The history of the space shuttle could be said to have been around for a long time.
After the United States completed the Apollo program in the 1960s, they focused their research and development efforts on the "multiple launches and easy maintenance" space shuttle. In this space race, the Soviet Union followed closely behind. They developed the Snowstorm, Little Bird, and three other space shuttles, and they achieved some results.
Because of this, China didn't want to be left behind, and they also launched their own space shuttle.
For example, the original project code 863-204, which was the so-called "round-trip transportation system". In the early stages of the project bidding, China's aerospace experts had a long-lasting debate about the "space shuttle". Even the voices supporting the space shuttle had the upper hand.
However, just when everything seemed to have settled down, the report was sent to Mr. Qian, who had already retired.
After Mr. Qian read the report, he only wrote a few words. These few words completely changed the technology route of the space shuttle and changed the future of China's aerospace industry.
"The space shuttle case should also be reported to the Communist Party of China."
Looking back now, the choice he made at that time was undoubtedly the right one.
The space shuttle wasn't as glamorous as it looked. Even two superpowers couldn't support the human dream of free space travel.
Take the United States for example. The Space Shuttle Columbia had a design life of 20 years/100 launches, but all five of the United States' space shuttles had only launched more than 100 times. The cost of each launch and maintenance was much higher than the initial design estimate.
The Soviet Union was even worse. Three space shuttles were launched once, and after the 1990s, they couldn't even fly anymore. One of the test shuttles was bought by Germany and placed in a museum.
Instead of going through all this trouble, it was better to just use rockets and research how to recover the second-stage rockets. The cost wouldn't be much higher than the mature space shuttle technology.
However, times were always changing.
If one looked at a problem from a development perspective, any problem could be solved.
Space shuttle assembly center.
Standing next to the industrial robot, Lu Zhou, who was wearing gloves, picked up a metal cylinder the size of a mineral water bottle from the plastic basket. He weighed it in his hand and then approached the mouth of the metal cylinder. He carefully examined the smooth metal surface.
"Why does it feel like it's two times bigger?"
A series of bubbles popped up on the terminal screen of the CNC machine tool.
Xiao Ai: [Sorry, Master! This is the smallest size Xiao Ai can make … QAQ]
Lu Zhou: "Don't be like this, I'm not blaming you … You've already done a good job."
Xiao Ai: [Really? 0.0】
"… En."
Xiao Ai: [Happy! Φ (≧ ω ∀ *)?]
Lu Zhou: "…"
What he was holding in his hand was an enlarged version of the Hall-effect thruster on Debris No.3. This was also the limit of what the CNC machine tool could make.
It wasn't that Lu Zhou didn't ask Xiao Ai to make this thing smaller without sacrificing performance. However, for every 1mm reduction in the cross-section diameter, not only would the overall processing difficulty increase exponentially, but the stability of the propulsion unit would also be seriously affected.
However, even though it was difficult to completely restore the technology from Debris No.3, this replica was still quite nutty.
The engine port with a diameter of 1.32 meters could integrate around 200 Hall-effect thruster units. By pressurizing the xenon plasma in the ionization chamber, it could eject a plasma plume that accelerated to one-thousandth of the speed of light, thereby producing a maximum thrust of 200KN.
A single engine had a thrust of 200KN, so five engines added up to 1000KN.
Even with a full load of 50 tons, it could achieve an acceleration of nearly 1G under the gravitational environment. Even though the acceleration was faster than chemical rockets, the specific impulse allowed it to send itself to low-Earth orbit without carrying a heavy load of working medium.
The only problem was that a 100M fusion battery was only enough to meet the demand of one X-type Hall-effect thruster.
If he wanted to meet the energy consumption of the Hall-effect thruster, he had to further upgrade the power of the fusion battery.
"It looks like I have to increase the power of the fusion battery to more than 500M … Preferably 1000M." Lu Zhou stared at the Hall-effect thruster unit in his hand and said, "I also have to improve the power management system … Speaking of which, is there a way to integrate the ionization chamber of the five engines together? Or maybe I should just make a larger Hall-effect thruster with more propulsion units. "
Lu Zhou placed the Hall-effect thruster unit back into the plastic container and left the assembly center. He went to an office in the main building and found Hou Guang, the technical director of the Star Sky Technology space shuttle assembly center.
Speaking of which, Hou Guang was also a nutty person.
He was an old professor who had participated in the 863-204 project. Even though he was only working on the space shuttle design as an intern, he still accumulated a considerable amount of research experience in the field. After that, he became a professor at Jinghang University and was engaged in aerospace research.
Logically speaking, a nutty person like this was very difficult to find. However, after Hou Guang found out that the CEO of the company was Lu Zhou and that Lu Zhou planned to build a space shuttle, he didn't even talk about the compensation. Without hesitation, he accepted Star Sky Technology's offer and traveled all the way to Jinling the next day.
It had been more than a month since he was appointed as the technical director.
Lu Zhou had always been satisfied with his work.
After all, designing the space shuttle wasn't his expertise. It was better to leave this kind of professional work to the professionals.
"… I've carefully studied the space shuttle design drawings. Considering the size of the ion thruster propulsion system and the energy supply components, more than 40% of the design has to be redesigned."
Lu Zhou: "What does 40% mean?"
Hou Guang thought for a bit and gave a more specific explanation.
"Probably starting from the wing position, everything has to be redesigned."
Lu Zhou nodded.
"You're the expert in space shuttles, so we'll just follow your instructions. Also, based on your experience, I want you to give me a simple estimate. How much will the entire project cost? "
Hou Guang thought for a bit and spoke.
"A conservative estimate is US $1 billion … Of course, before the new design comes out, no one knows how much it will cost."
US $1 billion …
For a space shuttle, this wasn't expensive. After all, the Americans spent a total of 2.5 billion dollars on the Space Shuttle Columbia, and that was a few decades ago. Being able to build it with a US $1 billion price tag was largely due to the fact that most of the designs were completed between the 1990s and the millennium. Also, this assembly center could process most of the parts, so they only needed to supply the basic raw materials.
However, even though Lu Zhou was prepared to burn money …
The US $1 billion cost was a bit out of his budget.
Lu Zhou couldn't help but worry about money.
Should I sell some shares of East Asia Power?
Even though it wasn't listed yet, he definitely wouldn't have to worry about selling it. After all, everyone could see the future potential of this giant in the fusion industry. However, the Fuxi reactor at Daya Bay had just begun construction, and the Southeast Asian power grid project had just completed its first phase. It would be too much of a loss to sell now.
Should I borrow money from the bank?
But this is aerospace, and the investment cycle is long, so it's not easy to get a loan.
While Lu Zhou was hesitating, he suddenly heard a knock on the door.
Lu Zhou looked at the door and spoke.
"Come in."
The door was pushed open, and the secretary of the factory director's office appeared at the door.
The secretary didn't expect Lu Zhou to be here, so she paused for a second when she saw Lu Zhou. However, a look of surprise soon appeared on her face.
"Professor Lu!"
Lu Zhou: "What?"
She continued to speak in an excited tone.
"The funding we applied for from the China National Space Administration has been approved!"
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