Interstellar Energy Tycoon

April 3rd.

Qiongya Province, Wentian Landing Site.

On a vertical take-off and landing platform, stands a long box-shaped huge device.

The length is more than 100 meters.

The width is about thirty meters.

The surface is silvery white.

There are two golden oval 'turtle back' structures on the back.

Its empty weight is about eight hundred tons.

About three thousand tons when fully loaded.

Its size is more than five times that of the previous "Dragon" aerospace plane.

It looks quite huge and magnificent.

This is the "Hercules" transport spacecraft.

It took the Aerospace Industry Group less than half a year to develop a new device for space transportation.

Its transportation capacity is ten times that of the "Dragon", and the internal cargo space has increased ten times. It can carry up to ten space containers and bring a full 2,000 tons of minerals back to Azure Star.

It runs once, which is equivalent to the "Julong" running back and forth ten times, which means that the energy consumption will increase a lot, but it will be slightly less than ten times, so it can save a small amount of transportation costs.

Today is the day of the first flight of the "Hercules".

Two beams of light with an effective power of more than 150,000 KW hit the two turtles of the transport spacecraft.

The first is to charge.

Then lift off slowly.

As the altitude continues to increase, the light energy dissipation brought by the air will decrease.

Energy efficiency will increase.

That is, the energy supply will become more and more abundant.

After entering the space environment.

The parallel light lens under the photovoltaic array of Star Group only needs one end to supply enough light energy.

In the process of returning to the Azure Star, a full 2,000 tons of minerals need to be carried, so the power required for landing is quite huge, requiring more than 200 "Xingpai II" high-thrust ion engines to burst out the most powerful thrust (maximum Thrust 20 tons), in order to resist the influence of gravity and land on the ground landing site steadily.

It needs to supply nearly one million kilowatts of power to barely enough.

At this time, as many as four energy-supply light beams are required to hit the turtle back of the 'Hercules' at the same time, coupled with its own aerodynamic structure that increases resistance, so that it can fall to the ground at zero speed relatively smoothly.

Perfect.

The first test flight went perfectly.

The Hercules brought five space containers back to the ground, and performed very easily without any problems.

The second trip brought eight containers, which I could carry.

The third trip simply brought ten containers and carried out a full-load transportation test. Although a successful landing was achieved, the power reserve of the spacecraft itself was reduced by less than 5%, and if it persisted for 10 seconds at most, the engine power would be insufficient and the thrust would fall off a cliff. Descend, and then accelerate to hit the ground.

That is, the power redundancy is insufficient, and the game is a heartbeat drop.

Experts thought of four solutions to the problem:

First, reduce the weight of the spacecraft, reduce the structural strength, and find a way to reduce the weight by about 100 tons, but this will bring about a decrease in the firmness of the spacecraft and a reduction in its service life.

Second, to increase energy reserves, only 50 tons of superconducting capacitors can be used to significantly extend the duration of the maximum power. The disadvantage is that the price of superconducting capacitors is too expensive, which will increase the cost by hundreds of millions.

Three, one less space container is carried, and only nine containers are carried each time, that is, the cargo capacity is reduced to 1,800 tons, which is only 90% of the design index.

Fourth, optimize the shape of the spacecraft again, increase the driving area, and land at a high speed of 300 meters per second at an altitude of 30,000 meters to 5,000 meters, and decelerate at full speed at the last 5,000 meters, and reduce the speed to zero within 30 seconds. The process is thrilling and exciting, and there is a lot of danger. Once improper operation or mistakes occur, the ship may be destroyed. However, the advantage is that the transformation cost is low and the load index will not shrink.

After a heated discussion.

Experts do not want to reduce the carrying capacity indicators, nor do they want to increase the cost of manufacturing the spacecraft.

So they combined plan one and plan four, and reduced the empty weight of the Hercules spacecraft by 50 tons.

A new large-scale space container with a capacity of 500 tons has been designed, one can hold up to 2.5 containers, but it can save 12.5 tons of weight.

Four can reduce weight by 50 tons.

For the Hercules transport spacecraft in a fully loaded state, the goal of reducing weight by 100 tons has been achieved.

Then optimize the shape of the spacecraft and increase the area for driving by about 50%, which greatly increases the wind resistance during landing, and the increase in landing speed will also increase the resistance exponentially, thereby greatly saving energy.

...

The morning of April 18.

The improved "Hercules" transport spacecraft has carried out a full-load transport test.

success.

