China had an urgent need for energy, but it didn't have an urgent need for aerospace.
Even though the success of the controllable fusion project could save the country more than two trillion yuan per year, this money couldn't be used for aerospace projects.
Where each sum of money should be spent and what kind of effect it would have had to go through a set of strict procedures to make decisions.
Especially with the development of rocket recycling technology, the cost of launching rockets was much higher than before.
Take the launch of low-Earth orbit satellites as an example. According to the international price, Space-X's Falcon rocket could reach US $1,141 per kilogram. Compared to the US $11660 per kilogram cost of NASA's Delta 4 rocket in the 1990s, the cost was nearly ten times lower.
The launch cost of China's Kuaizhou-1 rocket had also dropped from US $10,000 per kilogram to around US $5,000 per kilogram.
If a manned moon landing program required a spacecraft with a mass of around 50 tons to be launched into low-Earth orbit, ignoring the fact that the spacecraft wasn't a satellite and couldn't be sent to the moon in a dozen times, the cost of this part of the launch could theoretically be controlled within US $250 million.
Therefore, there was no need to build a mass launcher just for the sake of going to the moon.
However, Lu Zhou wasn't just thinking about sending people to the moon. He wanted to build a semi-permanent or even permanent scientific research station on the moon, or even a resource mining base.
Considering this long-term goal, it was necessary to use a theoretically lower cost launch method to send mass from the surface to low-Earth orbit outside the atmosphere.
If they continued to use chemical-powered rockets, when the number of launches exceeded a thousand or even ten thousand times, space exploration would truly go from a scientific research activity to an industry. Forget about the cost, the environmental protection issue would be enough to give them a headache.
Remember, dinitrogen tetroxide and dimethylhydrazine were poisonous.
Of course, Lu Zhou knew very well that this kind of trillion-dollar project wouldn't be able to convince the Senate with just an idea. Especially for a project that didn't have an urgent need for aerospace.
However, he believed that once he showed enough results, his words should be more convincing.
The meeting was divided into two parts. The morning meeting lasted until 12 o 'clock, then an intermission was announced. Everyone ate a simple meeting lunch, and the meeting continued at 1: 30 in the afternoon.
The afternoon meeting was mainly for researchers and engineers, and the content of the discussion was mainly in the field of technology.
At the meeting, representatives from major research institutes spoke enthusiastically and put forward their own views.
In addition to the concept map of the Long March 9 rocket from the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, many people also put forward very interesting technical ideas.
For example, a senior researcher from the Space Science and Application Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences demonstrated a plasma engine model. Although the acceleration technology was different from Lu Zhou's, it was still a very interesting idea.
During this meeting, Lu Zhou didn't speak much. He only briefly talked about his idea for the Hall-effect thruster.
Some of these were his own opinions, and some of them were ideas he had while chatting with the researchers on the AF-MPD project team during his time as a consultant at the PPPL laboratory.
Originally, he thought his opinion was advanced enough, but he didn't expect someone else's opinion to be more sci-fi than his. They even threw out the idea of no propulsion at the meeting.
In fact, the concept of no propulsion wasn't completely sci-fi. At least NASA had done research in this area, and related papers could even be found on Arixv.
After all, no one dared to say that anything about the future was absolute. Even the most outstanding scholars didn't dare to make an "absolutely impossible" assertion about the "future", even if those things seemed unbelievable at the time.
But in any case, something as distant as no propulsion was a topic that didn't belong in this era.
When everyone heard it, they just laughed and didn't take it to heart.
There were no taboos in this kind of seminar. Basically, they could speak their minds freely. Everyone could say anything, and there wouldn't be any contrarians who only refuted without making any arguments.
As for which technical route to adopt, it depended on the results.
Which was, there would be a bidding conference in the middle of the year to bid for the most critical heavy-duty spacecraft in the moon landing program.
Whether it was a rocket or a space shuttle, whoever could deliver at least 30 tons of load to the Earth-Moon transfer orbit and bring it back safely would have a chance to win the bid.
So far, the most promising candidate for this task was probably the Long March 9.
However, even if the first flight in 2028 wasn't delayed, it was still eight years away from now.
If the country planned to complete a manned moon landing within five years in order to achieve the strategic goal of containing the United States and Europe, the Long March 9, which was still in the design stage, would probably miss this battle.
In this context, if other companies could come up with a launch plan with a lower cost and earlier time, they would also have a certain degree of competitiveness.
As for whether or not to join in on the fun …
Actually, Lu Zhou hadn't thought about it yet.
He was only in the research stage for ion thruster propulsion engines. He didn't even know if he could reverse engineer the technology from the wreckage, and he didn't even know if he could use it in the atmosphere.
Maybe this kind of advanced civilization spacecraft was assembled on a space station or a spaceport? They didn't need to worry about breaking through the atmosphere or launching into orbit from the surface at all.
This was completely possible.
In short, he didn't have absolute confidence or a clear expectation for the realization of the technology. He would only express his own opinion. As for the bidding project at the end of the year, he probably wouldn't participate …
After the meeting ended, Lu Zhou walked out of the venue.
At this moment, he suddenly realized that the number of people outside had increased by a whole circle compared to when he first came in.
Judging from the cameras and microphones they were carrying, there was no need to guess their identities. They were undoubtedly reporters.
When the representatives of Penguin, Ali, and other companies stepped out of the venue, the reporters were like sharks that smelled blood. They swarmed around them.
Lu Zhou's eyebrows couldn't help but twitch. However, before he had time to be glad that he wasn't the one being surrounded, a sharp-eyed reporter soon discovered that he was also here, and he immediately surrounded him.
Even though Wang Peng was in front of him, the microphones still managed to squeeze in.
"Hello, Professor Lu, we are reporters from the Wangyi News Technology Channel. I heard that China's manned moon landing program was proposed by you?"
"Hello, Professor Lu, we are reporters from the Penguin News Technology Channel. There are rumors online that China will soon achieve space travel. What do you think?"
"… There are rumors that you will be the chief designer of the manned space program. Is this true?"
The questions made Lu Zhou's scalp tingle. He knew that it was impossible to break through, so he immediately grabbed the reporter closest to him and said, "It's fake."
Reporter: "Uh … Then, then —"
Lu Zhou took the initiative and took a deep breath. He then carefully said, "The manned space program wasn't completely my suggestion. The country does have a strategic need in this area. As for the chief designer of the manned moon landing program, I don't know where you heard this, but as far as I know, the relevant departments only invited me to be a consultant. "
However, Secretary Xu, who was standing next to him, suddenly smiled and said, "It's the chief consultant."
Chief consultant!
These three short words completely ignited the atmosphere at the venue …
Thank you to my book friend, Nether Radiant Feather's Alliance Master for your tip ~
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