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

However, to Tang Weitian's expectation, Lin Ju did not act very proud, but looked at Xinyuan-3 on the launch tower with deep meaning and said:

"Traditional rocket engines are nothing more than the explosion of oxidizer and fuel to generate thrust. Their structures are very similar, and their upper limit has already been determined. The future of space cannot always rely on them."

Tang Weitian immediately thought of many things, including aerospace planes, nuclear thermal engines, etc. From the starting point, these products far exceeded traditional rockets.

However, at his age, he is destined to die on the traditional road, including in the physical sense.

"Yes, the future belongs to you young people, but I can still use the remaining energy of ten years."

Tang Weitian is not sad. Each generation has its own mission. If the next generation of aerospace power still relies on him, it can only be said that the development of aerospace is abnormal.

Amy, Texas.

Ma Yilong, like 2 million YouTube netizens, stared at the 4-hour live broadcast of the launch on his computer.

It is now around 7 o'clock in the morning on June 24, and it is still midnight, but the number of viewers of the live broadcast on the external network is not large at all.

This is the most powerful rocket in human history. It is not a CBC. The single-core stage provides up to 7,500 tons of thrust, more than twice that of the Saturn V!

The huge Xinyuan No. 3 was erected on the movable launch pad. The white mist rising from the liquid oxygen was not so conspicuous under the sunlight. In other words, it was set off by the huge rocket body, making it look less obvious.

How tall is Xinyuan-3? 147 meters!

In a series of comparison pictures of heavy-lift rockets including Saturn V, SLS, Long March 9 and Xinyuan-3, Xinyuan-3 is directly taller and looks one size larger.

The final assembly building was renovated two months in advance to assemble the rocket, and the final assembly work was carried out in a semi-open air. A higher shed was built on the roof like an illegal building.

Such an exaggerated rocket standing there is more shocking than Xinyuan No. 2A, as if the surrounding environment has been reduced in proportion.

Ma Yilong carefully counted the parameters of the rockets rolling past in the live broadcast, and his eyes grew more and more intense as he watched.

The K380V full-flow liquid oxygen kerosene engine has a specific impulse of 331 seconds, a thrust of 399 tons at sea level, and a maximum nozzle diameter of only 2 meters.

Such high-performance performance has completely surpassed the Lucia RD180/181 series kerosene engines purchased by NACA, and even won the world's No. 1 kerosene engine title with a single combustion chamber thrust of 400 tons.

The reliability of the K380V is extremely high. As the main engine of the Xinyuan 5 series core stage, the K380V has been launched more than 20 times without any problems.

The reliability problem of the core-stage arrangement of 19 engines was overcome by the K380, which has been in service for a long time. Only a few people still doubt whether the impact of the centralized arrangement on the airflow channel is too serious.

The CCAV host also asked this question.

In the past, rocket launches were a big deal. CCAV broadcast live broadcasts of large spacecraft or manned launch missions. As a result, there have been so many live broadcasts in the past two years that the host has some basic knowledge of rockets.

For this Xinyuan-3 rocket launch, the TV station, the Space Administration, and Xinyuan Company were still in the studio.

host:

"...We have seen that the Xinyuan-3 giant rocket adopts a design with 19 engines arranged in the core stage for recyclability. So, Academician Zhao, can you tell us the difficulties of this design?"

Academician Zhao: "Several core stages are connected in parallel. Let's take the N1 rocket engine as an example. The first is the control system, which requires the 19 engines to stably output thrust in all directions. The second is the reliability of the engine. We all know If there are more of them, the probability that one of them will have a problem will increase. If an accident occurs and it cannot be used, the launch is likely to fail."

The host looked at Xinyuan's engineers: "Commander Wang, how does Xinyuan No. 3 deal with these two problems?"

"The engines of Xinyuan 3 are very reliable. Even if there is an accident, at most it will shut down and cannot be started. However, the design of Xinyuan 2 can still send the upper stage completely into orbit even if four engines fail. More fuel than expected may be consumed that may not be recovered."

Host: "Can it succeed even if four engines fail? That's more than 1,000 tons of thrust."

Chief Engineer Wang: "In the worst case scenario, 15 engines can output thrust at 112% power, which can still guarantee a thrust of about 7,200 tons. Just fly for a while longer."

Host: "But the position of the failed engine may be irregular and random. Wouldn't this cause thrust imbalance and the rocket to deflect?"

Chief Engineer Wang: "Xinyuan is confident enough in terms of intelligent control and attitude adjustment."

"..."

Ma Yilong agreed with the last sentence.

Xin'an XC4's XW151 intelligent driving system dropped a blockbuster in the automotive industry. Tesla contacted Google, and both parties agreed on the XW151: This is a product of the future!

The gap is surprisingly large. If you want to achieve XW151-level driving skills, you must either rely on horrifyingly rich data learning, or develop extremely powerful artificial intelligence.

They all believe that the success of XW151 comes from the former, but they just can't figure out how Xinyuan collected so much data.

Tesla Laboratory told Lao Ma that it would reach the level of XW151 in three years, but by that time Xin'an had long since stopped using XW151 and had already moved it to XW191!

This is the case in cars. It's hard to imagine how terrible the intelligent control system used in aerospace would be.

Not to mention anything else, the Explorer robot alone is enough to make a large number of robotics companies tremble. Boston Dynamics, which was originally consciously leading in this aspect, swallowed its saliva after seeing it.

Is it difficult just to control some engine postures?

Lao Ma thinks it's not difficult, and there's a lot to be done.

He looked at his assistant:

"Scott, we must strengthen our confidence in the starship. As long as the control system passes the test, the more engines, the more reliable it will be."

The basic design of the first-generation starship has taken shape. Like later generations, it is a starship spacecraft plus a booster.

Since the first-generation Raptor engine, which is expected to be tested and ignited next month, has a maximum thrust of only 185 tons, it is expected that 29 Raptor engines will be used to reach a thrust of 5,400 tons.

The dead weight of the starship spacecraft has also been reduced to 65 tons, which is 20 tons lower than the starship that sent Lin Ju to death. The effective load capacity is 120 tons, which is 60 tons lower. It is equipped with 6 Raptor vacuum engines arranged in two circles, with a thrust of about 1,100 tons. Three engines are required to perform landing recovery braking.

Although Lao Ma has the decision-making power as the chief engineer, the design of the 33 engines in the core class still scares the other engineers. Although there are 27 heavy Falcons in the front, the latter is a CBC and cannot be generalized.

Now Lao Ma is looking forward to the successful launch of Xinyuan 3. Although there are only 19 engines, it also shows that the feasibility of parallel connection of multiple engines is not low, so that the starship plan can be promoted as scheduled.

If Lin Ju knew that his competitors wanted him to succeed, he would probably laugh too.