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

The chance encounter between the Glory and the Dream Chaser in the sky diluted the atmosphere of competition for the two countries across the Pacific and contributed to a few days of folk joy.

After all, for Aramco, the Artemis program has been successful so far. The Orion spacecraft has entered the lunar orbit and everything is normal. In addition, the Kirschner equation of "1*SLS=2*CZ-10" has been circulated to a small extent, and Dream Chaser The previous manned flight has eased a lot.

Especially if the Dream Chaser's first manned flight is successful, then the six astronauts from the two Soyuz launch missions canceled this year and the next batch of three astronauts will fill the Dream Chaser to replace most of the crew in the international space. It will probably be held in January next year.

The Aerospace Development Commission is approaching the New Year, so everyone is naturally a little relaxed, and there is also good news: the four boosters and core stages of the Long March 10 Yao-2 rocket have been completed.

At this time, only four months had passed since the launch of the Long March 10 Yaoyi rocket.

Because the Long March 10 rocket uses the rocket body of the Long March 5, it is relatively mature technically. Before the Long March 10 project was established, the prototype rockets of the Long March 5 were actually tested on a vibration table, and they were manufactured very quickly.

When manufacturing the Long March 10 Yaoyi rocket, the Jingu Rocket Manufacturing Base started construction of 8 boosters and core-stage (universal) 5-meter-diameter rocket bodies at one time. Five were used to assemble the rocket, and one was used for testing. There are only 2 left, and three more have been made during this period.

The YF130 engine used in the first stage is fairly reliable and has been installed on the rocket body. It only needs the upper stage of the YF77.

Xinyuan's engine engineers participated in the improvement of YF77 three months ago. The degree of improvement is extremely exaggerated. After solving the design flaws and hidden problems of YF77, the thrust was increased by 10% and the weight was reduced by 500 kilograms. The performance jumped to First class level.

The Sixth Institute was extremely covetous of the engine engineers sent by Xinyuan, and tried to poach them with huge sums of money and guaranteed futures, but failed, so it shamelessly extended the stay of several engineers until February to help improve the YF77 batch production line.

The first batch of improved YF77s is called YF77 modified (i.e. YF77G). Its reliability and performance have been greatly improved. It is expected to be delivered to the Long March 10 Yao-2 rocket at the end of January, allowing the latter to complete its launch mission in February.

Therefore, the interval between the Long March 10 Yao-2 and Yao-1 rockets is 6 months. Although the SLS manufacturing capacity is accelerating, the Jingu Rocket Manufacturing Factory is even crazier...

Both families are now in a state of "I have the advantage", so their attitudes are extremely harmonious.

But for the world, it has reached the point where it is beyond comprehension of the fight between gods.

…

New Delhi.

JAXA, IRSO, and RKA gathered here to work together on the moon landing plan.

A week ago, Kishimoto received the moon landing plan evaluation report from the "Asia Star Project Preparatory Committee (composed of JAXA and IRSO)". Through thousands of pages of lengthy articles, he proved that the Asia Star project can be guaranteed to be completed around 2020 and no later than 2022. Completed manned lunar landing in 2016.

So the two countries began detailed consultations, and finally, after consideration, decided to develop the Asia Star project to Lucia on a "limited basis" to speed up the project.

Lucia experts who have been guiding the construction and improvement of the Gaganyan spacecraft in India gathered together and held a tripartite demonstration meeting for the Asia Star project.

Perhaps because they knew that their aerospace technology was still slightly behind Lucia's, JAXA and IRSO did not hide it, and handed over all the technologies they could provide to Lucia's experts for evaluation.

Alexander Nadiradze was the chief engineer who was ordered to help India's Gaganyan plan. The order he received before departure was to use the "Ascent Series" technology to guide the Gaganyan spacecraft.

What is the "Ascent" series of spacecraft? They were developed by the Alliance in the 1960s. They were upgraded from the "Vostok" spacecraft that Gagarin rode on to complete extravehicular walking missions...

Nadiradze began to think that selling these technologies for 500 million US dollars was too much of a trap for his third brother, but after coming to guide IRSO's work, his thinking changed:

At India's level, building the Vostok spacecraft for them may not be reliable!

