Chapter 256: Long Laotie Sets Off

November 18th.

The whole world is paying attention to a big news.

Another landmark event occurred in the aerospace field, which can be said to be recorded in history.

Brother Long is going to heaven.

Literally ascending to heaven.

As an astronaut, he and another partner will board the Falcon manned rocket into space, and then enter the completed Dragon 4 spacecraft. After a little adaptation and modification, he will rush to Mars. And go.

Regardless of whether he can successfully land on Mars or not, he has accomplished many feats that no one has accomplished.

That is to say, among all astronauts, he has the highest net worth, exceeding 100 billion yuan.

Among all the rich people with a net worth of more than 100 billion U.S. dollars, he was the first to enter space and the first to participate in the furthest travel plan with a voyage of more than 100 million kilometers.

If landing on Mars is successful.

He was the first rich man to set foot on Mars.

If it fails.

He was the first rich man to be buried on Mars.

Because he has already said: "Whether I am dead or alive, my body will appear on Mars!"

Anyway, you can set records no matter what, and you won't suffer any loss no matter what.

Of course, that is if Wei Ming is excluded.

…

Black Hole Universe Development Corporation.

Large aerospace command and control room.

The giant screen on the wall is showing the Kerbal Satellite Launch Base in the United States thousands of miles away. Elon Musk in a space suit stands under a recyclable Falcon rocket on the launch pad. A live broadcast of a speech delivered to the audience.

The live broadcast attracted 3.5 billion viewers worldwide.

There are only 45 minutes left in the countdown to launch.

"I love you Della, I love you Heloise...I love you both forever!"

in the screen.

Elon Musk, who is about to enter the Rockets, is hugging and saying goodbye to his family, crying at the scene.

Sensational music also sounded at the right time.

It can be said that it brings a certain tragic atmosphere to the extreme.

The audience applauded.

Countless viewers in front of the screen either clasped their hands and prayed in their hearts; or wiped the corners of their eyes with wet eyes and silently muttered blessings.

this moment,

Except for a very few people, everyone hopes that he can return safely.

The vast majority of scientific and technological workers and pacifists also hope that he can succeed, awaken the space craze of all mankind, stop internal conflicts and wars, turn their attention to the universe, concentrate resources and wisdom, and open up the universe, Expand the living space of mankind and obtain various resources that mankind needs from outside Blue Star.

Let every human being, every nation and country have enough living space.

Make the cake bigger!

Rather than leading to destruction in mutual hatred.

So no matter how you look at it, any space exploration and attempt is a positive thing and deserves support and encouragement.

"Long Gong, what do you think is the success rate of his Mars landing plan?"

Wei Ming crossed his hands and watched the live broadcast with great interest, then turned to ask Long Tianhao beside him.

"No more than 30%. If it can succeed, it will be a miracle." Long Tianhao pondered for a while and said.

"The probability of landing in a box is 70%?"

Wei Ming said in surprise: "This is too exaggerated. If you are not more than 90% sure, who would dare to bet like this? Why are you so unfavorable to him?"

"Mr. Wei, to be honest, I also hope that his success rate can be above 90%, but my many years of experience in systemic engineering tell me that the success rate is at most 30%."

Long Tianhao shook his head and said: "Musk is indeed a lunatic with dreams. For this mission, he lost 50 pounds in half a year, built a strong figure, studied sixteen aerospace courses, and passed all of them. Having passed the test, it can be seen that he has a very serious attitude and extremely strong execution ability. He is by no means a showy person. He is very courageous and dares to take risks... I personally admire him very much. "

"But I dare to conclude that, let alone whether he can set foot on Mars, the probability that he will come back successfully this time will not exceed 30%. It is a miracle if he succeeds."

"Why do you say that?"

Wei Ming is still puzzled: "To ensure success, the combined weight of the 'Dragon 4' spacecraft exceeds 300 tons, which is 50 tons more than the 'Dragon 3' spacecraft and heavier than our country's Tianhe Space Station. Such a big guy , it shouldn’t be difficult to go to Mars and come back.”

"Three hundred tons, haha~"

Long Tianhao smiled: "Mr. Wei, are you intimidated by those dozens of fuel tanks tied together? But do you know what the outer shells of these fuel tanks are made of? Double-layer vacuum stainless steel, ordinary The kind that can be purchased in the civilian market. It looks very scary to have a bunch of them, but it is filled with the cheapest compressed natural gas and liquid oxygen. The specific impulse is only two-thirds of high-performance fuel. Just throw one away after using it on the road. , creating a lot of space junk.”

"In addition, the equipment and parts in the spacecraft, except for the control system and communication system, which are relatively advanced, save everything else where possible, and try to purchase products from the civilian market. There is a serious lack of redundant design, such as the Mars landing module, which he used for experiments before. It’s an aluminum alloy sealed can. I thought he would use better carbon fiber materials for the official mission to Mars, but I didn’t expect it to be aluminum alloy. It shows that he puts cost control first and human life second. ”

"Isn't this a good idea?"

Wei Ming said: "Save as much as possible, use the most expensive ones for everything, how many people can afford it? If this model is feasible, after it matures, cheap aerospace will surely develop, and ordinary people will have the opportunity to enter space."

"I am not against this model."

Long Tianhao said: "But the space environment is far from as simple as people imagine. It is full of high-energy particles and cosmic radiation. The temperature can reach 200 to 300 degrees on the high side and more than 100 degrees below zero on the low side. How can ordinary materials withstand such a test?"

"If the redundant design is insufficient and the circuit protection is insufficient, an electronic component is damaged by high-energy particles and there is no backup, it means that a function is completely unusable, even if it is only a low-probability event.

If the reliability of each of its subsystems can reach 99%, but there are dozens of systems on a spacecraft and tens of thousands of important parts, and there is a 1% failure rate, then its risk will be frighteningly high."

"That's why I don't think highly of him."

In addition, Long Tianhao hates Elon Musk's behavior of throwing space junk along the way. This is completely irresponsible and creates huge safety hazards for other people's space launch activities.

The resources wasted are not small, even if they are cheap resources.

"That makes sense."

Wei Ming nodded. If stainless steel fuel tanks, aluminum alloy landing capsules, cheap materials and civilian parts can support a Mars landing mission with a success rate of 90%, then a colony base would have been established on Mars long ago.

Humans have at least entered the primary era of interstellar colonization.

However, this situation did not happen, which shows that this is not a feasible and easy way to go.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Launch!"

At this time.

The Falcon rocket in the picture, carrying Elon Musk and another partner, took off. Fortunately, this rocket was a first-hand rocket that had not been used before, and it was very reliable. After more than 800 seconds of flight, Brother Long successfully entered space.

The first stage was successful.