Chapter 1097 Interstellar Transport System
The more you value something, the less you can take it seriously. Although Max is looking forward to these rocket engines very much, he still has to pretend to be indifferent. He is a person who does big things, and he wants to bring humanity with him. Flying to Mars, what is the rocket engine of Lao Maozi from twenty years ago?
Perminov was a little embarrassed, so he left now? If we compare official positions, my official position is higher than yours, but you are like this?
Qin Tao smiled: "Everyone, we are all tired after talking for so long. Let's go have something to eat and drink first. We will discuss the details tomorrow."
The guys didn't care what they ate, but when Qin Tao said something to drink, everyone got excited.
There are so many places to eat in the capital. Qin Tao took everyone to a famous hotel and gave them bottles of Wuliangye. He quickly drank these old fools to the ground.
"Mr. Qin, you are so interesting!"
"Mr. Qin, you are our big friend!"
Qin Tao smiled and sent these people back to the hotel, and then saw more than ten text messages sent on his mobile phone.
Mr. Qin, are you done?
Mr. Qin, are you gone?
Mr. Qin, let’s quickly discuss how to get these engines!
Max was really anxious.
Qin Tao smiled and asked Xu Zhengyang to drive back. After seeing Qin Tao, Max's face was full of excitement.
"Mr. Qin, with this 800-ton thrust engine, our starship MK2 can be officially developed! This rocket will help us fly to Mars!" Max was very excited: "We originally planned to use the existing For Raptor engines, multiple units must be installed. Although we are confident in the parallel engines, there are still risks with too many units. Now, we can use existing technology to complete these plans!”
After saying that, Max walked to the whiteboard aside and started drawing.
"We will use this engine to build a super-heavy rocket with a diameter of 9 meters and a height of about 70 meters. In order to propel the entire system, this rocket requires more than 7,400 tons of thrust. Even our modified Raptor engine will need Install 33 units, but now, we only need to install ten of these engines, so the reliability of the parallel engines will be very high. "
Looking at the design drawing drawn by Max, Qin Tao was also very emotional. Who said Max liked to use 33 engines in parallel? There is nothing we can do about it. If there were engines with greater thrust, who would use dozens of them?
Ten engines, one with a thrust of 800 tons, ten engines with a thrust of 8,000 tons. This kind of thrust can fully propel the overall combination with a take-off weight of 5,000 tons.
"On it, we will install a starship with a height of 50 meters. The diameter of this starship is also 9 meters. It only needs to install six to nine Raptor engines. The super-heavy rocket below is responsible for sending it God, it is responsible for sending people to Mars!”
The Raptor engine must be installed on the upper stage, because after discarding the lower stage, there is no need for particularly large thrust, and the Raptor engine will definitely mature earlier. In the initial launch, the lower stage may temporarily use liquid oxygen kerosene RD The imitation version of the -170 engine will become a liquid oxygen methane engine later.
Coming out of the conference room, Max began to think about it. Of course, he had already started thinking about the starship flying to Mars, but he had been unable to implement it. After all, manned landing on the moon was the first step, and now, he finally saw it Arrived at hope.
"We can call it an interstellar transportation system, and I'm going to use it to immigrate a hundred people to Mars!"
The current combination of Starship MK1 and Dragon spacecraft is still too small. It can only transport up to seven people, and it can only move around the earth. It cannot fly into space at all. If you want to go to the moon, you have to dock with a special landing craft. It is extremely difficult to use the lunar module to fly to Mars. In comparison, it is most suitable to use this brand-new system. It is a combination of a super-heavy rocket and a large starship. It can also be called an interstellar transportation system. It is used for interstellar migration.
"Max, your system has a two-level structure, or even a one-level structure. How could you imagine this?" Qin Tao asked.
The idea of a multi-stage rocket was proposed by Tsiolkovsky, the great father of modern aerospace. The rocket is divided into several parts. After burning part of the fuel, the shell of this part is thrown away, which can reduce the weight of the rocket itself. The weight allows the rocket to fly farther and gain greater speed.
