It's normal to develop some black technology in the future, right?

Chapter 396 The fun is gone
"Of course, this is also our common wish." The host quickly replied.

"Yuan Guang, do you think that the process of human exploration into space is dangerous and prone to various accidents? Because of the special environment of space, once an accident occurs, the probability of survival is very low.

What do you think about this? "

Chen Yuanguang said without hesitation: "This is inevitable in the process of human exploration into space.

In the past, there have been rocket explosions, space station air leaks, satellites being hit by asteroids, and so on.

Just like during the Age of Exploration, ships sailing on the oceans had to face the dangers of wind and waves. Now, with the advancement of science and technology and the development of shipbuilding technology, the risks for ocean-going ships have become very small.

The same is true for space exploration. As technology continues to advance, risks are constantly decreasing.

In the past, if a leak occurred on the International Space Station, we would not be able to carry out any rescue operations and could only watch them wait for the countdown of their lives on the space station.

Now we can reach the location of the International Space Station in two hours and rescue everyone aboard. This requires not only the control and endurance of the aircraft itself, but also the carrying capacity of the aircraft.

These two points were contradictory in the past. The smaller the aircraft, the better, because it needs a very high speed to escape the earth's gravity. The smaller it is, the more sensitive it is to control, because the force that the Hall thruster could provide was very small in the past.

Now we have aerospace planes based on room-temperature superconducting technology, which can carry out rescue operations for any accidents that occur in low-Earth orbit.

Not only is China's aerospace industry making progress, but other countries' aerospace technology is also making progress.

In the past, when asteroids hit satellites or other facilities in space, there was little we could do.

The Gaia space telescope launched by the European Space Agency is mainly used to draw a high-precision galaxy map of the Milky Way, recording the positions and movement trajectories of more than 10 billion stars in the Milky Way.

The protective cover used by Gaia to protect its mirror was hit by an asteroid, causing a gap on the surface, which directly interfered with the operation of Gaia's sensors.

Moreover, after the protective cover was damaged, it had to face the impact of high-energy particles from the sun. Gaia was unable to operate normally for a while, but in the end the European Space Agency successfully completed the repair of Gaia.

If we encountered such an accident before, we could only passively accept such a reality. Now we can repair the damaged satellite.

So risks cannot be avoided, but technological advances can reduce them.”

Judging from the comments in the live broadcast room, the audience is even more confident than Chen Yuanguang.

"So the overall risk is controllable?" said the host.

"In the future, we will not only carry out tourism projects for the Tiangong space station, but also for the Guangjia space station. If the risks are uncontrollable, we will not be able to launch such tourism projects.

It's a very simple logic. Any accident will cause the entire industry to be sluggish for a long time. In a sense, in the early stages of space tourism, we have a zero-tolerance attitude towards risks.

We have absolute confidence in our risk control.”

“I believe that both I and the audience watching our show should be very interested in the reasons behind the unexpected explosion on the International Space Station. Can Yuan Guang explain it to us from a professional’s perspective?
Or tell us your speculation. After all, there are probably few people in the world who are more professional than you in the aerospace field.

The Guangjia Spaceflight Space Station was launched into space this year. What do you think is the reason for this comprehensive leak? "

"Based on the information I know, it is most likely a problem with the supplier.

Because the space station is in space, it faces various threats at any time, whether it is asteroids, space debris or small high-energy particles. The risk of overall vulnerabilities increases sharply with the exposure time in space.

The earliest core module of the International Space Station was launched in the 90s, so in 1999, the Marshall Space Flight Center was researching surface repair parts so that astronauts could repair holes caused by meteors or space debris. They developed a patch kit called KERMIt.

This is actually a film, a polyimide film, which is very stable and can remain stable between minus 269 degrees and 400 degrees.

KERMIt was used for a long time, until the Soyuz orbital module leak in 2018, when KERMIt was also used. It turned out that KERMIt did not work and was not enough to completely plug the leak.

Because the Soyuz is a Russian-made module, they developed a new patch kit.

But after 2022, because of the war, the chain reaction of the war affected the space station. The vulnerability repair work of the space station after 2022 is still using KERMIt, rather than the newly developed patch kit of Damao.

I think it was the incident in 18 when KERMIt was unable to adapt to the current vulnerabilities of the International Space Station. They have been using old methods to solve new problems, and the concentrated outbreak of new problems led to the complete collapse of the International Space Station.

So I think what this incident can teach us is not to let political differences affect scientific and rational judgments. "

The comments in the live broadcast room suddenly exploded. People were not gloating, but felt that it was boring to watch. This reason was obviously not as interesting as the fact that America had transferred its parts suppliers from China to India.

"I thought it was Ah San again. Ah San's inferior parts caused the collapse of the entire space station."

"Guangshen is still too professional, and knows all these past events by heart."

“Foreigners are already obsessed with political correctness”

"They are lucky. If China hadn't developed the aerospace plane, wouldn't they be doomed?"

The host nodded repeatedly: "So it is the rational and pragmatic spirit of countless Chinese engineers that has created our current industrial upgrading and rapid development in various fields.

Yuanguang, from an outsider's perspective, I think this rescue is a good thing for Guangjia Aerospace, because it is equivalent to the best advertisement for you.

There's an accident on the International Space Station and we're the only ones who can carry out the rescue.

Potential customers who might have considered space tourism projects from companies such as Blue Origin, Orbital Space, and Virgin Atlantic will likely consider Light Mech Aerospace after this incident.”

"From a business perspective, this is the best advertisement we have ever run globally," said Chen Yuanguang.

This is like a war between Russia and China, which has nothing to do with China. However, it helped advertise China's drones and added a large number of potential customers.

