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

Looking at the extremely large cabin space of nearly 5 meters wide in the picture, Lao Ma asked his assistant:

"Can we build a cabin this wide?"

"Yes, but the diameter of Falcon 9 is only 3.7 meters. The diameter of such a large space station is nearly 8 meters with the fairing added. It is too big. The Falcon Heavy has enough capacity, but it cannot be launched up."

Lao Ma didn't speak, just held his mouth with his hand and put his thumb on the tip of his nose.

Originally, specaX had always regarded itself as an explorer in the sky. Even the continuous failures of Falcon 9 did not dampen his confidence. However, the emergence of Xinyuan Company did put great pressure on Lao Ma.

Although the upcoming Falcon Heavy is enough to compete with the Xinyuan-2 rocket, it is the limit of this configuration, and the rocket body is not as good as the opponent.

It also lags behind greatly in terms of manned spacecraft. The second-generation Dragon spacecraft actually has the capability of manned flight, but it is estimated that there will still be a lot of trouble before it can undertake manned missions.

The bidding for the basic parts of the Artemis program has been completed. The Orion spacecraft is developed by Locke Martin, the service module is responsible for the European Space Agency, the bulk of the lander is Blue Origin, and a small part is handed over to specaX.

However, the role of specaX is still very important. The Falcon Heavy rocket is currently the only heavy-lift rocket that can project 26 tons of material to the moon. However, it cannot be reused, so two Heavy Falcon rockets have to be built, and both of them will be discarded in the end.

Three-engine SLS, three-engine Falcon Heavy, specaX has occupied a very important position in the Artemis plan, but Lao Ma is still not satisfied.

Because Xinyuan has proposed the more powerful Xinyuan III giant rocket and nuclear-powered space shuttle, and his interstellar spacecraft is still under imagination and has no specific plan.

The "Raptor" liquid oxygen methane engine that will lay the foundation for starships in later generations has not yet been born. The first-generation Raptor will not be tested until 2016, but it has already been positioned as the future main engine of specaX.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, BE4 engine, was originally very slow in progress, but immediately increased investment after the success of Xinyuan 2. Once successful, the thrust of 250 tons will be stronger than Xianyuan's M220.

"The Artemis plan is too backward."

Lao Ma suddenly said something, and the assistant knew that the boss had new ideas:

"NACA selected Bezos' Blue Moon lander. It is no different from the Apollo project except that it is big. The spacecraft and lander are still separated, and they still need to be docked multiple times, and the procedures are complicated.

specaX is ahead of everyone. We have to find a way to stop astronauts from running around in each module, so that the spacecraft can land on the lunar surface and return. "

Ma Yilong opened the memo on his phone and drew a vague outline with twisted lines. It was a bullet-shaped spaceship with a flat head and two small wings on each side.

"Such a spacecraft can not only land on Mars and the moon, but also land in the atmosphere. It is a real spacecraft. I call it a star ship.

I know that there are liquid oxygen and kerosene engines with greater thrust in the factory, but methane is the fuel that can be produced on the planet in the future, so we still stick to methane power for the next step... I understand what to do. "

Three days later, when Lin Ju was sitting in the back seat of the Caiyun trainer plane, being driven by Deng Lei, he checked his cell phone before taking off and found a message of special interest while browsing Little Blue Bird. Lao Ma announced the next goal of specaX.

It's a starship. It's different from what I remember, but the general design has already appeared.

"This damn worldline correction power."

"Ah? Boss, what did you say?"

The canopy had not yet been closed, and the V8 air-cooled gasoline engine manufactured by Southern Motors drove the propeller to make a loud noise. Deng Lei could not hear what Lin Ju was saying for a while.

"I say, work hard and you will be transferred to the next batch of space stations!"

Lin Ju's voice was almost the same as before, but the amazing thing was that Deng Lei actually heard it clearly. He excitedly took off with his boss and flew at high speed through the woods around the airport.

The horizontal flying speed of Caiyun is only 290km/h. To Deng Lei, it is as slow as a kite. But for Lin Ju, who only cares about the scenery on the ground, it is a novel experience and he shouts excitedly on the radio.

The air traffic control just kept asking Deng Lei not to do stunts so that the success rate of the ejection seat would be the highest.

As the boss, Lin Ju is of course a super pilot who provides one-on-one instruction. After taking theoretical classes, he can also experience flying every day. The rest of the company's students are taught in small classes by retired pilots hired and can also be taken on flights, but the duration is much shorter. .

…

On November 24, the Long March 6 Yaosi rocket was erected at the Bingzhou Space Launch Center.

This rocket has no satellite mission, and all the first and above stages are counterweights, which are obviously used for testing.

After a successful recycling using the recycling control system purchased from Xinyuan in August, the pressure on the Eighth Institute was actually greater. It used all the data from the Yaosan Mission to improve its own recycling system.

The bus was changed and an RX01 board was purchased, which doubled the parallel processing capability.

A lot of data has been added to the posture database. After all, there is a successful experience, so just work hard to build on it.

Although Xinyuan's recycling control system is encrypted, the peripheral parts are inevitably parsed and incorporated into its own system.

In order to maximize the success rate, the Eighth Academy creatively created a set of simulation software to simulate the rocket recovery test, and collected a lot of data for authenticity, and then ran it on the supercomputer. The new generation recovery system is internally codenamed " "Yunkai" has been simulated thousands of times in supercomputers, and it is really impossible to find faults.

At 14:00 in the afternoon, the Long March 6 Yaosi rocket conducted the fourth test of its self-developed recovery system.

Amid the nervous worries of all the researchers, the rocket successfully lifted off with an orange tail flame.

By the way, the Sixth Academy, which worked hard to develop the YF130, actually had the spare time to make minor modifications to the YF100K, increasing the pressure and increasing the thrust to 130 tons.

A few minutes later, the Long March 6 Yaosi rocket lowered its height toward the landing site at a certain inclination. This was not because there was any problem, but to leave enough room for adjustment.

As the rocket slowly approached the ground, large beads of sweat continued to pour out of He Yun's face, and he almost forgot to breathe.

100 meters, 80 meters...15 meters, the support legs unfold within one second, the engine continues to reduce thrust, and shuts down immediately when the sharp corners of the support legs are about to touch the bottom to prevent backflow from ablating the bottom pipeline.

The first-stage rocket bounced heavily on the ground and then stood still.

A group of researchers resisted the urge to run into the hot landing site and excitedly threw He Yuan up. The scene burst into applause.

…

"At about 15:00 this afternoon, our country successfully conducted a launch vehicle recovery test. The rocket type is the Long March 6 reusable type, which was developed by the Eighth Research Institute of the National Space Administration.

During the development process, the team encountered many difficulties and experienced failures. However, under the leadership of He Yun, chief engineer of the team and vice president of the Eighth Academy, they innovated research methods, strengthened personnel morale, and greatly reduced data collection costs by using computer simulation technology. , enabling our country to possess recycling technology with completely independent intellectual property rights..."

In the evening, Lin Ju looked at the content broadcast on CCAV news and curled his lips unconvinced.