Chapter 354 Reflection, White Men Must Reflect Too (5k)

“After watching it, my thought is that we shouldn’t expect to be perfect in one go.

For example, it is necessary to simulate lunar dust, but the current technology is not mature enough to simulate the lunar dust environment underwater, so we can ignore it for now, and renovate the simulation base after new technology is available in the future to simulate lunar dust underwater. "Chen Yuanguang said.

He went on to say: "At the end of this year, after the launch of the Light A-2, we will build four centrifugal gravity chambers in one of the cabins. By then, we can simulate the lunar environment by adjusting its centrifugal force. At that time, we can add a lunar dust simulation device in one of the centrifugal gravity chambers."

In short, the centrifugal gravity cabin uses the continuous rotation of the space station to create centrifugal force. The centrifugal force gives people the feeling of gravity, thus giving humans a feeling of still being on Earth.

Like the Interstellar space station, it is a ring with multiple cabins connected together, which rotates continuously to provide centrifugal force to the astronauts in the cabins.

But just like when people sit on the big turntable in an amusement park, it actually does not increase gravity at all, but rather creates an uncomfortable feeling.

After just one minute on an amusement ride you'll feel dizzy after getting off. If you stay on the space station for several months and experience constant rotation, and if it feels like the big turntable in an amusement park, you'll definitely not be able to stand it.

This is because if the centrifugal force device is not strong enough, the forces received by the person's head and feet will be different, and the person will feel dizzy when he or she feels the change in spatial position.

Therefore, the radius must be at least 111.7 meters when rotating, so that people will feel better in such a centrifugal gravity cabin. The longer the entire radius, the better the experience will be.

This involves a trade-off.

"Yuan Guang, if there is no need to explore the lunar dust device, the construction of the entire simulated lunar environment should be completed this year." said the head of China's aerospace industry.

"Well, my idea is to start as soon as possible, because you will be launching facilities to the moon intensively this year to build a lunar base.

My idea is that we can build a circular ecosystem of the Light A Space Station and the Moon Base within this year.

In the process from the early stage of lunar base construction to the landing of human astronauts on the moon, HBM robots are still very important, as they involve the construction integrity of the lunar base. "Chen Yuanguang said.

The lunar base project planned by China and Laos this year is just to launch a complete space to a predetermined location.

Instead of sending a large amount of materials up there and then installing them on the moon.

However, in addition to the complete space this year, it is also necessary to lay densely packed solar panels around the designated locations to provide electricity for the lunar base.

Laying solar panels can be done with traditional robots, but if you want to expand the lunar base and build a rocket launch tower on the moon, traditional robots will no longer be enough.

After two days, when the core module of the Light Armor successfully entered the Lagrange point of the Earth-Moon system, the older generation of American astronauts were heartbroken.

Because the L1 of the Earth-Moon system was the one they had their eyes on first, but it was beaten to the punch by the Tokyo University space station.

Reflection, must reflect.

There is now a trend of reflection in the academic circles of America, mainly reflecting on what happened to America and why it has lost all its advantages in this competition.

Aerospace is the field that most clearly reflects this gap.

When China's space station entered L1, the International Space Station had already entered the countdown to retirement.

You know, there are many engineers in Silicon Valley who once worked for NASA. Although they eventually left NASA, they still have a sense of pride in NASA. Even when they left NASA to join Silicon Valley technology companies, their resumes at NASA were definitely a plus.

In the past, Guangjia Aerospace launched reusable rockets. This is what we have left over, and SpaceX could have launched it long ago.

Guangjia Aerospace uses room-temperature superconductors to launch electric rockets. This is because of room-temperature superconductors. If we had room-temperature superconductors, we could do it too.

It was only after returning to L1 that many people realized that we were being left behind by China.

"In this episode, we will have a relatively in-depth discussion. What is different from previous programs is that we will use the successful entry of Guangjia Aerospace's space station into Lagrange Point 1 of the Earth-Moon system to explore why we are lagging behind.

Considering that I may not be able to think fully enough by myself, I also specially invited my former colleague, who was also the former chief technology officer of NASA. After he joined NASA in 2010, NASA specially created this position for him: Chris Kemp
Unlike me, after leaving NASA, I became a science popularization YouTuber and have moved away from the aerospace industry.

Chris Kemp founded a commercial space agency that mainly produces reusable rockets and is still active on the front line of the space industry.

Welcome Chris." Mark Robb is a former NASA engineer. After leaving NASA, he made some interesting inventions and uploaded them to Youtube as videos.

It's a bit like the NASA version of Geng's handicraft.

Of course, he has never forgotten his previous job and often makes popular science videos about space exploration.

This time in the video he was obviously not as relaxed as in the past, and his face revealed a hint of heaviness.

