The rise of nanometers

Just when Cheng Cunwu and Yu Shengtian were racking their brains to think about the moon plan of silicon nano-coating technology.

The Lunar Materials Research Institute on the ground of Blue Star is not idle either. In October last year, the space agency sent lunar soil and lunar rocks weighing 2.8 tons back to Blue Star through an unmanned spacecraft.

These lunar soil and lunar rock samples have brought a lot of research data to Blue Star's scientific researchers, especially the issue of material self-sufficiency for future lunar bases, which has entered the core task list of the space agency.

Chen Dongyang, the chief researcher of the Lunar Materials Institute, is a very young materials engineer. He is only 32 years old this year. He graduated from NPU and previously worked in the Materials Laboratory of the Department of Sui Ren. He was transferred to the Lunar Materials Institute in January this year. .

Chen Dongyang and Xie Qing’s team have communicated and agreed that the field of future space materials should be dominated by electric field synthesis technology.

The data before him at this time was the specific elemental composition of Hongwan lunar soil.

Although the composition of lunar soil between various lunar maria is generally consistent, there are still differences in content.

Among the elemental contents of the Hongwan lunar soil, elements with an abundance exceeding 1% are oxygen 42.31%, silicon 21.44%, iron 13.56%, calcium 6.13%, aluminum 4.03%, and magnesium 3.46%.

This element content is also one of the reasons why Cheng Cunwu is obsessed with silicon nano-coating. After all, the abundance of silicon element exceeds 21%.

The iron content is not low, as high as 13.56%. On the contrary, aluminum, which is quite abundant in Blue Star soil, is only about 4% in Rainbow Bay lunar soil.

Therefore, the Lunar Materials Research Institute focuses on silicon, iron, and calcium, while aluminum and magnesium are ranked lower.

It's just that now silicon nano-coating technology and synthesis technology on the lunar base are in trouble. As a last resort, aluminum alloy technology can only be considered.

Fortunately, when making plans before, Aerospace Science and Technology and Eagle Aerospace did not stick to the silicon nano route and had other backup plans.

Among them, the aluminum alloy solution is also a very important one.

Although the overall strength of the shell made of aluminum alloy is not as good as that of the aluminum membrane plate after silicon nano-coating, the electric field synthesis technology of aluminum alloy is very mature and can achieve large-scale mass production on the moon.

For now, we can only use the aluminum alloy version, but the strength of the aluminum alloy shell is only about one-eighth of that of silicon nano+aluminum film, and it is impossible to improve the overall strength of the building through integrated technology.

If it is really hit by a large meteorite, it is estimated that there will be no protective effect.

But there is no problem in daily use. The thickness of the aluminum alloy plate is only about 0.8 centimeters. It adopts a double shell design and is more than enough to resist ordinary solar storm particles.

Before the silicon nano-coating lunar plan could not be mass-produced for the time being, the space agency urgently approved the manufacturing of three aluminum alloy composite cabins and prepared to launch them to the Guanghan Palace base on July 15.

at the same time.

North America.

Houston Space City.

A new Saturn V carrier rocket weighing 4,572 tons is standing at the launch site, preparing for launch.

The new NASA administrator, George Lawrence, looked at the Big Mac launch vehicle in the distance through the thick protective glass in the command center 3.4 kilometers away from the launch site.

But in his mood, there was no joy at this moment, only endless pressure.

Deputy Administrator Russell Washington, who was in charge of the technical department, felt even heavier: "The technology of the new Saturn V is too backward."

The total weight of the new Saturn V is 4,572 tons, and the maximum payload in low-Earth orbit is 214 tons, with a load ratio of about 4.7%; while the maximum payload in synchronous orbit is 150 tons; the maximum payload in lunar orbit is only about 57 tons.

This data looks good, but the problem is that the cost is equally impressive. The average cost per kilogram from low-Earth orbit, synchronous orbit, and lunar orbit is: 3172 Chinese yuan, 4536 Chinese yuan, and 8523 Chinese yuan respectively.

Just to build a lunar advance base, they spent hundreds of billions of dollars. Although through external plunder and internal squeeze, their production costs in the aerospace field are falling at a rapid rate.

But Russell knows very well that even for the space exploration company, which is said to be the most cost-effective, the cost per kilogram of payload to reach the moon is still higher than 3,000 Chinese yuan.

This is one of the reasons why they have to rebuild a low-Earth orbit space station. NASA needs the Noah's Ark space station as a fuel supply station for spacecraft.

If he cannot seize the opportunity on the moon, Noah will lose his last bargaining chip and will no longer be able to compete with China.

However, the performance of the new Saturn V was not good in the previous launches. Only three of the five launched were successful.

"George, would it be too risky to send astronauts to the moon now? What if..."

Before Russell could finish speaking, he was interrupted by George Lawrence: "Russell, do you think I want this? The board of directors can no longer tolerate our speed."

Hearing this, Russell fell silent.

George Lawrence comforted: "Don't worry! The astronauts are already in Noah's Ark. The new Saturn V is only responsible for launching the lunar spacecraft. Once the most dangerous atmospheric stage has been passed, there won't be too many problems."

"I hope so!" Russell's eyes were still full of uneasiness and worry.

He turned around to arrange the manned landing on the moon, preparing to make a backup plan so that if something went wrong on the moon, he would not be caught off guard.

Twenty minutes later.

The new Saturn V is spitting flames and heading towards Noah's Ark, which is located in low-Earth orbit 580 kilometers away.

George Lawrence has been staring at the radar surveillance screen, praying in his heart that it must succeed. Now NASA can no longer afford too many failures.

Every launch vehicle is money. In the past, the world paid for the rice dollar, but now the rice dollar can only be digested internally, and the industrial revitalization plan in North America is not going smoothly.

The all-out advancement of the aerospace strategy has seriously affected people's livelihood in North America, and social conflicts have become more intense.

George does not want to continue to increase the financial burden, so NASA's next launch mission must be as smooth as possible to reduce the losses caused by failure.

Just thinking about China's densely packed satellites, as well as its rapidly expanding space stations and lunar bases, made George feel more and more pressured.

"Oh! It worked!"

"Very good."

The cheers from the command center made George sigh in relief.

At this time, the new Saturn V carrier rocket has successfully broken through the Karman line and entered the ultra-low orbit low-Earth orbit area.

The most dangerous atmospheric stage has been passed, and the danger for the rest of the voyage will not be that great.

On Noah's Ark, there are five astronauts stationed at this time, two of whom will take the Lunar 4 spacecraft to their lunar base.

The Noah Society's lunar base is built in the Oceanus Procellarum in the southern hemisphere of the moon. It is not large. With the space capsule and materials brought by Lunar 4 this time, the overall weight of their lunar base only reaches about 75 tons.

Due to their backwardness in material technology, their space capsules are much heavier. At 75 tons, they barely have 6 space capsules, including 3 living capsules and 3 scientific research capsules.

If there is no material supply from Blue Star in the later period, the materials of this small lunar base can only guarantee the survival of two astronauts for 137 days at most.

NASA was forced to have no choice but to bite the bullet.

Greater China's space agency also knew very well about NASA's lunar colonization plan, but they just ignored it.

Thank you for your support (ω｀)