Genius is just the threshold for me!

Chapter 358 Building Rockets as New Energy Vehicles

Time flies, and more than a week has passed in the blink of an eye, bringing us to mid-July.

The summer weather was getting hotter and hotter. Li Tao, Zhang Zihua, Zhang Yihao and the others went back to their hometown. Lin Dong didn't want to go out and experience the scorching sun.

He was usually either at home or would call Xu Qingling to go to Laboratory No. 78 to study the papers and materials that Wang Xingguo brought back from the China Academy of Engineering Physics and the Institute of Atomic Energy.

"This nuclear physics is really quite intricate—"

Lin Dong and Xu Qingling each listened to music through earphones, finished reading a paper on "the interaction between incident particles and atomic nuclei," pondered for a few seconds, picked up the draft paper and pen beside them, and began to carefully check their calculations.

The pen tip made a soft, scratching sound as it glided across the paper.

Soon, the confidential draft paper was filled with dense formulas.

Xu Qingling sat next to him, working on her test questions and peeling sunflower seeds. Hearing the sound, she glanced at Lin Dong, picked up her pen, and continued her work.

After waiting for a while, Lin Dong stopped his calculations, and holding the final result, a look of realization appeared in his eyes.

"Is nuclear physics difficult to learn?"

Xu Qingling saw Lin Dong stop and asked him a question out of curiosity.

"Learning it isn't difficult; it should take about three months to learn the current nuclear physics system."

Lin Dong put the draft paper aside and explained with a smile, "It's about learning and thinking at the same time to find new directions and inspirations. Calculating and verifying these directions and inspirations is a bit difficult."

Furthermore, nuclear physics research has entered the atomic nucleus scale and the quantum scale, which is a completely new field, almost starting from scratch.

His previous knowledge included everything from machinery, radar, aircraft, aerospace, electronics, information, materials, biology, and so on.

Although it involves some aspects of microscopic quantum theory, it is still part of the macroscopic physical system as a whole.

Nuclear physics, on the other hand, is dominated by microscopic quantum systems and has less connection to previous knowledge, so the learning efficiency is not as good.

"Learn the existing nuclear physics system in three months —"

Xu Qingling shook her head and placed the peeled melon seeds in front of Lin Dong: "Then finish learning before New Year's Day in five months, no need to rush."

"It's still worth catching up on. The feeling of learning something is even more fun than playing games."

Lin Dong chuckled, switched the paper to the large screen on the wall, lay down next to Xu Qingling's lap, looked at the paper, and opened his mouth to say, "You feed me."

"—You're getting more and more annoying! I have to peel it for you and feed you, and I still have to do my test questions!"

Seeing Lin Dong's shameless behavior, Xu Qingling gave him a light slap, but still didn't refuse, and stuffed some melon seeds into Lin Dong's mouth.

Xu Qingling fed him dozens of sunflower seeds. At that moment, the door to the adjacent final assembly workshop opened, and Xu Ziming, Wang Xingguo, and Su Ruohua walked over.

But when he arrived, he saw Lin Dong half-lying on Xu Qingling's lap reading a paper, and Xu Qingling even feeding him melon seeds.

In an instant, Xu Ziming's face darkened. He glanced around, grabbed the broom beside him, and walked toward Lin Dong.

"Cough cough"

Upon seeing this, Wang Xingguo coughed twice, feeling a discomfort in his throat.

"Uncle Wang—hmm?"

Xu Qingling turned around when she heard the sound, and the next moment she saw Xu Ziming's dark face with a broom in hand. She quickly pushed Lin Dong up.

"Dad, are you done with your work?"

Xu Qingling took off her headphones, cheered, and walked over to grab Xu Ziming's arm. She tried to take the broom from his hand, but couldn't quite manage it. She tried again, her expression turning pitiful.

Xu Ziming looked at his daughter's suddenly aggrieved expression. Although he knew it was an act, he still helplessly let go. However, he still glared at Lin Dong, the culprit, with a dark face.