Spacecraft in the past used multi-stage rockets. For example, if you want to launch a low-Earth orbit satellite, you have to use a two-stage rocket. If you want to launch a high-orbit satellite, you have to use a three-stage rocket. The Apollo rockets also had a three-stage structure. Because the technology was not high enough, Asan even built a four-stage rocket.
However, with the advancement of technology, especially the continuous improvement of rocket engine performance, the number of rocket stages is becoming fewer and fewer.
The American space shuttle is not a multi-stage structure. It has a fuel tank on its belly and solid boosters on both sides. It can be launched directly into orbit. How much does that count?
This is a typical one-and-a-half-stage structure. The booster is considered a half-stage. After all, it falls off after burning, which can also reduce its own weight. Some rockets with one stage have also begun to develop one-and-a-half-stage structures. In China, Long March 5B is the first A rocket with a one-stage and a half structure has the main body of the rocket in the middle and only the first stage, with the payload on top and boosters tied to all sides.
The one-and-a-half-level structure is already at its peak, but what is Max going to do?
The starship above is a whole and can be counted as a payload. There is only a first-stage super-heavy rocket below. Isn't this a monopolar orbit?
Considering that the starship spacecraft above can also carry thousands of tons of propellant, this starship can be called the second stage of the rocket. However, the above starship is not only a rocket, but also a payload. It is to fly to Mars as a whole. , if such an overall structure is counted as a load, then the entire system is a monopolar rocket.
Hearing Qin Tao's question, Max smiled: "Of course I want to completely recycle it, so that we can save more. My ultimate goal is to reduce the cost of starship word flight to ten million US dollars, so that everyone can go to Mars." The cost was reduced to two hundred thousand dollars.”
The current Starship MK1 cannot be fully recycled, especially the second-stage rocket, which can only be thrown into the atmosphere and burned. This is a serious waste. However, Starship MK2, this new system adopts a new structure, which is to To achieve complete recycling!
"After completing the launch mission, the super-heavy rocket below has to fly back, and it also needs to fly to our launch tower." Max continued: "Our launch tower needs a new name, called the launch capture tower. This tower will not only launch the rocket, but also recover it, and it will be able to conduct a second launch quickly.”
Speaking of this, Max was spitting and very excited.
"This launch capture tower is 145 meters high, with an all-steel structure. It has three robotic arms, one of which is called a quick disconnect arm. This is used to connect the filling equipment and quickly remove the filling equipment before launch. It also serves as a central stabilizing structure. . The other two robotic arms are like chopsticks, yes, chopsticks, used to capture our super-heavy rocket!”
How to recycle rockets? The best way is to let it fly back on its own!
"I'm afraid this super-heavy rocket has already flown out of the atmosphere after completing its launch mission, right?" Qin Tao continued to ask. It is not easy to make an aircraft that has flown out of the atmosphere fly back again!
"It hasn't completely flown out yet. I have calculated that the speed should be around Mach 25. During the recovery, I plan to let it land using a special belly-slapping dive method, making full use of air resistance to slow down, thereby saving time on return. fuel." Max thought of all these technical routes in a short period of time.
He once again drew the design diagram for the return trip. When he came back, it was similar to the space shuttle. It was horizontal, using the largest area to contact the air to slow down. During the descent, he kept correcting his attitude and gradually become vertical.
This method of return also applies to the spacecraft above. After all, the spacecraft also needs to be recycled.
"In order to better fulfill this mission, the outer shell of the entire interstellar transportation system needs to be manufactured using specialized composite materials."
When he heard this, Qin Tao shook his head: "Max, I don't think composite materials are necessarily good. The simplest materials are the most suitable. How about we just use stainless steel?"
Qin Tao remembered that in the time and space before his rebirth, Max announced that this system would use carbon fiber composite materials. However, two years later, he had to scrap the heavily purchased composite materials and use stainless steel.
