Under Jiang Chen's instruction, Future Heavy Industries integrated its 20 industrial space stations in Celestial City, gathered the technical team involved in the design of the Seagull, and established a subsidiary called Xin First Shipyard to begin the production of the second Seagull.
The second transport ship was still owned by the Space Department of Celestial Trade, but the new transport ship would not be designed with a passenger cabin, but a relatively low-tech cargo type. At present, Lunar City could not accommodate too many passengers. Expanding flights would only cause indigestion.
The task of this transport ship was mainly to transport rare earth ores. Lunar soil rich in rare earths would be sent to Celestial City for processing, and then Future Mining would send the processed products to Earth for release on the international market.
When the new 500,000-ton transport ship was "launched", the "boats" originally used to transport rare earth ores could be removed. The capacity of five Stingray C-1s to make two round trips was less than that of the Seagull, and they couldn't fly very fast.
The Stingray C-1s that were removed from the route would be sent back to the shipyard on Celestial City. The transport module would be unloaded and replaced with the mining module. They would then be sold to Future Mining at a low price and join the "mighty" asteroid mining army.
Speaking of the new transport ship, there was a small episode.
After witnessing Jiang Chen's lack of skill in naming, Calvin refused to ask Jiang Chen to name the new ship. Rather, he didn't mention it to Jiang Chen at all. After discussing with the technical team, he asked someone to print the words "Sea Dragon" on the ship, then wrote it into a report and sent it to Jiang Chen's desk.
It didn't matter what the name was. If Calvin didn't mention it, Jiang Chen would feel troubled. Anyway, he didn't plan to leave his name on the transport ship. To be worthy of his name, it had to be an aircraft carrier class interstellar spaceship that weighed more than ten million tons. He would rather give his name to his descendants than make do with a mere transport ship.
But after learning the name of the transport ship, Jiang Chen didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
History was always surprisingly similar. The prototype of the Red River engine was the Pan-Asian Cooperation's Shuttle 07 engine, and the Shuttle 07 that Beluga Station fished up from the sea was from the Pan-Asian Cooperation's Sea Dragon.
Now this new ship not only inherited the engine of the Pan-Asian Cooperation, but also the name of the ship that had crashed in the future.
Even Jiang Chen, who never believed in ghosts and gods, couldn't help but exclaim.
Perhaps, this was also a kind of God's will.
…
Shortly after the flight from Celestial City to Lunar City was launched, the Apollo X1, designed by SpaceX and other aerospace companies, was disassembled into dozens of containers and sent to the port of Ange Island by sea. After several transfers, it arrived at the warehouse leased by SpaceX in Celestial City. After simple processing, the final assembly was completed.
According to the cooperation agreement signed between SpaceX and Celestial Trade, the reborn Apollo would participate in the transportation route between Celestial City and Lunar City after passing the safety qualification check. Transporting rare earths from Lunar City to Celestial City, then bringing crops and daily necessities from Earth to Lunar City.
Perhaps to pay homage to a certain movie, the main structure of the Apollo X1 was designed in a semicircle shape. Compared with the Russian Grand Duke Oleg's rectangular design, the advantages of this design were that it was more flexible and safer. The disadvantages were mainly reflected in the maintenance costs of the engines distributed side by side at the tail, as well as the manufacturing costs of the spacecraft itself.
In addition to the Apollo X1, the Russian Grand Duke Oleg that Jiang Chen saw in Moscow was also participating in the transportation project. The 200,000-ton design was a full size larger than the Apollo X1, and its capacity was also higher. However, compared with the 500,000-ton Seagull, both were a bit small.
Whether it was the UA or Russia, these two traditional aerospace powers did not have the ability to produce 500,000-ton spacecraft for the time being. The design of the ship was easy, but the two technical difficulties of the engine and power source were obstacles they couldn't overcome.
Perhaps they had more experience in the aerospace industry, but this was no longer a problem that could be solved by experience.
In addition to the two traditional aerospace powers, the Changchun independently developed by the Hua Aerospace Science and Technology Group was also involved in the route from Celestial City to Lunar City. The cargo spacecraft named after the city, except for the RM-320 engine purchased from Future Heavy Industries at a high price, the other parts were independently designed by the academicians of the Hua Academy of Sciences. In terms of appearance, this transport ship was also very characteristic of Hua.
The mining speed of iron, aluminum, titanium, and rare earth resources in Lunar City had far exceeded the transportation capacity between Lunar City and Celestial City. For Jiang Chen, the more people involved in the space transportation industry, the better. Otherwise, it would be useless even if the mined materials couldn't be sold.
Based on Jiang Chen's estimation, the route from Celestial City to Lunar City would require at least 50 transport ships with a capacity of more than 100,000 tons.
However, this kind of thing couldn't be rushed. In addition to Xin, there were only three countries capable of producing large transport ships with a capacity of more than 100,000 tons.
Although Nippon, which ranked fourth in aerospace technology, participated in the design of the Apollo X1 observation system and navigation system, it still didn't have the ability to independently produce a 100,000-ton spacecraft. India, which ranked fifth, was ambitiously preparing to design a 500,000-ton "space giant" comparable to the Seagull. However, they still hadn't figured out how to make it move.
Time quickly passed, and it was mid-May. Celestial Trade held the first Celestial Aerospace Science and Technology Expo in Celestial City.
If it weren't for Xia Shiyu's reminder, Jiang Chen would have almost forgotten. Future Heavy Industries had twelve products that would appear in the air show, seven of which were export products, and the other five were only for other aerospace companies to covet. In principle, they wouldn't be sold to the public.
For example, the Stingray X-1 series aircraft that shocked countless foreign friends. The P-1 mining model and the eliminated C-1 transport model were on display at the air show.
Such an event had been held every year since 2019. The significance of this event was mainly to support other aerospace companies and find buyers for their products. If they found something that could be used, Celestial Trade would also purchase some at the air show.
To be honest, Jiang Chen did see a lot of interesting things at the air show, but he didn't intervene in the procurement and left it to the people of the Aerospace Department. Only they knew what they really needed in space.
Xia Shiyu accompanied Jiang Chen to the air show. As soon as the two appeared in front of the public, they became the focus of the air show. From the beginning of the air show, they were surrounded by a large group of people asking questions. The business cards in their pockets were quickly handed out, and their hands were stuffed with a bunch of business cards.
What made Jiang Chen dumbfounded was that he actually stole the limelight from the Stingray X-1.
It was putting the cart before the horse.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
