Chapter 1257 Half-Year Period!

Invisible competition is unfolding on both sides of the Pacific Ocean like a race against time.

Late that night, Beijing time, NASA held its first press conference after the incident, stating that it only provided relevant orbital parameters to the military as the original owner of the UARS satellite, but was restricted by relevant confidentiality clauses and did not know the details at all. interception process.

Of course, if that's all it is, it's just a lackluster scapegoating operation.

But at the end of the press conference, John Yambrick, director of the press center, suddenly took the stage instead of the speakers in the first half and announced that NASA was paying close attention to this piece of space debris and would remove the international debris as soon as possible. Threats to the space station.

Although Huaxia was not mentioned directly during the entire speech, the intention behind the words was to compete with the latter.

The media, which had already been prepared for this situation, once again showed the spirit of watching the excitement and not taking it too seriously.

A reporter from RT TV station, which was founded just over a year ago, was not polite and asked a direct question:

"Yesterday's anti-satellite test has caused such serious and irreparable consequences. Is NASA now preparing to launch another Standard 3 to intercept it?"

Even though Yambrick has developed an unparalleled thickness of skin over many years of work, he still can't stand it when facing this kind of scene:

"Please pay attention to the wording of this reporter. I have just explained the relevant situation. NASA does not understand the specific technical details of the anti-satellite interception process, nor does it have the functions and preparations to use missile weapons. We will use safer and more effective means." , to ensure that the entire space debris is completely taken away from the current high-risk orbit. As for whether to stay in the disposal orbit or to be directly brought into the atmosphere for destruction, the subsequent specific circumstances must be considered.”

The Times reporter, who was robbed of the first spot, was not far behind:

"Mr. Spokesperson, I noticed that your statement just now did not include a specific cleanup strategy. So, can we think that NASA does not have a definite plan to deal with this problem yet, and is just preparing to temporarily calm public opinion?"

As a spokesman for NASA, Yambrick had never fought against such an outrageous headwind even when the Columbia crashed three years ago, and he almost died from anger.

He couldn't help but rolled his eyes and said to himself that the China Space Administration didn't provide any definite plan. Why don't you ask them like this?

Completely forgetting that China has not held a press conference yet...

Of course, even though I think so in my heart, I still have to maintain the most basic decency in my mouth:

"In fact, NASA's concern for orbital safety has started a long time ago. Even when the space shuttle was originally designed, the function of cleaning up space debris was already considered. Of course, considering the dangers of this process, we will not send astronauts To carry out this mission, a more flexible and multi-functional unmanned aerial vehicle will be developed, but I cannot disclose more specific information. "

Having said this, Yambrick changed the subject:

“In addition, I need to emphasize that this is not the first time that the International Space Station has encountered the threat of space debris. In fact, there are currently more than 40,000 space debris under our monitoring, although some of them will continue to grow as time passes. Time passes and it slowly falls into the atmosphere, but new debris is created much faster than the old ones disappear."

"Whether it is technically or cost-wise, it is impossible for humans to carry out a separate cleanup mission for every piece of space junk. Therefore, fundamentally speaking, how to reduce the generation of space junk is what we should focus on in the next step, and this is The whole world needs to face common responsibilities. For this reason, NASA has decided to invest US$1.46 billion in rocket reuse technology in the next five years..."

"..."

…

If you know yourself and the enemy, you will never lose a hundred battles.

Although the follow-up research and development work is complicated, the research and development team headed by Chang Haonan still took time to pay attention to NASA's statement at the press conference.

Looking at Yambrick on the TV screen, who was introducing future new technologies, Zhou Pingjian sighed with emotion:

"This American is indeed a veteran at playing with the media..."

Xing Muchun, who was temporarily recruited from the hypersonics team to serve as subsystem chief engineer, also nodded in agreement:

"Even in such a passive situation, they were still able to find a way to break the situation. Not only did they try to change the concept and pass on their own responsibilities to the whole world, they also successfully diverted the media's attention away from the crisis facing the space station. Transferred to future reusable spacecraft...Tsk tsk..."

Although Chang Haonan had expected this, he was really shocked by the other party's ability to confuse right and wrong.

