Chapter 406 Derivatives (1)

August 22nd.

The northern aerospace city of Motor Island Branch - the 12th affiliated area.

Baisha, who is responsible for the design of the airship, is working at the airship manufacturing factory in the district.

In order to support the Dandelion project, not only hundreds of airship design engineers and researchers were gathered, but also an airship manufacturing plant was built directly locally.

Many huge scientific research projects often bring about some derivatives.

For example, the Dandelion project in front of us.

Baisha's initial airship design plan was a helium airship, but as they improved, they turned to the cutting-edge technology of vacuum airships.

They used a new material called "super-soccerene", which is a by-product of another laboratory's research on carbon nanotubes.

Although there is no way to study ultra-long pure carbon nanotubes in an ideal state, it is possible to synthesize a two-dimensional carbon material, that is, super-soccerene material.

This material allows certain atomic-level defects to exist, and can make a spherical film with a radius of tens of meters, and the entire sphere is one molecule.

After the material is made into a sphere, it will form a special mechanical structure - an eggshell-like structure, which shows super resistance and rigidity when resisting uniform external pressure.

A carbon sphere of about one cubic meter can withstand 17.375 tons of pressure, while a one cubic meter vacuum container at sea level needs to withstand about 10 tons of pressure.

This means the carbon spheres can be used on the ground.

The weight of carbon spheres is very light because carbon spheres are two-dimensional structures with only one layer of atoms.

Of course, since the molecules of the carbon spheres have a honeycomb structure, air can pass through the gaps between the atoms.

In order to increase its air tightness, Baisha cooperated with that laboratory to study dislocated composite carbon spheres.

As long as 12 layers are stacked and the honeycomb structure is arranged in a staggered manner, it can not only ensure air tightness, but also further improve the rigidity and strength of the carbon spheres.

In the assembly yard in front of you.

Carbon spheres with a radius of 30 meters have been installed in the carbon fiber skeleton, forming a ring-shaped airship with a radius of 3 kilometers.

At this time, the carbon sphere has not been evacuated, so the airship can still stay on the ground.

Once vacuumed, these carbon balls with a volume of 2 billion cubic meters will be able to generate 2.58 million tons of buoyancy. This buoyancy is only available at a height near sea level.

For example, if you fly to an altitude of 50,000 meters, the air density there is only 0.001 kilograms per cubic meter, and the vacuum of 200 million cubic meters can only provide 2,000 tons of buoyancy.

The Dandelion airship has a dead weight of 1,430 tons. This is because the total weight of the carbon sphere is only 2.45 tons, coupled with the use of a lightweight and high-strength carbon fiber skeleton.

Among the weight of various components of the entire airship, the carbon fiber frame is 1,074 tons, the solar film is 54 tons, the auxiliary thruster is 32 tons, the battery is 40 tons, the vacuum carbon sphere is 24.5 tons, the vacuum equipment is 47 tons, and the electronic equipment and other auxiliary equipment are 181 tons.

Only about 570 tons of payload remains.

How can this weight support several thousand tons of hose?

The reason is very simple.

Because the Dandelion Airship is not one, but a series.

Based on the air density at different heights, the buoyancy of the Dandelion airship at various heights can be calculated.

0.001 at 50,000 meters, buoyancy of 2,000 tons.

0.004 at 40,000 meters, buoyancy of 8,000 tons.

0.018 at 30,000 meters, 36,000 tons of buoyancy.

0.04 at 25,000 meters, with a buoyancy of 80,000 tons.

0.088 at 20,000 meters, with a buoyancy of 176,000 tons.

15,000 meters 0.194, buoyancy 388,000 tons.

0.41 at 10,000 meters, buoyancy of 820,000 tons.

This is the approximate buoyancy of the Dandelion airship at various altitudes.

Although taking into account the air currents in the troposphere, some of the buoyancy force must be used on the counterweight, but as the airship gets closer to the sea level, its buoyancy force also increases rapidly.

Today, Baisha took Zhang Wei, the head of the communications division, to inspect the performance of the vacuum airship.

"How safe is this airship?"

Baisha explained with a smile: "Due to the use of new materials, there are not many problems with safety. The carbon spheres are strong enough to withstand large-caliber cannons or small missiles, but they are not resistant to high-temperature combustion."

Zhang Wei and several technicians from the Communications Division discussed quietly for a while.

After a few minutes, Zhang Wei asked again: "With an altitude of 30,000 meters and a payload of 5 tons, how big of an airship is needed? How much does it cost?"

Baisha calculated for a moment: "Well... we will probably need an airship with a capacity of 1.2 million cubic meters. If we simply provide the airship, excluding other equipment, the cost will be around 350,000 to 400,000."

"350,000 to 400,000?" Zhang Wei turned around and started talking to the people in the Communications Division.

The price was acceptable to him.

Because as a communication airship, it can cover a large area of ​​the earth at an altitude of 30,000 meters.

After discussions between Zhang Wei and a group of communications department personnel, they all believed that this kind of airship was good and could effectively supplement the communication system of Homo sapiens.

Since future low-Earth orbit enterprises are likely to become a space battlefield for all forces, the stratosphere has become another special space.

Especially in the area with an altitude of 30,000 to 50,000 meters, it is difficult for even high-altitude fighter jets to reach, while ordinary civilian aircraft fly in the airspace below 15,000 meters.

Communication airships can float in fixed airspace for a long time and serve as communication base stations, monitoring radars, and remote sensing monitoring.

However, Zhang Wei still hopes to lower the cost: "Team Leader Bai, how much cost can be reduced if the payload is reduced to about 1 ton?"

"This?..." Bai Sha estimated: "It can probably be reduced to about 100,000 per ship."

Zhang Wei nodded: "On behalf of the Ministry of Communications, I will launch this cooperation with your base to build 100 high-altitude communication airships."

"No problem." Baisha said with a smile on his face.

Although this kind of cooperation has no direct benefit to him personally, it is also a common situation within Homo sapiens.

Improving the communication system is something that benefits the entire Homo sapiens company, and Baisha has no reason to refuse.

What's more, if there are orders, the airship factory can maintain production. After the Dandelion project is completed in the future, there will be no need to arrange for employees to change jobs, which will reduce some troubles.

In fact, this is also one of Li Qingye's purposes for promoting big projects.

By promoting such large-scale projects, it promotes the research and development of various materials and technologies, and also provides a large number of jobs for internal employees.

This time, the Communications Division saw the potential of vacuum airships and planned to build a batch of communications airships, which were derivatives of the Dandelion project.

Communication airships have more advantages than Starlink satellite systems in terms of cost and safety.

After all, airships have a relatively large load capacity, relatively low cost, relatively long service life, easy maintenance, and can stay in fixed airspace for a long time. The capacity of the communication link is relatively large and the communication distance is relatively short.

Although the cost of the Starlink satellite itself is not high, the problem is that it requires a launch vehicle to be launched.

Based on the Falcon launch vehicle's single launch price of US$62 million, it can launch 60 Starlink satellites at one time. The launch fee of a single Starlink satellite is US$1.03 million. Even if Musk gives himself a 50% discount, it will still cost him US$1.03 million. It requires $510,000.

Plus the cost of the satellite itself.

This cost is not friendly at all.

Moreover, the service life of Starlink satellites is worrying. The communication density is relatively low, they are relatively far from the surface, and they cannot be fixed in one airspace. These are all problems.

The vacuum airship that solves the problem of safety and buoyancy maintenance can achieve a communication density of about 20T if it carries a payload of 1 ton, and can cover an area with a radius of hundreds of kilometers.

This price/performance ratio is really great.

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