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

The melon-eating crowd warmly welcomed the landing of Pioneer, the world's largest space shuttle, and witnessed five experienced astronauts walking down to the ground with their heads held high to receive flowers.

But they did not leave, because opposite the airport, the assembly building at Station 2 of the Qiongzhou Launch Site was brightly lit.

The Long March 10 Yao-2 rocket has completed its final assembly and will be launched in the next three days.

According to disclosed information, this mission will carry a complete new-generation manned spacecraft and four dummies (gender unknown) to the lunar orbit for an unmanned lunar mission.

The Long March 10 has a lunar orbit carrying capacity of 45 tons, while the new generation manned spacecraft only has about 22 tons, and the remaining 23 tons are not wasted.

The complete lander has not yet been completed and is still being tested, but the space agency has made a usable semi-finished "model" and installed it in the front of the spacecraft.

The codename of this semi-finished "model" is "Full Moon". The landing part is exactly the same as the official version, except for the ascender.

The lander is equipped with a manned lunar rover, some simple detectors, etc., and also provides power and communications; the manned part is designed to be integrated with the ascender, and is the space where the lunar astronauts travel between the lunar surface and the lunar orbit and live. .

The manned part has not yet been completely finalized, but this semi-finished lander will still play a role.

They will conduct an unmanned landing in the Qom Crater, sending two lunar rovers and some detection instruments and tools there. Not surprisingly, it will also be the landing site for manned landings in the future.

Then the four nearest explorer robots will load the collected 55 kilograms of ice, lunar soil, and lunar rock samples into the refrigeration equipment in the ascender, and take them to rendezvous with the new generation of manned spacecraft flying around the moon.

When the spacecraft returns to Earth, it will also bring these 55 kilograms of samples back for analysis on Earth.

In this way, the Long March 10 Yao-2 mission can not only verify the rocket and spacecraft, but also conduct an unmanned return mission with a sampling volume of 55 kilograms, killing multiple birds with one stone.

This is thanks to the fact that the rover is an Explorer II and can climb the stairs for people to go up and down, so that the samples can be returned.

The space agency has always been worried about the fact that the original planned sample return mission of Chang'e 5 was replaced by Explorer II. This time it plans to bring back more than 50 kilograms of samples in one go, enough for hundreds of scientific research institutes to study it, and for The superior inadvertently sent a 1 gram sample of lunar soil during a visit to show off in an unpretentious way.

Moreover, by analyzing data from different sample collection points, it will also be easier for scientists to understand more detailed resource distribution around the Qom impact crater, so as to seize opportunities in a timely manner.

"Why don't you capture Jade Rabbit No. 2? Why capture that thing?"

At the launch center, Academician She didn't understand Lin Ju's idea. Although the ascender had enough fuel to bring back a few more robots, this was not a scientific research sample. Shouldn't it be brought back to a museum for primary and secondary school students to visit?

Lin Ju: "Old She, but Jade Rabbit No. 2 is broken, and its function is not as good as Jade Rabbit No. 3. It's better to move it back as a souvenir..."

Academician She: "That's not possible. There are scientific instruments on board Yutu 2 that are cooperating with Germany. We can't just withdraw them now."

"..."

Compared with the sturdy and reliable Yutu 1, the luck of Yutu 2 is actually not very good. I wonder if it is because the magnetic force of the landing site is relatively sufficient, and the solar panels are always stained with dust, which affects the efficiency.

What was even more unfortunate was that Explorer 1 jumped onto a fragile lunar rock when it was dusting it. The splashed debris dented a power generation panel, causing its effective working time to be reduced again.

Explorer 1 is also not optimistic. In order to carry more batteries, the eight active spider legs accounted for a higher proportion of weight, which caused severe wear and tear on the joints. After the high-intensity work, the gaps were filled with charged moon dust. My body gradually became less flexible than before.

