This star is going to the moon

Chapter 460 Simulates Astronauts Using Inflatable Heat Shields to Enter the Atmosphere!
The "space emergency escape device" was just a PowerPoint presentation that the Americans made before.

That was in the 1960s, during the first space race, an era of frenzied exploration of manned spaceflight.

The Americans at the time had a very bold design: to allow astronauts to land from space using an escape device the size of a suitcase.

(Conceptual illustration)

Unfortunately, the American's PowerPoint presentation remained just that – a presentation.

Let alone the safe reentry of astronauts into the atmosphere using inflatable heat shields, there has never been a test of reentrying cargo into the atmosphere using inflatable heat shields.

Not to mention the lack of flexible materials that can withstand temperatures of nearly 3000 degrees Celsius, the "death roll" that may be encountered during the return process is also a major problem.

Currently, the US has only conducted suborbital tests and will not conduct near-Earth orbit tests until next year.

Two years ago, when the Chinese were testing their new manned spacecraft, they also conducted an orbital test of a small inflatable heat shield, but unfortunately the test results were not ideal.

It survived the high temperatures of re-entry into the atmosphere, but drifted in the complex atmospheric environment and failed to land smoothly as planned.

Fortunately, they did not encounter a more extreme "death roll".

In some people's parlance, it was "the acquisition of valuable experimental data".

So now, the Chinese are directly starting to work on the US's... "Space Emergency Escape System" PPT!

It is installed on the bulkhead of the spherical node module at the spaceport.

Because the node module of the space terminal needs to be equipped with a square hatch with a diameter of 1.2 meters, the node module has a diameter of 3.8 meters and is a spherical module, which is 1 meter larger than the 2.8-meter diameter node module of the Tianhe core module.

(The orange spheres are node modules; the scale is slightly off, but please bear with it.)

In the future, four "space emergency escape systems" will be installed in the node modules of the space terminal.

The “space emergency escape system” resembles a massage chair. Astronauts wearing extravehicular activity (EVA) suits press themselves into an EVA suit equipped with “dummy sensors.”

In an actual escape, the astronaut wearing the extravehicular activity suit can sit inside, while during reentry into the atmosphere, the astronaut is in a safe "curled-up" position.

After securing the extravehicular activity suits for testing, the astronauts opened the 1.2-meter square hatch facing the space dock and pushed out the "space emergency escape system".

In an actual escape, the astronaut's arms will not be fixed, so they can do these actions themselves. The arms will only be fixed during the final check after the space station is evacuated.

Now that this step has been completed, the astronauts report to the ground station: "Dawn, Dongyao reports, the 'Space Emergency Escape System' has left the space station."

The ground station then said, "Dawn understands. Please close the forward hatch of the spaceport."

"Dongyao understands!"

The space station's mission is complete. All that remains is for the "space emergency escape system" to automatically decelerate and descend to orbit, and then re-enter the atmosphere a few hours later.

Although a few hours of emergency escape may not seem "urgent" in terms of numbers, if the space station is not actively decelerated and lowered in orbit at an altitude of 400 kilometers, it would take several months to several years to re-enter the atmosphere through the thin atmosphere.

By then, even if they safely crossed the atmosphere and landed on Earth, they would already be a cold corpse.

If that's the case, it would be better to burn up in the atmosphere.

In a way, it represents the astronauts' final moment of glory and romance. "I hope this test will be successful. This spacesuit is quite a memento, and I don't want to see it burned."

Sitting next to Lu Yun, Yang Liwei, who has been promoted to deputy chief designer of the manned space program, said.

"We've never recovered an extravehicular activity (EVA) suit before. The first-generation EVA suits burned up in the atmosphere with Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2."

"This is the first spacesuit of the second-generation 'Feitian' extravehicular activity suit, and it's also our first attempt at recovery. It also has the precious signatures of the astronauts who used it..."

Lu Yun somewhat understood this feeling, but not entirely.

He knew that General Manager Yang was expressing his amazement at the development of China's aerospace technology in recent years. After all, the Shenzhou manned spacecraft had little downlink capability, and the extravehicular spacesuit, weighing 120 kilograms and larger than the average person, certainly couldn't be brought back.

If Lu Yun hadn't built the space shuttle, the second-generation spacecraft would have been loaded into the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft and burned up in the atmosphere like other debris after its lifespan was over.

This is actually how it was in the previous life before the space shuttle existed.

The reason why Lu Yun didn't quite understand this emotion was... He had personally developed the space shuttle, and bringing back the spacesuit would be a piece of cake, so there was no need to sigh.

As Qian Xuesen once said, "Even if someone is not very smart, can they not learn calculus?"

So Lu Yun listened attentively, and after President Yang finished speaking, he asked, "President Yang, do we have a research plan for the third-generation 'Flying Space' extravehicular activity suit? What is the progress of the development of the lunar spacesuit for manned lunar landing?"

Manned lunar landing also falls under the category of manned spaceflight, so Mr. Yang, the deputy chief designer of the manned spaceflight project, knows a lot of new information.

Although Lu Yun also participated in the manned lunar landing project, he was mainly responsible for the transportation vehicles. Unless he attended the milestone report meetings or asked questions, the progress of the spacesuit project did not need to be reported to him.

Upon hearing this, General Manager Yang looked at the "space emergency escape device" and, seeing that everything was normal and it would take several hours for it to re-enter the atmosphere, said, "There is a development plan for a third-generation spacesuit, but it is still in the very early stages of demonstration."

"The main focus now is on upgrading the second-generation spacesuit, extending the 15-use period of 3-year in-orbit storage to 20 uses of 4-year in-orbit storage..."

"The lunar spacesuit was also developed based on this, and a prototype is expected to be unveiled at next year's Space Day..."

Lu Yun nodded repeatedly upon hearing this news. The lunar spacesuit would definitely be developed based on the second-generation spacesuit, since the technology of the first-generation spacesuit was somewhat outdated.

相对于现在二代飞天服的在轨储存3年使用15次，每次使用时限是8小时，一代飞天服只能在轨储存1年和使用4次，每次的使用时限也只有4小时。

Furthermore, the technological advancements in lunar spacesuits are even greater. Compared to near-Earth orbit extravehicular activity (EVA) suits, which only need to withstand temperature differences of ±100 and ±200 degrees Celsius, lunar spacesuits must withstand extreme temperature differences of ±180 and ±360 degrees Celsius.

In addition, the extravehicular activity of the spacesuit is mainly for climbing, so the hands are relatively flexible and there is basically no need to consider leg movement. However, lunar astronauts need to perform actions such as squatting and bending over on the moon, so the leg movement needs to be flexible.

Furthermore, because the moon is far from Earth's magnetic field and has no atmosphere, it is exposed to greater radiation. Therefore, lunar spacesuits require significantly more radiation protection compared to extravehicular activity suits for near-Earth orbit.

Most importantly, there are the sharp, penetrating, and extremely fine lunar dust particles on the moon...

Lu Yun learned a lot of the latest news from General Manager Yang. After taking a break, the inflatable heat shield began to carry the simulated astronauts back into the atmosphere.

The "space emergency escape device" flew toward its designated landing point, trailing a long trail of flame.

The intended landing site is still Dongfeng Landing Site. Helicopter and vehicle search teams have been dispatched, and Lu Yun and the others are waiting for good news in the command center.

Meanwhile, the experts in the US who stayed up until the early hours of the morning weren't doing so well...

(End of this chapter)