This star is going to the moon

Chapter 522 Fly, fly to the moon! The Dream Ship intersects with Orion in space!
"Has the higher-ups decided to stop recruiting and instead eliminate Lu Yun directly?"

"Uh, no, I just remembered one of the CIA's specialties. Sorry, sorry, it was just a spur-of-the-moment thing."

"..."

"We'll make the change after we get clear orders from above. For now, we're still following the mission of turning Lu Yun to the side. Simon has already made great progress, and I believe he can complete the mission."

"Indeed, the value of the 'Live Path Cloud' is currently much greater than that of the 'Dead Path Cloud,' and there is still a possibility of winning him over to serve the Federation."

"Let's wait and see. The White House will probably be asking soon. We just need to wait for their news."

"However, I feel that Lu Yun's mission will be changed, because Lu Yun is now contributing more and more to China's technology and national strength. The space projects he is in charge of are always successful. If this continues, China's timeline for manned lunar landing will very likely be ahead of ours."

"This is indeed a big problem."

"Fortunately, there is still time. Even according to the most optimistic estimate, if both sides send people to the moon in 2024, there are still two years left."

"Well, hopefully this problem can be solved within the next two years."

"Looking on the bright side, all the aerospace projects that Lu Yun was in charge of were successful on the first try. But in China's manned lunar landing project, he was only in charge of the lunar rocket. Things like the DreamZhou spacecraft, the lunar lander, and the lunar spacesuit were all handled by other people. What if something went wrong with them?"

"Indeed, I heard that the Orion spacecraft encountered quite a few problems during its unmanned lunar orbit test flight, but it was kept secret. Perhaps the Dream Ship will also encounter many problems?"

"Oh? What's wrong with Orion? Tell me."

"Yes, yes, tell me..."

Upon hearing that there was confidential information, everyone immediately perked up.

The people at NASA were trying to keep it a secret, but they weren't obligated to keep NASA's secrets. So when they found out, the news was sold to major media outlets that very night by an "anonymous insider."

When the major media outlets saw this, they were astonished to discover so many secrets hidden within, secrets that their audiences and readers would love to read.

What are you waiting for?
send!
The Orion spacecraft immediately caused a sensation!
After all, at this very moment, the American Orion spacecraft has completed its unmanned lunar orbit mission and is preparing to return to Earth, while the Chinese Dreamboat spacecraft is flying from Earth to the Moon. The two spacecraft might even "pass each other" in space.

Now that these two "interstellar stars" have some big gossip, onlookers are thoroughly enjoying themselves!

Of course, it was mainly Americans who were swearing.

I thought the Orion spacecraft was fine, but it turns out NASA released false information!

Damn it, NASA lied to us!

With NASA like this, how can we possibly return to the moon quickly? The NASA administrator should resign!

The problems with the Orion spacecraft aren't primarily NASA's responsibility; it was manufactured by Lockheed Martin, so the responsibility lies with them.

[Then let Lockheed Martin dissolve; they're constantly siphoning off federal subsidies!]

Well, what if the federal government is also involved in this...?

【? ? 】

The federal government cannot shirk its responsibility in this matter.

In 2004, the then-President announced a vision for space exploration, which included the Orion spacecraft, then known as the "Manned Exploration Vehicle".

The Orion spacecraft was designed to replace the Space Shuttle, which was retired in 2010, and to transport astronauts and scientists to the space station, but its primary objective was to transport astronauts to other places beyond Earth orbit.

For example, the moon and Mars.

For this reason, the Orion spacecraft's fate has been fraught with difficulties.

NASA at the time developed a plan to "extend human exploration beyond low Earth orbit in stages," and also devised a "three-step" approach.

The first step focuses on developing a new generation of manned exploration spacecraft, the Orion spacecraft, to replace the soon-to-be-retired Space Shuttle in transporting passengers to the International Space Station.

The second step is to add more weight to the Orion spacecraft.

More additional components must be developed for it, including increasing the power of the launch system to accommodate extended interplanetary manned space exploration missions that require flights of several months.

It also includes a living quarters, experimental modules, fuel modules, and propulsion modules, designed to transport humans to targets near the Moon, Mars, Lagrange points, and certain near-Earth asteroids.

The third step is the completion of the development of manned planetary landers, which will allow for human missions to land on the moon and Mars.

A year later, the relevant research results were announced at a press conference.

The study recommends starting a manned Orion mission in 2014 and agrees with using a lunar orbital ensemble approach to land on the moon.

