This star is going to the moon

Chapter 32 Lu Yun's Space Development Plan

The headquarters of Bluestar Aerospace Technology Company is located on "Rocket Street" in Yizhuang, Beijing.

Seventy percent of the country's commercial aerospace company headquarters are gathered there, covering areas such as launch vehicles, satellite development, satellite applications, model matching, ground equipment, and technology applications.

The reason why they gather in Yizhuang is that it is the economic and technological development zone of Beijing and has policy support.

The second reason is that the Launch Vehicle Technology Research Institute, commonly known as the "First Academy of Aerospace", is located a few kilometers away.

There is technical support.

It is mainly convenient to recruit people.

Yu Xingchen had worked in a hospital before and knew a lot of people, so it was very convenient for him to recruit people.

In addition, the country is also supporting the development of commercial aerospace, so as long as they are not core personnel in the new rocket research and development project, they can basically be poached at will.

In this way, with the money in place, Yu Xingchen quickly rented a site and set up a liquid rocket research and development team.

Of course, the current R&D team can only be regarded as a backbone framework. Only after some research results are achieved will investment be attracted to continue to expand the team.

However, everyone in the R&D team felt that that moment would come soon, within a year at most!
In fact, they didn't think so at the beginning, because when the company held its first R&D meeting, Lu Yun announced the R&D plan that surprised everyone.

The data of Wanhu Rockets is quite exaggerated.

It is a medium-sized rocket equipped with seven engines with a thrust of 7 tons in the first stage and one engine with a thrust of 70 tons in the second stage. It has a takeoff mass of 1 tons, an ultimate carrying capacity of 80 tons in low-Earth orbit, and a carrying capacity of over 350 tons in the recovered state.

Because SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket pointed the way, Lu Yun didn't think about making a small test rocket that could take off with just one engine, but instead went straight for a "big" rocket with seven engines.

And it will also be directly recycled, instead of using early disposable rockets like the Falcon 9. The recycling model will be developed after the operation is stable.

the most important is……

"Two years! We will make the Wanhu rocket's maiden flight within two years, and recover it after the first flight!"

Everyone thought that the first flight would be achieved "within two years", which means in February 2019.

This is simply impossible!

Because the development of the Falcon 9 rocket took another five years, and even earlier, the Falcon 1 was used for experiments to accumulate experience.

It can't be said that the Wanhu rocket took half the time to develop just because it's half the size of the Falcon 9 rocket, right?
Moreover, the takeoff mass of the Wanhu rocket can reach more than 60% of that of the Falcon 9. It would take three years to develop it proportionally. How can the time be turned back to 40%?

What’s more, the Falcon 9 took five years to develop and its first flight was a disposable rocket, and it took another five years to successfully recover the rocket!

It is simply impossible to complete the ten-year development process of Falcon 9 in two years!
However, when the others were about to refute, Yu Xingchen, who knew the most about the situation, spoke first. He shook his head and said, "No, time is too tight."

Everyone nodded after hearing this.

Yu Xingchen: "Although the information and plan you provided are very detailed, they are all simulated data. We need to conduct a lot of actual tests to confirm whether they are correct. There is also a small part of the core technology that needs to be tackled, which will take time."

Everyone nodded again.

Yu Xingchen: "Even though the Falcon 9 has pointed out the development path for us, the first flight of the Wanhu rocket will take at least two and a half years, not until the middle of 2019."

Everyone also...

"?"

Instead of nodding, everyone turned to look at Yu Xingchen.

"Why are you looking at me? Take a look at the information I sent to you. Then you will know why I said that." Yu Xingchen pointed.

When everyone heard this, they checked the information and were shocked!

Everyone thought that the first R&D meeting was to conduct a feasibility study on the Wanhu rocket, so Lu Yun made so many requirements.

Then it would go through the conceptual design stage, the prototype development stage, the test sample development stage, the final prototype development stage, the application test launch stage, etc. But in the end, that huge pile of data had almost reached the final stage of theoretical research, and all that was left was to actually build and test the various components, and then put them together to build a rocket!

Of course, a lot of the data here may be wrong and need to be modified and replaced after testing, but this level of completion is already quite impressive.

Everyone whispered.

"Ghost~Where did you get this information?"

"Aren't we the first R&D team? The company has another R&D team?"

"That's impossible. If they already have a R&D team, why would they need us?"

"That's right. If there's a R&D team, they can just continue their research on their own. Changing the R&D team midway only increases the risk."

"Could it be bought from outside?"

"With this terrifying completion rate, which company would sell it?"

"That's right, but this kind of..."

"Don't worry about that. I just know we've come to the right place. Bluestar Aerospace can definitely become the number one private aerospace company in China. We might even be able to compete with SpaceX for international orders!"

"Being number one domestically is no problem, but competing for international orders...that's not just a matter of price and technology..."

Everyone is confident in the technology, but in terms of time, they think the two and a half years mentioned by Yu Xingchen is more reliable.

But Lu Yun was not satisfied. He had a plan and was confident that he could complete it.

Aerospace Engineering Level 4 (2985/10000)

Theoretically, the skill learning progress can reach 1000 points per month. A skill with zero foundation can be upgraded to level 4 in one and a half months, and from zero to level 5 in one year.

But according to the data obtained by Lu Yun in the past few months, an average of 600 points per month is considered good.

However, with his current progress, he will definitely be able to reach level 5 in another year. In addition, the Wanhu rocket plan is already very complete, so even if there are any technical difficulties in the middle, they can be completely solved in a year.

So the first flight within two years is not a problem.

Even Lu Yun's "within two years" was not counted from February this year, but from the day he chatted with Wu Jing in September last year.

Of course, Lu Yun does not insist on making the first flight before September 2018, and it is fine to delay the first flight until November.

Because he will participate in the Haizhu Air Show in November, and he wants to make a stunning appearance at the show with his first flight to receive a lot of orders, and by the way, announce even more amazing space plans.

After all, Lu Yun’s “dream of the stars and the sea” is not just about launching a rocket, but about going to space himself!

The Wanhu Rocket, just like its name, is just the starting point of Lu Yun’s dream of the stars and the sea.

Although its carrying capacity can launch the Shenzhou manned spacecraft, even the first-stage recovery mode is more than enough to launch the Shenzhou manned spacecraft.

However, as a new rocket, it is not easy to obtain manned permission, and it must ensure very high reliability.

Reliability is built up through rocket launches one after another, which takes a lot of time.

SpaceX's reusable Crew Dragon spacecraft is a fresh start and is more advanced than older generation crewed spacecraft, but it took a decade from development to actual crewed operation.

However, Lu Yun felt that the "Crew Dragon" spacecraft was not advanced enough, and he had an even more awesome manned spacecraft plan!

He wants to go to space in an advanced manned spacecraft he built himself!

Of course, before that, Lu Yun still has to work hard to make money by filming.

Moreover, the filming of "Time Raiders" is about to begin, which includes kissing and sex scenes with An Fangfei. He must take the art of film seriously!

(End of this chapter)