The car door rang, waking up Tang Jiayi on the sofa.

Turning his head to look, he saw someone appear in the hallway, with a familiar smile on his face.

Her husband came home on time, and she should have been happy. However, at this time, Mrs. Ma was frowning slightly, her face was frosty, and she was obviously in a bad mood.

Atletico Madrid's eyesight has been systematically strengthened, comparable to an ace pilot, and naturally he noticed his wife's uncertain face for the first time.

Smiling and approaching, he smiled and asked with concern, "Wife, what's wrong with you? Who made you angry? Is Zhizhi naughty again?"

"It's Zhizhi and her father who messed with me!" Looking up at someone, the lady bit her heart and asked, "Ma Cheap, should you give me an explanation?"

"What's the explanation?" Atletico asked, sitting on the armrest of the couch, pretending to be confused.

Giving him a blank look, Tang Jiayi didn't stretch out her hand to push it away, her eyes fell on the coffee table, "How expensive the asteroid probe is, don't you know?

"Of course ordinary people can't afford to play," Atletico smiled and raised his hand to himself, "but I should be okay, it's just a probe, it's just a probe, it's just weaker than Musk's Martian immigrants, Page and Cameron's asteroid mining." ”

"If you're really interested," Tang Jiayi lowered her tone, "Just invest money in related projects, why do you roll up your sleeves yourself?"

"I don't want to," Atletico said, "those companies are too ambitious, too loud, and not on the same page as my ideas, so I have to do it myself." ”

"What are you going to do?" the lady shook her head, "Funds, regulations, qualifications, equipment, just think about it, my head is big." ”

"It's the same thing, I didn't say to start now. Let's talk about the probe first, if it is a return type like Hayabusa, even if we smash the pot and sell the iron mortgage shares, it will be difficult to deal with everything except for the financial problem. The top aerospace experts and manufacturing technology are all in the official institutions, and the old and young people on the bee side of the empty space are completely unexpected. ”

Hearing this, Tang Jiayi quietly breathed a sigh of relief and snorted, "Count you as acquaintances!"

"Uh-huh," Atletico nodded vigorously, "I don't have high requirements, and I'll be satisfied with a simplified version of the 'Dawn'." ”

Tang Jiayi's spirit that had just relaxed became tense again: "You really dare to think about it!"

Hayabusa (はやぶさ) is the masterpiece of the JXAX island nation NASA, which lifted off in 2003 and returned to Earth in 2010. Although it crashed in the Australian desert, it was the first spacecraft to collect asteroid samples from the asteroid Itokawa (No. 25143).

Itokawa is an Apollo-type asteroid with a flattened orbit, sometimes even closer to the Sun than Mercury. Because most of the orbit intersects with the Earth's orbit, it is also called a near-Earth asteroid.

The distance between these asteroids and the Earth changes drastically and periodically, and the study can only be carried out when they are close to the Earth. The reason why Itokawa was targeted by Hayabusa was because it would be close to Earth in 2005, making it possible to land and sample closer.

Unlike the former, NASA's Dawn (DAN) has chosen to go deep into the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It was launched in 2007, and in 2011 it was close to Vesta (No. 4) for a year, and then moved to Ceres (No. 1) to continue its research, making it the first spacecraft to go deep into the asteroid belt.

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt (one of the top five dwarf planets along with Pluto since 2006) and Vesta is the brightest asteroid.

Obviously, the large-scale orbit change, ion engine, and ultra-long-range communication technology used by Hayabusa and Dawn are not mastered by ordinary research institutions, and the "simplified version" in Atletico Madrid's mouth is destined to become a beggar's version.

"Tell me," sitting up straight and glaring at her man, Tang Jiayi snorted, "How are you going to make a simple match?"

"First of all, the ion engine is useless and can be removed. ”

The lady looked at him with a smile, "Hey, what's the use? Obviously, you can't get it, this grape is so sour!"

The thrust of the rocket engine is strong, but it has the problem of poor economy, which is not suitable for large-range and long-term projects. In response to this shortcoming, researchers have focused their attention on new technologies such as electric propulsion, solar sails, and gravitational slingshots.

