Saying that, Tang Feng stood up and walked out, and after a while, he walked in with a colorful pictorial made from a computer, and said to Sam and the others: "This is the shape of the Mars spacecraft designed by Dr. Schmitz, of course, this pictorial is spelled out by a computer, but if this spaceship can be built, the shape must be like this!" ”

In the pictorial is a very strange spaceship, which looks like a giant wheel, but the axle is relatively long, and it looks almost the diameter of the wheel.

To put it bluntly, the spaceship is like a one-meter-long steel tube as the central shaft, and then a huge wheel with a diameter of about one meter is installed about four-fifths of the way through this steel pipe. Between the rim and the tube, there are spoke-like connectors that support the entire rim. However, the rim is not complete, but is made up of twelve individual functional compartments. There is a distance between each functional compartment, so this rim doesn't look complete.

Benjamin likes to watch movies, and when he saw the shape of this spaceship, he immediately exclaimed in surprise: "How can this spaceship look so similar to the spaceship in the movie "The Martian"? ”

As soon as Benjamin said this, several other people also nodded. "The Martian" is a sci-fi blockbuster released by Twentieth Century Fox in October last year. Directed by Scott, famous movie star Matt. Starring Damon.

Tang Feng has also seen this film, and it is really good. The most striking inside is the addition of Matt. In addition to how the male protagonist played by Damon saves himself on Mars, it is the spaceship that looks very tall to carry out the Mars mission.

Tang Feng said with a smile: "It's really about the same, because if human beings want to explore deep space, under the current circumstances, they have to adopt such a spaceship shape to allow human beings to live normally under weightless conditions for a long time." You know, it normally takes at least nine and a half months to get from Earth to Mars. It took Curiosity nearly ten months to get to Mars. Although we will be using the latest ion thrusters as engines on this new spacecraft, it will probably take less than three months to get from Earth to Mars, and maybe even longer. For a few months, if the people on the spaceship live in weightlessness all the time, then their bodies will not be able to bear it. Therefore, a ship of this structure. to be able to make the spaceship have artificial gravity. ”

"According to Dr. Schmitz's calculations, this kind of circular spacecraft design with a radius of 75 meters is actually the use of O'Neill's cylinder theory, at the rotation speed of the wheel at 4.22 revolutions per minute, the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the functional chamber can make the people in the functional chamber obtain about one-third of the earth's gravitational force, although compared to the earth, this gravitational force is insufficient, but it is enough for the astronauts on the spacecraft to avoid adverse conditions such as bone decalcification and muscle relaxation."

Sam nodded and said, "I understand this. There is no gravity in space, but centrifugal force can be used to make people feel gravity, isn't that how it is played in movies? ”

Chris laughed: "Sam, a movie is a movie, reality is reality, and a movie is not the same as reality." I mean, with such a fast rotation per minute, can people stand it in it? ”

Benjamin also shrugged his shoulders and said, "yes." If you follow it in a circle, will you faint after a while? And also. Can this big wheel be used with such a long attachment bracket? Why do I always think this thing isn't that reliable? ”

Tang Feng smiled and explained: "Actually, this is the largest spaceship that can be made with our current technology, according to Dr. Schmitz's words, the larger the radius of this big wheel, the better, if the radius of this wheel can exceed four thousand meters, then the functional compartment located in the wheel rim position." will gain the same gravitational pull as the Earth. It's a pity that our current technology can't make the spaceship that big at all, and the radius of 75 meters is already the limit. As for whether people will be dizzy in it, this should still be no problem, because people rotate with the functional warehouse in the functional warehouse. As long as you don't stare at the main body of the spaceship that doesn't rotate in the middle for a long time, you won't get dizzy. People feel dizzy, mainly because of the comparison with those stationary references, and in space, you can't find any references other than the spaceship itself, so" Tang Feng shrugged his shoulders and made a "you understand" gesture.

Several people nodded in understanding. However, several people did not take their eyes off the spaceship, as if they were imagining what it would be like to be on this spaceship, and they didn't even bother to eat.

After a long time, Sam sighed and asked, "Man, how much money are we going to need to build such a spaceship?" ”

Chris and the three of them also looked at Tang Feng, this amount of funds is the most important thing, no matter how good the spaceship you design, if you don't have the money to build it, it's useless. Like Bill from New York? Kemp and Ted? Majegika once designed a space station that resembles a giant "space mushroom" with a length of 400 meters, and it is said that if such a space station can be built, people will live in it no different from living on Earth.

However, the cost of this space station is estimated to be more than 300 billion US dollars, which is three times the cost of the International Space Station.

Tang Feng looked at the four eager eyes, knowing that these four guys were interested in this spaceship, so he said: "To build such a spaceship, the current estimate is not less than 80 billion US dollars, or does this mean that our heavy-duty launch vehicles can really meet the standard of recyclability and reuse, and each star launch vehicle can be used at least ten times in a row, so it is possible to reduce the cost of this spacecraft to 80 billion US dollars!" ”

Several people gasped, they may have estimated a huge number, but when this number really came out of Tang Feng's mouth, they still couldn't accept it.

After a long time, Chris swallowed his saliva and asked in a low voice: "Don, I don't think the size of this spacecraft seems to be much bigger than the International Space Station, why is the cost of this spacecraft so high?" ”

Tang Feng shook his head and said, "Chris, I won't answer your question for the time being, because if we continue to talk, our lunch will be completely wasted." I don't want my mom's hard-earned lunch to go to waste, so we'd better finish the food on the table and then we can have a video call with Dr. Schmitz, and it's better to let Dr. Schmitz explain the specifics! (To be continued.) )