Chapter 348: Brand New Structure

During the space race, people's pursuit of space reached an unprecedented level.

This was seen as a silent stage between the two camps, symbolizing whose route was better, not only a competition of technology, but also a competition of values. The astronauts were regarded as American heroes.

Against this backdrop, the designs of both camps surrounding space have even reached the level of fantasy.

Even if there is a one percent chance of success, it will be considered a feasible plan and started.

To this day, some people question whether the American moon landing was faked. Although this conspiracy theory originated in America, it is not allowed for netizens on the Chinese Internet to just follow suit and question it.

The essence behind this is not that Chinese netizens cannot question America’s moon landing, but that they cannot question America.

Back to the American moon landing, the moon landing was questioned because at that time, the possibility of success was too low. However, America succeeded several times, but now it can't go to the moon, which is why it is being questioned.

Today, the feasibility study success rate of Dongda Aerospace must be at least 80%. In those days, whether it was Russia or America, the success rate would have passed the review even if it was only 1%.

1% is a bit exaggerated, but 10% is definitely not an exaggeration.

The Freedom Space Station is such a product. It was called the Freedom Space Station back then, but now it is not an exaggeration to say that the Freedom Space Station, which is designed to include a spaceport, multiple laboratories, living areas, an observatory, a medical room, and satellite maintenance facilities, is a small city.

Even though the Freedom Station was ultimately abandoned and the entire project only lasted ten years, it still cost more than $100 billion. That was $1984 billion in 100 dollars.

There are many reasons why the Freedom Space Station failed. Of course, the most fundamental reason is lack of money. The direct cause of lack of money is the sudden collapse of Russia. After the collapse, politicians are naturally unwilling to invest money in such aerospace projects that require huge resources.

The experts present all sensed a sense of ambition from the Light Armor.

Compared with the Tiangong, which is a benchmark for the International Space Station, the Guangjia, which is more like a benchmark for the Freedom Space Station, is more likely to arouse their interest.

That's why the experts who have participated in the Freedom Space Station asked a question that has always troubled them in the past.

How to solve the problems that will inevitably arise after the expansion of the space station.

If each module is docked in a linear structure and connected in series one by one, the direction can be adjusted through the Hall engine so that they are all on the same orbit.

The non-rigid structure between the compartments is fully capable of supporting small bending amplitudes.

But if you want to build a complex structure that is not even flat but three-dimensional, how do you solve the problems of inconsistent gravity and high failure rate?

The Free Space Station had not been able to solve this problem in the past. As some of the most prominent scientists in today’s scientific field, the scholars present were all very curious about this topic.

“From the perspective of materials science, we will use a lot of new materials to solve the problem of stability.

I will not elaborate on this here, we will provide you with detailed information later. "

The European experts looked at each other and a thought flashed through their minds, that is, the paper promotional materials given to them must have been strictly reviewed.

Chen Yuanguang's oral statements obviously have a much higher degree of freedom than paper materials, which also means that some valuable information may be revealed.

Everyone feels a little bit at a disadvantage.

“So let me briefly explain it from a structural perspective. You can think of it as a combination of a Bonaire sphere and a ring-shaped space station.

In the middle, there are still modules that are long enough to connect into the main part of the space station in the shape of a space train, and then the key nodes will expand into a ring.

A general compartment only connects the front and rear compartments, while a key compartment has six sides that are all connected to other compartments.

After the four sides are connected to the cabin, we will connect the four cabins with concrete to form a ring. "

(Space Ring)

(Bonar Ball)
Not everyone has an idea about these two things, even if they are scholars in the aerospace field.

It was not until Chen Yuanguang pulled out their concept drawings from the computer that the experts understood what kind of structure they wanted to make.

"We divide the entire construction into three steps. First, we need to build the long train-shaped space station in the middle.

The second step is to start building the first ring, which will help the entire space station offset the effects of different gravitational structures through the ring's rotation.

The third step is to build all the rings.

The follow-up is to continue to expand and maintain on the existing basis. If there is a bug in each connection point, a special robot will be responsible for replacing it. "

It all comes down to cost.

The concept map shown by Chen Yuanguang includes 25 main cabin sections and 4 rings, totaling 39 cabin sections.

No one is sure whether this is feasible. There is no problem understanding it from a structural perspective, but whether it is really possible to run it is another matter.

"Concrete?" European experts are obviously very concerned about this and use concrete to stabilize the entire spherical structure.

“Yes, the soil used here is mainly from the moon.

This year, China Aerospace will start building a lunar base, and we will participate in part of the construction of the lunar base."

In America's view, China is engaging in the space race. Although there has been no significant increase in space spending, there is an additional Light Armor Aerospace, and the funding provider behind Light Armor Aerospace is also China.

It is equivalent to China setting up two entities to do the aerospace industry, and these two entities can both cooperate and compete in a healthy manner.

It is for this reason that American believes that it also needs to cultivate civilian commercial aerospace agencies other than NASA, but there are different opinions on whether to cultivate SpaceX or Blue Origin.

After visiting the space station design that Guangjia Aerospace was going to develop, the experts had an unprecedented heated debate when they returned.

"Wright's idea is great. It's a design comparable to the Freedom Space Station. If it can be expanded, it will be even greater than the Freedom Space Station."

"Yes, but the only doubt is whether they will suddenly stop like the Freedom Space Station."

"of course not!"

"Why not? Wasn't America richer than the University of Tokyo? America controlled the world after 1991, but they still stopped the Freedom Space Station project.

If the Freedom Space Station project had not been stopped at that time, we would have gone to Mars a long time ago!

China is still a long way from controlling the world, let alone Asia.

The Freedom Space Station will be suspended, so why can't the Light Mech be suspended? Is it just because Wright is the one in charge?"

