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

Chapter 634 Isaac Newton

Cape Calaveral, Kennedy Space Center.

"Billy, I now seriously doubt that the purpose of spinning around is just for this day."

Spanish astronauts Pedro Dick and Shen Billy passed through the corridor of the launch tower one after another. At the other end was the Falcon 9 rocket that was ready to go and the "Gravity Dragon" spacecraft it carried.

Pedro returned to Earth after a three-month short-term mission on the International Space Station last year. The reason is simple: NACA is vigorously expanding the number of new astronauts, and the best way to get a quick start is to live in space for a period of time.

Coupled with the Dream Chaser space shuttle and Dragon spacecraft, NACA carried out a total of 6 manned launch missions last year, which is the most in recent years.

Pedro, who had rested for several months, suddenly received a mission: to enter the "Gravity Dragon" into space, conduct an artificial gravity test, survive in the spacecraft for 3 days, and become the first to experience it in space with Shen Billy. Gravity astronaut.

Pedro is a foreigner and Billy Shen is an employee of SpecaX. This combination makes him very suspicious that NACA is just using them as cannon fodder or guinea pigs.

But doubts remain doubts. Pedro still can't resist the temptation of becoming the number one in this field, and he is also very active in adaptive training.

Fellow colleague Shen Billy is in a similar situation. What he is most looking forward to is the "excretion test" project in the plan manual. Any astronaut who has lived in space is extremely serious about this issue and has some obsession.

"Pedro, now we are really in a front-loading washing machine."

"But the chip in this front-loading washing machine is very powerful. It won't throw us into space, right?"

"Perhaps, I hope the apple tree will bless us"

The two completed the launch preparations while teasing each other. 40 minutes after the hatch was closed, the launch center confirmed that the weather and other conditions were good, and issued the ignition command to the second-hand rocket under them.

About 10 minutes later, the Gravity Dragon 2 test ship Isaac Newton entered orbit.

…

"Dick, please check the relay in the service module again. That is our last line of protection."

"Of course, but I'd rather you call me Pedro."

The "Isaac Newton" has been in orbit for five hours. The two astronauts started working after entering space. They mainly carefully checked the status of each part and arranged the command module to prevent accidents during rotation.

This spacecraft named after the discoverer of gravity carries the same expectations as his name, and the codename of this launch mission is "Apple Tree", which wants to bring gravity to space.

Pedro and Shen Billy continued to communicate with Houston while making various preparations according to the process. About three hours later, the two sat in the center seat again and fastened their seat belts securely.

Although today's working time has almost been exhausted, NACA does not intend to postpone it to the next day and is preparing to start the rotation test immediately.

The first thing to do now is to adjust the direction of the spacecraft, which will determine how the Earth moves as the astronauts see it through the porthole.

If it is along the tangential direction of the orbit, the Earth they see is a rotating blue plane; if it is perpendicular to the tangential direction, the Earth they see is passing from bottom to top or from top to bottom; if it is in other directions , movement is unpredictable.

Although astronauts will perform various rigorous rotation tests on the ground, if they are not adjusted properly, it means that they must be mentally tense at all times to fight against dizziness, and then they will not be able to work properly.

At the Houston Space Center, engineers built several simulation cabins to represent various situations, allowing different groups of people to experience them. Finally, it was determined that the dizziness caused by rotation along the orbital radius would be minimal and would not easily cause people to feel displacement.

It took the Isaac Newton about 20 minutes to complete the precise heading adjustment process, and then began to release the cable like the first demonstration ship.

According to the test plan, the first cable release length is set to 220 meters, rotating at a speed of 2 revolutions per minute, and stably generating 0.5G gravity.

Then NACA will gradually increase the rotational speed to test the obvious limit of astronaut perception. As for the cable length of 220 meters, it is already the limit, and will only consider gradually increasing it in the future.

The main problem is the trade-off between the stiffness and flexibility of the cable, which becomes more and more serious as the length increases. Too little stiffness will lead to poor rotational stability, and poor flexibility means it is easy to fatigue during curling. In the newer generation, Certain parts had to be discarded before the material could be developed.

"Billy, Pedro, are you okay?"

The two parts of the Isaac Newton spacecraft each pulled the cables and flew hundreds of meters to opposite places, and locked the cables at the set distance. Houston sent a proper greeting.

"We're good, Houston, ready to spin!"

The radio went silent after Pedro finished answering, and then he saw the "FGD" indicator light on the console light up, and at the same time felt a slight pushing sensation from behind.

Of course, this may also be his illusion. The activation of the flexible gravity system is a slow process, and the initial acceleration is very low. In theory, astronauts wearing pressurized suits may not feel it at all.

Moreover, the rotation process does not accelerate all the time. Every time it accelerates to a certain level, it will stop for a few seconds for inspection. If there is a problem, the rotation state will be released immediately.

Billy Shen kept feeling whether the pressure on his butt had changed, but Pedro cleverly fixed a bottle in front of him.

The pure water in the transparent plastic bottle originally adhered evenly to the inner wall without restraint, but soon after the gravity system was activated, it began to gather downwards rhythmically, falling like water leaking from the corner of the wall, and it became more and more quick.

About two minutes later, the water bottle Pedro saw was no different from the one on the earth. He tried to raise his hand and immediately felt the attraction from the "ground".

But the force was not strong. He easily stretched out his hand and shook the water bottle, and then saw the water inside shaking randomly in the bottle, but he could see the process clearly as if the slow down button was pressed. The liquid level The amplitude of fluctuations is also more exaggerated.

"Pedro, we have to let the organs adapt first."

Billy's voice interrupted his movements, Pedro nodded and gently put his hand back on the armrest.

They have just begun to adapt to weightless organs and suddenly enter a gravity environment. If the range of movement is too large, it may cause organ dysfunction, especially blood pressure. The heart rates of both of them are obviously abnormal, but according to Houston's research, they should be within the normal range. .

They stayed in the seats for a full 40 minutes, and finally received instructions from the ground to allow movement. Pedro carefully unbuckled his seat belt and stood gently on the floor recalling the movements on Earth.

The centrifugal force perfectly replaced gravity and rearranged his physical condition, and he stood firmly on the carpet-covered floor of the command module.

He looked at the porthole on the left, where a magnificent blue giant picture was slowly flowing downwards at a slight angle.