This star is going to the moon

Chapter 250 Lu Yun's Definitional Theory: Space Tourists Are Also Astronauts! (Two-in-One)

Lu Yun will not follow the selection process of these commercial astronaut trainees throughout the entire process. The same applies to the recording of "Tomorrow's Astronauts". He will only appear at the beginning and end, as well as during the various stages of assessment.

Normally, it's just the three retired astronauts, one astronaut who has been to space, and the program crew.

In addition, the Manned Spaceflight Office and Blue Star Space Company are also cooperating.

After all, Lu Yun is indeed very busy.

Sigh, and I'm getting busier and busier.

Previously, in the field of aerospace, outsiders knew about the Long March 10 rocket, the "Wooden Kite" space shuttle, and the "Starship" super rocket.

There are many things I don't know, such as the "Space Dock" space capsule, the next-generation unmanned lunar exploration and communication system, commercial spacesuits, and so on.

Even with the Long March 10 rocket project, Lu Yun was not only busy with the rocket itself, but also with many sub-projects of the manned lunar landing project.

So outsiders might assume that Lu Yun is very busy just by looking at his three most public projects, but in reality, he is indeed very busy.

However, Lu Yun's time is like water in a sponge; you can always squeeze some out.

So much so that when outsiders thought Lu Yun would be too busy to film movies and TV series, especially his colleagues in the film and television industry who were hoping for this, he just happened to have time to film.

Not only do they have time to film movies, but they also have time to do voice acting for animated films.

As a result, the TV series became a huge hit, the movie broke box office records, and even the animated film became a huge success.

Just when things seemed to be finally calming down this year, with all the time spent on aerospace work except for filming TV dramas, my colleagues hadn't even had a chance to be happy before I had to film a variety show.

It's a variety show that's never been done before, and it's still in the aerospace field.

Is Lu Yun even human?

Lu Yun is, of course, a human.

His energy is also limited, so he won't be with "Tomorrow's Astronauts" the whole time, but will go back to the "Three-Body Problem" filming crew.

After filming of "The Three-Body Problem" wraps up in March, he will devote most of his time to testing the "Wooden Kite" space shuttle, striving for its successful maiden flight in the middle of the year.

Ideally, it should be a successful maiden flight.

Of course, Lu Yun also had many other things to do during the filming of "The Three-Body Problem", after all, filming doesn't take place 24 hours a day.

Often, actors aren't even filming; the crew is busy making various adjustments to equipment, sets, and personnel, so there isn't much time to film each day.

At this time, other actors usually familiarize themselves with the script, reflect on the successes and failures of their previous shots, and consider how to film their next scenes.

But Lu Yun didn't need to. He had the script memorized perfectly and could perform any kind of acting effortlessly, delivering award-winning performances right from the start of filming.

It can even motivate other actors on set, making the director's filming process smoother.

So Lu Yun would use that free time to do other things, such as thinking about the selection and training standards for "tomorrow's astronauts".

Although the idea of ​​commercial astronauts was considered simultaneously when the "Wooden Kite" space shuttle program was launched, this is different from a space shuttle that is purely a technical issue.

For purely technical skills, Lu Yun's [Aerospace Engineering] skill can provide them; just follow his instructions.

However, commercial astronauts involve humans going into space, and aerospace engineering does not include astronauts, so we can only discuss it with the people in the manned spaceflight engineering office.

But the people at the manned spaceflight engineering office were also scratching their heads.

It's impossible to do it like a professional astronaut. First, Blue Star Space Company can't afford to spend that much time, and second, Blue Star Space Company can't afford to spend that many resources.

As the saying goes, "It takes a weight of gold to train a fighter pilot."

The Air Force recruits 1000 to 1300 high school graduates each year, but 50% to 60% of them are eliminated. The remaining students enter flight academies and are then sent to combat bases after completing their training.

The initial flight training period is six months, while professional flight training lasts one to two years. Outstanding trainees are selected from these training sessions to become fighter pilot trainees and continue their training.

Completing these feats is merely the mark of an excellent fighter pilot trainee.

The costs of purchasing, maintaining, and training aircraft are difficult to estimate, but training costs can be examined from the perspective of aircraft fuel costs.

If we consider an average fuel consumption of 4.7 tons per flight hour and calculate based on 3000 yuan per ton of flight fuel, becoming an excellent fighter pilot trainee requires 700 flight hours, which would cost nearly 1000 million yuan in fuel alone.

Excellent fighter trainees can only reach the final combat unit after going through a certain period of theoretical study, tactical training, and joint tactical training.

After joining the combat unit, they will have no less than 200 flight hours per year.

Astronauts are generally excellent fighter pilots, and they have typically accumulated 1000 flight hours.

