The rise of nanometers

On the first day of work during the Spring Festival, the Security Department of the Suiren Department gave those morons a head-on blow.

An internal purging storm soon broke out.

Huang Xiuyuan used the stand-in robot to arrive at the headquarters of Eagle Aerospace, near Qiuba Mountain City in Mobei.

Eagle Space City is 28 kilometers south of Qiaoba Mountain. It is a space base modeled after Dongfeng Space City. It currently has two launch sites and a comprehensive assembly factory that can assemble five launch vehicles at the same time.

When he came to the base, Academician Wang, who he had invited here before, was currently working on the Feipeng launch platform.

Seeing him walk in, the gray-haired Academician Wang joked: "Xiuyuan, long time no see, you are so comfortable being the hands-off shopkeeper!"

"Haha, those who are capable work hard, and I am very busy here." After Huang Xiuyuan finished speaking, he looked at the Feipeng-class Golden Winged Dapeng in the modification workshop.

Academician Wang introduced: "Shen Fei, China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, and I jointly adjusted the aerodynamic layout of the Feipeng-class, and canceled the previous ground-effect flight system, leaving only the main power system and vertical landing system."

"What's the actual load you tested?"

Academician Wang replied: "A payload of 1,000 tons is the most cost-effective. The carrier platform can reach an altitude of 47 kilometers. If it is a Chang 11 carrying about 900 tons, it can reach an altitude of 50 kilometers."

47 kilometers! 50 kilometers!

Huang Xiuyuan is quite satisfied with this altitude. In the core stage of a launch vehicle, fuel is often consumed in the lower regions of the atmosphere, especially in the dense troposphere and stratosphere, which consumes almost 70% of the fuel in the core stage.

The troposphere is between the ground and 10 kilometers above sea level, while the stratosphere is between 10 kilometers and 50 kilometers from the sea.

It just so happens that the Golden Winged Dapeng has been able to fly to the top of the stratosphere. The air above the stratosphere is thin and the gravity is further weakened. Launching a launch vehicle in this area can effectively increase the carrying distance of the launch vehicle or increase the payload. .

Academician Wang gave a carrying data. Previously, the low-Earth orbit payload was only more than 20 tons long 11. If the Golden Wing Dapeng is used as the launch platform, the low-Earth orbit payload can be increased to about 260 tons.

This payload is more than twice as powerful as the 13-meter-long 120-ton low-Earth orbit launch vehicle currently under development.

It seems that this payload is very large. In fact, the overall weight of the launch vehicle and the Golden Wing Dapeng itself reaches about 4,300 tons. Calculated, the payload ratio is only about 6%, which is not too exaggerated.

Huang Xiuyuan looked at the data from the three tests and discussed it with Academician Wang and others for a while.

As for the follow-up research and development improvements of the Golden Wing Dapeng, there is still room for improvement.

Academician Wang said with some regret: "If there is an air-breathing engine that can explode such a huge power, maybe the payload of the Golden Wing Dapeng can be further increased."

"Haha, there are gains and losses. Nothing is perfect." Huang Xiuyuan smiled and shook his head.

The engine of the Golden Wing Dapeng is a detonation rocket engine. When combined with N20 high-energy fuel, it can generate huge instantaneous explosive force and push thousands of tons of things to the top of the stratosphere.

The energy density of general solid fuels is too low, and the instantaneous explosive power of liquid oxygen kerosene in liquid fuels is not enough to push high loads to the top of the stratosphere.

Using N20 fuel is currently the best choice.

"Not to mention this, Xiuyuan's other project that you explained before seems to be almost completed on Fanghe's side." Academician Wang reminded.

"Oh?" Huang Xiuyuan was stunned, and then became interested: "Let's go take a look."

The two came to another satellite assembly factory. Although Eagle Aerospace was established only a short time ago, it gained a large number of technical personnel through poaching.

Before the Feipeng Launch Platform project was approved, Eagle Aerospace was not sitting around, but had several projects.

Among them, the ultra-low orbit satellite research and development project that Fang He's team is responsible for is a project that Huang Xiuyuan personally explained.

Enter the satellite assembly factory.

A middle-aged man with a horse-like face was discussing something with several researchers. He was Fang He. He used to work at the First Aerospace Academy, engaged in satellite and spacecraft design.

"Lao Fang, I heard that you have achieved results?"

As soon as he heard this voice, Fang He suddenly woke up and quickly walked over in three steps and two steps: "Chairman, welcome to come and give us guidance. The project is not yet fully mature. We have only preliminary designed a prototype."

"Show me."

"OK."

The group of people came to the core area of ​​the satellite assembly factory, where a satellite was displayed. Judging from the solar panel wingspan and equipment volume, it should be a medium-sized satellite, with an estimated weight of about 2 tons.

Fang He introduced the basic parameters, and the weight was indeed 1.82 tons.

The design of this satellite is very strange, especially the trumpet-like thing on the head, which makes people suspect that this thing is some kind of laser.

But in fact, this thing is not a laser, but an electrostatic field particle collector, which can collect hydrogen and helium molecules along the way through the electrostatic field.

As for why these particles are collected, the reason is very simple, because the engine used by this satellite is a laser plasma engine.

The working fluid of the laser plasma engine is gas molecules. Through the instantaneous high-energy laser, the gas molecules are turned into plasma and then ejected as a power source.

As for the power of the laser plasma engine, on the one hand it comes from solar panels, on the other hand it is thermoelectric power generation, and the magnetic fluid power generation system that is still being tested.

According to the plan, this type of satellite will operate in an ultra-low orbit area with an altitude of 210 to 240 kilometers. There are relatively abundant gas molecules here, which can provide an environment for the satellite to collect working fluids.

On the other hand, ultra-low orbit operation does not require starting the engine to push back all the time. Usually, when the satellite altitude drops to near the critical altitude, the engine is started to push back up.

Why is Huang Xiuyuan obsessed with ultra-low orbit satellites? Mainly this type of satellite has a very good advantage, that is, it is very close to the ground.

Whether in reconnaissance and monitoring or positioning and communication, ultra-low-orbit satellites have clarity and accuracy that high-orbit satellites cannot achieve.

However, the disadvantage of ultra-low orbit satellites is that their service life is very short, mainly because there are a large number of gas molecules near the low-Earth orbit of 100 to 500 kilometers.

These gas molecules will continue to impact the spacecraft. When the gas resistance acts on the spacecraft little by little, it will cause the spacecraft to gradually fall to the ground.

Even the current Tiangong Space Station and the International Space Station are falling downward every year, but the speed is very slow and not obvious.

Even so, these space stations still need to use engines to push back every once in a while to raise the altitude of their orbits to avoid being pulled down from the atmosphere.

As for ultra-low orbits of 210 to 240 kilometers, spacecraft can basically only use large elliptical orbits to achieve a period of ultra-low orbit window period.

The satellite designed by Fang He's team changes from the norm and uses a laser plasma engine, an electrostatic field particle collector, and multiple power generation systems to ensure that the satellite can operate in ultra-low orbit 24 hours a day.

It is even possible to carry out orbital feeding operations, transporting a large amount of working fluid up through the Chang 11 launch vehicle, and then adding working fluid on the orbit.

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