“So I subconsciously feel that Guangjia Aerospace’s future space tourism projects and lunar cemetery projects are too high-end and too far away from ordinary people.

From the perspective of price, space tourism can easily cost hundreds of millions, and a space cemetery starts at 100 million. Do you think this is out of touch with reality? " "The technological spillover caused by scientific and technological development will solve this problem. Previously, we could see that the ticket price for a spacecraft experience was as high as one million US dollars, and our space plane can bring a similar experience, plus a round-trip ticket to the space station may only cost one million RMB. In the future, this price will continue to decline.

I think most people will have the opportunity to experience space tourism in their lifetime, and we will never make it a game only for the rich."

"We can see a very clear path, that is, Musk's SpaceX supports demand through Starlink, and Guangma Aerospace now seems to be pinning its hopes on the space service industry, including the aforementioned space tourism and lunar cemetery, and space infrastructure projects."

“No, no, no, we do whatever we can. We have been cooperating with domestic new energy manufacturers to help them launch satellites, including mobile phone companies. We are also helping them launch satellites.

In the past, perhaps only large manufacturers like Huawei could afford satellite phone functions, but now many smaller mobile phone manufacturers have benefited from the reduction in satellite launch prices and can also provide similar functions.

And even though we don’t work on Starlink, we will also participate in the deployment of 6G networks.
In the design of 6G networks, ground base stations and satellites will work together to form a complementary network architecture. Because satellite launches are cheap, we will use more satellites and fewer ground base stations in the 6G technology solution.

So the problem you mentioned does not exist. In my opinion, what SpaceX can do, we can do as well. The only question is whether it is suitable for the Chinese market. After all, China will be our most important market for a long time to come.

"It's so big!"

After learning that China's space shuttle would carry out this rescue mission, all the astronauts came to the Hope module and waited for rescue.

Astronauts serving on the International Space Station have always liked to stay in the Hope module because it has the largest space.

If you just look at the data, you might think that the modules of Unity, Harmony and Tranquility are wider than the 4.4-meter outer diameter of Hope.

In fact, it has the largest volume and the best experience, thanks to the fact that Hope is specially equipped with a 4.4-meter-diameter and 3.9-meter-long experimental logistics module on the outside to serve as a storage room.

Therefore, the space for people to stay in Hope is much larger than in other cabins.

With an inner diameter of 4.2 meters and a length of 11.2 meters, it can accommodate even 11 astronauts at a time.

Size is one thing, noise control is another. The noise control inside the Hope is also much better than in other sections.

Of course, no one is in the mood to enjoy themselves now. They just hope to be rescued by the Chinese as soon as possible.

Comfort and everything else are secondary. What is crucial is whether the Chinese can arrive at the scene before the oxygen runs out.

Fortunately, they didn't have to wait long, as a space plane was accelerating towards them. From the detection device, it could be seen that the aircraft was approaching at a very fast speed.

After the external monitoring equipment captured the scene, the astronauts in the space station calmed down almost immediately.

At least the Chinese did it and did not break their promise.

The final docking was completed in the Hope module, because Neon's Hope experimental module roughly consists of four modules.

There is a module whose official name is exposure facility, but they usually call it platform.

The platform is outside the airtight cabin on the left side, and is specially used to carry out experiments that require exposing the test objects directly to the space environment, which means that it has a large and separate part that exists independently of the space station.

At the same time, there is a robotic arm next to the platform. The robotic arm is used to carry out experiments using the platform. Astronauts do not need to leave the cabin, and the robotic arm can deliver experimental objects to designated locations over long distances.

Now both the experimental cabin and the robotic arm can be put to use.

In the docking plan after communication between China Aerospace and NASA, the outer robotic arm of Hope will be connected to Changkong with space ropes, and then the astronauts of the International Space Station will hold the ropes and slowly move into the airtight cabin of Changkong.

As the astronauts left the station one by one, along the Hope external module, they were also connected to each other with ropes, which helped the others to rescue him if a single astronaut accidentally became detached from the surface of the International Space Station.

It's a bit like a chain link.

Everyone’s first reaction when seeing the Changkong was that it was so huge.

This thing is larger than the entire Hope module.

The sudden appearance of such a man-made object in the boring space makes people realize how insignificant individuals are.

"The Chinese are making great progress. This thing is much cooler than the Dragon spacecraft," Thomas said with emotion. "Before, China had to buy engine technology from us. Now it's our turn to buy a space station from them."

"I wonder if it would be a bad idea for us to just abandon Furukawa like this?" Megan looked back as she left the cabin.

Because there is no air in space, sound waves need a medium to propagate, so they talk to each other through the microphone built into the space suit.

As soon as Megan finished speaking, all the astronauts heard it, and the entire channel was noisy for a moment:
"That guy Furukawa deserves to die. We have neither the ability nor the willingness to save him."

"Megan, I understand your sympathy as a colleague and a human being, but Furukawa's current situation is entirely his own fault. Didn't you notice that when we were communicating with the ground command center, they didn't mention Furukawa at all?
It was as if this person did not exist, and NASA had obviously given up on Furukawa.

Not to mention that the Chinese who came to rescue us would never want to save Furukawa.

What we need to do now is to firmly grasp each raised handle, walk steadily to the edge of the rope, and then enter the Chinese space plane. "

"We have to hurry."

The reason for not saving Furukawa was not simply because of lack of oxygen, but also because human physical strength is limited.

There was oxygen in the space station before, so despite the weightlessness, they could still eat, and there was plenty of water and food.

But when the station's air leaked and everyone was in their spacesuits, they couldn't eat.

In an emergency, everyone faces a continuous decline in physical strength as time goes by. At this time, it is simply unrealistic to talk about leaving the cabin to save people.

(End of this chapter)