The Start Of Technology Live Broadcast To Build Rockets

Chapter 66 Pan-STARRS Project

Through Wang Qing, Du Xingyu contacted the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii.

This observatory is one of the main implementation points of the United States' "Pan-STARRS Project", which is an astronomical project that uses a panoramic survey telescope and a rapid response system to conduct optical measurements of celestial bodies in the entire sky.

"We have four ultra-wide-field astronomical telescopes with a diameter of 1.8 meters. They patrol the starry sky every four to seven days. We compare them with previous patrol results to find asteroids or comets that pose a threat to the earth." Haleakala Observatory, Beth, a female professor at the School of Astronomy at the University of Hawaii, told Du Xingyu during a video call.

"In fact, through this project, we have discovered some new Kuiper Belt asteroids or objects."

Du Xingyu said in English: "So Professor Beth, have you found any asteroids with abnormal trajectory recently? That is, they are a threat to the earth."

Professor Beth shook his head and said: "No, our observations of the Kuiper Belt are also very limited. The original intention of our Pan-STARRS project was to observe asteroids or comets in the Kuiper Belt that may pose a threat to the earth."

"If there is really an asteroid that is thrown out of the Kuiper Belt and flies towards the Earth, with a diameter within tens of kilometers, it will be difficult for us to directly observe it. Unless its distance from us has reached the distance from Uranus or Neptune to the Earth, we will Only then can we observe it in advance.”

"It takes about twenty years for a celestial body at that distance to fly to the earth. At that time, we can only pray to God, right?"

"Hopefully that won't be the case," Du Xingyu said.

He felt a little relieved. Since this was the case, at least he still had some time before observing the asteroid impacting the earth.

"Professor Beth, it is a pleasure to communicate with you. If there is important observation news in the future, if conditions permit, I hope we can continue to communicate." Du Xingyu said.

"Very happy." The other party did not refuse.

…

"Will what I foresee happen?" Du Xingyu was confused. If the original development trajectory is followed, China will land on the moon in ten years, and asteroids will destroy mankind.

But now it seems that this kind of thing should not happen in ten years.

He asked the tech simulator, wanting to know the answer.

The technology simulator replied: "The space-time annihilation bomb is a weapon of cosmic rules and has no entity. My ability can only collect information in the universe for preliminary speculation. You have caused the development trajectory of this space and time to deviate from the original order of this world. The orbit and the way the space-time annihilation bomb affects will also change accordingly."

“The disaster that will destroy mankind will definitely come, it’s just a matter of time and method.”

"Then there's no way you can predict more?" Du Xingyu asked.

"I need to collect more information in this time and space." said the technology simulator. "The universe is composed of matter and energy. The triggering of the space-time annihilation bomb will definitely affect the matter or energy in time and space. These are all information. "

“With enough information gathered, it’s possible to make more detailed predictions.”

"How to collect information?" Du Xingyu continued to ask.

"Go to space." The technology simulator said, "The particles and energy in space and time will carry information. If I travel a sufficient distance into space, I can collect more information."

The empty areas of space are not empty. All kinds of radiation are the celestial bodies in the universe that are constantly spreading energy and information. Sunlight is the electromagnetic radiation visible to the human eye. In addition, there are various particles and dark matter invisible to humans.

Du Xingyu thought, he had already been to the moon, but the technology simulator still failed to collect enough information. For longer distance space travel, judging from the current situation, the only way is to go to Mars!

Go to Mars! Du Xingyu made a prompt decision and resigned from his position at the moon base to the bureau. Now that the construction of the lunar base is on track, he does not need to worry about it anymore.

Du Xingyu devotes all his energy to the Mars mission. In more than half a year, Mars and the Earth will move into orbits close to each other again, and then there will be a window period for exploring Mars.

Last time, the Tianwen-1 Mars probe and rover launched by the China Space Administration had landed on the surface of Mars and obtained some information about Mars.

