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

"Old She, please take a rest."

Lin Ju did not find Academician She in the launch area, and there was no one in the guest house. When he finally found him, he was at the nearest launch control center.

Ensuring the launch of such a super rocket involved almost all the energy of the Aerospace Development Committee. Academician She had hardly had a good rest after arriving a few days in advance. He would take off his glasses and rub his eyes from time to time.

"Go right away. I'll ask them to strengthen the safety supervision of the fuel ship. Once it explodes, all our work in the past six months will be in vain."

Academician She is naturally talking about the cargo ships that transport liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for the Long March 18. Although they are not heavy compared to ships, their explosive power can be extremely shocking.

If something unexpected happens when they are very close, the resulting force will be no different than an atomic bomb.

The only thing that can compare with this is LNG natural gas carriers. The Aviation Development Commission has also applied for many managers in this area to assist in coordinating the transshipment work.

It is not an exaggeration to say that half a year has been spent in vain. That is more than 1,000 tons of liquid hydrogen fuel. SLS only needs to refill 140 tons per launch. The fuel supply to ensure the Long March 18 is equivalent to 8 SLS. Even NACA can't withstand it.

You must know that the Hailong, which only uses liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen in the second stage, even chooses to produce it locally in order to meet the huge fuel demand. It needs a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to accompany each launch and uses its power to electrolyze seawater to slowly replenish the fuel. .

Academician She now feels regretful. If Xinyuan 4 had not been regularized, the Aviation Development Commission would not have been required to take on most of the work. Launching the Long March 18 once was enough trouble. The thought of another launch next year makes his eyes darken. .

"What do you want from me? Tell me quickly. I have to go to the scene soon."

"Nothing, I just want to ask if you can contact the Academy of Sciences. I need a list of domestic laboratory equipment suppliers to build a new laboratory with online purchasing equipment."

Academician She was not too surprised by Lin Ju's decision to build a new laboratory, and immediately nodded in agreement.

"Just go to Xiao Chen and ask him to do it for you... By the way, what scale do you plan to build?"

"It's not that big, just a national laboratory. Can it be done with 30 to 50 billion?"

…

Nevada, Lincoln County.

NVD035, this is the area code of the desert under Dr. Freeman's feet.

It was once a nuclear test site, but in the end it was not used to explode nuclear bombs but was used as a test site for other nuclear devices. It also tested nuclear engines manufactured by NACA in the last century.

Although a set of pollutant treatment measures was established at that time, all radiation residues were buried deep underground and sealed with cement, but Freeman still wore a tight semi-rigid radiation protection suit before he dared to get close.

Some of the soldiers with him were only wearing simple jumpsuits, and their faces were covered with masks instead of gas masks, so they could move more freely.

There is a solitary earth-yellow building more than two hundred meters ahead, which is the newly renovated engine test bed.

Under its thick shell is a NERVA A105 DRAGON ("Dragon") engine. It is a newly manufactured nuclear engine that the entire JFT team spent a year based on the prototype of the last century.

According to Dr. Freeman’s calculations, the ground thrust of this A105 engine will reach 37 tons, the specific impulse will be 970 seconds, the vacuum thrust will reach 45 tons, the specific impulse will be 1300 seconds, and the overall power will exceed 820MW, which has exceeded the initial set limit. index.

Its prototype NERVA A6 engine design is really too old. After Freeman made a lot of optimizations, it not only greatly improved the performance, but also reduced the weight by 30%.

What's more important is its safety. Although the exhaust gas of A105 when it is working still cannot be discharged into the atmosphere, it is very clean and safe when it is not working. The perfect protection mechanism will only shut down the reactor instead of explode when triggered, which can ensure the maximum protection. Spacecraft safety.

The only regret is the maximum sustainable working time. Freeman originally aimed at the A100's continuous working time of at least 24 hours, but in the actual design, the issues of vacuum heat dissipation and material tolerance could not be solved. The design of NERVA A105 The maximum working time is only 8 hours, and it is estimated that it will not exceed 4 hours in actual applications, and it needs to be cooled down at an interval of more than 3 hours to continue working.

The first A105 prototype was successfully trial-produced a month ago and underwent ignition testing. However, due to a failure on the test bench, an explosion occurred. The prototype was buried in less than 300 seconds after testing.

Fortunately, no radiation leaked out, but that prototype could only be scrapped, so the second prototype Freeman insisted on being present to inspect the new test bench, but in the end he was not able to go in and could only supervise others from a distance to complete their work. .

When the personnel there began to evacuate, Freeman turned around and got in the car and returned to the control center 15 kilometers away, where he met several strange visitors.

"Ned Stringer, this is Augustine, we're from ArcaSpace."

Freeman also greeted a few people, then frowned and looked at the NACA official who led these strangers in:

"Hey! You know how secretive this place is, these people shouldn't be in here."

NACA officials tried to explain: "Arca Space is a very good company, they are..."

"I know where they're coming from."

Freeman is actually a senior aerospace enthusiast, and even the small company Arca is very impressed.

Although Arca is based in Aramco, like Virgin Galactic, it is foreign-owned and founded by Romanians. This company is even slightly famous in the industry because their research fields are also quite strange.

For example, they began to study the air tip engine more than ten years ago. They also manufactured the water rocket engine with a thrust of 7,000 tons and a specific impulse of 67 seconds, which seemed to be a crooked approach.

Freeman felt that they were more like a group of rich kids getting together for fun, and he was very disgusted with dealing with these people.

This attitude made NACA officials a little embarrassed, but Stringer, the leader of ARCA, explained kindly:

"ArcaSpace has been acquired by Pratt \u0026 Whitney the day before yesterday. Now we are an authentic Aramco company, and we are about to undertake the research and development tasks required by NACA."

Freeman: "So what are you going to study?"

Stringer: "A water engine, or water steam engine, uses the ultra-high temperature of a nuclear reactor to cause water to burst out and generate thrust. Our goal is to create a super engine with a thrust of more than 40,000 tons and a specific impulse of more than 120 seconds.

It is the first stage of the newly designed "Sea Dragon" rocket. It will work to an altitude of 40 kilometers and be jettisoned, and then the upper stage will send a 600-ton payload to low-Earth orbit. "

Freeman's first reaction was that NACA was crazy. The Sea Dragon itself was extremely unreliable, and now it had to apply even more unreliable water engine technology. It was simply carried away.

But looking at the people who had been brought into the JF testing site, he realized that he might also join these madmen.