"It's not Wright, but the support behind both sides. Obviously, China is much more persistent in this matter. Can you imagine such a plan and persistence in the aerospace industry? If it were thirty years ago, could you imagine that China's aerospace industry would be more brilliant than Europe's?

The difference is that when it comes to aerospace projects that require long-term investment, China has more advantages than America.

I am cautiously optimistic about China's projects."

"With Wright behind the scenes, I think China will be willing to give him unprecedented support.

Compared with the space race caused by the need for confrontation thirty years ago, this time the earth has developed to a limit, technology has reached a bottleneck, people need to start outward exploration, and the underlying logic is also different.

And thirty years ago, it would have cost $500 billion, but given today’s technology, I estimate that $200 billion would be enough.”

"Two hundred billion is enough for the Freedom Space Station, but Wright's idea is that the 49 modules alone would cost 2500 billion dollars according to NASA's offer."

"China doesn't need to buy from America. The cost is definitely not that high."

“But it’s not much lower.”

The focus of the argument is that the entire plan is too grand and whether you can actually do it.

The older generation of scholars who had witnessed the failure of the Freedom Space Station were generally skeptical, but the younger generation in their thirties and forties were full of confidence.

"I don't doubt China's determination and Wright's ability. I think the cost is high. After it is completed, there will be only 49 modules. If there are 10 astronauts in each module, there will be 490 astronauts.

It is definitely not that every cabin is suitable for living. Even with a 50% discount, it can only accommodate 200 people.

It is definitely much better than the International Space Station in the past, which could only accommodate a dozen people.

But it is still different from a space city.

I think if we really want to do it, the Stanford Torus would be more suitable. According to the launch cost of the Pioneer and the composite rocket, the Stanford Torus would be much better. "

(Stanford Torus)

The Stanford Torus is built on the basis of a donut-shaped space station.

The ring-shaped space station structure first appeared in the works of aerospace scholars Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Herman Potochnik. Its advantage is that this form of space station uses the centrifugal force generated by rotation to simulate the earth's gravity, thereby preventing the residents of the space station from being in a state of weightlessness for a long time.

Later, von Bryan designed a circular space station in detail, which became the most common space image in science fiction works.

Stanford scholars took von Bryan's idea a step further and designed a large space city called the Stanford Torus in detail.

At the center of its base is a fixed mirror that reflects sunlight onto a rotating ring of secondary mirrors.

The entire ring has a diameter of 1.8 kilometers and can accommodate 0.9 people. It rotates around its axis at a speed of one revolution per minute, generating an artificial gravity of 1 to g inside the ring.

Sunlight shines into the interior of the space station through a system of mirrors. One part of the ring-shaped space station is used for agriculture, and another part is used for housing. The space inside the space station is large enough to create an artificial ecosystem.

The rings are connected to the hub by spoke corridors, which are dedicated to the flow of people and goods. Since the artificial gravity in the hub area is negligible, fixed modules will be installed here to serve as docking stations for receiving spacecraft and production workshops.

“No, the costs of the two are different. Both the transport module and the link module are no different from building space stations in the past. The ring structure is fixed directly with lunar soil.

But the large mirrors needed for the Stanford Ring are not only difficult to assemble, but the entire structure has never been tested before, and you have no way of estimating the total cost.

The Stanford Ring is at L5, while the Light Armor needs to go to L1.

These are different concepts.

The only benefit of the Stanford Torus is that it can house more people.”

L1 and L5 here refer to Lagrange points, which will remain in a relatively static state under the gravitational pull of the Earth and the Moon.

There are a total of five Lagrange points in the Earth-Moon system, of which L5 and L4 have never been stationed by human spacecraft.

L1 is located on the straight line formed by the Earth and the Moon, and L2 is on the back of the Moon and cannot be seen from the Earth.

China launched a Queqiao relay satellite at L2 before launching its lunar lander. America's Webb telescope is also at the L2 Lagrange point.

"But if you want to build industry in space you have to have a sufficient population."

"Have you forgotten China's robotics technology?"

The entire launch process of the Light Armor Spaceflight was broadcast live.

However, the launch itself is nothing to see. Compared with traditional rockets, you cannot see the ignition process of the composite rocket launch. You can only see the process of the rocket accelerating, which is far less entertaining than traditional rockets.

After the rocket takes off, you won’t be able to see whether it has successfully entered L1.

This resulted in few viewers in the live broadcast room discussing the rocket launch, and everyone's focus was on other things.

"It's so spectacular. This launch tower is at least three times higher than the launch towers of similar fuel rockets."

"I'm curious, if we take L1 first, what will NASA do?"

In the past, neither the International Space Station nor the Tiangong had been launched to a Lagrange point.

According to the stability of the Lagrange point, if the International Space Station remains in that position, it will have no problem operating for another fifty years.

For this reason, NASA plans to build a new space station at L1 as a transit station for the long-term use of the moon in the future.

"L1 is very large and can accommodate space stations on both the east and west sides."

"It's true that it's very big, but the problem is that the Light Armor Aerospace plan calls for building a spaceport. Doesn't NASA have any dignity? Are they willing to build a space station that's smaller than the Light Armor? If they build space stations of the same size, L1 may not be able to accommodate both sides."

"I want to ask if it is possible for us to install weapons on the Light Armor to shoot down the American space station? If they dare to launch it."

"Wouldn't that be Big Mao's Death Star plan?"

In the 1970s and 1980s, Russia designed an unmanned orbital weapons platform called "Polar-Skift", which was equipped with laser weapons to destroy American satellites. Of course, it failed and was not successfully launched.

But if the Light Armor can successfully enter orbit, it will definitely not be a problem to install a laser weapon on it.

"When will the results be out? Why is it so dark? What kind of live broadcast room is this?"

(End of this chapter)