Technological power starts with upgrading lenses.

Chapter 436 Differences in R&D Models

Faced with Yan Hui's merciless questioning, Academician Fu suddenly felt embarrassed.

"So Dr. Yan is optimistic about liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen? But the biggest problem with liquid hydrogen is not how to obtain it or its cost, but its storage."

"Hydrogen storage requires extremely low temperatures of -253 degrees Celsius. With current hydrogen storage technology, at least 0.1% or even 1% of hydrogen will evaporate every day. Therefore, large-scale hydrogen storage can easily form hydrogen clouds in the air, causing explosions. There is a reason why the U.S. space shuttle has used liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen for so many years, but is gradually phasing them out now."

"That only shows that they are not capable of solving problems." Facing Academician Fu's rebuttal, Yan Hui showed no intention of retreating. "If there is a problem, solve it instead of avoiding it. Isn't that the meaning of our existence as scientific researchers?"

"you……"

"All right!"

Academician Fu was about to make an explanation, but Kang Chi, who saw that the argument was gradually straying from the main topic, interrupted them.

"You are both right. From Academician Fu's perspective, in order to coordinate the overall situation and increase the probability of success of the plan, he must try to choose a relatively low-risk and mature technical route. There is no such thing as avoiding the important and focusing on the trivial."

"But what Dr. Yan said is also correct. I also think that if the problems of hydrogen production and storage are solved, liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen will obviously be more suitable as future fuels. At least in the near-Earth system, liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen have greater room for development and potential."

"And it's not just the space shuttle. If ordinary airplanes, ships and other power tools can also use liquid hydrogen as fuel, not only can the cost of use be greatly reduced, but also zero emissions can be achieved. So sooner or later we will have to do research on hydrogen energy. This is an indispensable parallel application technology as power technology is upgraded. Why not incorporate it into the Sky Plan now..."

"Let's take a step back and say that even if the second-generation nuclear fusion and hydrogen storage technology cannot be developed in a short period of time, it will not affect the overall situation of the Sky Plan... It's just that the fuel cost will be temporarily higher."

After hearing Kang Chi's words, both of them stopped arguing.

To be honest, in non-recyclable traditional rocket launches, the cost of rocket fuel is often only about 2%, which is almost negligible. The choice of fuel is actually not discussed at such a large-scale technical meeting.

However, in recent years, as reusable rocket technology has gradually matured and the cost of rocket launches is about to be greatly reduced, people have begun to pay attention to the cost-effectiveness of fuel and green environmental protection issues.

After a morning of technical discussions, the general direction of the entire plan was basically clarified, and then Kang Chi began to assign tasks.

"Academician Fu's team is responsible for the orbital vehicle module, and Dr. Yan's team is responsible for the design and development of the first and second stage booster modules and hydrogen storage technology. They report their development progress to me once a week. In addition, the more difficult engine and recovery system are separately taken out and I am responsible for them. Do you have any questions?"

"I'm OK."

"I... have no problem with that either!"

When Academician Fu heard that he would be solely responsible for the core orbital vehicle, he was actually a little scared.

After all, the workload and difficulty of that thing were definitely the most challenging in his career.

However, when he saw Yan Hui nodded without hesitation, he still took the task reluctantly.

Are you kidding? He is a veteran academician of aerospace industry, how can he be worse than a PhD from a private company?

Although Academician Fu knew that Yan Hui had been with Kang Chi for so long, he might not be as good as this rising star in many aspects...

But you can't lose momentum right from the start, right?
"If that's all right, that's it for today."

After announcing the adjournment of the meeting, Kang Chi asked Academician Fu to stay alone. After everyone left, he smiled and asked him, "Academician Fu seemed to have any questions just now?" "No."

"Really?"

"Ah."

"Then how long do you expect to take to come up with the overall plan for the orbiter?"

"This... probably takes about two... a year."

"Too long." Kang Chi shook his head. "Didn't the Ministry of Science and Technology equip you with our design system? Even if the orbiter is indeed somewhat complicated, with the coordination and design capabilities of this system, it shouldn't take a year... or even two years, right?"

Hearing Kang Chi questioning his efficiency, Academician Fu was a little embarrassed and immediately retorted: "Although your design system can indeed greatly improve design efficiency, the orbiter is not a toy. We have neither experience nor reference. We must verify the experiment repeatedly. One year is already very tight. We can't just pursue speed in research and development. Otherwise, who will be responsible if defects occur and accidents occur?"

Uh……

defect?

joke,

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Can Kang Chi still let the defective rocket launch?

For him who can use cheats in the system, the word "defect" does not exist in his dictionary!
"I'll take responsibility!" Kang Chi said directly, "Don't worry, as long as we follow the normal process here, there will be no problem of accountability. If there is a problem, the most important thing is to find the problem and then solve it. We will never just look at the results. Moreover, we will not carry people at the beginning. If something goes wrong, it will only be a normal commercial experiment loss, not as serious as you think."

Hearing Kang Chi's words, Academician Fu's expression softened a little, but he still said firmly: "In fact, it's not entirely a question of who is responsible. The main reason is that we are afraid of making a fool of ourselves and affecting the image of our aerospace industry..."

After listening to Academician Fu's words, Kang Chi couldn't help but be stunned, and soon understood his concerns.

Veteran aerospace experts like Academician Fu have absolutely zero tolerance for design defects in spacecraft. Their steady and cautious style has been ingrained in the entire system since the founding of China's aerospace industry.

This is mainly due to our recent history of humiliation, which has led to our long-term lack of self-confidence. We believe that failure will make the international community laugh at us, which will make us look down upon.
Therefore, China's older scientists usually hold their breath, want to make a splash no matter what they do, and have a very low tolerance for failure.

We rarely see news about failed space launches in China, but there are many cases of failed space launches abroad.
This is definitely not the so-called public opinion control.

After all, a rocket is such a large thing that once it is launched, the whole world can see it and it cannot be controlled at all.

The main reason for this difference is the fundamental difference in everyone’s R&D concepts and models.

The West has always encouraged adventure and excitement. SpaceX, for example, adheres to the Internet thinking of "rapid trial and error, rapid iteration". They blow up rockets every now and then as if it's a joke. Not only has everyone become accustomed to it, but they themselves are also somewhat proud of blowing up rockets...

Anyway, if it explodes, it means you made a mistake. You can avoid it next time, which is proof that you are making progress.

Judging from their growth rate, this model may actually be somewhat effective.

(End of this chapter)