The gravitational slingshot uses the gravitational pull of the planet to change orbits, which consumes the least but requires high timing, and can only be used as a supplement. The solar sail is propelled by light pressure, which is suitable for sailing with its back to the star, but the acceleration is extremely low, and the sail surface material and deployment technology are high, and it is still in the verification test stage. In contrast, electric propulsion, especially ion engine technology, is much more mature and has been used in many spacecraft.

The ion engine produces a weak reaction force by ejecting high-speed xenon ions, which in turn propels the spacecraft to accelerate slowly. Because the thrust is extremely weak, it is only suitable for flying in a vacuum environment, and cannot be used in manned flights for the time being, but it has the significant advantages of saving propellant and working for a long time without interruption.

If an ion engine with greater thrust is developed in the future, the ion engine can even be used for manned cargo, which can greatly reduce the development cost of Mars and even the asteroid belt.

This technology is currently only in the hands of a few space powers, so Tang Jiayi said that Atletico Madrid "can't eat grapes and sour grapes".

"Who says you can't get it?"

"This technology has also been developed in China, and AVIC Technology will definitely not mind if someone pays for them to do experiments. ”

"Isn't it that what kind of ion jet engine is a rumor? What acceleration 30 kilometers per second, 39 days to Mars, one can blow more than the other. ”

"It's not all rumors," Atletico shook his head and smiled, "The new ion engine is true, but the news has been distorted in the process of transmission." ”

At the beginning of last year, Science and Technology Daily reported on the magnetic focusing hall electric propulsion system developed by AVIC 502. The news was first reprinted by the South China Morning Post on Hong Kong Island, and then reprinted for the second time by the Russian satellite network. Then "export to domestic sales" was widely reprinted by domestic online media, and the title became shocking "China has built the strongest ion engine in history with an acceleration of 30 km/s".

Later, Huang Yi entered the battlefield militarily, and a certain editor was probably reminiscent of the ideal indicators declared by the British when they blew vasimr (variable ratio impulse magnetic plasma rocket) a few years ago, and directly wrote "The advent of domestic ion engines: 39 days to Mars, is the star destroyer far away?" to the title, which shocked netizens across the country and completely detonated this round of complaining frenzy.

In fact, although the electric propulsion system can spray plasma at a speed of tens of kilometers per second, because the power supply system is not powerful, the actual thrust generated is still only enough to blow up a piece of A4 paper or a ping pong ball, and the use of the occasion is seriously limited. If you want to go to Mars with an electric propulsion system, you have to wait for breakthroughs in technologies such as high-thrust ion engines, high-power solar panels, ultra-high-density batteries, and miniature nuclear reactors.

"The core principle of the ion engine and the Hall-effect thruster is the same, but the technical route is different. Both the United States and the United States developed both, and later gave up Hall to concentrate on ions, and the former Soviet Union's Hall technology level was higher, and Russia did not give up. At present, there are two studies in China, 510 for ions and 502 for Hall, and now they have certain results. Now that the aerospace system is reorganized, AVIC Technology is looking for its own food, and if we come to talk about cooperation, they will definitely not shirk. ”

Tang Jiayi tilted her head, "It can be done, but it will definitely be subject to a lot of restrictions, and you have to cooperate with their work plan or something." ”

"That's for sure," Atletico admitted, nodding, "so this one is just an option, and the first option is to abandon the ion engine, adopt a miniaturized design, and rely on inertia to get to the asteroid belt." As long as the escape velocity is reached, there is no collision capture or anything in between, and it will be able to reach it one day. This should be the lowest total cost solution and will help you achieve your crowdfunding goals. ”

"It's a late day," the lady said, "it took 30 months for Hayabusa to fly to Itokawa, and 46 months for Dawn to get close to Vesta, and that's still with the continuous acceleration of the ion engines. Your probe is only traveling at 11.2 kilometers per second, how many months are you going to get there?"

"It doesn't matter, as long as you can get there, it doesn't make much difference if it's faster or slower, anyway, the message on it is written for people decades from now. ”

"Huh?" Tang Jiayi suddenly interjected and asked, "What message?"

Seeing Atletico Madrid's bold statement that she would build an asteroid probe, she was so angry that she dropped her mobile phone, and she just didn't hear the second half of the words.

Figuring out the situation, Atletico Madrid naturally explained his plan as it was, "So, I plan to use crowdfunding to build this detector, 1 yuan support can leave a name and a short message in the memory chip, bid higher to unlock more words, and even leave a name on the shell." How's that? That's a great idea, isn't it?"

