I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

Thursday, July 20th.

The Aramco-US Senate passed a bill submitted by the Pentagon to carry out research on future nuclear-powered space platforms, also known as the FATS plan, involving NACA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Bell Labs, Northrop Grumman, etc. Company participation.

The abbreviation of FATS happens to be the plural form of the word fat, so the FATS plan is also called the "Fat Man" plan.

The first batch of FATS budget will invest 3 billion US dollars. The content is to first build a nuclear power engine that saves fuel and generates huge power, and then transforms a space shuttle for testing.

Yes, the modified, newly built space shuttle will be more advanced and complex, and will take more time to build, at least three years.

H2 has now made its first flight. In order to keep up with the schedule and save money, Michael Carey proposed to conduct a large-scale transformation of the retired "Endeavor" and build the first nuclear-powered space shuttle within 18 months.

The last flight of Endeavor was in May 2011. It has only been stored for five years now and is relatively well preserved. After NACA's evaluation, it was also believed that if a thorough overhaul and upgrade were carried out, not only Endeavor but also the remaining two aircraft would be affected. Discovery and Atlantis are also in good condition and can serve again.

Therefore, the FATS plan also lists the remaining two space shuttles as reserve options, which can be restarted when appropriate. Small-scale repairs can be carried out in the initial stage.

The happiest person about the FATS program is Boeing, because whether it is the STS program or the current FATS, they built the space shuttle. This is definitely a business that can last another thirty years.

NACA began to search through its huge database again. In the last century, they launched the "ROVER" and "NERVA" projects to study nuclear thermal rocket engines, and manufactured 8 types of engines. The information is quite rich. In theory, Has the richest experience reserve in the world.

Regarding nuclear engine technology, to be honest, it was only when the alliance was still there that it could compete with NACA. Looking at the current world, NACA is number one, and others are embarrassed to be ranked second, because NACA is too far ahead in this regard.

The fission nuclear program is inseparable from heavy pollution. Only Aramco and the United States took the lead in the last century, taking advantage of the increasingly stringent nuclear pollution restriction treaties that had not yet been formed, and used the first-mover advantage to do countless things. Nuclear testing.

Although the first investment in the FATS program is much smaller than that of the Artemis program, it cannot be generalized.

FATS is promoted by the Pentagon, and those military leaders can talk much better than scientific researchers. If they really want a project to be completed, their support will definitely reach an unexpected level.

The AAF has been suppressed continuously since the 1990s. After producing more than a hundred F22s, the production line was dismantled. The manufacturer that produced parts for the B2 bomber went bankrupt and required archeology to find information. In order to be "cheap", the AAF was forced to work with NAVY on the JSF joint fighter plan. , produced the F35, which has a top speed that is not as fast as the Tu 160 cruising speed. It was also codenamed "Lightning".

The AAF military leaders have long been dissatisfied, so this time Michael Carey received strong support from the AAF and combined internal and external efforts to approve the FATS plan in Congress with extremely high efficiency.

However, although the FATS plan is preparing to use retired space shuttles to reduce costs in the early stage, NACA is still unable to do so.

Due to its weakness that has lasted for more than two decades, NACA has expended considerable energy in promoting the Artemis program.

Even in its heyday, when one worker could support a family of five and buy a car to travel, and whose industrial manufacturing capabilities ranked first in the world, the moon landing program and the space shuttle were all scheduled one after another.

Now that the moon landing and two space shuttle programs are being carried out at the same time, the pressure on NACA is actually very huge.

However, NACA's intense pressure has paid off. On the other side of the ocean, there are also some people who are cursing.

…

"His grandma's, a nuclear-powered space shuttle equipped with a laser cannon? This stupid American guy really dares to think about it, I didn't even think of it!"

Even through the thick solid wood door, the superior's voice can still be heard.

When Congress first passed the FATS plan, the space agency was still on the fence. It felt that this project was just one of the many unreliable and unreliable plans of the AAF, so it didn't take it to heart.

But when I heard that NACA was going to use the Endeavor as a cultural relic at the Kennedy Space Center next month to provide patriotic education to Aramco primary school students, and that the 25-year-old thing was being pulled out and tidied up again, and it was also going to be renovated into nuclear power. The space agency noticed something was wrong.

Ami, you are serious!

Then domestic secret agencies responded and evaluated the FATS plan.

Why use a nuclear-powered space shuttle to carry a laser cannon instead of a satellite?

The space shuttle has many advantages:

First, it is easy to maintain and can be returned to the atmosphere for manufacturers to carry out upgrades and modifications. A body weighing one hundred tons can provide a considerable load. Satellite platforms of the same level weighing dozens of tons are not cheap;

Second, it is flexible. The nuclear-powered space shuttle can maneuver in space relying on its own fuel. If it has a nuclear engine like the A100, it can even hide on the moon, which is not possible for large satellites;

Frequent and rapid orbit changes of large satellites consume a lot of fuel, and if they are also equipped with nuclear reactors or engines, the cost will be too high.

But we don't have any aircraft that can fly around in the sky and attack targets with lasers. That is the "Snowbird" near-space aircraft, which is already halfway through the design process.

Snow swans can fly to a height of more than 50,000 meters, which is more than 50 kilometers. They are basically out of the thickest atmosphere. The attenuation of laser weapons is not much, and they can attack satellites.

Although it is not like the space shuttle that can carry more than 20 to 30 tons of lasers, 12 tons is not small, and no matter what, the atmospheric vehicle must be cheaper than the space shuttle.

Not only will the cost be cheaper, maintenance will also be cheaper and the time will be shorter.

Even if the Snow Pheasant is not as good as FATS, the money to build and maintain one FATS is enough to maintain the same 10 Snow Pheasants. Even if it is 5, the military would rather have the latter.

But, the military also feels that although the Snow Bird is not bad, things like FATS are indeed very good and look ideal.

More importantly, Aramco’s FATS has just started, but China’s FATS and H2 space shuttle have already begun prototype testing.

If the H2 is used as the carrier aircraft to also engage in China's FATS, will it be able to save a lot of research and development costs and only have to solve the laser problem? What's more, because the H2 has higher progress and more advanced technology, it will enter service earlier than Aramco?

Once this idea came up, I couldn't stop it, so I reported it to the boss.

Finally, the Third Institute of the National Space Administration won the project, with the project codename: "Ghost Bird".

A nuclear-powered space shuttle equipped with a high-energy laser can allow two or three astronauts to stay in space for at least 40 days. As long as they have radio silence, it is impossible to find a space shuttle that can maneuver with nearly unlimited energy over a wide range in the vast space. Spacecraft.

When the enemy was on tenterhooks, the laser was used to instantly destroy the enemy's spacecraft, appearing and disappearing, so the project code was given in advance: Ghost Bird, and the internal project code was Project 909.

The core of Project 909 is not the tens of tons of lasers, but the basic carrier aircraft, so the Third Institute hopes that the latter will provide customized H2 airframes and cooperate with the transformation.

The budget requested by the military for Project 909 is... 50 billion, initially.