There are many problems with the Jaganyan spacecraft, including but not limited to:

The shell material of the spacecraft did not meet the requirements. However, the third brother in charge of the project told him that this was a ground test and would not be that good without passing through the atmosphere. He was proud to have saved a lot of money;

The assembly workshop cannot be said to be dust-free. How did those workers wearing slippers get in? ! This assembly precision is comparable to Lucia's light industry;

The structural design is obviously unreasonable. The structural designer is a former employee of NACA. His design of the original drawings was actually fine, but the leaders of the Science Department made quite a few unrealistic requirements, which is why it happened like this;

Excrement was found in the workshop;

The escape tower ignition system data was falsified and fell below safety standards.

Lucia has always been known for being rough and arrogant, but it was only when Nadiradze arrived here that he discovered what true rudeness was. Without him, the Gaganyan spacecraft would probably not even have ashes left for the astronauts...

Fortunately, as an RKA expert, his words are still very effective. Through difficult efforts, he is changing these little by little. At least he can make the Jaganyan spacecraft immortal.

After experiencing so many things, you can imagine Nadiradze’s mentality when he participated in the Asia Star preparatory meeting.

But he didn't show it, and the less reliable the two countries were, the better. If they were as serious and hard-working as that student from the East, the business wouldn't be possible.

He saw almost the same information provided by JAXA, and it seemed to be much better than IRSO - if there were no false standards, at least their industrial standards were implemented much better, and the island nation's precision machinery was pretty good, so it should be okay, right?

However, judging from the comprehensive level of rockets between the two countries in the past, they may not be able to do it alone.

"I think there is no problem with the basic rocket design of H-X."

Nadiradze's first words made the meeting place burst into laughter, as if the Asia Star project had been successful.

"There is no problem if the core stage of the rocket is manufactured by the island country and the booster is undertaken by India, but the task division of the lunar landing spacecraft needs to be improved."

"Please give me your opinion, thank you!"

Shinichiro Sakai, the proposer of H-X, was very humble after listening to the translation, because they really had no foundation in this area.

Nadiradze: "I suggest that the lunar landing spacecraft be improved based on the Gaganyan spacecraft. This can save a lot of time. JAXA is responsible for the design and construction of the service module. You have manufactured cargo spacecraft, so there should be no problem in this regard?"

Shinichiro Sakai hesitated for a moment, but Sivan Samarkand on the opposite side said it was okay first, so he had no choice but to nod.

Nadiradze: "The other thing is the lander. I suggest that we three parties jointly manufacture it."

Shinichiro Sakai: "What is three-party joint manufacturing?"

"Three-party joint manufacturing means that we propose a highly feasible solution, allocate component manufacturing, and finally assemble it in India or an island country."

Sivan Samarkand: "What do you mean?"

Nadiradze beat around the bush and repeated it seven or eight times before JAXA and IRSO finally understood.

Lucia's own manned moon landing plan has been determined with the establishment of the Energy 2 rocket project. It was initially decided to use the "Eagle" spacecraft and a traditional lander, launch it in two stages with the Energy 2 rocket, and assemble it in low-Earth orbit. , fly to the moon together.

The Eagle spacecraft is not difficult for Lucia, but the landing and ascent return lander are different, and they were not completed during the Alliance period.

However, the technical principles are generally fine. The alliance has conducted an unmanned sample return mission to the moon. The process and specific data are available. The only difference is money.

In order to save time and money, RKA decided to "borrow a chicken to lay an egg" and inserted the development of the lander into the Asia Star project. It used the money from the two countries to pay for the research and development expenses, and it could also be used when it landed on the moon.

This is Lucia's tried-and-tested routine, to throw out a valuable project for external cooperation, and then continue to attract investment, so that she can use other people's money to raise her own children.

However, Sivan Samarkand was not from the Ministry of National Defense and had not yet realized there was any problem. In his opinion, it was natural for the three countries to work together, and he subconsciously wanted to nod.

Only JAXA smelled the atmosphere of conspiracy and quietly tried:

"So, in which country is the main body of the lander manufactured?"

Nadiradze: "Haha... These are all small problems, just small problems. Mr. Sakai, everything Lucia did was for you.

My friend, Lucia just wants to get a little remuneration while helping emerging countries realize their dreams. We Lucians are the most sincere in international cooperation. "