Great Country Academician

Elon Musk was not the only one who was shocked. After CBS media suddenly reported the news of Xinghai, many people in the entire aerospace field were shocked.

Especially in the United States, whether it is NASA, or giants in the aerospace field such as Space-X, Blue Origin, Orbital Science, etc., they all have insomnia all night long.

These giants in the aerospace field, from top to bottom, from managers to scientific researchers, to engineers, and even ordinary security guards and chefs, were so shocked that they could hardly believe their eyes after seeing the news on TV.

Many people even suspected that today's date was wrong. It was not March 21st, but April 1st. CBS news broadcast had fooled them.

How is it possible for space shuttles and electric propulsion to fly to the sky!

You must know that the most advanced and most powerful X3 electric propulsion engine in NASA, the United States, and the entire world has a thrust of only 5.4N.

Even if hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of X3 electric propulsion engines are integrated, it is impossible to send a space shuttle into the sky.

And their opponent, the country on the west coast of the Pacific, actually did it?

If aerospace giants such as Space-X, Blue Origin, and Orbital Sciences are shocked by this news, then as the pride of the United States, NASA will almost lose everyone's head with worry.

They had just given an interview the day before, disclosed the latest progress of the Artemis project, and stated that they would send astronauts into space around July this year to start the first phase of the manned moon landing project.

The next day, their opponents unveiled the electric propulsion + space shuttle, and successfully launched the "Xinghai" into space.

In the middle of the night, countless NASA engineers and middle- and high-level leaders who had already fallen asleep were woken up by phone calls. Many people even drove to the space agency despite being very sleepy.

At this moment, late at night and early in the morning, the lights in the NASA headquarters building are brightly lit.

Standing in the satellite control room, Bill Nelson stared at the pictures and images transmitted back through satellite aerial photography.

Some were from the Jinling City Space Center, and the Xinghai was slowly moving on the ground. Some were in mid-air, and the long and narrow tail flames dragging red and purple pierced into his heart like a sharp sword.

In the control room, busy engineers are constantly manipulating the mid- and high-orbit satellites for tracking and capturing. There are also some engineers and technicians who are analyzing the Xinghai based on existing photos and information, speculating on the red-purple narrow tail flame. what exactly is it.

At this moment, the door to the control room was suddenly pushed open violently.

Wearing a black trench coat and not even having time to change into his suit, CIA Director William Joseph Burns barged in without even knocking on the door.

"Shet, can any of you tell me what's going on? That Star Sea!"

Looking at the crowd in the satellite control room, William walked quickly to Bill Nelson, stared at him with a cold expression, and said word by word:

"My dearest Director Bill, didn't you tell me before that it's impossible to send a space shuttle to the sky with electric propulsion? Didn't you say it's not even one in a billion possible? Why did they do it?"

Being stared at by CIA Director William Joseph Burns, Bill Nelson also frowned, reached out to wipe the spittle that was sprayed on his face, and said: "I also want to know how they did it. .”

After a pause, he stepped back a little, letting William stay away from him so that he would not be sprayed with spit again, and then continued: "Theoretically, it is indeed impossible to send a space shuttle into space with electric propulsion. , its thrust is far from reaching this level.”

Seeing Director William opening his mouth to speak, Bill did not flinch and said quickly: "Besides, intelligence work is your own responsibility and has nothing to do with NASA. Even if you consult the accuracy of the intelligence, we can only pass the existing information technology to provide you with judgment.”

"The CIA does not have to, and cannot, throw this responsibility on NASA."

"The truth tells me that my worries are no less than yours."

As he spoke, he shifted his gaze back to the photos taken by the satellite.

If the CIA's intelligence errors are a very serious problem, then NASA also has a lot of troubles and problems when it comes to the Xinghai developed by the country on the other side.

As the largest country in the world's aerospace field, no country has been able to catch up with them in this field since the end of the Cold War in the last century.

Even, most of the time, you can't even see their taillights.

The pride of a major space country is not just a matter of words, but also a spiritual glory engraved in the bones of the American people.

What he can imagine is how much discussion and pressure there will be from the outside world when the media starts reporting the news about the Xinghai that is currently flying in low-Earth orbit after dawn.

Don't think about how the media will be merciful and save a bit of face for them.

In fact, the media reporters are the least likely to show mercy. They are like flies in a toilet, swarming wherever there is a smell.

And for the sake of traffic and sales, even if it is white, they can turn it into black.

There is no doubt that this news will shock the entire United States. It is conceivable that the media will report this news with various exaggerated words and descriptions.

Especially that space shuttle, the propulsion system used was an electric propulsion system that they, and even the whole world, thought was impossible.

The shock brought by this news is even more unimaginable.

In the satellite control room, standing opposite Bill Nelson, William Joseph Burns was about to continue his spiel when he was interrupted. He opened his mouth and hesitated, speechless.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with what Bill Nelson said. It is the job of the CIA to collect intelligence and information, and it has nothing to do with NASA.

Even though they had previously asked NASA whether electric propulsion would be the technology to achieve a space shuttle's gravity well breakthrough, NASA could only respond based on its judgment based on the current technology.

When the whole world denies that it cannot do something, who would have thought that the country opposite could do it?

After taking two deep breaths of air-conditioning and forcibly controlling his emotions, William Joseph Burns looked at the monitoring screen in the satellite control room.

Looking at the narrow red-purple tail flame trailing behind the Xinghai, he asked: "I need to know what technology the Xinghai used. Is it really the electric propulsion they call it?"