However, just one year later, NASA's second design review led to significant changes in the spacecraft's design.

Initially, NASA wanted to use liquid methane as fuel for the Orion spacecraft, but because the technology of liquid oxygen-methane-powered rockets was not yet mature and the Orion spacecraft was in urgent need, it approved the switch to self-ignition propulsion in late July of that year.

NASA believes this replacement will allow the Orion spacecraft to enter service sooner. Basically, with the Space Shuttle retiring in the second half of 2010, the Orion spacecraft will be able to carry people to the International Space Station in the first half of 2011.

NASA was quite optimistic back then!

So, two months later, Lockheed Martin was selected as the contractor for Orion.

However, a year later, NASA signed a modification to the Orion spacecraft contract, adding two years to the design time for the Orion spacecraft.

It also included two flight tests of the Orion spacecraft launch abort system and removed the original design that could transport sealed cargo to the International Space Station.

However, they then made a "606" structural modification, adding an external panel to the service module, which would detach shortly after the rocket's second ignition phase.

Compared to the previous "605" structure, this design will save 450 kg of weight.

But that wasn't the end of it. Two months later, the airbag landing system was removed from the Orion spacecraft's "607" design.

To save on overall weight, they changed the design to use an Apollo-style return capsule at the end of the mission.

After the changes, things were peaceful for a while, but that didn't mean there were no problems; rather, it was because something big was brewing.

After the federal draft in the United States, the newly elected dark horse commissioned the Human Space Program Committee to release a new long-term planning review briefing.

Several objectives need to be achieved, including support for the International Space Station, progress on missions beyond low Earth orbit, and the utilization of commercial space for industry.

Most importantly, these goals must be achieved within a limited budget!
Amidst these repeated revisions, the Orion spacecraft barely completed its maiden flight test in 2014. However, due to its own problems and issues with the rocket, the second test flight was delayed until 2022.

Therefore, the problems that are now being exposed are likely the result of the previous repeated issues.

Federal netizens who are not usually familiar with this topic were stunned.

[Wang Defa, how did the Federation become like this?]

Isn't the Federation's technological strength the best in the world? Why is this happening?

Can anyone tell me what has happened all these years? Did we really land humans on the moon half a century ago?

[Hehehehehe, so what we're saying about the "Federal manned moon landing being faked" isn't a conspiracy theory at all, it's true!]

[Oh no, he's a conspiracy theorist!]

Perhaps they aren't really conspiracy theorists, but actually know the truth? [This...]

Sometimes you have to be accommodating to the level of cooperation Americans have with certain things.

Many people said back then, "Even if the US stands still for XX years, your country will never catch up!"

As it turns out, the Americans were too temperamental; they not only stood still for many years, but they even regressed.

Whenever someone tries to convince Chinese netizens that "believing in American conspiracy theories is idiotic," Americans rush out to provide evidence and try to make others think in the direction of conspiracy theories.

It's... weird.

However, the numerous problems encountered with the US's SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft have caused some Chinese netizens to worry about their own manned lunar landing mission.

There's no need to worry about the Long March 10 heavy-lift rocket. Not only was its maiden flight successful, but the recovery of all three first-stage rockets was also successful.

But that's because Lu Yun was the chief engineer.

The Dream Boat spaceship wasn't developed under Lu Yun's leadership, so it shouldn't have any problems, right?

Since so many people agree with Lu Yun, he simply said three words on Weibo.

【no problem! 】

In his previous life, the Dream Boat spaceship was fine, so he had nothing to do with it back then.

Although he did not directly participate in the development of the Dreamship spaceship in this life, aerospace technology can indeed be disseminated, and many of the new theories and technologies he developed were used on the Dreamship spaceship.

Furthermore, the rocket he spearheaded had to be matched with the spacecraft, so he spent a lot of time traveling to the spacecraft, thus indirectly participating in many aspects of the project.

Then there's no problem at all!
The core of the Dreamship spacecraft is its return capsule. The spacecraft is over eight meters tall, with the return capsule itself being four and a half meters high and having a maximum diameter of five meters.

The return capsule adopts a dual-layer configuration of heat-resistant structure and sealed structure, and is a frustum-shaped section.

During launch, the return capsule is exposed on top of the rocket, directly connected to the escape tower, whose skirt section covers the spacecraft's docking mechanism.

The outer wall of the return capsule uses a detachable heat-resistant structure, and almost everything except the heat-resistant structure can be reused.

Its sidewalls have reentry control (RCS) units that support skip-type semi-ballistic reentry with relatively low overload.

