Chapter 649 Damn It, What Kind of Monster Are They Facing?

Because it uses an electric propulsion system as its power engine, the time it takes for Xinghai to climb the gravity well is much longer than that of a traditional chemical fuel launch vehicle.

For aerospace, this is both an advantage and a disadvantage.

The advantage is that the acceleration is small, and it can climb the gravity well more stably and gently. The personnel inside the spacecraft will not bear excessive acceleration and pressure, and even an ordinary person can adapt.

The disadvantage is that it takes a long time.

If it takes about 7-10 minutes for a conventional chemical fuel launch vehicle to launch a spacecraft to a low-Earth orbit of 400 kilometers, then the electric propulsion system takes about two hours.

The long time is mainly due to the early climb of the gravity well in the atmosphere and the increase in flight speed. After reaching the critical point and switching flight mode, its speed is not weaker than that of chemical rockets.

For the viewers in the live broadcast room, although two hours is a bit long, it allows them to better understand how the space shuttle climbs into the sky bit by bit.

The scenery of clouds and ground at different heights also made these netizens who stayed in the live broadcast room late at night keep shouting and screaming.

Fortunately, tomorrow is the Dragon Boat Festival, and most people have already had a holiday. Everyone has enough time to stay up late. Otherwise, how to get up tomorrow, or should I say this morning, will be a difficult problem.

On the other side, on the Xinghai space shuttle.

Looking at the dark night outside the driver's window, Zhai Zhigang, who was sitting in the main driver's seat, breathed a sigh of relief.

As an astronaut, he has entered space more than ten times, landing in near-Earth orbit and the space station.

But it has to be said that Xinghai is the most relaxing launch process among all the spacecraft he has ever flown on.

Even if the flight speed increases when he switches flight attitude and climbs out of the gravity well at the critical point, the acceleration and G value are still quite small, at least for him.

With an acceleration of less than 3 G, for someone like him who has adapted to the launch process of traditional chemical fuel rockets, he will not feel any pressure at all.

Although this was not the first time he had taken the Xinghai to the sky, he still felt magical about this gentle way of taking off.

A few months ago, he never thought that the development and breakthroughs of aerospace technology could reach such a height.

The technology that can easily launch astronauts or even ordinary people into the sky without any pressure was regarded as a science fiction story in the past in the space industry.

But now, this story has become a reality, and he can't help but sigh with emotion about the development of the times.

After shaking his head and clearing his mind, Zhai Zhigang checked the air circulation system and life support system inside the space shuttle. After making sure that everything was normal, he reached out and took off the aerospace helmet on his head, and unlocked the safety buckle, levitating from the seat.

Floating in the space shuttle, he looked at his two teammates and gave the order: "Liu Yang, you are responsible for maintaining stable communication between the Xinghai and the ground command center."

"Chen Dong, you are responsible for checking the operation of various components and equipment of the Xinghai space shuttle. I will check the status of the lunar landing equipment and lunar landing instruments."

"receive!"

"Yes, Captain!"

Liu Yang and Chen Dong both nodded and flew to their respective posts, while Zhai Zhigang floated towards the middle of the space shuttle.

After several hours of flight, they have now entered hundreds of kilometers of low-Earth orbit.

Here, Xinghai will make a short stay of two hours, allowing the three astronauts to check the status of various space shuttle equipment and lunar landing equipment and instruments.

If it is confirmed that there is no problem, the next step will be to re-ignite the space engine and change orbit to the moon.

the other side,

After several hours of launch flight, netizens who were still squatting in the live broadcast room in the early morning finally got the picture they wanted to see.

The Xinghai, floating hundreds of kilometers away in space and preparing to land on the moon, has enough time to show the earth and the sea of ​​stars to the outside world for appreciation.

(Real shots of our Tiangong Space Station. Although there are more beautiful ones than this one, I think this one is more representative)

Facing these images transmitted back in real time, the audience in the live broadcast room had a heated discussion!