"You little brat, now you're eating sunflower seeds, don't you even want to lift a finger to eat them yourself?"

"Cough cough"

Lin Dong sat up, naturally skipping over what had just happened, and changed the subject, saying, "Uncle Xu, Godfather, is there any problem with the J-20S project?"

"You're the project's chief engineer, don't you know?" Xu Ziming still didn't answer with a friendly expression.

But as he spoke, his gaze fell upon the thesis displayed on the large screen on the wall.

Upon seeing terms like rays, atomic nuclei, protons, and decay, he frowned and said, "Why are you looking at nuclear physics stuff?"

"Let me learn from this."

Lin Dong simply replied, "Energy is the foundation of civilization, but the limit of chemical energy is too low; we'll have to deal with that eventually."

From the perspective of mass-energy conversion, the energy reaction of chemical energy is negligible; the most common coal combustion accounts for only 0.000000033%, or one part in 30 billion.

The mass-energy conversion efficiency of uranium fission can reach 0.09%, while that of deuterium-deuterium fusion can reach 0.38%. If it is a proton-proton chain reaction, the mass-energy conversion efficiency can be further increased to 0.7%.

Based on this mass-energy conversion rate, the energy released by the fission of 1 kilogram of uranium is equivalent to the energy released by the combustion of 270 million kilograms of coal.

If transported using train carriages with a capacity of 60 tons, this amount of coal would require at least 45 carriages.

This fundamental energy reaction means that humanity will inevitably rely on nuclear energy in the future, and even nuclear energy may not be enough; we will need even more advanced forms of energy than nuclear energy.

"Research and study are fine, but don't participate in frontline experiments."

After hearing this explanation, Xu Ziming didn't say anything, but solemnly gave a single instruction.

Even with modern comprehensive safety procedures in place, nuclear testing remains fraught with danger.

Although he disliked the kid, Xu Ziming was still somewhat concerned about his personal safety.

"Know."

Lin Dong nodded, picked up a few documents from the side, and handed them to Xu Ziming and Su Ruohua: "Uncle Xu, Godmother, this is an electric..."

The core problem that the pump rocket project needs to focus on solving at present is —

"The team at the space base is all new. Godmother, you should start the initial setup first. I'll check on the team's progress before taking over."

Unlike Wang Xingguo, Su Ruohua had a large number of historical emails, which allowed him to determine Wang Xingguo's daily language habits and how he communicated with each core member.

However, since Su Ruohua's aerospace project was just about to begin and there was no historical email information, it was inconvenient for him to take direct control.

"it is good."

Su Ruohua nodded without objection, took the document and looked at it. Her expression immediately froze, and she said with some disbelief, "This motor needs to have a power density of 10 to 20 kW/kg, a battery energy density of 600Wh/kg, and a discharge rate of 15 to 20C—is this even possible?"

Because Lin Dong said during the Chinese New Year that he wanted to research electric pumps for space rockets.

Over the past six months, Su Ruohua has also gathered some relevant information, the most crucial of which is the performance of the motor and the battery.

For motors, you need to consider power output and power density; for batteries, you need to consider energy density and discharge rate.

The motor power is sufficient to meet the requirements; it can handle 1000 kilowatts, let alone the 400 kilowatts needed for a small rocket.

However, even with Lin Dong's encouragement, the power density of this new energy vehicle motor, which has a relatively high power density, is still...

The power density of the existing system is only 5.8kW/kg, while Lin Dong has now directly doubled or even multiplied the requirements.

The same applies to battery energy density. The lithium iron phosphate new energy battery developed by Lin Dong using computational chemistry, after several years of research and iteration, currently has a total system density of only 230Wh/kg. The more powerful ternary lithium battery has a total system density of 350Wh/kg, while Lin Dong has now directly raised the index to 600Wh/kg.

"Godmother, these are the core indicators. If these indicators are not met, the electric pump rocket has no advantage except for precise control. The dead weight of the motor and the dead weight of the battery can exceed the weight of a conventional turbopump."

