meters.

If converted according to the economic growth and inflation of the United States to today, this figure will be about seven to eight times higher.

In other words, it will cost almost 150 billion meters of gold to realize a manned moon landing.

Of course, this kind of conversion is not very meaningful. After all, the technology was relatively immature at that time, and naturally more funds were invested.

And today's manned moon landing, now that aerospace technology is relatively mature, naturally it can't cost that much money.

But judging from this data, it is enough to see how expensive it is to invest in aerospace technology.

And it's not just funds, there are too many core technologies involved in manned moon landing.

Just a launch vehicle with a large load involves various aspects such as the rocket body, power plant system, control system, telemetry system, external measurement system, safety control system, etc., not to mention the space shuttle.

Manned spaceflight technology involves a whole set of almost complete industrial systems, and even to some extent, the scope of involvement is wider than that of controllable nuclear fusion technology.

Investment and research in this area cannot be achieved overnight.

It is very difficult to catch up with or even surpass the past in aerospace technology.

Not to mention other things, just the load of the launch vehicle. The Saturn V super-heavy launch vehicle developed by the United States in the 1960s has a thrust of 3,400 tons, and its carrying capacity has reached 118 tons in low-earth orbit and 45 tons in lunar orbit.

In China, the Long March 5 has the strongest carrying capacity at present, with a maximum thrust of 879 tons, a carrying capacity of 25 tons in low-earth orbit, and no data on lunar orbit.

From this point of view, it can only be said that there is a long way to go.

After understanding these gaps, Xu Chuan was naturally clear, but he did not give up.

For a scientific researcher, the most fearful thing is to face the difficulties he encounters.

After thinking for a while, Xu Chuan looked at Weng Yunzong and asked, "If it can provide millions of kilowatt-hours of electric energy, is there any suitable electric propulsion engine technology that can achieve a carrying capacity of hundreds of tons?" ?”

Hearing this question, Weng Yunzong froze for a moment, then frowned.

After thinking for a while, he shook his head with a wry smile and said, "This question is beyond the scope of my answer. I don't know much about the electric propulsion series."

"After all, when I was at the Chuandu Aerospace Base, I was mainly in charge of chemical fuel launch vehicles."

After thinking about it, he continued, "If you need something about electric propulsion, I can recommend someone to you."

"Who? In China?" Xu Chuan asked.

Weng Junzong nodded and said: "Of course in China, academician Yang Hong, the chief designer of the Tiangong space station, should be the top in the country for electric propulsion-related technologies, and the world's top Hall propulsion applied to Tiangong The instrument was designed by him."

Xu Chuan nodded and said, "Okay, I'll look for Academician Yang here."

Weng Yunzong glanced at Xu Chuan, thought for a while and hesitated before saying: "As for the electric propulsion engine, to be honest, I'm actually not very optimistic about it personally."

"Whether it is an ion thruster or a Hall thruster, although we don't know much about it, the thrust of both is not great. It is enough to be used on satellites or space stations in outer space, but if it is used in the atmosphere now, I am afraid there is no four Five replacements is hard to do."

"After all, the thrust is really too weak, still at the millinewton level."

"As for the study of electric propulsion, I would suggest imitating the space route of the United States and using chemical fuel for propulsion. At least this is a road that has already been passed, and we have a greater chance of success."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan smiled and said, "You're right. Chemical fuel propulsion technology is indeed a road that has already been traveled. It is more mature, and we can also cross the river by feeling the stones."

"But its potential has basically come to an end, and it can be said that it is difficult to develop further. I think you are very clear about this."

Hearing this, Weng Yunzong nodded in approval.

Although chemical fuel rocket technology is mature, the specific impulse can hardly be improved any further.

Xu Chuan continued: "If we want to surpass those Western countries headed by the United States in aerospace technology, we must find another way."

"And electromagnetic propulsion is undoubtedly the key to the future, especially under the premise that controllable nuclear fusion technology has been realized, the development of electric propulsion with large specific impulse is even more necessary."

After a pause, he continued: "Of course, at present, our route has not been determined. Whether it is a traditional fossil fuel propulsion engine or an electric propulsion engine, it is under consideration."

"For the specific development direction, after the manned spaceflight and manned moon landing projects are implemented, experts in the field of spaceflight will be called to discuss and study."

"And now our job is to sort out the advantages and disadvantages of various propulsion and related engines, and wait for a project meeting after a while to discuss."

"Don't worry, I'm not someone who doesn't listen to suggestions, discuss what should be discussed, and discuss what should be discussed."

Hearing this, Weng Yunzong's half-raised heart also relaxed a lot.

When he was deployed here from the Chuandu Aerospace Base, he received instructions to fully cooperate with the research work of Academician Xu.

What this means is self-evident.

But to be honest, the barriers between different fields are not so easy to cross.

Especially in the two almost completely unrelated fields of controlled nuclear fusion and aerospace engineering.

He is a little worried that this person may be obsessed with a certain technology that he thinks may be realized, but it is really difficult to achieve at present, and then invest a lot of manpower, material resources and funds, and eventually progress slowly or achieve nothing.

It's not impossible.

But after having these words, he let go of a lot of heart.

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