"That so-called probe is actually a time capsule with navigation, right?"

"The functionality is similar, but it's much more difficult and expensive to implement. ”

Tang Jiayi pursed her lips, "Anyway, if you throw it into space, why don't you throw it on the moon? It's closer, the cost is lower, and the effect is faster." ”

"Hey, you don't understand that," Atletico sneered, "what you want is a long distance and slow results." ”

"Is it because of the 'cosmic miner'?

"No," shook his head decisively, "Miners are inherently niche films, not suitable for large-scale publicity. Launching a probe is actually a proposal from the empty side. ”

With the successful completion of the two micro-constellations of "Star Eye" and "Hundred Eyes" into an updated state, the R&D personnel of the bee are idle. Self-motivated people naturally can't accept the results of idle layoffs, and then they find their own things and start star naming activities to generate revenue.

His subordinates were so energetic, Atletico naturally couldn't stop them for no reason, and then they were pulled onto the thief ship and followed them to scold astronomers around the world. Now that the naming campaign is over, they are planning to launch a probe into the asteroid belt, in short, they can't afford to be idle.

"Hey, do you look like you're being coerced by your subordinates?" Tang Jiayi squinted at her, "If this kind of person appears under my subordinates, it will be a matter of time." ”

"After all, they have good intentions," Atletico smiled, "These activities can popularize astronomical knowledge and develop astronomy enthusiasts, and the benefits outweigh the disadvantages, so naturally they should be cheered for." ”

"Speaking of publicity, why not try space mining and space building?

Atletico nodded, "It was true that someone proposed this, but I rejected it. ”

"Uh-huh?" Tang Jiayi blinked, "It seems that you have thought about these questions, why did you give up?"

"No way," Atletico shook his head, "Since it's destined to be unsuccessful, what are you going to do?"

Both crowdfunding projects have emerged, with British asteroid mining companies claiming to have the technology to reduce space mining, and want to raise funds to mine high-value near-Earth asteroids and then sell them for a penny to return to investors. Russian engineer entrepreneur Igor Ashurbeyili announced in Paris last year the Asgardia Space Nation program, which is open to citizens from all over the world and plans to apply for membership in the United Nations.

The cost of asteroid mining is much higher than simply losing a time capsule, and even if you get enough money to start the project, there is no possibility of making money in the short term.

The situation is similar in Asgardia, although the organizers are firmly committed to promoting the project, successively launching the constitution, national anthem, national emblem, national flag, currency and launching a microsatellite to carry the data of these founding documents into extraterrestrial orbit, laying the first cornerstone of the founding of the country, the outside world still has a lot of laughter about the "country".

According to the agreements of the various space powers, outer space belongs to all mankind and can be rationally exploited and utilized, but it is forbidden to declare sovereignty.

Hearing him say this, Tang Jiayi couldn't help but pout, "What do you do so rationally, isn't it a little bit entertaining?"

"Hey, the situation of Asgardia is different from that of the Principality of Sealand, the passage to the sky is still in the hands of several major aerospace powers, don't look at the joy now, as long as you cross the line a little in the future, you will definitely be pulled out of the list. ”

The Principality Naval is an informal state established in the ocean off the mouth of the River Thames in the United Kingdom. It was originally a defensive stronghold built by the British Navy during World War II, but it was abandoned after the war and occupied by retired British Army Major Paddy Roy Bates and others as a "pirate radio" base.

On September 2, 1967, Bates declared the "independence" of Fort Nurtor as the "Duchy of Sealand", calling himself "Roy I, Prince of Sealand". The British Navy tried several times to reclaim it, but failed due to concerns about casualties and legal problems (until 1987, Britain was still using the 3-nautical-mile territorial sea line, and Fort Nurture was considered "high seas"), so it had to blow up other abandoned forts to prevent anyone from following suit.

By issuing Sealand dollars and selling Sealand titles, the finances of the Principality of Sealand are relatively healthy and doing quite well. However, the life of the Bates family is still not very comfortable, after all, there are only a few people in the "royal family", and it is still very difficult to manage the internal affairs of the country and prevent being attacked or even seizing power. 2k reading web