This star is going to the moon

Chapter 497: Sampling Preparations on the Far Side of the Moon, Queqiao-2 Makes its Debut, and World War II Reignites!

[Well, in the last century, the US and Russia did have a "space handshake," docking their spacecraft together to mark the end of the "space race." But they quickly started a "space military race."]

Indeed, both sides have been rapidly advancing their military space programs since the end of the space race. The US has planned hypersonic gliders and a "manned orbital laboratory" for military reconnaissance, while the US is thinking of equipping its space station with machine guns and laser cannons.

[Old Bear was also concerned about the military potential of the US space shuttle, so he launched his own "Buran" space shuttle program and "Energy" heavy rocket project, while the US pursued the "Star Wars" program.]

[That's right, the space arms race only stopped after Old Bear passed away, but it's started again now.]

From the very beginning, the US blocked our space cooperation and went ahead with its so-called second round of space arms race, showing no signs of easing tensions or promoting world peace.

So what's going on now? Why have they suddenly given "God of Gamblers 2" such a huge green light, and why haven't they caused any trouble along the way? Is it simply that Hollywood capital wants a piece of the pie?

[I don't know. Normally, we'd be wary of something the enemy praises, but what's there to be wary of in "The Ball 2"? Or have Guo Fan or Lu Yun been turned and are being promoted to make things easier?]

[Impossible. They hold such a high position domestically, and there's no record of them being dissatisfied with the country. How could the Americans possibly turn them against them?]

[Could it be like with "The Three-Body Problem"—they made a mistake, thinking it was the kind of thing they liked, and then awarded it the honor, only to find out they'd been tricked?]

That's hard to say. Perhaps there's some hidden game we're unaware of, maybe the kind of high-level business warfare we're familiar with, rather than the various simple and unpretentious "high-level business warfare" tactics.

Who cares? All I know is that *The Wandering Earth 2: The Ladder Crisis* is going to break all sorts of new records!

Indeed, if anything really happens, it's the country and Guo Fan and Lu Yun who will worry about it. Let's just enjoy the New Year.

[Also, let's keep an eye on the aerospace industry. Lu Yun did several promotional tours for his movie on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and then went to the Binhai Launch Site on the second day because our country's Chang'e 6 lunar sample return mission was about to begin.]

[Oh, has Chang'e 6 started yet?]

[It should be said that the Queqiao-2 relay satellite of the Chang'e 6 mission has been delivered to the Binhai launch site, and someone has photographed the clouds...]

Being a "weathervane" isn't easy; you have to gravitate towards whichever wind is blowing, keeping you incredibly busy.

The main reason is that the chief engineers of each project are all quite old, while Lu Yun is young.

And she's incredibly young!

And his health is unbelievably good!

So he was given more loads on his shoulders.

During his visit, he was not only photographed by aerospace enthusiasts, but also caught red-handed by "Uncle Ning" who came to interview him.

Uncle Ning runs a new media account called "Dream Chasing in the Sky". Lu Yun used to read it often in his previous life. In this life, after he became the chief engineer, he often saw Uncle Ning and they became acquaintances.

"Come on, Mr. Lu, tell our viewers about the Magpie Bridge No. 2. Many of our viewers are your fans; they're the ones who asked me to come and catch you..."

Lu Yun: “…”

"The Queqiao-2 satellite is similar to the Queqiao-1 satellite in general, but it is larger."

"The Queqiao-1 satellite weighs only a little over 400 kilograms, while the Queqiao-2 satellite weighs a whopping 1.2 tons..."

The two "Queqiao" satellites are indeed quite different. Queqiao-1's orbit is located outside the moon, at the Earth-Moon Lagrange point L2, where the gravitational forces of the Earth and the moon are balanced, and it is about 65,000 kilometers away from the moon.

The reason for such a distance is that this location ensures that the satellite can remain in this vicinity for an extended period with minimal fuel consumption.

Satellites operating in this orbit can simultaneously face both the far side of the moon and Earth, transmitting electromagnetic signals from Earth to the unseen far side of the moon, thus ensuring that probes on the far side of the moon can communicate normally with Earth.

The biggest advantage of this orbit is that it can cover the far side of the moon around the clock, unaffected by the movement of the moon and the earth, and can ensure almost uninterrupted communication between the earth and the moon.

No other orbital can do this yet.

Queqiao-2 chose a completely different orbit from Queqiao-1.

It uses a highly elliptical frozen orbit around the moon, with its closest point to the moon only about 300 kilometers away, and can be adjusted to support different missions.

The reason for this difference is that the two "magpie bridges" have different tasks.

Chang'e 4 and Yutu 2 need to work continuously for long periods of time, and during this time they need to maintain normal communication with Earth.

It's important to know that a day on the moon lasts for half a month, and even excluding the midday rest period, it still needs to work continuously for dozens or even hundreds of hours. Queqiao-1 can guarantee that it can transmit signals to Earth whenever Chang'e-4 needs it, which would be very difficult to do in other orbits.

However, Chang'e 6 is different. Chang'e 6's main mission is to sample and return, which is a short and delicate operation with a series of extremely complex actions. It is necessary not only to ensure normal communication, but also to find ways to improve the quality of communication.

Although Queqiao-1 can ensure uninterrupted communication around the clock, it is too far from the moon, resulting in significant signal attenuation and relatively poor communication quality.

The orbit of Queqiao-2 is very suitable. Although it is in an elliptical orbit with a perigee of only 300 kilometers and an apogee of several thousand kilometers, it is still much closer than tens of thousands of kilometers. This can greatly improve the communication quality and bandwidth.

Of course, Queqiao-2 will not stay in this orbit forever. Unlike Queqiao-1, which only supports relay communication between Chang'e-4 and the far side of the moon, it will also relay communication between Chang'e-7 and Chang'e-8, which means it will also cover communication in the lunar south pole region.

An elliptical orbit around the moon does indeed bring you closer to the moon and provide better communication quality, but for tracking and control points at the lunar south pole, it's impossible to always see a satellite in that orbit.

Satellites in this orbit are occasionally blocked by the moon itself, making it impossible for them to communicate with the Antarctic probe or with Earth.

In any case, it's not very reliable for the Queqiao-2 satellite, which operates in this orbit, to achieve uninterrupted communication.

Lunar navigation and resource exploration satellites orbit the moon continuously, both on the near and far sides. When there are enough of them, uninterrupted communication can be achieved, but right now there aren't enough of them.

In addition, they are not as flexible as Queqiao-2, so Queqiao-2's work will include "relay of relays" for a period of time.

The reason why the Queqiao-2 relay satellite is so large and heavy is that, unlike Queqiao-1 which only provides relay services, it also carries an extreme ultraviolet camera, an array neutral atom imager, and an Earth-Moon VLBI experimental system, which can perform scientific exploration missions and provide data support for subsequent manned lunar landing missions.

With the launch of the manned lunar mission, the Chinese will not let go of any data that may be obtained in the early stages.

After all, the more data we obtain in the early stages, the safer and more successful the manned lunar landing will be!

While the Chinese and Laos were celebrating the Spring Festival, enjoying movies, and dreaming about going to the moon, the world was not actually at peace.

For example, it seems like Big Bear and Little Bear are about to fight on the west side of the village...

(End of this chapter)