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

The atmosphere of Venus is very special. It is mainly composed of carbon dioxide and nitrogen. The pressure and mass are about 93 times that of the Earth. The huge pressure causes the carbon dioxide to be compressed into a supercritical fluid, forming an alternative ocean.

At an altitude of 50 to 65 kilometers, the atmosphere of Venus is mainly composed of about 21% oxygen and 78% nitrogen, which is almost the same as the Earth's atmosphere and allows humans to breathe directly.

In addition, the superfluid carbon dioxide below this height can theoretically make the building "float" and build a colony with a special configuration.

Therefore, in the eyes of scientists, apart from being often accompanied by strong winds of magnitude 12 and sulfuric acid corrosion, Venus is as viable for colonization as Mars. That is why the Alliance sent 16 Venus probes in succession in the last century, 10 of which completed soft landings.

Xiao Gangtian believes that the key research target of Venus is the 15km thick atmosphere that can be breathed by humans. Therefore, the probe entering Venus is not an ordinary lander, but must have certain floating detection capabilities, and even achieve flight. It is best to Can sample and return.

This requires a reliable normal-temperature liquid engine that can preserve fuel for a long time in harsh environments, that is, a high-performance "toxic engine".

As we all know, Serev hates poisonous hair after all, so the development of the C series was handed over to Guo Shen and he set aside a separate area to develop a detector that can be activated multiple times in Venus’s abnormal atmosphere to support the detectors from flying around. It is best to send a lot of them back. Sample of the powerful engine.

In fact, NAPE can also work, but it is too expensive. One engine costs more than the total budget for Venus exploration...

The Venus Exploration Project is preparing to be launched in April. The key point is that the detectors in the atmosphere are very high-end and complex. Humanity’s information on the target is still very limited. The design standards are too vague and redundancy needs to be increased as much as possible. Just work like the Alliance for dozens of Minutes are a bit uneconomical.

Moreover, the window period for Venus detection is also very rare. It only happens once every 584 days, which is almost 20 months. April almost catches the tail of this year’s window period. Any later will be very troublesome.

Xiao Gangtian is mainly responsible for this project, and Serev's current energy is mainly on the New Tengyun project.

Five months ago, Serev told the Aviation Development Committee that it would take one year to solve the power problem of the Tengyun Project, which is the mass production plan of the "Lushan" engine.

In fact, Serev has invested a lot of energy in this low-cost orbit entry plan. Among all current manned spacecrafts, Tengyun is the cheapest, almost the ultimate balance between cost and performance of SSTO under current technology.

Now, TP-25, the heart of Tengyun Engineering, has completed the manufacturing of the mass production version prototype.

The mass of a single engine is 1,450 kilograms. After ten engines are connected in parallel, the mass can be reduced by 400 kilograms through sharing some oil pipelines. In the air tip state, it can output a peak thrust of 257 tons.

For a rocket engine with this weight and thrust, it is nothing more than a piece of industrial garbage. A freshly graduated aerospace major would be better than it, but then look at their amazing specific impulse and most of them can be used in the atmosphere. When working in this mode, I can only marvel at the designer's boundary-breaking imagination and the maker's arrogant confidence.

And just over a thousand kilometers away, this engine, which would cause a huge shock in the aerospace industry if exposed, was energizing the car.

…

Desert base.

A dark, truck-sized triangular aircraft was parked at the end of the runway, and the ground support vehicle was working to provide power and fuel cooling.

Dou Ping stood not far away and counted the projects in the base with his fingers:

"Shenlong, Snow Falcon, rapid launch system, and now here comes the Undetected 20. Our base has never tried to carry out so many projects at the same time."

"Director Dou, has the Wuzhen 20 project been approved?"

Next to him, Androv, who was already a little tanned by the sun, looked around the base with squinted eyes, as if he had integrated into the place.

The reason Androv is here is that the Desert Base has encountered difficulties in the development of the Snow Falcon's body. Although the designed aerodynamic shape can meet the expected speed requirements, it poses a lot of troubles for the placement of equipment and fuel storage inside the body.

As an important defense contractor, Xinyuan sent Androv, who has the most experience in aerodynamics. The latter has the support of the Systems Research Institute to show his prowess in the base and has become the "Chief An" that everyone admires. .

Dou Ping: "The project has not been approved yet, but I guess the Air Force will definitely want it. This does not conflict with other projects."

Well, the triangular unmanned aerial vehicle on the runway is an unmanned verification aircraft made by the base to verify the TP25. The airframe is improved from the Wujian 8, but the entire body has been overhauled. The cross section looks like it has the upper part cut off The ellipse is obviously a central lifting body configuration.

It is equipped with a TP-25 as power, which can output 7 to 11 tons of thrust in jet mode, with a maximum take-off mass of 18 tons. It is positioned as a front-line strategic reconnaissance aircraft.

According to the calculations of the base, Wujian 20 can still have about 4 tons of mass remaining after entering the 180KM low-Earth orbit, which can provide about 20 hours of low-orbit reconnaissance time. Then, its speed will be reduced by atmospheric friction and it will have to re-enter and return.

Since it can enter orbit, it means that the range is meaningless, and if Wujian 20 does not choose to return but uses the last fuel to accelerate slightly, it can get a precision-guided warhead that can reach Mach 30 speed.

Although there is no hydrogen bomb as a warhead, the power of just kinetic energy is amazing enough, especially for large targets (large ships) that move slowly (everything on the ground is very slow for Wuji 20), even if Wuji 20 does not hit If it passes by, it will temporarily lose its combat effectiveness.

More importantly, compared to missiles, the cost of Wujian-20's airframe is very cheap, its launch is more convenient than temporary low-orbit reconnaissance satellites, and its survivability is also better.

After all, even if the TP-25 is working at full capacity, it is far less easy to detect than the tail flame of a small solid rocket. It is more flexible and can be launched from any small airport.

This was originally an experimental project to test the high-altitude working environment of TP-25, but the desert base was keenly aware of its huge potential. Dou Ping directly gave it the title of "No Detection 20". It is almost certain that the military will not give up this The project continues.

The only troublesome thing is that the Wujian 20 is limited by the size and weight of the aircraft. The containers for storing liquid methane and liquid oxygen are not perfect. When on the ground, it must be refrigerated by a power supply vehicle and covered with thermal insulation cotton to prevent the wing from becoming knotted due to ultra-low temperature fuel. Ice lost control and crashed.

The ground crew even had to manually hold the heater to de-ice. After all, this weight is not a small number for the Wuzhen 20. Most of its weight is given to fuel.

Only after takeoff can the engine provide enough power to the aircraft body, so to a certain extent, Wujian 20 is still a precious lady...