"Ten seconds countdown to the start of the main engine, 10, 9, 8, 7" with Han. At the right order, the Falcon immediately fell into a tense atmosphere.

Although it only lifts off from the surface of the moon, as long as it involves the ignition of the rocket engine, it is not a safe thing, and the Eagle Falcon does not have an ejection device like the "Star One" launch vehicle, in case the Eagle Falcon's engine fails, it is possible to leave all four people on the Eagle Falcon on the moon.

Although this possibility is extremely low, there is a probability of existence after all, so several people on the Falcon have different complexions.

Perhaps, this danger will be reduced to zero only when the power of ion thrusters becomes powerful enough to completely replace rocket engines that run on chemical fuels.

"Main engine starts 2, 1, ignition!" Accompanied by the **** command, Robin. Coloro pressed the red button in front of him, and the next moment, with a loud rumbling sound from the Falcon, the bottom of the huge Falcon spewed out a thick flame, and the flames mixed with the dust rising from the sky, once again enveloping the entire surrounding area.

No sound can be heard on the moon, so this launch is destined to be a silent one.

Although it is much easier to rise on the moon than on the earth, the moon also has gravity, so in order for the falcon to reach the orbit around the moon smoothly, the overload force generated by the falcon during the liftoff can also reach about 5 G or more.

This overload force is undoubtedly much smaller than the overload generated by the "Starry Sky One" carrier rocket when it takes off, and the four people on the Eagle Falcon can carry this overload safely without even having to take a lying position.

When the Falcon flew to the specified altitude, the lunar spacecraft turned around from the other side of the moon and was then controlled by an automated program. It took about half an hour for the Falcon to dock with the lunar spacecraft.

To everyone's reassurance, the "extraterrestrial meteorite" contained in the metal container did not affect the nuclear reactor of the lunar spacecraft, but no one dared to open the metal container again for fear of causing any more accidents.

The lunar spacecraft that joined the Falcon directly activated all four ion thrusters. Begin to accelerate around the Moon. With the thrust of the ion thruster, it is not possible to directly let the lunar spacecraft escape the gravitational pull of the moon, but only to let the lunar spacecraft continue to accelerate when flying around the moon, and then use the slingshot principle to directly throw the lunar spacecraft out.

This acceleration of the circle does not take long, after two or three revolutions, the speed of the lunar spacecraft has reached the corresponding speed, and when the lunar spacecraft circles the far side of the moon again, the lunar spacecraft will no longer fly around the moon. Instead, it follows a parabolic line and goes straight to the Earth-Moon transfer orbit.

Along the way, the four ion thrusters were always running at full power, and the spacecraft was fast enough to escape the moon's gravity, so it took less than thirty hours for the mooncraft to complete the entire distance of the Earth-Moon transfer orbit.

The next step is to slow down and then let the lunar spacecraft fly around the Earth at a fixed speed. After all, the lunar spacecraft and the lunar module will not return to Earth, and the next Martian spacecraft will be built. It was built with a lunar spacecraft as the core.

After the lunar spacecraft was running stably, Tang Feng and the six of them got into the manned functional compartment when they came, broke away from the lunar spacecraft, and fell directly to the ground.

In fact, when the moon spacecraft was first built, Tang Feng once proposed it to Dr. Schmitz. Build a space shuttle-like spacecraft designed to travel between the surface and the moon, after all, the space shuttle is much more comfortable than the return capsule.

However, Dr. Schmitz rejected the proposal. In the words of Dr. Schmitz, the space shuttle is certainly comfortable. But that thing is too expensive, and a round trip between the surface and space, just after returning to Earth, will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

So, the space shuttle is an expensive toy that is not worth looking at, and if you have the money to overhaul the shuttle, it is better to make a few more launches, or use the money to improve the ion thruster

As a person who is good at accepting other people's opinions, Tang Feng is naturally as good as a stream. In this regard, Dr. Schmitz is an expert, and Tang Feng has always been good at listening to the opinions of experts on things he does not understand.

Eventually, Dr. Schmitz adopted the most common method of return, the return capsule. This thing is used all over the world, and the safety is guaranteed, so to speak, as long as one of the three parachutes on the return capsule is not in trouble, then the safety of the return capsule can be guaranteed.

The space shuttle thing is certainly windy, but when the space shuttle returns to Earth from outer space, it is an extremely dangerous job.

Because the space shuttle usually has a speed of 27,000 km/h before entering the atmosphere, this big guy has to slow down before entering the atmosphere, and after reducing the speed, he must enter the atmosphere at an extremely suitable angle. This angle should not be too small or too large, and if the angle of entry is small, then the space shuttle will be "catapulted" out of the atmosphere like a tile that has been drifting in water, and if the angle of entry is too large, then the temperature generated by friction with the dense atmosphere will be too high, which will lead to irreparable disasters.

This suitable angle is generally 40 degrees.

In fact, when the shuttle enters the atmosphere, it is no longer a shuttle, but an unpowered ******. U.S. Space Shuttle Flight Director Paul. Hale once said, "Since it's just a huge ******, it can only fly once." ”

At this time, the speed of the space shuttle is still about 10,000 km / h, which is much faster than the speed of any aircraft in the world

As for the landing of the space shuttle, it is even more dangerous, because at this time, the operation of the space shuttle is completely manual by the captain. At this time, the speed of the space shuttle falling towards the runway is 20 times that of the average passenger plane, and the inclination angle of the falling route is 7 times that of the latter.

So, the space shuttle may seem like a windy building, but it's actually dangerous, especially when landing, and it's far less safe than the return capsule

It is for this reason that Dr. Schmitz chose to return to Earth with a return capsule instead of the useless space shuttle. (To be continued.) )