Technological power starts with upgrading lenses.

Chapter 428 Two-Way Transportation Demand

Director Ge couldn't help but look at Kang Chi with expectation: "In fact, the main reason why we invited Academician Kang to the meeting today is to get a general understanding of your plan. One is to give us a better idea, and the other is to avoid scientific research conflicts. Let's cooperate more and compete less..."

Everyone else also turned their eyes to Kang Chi, wanting to hear about his 'moon landing plan'.

Kang Chi pondered for a moment before slowly speaking: "My tentative long-term goal is to explore and collect resources within the solar system. My mid-term goal is helium-3 on the moon and second-generation controlled nuclear fusion. But I haven't thought too much about how to achieve it. I plan to take it one step at a time."

After hearing Kang Chi's plan, everyone present was stunned.

Good guy,
All they thought about was how to send a man to the moon.

People are starting to think about developing the entire solar system!
Is this something their generation dares to think about? !

After a brief moment of surprise, Director Ge coughed and said, "Let's not talk about the distant future. For the first step, you should have a slightly more specific plan, right?"

"Well, since we want to develop space, the first step must be to reduce the cost of rocket launches, otherwise we will always remain in the exploration stage of space."

Li Xinqiang immediately couldn't help asking, "You want to make a reusable rocket?"

Kang Chi nodded and said, "We must develop reusable rockets, but simply reusable rockets are not enough. I plan to combine reusable rockets with space shuttles to make the entire spacecraft 100% reusable."

space shuttle?!!

After hearing this word, everyone's expression changed.

As a representative of America's space industry in the last era, the space shuttle is a bit hard to describe.

The performance is really great, and it looks really good too.

It's just too unreliable.

The M country's space shuttle carried out a total of 135 space missions, each time sending up to seven people and 7 tons of cargo into space. Even today, this performance is remarkable.

But the two accidents, with a total of 14 astronauts dead, made the word "space shuttle" a little less auspicious...

In fact, the accident rate of 2/135=1.5% is not considered high in the aerospace field. But two of the five planes exploded, and the remaining three had to face death in every mission. Are you afraid?
In addition, every time the space shuttle returns at a speed of Mach 24, the entire aircraft has to be overhauled. The actual cost of use is more than ten times higher than expected, which has completely deviated from its original design intention. Therefore, its retirement is actually inevitable.

But Kang Chi now said that he wanted to pick up this product that has been eliminated by the times...

It's a bit hard to understand.

Besides, why do we need a space shuttle when we have reusable rockets?

After a long silence, Li Xinqiang finally couldn't help but ask: "Can you tell me the reason for your decision?"

"It's actually very simple. The space shuttle has an advantage that everyone may have overlooked."

Kang Chi pointed to the top of his head.
"We have previously thought more about how to launch things from Earth cheaply and safely, but rarely about how to transport things from space."

"The space shuttle has a huge advantage in this regard. It can not only bring broken or damaged spacecraft back to the ground for repair, but also bring back supplies for future space development." "In the era of space development, we can't just drop dozens or even hundreds of tons of supplies directly with parachutes and then look for them in the sea or desert, right?"

"Even if we just throw it away, we have to at least prepare the necessary return cargo capsule. And we still have to find a way to transport this return capsule back to space, right?"

"Rather than adopting this uncontrollable and worry-free method, it is better to use the space shuttle to solve the problem once and for all."

"In short, I think there is nothing wrong with the design concept of the space shuttle. However, it was too advanced at the time. Whether it was the technology or materials at the time, or the demand for two-way transportation in space missions, its performance and positioning were somewhat awkward. But as long as we can solve its reliability and safety issues, the space shuttle will be the most suitable means of transportation for two-way transportation in the early stages of space development."

"To put it bluntly, today's reusable rockets are just a compromised and castrated version of it."

Li Xinqiang nodded, somewhat convinced by Kang Chi.

In fact, leaving aside the high maintenance and launch costs of the space shuttle, the biggest problem with the space shuttle is actually safety.

Since the U.S. space shuttle cannot be unmanned and has no escape capsule, every failure will result in casualties. NASA, under tremendous public pressure, has to reluctantly abandon the space shuttle even though it likes it very much.

If it could be switched to driverless driving, at least there would be no need to worry about safety issues, and doing this would be too easy for Kang Chi.

Even if we just take the American space shuttle without any modification and just stuff a few robots in it, we can achieve "technological upgrade".

In fact, the Russians later also built a space shuttle called Buran, which was more advanced than the American one and could be unmanned.

Unfortunately, the Buran only carried out one mission before it suddenly disintegrated. It was retired after its first flight, which is really sad.

If the Buran could have more opportunities to perform, perhaps the space shuttle would still have a place in the current aerospace field.

After all, the high maintenance and launch costs can be optimized through technology.

Just as Kang Chi just said, his plan is to combine reusable rockets and space shuttles to achieve 100% reuse of the entire spacecraft. If this can be achieved, at least the launch cost can be reduced, and the remaining problem is the maintenance cost.

In order to reduce maintenance costs, it is necessary to optimize the materials and design of the space shuttle. Given China's current aerospace technology, although this problem cannot be completely solved, it is definitely not unsolvable.

However, the investment in aerospace research is limited after all. Having chosen the rocket route, it cannot be easily changed. Otherwise, it is likely to please neither end and eventually fall behind from leading.

Now Kang Chi plans to start anew and try another route to develop a space shuttle, and he has sufficient reasons, so it seems that they have no reason to object.

"But Academician Kang's steady approach of starting with spacecraft research is a bit too steady..." Director Ge said with a complicated expression, "I thought you would first find a way to send a few robots to the moon to build a base..."

Kang Chi smiled and said, "It's easy to sharpen the knife, and once we build the space shuttle, sending robots or real people to the moon won't be a piece of cake, right?"

"That's true... When will you build the space shuttle?"

"I haven't thought about it yet. I don't plan to set a time limit for myself this time. It's too stressful. I just want to do it slowly and happily..."

"..."

(End of this chapter)