Military Technology

Hearing Yu Chengwu's words, Zhang Jun couldn't help but wonder: "In this regard, I seem to have heard you say that some space films and suitable materials can be used to wrap the entire golden meteorite core, so as to prevent it from returning to the atmosphere. As well as contamination of the landing site, it can also isolate the burning of the foundation."

Hearing Zhang Jun's words, Yu Chengwu smiled bitterly and nodded and said: "That's true, but what kind of space film and composite materials should be chosen to wrap the golden meteorite star core to prevent it from being polluted by the external environment? , and protect it from being over-burned in the atmosphere.

You should know that when a spacecraft enters the atmosphere, it will rub against the dense atmosphere during its rapid descent, thereby releasing very high heat, which can reach more than 1,000 degrees or even more than 2,000 degrees.

At such high temperatures, steel can be melted, let alone other objects. Even the core of this gold meteorite is inevitably at risk of being burned and corroded by such high temperatures.

Therefore, we also spent a lot of effort and conducted relevant tests on the selection of materials for the outer packaging of the Huangjun meteorite star core before finally deciding on it.

Based on our original design plan, the interior is wrapped with a layer of space insulation film, which is also the material used and wrapped on many spacecrafts.

On the outside, we will spray a specially developed thermal insulation foam material. In fact, this material has long been used on the surface of our spacecraft, including the return module of the Walker manned spacecraft.

However, the environment used this time is different. It is in the vacuum microgravity environment of the moon. So according to this special environment, we have improved this material. Yes, it can adapt to this vacuum microgravity environment. , thus being able to wrap and cover the entire gold meteorite star core.

We know that this foaming material is usually stored in a liquid state in the tank. When it is sprayed out, it will quickly combine with air, expand and solidify, forming a material similar to foam.

This material has a certain degree of flame retardancy, but at high temperatures it will gradually burn and vaporize, thereby taking away most of the heat generated by atmospheric friction.

In this way, the gold meteorite core wrapped inside can be protected from being burned by friction in the atmosphere, so that the most original state of the gold meteorite core can be preserved, which is conducive to our related scientific research. "

"On the moon, there is no air, so even if the material is ejected, it cannot combine with oxygen and react and expand.

Therefore, a unique device was designed, using a special oxygen tank to participate in the entire spraying process, and using oxygen supply to ensure that the foaming material can react smoothly with oxygen after being sprayed out, thereby expanding. "

“In addition, we have also re-optimized the parachute package, the deceleration parachute system, to make it more powerful, and use multiple sets of deceleration parachutes to decelerate as much as possible, thereby reducing the time required when the main parachute is opened. The huge force generated reduces the occurrence of the main umbrella tearing due to the force.

And all of this must follow a premise, that is, to lose weight, the weight must be controlled, and it will not work if the weight is too heavy.

Therefore, we need to dig out the entire gold meteorite core first, and then estimate its actual weight. If the weight is too heavy, then we may have to redesign the transportation plan, which may even cause the entire mission to fail. .

We have previously detected the core of this golden meteorite through the Wangshu-1 lunar surface exploration and patrol vehicle, and determined that its size is not large, that is, it is a ball with a diameter of about 40 to 50 centimeters, so the estimated medium weight is also Just over a ton.

But after all, we dug this golden meteorite core out of the soil, so it is difficult to determine its complete shape. What if it is not a regular sphere and the part that pops out is just the tip of the iceberg?

In addition, we are also worried that the components in the core of this gold meteorite may not be so uniform, and the part buried underground may be denser and heavier, which will undoubtedly increase the difficulty of our transportation and even lead to the failure of the transportation mission. .

Therefore, there is still a lot of uncertainty in this mission. Without seeing the entire core of this golden meteorite, we don’t know whether this mission can be carried out. "

So until now, it is still unknown whether this mission can be successful. We are taking a gamble. Zhang Jun couldn't help but sigh.

Yes, this can be considered a kind of gambling. Hearing this, Yu Chengwu nodded very generously and smiled: "In fact, any detection mission is a gamble, because it is full of huge unknowns. What we are doing is something that has never been done by anyone before, so there is no experience to follow. Natural existence It involves huge unknowns and risks.

But it is precisely because of this that this mission is meaningful. If there were no risks and challenges, the value of this golden meteorite star core would probably be greatly reduced. "

After hearing what Yu Chengwu said, Wu Hao couldn't help but nodded. Yes, it is precisely because of the difficulty that it is scarce, and it is precisely because of its scarcity that its value is high. Otherwise, it would be just a stone with a relatively high gold content, or a nugget of gold. Its value would be far less high, and it would be impossible for them to spend so much effort transporting this gold meteorite core back to Earth.

That thing failed. Zhang Jun couldn't help but ask.

Hearing Zhang Jun's words, Yu Chengwu glanced at Zhou Xiangming, then smiled and spread his hands and said: "Then what can we do? Although this is not what people want, adventure is always full of risks. Before this task is formulated, At the beginning, we already took the consequences of failure into account.

So even if the mission fails, we can accept it. At worst, we have to start over from scratch. The detection work must face failure. This golden meteorite core is there. It cannot escape within a period of time, and others cannot dig it away, so we will transport it back sooner or later.

Besides, even if the mission fails, it is not without gain. It is a journey of more than 1,400 kilometers, which is a challenge for our equipment. It will help us further test the performance of these equipment in this cruel and complex environment, and provide us with the next step related to extraterrestrial planets. The detector development work has accumulated a large amount of data, which is helpful for its research and development.

In addition, even if we can't transport this golden meteorite core, we can also transport some other things. Anyway, we won't return empty-handed.

Among other things, the lunar soil and samples collected along the way are very precious, and transporting them back is also a very good choice. "(End of chapter)