[So beautiful, so romantic! 】

【Wuhu, really heaven! I really hope that one day I can stand at such a height and see such a beautiful earth and starry sky! 】

[When I think about it, it feels strange. The blue planet below is my home planet. 】

[This picture quality is completely suitable for making movies! 】

[At this time, a space located in the observable universe - Hercules - Great Wall of Corona Borealis - Lanikea Supercluster - Virgo Cluster - Local Group of Galaxies - Milky Way - Orion Cantilever - Gould's Belt - Local Bubble - Local Interstellar The traveler of the cloud - the Oort cloud - the third planet in the solar system, passed by and posted a message! 】

[Broadcast this upstairs, and then the earth will boom! 】

[Mother Earth: "I'm so lucky to have you guys."]

[Laughing to death, there’s no point in broadcasting it. Aliens can’t understand our language at all. This is just a human name. 】

Even in the early morning, there are still tens of millions of viewers staying in the live broadcast room.

As China's first manned moon landing project, many people choose to hang their mobile phones or computers there while sleeping, playing music quietly and praying for the astronauts heading to the moon.

Perhaps feeling the thoughts of these people, Xinghai has completed the final preparations before departure in low-Earth orbit hundreds of kilometers away.

Sitting back in the driver's seat, Zhai Zhigang put on his aerospace helmet, reached out and pressed the communication button on the side, and said calmly and clearly:

"Call the ground command center, this is the Xinghai."

Soon, the response from the ground command came through the earphones.

"The command center has received it, please report your situation."

Zhai Zhigang took a deep breath and quickly replied: The earth orbit inspection work has been completed. The current remaining fuel and working mass are 71.37% and 62.89%. All Xinghai equipment is operating normally, and the lunar landing equipment instrument inspection is completed. Request Approved to switch lunar orbit! "

In the headset, a brief silence passed, and soon, a new voice came through.

"Approved request, good luck on your journey!"

"receive!"

Holding the joystick tightly with both hands, Zhai Zhigang took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and pushed the switch to start the engine with his thumb.

Following the execution of the command, the huge engine nozzle at the tail of the Xinghai began to shine with bright blue-white light, pushing the huge space shuttle towards higher and further targets.

On the other side, in the United States, NASA's headquarters in Washington.

In the satellite monitoring room, from the radar cross-section, a green dot was moving slowly.

In the room, Chief Bill Nelson was holding a cup of black coffee and looking at the surveillance screen.

As a rival in the space race, NASA will naturally keep its attention on the Xinghai manned lunar landing project throughout the process. But no matter what, their opponent is already too late!

They had already sent the Artemis lunar landing craft into space three days ago, and this was the time for China to start.

Perhaps, on the moon, their three astronauts can still see this belated opponent.

When he thought of this, the corners of his mouth curled up unconsciously.

This is really a pleasant thing.

At this moment, the engineer with the green dot in front of the console, who was staring at the green dot that was close to the boundary of the atmosphere and represented the trajectory of the Xinghai, suddenly said:

"The movement trajectory of the Xinghai is abnormal."

Hearing this, Bill Nelson looked at the engineer in surprise and asked quickly: "Abnormal? What happened? Did they malfunction? Did they fall into space?"

Could it be that God heard his prayer?

Only then was it possible to board the low-Earth orbit, but something went wrong with the operation of the Xinghai?

If the other party fell from outer space, that would be perfect!

Maybe they still have a chance to get the wreckage!

After all, the earth is so big, as long as the space shuttle does not fall into China's territory, they have a great chance.

In front of the console, the engineer who was staring at the radar monitoring chart had an expression of disbelief on his face, and said in an uncertain tone: "No, judging from the radar monitoring, they are already switching orbits and flying towards the Earth-Moon orbit. .”

"This is impossible!"

"They have been in low-Earth orbit for less than two hours, how could they change orbit and fly to the moon now!"

The coffee in his mouth almost spit out. After swallowing it forcefully, he coughed a few times. Bill Nelson ignored the burning pain in his lungs and walked over quickly.

In front of the monitoring radar screen, the engineer said bitterly: "But the radar situation is indeed the case. The Xinghai is quickly moving away from the earth."

"How can this be"

Looking at the green dot on the radar chart, Bill Nelson seemed to have seen an alien, his eyes full of disbelief.