Lin Dong shook his head: "The current power density of motors is mainly limited by three issues: electromagnetic design, rotor and bearing materials, and heat dissipation bottleneck."

Electromagnetic design will be done gradually; I will participate later. As for rotor and bearing materials, Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group has materials for more demanding operating environments, which can be addressed by increasing costs. Regarding the final heat dissipation bottleneck, we can directly introduce cryogenic propellants, using -183°C...

Liquid oxygen at a temperature of [degrees Celsius] is used for heat dissipation and cooling —

Although the technical difficulty is great, there are no problems on the theoretical level.

If we design the electromagnetic system well and the heat dissipation system well, with the current materials, achieving a power density of 15 kW/kg is not a problem. Going further requires new materials.

Modern motors generally have an efficiency of over 95%, which seems astonishing.

However, when the power reaches 400 kilowatts, even with only 5% waste heat, it can release more than 1 kilojoules of heat per minute, which is sufficient.

Boil three or four kettles of water.

With such astonishing power and waste heat release, the motor must have a liquid cooling system, and its size cannot be small either; otherwise, the heat cannot be dissipated, and the motor will be scrapped in less than two minutes.

"but----"

Lin Dong then looked at Xu Ziming and said, "The electric pump rocket system needs to be as lightweight as possible, using additive manufacturing. 3D printing technology is essential. Uncle Xu, how's your industrial research going?"

"It's alright, just a little short of meeting the requirements for the J-20S project. I've already applied for special funds to give it a push —"

Xu Ziming reviewed the requirements for the electric pump rocket, carefully evaluated it, and said, "For this electric pump rocket, small rockets can currently meet the requirements, but it's still quite far from being suitable for medium-sized rockets. I'll find a way to overcome that when the time comes."

"That's fine then."

Lin Dong nodded; he was quite confident in Xu Ziming's work.

Although this father-in-law is naturally lazy, doesn't want to work overtime, doesn't want a promotion, and is a doting father to his daughter, he has always been very unhappy with me.

But when something is truly unavoidable and assigned to him, Xu Ziming remains 100% focused and efficient in his work. If he says there's no problem, then there really is no problem.

"Xiao Dong, where's the battery?"

Su Ruohua then asked the second core question.

"We will abandon the current lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium batteries, as their energy density is not high enough. Instead, we will switch to lithium-sulfur batteries, which have a theoretical energy density of 2600 Wh/kg. Xingdong Company's laboratory can already achieve a density of 500-600 Wh/kg."

Lin Dong already had a plan in mind. He said, "We are a commercial aerospace base. Once the project starts and the security measures are in place, we can bring in Xingdong Company and ask Dizi Company if they are interested in jointly tackling the technical challenges of the battery and motor."

Lithium-sulfur batteries—this is the battery solution used ten years later in China's research on electric pump rockets for the Lieyan-2 project.

At that time, the engine thrust of the Blaze II project had reached 10 tons per engine, and with nine engines firing in tandem, the rocket with a thrust of 90 tons could achieve a payload of 1.5 tons to low Earth orbit.

At the same time, because electric propulsion systems are simpler, have a lower failure rate, and are less expensive to use, combined with reusable rocket technology, they can further reduce the cost of near-Earth spaceflight.

of course.

In Lin Dong's view, the biggest advantage of electric pump rockets is that they can be precisely controlled.

Precise control is a necessary foundation for second-generation rocket technology, and even third-generation rocket technology.

In addition, thanks to the simplicity of electric systems, once the technology is proven successful...

Then small and medium-sized space rockets will no longer be a mysterious and high-tech industry, but will become an industry with low barriers to entry and rapid popularization.

This is similar to the automotive industry. In the past, only a few automotive giants could get involved in gasoline-powered cars, but with the rise of new energy electric vehicles and their simple three-electric system, anyone with money can join in.

By then, the aerospace industry will have truly blossomed and flourished in all aspects.