The rise of nanometers

Regarding the health of astronauts, affected by the Sentinel 1 nuclear leak, the China Space Administration has also improved safety measures, backup plans, and emergency rescue preparations.

Although there are currently eight space cities in Greater China, the number of launch vehicles in dynamic reserve is around 15 to 30 every month.

However, excluding launch vehicles with scheduled missions, there are about 3 to 6 spare launch vehicles that can be temporarily mobilized.

This quantity is said to be small but not too much, and said to be too much is not too much.

Huang Xiuyuan plans to add some spare launch vehicles, increasing the number to about 10 to 14. The total spare payload will be maintained at 2,600 tons, 1,300 tons, and 700 tons in the three space orbital areas.

In addition, there are additional testing systems in the cabin, especially the testing of the cabin water circulation system and the cabin gas circulation system, which are necessary for the survival of astronauts.

Previously, Guanghan Palace Base, Toad Palace Space Station, and Tiangong Space Station all had detection systems, but Huang Xiuyuan was still worried.

After all, the consequences of the nuclear leakage in Outpost 1 were too disastrous. Two astronauts died and the water circulation system of Outpost 1 was damaged.

Although the previous water circulation system, the water resources inside, and the water purification equipment were abandoned, there were two other backup water circulation systems.

However, NASA must re-transport a batch of clean water resources and conduct a comprehensive treatment of the radioactive materials in the cabin before it can rescue the four space capsules.

NASA has no choice. After all, the cost of relaunching four space capsules to the moon is about 6 billion yuan.

Through maintenance and cleaning, the cost is only about 1.8 billion yuan. NASA, which is strapped for funds, will naturally choose the maintenance plan.

Huang Xiuyuan has read the relevant analysis by the technical department. Although China Aerospace Science and Technology and Eagle Aerospace's carbon-14 nuclear battery technology have made many preventive plans to prevent nuclear leakage, nothing is absolutely safe.

Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the management of nuclear batteries on spacecraft. After all, in terms of the utilization rate of nuclear batteries, the number of nuclear batteries in the spacecraft of the China Space Administration is tens of thousands times that of NASA.

That’s right, tens of thousands times.

After all, carbon-14 nuclear batteries are cheap, have relatively high thermal efficiency, and are relatively safe.

For example, nuclear batteries are basically standard equipment on those laser defense satellites. There are also a lot of nuclear batteries on space stations and lunar bases.

With such a huge nuclear battery application, if management is negligent and a nuclear leak occurs, the accident will be really serious.

Dr. Zhang Tiancheng, who is in charge of the nuclear battery project, heard about the issue of nuclear battery safety, thought for a while, and expressed some of his opinions:

"Everyone, in the current space exploration and construction missions, nuclear batteries are our important leading technology. We must pay attention to safety issues, but we must not give up food because of choking."

Huang Xiuyuan did not beat him to death with a stick. He agreed with Zhang Tiancheng's point of view: "It must be used. The key is that safety measures must be comprehensive, especially for nuclear batteries on satellites and space stations."

The nuclear battery at the Guanghan Palace base is actually relatively safe. Even if a nuclear accident occurs, the entire space capsule can be abandoned and a big pit can be dug and buried.

Because the moon does not have an obvious natural water circulation system, the depth of groundwater is below a hundred meters, and the depth of groundwater in some areas even reaches several hundred meters.

Burying nuclear waste on site will not pollute groundwater.

Moreover, during the burial process, boron oxide and lead can be injected into the abandoned nuclear batteries to dilute the nuclear fuel concentration and condense it.

But satellites and space stations floating in space have no place to bury nuclear waste.

Either stay in orbit and become space junk, leaving a huge hidden danger in the future; or send it back to Blue Star, or send it to the moon for dismantling and processing.

Everyone discussed for more than ten minutes and came up with some plans, such as enhanced protective layer, mechanical heat dissipation, emergency heat dissipation, diluent, coagulant, emergency ejection system, etc.

All conceivable treatment solutions will be used as long as the cost allows.

Although it will increase some costs, if it can reduce the incidence of accidents and the trouble of handling in the future, these costs are worth it.

If you learn from NASA's eagerness for quick success and quick profit, it will be cheaper now, but you will definitely have trouble in the future.

If NASA had spent a few million more dollars to build a comprehensive detection system for water circulation in the cabin when it was building Outpost 1, today's heavy losses could have been completely avoided.

In fact, the cost of building a space capsule on the ground is not high. If it is mass-produced on a factory assembly line like the space station capsule of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation.

Excluding the scientific research equipment inside, the cost of a standard space capsule is about 1.5 to 3 million yuan.

The reason why NASA's costs are so high is that, firstly, capital requires a lot of profits; secondly, the technology cannot keep up, resulting in the dead weight of the space capsule being too large; and the third reason is because the cost of the launch vehicle is too high. high.

The combination of these reasons has led to NASA's average cost of launching a lunar spacecraft to be as high as 5 million to 20 million yuan per ton of payload.

In addition to all kinds of expensive precision instruments, as well as R\u0026D costs, operating costs, investment costs, etc., it would be crazy if they could be cheaper.

For example, a Falcon Heavy launch vehicle failed to launch before. How to calculate the losses caused by this launch vehicle?

Of course, you need to find an insurance company, but the insurance company will definitely not pay all the compensation. Moreover, if the compensation is paid this time, the insurance premium of the next launch vehicle should be increased.

Naturally, space exploration companies will not bear these losses themselves. They can pass on costs and include these losses in the cost of launch vehicles to be launched later.

The model of the China Space Administration is completely different from that of NASA. Although Eagle Aerospace is a private enterprise, it is not an enterprise purely pursuing profit, let alone the Aerospace Science and Industry.

The difference in operating models between the two results in a very large cost gap.

The comprehensive cost for the China Space Administration to launch a lunar space capsule is about 5 to 80 million yuan; the cost for NASA to launch a lunar space capsule is about 250 to 760 million yuan.

This huge cost gap means that although the two sides invest funds in the space field, the difference is not too big, about 1:2.3.

But for the same money, there is a huge difference in value.

If you look at the gap between the current Outpost 1 Base and the Guanghan Palace Base, you will know how big the gap is in the production ratio between the two sides.

Therefore, the China Space Administration has a lot of room for maneuver in terms of the cost of its spacecraft, and this cost increase is still within the allowable range.

In addition to the health issues of astronauts and the safety of nuclear batteries, Huang Xiuyuan and others also discussed the self-sustaining supply chain of the lunar base, space agriculture projects, lunar fuel factories, and exploration plans for other planets in the solar system.

They discussed dozens of projects, large and small, for more than a week before deciding on the initial general direction.

The next thing is to let each department continue to study these projects in depth, improve and adjust them, and then submit them to the Space Administration Development Committee for review.

As December is approaching, Huang Xiuyuan has more things to do. Even if there is a think tank to help deal with it, it is still somewhat beyond his capabilities.

November 24th.

NASA's Lunar 9 successfully landed at an area of ​​approximately 754 meters at the Outpost 1 base.

On the other side, Huang Xiuyuan also used a stand-in robot to reach the desolate northern part of the Victoria Desert in Western Australia.

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