With Dr. Schmitz's explanation, Tang finally figured out what the role of this new ion thruster was. According to Dr. Schmitz's explanation just now, as long as the spacecraft of Star Exploration uses this kind of thruster, it will be faster and fly farther than any current spacecraft!

"Doctor, I have to say that the news you brought to us is very good news, I think, with the research results of you and your research team, our spacecraft will be very wide and will go into space, and then point to the moon!" Tang Feng said with a smile.

"The moon? Oh, Tysters, that's a good goal, when I was in college, the last human moon landing was over, and I didn't make it, so I've always regretted that I didn't dedicate my strength to the human moon landing. So, Tyrant, if you do decide to launch a moon landing, be sure to let me know first! Dr. Schmitz said with a straight face.

"Haha, Doctor, haven't I already informed you again? I'm not kidding, I'm telling the truth, I'm going to wait until tomorrow's experiment is over, and then announce the launch of the moon landing program, if NASA is not willing to cooperate, it doesn't matter, Russia, ESA, and even Huaxia I think they should like to work with us very much, especially Huaxia. Doctor, I am a Chinese person, so I hope to cooperate with Huaxia to go to the moon, after all, they have successfully completed the feat of sending the lunar rover to the moon, with Huaxia's cooperation, coupled with the technological breakthrough of our ion thruster, I think it is time to launch the lunar landing program! Tang Feng also said with great certainty.

Hearing Tang Feng say this, not only Dr. Schmitz, but even Benjamin's eyes lit up.

Seeing that they wanted to ask questions, Tang Feng smiled and waved his hand and said, "The moon landing program is a huge plan. It's not something that can be explained in a while, besides, even if it is a moon landing program, Benjamin, what kind of plan do you think we can make with our little knowledge reserves? So. This moon landing plan has to be made by Dr. Schmitz! What do you think? My dear Dr. Schmitz, I wonder if you will be able to accomplish this glorious project? ”

Dr. Schmitz's face turned red with excitement, and after a long while, he said: "Don, don't worry, although I have not participated in the American moon landing before, I still know a lot about this aspect, and I also know a bunch of old guys, including the main people who participated in the formulation of the Apollo program back then. So, it's not that difficult! ”

"That's good. Doctor, I'll leave this matter to you. I'm not going to get those things, so I'm just going to pay for them! ”

After a pause, Tang Feng continued: "I said Doctor, our building is a little crooked!" I'm here to hear good news from you today, it's early in the morning, and if we don't hurry up, I'm afraid we won't have the energy to participate in the experiment tomorrow morning. ”

Dr. Schmitz scratched his head in a rare way. Said, "Okay, Tyrant. The main thing is that the moon landing program you came up with makes me so excited. Okay, I'll start arranging the moon landing program after tomorrow's experiment is over, and now I'm going to tell you and Benjamin about another breakthrough technology, that is, the recovery of our first-stage core rocket and the reuse of the first-stage core rocket have made breakthrough progress! ”

Tang Feng asked with a smile: "Doctor, is tomorrow's experiment this experiment?" ”

Dr. Schmitz nodded and said, "Yes, tomorrow's experiment is dedicated to validating this technology." Tang Dynasty. In fact, the recovery of the first-stage core rocket has been completed twice by two different companies last year, the first time is not Musk's company, but Amazon founder Jeff. Blue Origin, founded by Bezos, was the first to complete a rocket recovery mission on November 23 last year. And Musk's Falcon 9 was successfully launched on December 21 last year at the launch site in Cape Ka, and ten minutes later, the detached first-stage core rocket successfully returned to the landing site in Cape with a vertical landing under the control of the recovery system. However, compared to Falcon 9, which put 11 satellites into orbit at one time and successfully recovered the rocket body, Blue Origin's 'New Shepard' rocket only sent one satellite into space, and Blue Origin's New Shepard cannot be compared with Falcon 9 in terms of thrust and volume weight, so the first successful recovery rocket of human beings in the real sense should be regarded as Falcon 9. ”

Tang Feng nodded and said, "I know about that, I also saw the live broadcast of this launch on TV last year, which is very good." But if I want to say it, Musk's Falcon 9 is actually your child, and Falcon 9 was originally developed under your leadership. ”

Dr. Schmitz sighed and said: "Don, there are some things that you still don't know, although after I left Musk, Musk took the risk to carry out this experiment, and it was successful, but whether this recovered first-stage core rocket can still be reused, I dare not guarantee." Because I developed that type of rocket, because of financial constraints, I used some tricks at that time, so although the Falcon 9 was successfully recovered, I really can't guarantee whether the recovered first-stage core rocket can continue to be used. ”

After a pause, Dr. Schmitz explained: "The value of rocket reuse has always been a major problem for all countries, and in this regard, whether it is the United States, Russia or ESA, they are trying to find a way to solve it. Don, you know, whether it's the American Cosmos 5, Europe's Ariane 5, Russia's Angara-A5 or China's Long March 5, they are all one-time launch vehicles, and they complete their missions after launching the payload, but they also bring a thorny problem, that is, the launch cost is too high. The main reason for the high cost of rocket launch is in this one-time, the rocket body, engine, equipment, especially navigation guidance and control equipment, constitute the vast majority of the cost. ”

"Most of the launch vehicles used by the United States, Russia and ESA now use liquid oxygen kerosene as propellant, and the cost of this propellant is negligible. Of the more than $50 million offer from Musk's Space Exploration Program for NASA, the cost of fuel was only about $200,000. Even if Huaxia uses expensive dimethylhydrazine/nitrous tetroxide old Long March rockets, its fuel costs will not be much higher. Huaxia's Long March-2F rocket uses 82,000 yuan per tonne of metadimethylhydrazine and 17,500 yuan per tonne of nitrogen tetroxide. Therefore, the launch cost of the launch vehicle, fuel is the lowest aspect, and the most expensive consumption is on those disposable accessories. ”

"In the Falcon series of launch vehicles that I once presided over, the rocket body, engine, navigation guidance and control equipment accounted for more than 80% of the entire launch cost, so if these accessories can be changed from one-time to reusable, even if the first stage of the core stage rocket can only be reused once, then the cost of the second launch will be reduced to 62.5% now, and the cost will be reduced to 40% if it is reused five times!" (To be continued.) )