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

No matter what time of year, being a diver is an absolutely high-risk profession full of adventure.

The pressure of sea water will greatly expand with the increase of depth. Divers who often conduct underwater training are prone to decompression sickness. If their psychological quality is not up to standard, they may also suffer from deep-sea claustrophobia.

But in fact, most divers generally operate at a depth below 40 meters. Although there are records of being able to dive hundreds of meters, its practical significance is very limited and basically never occurs.

The total length of the launch box of the Long March 18 reaches 260 meters. Before launch, the 40 meters exposed to the sea are removed, and the remaining 220 meters are left, and at least 180 meters are submerged underwater. This depth can only be carried out by professional submarines and underwater robots. Homework tasks.

The depth of the cement base in the launch area is a full 230 meters, and because the seabed terrain near the coast has very complex sudden changes, the operation risk of manned submersibles is extremely high.

The preliminary preparation work for the entire launch area was quite challenging. The depth of the cement base pouring alone was more than twice as deep as the piers of the cross-sea bridge. A large number of experts were temporarily called in to make the strength and structure of the base qualified.

This is not over yet. Since the launch box needs to be fixed during launch, the anchor cable between the cement base and the launch box must be tightened and pulled downward. However, it is impossible to install the motor and reduction mechanism on the cement base on the seabed. The final design The team's idea is to let the anchor cable pass through the pulley block on the cement base, and finally both ends must be installed at the bottom of the launch box, so that the launch box can shrink downward by itself through the power supplied by the coastline.

So although the current launch box seems to be sinking, in fact, as long as the anchor cable is suddenly disconnected, its own buoyancy is enough to accelerate itself to a very high speed and jump out of the water. That is a total of 120,000 tons. The power of terror.

Yu Ziming carefully put his hand on the outer wall of the launch box, as if he could feel the steel roaring silently, as if it would explode at any time.

The waves formed by the tide hit the thick steel structures again and again and were easily resolved. Under the illumination of countless strong searchlights, you can see the continuous white waves.

"Captain, Group 6 is down."

Only then did Yu Ziming raise his head. It turned out that the six groups working in the launch box were turning out of the top of the launch box and descending toward the sea from the simple open-air elevator outside.

Fortunately, 40 meters of the top of the launch box will be removed before launch, otherwise the height exposed to the sea will be 80 meters instead of 40 meters, but even the latter is equivalent to a dozen-story high-rise building.

Six elite diver teams rotate every three hours, with one team checking inside the box and one diving outside the box, which will last until 90 minutes before launch.

The elevator is actually an iron cage attached to the outside of the launch box, which is retracted and released by a wire rope. Eight members of Group 6 jumped down one after another. They met with the members of Group 3 outside, and then watched Group 1 and Group 5 The group handed over the last class.

The first team led by Yu Ziming was in charge of the launch box. He stood on the edge of the boat and took a step forward to board the elevator. Then he picked up his teammates one by one, pulled up the iron fence and pressed the up button.

The wire rope pulled the elevator up quickly, and the pulleys on the side made a harsh metal collision sound as it rose. The tooth-grinding sound spread far and wide.

It was already 2 o'clock in the morning, but the surrounding work boats and docks used free searchlights to illuminate the sea as bright as day, so Yu Ziming could clearly see how high he was above the sea.

However, the distance of more than forty meters was still easy for a professional soldier to overcome. Soon the elevator stopped at the highest point. There was a steel trestle in front of the iron fence. From here, they needed to move to the launch box. After entering the 8 internal elevators, check the conditions at different heights.

The eight team members huddled together to confirm that the radios were all correct, and then walked silently from the trestle on the top of the transmitter box to their posts. Walking on the steel surface with flippers was not comfortable, but it had to be endured.

This is the first time that such a huge pressure-resistant box has been manufactured in China, not to mention the existence of many movable doors. If water gets inside, it will be too late to put on the equipment.

Yu Ziming's work elevator was right next to where he came up, but he did not go in immediately. Instead, he carefully approached the railing and lowered his head slightly to try to see the bottom of the oversized milky white cylinder in front of him.

"Majestic" is the first word that comes to Yu Ziming's mind. Only majestic can truly reflect how big the Long March 18 is.

Although he served in the Marine Corps, Yu Ziming was from the mainland. He carefully compared the dimensions of the Long March 18 and finally found that its height was almost the same as the Western Pearl TV Tower in Chengdu, and its overall width and volume were much larger. many.

The thought of such a big guy flying into the sky gave him an unreal feeling of shock.

There are also a large number of searchlights distributed inside the launch box. The light shines on the 18-meter-diameter rocket body and then reflects back, filling the entire space with a milky white halo.

"Kingkongkongkangkong..."

The similarly semi-open elevator began to descend rapidly under his operation. The normal operating speed of the working elevator in the launch box was 3.5 meters per second, which was a high-speed elevator. However, even in this way, it took a full minute to descend to the bottom. enough.

Yu Ziming stopped five times during the descent to the bottom and checked the five water release gates on his side. The gates were all in good working condition, and the measured stresses were also within the normal range.

During this process, he could hear the loud noise of steel constantly shaking. At first, he thought it was his companion's elevator, but it wasn't until the elevator descended to the bottom and stepped on the steel plate 184 meters below the sea level that he realized it was a box. The sound of strain produced everywhere in the body under pressure.

The mass of the launch box is as high as 30,000 tons, but it is still as light as a feather in front of the ocean. The steel under the feet constantly produces the same "click-click" sound as the elevator track. If experts had not told them that this is normal, I am afraid no one would Dare you stay here for a long time.

From here, you can no longer see the black night sky above. The rocket body has become a giant pillar that runs through the sky in front of Yu Ziming, like a building in ancient mythology, or the Tower of Babel in the West. .

The "Nine Chapters" spacecraft standing at the top of the rocket is more like a piece of flint, so low-key and restrained.

The bottom of the Long March 18 is now a dense steel jungle. It is a base that can evenly bear the weight of the rocket and booster. Densely packed engines can be seen in the gaps in the steel structure.

Yu Ziming climbed onto the steel base and stood in front of the core-level rocket body. He saw large water droplets condensed on the metal surface.

Conventional low-temperature fuel rockets need to be covered with a layer of insulation tiles to prevent the surface of the rocket body from freezing, but the zero-evaporation storage tank of the Long March 18 firmly blocks most of the temperature and pressure, and even the outer surface does not let the air in The water vapor turned into ice, and if my peers saw it, they would probably think it was a dream.