In other words, the fuel costs alone amounted to tens of millions of yuan before he was even selected to join the astronaut team.

This only covers fuel costs; other expenses are not included.

So think about how much an astronaut is worth, selected from the best of fighter pilots and then trained with a lot of resources.

There are billions of people in the world, but only a few hundred astronauts.

In Yang Liwei's words, "An excellent pilot is made of pure gold, while an astronaut is made of diamonds."

If you really want to calculate it, it's worth tens or hundreds of billions!
Of course, this is just a value calculation; in reality, many of the resources the country uses to train astronauts are incalculable.

Commercial astronauts cannot be selected in this way, but the selection process should be conducted in the same way as for professional astronauts, since commercial astronauts, like professional astronauts, are responsible for operating spacecraft to space.

Therefore, cardiopulmonary function tests are necessary, including orthostatic endurance and exercise load tests, to observe the physiological and biochemical indicators of cardiopulmonary function and select the best cardiopulmonary function test subjects.

Vestibular function testing is very important. Methods such as swivel chair, swing, or ear irrigation are used to select individuals with good stability of vestibular autonomic nerve response.

Overgravity tolerance also needs to be checked, using a human centrifuge to test positive and lateral overgravity tolerance, but it doesn't need to be as rigorous as for professional astronauts.

Manned spacecraft must withstand 6G to 8G of overload during the active flight phase and the return flight phase, so astronauts are mostly selected from air force pilots or test pilots, and they also need to undergo a lot of G-force endurance training later.

Later, the Americans invented the Space Shuttle, which had an overload of only 2G to 3G, thus reducing the physical requirements for astronauts.

This led to the story of a 77-year-old astronaut traveling into space aboard the space shuttle.

This astronaut's name is John Glenn, and he is the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth.

He first went into space at the age of 40, then went into space for the second time at the age of 77, and finally passed away at the age of 95.

He passed away at the end of 2016, six months after Lu Yun's rebirth.

Meanwhile, Bezos' Blue Origin Space Company is developing the "New Glenn," a 7-meter diameter reusable rocket, in honor of him.

This old man is a very legendary figure.

The "Wooden Kite" developed by Lu Yun prioritizes comfort even more than conventional space shuttles, so its requirements for G-force tolerance are very low. Compared to G-force tolerance, the weightlessness test for "tomorrow's astronauts" is very important. It involves making the aircraft fly in a parabolic trajectory to select those who respond well to weightlessness.

Parabolic flight involves the aircraft climbing at a high speed at an angle of approximately 45°, at which point passengers will experience an acceleration of about 1.8 times the force of gravity, i.e., a state of weightlessness.

Once the aircraft reaches a certain altitude and speed, the pilot will suddenly reduce the engine thrust, causing the aircraft to almost lose aerodynamic lift and continue flying along a parabolic trajectory solely due to inertia.

Near the apex of the parabolic flight, the aircraft enters a state of weightlessness, and passengers will experience a feeling of weightlessness for about 20 to 30 seconds.

After the weightlessness ends, the aircraft will descend rapidly, and the pilot will increase the engine thrust again to restore the aircraft to level flight and prepare for the next parabolic flight.

Parabolic flight is an important part of astronaut training, used to allow them to experience and adapt to the weightless environment in space, and to train in various operational skills, such as putting on and taking off spacesuits, transferring items, and operating equipment.

It is also a way to offer a “cheap” “space experience tour”.

It allows passengers to experience weightlessness for several tens of seconds, and costs around $5000.

The reason it's called a "space experience tour" is that it only allows passengers to experience weightlessness for a few tens of seconds, and secondly... it's not in space.

Compared to real space tourism, it's basically the difference between "beef flavor" and "beef".

In addition to these tests, a hypoxia tolerance test will also be performed. Screening will be conducted in a hypobaric chamber to exclude those with poor hypoxia tolerance, low-pressure sensitivity, and those prone to fainting.

Vibration tolerance test to exclude those that are overly sensitive to vibration.

Isolation environment adaptability test is used to evaluate an individual's ability to adapt and cooperate in an abnormal environment without external stimuli.

In addition, there are tests for high-temperature tolerance, etc.

After these examinations, medical personnel from the manned space program and Blue Star Aerospace will evaluate the results of the examinations, both individually and comprehensively, and make an overall assessment.

Given the diverse backgrounds of these interviewees, they will not undergo examinations at the Lao-China Manned Space Center, but rather at the Blue Star Space Airport Medical Testing and Training Center.

Although the space airport is not yet completed, the center is already usable. After all, it doesn't need to be built to the level of a manned spaceflight center; the equipment inside is a simplified version.

As for medical devices, you can just buy finished products.

This center will not only be responsible for training commercial astronauts, but also for space tourists to undergo medical examinations once space tourism begins.

