Chapter 1557: That Glorious Technological Era

After all, the Titan Star Department was "tyrannical" within Kyushu Technology. In addition to the tacit approval of the man in front of him, the most important thing was because the beasts in the Titan Star Department were so capable.

No matter what kind of scientific research project it is, even if it is not the right major, as long as the beasts in the Titan Star department take over or lead the project, it will immediately bring about a huge progress leap.

Thinking of the inhumanity of these people who only care about learning in addition to scientific research, Luo Jiazhao, the head of Jiuzhou Technology Rocket Company, and engineer Li Lun both smiled awkwardly.

But they all knew that Gu Qing was not joking.

If there is still no progress in the main projects of our company during this period, it is very likely that we will usher in those inhumans.

When Gu Qing and his party entered the core laboratory, Jiuzhou Technology Rocket Company's internal experimental base was simultaneously conducting dangerous loophole detection. Organized bionic robots and drones shuttled through the pipelines, looking for any suspicious loopholes and organisms.

Engineer Li Lun seems to be very afraid of leaving a bad impression on Gu Qing. Basically, every time he encounters a project research and development result, he will explain it to the group of people led by Gu Qing, for fear that some people on the other side will not understand and will misunderstand it. Change the special nouns into vocabulary that can be easily understood.

“Since our company has had projects to develop nuclear energy, we have also inquired about project products related to nuclear power platforms, such as nuclear-powered aircraft, nuclear-powered ships, nuclear-powered robots, etc.

But when putting it into the nuclear-powered rocket platform project, we inevitably suffered a lot of influences and mistakes.

This is the first version of the design. We refer to the nuclear engine used in the NERVA rocket vehicle jointly developed by the American Atomic Energy Commission and NASA.

The engine uses uranium 235 as nuclear fuel and releases energy through nuclear fission. Nuclear fission technology naturally involves nuclear radiation risks, and even affects the surrounding environment and the health of astronauts when work errors occur.

Of course, we don't use this technology now, and the first version is just a tribute work.

In the second version, we released a small nuclear explosion as a thrust for the spacecraft to move forward. Using this nuclear pulse propulsion technology, the technical team has achieved many results. "

Gu Qing looked at these reduced models and affirmed the achievements of their rocket development team.

"Using nuclear energy is the right direction. The fuel carried by chemical rockets has too many constraints on aerospace projects. If the distance is too long, more fuel must be added, but if the fuel increases, the weight will increase.

Although nuclear energy has the risk of radiation, after all, we can use counting methods to avoid this risk. "

Hearing Gu Qing's words, engineer Li Liandian nodded: "Yes, the fission of atoms and the release of kinetic energy can generate enough energy to provide the engine with strong specific thrust. The higher the specific impulse seconds, the lower the cost of the rocket. The efficiency is better.

Compared with inefficient chemical rockets, nuclear energy rockets have greater thrust and faster speeds, which can shorten space flight time, allowing astronauts to reach their destinations as quickly as possible, while also reducing the impact of cosmic rays on astronauts, and even slowing down Muscle atrophy in astronauts in microgravity.

In order to deal with the radiation problem and adapt the thrust coefficient to the overall rocket system, we developed the nuclear engine of the space rocket. This is the design model of the first version of the nuclear engine. "

Li Lun pointed to a device wrapped with many solid hard shells and cables, and introduced: "The core of the JZH-402 engine is composed of graphite penetrated by uranium 235 fuel. The fission of uranium atoms generates energy, and the energy is surrounded by beryllium reflectors. around the core.

The pump delivers hydrogen to the rocket engine nozzle. The hydrogen obtains energy from the fissioned uranium atoms and heats it to about 4,000 degrees Celsius to generate thrust. Of course, such high temperatures and temperature polarization are not practical before the actual experiment is started. The Ecological Laboratory server rejected the experiment because it could not pass the variable setting.

We can only reduce the parameters and nuclear materials for field experiments. During the actual experiments, we found that temperature does affect the nuclear fission process. "

When Li Lun reached this point, Gu Qing suddenly asked: "What equipment and designs do the heating and conversion methods you use rely on?"

Li Lun did not hesitate for a second and replied: "We use a multi-functional radioisotope thermal battery, so that we can convert plutonium 238 and electrical energy more easily.

Because the structures and scales of nuclear engines and nuclear power plants are different, this thermal battery was ultimately inspired by the graphene solid-state battery technology of the Titanium Division. "

After receiving the answer, Gu Qing looked at Zhang Tianhao, who had been following him silently, and asked, "How is it?"

Li Lun and others did not interrupt Zhang Tianhao's answer. They just stopped and waited quietly for the answer from the head of the Titanium department.

Zhang Tianhao replied with some thoughts in his eyes: "According to the technical route we originally developed to develop the infinite array engine, the technical concept of the nuclear power engine is not complicated. To simplify it, what the JZH-402 nuclear power engine does is actually A nuclear reactor is used to heat a special gas to a high temperature and then discharge it through a nozzle under the rocket, thereby generating thrust.

When we jointly studied the nuclear rocket platform engine, our engineers from Titanium Star proposed to retain the framework and replace the materials comprehensively. We took into account the thermal, fluid, gas and mechanical effects that nuclear power engines always have during operation. If we do not use better materials, it is likely to cause engine failure or structural failure of the power system. "

Speaking of this, Zhang Tianhao also sighed: "The energy released by nuclear fuel fission is much higher than the energy released by chemical fuel combustion. The propellant in the nuclear engine will definitely be heated to a temperature far higher than that of the chemical engine. This also represents the technology of the JZ-404 rocket. At this time, there is no reference learning. After all, the engine used by the JZ-404 rocket is a ready-made engine provided to us by Daxia Aerospace Group.

Of course, that engine should indeed be the stable product of the highest technology of Daxia Aerospace Group at present, and it can barely be used in the moon landing project, but the upper limit is still too low compared to nuclear rockets.

The energy transfer rate is limited by the maximum temperature that nuclear fuel can withstand, and it is this limitation that limits the maximum efficiency that these engines can achieve.

Therefore, the temperature problem of nuclear power engines either limits the power density or requires the application of new innovative technologies. ”