Chris Kemp, who was sitting on the other side of the couch, was somewhat similar, and everyone knew that this was a serious video.

Chris Kemp greeted the camera: "Hi everyone, I'm Chris."

Mark clapped his hands and said:
"At 11:33 yesterday morning, the Light Armor launched by a Chinese company successfully entered the designated position and became the first space station capable of launching into the Lagrange point L1 of the Earth-Moon system.

No one discussed this in the media, and Elon's congratulatory tweet about the LightMech on Twitter had the fewest replies and likes of his recent tweets.

The highly-rated reply below even asked Musk, saying that he lives in Pennsylvania and if he voted for the Elephant Party in next year's election, would he still issue US dollars?

No one cares about the significance of the Light Armor.

On the contrary, there is some discussion on the aerospace-related section of Reddit.

But no one has expressed the significance and importance of this matter.

As a blogger with some fame, I hope to discuss this matter seriously with my audience.

First of all, what is the difference between the Guangjia space station and previous space stations? The biggest difference is the location. In the past, traditional space stations were in low-Earth orbit, only 250 miles away from the earth.

The distance between the Light Armor and the Earth is 20 miles.

Just from this huge gap, everyone should be able to realize how difficult this is.

It takes two days just to get there.

For a space station like the International Space Station, it only takes sixty minutes to launch into low-Earth orbit. The most time-consuming part is docking, which takes at least three hours from reaching the predetermined orbit to docking with the space station.

We can take a quick look at this. If we use this as a comparison, our previous space stations have not yet broken away from the concept of the Earth, while China's space station has taken a solid step towards the moon.

The LightMech is only 4 miles from the moon, and will be closer to the moon than to the earth."

Mark drew the Earth, the Moon, the International Space Station and the Light Mech on the blackboard behind him.

It can be clearly seen that the International Space Station and the Earth are connected.

"Our past exploration of the moon has been very one-sided for a long time, and we have never conducted in-depth exploration of the moon.

After China has the Guangjia, they can use it to conduct a complete exploration of the moon and even make real use of the moon.

It is entirely possible that it could become a transportation hub for the moon.

One thing that has always curious me is that NASA proposed in 2020 that we should build a space station in near-moon orbit.

The earliest plan was to complete the launch in 2024, and then the time was postponed to 2024. Now it is 2027, and I heard that our lunar space station will be postponed again.

The existing International Space Station near Earth is about to be decommissioned.

It's a stretch to think that America won't have any space stations in space.

So the first point I want to discuss is why the Chinese were able to complete their plan. The plan they made did not seem to leave themselves enough redundant time. The launch of the Light Mech was proposed two years ago, and it only took the Chinese two years to send the Light Mech to the Lagrange point 20 miles away.

The time we reserved for the lunar space station was four years, which turned into seven years, and it still hasn't been completed after seven years.

What is the reason why NASA can never complete its tasks as planned, while China always can?

Whether it is China Aerospace or their commercial aerospace companies, they can do this. There were similar signs when I was at NASA, and it seems that such signs have become more serious after I left NASA. Chris, what do you think of this? "

Mark left NASA in 20, while Chris left later, not until 2022.

While at NASA, Chris was a senior executive and Mark was just an ordinary engineer.

Although Mark has a strong influence on Youtube now, his understanding of NASA is obviously far behind that of Chris.

Chris paused for a moment, his brain organizing his words, and then said:
“Mark just talked about too many current situations, and I want to add some of them.

The first is why the space station was only 250 miles away from the earth in the past. This is mainly because this location is very suitable. There is no resistance from the atmosphere, and it can be indirectly protected by the earth's surface, allowing it to be immune to interference from space.

The most important thing is meteorites, which are protected by the Earth's magnetic field and the moon in low-Earth orbit.

And when you are in near-moon orbit, you will often face the impact of meteorites ejected from the lunar surface.

If it were a traditional space station, the level of control provided by its Hall engine would definitely not be enough to dodge.

The surface of the space station must have sufficient power and detection equipment to avoid meteorite attacks.

Of course, another way is to prepare laser weapons on the space station and use laser weapons to destroy meteorites. This is also a way.

In short, if we want to launch a space station into deep space, the existing space station structure is absolutely not enough."

Mark asked quickly: "Then do you think China's Light Armor adopts the former or the latter method?"

Chris replied: "From a technical perspective, I think it is the latter. China's electric drive engines are mature enough and provide enough power to avoid meteorites.

But judging from their concept map, it should be the latter. Active avoidance of a large volume will increase the probability of damage to the connectors, and it is more likely to destroy the meteorite with a laser weapon."