This time, the space agency plans to continue launching unmanned probes and Mars rovers to prepare for landing on Mars.

But Du Xingyu suggested that this time a manned spacecraft should be launched directly to land on Mars for scientific research!

"Flying to Mars, the exploration satellites, Mars rovers, etc. are all mature." Du Xingyu thought, "There must be no problem in landing. With the experience on the moon, it will not be a problem to establish a simple Mars base."

"Then the biggest problem is building a Mars spacecraft!"

The spacecraft going to Mars is different from the lunar spacecraft. The lunar spacecraft only needs to carry out short-distance space navigation, and the speed and material carrying requirements are not high.

When Mars is closest to the Earth, it will be more than 50 million kilometers away, which is more than 150 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon!

This places higher requirements on the spacecraft, which requires it to have faster speed, stronger load capacity and greater navigation distance!

"The overall design of the spacecraft should not be difficult. The most difficult thing is the thruster." Du Xingyu quickly found the problem.

Judging from the current experience of human exploration of Mars, it will take nearly two hundred days for an unmanned spacecraft to fly to Mars.

This is because of the long distance and in order to reduce fuel consumption, the spacecraft has to fly along the "Hohmann transfer orbit" of Earth and Mars, that is, an elliptical transition orbit that is tangent to two concentric orbits in the same plane.

In this orbit, the spacecraft has to accelerate or decelerate in two elliptical orbits, adding a lot of extra navigation distance.

This will waste a lot of time. In Du Xingyu's vision, the speed and time of space navigation from the Earth to Mars are more important than fuel consumption.

If you travel in a straight line and use more advanced thrusters, the time from Earth to Mars will be shortened to one-sixth of the original!

Du Xingyu had already opened the technology simulator, and he brought out the original nuclear thermal rocket thruster.

The nuclear thermal rocket thruster absolutely meets the demand for speed. It can accelerate the spacecraft to the third cosmic speed in a short period of time, which is enough to reach a speed of more than 16.7 kilometers per second.

The speed of current chemical energy rockets is generally around 10 kilometers per second, and they also need to carry a large amount of chemical fuel.

However, in space navigation, the spacecraft mainly relies on inertia to advance. If it continues to accelerate, the nuclear thermal rocket will also consume liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. As the distance increases, the fuel will be insufficient. This is why spacecraft so far are not very fast and rely on the gravity of the planet for acceleration. Existing spacecraft cannot carry so much fuel!

"In comparison, nuclear thermal rocket thrusters are more suitable for flying in the atmosphere and near-Earth space. The Mars spacecraft needs to fly in the Earth's atmosphere, space and the atmosphere of Mars. Nuclear thermal thrusters can be used to fly in the atmosphere and escape the gravity of the planet. "

"Flying in space requires a propulsion system with higher energy conversion efficiency." Du Xingyu quickly thought of nuclear power rockets in the rocket technology branch!

Nuclear power rockets, as the name suggests, use nuclear energy to generate electricity. And these electricity are used to create electromagnetic fields, control ion injection, and start ion thrusters!

In other words, this will be an ion thruster powered by nuclear power!

The ion thruster can ionize the working fluid and accelerate the ejection of the ions under the action of a strong electric field. The reaction force can propel the satellite to perform attitude adjustment or orbit transfer tasks.

The ion thruster has the characteristics of high specific impulse, high efficiency and small thrust. Its energy conversion efficiency is extremely high. It only needs to consume a small part of the mass to give the spacecraft higher acceleration. It is more suitable for long distances than traditional thrusters. Space navigation.

Conventional solar panels simply cannot meet the acceleration requirements of a Mars spacecraft, while nuclear power can supply stable power for a long time.

Thanks to Feng, Can You Sneak Away, Eternal Taoist Patriarch, and Rice-loving Taozi for the reward.

It’s a new week, please vote for recommendations, collect, and reward!

(End of chapter)