Great Country Academician

The days passed like this, and in the blink of an eye, the time changed from early September to early October during the school season.

For more than a month, Xu Chuan has been optimizing the small controllable nuclear fusion reactor as much as possible among Xinghai researchers.

Whether it is in terms of size or energy utilization efficiency, they are being adjusted and improved through the data from the Huaxing Fusion Device.

Including the small magnetic fluid generator set designed by the Nuclear Industry Group, they are also looking for ways to further improve it, and even use improved superconductor materials to form a magnetic field to increase the strength of the magnetic lines of force.

After all, for spacecraft and aerospace engines, every additional energy means that their endurance, speed, manned cargo and other aspects can be greatly improved.

In early October, there was no large-scale holiday for the Xinghai Research Institute, or the Energy Research Institute and the Aerospace Research Institute.

Although some researchers and staff took two or three days off, most of the remaining staff stayed at their posts during the seven-day holiday, working hard on the research of controllable nuclear fusion and aerospace engines.

With the efforts of many scientific researchers, research on miniaturized controllable nuclear fusion technology and aerospace engines has made great progress.

The energy level and efficiency of the former, under the continuous experiments of the Huaxing Stellar Simulator, are constantly being explored for the most suitable size and efficiency.

From the theoretical value of 170MW, it has been increased to more than 200MW.

This is the institute's lowest numerical estimate of the miniaturized fusion reactor based on the Huaxing Fusion Device. If an intermediate average is taken, the power of the miniaturized reactor can reach 300MW+.

And theoretically, this is not the limit.

If you wish, you can increase the size of the small reactor, increase the volume of the reactor chamber, and further increase the amount of plasma inside.

However, the larger the volume, the greater the space occupied by the space shuttle.

After all, whether it is the occupancy of the fusion reactor itself, the magnetic fluid generator set, or the related magnetic field protection devices, etc., all require adaptive adjustments.

In the office, Xu Chuan dealt with the work at hand, inputting the operating data of the stellarator into the set model and running it.

At this moment, there was a knock on the door of the room.

"Please come in."

As his fingers tapped on the keyboard, Xu Chuan shouted without raising his head.

The door was gently pushed open, and in came Academician Chang Huaxiang, who had only taken up a post at the Institute of Aerospace Studies last month.

This old man has been serving as the technical director of aerospace engineering for more than a month. Xu Chuan quite approves of his working status and situation.

After joining the company, the veteran academician did not start dictating projects related to aerospace engineering. Instead, he spent more than half a month making a comprehensive review of the Aerospace Research Institute, the Energy Research Institute, and related projects and technologies. Understand it and then start sorting out related work.

"I'm busy, I'll come over later."

Carrying a report document, Mr. Chang walked in and immediately saw Xu Chuan who was busy and spoke without thinking.

"It's okay, it's not a very important job."

Xu Chuan raised his head, clicked the mouse and keyboard, saved the data for a while, then looked up at Academician Chang opposite him, smiled and said, "What's wrong, Academician Chang?"

Chang Huaxiang did not exchange pleasantries and went directly to the topic, saying: "I would like to discuss some work with you about the space shuttle, manned spaceflight and lunar exploration projects."

Xu Chuan nodded and said, "Please tell me."

He respects the older generation of scholars who have dedicated their lives to the country.

Whether it is in terms of academic ethics or dedication, they are the group of people who are most worthy of ‘star chasing’.

Mr. Chang handed over the report in his hand and said at the same time: "First of all, it is about the design and manufacturing of the space shuttle. Taking into account the difference in energy supply and power system, the space shuttle we manufactured this time is different from that of the United States and Hongsu. There’s definitely a big difference in traditional styles.”

"According to the current maximum size preset by the Energy Research Institute, I am afraid that the rear part of the space shuttle, including the wings, will have to be adjusted and modified. In addition, on both sides of the wings and nose, I plan to add some conventional holsters. Thrusters, these can be used to assist the space shuttle in better adjusting its trajectory and direction in space."

Xu Chuan opened the report document in his hand and listened carefully. These were all experiences for him.

When the work on the space shuttle design was finished, he nodded and said with a smile: "You are always an expert in the field of space shuttle. For related work and design, just follow your instructions if you think it is feasible. The Aerospace Research Institute I will cooperate."

"What I'm more concerned about is how long it will take us."

Hearing this question, Academician Chang Huaxiang thought for a while and said: "I can't give an accurate time for this. On the one hand, the design is still being revised and has not been completely finalized; on the other hand, the production of parts Manufacturing, assembly, testing, etc. all take time to complete.”

After a pause, he continued: "But if you really want to shorten the time, there is still a way, but the cost may be relatively high."

