When Dr. Schmitz explained this, everyone, including Tang Feng, understood.

Although Tang Feng already knew the general structure of this Martian spacecraft, the specific functions inside Tang Feng was not very clear, especially the twelve huge wheel cabins, Tang Feng only knew that these wheel cabins had gravity, but he didn't expect that Dr. Schmitz actually planned to plant plants in these wheel cabins.

For long-distance space flights, if astronauts do not consume fresh vegetables for a long time, it is absolutely impossible to rely on those dehydrated vegetables alone. The astronauts who live on the space station usually live in space for a few weeks before returning to Earth. However, if you survive in space for a long time and rely only on dehydrated vegetables, astronauts will still suffer from a series of diseases such as gastrointestinal damage and constipation, and in severe cases, it may even cause fatal diseases such as scurvy.

Therefore, in order to fly in space for long periods of time, astronauts must regularly use fresh vegetables rich in vitamins.

Although there is currently a distrust of growing vegetables in space, this kind of research is essential because it is a threshold that must be crossed if humans want to go beyond the Earth to other planets.

In fact, in August last year, the astronauts of the International Space Station began to eat vegetables grown on the space station. It's just that these astronauts just tasted it, and all the vegetables grown on the space station were going to be transported back to Earth.

But Dr. Schmitz didn't just want astronauts to taste those space vegetables, he also wanted to grow fresh vegetables that could actually be eaten by astronauts for a long time.

Sure enough, Dr. Schmitz said, "When the entire spacecraft is built, I will arrange for the spacecraft to be in geosynchronous transfer orbit for at least three months of experiments, including the cultivation of space vegetables." I believe that growing vegetables in the gravitational rim cabin. Then these vegetables will certainly not be like the space vegetables grown in the weightlessness of the space station. In fact, I have consulted many plant experts on this matter, including NASA plant experts, and they all said that if vegetables can be grown in gravity conditions, then the probability of genetic mutation will be very low. So, I need at least three months to prove it. As long as space vegetables can be completely solved. Then it's time for us to really start heading to Mars! ”

After a pause, Dr. Schmitz said: "If we take 10,000 steps back, even if the space vegetable cultivation is not successful, as long as our new ion thruster is powerful enough, we can reach Mars in the shortest possible time." Those less successful space vegetables can save our astronauts at a critical moment, and they can also provide enough oxygen for our Martian spacecraft."

As if he felt that these words were a little inappropriate, Dr. Schmitz's old face turned a rare red, and he continued: "The cultivation of space vegetables is not something I can control, but we must conduct such experiments, otherwise." This technology will never be able to break through. And, in my plan, even if space vegetables are really not edible, let's not forget that we have a new type of ion thruster. ”

"Do you know why I set up two functional compartments in this Martian spacecraft chapter as fuel storage compartments? Because I want to do a long-term experiment using ion thrusters to accelerate rockets. When the Deep Sky 1 unmanned probe was doing experiments, although the small ion thruster was only the thrust of a piece of paper, it could increase the speed of Deep Sky 1 by 32 km/h per day, and if the little guy could work continuously for 300 days, it could increase the speed of Deep Sky 1 to 9700 km/h. That small ion thruster, which is only 300 mm in diameter, has such a function. And if our large ion thrusters continue to accelerate the spacecraft, it is easy to increase the speed of the spacecraft to 20,000 km/h in a very short time! ”

Dr. Schmitz found another pictorial. This pictorial is still a computer-generated zoomed-in photograph of a part of the Martian spacecraft. Judging by the pictorial, this should be the main power module of the Martian spacecraft. Sure enough, Dr. Schmitz pointed to the pictorial and said, "Did you see our ship?" Our Martian spacecraft doesn't just have one ion thruster, in my design, in addition to the four ion thrusters in the bow, in the stern. In our main power cabin, a total of twelve large ion thrusters with a diameter of more than 900 mm are placed, and the thrust of this ion thruster is more than seven times that of the little one, and our main power cabin has a total of eight main and four auxiliary twelve thrusters, so. Once our spacecraft flies, it will be several times or even more than ten times faster than Deep Space One! ”

Sam asked weakly: "Doctor, the total weight of Deep Space 1 is only more than 460 kilograms, and the total mass of our spacecraft is estimated to be more than 600 tons, although the thruster of our thruster is far greater than that of Deep Space 1's ion thruster, can we thrusters push such a heavy guy?" ”

Dr. Schmitz smiled and explained: "In space, the mass of a ton and the mass of a thousand tons are almost the same, and they can be propelled with only a small external force, so the question you asked is not valid." Of course, in order to ensure that our ship can have a higher muzzle velocity, I set up a second fuel tank. The second fuel tank is stocked with ordinary chemical fuels, and in the middle of our main power compartment there is a space engine that uses chemical dyes for propulsion. Sam, can you understand how our ship is going? ”

Sam nodded and said, "Doctor, I understand when you say this, if our spacecraft needs to gain a certain initial velocity, we will first use an ordinary rocket engine for propulsion, which will be very short, and then our ion thruster will take over the ordinary space engine to provide continuous thrust for our spacecraft." Of course, if our ship needs to slow down, the four ion thrusters at the bow will work to slow down the ship. Doctor, am I right? ”

"Hehe, that's right! That's the power side of this spacecraft! And once our ion thrusters can meet the expected design requirements, then we may only need three months to fly from Earth to Mars. In this way, even if the cultivation of vegetables in space is unsuccessful, it will be enough for the astronauts to eat dehydrated vegetables in half a year. That's what I'm prepared with both hands! (To be continued.) )