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

Class B base.

Serev slid the mouse, and pictures of different colors flashed on the computer screen.

Xiao Okada stood behind him, pausing from time to time before continuing to browse.

Although there was little progress in the exchanges with the International Astronomical Union in the past few days, they successfully obtained the detection data of Titan by "Cassini" and its sub-detector "Huygens" and transmitted it directly to the base. on the computer.

As the largest gas satellite of Saturn with an atmosphere, Titan is the key detection target of Cassini. Xiao Okada originally thought that there would be many valuable results, but the actual situation disappointed him.

After all, it is a detector with technology from the 1990s, and it is not a satellite with Titan as its single detection target. Although the data obtained by Cassini is valuable, it is not as high as imagined.

Most of the results are very rough and cannot be used as a reference standard. It is still necessary to launch a comprehensive special detector like "Lihuo" and a lander capable of carrying out large-area landing detection.

"These things are somewhat helpful for astronomy, but they are too useless for us."

Serev turned to the end and shook his head repeatedly. His original plan was to obtain basic geographical data and directly launch a powerful rover according to the environment. However, the reality is that a simple front-end detector is needed to "explore the path" first, which is equivalent to wasting 13 month's time.

"Yes, it may not be feasible to ask the IAU to fund our project."

Xiao Okada also frowned. The IAU has no plans to land humans on Titan. They are more concerned about the celestial body itself. They hope to use nuclear-powered detectors to visit the four giant planets and all their satellites in one go. Focusing on a goal makes a big difference.

"Then we will do it ourselves. Strictly speaking, most of the difficulties in landing on Titan can be easily solved. Technical obstacles are not an obstacle."

As for how to land on Titan, Serev had already thought about the general method. The journey would definitely require the use of the Advance, which itself is a nuclear-powered artificial gravity spacecraft. As long as the fuel and supplies are sufficient, it can fly anywhere.

There are two types of landing vehicles. Thanks to Titan’s 1.5 times atmosphere and gravity similar to that of the moon, in theory, both a nuclear-powered space shuttle and an XN90 spacecraft can be used. However, considering that the former requires a runway, the XN90 is more convenient.

Of course, in addition to these two things, a lot of logistical supplies and exploration auxiliary equipment are needed, but in the end, the most troublesome thing is money and reasons.

The Advance is now in a "public-private partnership" status. Such a large-scale operation requires approval from the Aviation Development Commission. No matter whether the plan to land on Titan is led by the official or Xinyuan itself, there must always be a justifiable reason.

Can't we just say there are aliens on Titan?

Fortunately, you can have several years to think about this reason, so at this stage, the only issue is funding.

It's just that the possibility of obtaining a large amount of funds with little or no cost on earth is relatively small, and only space may have huge opportunities that have not yet been discovered.

Xiao Gangtian couldn't help but think of the "Changsi" probe, which was still on its way to the Spirit Star. If a huge amount of gold could be found there, a lot of money could be made by copying concept stocks.

…

While the advance team returned to lunar orbit, the Dawn-1 ferry boat also set off from Earth orbit again, taking three pure payload experts to the moon.

Because it is not fully loaded, it flies faster than normal, but the passengers on it cannot feel the subtle differences brought by the nuclear engine at all.

Jamie, the only nuclear expert, was thinking about the propulsion source of the spacecraft beneath him. Luo Luo spent a lot of effort to analyze the A100 engine and tried to reproduce it, but finally found that it was impossible to do it.

The specific impulse of A100 has approached the theoretical limit and is completely unachievable in practice. Even with the most optimistic prediction, the performance of the same product made by Rolls-Royce is only about 25% of that of A100, and the volume and quality are completely uncontrollable. excellent.

They even seriously doubt that this is not a fission engine at all, but in any case, the A100 has not only proven its performance with actual actions, but has also mass-produced many units.

Nuclear engines are much more promising than super nuclear bombs. One of the main purposes of building a good relationship with parents during this period is to try to obtain part of the technology of the A100. The next best thing is to buy two finished products.

However, the Aerospace Development Commission keeps the A100 strictly confidential and cannot get anything except the published parameters.

This was the first time Jamie had such close contact with this engineering miracle nuclear engine, and all his thoughts were focused on it.

Yang Xinjun and his assistants were not idle either. Even during space travel, they did not forget their work and even discussed improving ideas with other people on the ground through emails.

This is mainly because United Mining or Xinyuan made another request and added speed to the two construction plans. Fortunately, both teams have rich experience in Party A’s midway requests, and they followed the requirements without any complaints. Improvement requirements are studied.

Jamie next to him could not dismantle the spacecraft to study the engine after all, so he gave up his efforts after a while and simply took the initiative to join the discussion between Yang Xinjun and his assistant.

"...Yang, how many vehicles are the roads you are building going to carry?"

"Four hundred to five hundred tons, maybe a thousand tons is also possible."

Jamie couldn't believe this answer, and curiously asked why.

Yang Xinjun: “The main problem is wear and tear. Unless we build closed railway pipelines or make breakthroughs in other aspects, we must consider the problem of rapid wear and tear of machinery in harsh environments and minimize working hours to improve efficiency.

A mass of several hundred tons is nothing on the moon, and the pressure on the road is limited. In fact, the pressure resistance standard of roads on the earth is not as high. "

Jamie: "So... in fact, the main thing is to solve the problem of moon dust. If it is run over with a heavy enough roller, the effect will be enough. Am I right?"

Yang Xinjun: "To a certain extent...it's almost the same, but the lunar soil is too loose, and the rollers of the road roller alone cannot meet the requirements. This is just an ideal design."

Jamie just nodded without saying anything, and then stared at the construction route diagram drawn by Yang Xinjun several times. After thinking for a while, he drew a circle around the road with his finger, and then stopped with his finger on the largest mountain range in the surrounding area.

“If the bedrock here is thick enough, we can dig a shallow diffusion-type hole across the mountain and detonate a hydrogen bomb inside.

As long as the calculation is done properly and the shape of the hole is adjusted, there is a way to direct and evenly release the thermal radiation of the nuclear bomb to this area, directly heating the surface several meters of lunar soil and making it solidify and integrate.

At least according to the ingredients list above, according to my experience, it has a high probability of success. In this way, you can directly get an extremely broad, large and solid plain without building a road. "

"..."