Xu Chuan: "How to say?"

Chang Huaxiang: "Carry out multiple aspects of work at the same time, as well as purchase some universal parts externally."

"For example, while designing and manufacturing the space shuttle, handing over the planning of manned space activities and lunar exploration projects to other aerospace bases can save a lot of time and manpower."

"As for those universal and less sensitive parts and equipment on the space shuttle, they can be purchased externally. In terms of these equipment, companies such as NASA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin in the United States have more advanced equipment than us. Rich, more mature systems and equipment.”

"Compared with designing and producing from start to finish, it is undoubtedly more time-saving to directly purchase ready-made products."

"It's just that in this way, the demand for funds may be relatively high."

Xu Chuan nodded, thought for a moment and then asked: "According to your old estimate, how much money will it cost if it is handled in this way?"

Chang Huaxiang thought for a while and said: "Excluding our institute's own small fusion reactor and aerospace engine, it is conservatively estimated that it may cost about 1.5 billion to complete the design, manufacturing and testing of a new space shuttle."

"If you include small fusion reactors and aerospace engines, I can't afford it."

Xu Chuan frowned slightly and asked: "Five billion meters of gold?"

Hearing this, Chang Huaxiang said with shame: "RMB, how can it be rice gold? 1.5 billion rice gold is too exaggerated. You must know that our current technology and conditions have far less performance requirements for space shuttles than traditional ones." exaggerate."

Although the value of rice gold plummeted uncontrollably for a period of time after the completion of controllable nuclear fusion technology, it is still one of the currencies with the most purchasing power in the world.

Judging from the current market, the ratio of RMB to rice gold is around 5:1.

1.5 billion meters of gold, that is 7.5 billion RMB.

Spending 7.5 billion to build a space shuttle is nothing like this, no matter how prodigal it is.

Although based on the cost of a space shuttle, the price of 1.5 billion meters of gold is not expensive. The United States spent 2.5 billion meters of gold on the development, design and manufacture of its first space shuttle, which was still 2.5 billion meters of gold in the 1970s. If converted to today, it probably exceeds 10 billion meters of gold.

But then again, the technology was immature at that time and required various design experiments.

With the developed and mature aerospace technology in various countries today, it is simply impossible to spend that much money to build a space shuttle.

1.5 billion, for Academician Chang Huaxiang, this includes supercomputing centers that may require hundreds of millions of funds.

After hearing this number, Xu Chuan breathed a sigh of relief.

1.5 billion RMB is still within the affordability of Xinghai Research Institute.

Although the Xinghai Research Institute cannot allocate so much funds in a short period of time, it is backed by the manned moon landing plan led by many departments such as the Space Administration and the Science and Technology Commission. As long as it wins the bid for some subsequent projects, the funds will still not be needed. Too worried.

If it was a controllable nuclear fusion project, let alone 1.5 billion RMB, it would be 1.5 billion rice gold, and he wouldn't worry about funding.

However, the Xinghai Research Institute is different. This is not a project or institution wholly funded by the National Academy of Sciences, and the scientific research funds will not be too abundant.

Although at the time of the transformation, the remaining billions of dollars in research on controllable nuclear fusion were fully transferred to the institute as start-up capital, the institute is large in size, has many people, and naturally has many places to consume funds.

However, the advantage is that if the research projects of the institute produce results, regardless of the shares allocated to the state-owned assets, the rest will belong to the institute. Of course, some of it is his.

Nodding, Xu Chuan said: "We can still think of ways to spend 1.5 billion. We shouldn't need that much in the early stage, right?"

Chang Huaxiang nodded and said: "As for the preliminary work, the current estimate is about 350-400 million is enough."

"Okay, I will take care of the funding. Academician Chang, just focus on the project."

Smiling, Xu Chuan continued: "If we can land on the moon before NASA, it would be worth not to mention 1.5 billion, but even 3 billion. If we don't have enough money, I won't have any problem investing more myself."

For him, money is just a number.

Now, he has never counted how many assets he has. In cash alone, it is probably in the tens of digits.

The only thing that is truly poor is money.

But when Academician Chang Huaxiang heard this, he looked at Xu Chuan and was stunned.

He had heard of such a thing, but had never seen it before, investing money into national projects for research.

Although I had heard about this man’s patriotism a long time ago, it was a little too touching.

After all, in this day and age, if those who do research do not pocket money from the project, they are just being picky and subsidizing the project with their own money.

Of course, what he didn't know was that Xinghai Research Xu Chuan had shares and profits.

On the other hand, he didn't know that the guy in front of him was so rich that he didn't even know how much money he had.

PS: Second update, please vote for me.