This experiment was very successful!

The "Hercules", which was fully loaded with minerals and landed on the ground landing site, actually had 25% of its power reserve left, allowing the engine to burst at full power for about 50 seconds. Although it is not long, it is already enough.

Then, starting from the 19th, this verification-type Hercules transport spacecraft has been put into intense space transportation work. On average, it has to make ten trips a day to bring 20,000 tons of lunar minerals to the ground of Azure Star. .

In addition, the aerospace industry group's spacecraft manufacturing line is also running at full capacity, and is working hard to produce the new Hercules transport spacecraft. The goal is to achieve the capacity of assembling and manufacturing one in half a month, ten days, or five days, so To meet the needs of the rapidly growing space transportation capacity, and solve the plight of the ore piled up by the moon mining companies, but cannot be transported away.

...

April 25th, an ordinary day.

8:00 am.

Thirty-five-year-old pilot Peng Chunlong, after breakfast, took two assistants and entered the cockpit of the Hercules transport spacecraft to start today's transport mission.

In fact, he never thought that he would suddenly change his job from a fighter pilot to a pilot of a space transport spacecraft, or a flight officer, and suddenly leave the sky of the blue star and enter the sea of ​​stars.

For such an extremely sudden change, he just wanted to say - Thai pants!

It's so cool.

And it is very exciting, especially when manipulating the transport spaceship, falling down like a free fall, reaching a speed of 300 m/s, the fear, excitement and excitement make people want to scream.

In addition, he can get a task subsidy of 5,000 yuan every time he runs a world transportation mission. More than 5 million.

This is much higher than the remuneration of being a pilot in the Air Force, and it is also the reason why he is full of motivation every day. He can also be with his wife and children, no longer get together and leave more, and the safety is also very high. His family no longer has to worry about him. Scared.

In short, all aspects are very good, and he is very satisfied with this new job.

If possible, he hopes that his son can take over from him in the future and become a spaceship pilot, and he can drive any spaceship. The prelude to the era of interstellar navigation has already begun. Changes have taken place, and everyone's development path has become extremely broad, with almost no upper limit. It may not be impossible for everyone to become a billionaire.

"Put on protective clothing, fasten your seat belt, and check the parameters of the spacecraft's systems and the status of the uplink cargo," Peng Chunlong said.

"The parameters of the various systems of the spaceship are normal!"

"The uplink cargo has been fixed, no problem."

Assistant Feng Guodong and Liu Gongjie said.

"Command center, Hercules 1 is ready, please take off!" Peng Chunlong said into the headset.

"Can take off!"

Immediately, two golden beams of light shot down.

The engine starts.

The spaceship lifts off.

In just ten minutes, he entered the deep and vast space.

Throw the upbound cargo of the two containers to the Tiangong space station.

Take two large empty containers, speed up and throw them towards the moon!

Then start catching those floating space containers full of moon ore.

Just catch four in a row.

During this busy process, through the glass porthole of the spaceship, Peng Chunlong saw that there are hundreds of "Julong" and "Xingyuan" in space, which are also engaged in the same transportation work, forming a A very busy space scene.

Then I saw dozens of light yellow energy supply beams coming from various angles, staggered horizontally and vertically, as dense as a forest, and they are also continuously providing energy. Although it feels a little bit overwhelmed, it can barely handle it. .

There is order in the busy.

Lively and lively.

All this is pleasing to the eye, and my heart is full of joy and pride.

"The space container has been captured and can return." Assistant Feng Guodong said.

"Go back!" Peng Chunlong said.

Immediately, the transport spacecraft began to descend.

400 kilometers above the ground.

300 kilometers.

200 kilometers.

The descent went smoothly.

However, at an altitude of more than 180 kilometers, there are two basketball-sized, unique shapes, stealth design, and no starlink satellites even for solar panels. The No. 1 transport spacecraft precisely smashed over at a relative speed of over 7.6 km/s.

boom!

boom!

In two loud bangs.

The spaceship shook violently.

Two large holes were opened in the belly of the hull, two space containers were penetrated, and a large amount of lunar minerals were thrown out.

A large number of beeping alarms sounded, and many subsystems failed.

Peng Chunlong's face changed drastically, and he was covered in cold sweat. He quickly reported the situation to the ground command center:

"Hercules 1 encountered an unknown space impact, multiple system failures, power decay by 23%, and there is a risk of an uncontrolled fall!"