Quite simply, from the low temperatures of space to the high temperatures of returning to the ground, stainless steel must perform much better than carbon fiber, and even better than titanium alloys.
The gleaming stainless steel shell also looks full of industrial beauty, and Max doesn't need to replace this material.
Max's eyes were filled with confusion: "Will you continue to use stainless steel?"
"Yes, trust me, stainless steel is the best choice."
Max nodded: "Okay, Mr. Qin, I believe you, then use stainless steel. Super-heavy spacecraft and starships are all made of stainless steel shells and fixed with outriggers, so that they can also fly to the surface of other planets and land. We plan to do this within two years Complete the design and manufacture it within two years, and within five years at most, you will have the opportunity to fly to Mars!”
"Ahem." Qin Tao coughed twice: "Max, if this kind of starship is developed, wouldn't it be better for us to fly to the moon to test it first? This kind of starship should have a payload of 150 tons. Right? Wouldn’t it be better to transport supplies to the moon and build a lunar base? As for flying to Mars, we still have to take our time.”
The race to the moon has begun. Flying to the moon and building a lunar base are very important, but flying to Mars does not seem to have much effect except for reputation.
It’s better to go to the moon first.
This interstellar transportation system is the largest rocket in the world, far exceeding any other rocket in the world. After all, Lao Maozi's Energy No. only has four boosters using RD170, with a total thrust of more than 3,000 tons, and now This super-heavy starship uses ten engines and has a take-off thrust of more than 7,000 tons!
The entire take-off weight also exceeds 5,000 tons, with more than 3,000 tons of propellant loaded below and 1,200 tons of propellant above.
Despite its size, this spacecraft is very light. The dry weight of the spacecraft is only 85 tons, so it can easily carry a payload of 150 tons. However, it is estimated that some fuel will be consumed during the launch process. If you want fuel It is more abundant, and it is estimated that the fuel must be replenished in orbit, so that it can better fly to the moon or Mars.
"Yes, our planned payload is 150 tons." Max nodded: "Flying to Mars is not easy. Since you fly there once, you must carry a large amount of supplies."
Flying to Mars is a complex aerospace project. It is not only about flying there, but also about how to get back. It is impossible to just have a one-way ticket.
Someone once calculated that if you want to fly to Mars, you need a big ship of at least 500 tons.
When the spacecraft departs, it weighs more than 500 tons. Using the hydrogen-oxygen engine with the highest specific impulse, it needs a speed increment of 3590 meters per second to enter the ideal Hohmann transfer orbit. If 10% of the fuel is reserved, more than 300 tons of fuel will be needed. If the burned rocket fuel and the shell are thrown away, the weight of the spacecraft will be reduced to less than 200 tons when it reaches the orbit near Mars.
After being captured by the gravity of Mars, it will also consume 70 tons of fuel to enter the Mars synchronous transfer orbit with a perigee of 200 kilometers and an apogee of 17,000 kilometers. At this time, there are more than 100 tons left, divided into two parts. The orbital module is waiting in the orbit of Mars. It needs to prepare to return to the earth, which requires at least 80 tons. Then it will drop a Mars landing module of more than 40 tons. It consumes 6 tons of fuel for descent and 16 tons of fuel for ascent. When it returns, there are still more than 10 tons of weight left. After returning to the orbital module, the remaining fuel is used for acceleration, and then thrown away, and the orbital module returns to the earth.
This is very complicated and full of many uncertain factors. Once the time is delayed, it may be catastrophic. After all, the moon has been orbiting the earth, the distance is about the same, but the distance between Mars and the earth varies greatly. Once the launch window is missed, it will never come back.
However, Max's plan is more radical.
This spacecraft of more than 1,000 tons is to land directly on Mars. After going up, the fuel must have been consumed a lot, and it is not enough to come back. The plan he gave is to manufacture it on the spot, use the atmosphere of Mars to obtain methane and oxygen, and then come back after making the fuel.
