This star is going to the moon

Chapter 384 A Little Bit of Extravagance: Space Travel, and the Movie "Lone on the Moon" is About to Start Filming

Because we had to support the US space program, our aerospace technology couldn't develop in all aspects, so we only chose a few remote paths.

One is that its liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen engine technology is quite good.

They won't pursue near-Earth orbit, the Moon, or Mars; they'll only focus on asteroid exploration, which other major powers aren't currently paying much attention to.

How could they possibly make a fortune through shady means and become the "world's number one"?

So in 2003 they launched the Hayabusa asteroid probe with the aim of collecting samples from asteroid 25143 and returning them to Earth.

However, since it was the first time doing this, the exploration did not go smoothly.

From the very beginning, they encountered an unstable output from the ion engine, forcing them to rely on the other three engines to take on the main responsibility.

Then it encountered the impact of the largest solar flash in the history of observation, which caused a decrease in solar cell output and a single-event flip error in internal memory, but fortunately it did not affect the mission much.

Two years later, they finally managed to get a close-up shot of asteroid 25143, but the X-axis attitude control device malfunctioned and could not be used. They had to switch to using the chemical fuel-assisted thruster in conjunction with the remaining two attitude control devices.

After several months of procrastination, the first "landing" attempt failed, and contact was lost for 30 minutes.

Later, the ground control center determined that the landing was unsuccessful, but the thrusters should have kicked up some "dust" from the asteroid when they were ejected, and the open sample compartment should have gotten some on it.

It then made a second "landing" and left one second after landing.

The reason for this is that asteroid 25143 is so small that it has no gravity at all, so what is described as a "landing" is actually just a bump.

Fortunately, we collected more samples this time, so the sampling was successful.

Unfortunately, bad news came immediately.

First there was a fuel leak, which was thankfully stopped after the valve was shut off. Then there was a communication outage that lasted for two months.

After connecting and confirming the situation, it was found that the solar panel output was too low, 4 out of 11 lithium batteries were completely unusable, and the fuel was almost completely lost.

Fortunately, the probe was still able to move and completed the transfer of the sample container to the return capsule before returning to Earth.

By 2010, after seven years of intermittent missions, the probe, three years late, finally returned to Earth.

However, at this point, Xiao Rizi was unsure whether there were any samples in the sampling container.

Fortunately, the final result was positive; they brought back 1500... dust particles.

This made Xiao Rizi the first country in the world to bring back materials from an asteroid.

However, because the Hayabusa encountered various problems during its mission, Hayabusa2 was launched in 2014.

This mission will explore asteroid 1999 JU3, also known as Ryugu, and return samples to Earth in 2020.

With the experience from last time, this mission went much more smoothly. After releasing the return capsule, there was still fuel left to explore new asteroids.

However, subsequent probes will be unable to collect samples.

The following day, after the Hayabusa2 probe's return capsule landed in Australia, the team worked with the Royal Australian Air Force to locate the capsule and immediately announced the news to the public.

[It must be said, they do have some achievements in deep space exploration.] [Indeed, although they lack the resources for near-Earth orbit research and the funding for lunar and Martian exploration, they have made a name for themselves by exploring asteroids.]

Well, we can't afford to have a complete industry like we do, the Americans, the Russians, and Europe, nor do we have the resources for comprehensive exploration. This is all we can do.

[Unfortunately, this achievement is too small. Winning first place is like winning some kind of "first place in fingertip pen spinning"—it doesn't have much real value.]

What can we do? Not every country is as big as us or the US.

Indeed, even Europe supplies components to the US and occasionally collaborates with Russia, and the Russians are probably struggling to even understand space exploration through archaeology these days.

It's really not easy. Back then, they were the ones we had to look up to. Now, only the Americans are ahead of us, or even right in front of us.

Hey, we're definitely catching up in other areas, but we've already surpassed them in manned spaceflight. I'm so looking forward to the maiden voyage of fully commercial space tourism.

That's true. Our country's manned space program started quite late, but we never expected it to surpass the US now.

Yes, we wanted to develop manned spaceflight in the 1960s and 70s, but we gave up because we didn't have the technology. We tried again in the late 1980s, and we even considered developing a space shuttle, but we didn't have the technology, so we chose a manned spacecraft instead.

[They were really daring back then. In 1988, they proposed four space shuttle designs and one manned spacecraft design, which were hailed as the "Five Golden Flowers" at the time. In the end, they chose the most conservative "Shenzhou" series manned spacecraft.]

(Net map)
[Our ideas were quite advanced at the time. In addition to the three types of partially recoverable small space shuttles, we also considered a fully recoverable two-stage aerospace shuttle, but unfortunately, we lacked the technical capability.]

The two-stage aerospace vehicle concept should be feasible now, right? Space shuttles are good, but their payload capacity is too small.

The two-stage space shuttle design is indeed excellent. The space shuttle would be lifted off by the atmosphere, accelerate to a certain speed and altitude, then separate, using a booster propulsion system for its return. This would allow the space shuttle to overcome its dead weight and accelerate more nimbly, significantly increasing its payload capacity!

[It's estimated that BlueStar Aerospace won't take this route. Let's see if other aerospace companies will. It's also an opportunity to compete with space shuttles using a "large payload, full recovery" approach.]

Doesn't anyone care how many asteroid samples Hayabusa2 brought back? It's a unique sample, after all...

Aside from space enthusiasts, ordinary netizens don't really care.

Lu Yun knew that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, it should still be around 5 grams, just like in his previous life.

Unfortunately, the Hayabusa2 probe was very small, and the asteroid was also small, so its collection process was not like that of Chang'e 5, which involved directly digging with a shovel and drilling with a drill.

Instead, a projectile is launched to strike the asteroid, which then spins around in the air a few times. The sample container is filled with as much debris as it can hit.

However, Lu Yun doesn't care about his personal life; he's currently on the set of the movie "Lone on the Moon."

Of course, this time there's no need to travel to other places, because the filming studio for "Lone on the Moon" is also in the Oriental Movie Metropolis.

To simulate a realistic lunar environment, the production team built a 100% real lunar base at the Oriental Movie Metropolis, using 15 super-large sound stages and laying 200 tons of sand and gravel to act as "lunar dust."

And it's right next to "The Wandering Earth 2".

Both films will use scenes of a lunar base, and the main construction company is Lanxing Tiangong Film and Television Props Company, a subsidiary of Lu Yun.

After all, in the film and television industry, no one understands the production of science fiction props and scenes better than the people at Blue Star Crafts.

After all, their boss is the most futuristic one.

(End of this chapter)