I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

Many experts are also old men and women, and they understand that this is really a tough battle and they have to fight it.

But now planning to land on the moon within three years is a lot of trouble.

Academician She was silent for a long time, then slowly opened his mouth with his pen in hand:

"The biggest problem is the Rockets."

The other experts began to analyze as soon as he started:

"Yes, we have experience in developing manned spacecraft, and we also launched Chang'e-3 for lunar exploration. Our early technological accumulation is much better than Aramco's back then, and the technology is not an obstacle."

"There are several advanced plans for the lander, and a soft landing on the lunar surface is not unprepared."

"The Earth-Moon transfer orbit has a transport capacity of at least 55 tons. This is a non-negotiable hard target! Our astronauts are not riding in washing machines."

"Modified on the basis of Long March 5?"

"Unnecessary, conservative configuration with no potential for improvement."

"..."

This discussion did not last long, because in fact these contents have been thought about thousands of times.

When Aramco started the space race, China also launched its own aerospace project "Dawn Project". Mr. Qian also designed the Long March 10, a giant rocket used for manned moon landings.

Later, when the aerospace project was restarted in 1992, every time a new rocket appeared, experts from the space agency would wonder: How to use existing technology to land on the moon?

Including the Long March 5, which has a capacity of only 8 tons for the Earth-to-Moon Transfer Orbit, when designing it, the designers were thinking about how to get it to the moon.

In theory, the Long March 5 can certainly be used. After all, the lunar landing spacecraft is not a whole. It can be launched separately one by one, assembled in five or six launches, and then the manned spacecraft can be launched to fly to the moon.

But aside from low cost, this patchwork approach to the moon is mainly risky, costly, and of little significance. It has no use other than landing on the moon.

And because it requires multiple dockings, the risks and difficulties are very high. Unless aliens invade the earth without being able to land on the moon, this option is best eliminated.

So no matter how we discuss it, we can't get around giant rockets, not even Xianyuan 2. It has to be a giant rocket of the level of Xianyuan 2A or Xianyuan 3.

But think about the stumbling blocks in the development of the Long March 5. From the project establishment in 2009 until now, it has not made its first flight. On the contrary, the Saturn V only took seven years.

Of course, Ami’s national system at that time could not be generalized, but it was still uncomfortable to see such a huge gap.

The superior understood more or less and said with some reluctance:

"With the extra half century we have, can't we, with the strength of the world's largest industrial power, suppress a heavy rocket?"

Academician She clasped his hands, put his head on his head and thought for more than ten seconds. Then he raised his head and looked at the experts present in search of something:

"Long March 9 is too late. It takes too long to develop a 10-meter rocket body. We must use as much existing technology as possible and can only use a 5-meter-diameter rocket body."

Although the Long March 5 rocket has not yet made its first flight, the 5-meter-diameter rocket body has already passed the acceptance inspection. It is qualified and usable. The 10-meter rocket is still blank. It has taken too long.

The rocket body is solved, that is the engine. This is the key. Everyone looked at the experts from the Sixth Academy and thought for a moment:

"This... I have two methods, one is to connect multiple YF100s in parallel, and the other is YF130, which connects two combustion chambers in parallel and has the same origin as YF100;

You all know that this design is useless except for thrust, and it cannot be reused, so I have never made up my mind. If it is determined now, it will take one year...9 months. There must be a budget of 1 billion in advance. We will try our best to spend 7 months. Make a prototype and try to use it for another 1 to 2 months to stabilize its quality. "

Well, we also have a high-thrust rocket engine, and the final step is the configuration.

Yun Hongjun, an academician and scientist at the First Academy of Aeronautics and Astronautics, took out a piece of white paper and drew while writing.

"With a diameter of 5 meters, we can only bundle more boosters. The boosters...must also be 5 meters in diameter; bundle 4 boosters, two YF130s for each booster, and also use the core stage Two units.

10 YF130s, according to the sea level thrust data from this year's exchange meeting, that is 4890 tons of thrust, the rocket body weight is 3600 tons, and the low-Earth orbit transportation capacity is 120 tons. The Earth-to-Moon transfer orbit transportation capacity depends on the secondary engines, 4 YF77s, total With a thrust of 270 tons, it should be no problem sending a 45-ton payload to the moon.