The bottom of the return capsule has an ablative heat-resistant base that separates before landing, and there is also a sealed base inside.

Because the Mengzhou spacecraft's return capsule will re-enter the atmosphere at cosmic velocity when it returns from the moon, its heat insulation mode is much more advanced than that of the Shenzhou spacecraft's return capsule.

Scientists optimized the heat load distribution, concentrating the return capsule equipment mainly in the non-sealed space between the sealed cabin and the heat-resistant structure, primarily for propulsion, attitude and orbit control, recovery and landing, and information management platform equipment.

The sealed cabin is mainly equipped with astronauts and environmental control and life support equipment.

The space between the sealed compartment and the heat-resistant structure is an unsealed compartment, which accounts for more than 90% of the heat load of the return capsule, thus facilitating temperature rise control during the return segment.

In addition, high-power devices should be thermally conductively installed with sealed chamber structures or support structures, and thermal grease should be applied to maintain good thermal contact and enhance thermal conductivity between the device and the mounting surface.

The inner side of the heat-insulating honeycomb panels corresponding to the headgear, shoulders, and side walls is covered with 15-unit multi-layer heat insulation material, and the inner surface of the heat-insulating honeycomb panels of the skirt is covered with a low-emissivity polyester aluminized film to reduce radiative heat transfer between the sealed cabin wall and the inner side of the heat-insulating layer.

The aluminum wall surface of the sealed chamber maintains its original aluminum color, reducing radiative heat transfer between the sealed chamber wall and the inner side of the heat-insulating layer.

A 3 mm thick fiberglass heat insulation pad is installed between the heat insulation layer mounting bracket and the heat insulation layer honeycomb panel to reduce heat conduction between the heat insulation layer and the sealed chamber wall.

Its layered, removable heat insulation system is different from the "sealed" heat insulation coating of the Shenzhou spacecraft. The return capsule can be reused after the heat insulation system is removed and replaced.

The core of the spacecraft is the return capsule, so reusing the return capsule can save a lot of resources.

The service cabins and such can be replaced with new ones.

After the Mengzhou spacecraft's return capsule re-enters the atmosphere and reaches a certain altitude, the recovery and landing system is activated. Through the coordination of automatic control programs and pyrotechnic devices, the return capsule uses parachutes to decelerate and achieve aerodynamic deceleration in the final stage of atmospheric re-entry.

Before landing, six large double-layer airbags will pop out around the sealed outsole after the heat-insulating outsole is jettisoned.

The outer airbags deflate upon landing to reduce impact, while the inner airbags remain inflated to ensure the return capsule remains upright on land and floats on water.

The airbag is made of extremely high-strength material, making it very difficult for it to deflate accidentally due to damage.

Upon landing, the main parachute automatically detaches and uses flashing markers to provide positioning functionality for the return capsule and to provide ground search signals.

With these technological safeguards, the unmanned lunar orbiter maiden flight of the Mengzhou spacecraft will be as stable as the maiden flight of the Long March 10 heavy-lift rocket!

Therefore, the Dreamship spaceship only needs to do one thing.

That is, just like its name suggests, it carries the Chinese nation's dream of manned lunar landing to the moon.

This paves the way for a real manned lunar landing in the future.

Moreover, the Dreamship spacecraft was not only successful, but also very lucky.

It flew towards the moon and took pictures of it along the way, and when scientists examined the photos, they quickly discovered one that was different.

"Old Zhang, come and look at this photo. Which star is this bright spot? I've checked and it doesn't match up at all."

"Let me see, are there any stars that don't match up? Are they overexposed or have lens flare, making them unusable shots?"

"No, it's different from the defective films caused by normal abnormal light interference."

“It’s different…wow, it really is different. Old Liu, you should take a look too.”

"Let me see... It is indeed different, but this position... Hmm, wait, could it be Orion?"

"Orion, Orion isn't in this position, it's in..."

"Of course I know, Xiao Zhao, Xiao Zhao, give me the publicly available orbital data of the American Orion spacecraft!"

"Orion spaceship... Lao Liu, you mean..."

"Good guy!"

"No way!"

Everyone in the office was astonished and crowded around to look at the photos, then compared them with the Orion orbit data from the Americans.

result……

"Holy crap, it actually matches!"

"It really is an Orion spaceship!"

"Wow, what incredible luck!"

"To be able to capture such a fleeting window of opportunity, that's amazing!"

"Haha, hurry up and release it. I want to see NASA's reaction. My old classmates will definitely be stunned..."

(End of this chapter)