Standing in front of the monitoring station, Bill Nelson frowned and replied: "We can't be sure. We can't be sure for the time being whether the propulsion used by the other party is really an electric propulsion system. To be honest, I can't think of anything about that red-purple tail flame. The working fluid will be this color after being accelerated out, and it will provide such a huge thrust."

As the director of NASA, he naturally understands electric propulsion technology and knows what the flame colors of various common electric propulsion fluids look like.

For example, xenon, a commonly used working fluid in electric propulsion engines, has a flame color of white or bluish-white.

Or argon, whose flame color reaction is blue-violet, or iodine, the iodine electric propulsion engine newly developed by NASA, whose flame color is green.

In the image, he could not imagine the reddish-purple tail flame at the tail of the Xinghai's fuselage.

As far as the current electric propulsion technology is concerned, it is difficult for even top experts and scholars who specialize in this field to guess what kind of working fluid it is, let alone him.

What’s even more unimaginable is that this is an electric propulsion engine that uses air as the working fluid.

Not many people believe this kind of technology. After all, it is too science fiction.

In the satellite monitoring room, a NASA space agency expert looked at the images transmitted back by the monitoring satellite and suddenly said: "Could their electric propulsion be fake?"

As soon as these words came out, everyone in the control room looked over. Being stared at by the crowd, the expert added in a low voice: "Or is it a half-finished product?"

Upon hearing this, William Joseph Burns quickly asked: "Why?"

After thinking for a moment and sorting out the thoughts in his mind, the expert said: "At least I have never seen a tail flame with a reddish-purple color. Among the electric propulsion fluids, those with high propulsion efficiency No color is like this.”

"Although it is not ruled out that they have developed a new high-efficiency working fluid, the possibility of this is not high based on current technology."

"On the contrary, among the traditional fossil fuel working fluids, many are red, orange-red, and purple. If the other party uses a new type of fuel propulsion fluid to send the space shuttle to the sky, and then passes the electric propulsion system in space middle"

Hearing this, William Joseph Burns frowned and asked: "You mean, the traditional fuel that the space shuttle still used when it broke through the gravity well?"

Nodding, the expert who spoke took a deep breath, walked to the screen, and after controlling the computer equipment, two different pictures popped up.

"These are two photos taken by our satellite at different times. The former is the tail flame of the Xinghai when it was flying in the atmosphere and climbing the gravity well. It can be clearly seen that its flame color is reddish purple. .”

"The second picture is the figure captured by our medium-high orbit satellite. At this point, the space shuttle has reached a low-Earth orbit of at least two hundred kilometers."

"From this photo, you can also clearly see its tail flame, but its flame color is blue-white, very similar to the flame reaction produced by the traditional high propellant 'xenon'."

"Comparing the two, we can clearly find that the flame color of this space shuttle is completely different in the atmosphere and in outer space. From this we can infer that the fuel it uses in the atmosphere and in low-Earth orbit, It’s also completely different.”

After a pause, the researcher looked at Director William of the CIA, coughed slightly and then added: "Well, another thing I want to say is that the space shuttle unit is one, not one."

Hearing the other party's addition, William Joseph Burns' mouth twitched slightly, but he did not pay too much attention to his mistakes in the unit. On the contrary, he paid more attention to the theoretical ideas provided by this expert.

If it is powered by chemical fuel, then it is powered by an electric propulsion system after climbing out of the gravity well into low-Earth orbit, this method is far less worrying than pure electric propulsion.

On the side, NASA Director Bill Nelson frowned and thought for a while.

It is undeniable that judging from the current photos and information, this expert's analysis does make sense.

Judging from the known working fluids with high propulsion efficiency, there is no working fluid in electric propulsion engines that displays this weird reddish-purple color. Even after entering outer space, the Xinghai's tail propulsion flame showed the blue-white color of normal xenon.

But he always felt that something was wrong.

If this is done, the space shuttle will use two completely different sets of engines, and its design and manufacturing are far from simple.

Moreover, this space shuttle was built by a scholar who is famous all over the world. Would he design such a complex, even completely unreasonable space shuttle?

If we really found a fuel that allowed the space shuttle to climb the gravity well without relying on external boosters, would we still need to plug in an electric propulsion system?

From his judgment, there is absolutely no need for this.

More importantly, judging from the current data, the Xinghai did not directly climb the gravity well and enter outer space after taking off from the space base.

Although their satellites did not record the entire flight process of the other party, what is known is that the Xinghai first completed the experiment in the atmosphere for two to three hours before setting off to climb the gravity well.

Can chemical fuels really achieve such a long endurance and specific impulse?

If it can be done, its importance and threat may not be weaker than electric propulsion.

Even, in a sense, he would prefer that the space shuttle use a pure electric propulsion system rather than a combination of chemical fuel + electric propulsion.

The latter means that their opponents have found a new and ultra-efficient, high-specific-impact chemical fuel.

And this can not only be used on space shuttles.

Shaking his head and throwing away the complicated thoughts in his mind, Bill Nelson looked at the picture of the space shuttle on the surveillance screen.

No matter what, at least after dawn today, they had a pretty good analysis result when they faced questions from many media reporters.

On the surface, the incomplete electric propulsion + conventional chemical fuel propulsion method is far less scary and shocking than the pure electric propulsion system.

At least, they can do the former, albeit less efficiently.

However, a sense of powerlessness slowly rose from the bottom of his heart, gradually filling his entire soul.

Their opponents have already achieved further results in the aerospace field, but as the world's largest aerospace power, they cannot even analyze the technology used by their opponents.