The YF100 parallel connection scheme is not considered. There are too many, at least thirty units, and something will happen. "

The superior looked at the simple drawings and data summary on the white paper and frowned:

"45 tons, which is still close to 20% short of 55 tons."

"Then two more boosters."

The speaker was Academician She. He was also forced to collapse by Xinyuan Aerospace Power or Lin Ju. He drew a circle on the white paper, and then drew 6 circles of similar size around it.

"Six boosters, 14 YF130s, a thrust of 6,486 tons, a take-off mass of 4,930 tons, a low-Earth orbit transport capacity of 150 tons, and an Earth-to-Moon transfer orbit transport capacity of 55 tons. It is enough, absolutely enough."

Others shuddered as they imagined the scene of a rocket with a core stage of 5 meters and six boosters with a diameter of 5 meters.

"No, the tremors of the six boosters are too great. The gap between the rocket bodies is probably only 30cm, and the error tolerance is too small.

And there are 14 engines and 28 nozzles! No, absolutely not. "

"Let's divide it into two times. Six boosters are indeed too risky. Two boosters can send 90 tons. Not only can we land on the moon, but we can also gather the lunar surface scientific research station. Adjust it a little to the left, and 45 tons of manned moon landing can be achieved. That’s enough. The other next rockets will take care of it. Or docking in orbit is also possible. This is not 50 years ago, and the risk of docking in lunar orbit is acceptable."

Yun Hongjun from the First Academy spoke again, and this time many people agreed with him and nodded.

Academician She also thought for a while: "I have no objection. Let's... let's call it Long March 10. One is for verification, one is for verification with a manned spacecraft, one is for manning to orbit the moon, one is for manned landing on the moon, and one is for manned spacecraft verification. A total of five rockets were sent to the scientific research station to complete the initial moon landing plan.

If we transfer part of the lander's mass to the scientific research station, or drop part of it when manned around the moon, then there will be no problem. Over three years and 25 5-meter-diameter rocket bodies, if we catch up, we will definitely be able to do it. "

The superior looked at the others and seemed to have no objections anymore, so he leaned forward and asked seriously again: "So, this... Long March 10 is worthy of the name, tell me how long will you use it? "

A group of experts whispered among themselves. After a while, Academician She concluded:

"The first-stage rocket body can be manufactured immediately, the YF130 will be delivered within 10 months, and the YF77 and YF75 for the second and third stages are ready-made, allowing the Jingu Rocket Manufacturing Base to work overtime... In August next year, the first Long March 10 rocket will be launched The rocket can fly for the first time before then. The manufacturing and inspection of each rocket will take 8 months. However, the production capacity of the Jingu Rocket Base should increase faster later. It is expected to implement a manned lunar landing mission in August 2018, at the latest No later than March 2019.

If an accident occurs and one of the rockets fails, then we will save the rocket used to launch the lunar surface base and carry out manned landing on the moon first, possibly in March 2018 at the earliest, but this is the most ideal situation. "

After Academician She finished speaking, he thought for a while:

"Each rocket costs about 1.5 billion yuan, and research and development expenses are at least 4 billion. The development of a new generation of spacecraft and landers for manned vehicles will also cost at least 5 billion. Including spare parts and verification, I applied for approval for the manned moon landing project. With a budget of 20 billion yuan, at least 4 billion will be approved this year.

Moreover, to carry out large-scale expansion of the rocket manufacturing base and engine manufacturing base, the additional investment will cost 2 to 3 billion. "

Academician She was a little scared when he said that the space agency has never obtained such a large budget for a single project, and his voice trembled even when he talked about it.

But this is inevitable. All their discussions just now were based on excess budget support, otherwise the time would have to be at least doubled.

But he actually knows that this is far from the upper limit of China's aerospace potential. If the world's largest industrial country is really allowed to go all out, the Long March 10 can be launched once in three months, but the price will be too high.

"In this case, I ask you to send Chinese people to the moon before August 2018. I order the Long March 10 project to be launched immediately! I will submit this opinion at the Supreme Meeting, but I want you to guarantee that the aerospace industry will The Bureau wants to send the first Chinese to the moon before private spaceflight!"

The superiors focused on the "first" to emphasize the tone, because this first is the meaning of the Long March 10's existence, otherwise there would be no need at all.

Lin Ju would never have imagined that the space agency would make an exception to launch the competition not because of Aramco, but because of Xinyuan Aerospace Power!