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

There were no reporters during Lao Ma's trip to Qiongzhou, so the atmosphere seemed quite relaxed.

The launch station of the Mengtian Experimental Module is right next to the Xinyuan Launch Site, so Lao Ma was not in a hurry to go, but was led by Lin Ju to visit the Xinyuan Launch Site first.

In Xinyuan's No. 2 assembly building, he saw the first stage of the Xinyuan-3 rocket that had recently completed the axial module launch mission of the Qianqian space station and had just completed some maintenance work.

11 meters in diameter and 77 meters in height. Because the surface has not been covered with insulation tiles, there are still heavy traces of ablation.

A group of people stood under the rocket, level with the 19 suspended K380 engines. Lao Ma reached out and touched the nozzle that emitted a metallic blue light, then got underneath to observe the structure at the bottom of Xinyuan-3.

Different from the starship super-heavy booster with messy wiring harness under the previous world line level 1, the bottom of Xinyuan 3 has been perfectly processed. Except for the swing mechanism and combustion chamber, the rest of the engine is covered by a heat shield. , to prevent backflow tail flame ablation.

Lao Ma looked at the engine for a long time, put his hands on his hips and said with emotion:

"(Translation) The combustion chamber of the Raptor engine is not much smaller than that of the K380, but the thrust is less than half. SpecaX has lagged far behind in terms of engines. Even the RD181 needs two such nozzles."

Lin Ju: "We have also conducted many iterations. The K380 used for early verification will be manufactured in a batch of about 10 units for ultra-high-intensity testing. This can identify many problems and use resources to promote progress."

Due to his lack of understanding of Xinyuan's internal affairs, Lao Ma recognized the rapid iteration method and kept nodding:

"Yes, mass production and testing like cars are required to quickly iterate, but Lin, why is XAP still using traditional aluminum alloy rocket bodies? Although stainless steel is heavier, it is much cheaper, and the dry mass ratio is better for recyclable rockets. It’s not that important.”

Lin Ju: "I very much approve of the stainless steel technical solution, but compared to the actual low cost, the idea of ​​XAP is that a lower dry mass ratio brings higher transportation capacity, which will make the average cost per kilogram lower."

"Well……"

Lao Ma is obviously aware of the difference between the routes of XAP and SpecaX, but he thinks it is not too important. For such a giant rocket, the cost of the rocket body will not be much lower.

He thought of the starship he planned. The super-heavy booster B4 was still in the design stage, but it still couldn't catch up with Xinyuan-3.

He tried his best to imagine Xinyuan III as a stainless steel metal surface, and it felt as if the starship was already standing beside him.

…

"On the first anniversary of Project Dawn, what achievements have been made in the moon landing?"

"Liu Minglu: Resolutely win the battle against 'YF77' and build an advanced and reliable high-thrust hydrogen-oxygen engine."

"The Wentian and Mengtian experimental modules were launched into orbit within two days and docked smoothly. The Tiangong Space Station has become the second largest spacecraft operating in orbit."

"The number of people in our country who have entered space exceeded 100."

"The four astronauts will return to Earth in the near future."

“Douyin, recording a beautiful life.”

"Byte provoked the founder to go to space to bring goods to Lin Ju."

"Satellite network speed is much faster than 4G. Is 5G still necessary?"

“Elon Musk ends his trip to China.”

In late September, a series of news happened one after another.

The first is YF77. The anxious Sixth Institute received a timely rain: two senior engineers from Xinyuan Aerospace Power Department guided the improvement of YF77.

The price is not money. Xinyuan has exchanged some space instrument technology from the space agency, which is more precious than money.

For Xinyuan, the technology of the YF77, which still uses the original gas generator cycle and has medium thrust, is very simple. The Sixth Institute mainly lacks experience and just needs a little guidance on the design. There is no absolute difficulty in the materials.

YF90 and YF79 are still under development. Even without Xinyuan, the space agency will be able to solve these problems sooner or later. It is just a matter of course.

Starting from YF79 and YF90, it can be said that the space agency's hydrogen-oxygen engine technology has officially entered the world's first-class level, at least on the same level as Aramco.

YF77, it was just the darkness before dawn.

The H240 and H80 they purchased before are most likely to be used in the construction of lunar bases after the manned lunar landing mission. Using these two engines as upper stage power can increase the lunar transfer orbit capacity of the Long March 10 by about 10%. That's a lot more quality.

In addition, there are 6 astronauts who went up in March. One of the four astronauts from the space agency is left, and system engineer Ke Yun is left at Xinyuan. The rest will return to the ground in October.

For more than half a year, this is a new record for Chinese astronauts’ continuous stay in space.

The four crew members who returned were to make room for the following personnel. Their physical condition was actually very good, and living in zero gravity for half a year did not cause any trouble.

However, Deng Lei has something to do when he comes back. The H2M will make its first flight in two months. For such an expensive thing, Xinyuan must find experienced astronauts to conduct multiple test flights.

You must know that the follow-up of H2 will still require high-frequency space operations for almost a year, capturing satellites and transporting "sky survey" telescopes. The tasks are much more complicated.

Therefore, Deng Lei himself has no reluctance to return to the ground. Now that he is in his physical peak, Xinyuan is not willing to leave the oldest astronaut on the ground and will definitely arrange a lot of flight missions.

Each operation of H2 requires a lot of manpower, and it will inevitably involve non-professional astronauts, and it also needs the help of professional players.

Although Xinyuan's space tourism service has reached its peak since July and the number of people entering space has increased rapidly, half of them are pure payloads, that is, tourists. It can only be said that the space tourism market has been fully tapped.

After the Steadfast mission in July, two wealthy foreigners who were traveling together had just completed a seven-day tour of the space station, and immediately spent money to join the 24-hour tourist flight that was launched on the same day as the Mengtian experimental module in September.

Due to sufficient training and bringing his own space suit, this trip only cost a few million dollars per person. The average cost of the two trips dropped immediately, making people call him a travel genius.

However, the most cost-effective person on this flight was Zhang Yingming. His physical condition was unexpectedly good. After simple training, he picked up a stock one-size-fits-all spacesuit and boarded the flight on the day Douyin was released.

Xinyuan officially linked up with WeChat for publicity, and used the gimmick of the founder to go into space, which attracted millions of downloads. Then in the morning, everyone watched the launch of the Mengtian experimental module, and in the afternoon, they watched Mr. Zhang’s Douyin live broadcast of the Steadfast tourist flight.

Facts have proved that this initiative is extremely successful. Mr. Zhang was rewarded with millions of gifts by users of his company’s APP, which is already as high as that of popular anchors. In addition, many creators contacted in advance released exquisite short videos one after another, and he gained a lot in the first 10 hours. It has attracted tens of millions of users and used new models to make mobile users addicted.

When many people realized how much short videos consume data, Zhang Yingming released a video recorded in the corner of the Steadfast cabin.

"Family members, who hasn't used the Jingwei satellite network? You can carry Gigabit broadband with you and use it wherever you go. The original price is 8,999 per year. Now open the comment area and click on the web page to jump. Enter 'Mr. Zhang' on Xinyuan's official website. 666', receive a red envelope of up to 8888 yuan, everyone has a share, first come first served..."