The Kunpeng landing module is a new heavy-duty landing module equipped with the Mars spacecraft. The reason why it is "heavy" is because the "Kunpeng" landing module, which has only been delivered to the Mars spacecraft for more than two months using the latest technology, is the largest landing module in the history of human spaceflight in terms of size and payload so far.

In fact, the "Eagle Falcon" landing module, which was unveiled three years ago, can already be regarded as the most awesome landing module in the history of human aerospace. After all, when humans landed on the moon before, the landing module was split, and once it landed on the moon, the lower part of the landing module would stay on the moon permanently.

But the "Eagle Falcon" is different. The use of the latest heavy-lift launch vehicle recovery technology, coupled with the breakthrough of applied materials, gives the Eagle Falcon the ability to travel to and from the mother ship and the landing planet as a whole. And because the "Falcon" uses new application materials, the payload of the "Falcon" has been greatly improved.

As an integrated lander that can travel between the landing planet and the mother ship in orbit, the fuel tank of the "Eagle Falcon" with a diameter of 4.4 meters and a length of 16.5 meters can hold up to 105 tons of chemical fuel at a time, which is almost ten times that of the Apollo lunar module. And compared with the poor payload of the Apollo lunar module, which can only land two astronauts on the moon, the payload of the "Eagle Falcon" is as high as 12 tons, which can not only send six astronauts to the landing planet at one time, but also the life support system on it can maintain the six astronauts to live on the landing planet for up to two weeks. Not to mention that in addition to pulling astronauts, the "Eagle Falcon" can also carry some additional loads such as lunar rover.

It is no exaggeration to say that the "Falcon" is almost like a space shuttle in other aspects, except that it has no wings and a payload that is slightly worse than that of the space shuttle. It can be said that the appearance of the "Eagle Falcon" is a major progress in human space technology.

Compared with the "Eagle Falcon" landing module, the "Kunpeng" that has just been developed and equipped on the Mars spacecraft is even more remarkable.

The Kunpeng is definitely a big one, because although the diameter of the Kunpeng is about the same as that of the Eagle Falcon, both of which are 4.4 meters, the length is more than double that of the Eagle Falcon, reaching 33 meters, which is almost the same size as the orbiter at the core of the space shuttle.

Moreover, the materials used to build the "Kunpeng" are better than the space shuttles of the year, so in addition to carrying up to 280 tons of chemical fuel at a time, the "Kunpeng" also has a payload of up to 32 tons, which can not only send multiple astronauts to the landing planet at one time, but also carry large things such as heavy exploration vehicles.

This kind of heavy-duty rover is not comparable to the small lunar rover or the Curiosity rover on Mars. This heavy-duty rover can not only be remotely controlled, but also allow astronauts to ride on it, like an off-road jeep, allowing astronauts to drive freely on the landing planet.

The reason why the "Kunpeng" was built was completely at the behest of Tang Feng. As early as after the first moon landing operation, Tang Feng felt that the payload of the "Eagle Falcon" was somewhat unsatisfactory. Although the "Eagle Falcon" was already the most advanced, the best, and the largest payload landing module in the world at that time, it seemed that the "Eagle Falcon" was still insufficient in the eyes of Tang Feng, who had experienced a moon landing operation.

You know, landing on Mars and landing on the moon are two completely different things, although the process is similar, but landing on the moon is more to test the ability of humans to land on other planets. Mars is different.

Mars is the most likely target planet for human migration, and it needs to be surveyed in detail, but in the past, Mars exploration was carried out only by Martian artificial satellites and unmanned Mars rovers that stayed in orbit around Mars, which were all computer-controlled.

No matter how advanced the computer is, it is not as powerful as the human brain. After all, in terms of judgment, analysis, and summarization, the human brain is far superior to that of a computer controlled by a program.

Because of this, after the first lunar mission, Tang ordered Dr. Schmitz's team to develop a landing module with a larger payload, as well as a Mars rover that could be piloted by humans.

Of course, to develop these two things, of course, it will be expensive. But for Tang Feng, he really didn't pay attention to the cost of billions of dollars.

Originally, this was just Tang Feng's momentary thought, in order to make the astronauts have a larger range of activities and save physical strength when they land on Mars in the future. As a result, after the star core was upgraded to level five, Tang Feng found out that he had a hot head at that time, and he actually found a very effective implementation method for the continued upgrade of the star core and the reasonable appearance of the Nautilus.

It's just that although Tang's idea is very good, it stumped Dr. Schmitz's team.

If this large landing capsule is built according to Tang Feng's requirements, then the dry weight of the landing module will inevitably exceed the GTO capacity limit of the "Star" series of heavy launch vehicles.

You must know that the landing module can use rocket recovery technology, that is to say, when the landing module lands on the target planet, the cabin of the landing module has to withstand a huge impact force, so the landing module must be cast by the method of integral molding, just like a heavy launch vehicle. Otherwise, once the impact force is too large, there is a high risk that the landing capsule will break.

In this way, the problem comes. The "Eagle Falcon" is designed according to the limit payload of the "Star" series of launch vehicles, so the Eagle Falcon can be transported to the Mars spacecraft at one time.

But the "Kunpeng" is not successful, the dry weight of the "Kunpeng" is almost twice that of the "Eagle Falcon", and the size is almost catching up with the space shuttle, and the "Kunpeng" cannot be like the Martian spacecraft, which can transport parts to the Martian spacecraft and then assemble. Therefore, in order to transport the "Kunpeng" to the Martian spacecraft at one time, it is necessary to consider other methods.

In the end, Dr. Schmitz's team decided to tie the booster to the Kunpeng after rigorous calculations, which solved the problem of insufficient thrust of the "Star" series of launch vehicles.

The so-called bundled booster is the same as when the Americans launched the space shuttle. The dry weight of the space shuttle is about the same as that of the Kunpeng, and the size is about the same, so in order to transport such a heavy creature to geosynchronous transfer orbit, it is necessary to add additional thrust to the launch vehicle. So the Americans came up with a way to tie boosters to aerospace aircraft.

When launching the space shuttle, a booster with sufficient thrust is tied to the space shuttle, and then ignited together with the launch vehicle, and the booster on the space shuttle plus the thrust of the launch vehicle produces a total thrust that is enough to send the launch vehicle carrying the space shuttle to the predetermined orbit.

It was in this way that the "Kunpeng" was transported to the Mars spacecraft in March this year. (To be continued.) )