Mark realized: "If they can intercept meteorites, that means they may be able to use this technology to build an anti-missile system to intercept intercontinental weapons?"

Chris spread his hands: "This is something NASA needs to worry about, not us.

Laser weapons are mature enough. If I were to build their space station, I would use two compartments at the front and back to place solid-state laser weapons.

This will provide all-round protection for the space station and ensure that it will not be affected by meteorites.

According to the information I have received, NASA is currently stuck here. If you only launch a satellite into near-moon orbit but cannot do anything about meteorites, it will be useless.

Sooner or later, your launch will be shot down by a meteorite shower.

There are two options now. One is to buy China's electric drive technology, and the other is to send laser weapons up to build a large enough space station.

Judging from the current news of NASA's continuous delays, it is obvious that they have chosen the latter." Chris said.

Everyone knows that it costs a lot to obtain open source technology from the Chinese.

If it weren't for the competition with China, the White House wouldn't even want to invest resources in aerospace.

So the White House will never do business with China around electric drives.

"Even if it's to build a large space station, I think seven years is enough time anyway. Why does NASA keep delaying its delivery, even more than Blizzard?"

Chris said: "This involves problems within NASA, including many people leaving NASA for this reason.

NASA places too much emphasis on political correctness at the identity level, and this political correctness is seriously affecting our research progress.”

Two white men talked about the disadvantages of correct identity in front of the camera, which they would never have dared to do four years ago.

Only those who live in the White House now have relaxed restrictions in this regard.

“Take the Artemis program as an example. The first group of astronauts to enter the near-moon space station must include a female person of color.

You see, there has to be a woman, and it's not enough to be a woman, she has to be a person of color.

Maybe after next year, she will have to add another layer of political correctness, and she may have to be a transgender person.

Such political correctness is not only reflected at the astronaut level, but is also widely present in the research field.

Like Vanessa, director of the Johnson Space Center.

I won't talk about her identity as a black woman, we only talk about what she has done. She majored in bioengineering and first worked at the Food and Drug Administration and later at NASA. She has been working on medical and aerospace materials related work.

Now she is leading an entire team responsible for the development of spacecraft to explore the moon and Mars, and when you see her on the news, she is always talking about how we should promote gender equality and racial equality.

There should be more women in STEM careers, more black people working at NASA, and more people and women of color in the technology field.

This is what she talks about on her show and in the aerospace forum, and I'm not saying that people of color or women can't do this, sorry.

They should be hired because they meet NASA’s needs, not because they are women of color.”

STEM is the abbreviation of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, which is the science and engineering in the context of Americans.

After Chris finished speaking, Mark just wanted to watch the fun and said, "You've already pointed your finger at Vanessa and the political correctness within NASA, so it's not too much if I add fuel to the fire."

Isn’t it necessary to have these hot spots when working on YouTube? White people will silently like this kind of content, and black people will curse at it below, so won’t it be popular?

“That does sound bad,” Mark said.

"It's not a little bad, it's very bad!" Chris' tone was full of dissatisfaction: "There are more than 10,000 engineers at the Johnson Space Center, and they have made no progress in Vanessa's most important mission, the Orion spacecraft.

In the past you could only see Orion spacecraft delays again and again in the news.

For example, the new space suit program requires $35 billion to be put out for bidding, and the Johnson Space Center is fully capable of taking on this task on its own.”

Every time the top executives of China's aerospace industry hear about NASA's bidding, they drool.

$35 billion for a space suit? We can get you there for $3 million.

Many times it’s not that Chinese products cannot be sold at a high price, but that you just can’t understand why American products are so expensive.

With America spending money like this, it would be strange if the U.S. debt didn't pile up year after year.

The prices of all projects involving government bidding and procurement are shockingly high.

What's even more ridiculous is that America's new space suit project started in 2007. The spacewalk experiments of China's new space suit have been completed, but America's new space suit has not yet been made and is still receiving additional investment.

"I think excessive political correctness is the biggest factor hindering NASA," Chris concluded.

After listening to this, Mark asked back: “Isn’t it a supplier?
I think suppliers are NASA's biggest problem.

For example, the space suit you mentioned was handed over to 27 contractors to work on, which is why there were constant delays. "

Of course Chris couldn't admit it, because the biggest client of his commercial space agency was NASA.

To be precise, most of America's commercial aerospace companies rely on NASA for survival. Without NASA's orders, they simply cannot survive relying solely on private orders.

Even commercial space agencies that provide commercial space tourism services to wealthy people rely on NASA to provide them with space stations and space shuttles.

In terms of reliance on government orders, America's commercial aerospace agencies far exceed China's commercial aerospace agencies.

"No, for the same spacecraft project, SpaceX's progress and delivery quality are better than NASA's own."

(End of this chapter)