I have just taken a 40-day wedding leave and work hard almost every day. Even an iron man will inevitably have some holiday syndrome.

But thanks to this wave of assists from NASA, he quickly recovered:

"It seems that the time left for us will be shorter than expected... If possible, I hope to solve this problem before the end of the third quarter of this year... In this way, we can almost complete all the tests in the JF14 wind tunnel and put it into use. The nodes overlap and not much time is wasted.”

"The third quarter?"

Zhou Pingjian originally thought that he had done enough psychological preparation, but when he heard this time point, he still felt that it was too crazy:

"Isn't that equivalent to only half a year?"

"Um……"

Chang Haonan nodded:

"Now that the technical idea has been determined, the next step is how to implement it... If the rope net capture plan is to be truly put into application, there are several outstanding difficulties that need to be solved."

He turned off the TV in the corner of the conference room, then turned around and walked to a whiteboard:

“The first is the flight dynamics after the rope net is ejected in a microgravity environment. Although ideally, the area of ​​a flying net weighing several kilograms is already very large, but the premise is to ensure that there is almost no resistance and gravity in space. During the flight, the rope net can be deployed normally without penetration or knotting. Otherwise, the capture process will still not be completed, including after successful capture. It is also necessary for the rope net to automatically tighten and lock the net with extremely high reliability. mouth."

He drew a schematic diagram again, perhaps because he had a handy tool this time, so it was much more normal than the previous one.

"My current idea is that the ejection mechanism ejects the net through a spring, and the net is connected to the platform through a tether. A certain number of angular masses are set at the edge of the net, and inertia ensures that the net can open normally after being pulled out. These angular masses also have a certain relative speed relative to the mesh body."

"In this way, after the capture is completed, the net body is blocked by space debris, and the mass block continues to fly forward due to inertia to complete the closure. Finally, the closing mechanism set inside the mass block is used to ensure that the net bag is locked and will not be dragged away during the subsequent process. An accident occurred."

"Of course, the specific design details of the mass block and mesh body, including the best time to activate the locking mechanism, all need to be specially calculated. I am responsible for completing this aspect... Fortunately, the total weight of such a complete module is only ten At the level of several kilograms, a small satellite can be carried for 3-4 groups. Even if it fails once, there is still a chance..."

After introducing these, he quickly erased the writing on the board and continued:

"The second is to effectively deorbit the tether complex. The fly net capture system is a tether complex composed of an interceptor, tether, fly net and captured objects, and the gap between the interceptor and the rest of the The effective force is only one tether tension. Therefore, during the implementation process, a sufficiently effective algorithm is needed to complete a series of maneuvers such as target derotation, complex steering, and towed deorbiting to ensure that other on-orbit spacecraft are not threatened. Under the premise of finally achieving re-entry into the atmosphere.”

Then he looked at Zhou Pingjian:

"Mr. Zhou, I know that your manned space project has a tethered satellite accompanying project, which should be developed simultaneously with the Tiangong Space Station, so this part of the work will be left to you... But don't put too much psychological pressure. As long as the rope net can ensure that the satellite is captured, the accuracy requirements for re-entry into the atmosphere are not high, as long as the deviation is not too large."

Then, while Zhou Pingjian was still recording in his notebook, he slowly came to the conference table:

“The third is the material of the rope net itself, preferably reinforced composite fibers such as polyparaphenylene benzobisoxazole... We can also make such products ourselves, but their performance is not as good as imported products from Europe or Japan. "

"The external liaison department is doing some work to try to get some countries to participate and provide us with some materials... It would be best if they can be combined with the processing plan. Of course, it can also be given directly to the finished product. Also, the money does not have to be so tight, just As a stepping stone for further cooperation in the future, I believe someone will be willing to take this job.”

"Of course, as a guarantee, the domestically produced solution must also be carried out simultaneously, but according to my estimate on paper, it may increase the weight of each flying net module by about one-third, so the number that can be effectively carried will be reduced to two sets. It will affect the success rate somewhat..."

"..."

As Chang Haonan issued a series of instructions, the entire aerospace system, and even the entire Chinese industrial system, began to revolve around the "space fishing boat" plan.