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

On November 17, the space shuttle Unity, which completed its fourth 7-day tourist flight to the space station, returned with 4 foreign billionaires and 2 domestic billionaires.

Five space agency researchers who will go into space in December stood in the tower of the Xinyuan Launch Site and watched the Unity space shuttle land in an extremely gentle manner, gliding to a stop of about 3,800 meters on the ground.

This mission was very different from the previous ones. For the first time, Xinyuan tried to use the automatic driving system to take over the landing instead of manual control by the driver.

The test was quite successful. The return route of the Unity was automatically calculated by the program, and no faults could be found on the ground. This means that the safety factor of the Unity is higher.

Director Huang from the Launch Administration said with a smile:

"Students in the Tiangong training class, it will be you who prepare the Unity for the next launch."

Because it is nominally space learning, the annual training quota is now internally called training class students of Tiangong Space Station, and no one thinks there is anything wrong.

After planned training, the five experts, although their age and physical condition are not perfect, are still qualified and can carry out the launch mission.

The other four people were all a little overjoyed, but only He Zhuang was a little sad.

Tang Weitian knew why. Just the day before yesterday, the Long March-6 A-core first-stage low-altitude vertical landing test failed and one core stage exploded.

The Long March 6A is a derivative development model of the Long March 6. The original world-class design is two YF100 engines in the core stage plus four solid rocket boosters with a thrust of 120 tons, and a 700-kilometer SSO orbital capacity of about 4.5 tons.

It is no longer necessary now. The SSO capacity of the new Long March 8 is the same as that of the old Long March 6A, and it is still recyclable, so the configuration of the Long March 6A has naturally changed.

The LEO capacity of 10 tons to 25 tons is covered by the Long March 8 and 7, and the small rocket below 2 tons is the Long March 6. Therefore, the range from 2 to 10 tons is a blank area, and there are no cheap reusable rockets.

In order to solve this problem, the space agency decided to develop a medium-sized single rocket body recyclable rocket with a low-Earth orbit carrying capacity of about 7 to 8 tons based on the Long March 6. The Sixth Academy is still responsible for the development task.

After careful consideration and preliminary research on future rocket recovery technology, He Ruang boldly decided to develop a Long March 6A rocket that uses three YF100Ks in the core first stage and has a LEO capacity of about 8 tons.

Three YF100Ks can output 390 tons of ground thrust. The second-stage engine is a YF115B engine, and the third-stage engine uses a YF50 engine. The take-off mass is 288 tons, the inland recovery capacity is 6.9 tons, and the sea or Qiongzhou recovery capacity is 8 tons.

The design is not the best, but it is the cheapest. The arrow body is still 3.35 meters in length, and there is no new technology.

The only special thing is that the core stage squeezes three YF100Ks, which requires higher requirements for the recovery control system, so a core stage was built first for 1,000-meter low-altitude hovering and recovery testing.

This is the same layout and number of recycled engines for the future Long March 9, which is equivalent to preparing for the future and increasing the information in the technology library.

The landing was a success, but for some reason it suddenly caught fire more than ten seconds after landing, igniting the remaining fuel and causing an explosion.

The test can only be regarded as a failure. The preliminary investigation result is that the bottom pipeline is too crowded and cracked by vibration. However, the long six rocket body is so big that it is a bit troublesome to solve it.

He Ruan: Feeling tired~

Oh, and there is also the "chopstick" recovery technology that is still under development, that is, clamping the grille rudder for recovery. Two verification rocket bodies of the Long March 6 modification were exploded, and the third one is ready to be tried again before the end of the year.

The space agency has also changed its thinking due to the skyrocketing funding, and is more tolerant of the success rate of test rockets. Anyway, the Changliu is not expensive to build, so just blow it up.

The Long March 6 now has a production line. The number of launches this year has reached seven and 22 times. One recovery failed on land and the rocket body had cracks. One recovery failed at sea. The rest were successful. The Xinyuan-1 series this year The number of launches is only 16.

The latter has undertaken many foreign missions and launched many small satellites for desert countries. On the contrary, most of the domestic scientific missions have been taken over by Changliu.

SpecaX’s Falcon 9 takes the lead, having undertaken 29 launch missions so far. Many European countries have chosen the Falcon 9, which is relatively cheap and correct. At the same time, ISS also launched a Falcon 9. Supply mission.

Due to Wolf Clause restrictions, domestic commercial launch missions can only be limited to Asia, but there are not many, and it is acceptable for the time being.

In any case, the Long March 6 and the improved models under development are still the most successful series of recyclable rockets of the space agency, and He Yuan's future is still bright.

Shen Zuozhou, a space propulsion technology expert from the First Academy of Sciences, wanted to liven up the atmosphere:

"We have to suspend work for the remaining 20 days for training and rest. How about finding something to do? The Tianwen project should be approved. The Mars atmosphere round-trip vehicle should be for the Sixth Academy? How about researching it?"

The Aerospace Development Committee is holding a small meeting in the past few days to discuss the long-term planned mission of manned landing on Mars, which is temporarily named the Tianwen series plan.

In the mid- to late-stage missions, the tentative idea is for the Sixth and Fourth Institutes to undertake the development of a reusable atmospheric shuttle that travels between the surface of Mars and the Mars low-Earth orbit spacecraft.

Several people looked at each other. The five of them had one chief rocket body designer, one chief engine engineer, and three chief spacecraft designers. That was almost enough.

"With 0.38G gravity, how about transporting a 5-ton payload to orbit?"

"How many seats are there? Three seats is enough."

"There should be basic ground-based life support facilities, which can also be used as rapid maneuvering tools on the surface..."

…

"Dream Chaser block1-Falcon-9 MISSON READY!"

“The assembly is in good condition and ready to launch.”

“Countdown 30 minutes.”

"..."

At the Kennedy Space Launch Center, the Dream Chaser 1 in full condition is installed on a Falcon 9 rocket that has undergone two successful recovery missions. The extremely low temperature brought by liquid oxygen makes the surface of the latter's rocket body covered with white frost.

After nearly a month of reorganization, the current Dream Chaser B1 space shuttle has fully met the manned requirements and has obtained the manned license from NACA. It is equipped with 4 expensive dummies and is ready for manned flights. The last test before.

In the launch center, Spanish astronaut Pedro Dick squinted at the huge fairing wrapping the Dream Chaser.

Due to the adoption of more advanced technologies, the preparation time of Dream Chaser can be shortened to less than half a month, which is similar to that of Falcon 9. Therefore, the launch time of the next manned mission is December.

The first manned flight will carry three astronauts, a NACA engineer and one professional astronaut, Spanish astronaut Pedro Dick.

The latter had the most experience and was selected as commander.

"Pedro, how do you feel? You are going to fly the space shuttle, which is much more exciting than the Soyuz spacecraft."

"You are not an Ami, but you are the first astronaut to fly her. This is our attitude towards our allies."

Officials at the launch center chatted with Pedro, but the latter only managed a smile.

Why are you talking about the attitude of allies here? ESA only has 3 places in total, 1 for orbiting the moon, and 2 for subsequent landings. If it is the turn of a fringe country like Spain, he will definitely not have a share, so NACA let him Come drive a Dream Chaser as "compensation."

Damn Yankees, always trying to squeeze old Europe. Do you think ESA is a weakling like India?

Pedro cursed in his heart, and at the same time prayed that the ESA's Selene Plan would be approved soon, so that he wouldn't work for Ami in vain.