The rise of nanometers

March 22, 18.

The dock of the Tianmen Space Station has just been renovated and is preparing to build two Zhurong-class spacecraft.

at the same time.

The Space Ministry assembled a pieced-together spacecraft, the Vanguard spacecraft, in the city of Mendeleev on the far side of the moon.

The Pioneer spacecraft is a large spacecraft weighing 8,500 tons, and a large part of the materials are supplied by the industrial zone in Guanghan Palace City.

The eight main engines of the spacecraft were slowly spitting out light red flames. In order to replenish N30 fuel for the Pioneer, the aerospace department specially arranged a transport ship and transported it several times in a row before getting enough fuel for the spacecraft.

In order to ensure the speed of Pioneer and the high specific impulse of the fuel, N30 fuel can only be used. After all, the local production of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen on the moon is limited, and the specific impulse of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen is only one-half of N30. about.

Therefore, only N30 fuel, which is relatively troublesome, can be used.

As the light red flames were produced, the 8,500-ton Pioneer spacecraft slowly broke away from the ground and flew into the deep and dark distance.

[Report, successful takeoff. ]

[Report, the Lunar Monitoring Satellite System is continuing to monitor the Pioneer, and everything is currently normal. ]

[Report……]

Waves of radio waves shuttled through the empty deep space.

The Pioneer spacecraft is essentially an experimental test spacecraft, mainly to verify some technologies.

These technologies are now used on the Zhurong spacecraft. If problems arise during this test, the design of the Zhurong can be modified in time.

If we wait until Zhuronghao is completed before testing, it will not only slow down the overall progress, but also cause some problems.

According to the plan of the Ministry of Aerospace, the first step of the formal plan for manned landing on Mars is to launch an unmanned Zhurong, which will be used as a test on the one hand and as a material reserve spacecraft to wait in Mars orbit first.

The second Zhurong is the real manned spacecraft.

And according to the plan, four striker-class spacecraft will be built in the lunar zone to deal with emergencies.

Obviously the Ministry of Aerospace has thought about many issues.

There are a total of seven spacecraft participating in the manned landing project on Mars, including two 13,000-ton Zhurong-class spacecraft and five 8,500-ton Pioneer-class spacecraft.

In this way, even if there is bad luck and two Zhurong-class spacecraft have problems, there are still five Pioneer-class spacecraft that can be used as backup.

The craftsmanship of the Pioneer is very simple and adopts a large number of modular designs. If an emergency occurs, it can be manufactured quickly and repaired easily.

If there are two malfunctioning striker-class spacecrafts, they can completely piece together a perfect spacecraft by exchanging parts.

The Zhurong class is still under construction, and a spacecraft like the Pioneer that pursues mass production and cost-effectiveness naturally needs to be tested first.

The Pioneer spacecraft is very fast. After continuously accelerating for 30 minutes, the spacecraft speed was pushed up to 15 kilometers per second, and then the main engine was turned off and it cruised at this speed.

For interstellar areas with few obstacles and strong gravity, the speed of the Pioneer spacecraft will not decrease rapidly, but will continue to drift towards Mars.

Inside the spacecraft at this time, there are three special boxes displayed in the cockpit.

This is a cryo-sleep chamber, or hibernation chamber.

To a certain extent, hibernation cabins can also extend human life in outer space, especially when in flight, usually during cruise flight. This period of time is actually mostly ineffective time for astronauts.

In this case, why not let the astronauts enter hibernation. In the hibernation state, the astronauts' physical condition will be temporarily frozen.

In this way, time during the flight can be saved, allowing astronauts to live and work longer in outer space.

However, the use of hibernating capsules in outer space is still being tested.

This time, the test project of the Pioneer spacecraft included the test of the hibernation cabin.

There are three hibernation chambers inside the Pioneer spacecraft, and inside are three rhesus monkeys. The spacecraft's supercomputer continuously monitors their vital signs.

These data will be packaged and sent to Blue Star at regular intervals. The Space Life Research Project of the Ministry of Aerospace can use these data to further improve the experimental results of human beings using hibernation capsules in outer space.

In addition, the Pioneer spacecraft has a maximum payload of 350 tons and can accommodate up to 5 astronauts. It is usually used as a cargo transport ship.

However, considering emergencies, the Ministry of Aerospace plans to sacrifice about 50 tons of payload and transform some cabins suitable for temporary use by astronauts.

In order to ensure the smooth progress of the manned landing plan on Mars, the Ministry of Space Affairs has also taken great pains.

Manned landing on Mars is more troublesome and dangerous than manned landing on the moon.

The dangers here mainly come from several aspects.

First, Mars is relatively far away. If something goes wrong on Mars, Blue Star won’t have time to rescue it.

Second, Mars has no infrastructure, unlike the moon, where bases and industrial areas have been established.

Third, there are deadly microorganisms on Mars, and we do not even rule out the possibility of multicellular organisms existing underground on Mars.

For these reasons, the federal government has to consider the safety of astronauts, and it is better to be more prepared than to improvise.

In addition, the Federation does not plan to land on Mars directly. Instead, it plans to build a Mars space station in the low-Earth orbit of Mars.

Or set up an advance base in the two natural satellites of Mars to serve as a foothold before landing on Mars.

In fact, with the deepening of the research on glowing fungi, the federation's vigilance towards Mars, or other alien planets, has become increasingly high.

When humans study alien planets, they always like to preconceptions of a concept, that is, conditions such as liquid water, oxygen, temperature, and light are all based on the current blue stars.

This is an act of arrogance.

Who stipulates that the life form in the universe must be like Blue Star?

What's more, Blue Star's current life form was not like this from the beginning.

For example, before the Cambrian Ice Age, the main life on Blue Star was actually anaerobic microorganisms; it was not until cyanobacteria reproduced on a large scale and released oxygen that anaerobic microorganisms gave way to the main stage.

Blue Star's ecology has undergone many changes.

Not to mention other alien planets.

Empiricism is not necessarily accurate, and being too arrogant can really kill people.

Therefore, the Federation has planned to re-examine other planets in the solar system. Whether they are terrestrial planets, large gas planets, or natural satellites, they all need to be re-evaluated.

Add an alien creature investigation project to avoid bringing unknown alien creatures into the Blue Star's ecosystem.

This is also responsible for the safety of astronauts' lives. After all, NASA's previous painful lessons are enough for the aerospace department to be more vigilant.

The Pioneer spacecraft continues its sprint toward Mars.

On the other side, Mars Probe 15, previously launched by the Federation, has been working continuously on the Utopia Planitia of Mars for more than two years.

When it was about to be scrapped, the Ministry of Aerospace decided to launch the last exploration mission to find an area rich in geothermal heat and drill down to the maximum extent.

Probe No. 15 had found a suitable area at this time and began to deploy its drill bit to drill into the underground soil and rock layers.

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