Coupled with the impact of jumping around, the ground estimates that Explorer 1 can still work like this for about four months under the current conditions, before it will have to restrict its movements due to excessive joint wear and enter a "retirement" state until it is scrapped.

Therefore, the total lifespan of Explorer 1 is almost one year. Although it is shorter, considering its huge workload, it is completely worth the cost of just over 10 million.

But compared to lunar exploration, what Lin Ju actually wanted to complain about was the crazy speed of the space agency after it launched its efforts.

Although the Long March 10 is destined to be a one-time product with backward concepts, it can be developed and manufactured in such a short time. It can only be said that there was too little pressure and no motivation. Everyone was busy evaluating professional titles and neglected world competition. Now Much better.

When is the next launch of the SLS rocket? Anyway, it’s much later than Chang Shi.

Thinking of lunar exploration, Lin Ju asked Academician She his questions:

"Mr. She, the Apollo program did a full moon flight around the moon because of insufficient technical reasons. Why did the Dawn program also do it? In fact, I think the landing mission can be carried out directly on the third rocket."

Academician She: "The Apollo project is indeed a technical factor. During the first moon landing, the lander's automatic computer crashed due to insufficient memory, so I have to be more cautious; Chang Shi... Mainly because something went wrong with YF77 the first time. Failure, otherwise we can carry people around the moon this time and directly land on the moon next time.

Although the next long ten moon landing is theoretically feasible, I decided to be more cautious. It is about human life, and I cannot be too cautious. Besides, the progress is already very fast now. "

As the chief engineer of the Dawn Project, what Academician She said at this time will naturally affect the progress of the plan, and it is basically the truth.

Lin Ju: "What about the astronauts who landed on the moon? Are you sure now?"

Academician She: "Both crew groups have been determined. In fact, they were basically decided half a year ago. I can't say who the specific crew members are."

Although he said it was confidential, Lin Ju actually knew almost everything. Xinyuan astronauts and the space agency trained together. As long as he paid a little attention, he would know the general situation, but he knew it tacitly.

"What about you? H2 should be almost done, right?"

The H2 mentioned by Academician She is the initial version of the H2 space shuttle equipped with A100.

The rumors from the outside world that the space agency bought the third H2M are half true and half false. The space agency did buy one, but it was for Project 909, and the progress is only a little progress now.

Xinyuan's own construction plan was originally the first batch of two H2s and two H2Ms. Among the first three completed airframes, priority was given to building the conventionally powered version of the Qianjin construction mission. The third one is waiting for the A100 to be officially mass-produced. Carry out installation test.

The construction of the fourth and fifth H2s has also begun. One was purchased by the 909 Project Military (entrusted by the Fourth Institute). After the body is built, it will be taken to the secret base of the Fourth Institute for weapons installation.

The name of the third H2 has not yet been decided. As the first manned nuclear-powered large-scale spacecraft, it still needs to be given a meaningful name.

Lin Ju: "The ground test of the A100 has been completed, and the results are quite satisfactory. We do not plan to do any more tests. Next time we will directly install the mass-produced A100 on it, and the first manned flight is expected to be in May or June."

The H2 was originally envisioned as an A100 engine using methane fuel. However, after entering into actual research, it was discovered that the molecular weight of methane was too large to achieve the required specific impulse, so it was changed back to the liquid hydrogen fuel used when the system was sold, and the design goals were fully achieved.

The mass of a hydrogen atom is only 1/16 of a methane molecule, making it the best choice to increase specific impulse. It is a bit more expensive and troublesome to store, but it is not a big problem for A100.

Although Academician She also knew something about the A100, he was still shocked that this epoch-making engine achieved the design specifications as scheduled.

If the envisioned technical parameters are followed, H2 can completely set off from low-Earth orbit with five astronauts and a landing module, reach the moon in 10 to 20 hours, land on the moon, and then return to the earth within 7 to 8 hours. , a total consumption of no more than 10 tons of fuel.

I haven't finished this chapter yet, I'm really busy...