This star is going to the moon

Chapter 272 Mini Mars Rover, Wanhu Rocket's First Sea Recovery (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

In fact, Lu Yun is applying for radiation safety licenses, nuclear material licenses, and civilian nuclear safety equipment licenses for Bluestar Aerospace Company.

There's no way around it; no matter how much technology is provided to support solar-powered probes on extraterrestrial planets, the limitations of solar energy are still too great.

On the moon, it enters hibernation during the lunar night.

On Mars, being covered in dust means certain death.

Leaving aside Mars, which is too far away, let's talk about the Moon, which is right next to Earth's "doorstep". If humans want to stay there for a long time, they must first determine the location of the "water source".

Humans must live near water.

The current scientific consensus is to look for solid water ice in shaded areas, and a major reason why water may exist in shaded areas is the absence of sunlight.

The solar-powered lunar rover going into the shadow region is like the solar-powered flashlight in the movie "Three Thousand Ways to Kill You".

It can only shine when there is sunlight; it will never shine without sunlight!

Meanwhile, China and Laos have officially approved the "Lunar Navigation and Resource Exploration" plan, which is the joint plan of lunar orbiting satellite and unmanned lunar rover proposed by Lu Yun.

This plan will use many lunar rovers for land claiming... cough cough, exploration.

Most of them are solar-powered lunar rovers of various sizes, but some key locations, namely places where water may exist, will be served by nuclear-powered lunar rovers that are not affected by the amount of sunlight.

Just like the "Curiosity" and "Perseverance" nuclear-powered Mars rovers developed by the United States.

However, nuclear power is indeed too expensive. For example, the isotope thermoelectric generator on the Perseverance rover, which was launched this summer, cost as much as $7000 million.

Its raw materials and equipment together weigh only 45 kilograms.

Furthermore, the US and Russia expanded their nuclear arsenals rapidly in the last century, possessing a large amount of plutonium-238 isotope material, while China's reserves are very limited.

Therefore, whether or not to actually build a nuclear-powered lunar rover is still under research, and there are other options for exploring shadowed regions, such as directly running electrical wires into them.

However, since Lu Yun's team has already demonstrated the ability to develop high-performance small extraterrestrial probes, why not extend that to larger probes?

For example, the previous "Golden Toad" lunar rover weighed 5 kilograms, while this mini Mars rover weighs 10 kilograms.

Yes, it has already expanded by leaps and bounds, doubling in size.

BlueStar Aerospace will definitely participate in the lunar navigation and resource exploration program, just in case they discover a cheap and effective method.

Trust in the ability of businesses to save costs.

After the meeting on the wireless joint test of the Mars exploration mission concluded, Lu Yun went to the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology to see the Mars rover that was being tested.

He started participating in this project in the summer of 2018, which is almost two years now, a very long time for him among the national missions he has participated in.

This is also one of the reasons why he dared to redesign the Mars rover.

If time were as tight as with the Chang'e 5 mission, he could simply build a miniature probe similar to the "Golden Toad" and be done with it.

Of course, he was indeed working on a mini Mars rover in the early stages, and it was only after the successful maiden flight of the Wanhu rocket at the end of August that he proposed adding an electrostatic dust removal device to the large Mars rover.

After all, this involves issues of identity and authority.

Even after that, the Mars exploration project team did not directly agree, but instead had to hold a meeting to discuss it.

After all, China's first Mars exploration mission is a typical project that is both conservative and radical.

Conservatism stems from a large safety margin. Many materials can be made solid with a hollow design to maintain strength and reduce weight, but for the sake of safety margin, they are made thick.

The US aims to achieve its mission objectives in several phases, while China's first independent Mars exploration mission aims to accomplish all three objectives—orbiting, landing, and roving—in one go!
It wasn't until February of last year, when Lu Yun became the chief designer of the Long March 10 manned lunar rocket through his own efforts, that the Mars project team agreed to Lu Yun's "electrostatic dust removal" plan.

This plan will also be used in manned lunar landing missions.

After a year of effort, the electrostatic dust removal system was finally completed without significantly affecting the original design of the Mars rover. This system is also present on the mini Mars rover.

The mini Mars rover is a box that is a size larger than the "Golden Toad" rover, but its design is much more complex.

After all, the weight has doubled.

The mini Mars rover's solar panels are not unfolded; they are simply covered on the top of the square box, with some on the four sides as well.

The two sides have six folding and telescopic tires, which, when supported, allow the bottom of the mini Mars rover to be 10 centimeters off the ground.

There is also a folding pole camera in front, which is 50 centimeters off the ground when it is erected.

Unlike the "Golden Toad" (金蟾号), it has two sides.

After all, the "Golden Toad" was ejected from the "hull" of the probe, while the mini Mars rover still uses the "hen laying eggs" method to separate.

That is, it separates and lands directly on the belly of the large Mars rover, with its vertical direction fixed.

After the large Mars rover deploys its solar panels, it is over 3 meters long and wide. After the camera pole is erected, the "human eye camera" is nearly 1.9 meters high and weighs 240 kilograms.

Although it cannot compare to the American Curiosity rover (900 kg) and Perseverance rover (1000 kg) nuclear-powered Mars rovers.

But it's still twice as big as the 170-kilogram "Spirit" and "Opportunity" solar-powered Mars rovers.

In his previous life, Lu Yun never had the chance to see this behemoth up close. Even "Uncle Ning," who runs a popular science WeChat account, had seen a 1:1 scale model of it. But now, he can wear an anti-static suit and touch the real thing.

Of course, there's also the 10-kilogram mini lunar rover that he spearheaded the development of.

And look at the giant Mars rover next to it...

Big is beautiful, big is good!

The engineer accompanying him didn't notice Lu Yun's expression. He said enthusiastically, "President Lu, the 'electrostatic dust removal' system you developed is amazing! Its dust removal effect is extremely strong. We conducted five tests and it passed all the tests!"

"It's fortunate that we agreed to let you participate in this project, otherwise the Mars rover would have lacked an important dust removal method, which would have had a huge impact on subsequent missions."

"After all, we are researchers; we can't gamble on whether Martian storms will have a greater effect on dust cover or cleanup..."

Lu Yun agreed with this; in his previous life, the Zhurong Mars rover perished in a massive dust storm during a Martian winter.

That's why Lu Yun proposed the "electrostatic dust removal" system in this life.

However, he also said, "Earth tests are Earth tests. We still need to see the actual results, after all, it will not only be used on Mars, but also in future manned lunar missions."

"We can't let our astronauts get the same 'lunar hay fever' as the Apollo astronauts and suffer from it for the rest of their lives."

The engineer nodded: "That's right, practice is the sole criterion for testing truth."

As they chatted, the conversation drifted from Mars to Earth. In particular, the Mars rover engineer knew that the "Wanhu" rocket launch site in the Binhai Aerospace City was completed and that the first Binhai launch and the first sea fairing recovery would be carried out soon.

"If this is successful, Blue Star Aerospace will truly catch up with SpaceX across the ocean in reusable rockets. It won't be easy."

"It really wasn't easy..."

The two looked south, but the Mars rover engineer only glanced at it, while Lu Yun arrived at the site four days later.

After all, Lu Yun has to participate in various firsts in spaceflight to some extent, as it is very memorable.

Just like many people who buy toys and snacks after starting work, it's a way of treating their childhood selves to something new.

Lu Yun was hosting a banquet for his past self.

Of course, the main reason is that the TV series "The Three-Body Problem" is almost finished filming, and he doesn't have many scenes.

(End of this chapter)