And simpler training.

How simple is it?

Astronauts also have different roles, such as space pilots, space engineers, and payload specialists.

The early astronauts were all selected from elite pilots. Not to mention their pilot training, they had to undergo several years of training just to become prospective astronauts.

The training time for aerospace engineers and payload specialists is less, about a year and a half.

The commercial astronauts paired with the Muyuan spacecraft also have some of the attributes of astronaut pilots, so they need to meet the prerequisite of being a pilot.

However, they don't need to train for several years; a few months is enough, which is even simpler than training astronauts and scientists.

First, the Muyuan space shuttle is highly automated, or rather, intelligent, requiring no astronauts to operate it throughout the entire process.

If any unexpected situation arises requiring astronaut intervention, the Muyuan space shuttle has significant "airplane" characteristics; it can glide through the air, unlike the round, manned spacecraft.

Therefore, the "pilot" attribute of commercial astronauts can play a significant role.

In addition, commercial astronauts do not need to conduct scientific experiments in space, so they only need to be trained in a few key subjects.

Like professional astronauts, they also need to train for wilderness survival.

After all, during an emergency return, a manned spacecraft may land in various complex terrains and harsh living environments, such as cold regions, deserts, mountains, forests, and seas.

Therefore, it is necessary to train astronauts in survival knowledge and skills for these regions, so that they can become familiar with and master the climate change, topography, sea conditions, flora and fauna of these regions, and master the basic essentials of survival.

For example, to survive in cold regions, one must maintain the body's thermal balance; to survive in primeval forests, one must defend against attacks from wild beasts and insects; and to survive in deserts, one must maintain water and salt balance.

Because the landing site of a manned spacecraft is difficult to control, especially during emergency reentry when the landing points are widely dispersed, it poses a challenge to the rescue of astronauts.

This is why search and rescue teams are dispatched when manned spacecraft return, and helicopter and vehicle teams are also involved.

When the manned spacecraft lands, the landing point must be constantly predicted. Search and rescue teams rush to the predicted landing point from all directions, and their positions must be changed along the way. After the manned spacecraft lands, helicopters can only fly over for a while, and then the convoy arrives.

Therefore, manned spacecraft are generally equipped with personal survival supplies for astronauts to use for rescue and survival while waiting for rescue after landing.

Personal survival gear should include distress communication items so that astronauts can use them to contact rescuers as quickly as possible. These items include radio communication and positioning devices, signal guns, flare tubes, seawater dye, flashlights, reflectors, ignition sources, whistles, etc.

Personal protective equipment must also include items for protection against the cold and sun at land and sea, such as cold-weather clothing, immersion suits, and cloaks.

When a spacecraft returns and lands in a cold region or splashes into water, astronauts wear cold-weather suits or immersion suits while awaiting rescue to prevent a large loss of body heat in a short period of time and extend their survival time.

When astronauts re-enter and splash into the water, there should be flotation devices, such as life rafts or portable flotation devices, to support the body and keep it afloat on the water's surface, awaiting retrieval and rescue.

Commonly used portable flotation devices include carbon dioxide cylinders, floats, air inflators, and other accessories.

When an astronaut splashes into the water, pulling the inflation rope causes the firing pin to pierce the sealing film of the gas cylinder, allowing carbon dioxide gas to fill the float and inflate it.

You can also inflate the float with your mouth through the inflation tube.

Life-saving food, drinking water, and first-aid kits are also very important personal survival items. Ensuring that astronauts have a certain amount of drinking water is crucial for landing in high-temperature areas.

Other personal survival items include handguns, shark repellent, fishing gear, filters, compasses, self-defense knives, wire saws, dry fuel, heaters, and windproof matches.

Commercial astronauts on the Muyuan space shuttle don't need to train for this; the Muyuan must land on a runway at a space airport, just like many commercial airliners.

As for the space tourists who travel into space aboard the Muyuan spacecraft, they don't need to train at all. They only need to have their bodies checked to make sure they are fit to enter space.

At most, we'll just make sure the space environment isn't so bad that they'll throw up.

Then teach them how to eat, drink, and use the toilet in a weightless state.

The inspection will take one day, the training another day, and then we can board the Wooden Kite and go into space.

The initial space trips will not be very long, at most orbiting the Earth three times and watching three sunrises and sunsets before returning.

The time spent in space is about 4.5 hours, and with takeoff and landing, it's about 5 hours.

Even so, according to Lu Yun:
"Although we only do one day of inspection and one day of training, and then spend more than four hours in space without conducting any space experiments, space tourists are still considered astronauts!"

Developing tourism is nothing to be ashamed of.

You need to ensure that tourists have a full sense of spiritual satisfaction.

(End of this chapter)