As for people, they can stay there for a while longer. Mars and Earth will be closest to each other every 780 days. This period is also called the synodic period, which is about 26 months. People can stay there for two years before returning. This period is enough.
As for whether it will be lonely?
Can hundreds of people go there and be lonely? Taking advantage of this period, maybe a few more lives can be born.
"In the future, when we copy the RD-170 engine and switch to methane fuel, this super-heavy rocket can continue to launch. After the first launch, return to the launch capture tower, complete the fuel filling and inspection tasks in one hour, and install the starship spacecraft waiting next to it, and launch again. In this way, in one launch window, using a launch pad and a super-heavy rocket, you can launch five or even ten times. These starships fly to Mars together, which is called lively."
Just imagine that scene, and you will know how spectacular it is: a row of starships with outriggers stand next to the launch pad, waiting for the super-heavy rocket to come back, hoist it up, and then launch it again. This is as fast as queuing up for a roller coaster at a tourist attraction!
The reason why we don't build more super-heavy rockets and launch pads is, of course, to reduce costs. Super-heavy rockets can be used repeatedly, which can greatly reduce the cost of entering space. In one launch window, all of them are launched, which is simply a space fleet!
Thinking of that scene, even Qin Tao is looking forward to it. It's spectacular!
This is also the reason why methane liquid oxygen engines are used.
In fact, this fuel is not the first creation of Starship. As early as the 1960s, there were such designs in the world, but they were not favored at the beginning. The first ones were poison rockets, that is, unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine, and later liquid oxygen kerosene and liquid hydrogen liquid oxygen engines. If Starship did not want to explore Mars, this engine would not have come out, because methane and oxygen can be made from the Martian atmosphere, and local materials can be used. After all, for rockets, the weight of fuel accounts for the majority.
However, after research, there are new discoveries. For example, liquid oxygen methane engines do not coke, which is an important reason why they can be reused many times. After use, they are clean inside and can continue to be used. If there is coking inside, it will become dangerous to use them again.
If the super-heavy rocket wants to be used multiple times, it still has to use liquid oxygen and methane. However, Starship has previous experience. Since it can transform NK33 into a liquid oxygen and methane engine, it can also transform RD170 into this engine.
Multiple uses and flying to Mars, these dreams are about to come true.
Max's eyes are full of longing.
"Boss Qin, how can we steal the RD170 engine?" Max continued to return to the original question.
All this depends on a powerful engine. Without this engine, everything is in vain.
For the Russians, this engine is also very strong and belongs to the country's heavy equipment. The Russians will never sell it easily. In later generations, there have been many news reports that the Russians offered hundreds of millions to sell this engine to the East, and then there was no follow-up.
In fact, this kind of article is a catching wind and shadow, or even deliberately fabricating news. The East does not need this engine at all, and the reason is very simple: there is no place to use it.
Even the Americans use the RD180 that is cut in half and has half the thrust, just because they don't need such a strong thrust.
Eastern's Long March 5 only uses a 120-ton thrust liquid oxygen-kerosene engine as a booster, and the core stage uses a 50-ton thrust liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen engine, which is enough.
Later, the Long March 9 planned to use the 500-ton thrust YF-130, and later planned to use the 360-ton thrust YF-135. Later, it was planned to use a 200-ton thrust liquid oxygen-methane engine. The design scheme has been constantly changing, which shows the difficulty of developing this engine. However, no matter how it changes, it has never used an 800-ton engine.
As for the final choice of liquid oxygen-methane engine, it is estimated that the huge cost of heavy rockets is also taken into account. Using this reusable engine can save weight.
Now, Max will feel at ease only if he gets this engine, which is the premise of all projects.
Qin Tao smiled and said, "That's not easy. Just get the old Russians who are guarding drunk. After all, they are paid by us. Who do you think you are on your side?"