Next to him, the engineer in charge of monitoring hesitated for a moment, and then said: "From the past data collection we have collected on the Xinghai, it has strong autonomy both in the atmosphere and in outer space, and its propulsion methods are much better than ours. Even better than I imagined.”

"Perhaps, to complete the manned moon landing, it does not need to perform various orbit changes and course calculations like traditional chemical fuel rockets."

"Maybe. It can start from the earth, sail directly to the moon, and adjust its navigation trajectory autonomously in space."

After hearing this, Bill Nelson fell completely silent.

If this is true, then this opponent's aerospace strength may have completely widened the gap with them.

Damn it, how did that Xinghai Research Institute do it?

Could it be that the engine on that space shuttle was really a pure electric propulsion system?

What about energy supply? Not to mention whether electric propulsion can achieve this, just to increase the thrust of electric propulsion to enough to support a space shuttle of dozens or hundreds of tons to fly into the sky, the demand for electrical energy is definitely an extremely huge number.

Staring at the picture on the radar screen, Bill Nelson frowned tightly. He really couldn't think of any energy supply device that could do this.

Could it be a miniaturized fusion reactor?

Suddenly, an even more terrifying thought flashed through his mind.

If we go by this speculation, what kind of monster are they facing?

NASA engineers' guess was indeed accurate.

Compared with traditional chemical fuel launch vehicles, the Xinghai space shuttle's autonomy is much higher.

With the miniaturized controllable nuclear fusion reactor as the core of the functional system, its fuel utilization efficiency is far beyond that of chemical fuels such as liquid hydrogen and oxygen, liquid methane, and liquid oxygen and kerosene.

For Xinghai, when sailing in outer space, what limits its range is not the fuel, but the working fluid.

The amount of working fluid is relatively larger than fuel, and the amount that can be carried is limited.

But for the solar system, or for today's aerospace field, the power supply system composed of a small fusion reactor + aerospace engine is completely sufficient.

Not to mention the moon, even Mars has enough ability to complete the landing through space orbit adjustment without pre-calculating the orbit.

However, as this was the first manned lunar landing, for the sake of stability, China calculated and arranged the Xinghai lunar landing trajectory in advance based on the experience of the Chang'e series.

In the dark deep sky, the Xinghai's tail glowed with a blue-white arc, and it was quickly and slowly heading towards the silver-gray planet that was close at hand but far away.

This is a long journey for the three astronauts driving the Xinghai, the Jinling Space Base on the ground, and even the viewers and netizens squatting in front of computers, TVs and mobile phones.

For the first two, they each perform their duties and concentrate on their jobs.

For the latter, although this journey is long, it is not so boring.

The work that Xu Chuan had assigned in advance and the temporarily added long-focus shooting equipment came into play at this moment.

When Xinghai moved away from the earth and entered the backlight area of ​​the sun, the twinkling stars in the deep space of the universe were completely photographed into the live broadcast room at this moment.

【What a beautiful sea of ​​stars! 】

[Didn’t you say that you can’t see stars in outer space? I remember that there were no stars in the photos taken during the Apollo 11 moon landing. Why can they be seen on the Xinghai? 】

[New Machine Words: Dig this one, Mohe has many more! The American moon landing was faked! 】

[In what era are we still falsifying moon landings? Apollo 11 couldn’t see stars, our space station couldn’t see stars when taking pictures, and Chang’e didn’t even take pictures of stars when it landed on the moon. 】

[Then why can Xinghai take pictures? 】

[It’s just a matter of shooting equipment. For the live broadcast, Kamikawa God on the Star Sea specially added a camera that can shoot and expose the sea of ​​​​stars for us, so that we can see it. If you don’t believe it, ask astronauts, they can see it with the naked eye. 】

[Hey, the camera has switched, this is looking back at the Earth! 】

[Get out of the way and let me lick the screen a million times! Mother Earth is so beautiful from this angle! 】

[Mother Earth is indeed round! The Flat Earthers can leave in peace! 】

【In what age do people still believe in the flat earth theory? 】

[That’s not just a little bit, it’s several million (squints and smiles)]