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

Serev's question was answered 10 minutes later.

The Pioneer still had to glide for a while and ignite again before entering orbit, but the belated strengthening core stage finally passed through the atmosphere and began to adjust its attitude and enter the recovery process.

The situation Serev was worried about did not appear. The signal returned by the rocket showed that everything was normal, which showed that at least it was not burned by the atmosphere.

When the core stage after several decelerations appeared in the zoomed-in picture of the ground camera, the launch center was still shocked.

The strengthened No. 2 rocket core stage flew for the first time, but the longer and higher-speed burning made its surface black as if it had been used at least 10 times. The blackened rocket body completely covered up the prints on the surface.

The launch center was particularly afraid that the delicate grille rudder would be damaged. Fortunately, although it looked pitch black, there was no malfunction. The reinforced core stage was caught by the recovery tower amidst the panic of a group of people.

Serev wiped his cold sweat and said with some fear:

"Perhaps the heat insulation layer of the core first stage should be treated the same as the recycled second stage. Although it was successful this time, I still think it is a bit risky. The wear and tear on the rocket body in one recycling is almost three times that of ordinary launch."

Lin Ju: "I think it will be successful if we don't blow up the transmission tower, or we can burn less trees."

At this time, the outside world could already see the gray smoke rising from the woods next to the launch station. Director Huang was probably there directing the firefighting.

Serev: "..."

He has never encountered this kind of problem in the Alliance. After all, it is not easy to catch fire in the ice and snow in the north. Baikonur is a prairie and Gobi Desert in Kazakhstan, which is really a blind spot for him.

…

Beijing, State Guesthouse.

Yuri and his party flew back to the capital after the Pioneer launch, where they prepared for consultations on the construction of a lunar scientific research station.

However, because we arrived in the afternoon, we only had dinner with the Aviation Development Committee in the evening. Then Yuri was asked a fatal question by the experts from the Aviation Development Committee:

Now that Lucia is planning to increase cooperation projects and launch plans for the lunar scientific research station, what kind of rocket will she use?

Yuri's natural answer was the Yenisei series of super-heavy rockets currently planned by RKA. The Aerospace Development Commission did not doubt the technical problems of the Yenisei rocket, but asked him tactfully whether Lucia could afford the launch costs of such a one-time rocket. Affordable.

Although the Long March 10 of the Aerospace Development Commission is also a disposable rocket, the space agency can make as many as it needs, with sufficient production speed and funds, and there are also Xinyuan reusable rockets that can be used.

Looking at Lucia, it’s hard to say whether the Yenisei Rockets can guarantee one shot a year.

This was indeed a sharp question that could not be avoided, so Director Yuri had no choice but to fool around with it first. He deliberately endured not drinking much and called the two accompanying designers over to stay up late at night.

Rachuk and Miklin had little sleep at night, listening to Director Yuri’s complaints:

“They asked me to see the Pioneer space shuttle just to tell me that Lucia was lagging behind in space, so as to make us compromise and give in!

In their opinion, Lucia has no strength in lunar exploration and is a dispensable object. They want to get other things! But twenty years ago, they only got the RD120 data from us to manufacture the YF100. It was such a backward thing, but now it has surpassed us in aerospace. "

Miklin could only remain silent. Twenty-five years later, it was already very difficult for Lucy to stop its decline. Now it is very rare to have a bit of revival, but it can only be said that the development of the neighborhood is too fast and too crazy.

Rachuk: "But Lucia still has advantages, such as high-thrust hydrogen and oxygen engines, nuclear propulsion and space nuclear reactors, and our production costs should also be lower."

Yuri shook his head: "Now if we want to catch up with returning to the moon, we must take the Chinese ticket. Cooperation is certain. We have to show our strength. Manned landing is too complicated and cannot be done for the time being. Then we need to start from the equipment and carrier Start with ability.

We need to have a super-heavy rocket that can be put into service as scheduled and can ensure a high number of launches. Otherwise, we will be left empty-handed. What is the difference between it and Arbor? Are we supposed to be like those people with square checks on their heads who can only spend $10 billion to buy a ticket? "

Miklin: “The Yenisei rocket has to discard six RD171MVs and one RD180 at one time, which is indeed difficult to produce and very expensive.

However, it is too late to develop reusable rockets like Aramco and China. "

Yuri: "If it doesn't work out, let's buy Xinyuan's control system. They even sell it to the European Space Agency, so we can buy it too."

Rachuk and Miklin looked at each other, but they didn't expect Yuri to really have such an idea.

Micklin has witnessed the glory of Alliance Aerospace, and he finds it difficult to accept that Lucia Aerospace, which once competed with Aramco for hegemony, has fallen into need to rely on others in aerospace technology.

After making tacit eye contact with Rachuk, he finally made up his mind.

"Yuri, we actually have a recyclable giant rocket, and it's very big."

…

On December 2, the RKA visiting team led by Yuri left Beijing.

The follow-up construction plan for the Lucia part of the lunar scientific research station has still not been agreed upon, but a small amount of pressure from the Aerospace Development Commission has yielded results:

Yuri said that Lucia's future reusable giant rocket will be determined soon, and the construction plan for the lunar scientific research station will be discussed after the specific project is approved.

The internal code name of this reusable giant rocket has been determined: 11K30, Hurricane, or Energy 2 rocket.

The Energy 2 (also known as Hurricane) rocket is a two-stage and semi-giant rocket that launched the Soyuz Buran space shuttle. It has a take-off mass of 2,200 tons and a low-Earth orbit carrying capacity of more than 100 tons. It can send 32 tons of payload to the moon and 27 tons to Mars. Or Venus.

The core stage is 8 meters in diameter, using four RD0120 hydrogen-oxygen engines with a thrust of 190 tons (vacuum), and four boosters with a diameter of 3.9 meters, each equipped with an RD170 engine with a thrust of 800 tons.

In the late 1980s, the alliance believed that the Energy rocket was too expensive and decided to develop reuse technology, which resulted in the Energy 2 design.

Energy 2 installs folding wings, wheels and turbofan engines on each booster. After separation, it can land at the airport on its own like an airplane for recovery.

The core first stage was transformed into a space shuttle style, with a tail fin and a controllable rudder added. It was changed from a two-stage to an integral one, sending the load all the way to orbit, then gliding into the atmosphere and returning for recovery.

This solution is extremely feasible, and the technology is much simpler than vertical recovery. However, the problem is that the dead weight of the gliding recovery system is very large, which may lead to a great reduction in transportation capacity.

Moreover, the core stage as a whole is equivalent to the one-and-a-half-stage orbit entry method, which greatly affects the carrying coefficient. To retain the carrying capacity as much as possible, extremely high design skills are required.

Vertical recovery obviously has less dead weight and is lighter, but Lucia has no choice.