It was another sleepless night, since the start of the space program, Luo Jia no longer remembered, this was the first time she had driven a night train.

The sky is getting brighter, Luo Jia stands in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the office and looks into the distance, the time has entered May, the sun jumps out of the horizon, the sun is gradually stronger, a little dazzling, so Luo Jia put down the blinds halfway, but turned off the office lights.

After doing all this, Luo Jia did not go back to rest, but turned her gaze back to the huge whiteboard in the office.

On the whiteboard, there are dense data and formulas, which are the result of Luo Jia's countless calculations, and from the results, it seems that he is designing the most important mechanical component of the entire space program, the engine.

The space program needs at least two engines, a chemical jet engine that pushes a rocket out of the atmosphere, and an ion thruster installed on a spaceship, the latter that Luo Jia is thinking about and calculating.

Anyone who has studied space navigation will know that ion thrusters have actually left the current level of science and technology and entered the category of controlled fusion, and it seems that it is a little too advanced to start research before controlled nuclear fusion has been achieved.

However, this is Luo Jia's job, he is the head of the tough guy group, not only to focus on the present, but also to look at the distant future, although the ion thruster project company has not yet started, but the relevant preparations, Luo Jia must prepare early.

"Teacher, everyone is ready." Shen Lang knocked on the door and walked into Luo Jia's office, a little nervous and said: "Today is a key meeting to decide the route of the rocket engine, once we decide what engine technology to use, we can't go back." ”

Luo Jia nodded, indicating that he understood, and then he and Shen Lang came to the large conference room of the brainstorming group.

I saw that under the huge vaulted dome like a university auditorium, the projection screen had already been prepared, and it was directly connected to the Jiuquan Launch Center in the desert Gobi through the network.

"Ignition!"

With Luo Jia's order, Zhang Dongning, who was thousands of kilometers away, pressed the red button in front of him, and immediately saw the smoke billowing under the huge white rocket, but the flames did not push the rocket into the sky, but quickly extinguished, obviously this is not a rocket launch test, but an ignition test about propulsion fuel.

"We made it!" Zhang Dongning said happily on the other side of the screen.

The chemical department has become the third generation of chemical fuel, the final finalization and testing of liquid oxygen kerosene, Zhang Dongning is obviously very proud, although the space program may not use liquid oxygen kerosene, but it is always right to prepare in advance, use it or not, when the time comes, the company can not use, but can not do without.

Turning his head, Luo Jia faced his colleagues in the brainstorming group and wrote quickly on the whiteboard with an ink pen, from the first generation of solid fuel to the second generation of nitrogen tetroxide, to the third generation of liquid oxygen kerosene, and the fourth generation of liquid oxygen liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen methane.

Whenever Luo Jia wrote down the name of a rocket fuel, he would put a tick on the bottom to indicate that the technology had been fully mastered by Xingchen Technology.

When Luo Jia wrote about liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen methane, he did not tick below, but drew a big question mark, indicating that the fourth-generation rocket technology was not ready.

"Look." Luo Jia knocked on the whiteboard and said: "We have made good progress in the research and development progress of rocket engines, and we have caught up with the third-generation technology of the West and are rapidly evolving to the fourth-generation technology. ”

"Although we are determined to build a space elevator, rocket technology can not be ignored, because the launch vehicle is the pre-technology of the space elevator, tens of thousands of tons of materials waiting for us to send to the earth's orbit, my country does not have a super launch vehicle like Saturn V, so the only choice is to build it yourself."

"At present, the whole world is doing big things, wanting to build bigger and more ferocious rockets, taking China as an example, the planned Long March 9 rocket, with a height of 110 meters and a maximum diameter of 10 meters, adopts a three-stage mode, with a take-off thrust of 3,000 tons, a low-earth orbit capacity of 140 tons, a geosynchronous transfer orbit capacity of 66 tons, a lunar transfer orbit capacity of 50 tons, and a Mars transfer orbit capacity of 37 tons."

"Judging from the theoretical data, the Long March 9 is still very awesome, but our opponents are stronger, North America not only has a large rocket program, but also two, namely Musk's large Falcon, and NASA's SLS space launch system, if you add a month ago, Musk just announced the Super Falcon program, North America is three super heavy-lift rocket projects at the same time, its occupation of space, and even the purpose of building space-based weapons, it is obvious."

"Time is pressing, the situation is critical, even Russia, which has declined, also feels threatened, tightens its belt, and engages in an energy No. 5 plan, ready to go out and build a large rocket with a carrying capacity of 80 tons in low-earth orbit.

"But I've already said hello to the national team, the super launch vehicle, we do it ourselves, don't mix with aerospace science and technology, after all, aerospace science and technology is the national team, and we are a private enterprise, and there are a large number of experts from abroad, it is really not convenient to cooperate."

Everyone didn't say much, but they all knew very well in their hearts that the aerospace science and industry side was in a lot of trouble, not to mention the Long March 9, they hadn't even finished the Long March 5, which carried 25 tons in low earth orbit, and was thrown away by North America at least two positions.

In addition, the entry of private Xingchen Technology into the aerospace field is also a great stimulus to domestic aerospace enterprises and scientific research institutes, hoping to stimulate their potential.

Luo Jia said with a smile: "Although the whole world has said that it wants to compete with North America, and even India has ambitiously formulated a returnable rocket plan, but in actual operation, only we can do it with North America!" ”

"Russia's Energy Five, not to mention that it seems to have little hope of success, even if they succeed, what can they do? The carrying capacity of low-earth orbit is only 80 tons, which does not meet the criteria for starting 100 tons in the next generation space race. ”

"As for Europe, they have given up treatment, you should know that recently we have poached a lot of experts from Europe to come back, in addition to high salary benefits and immune activation, there is also an important reason, that is, the prospects of ESA are too poor, the Aliana 6 they engaged in is a medium-sized rocket, low earth orbit carrying only 20 tons, lower than Musk's Falcon 9, Huaxia's Long March 5, and lower than Russia's Angara."

"In short, the national team is not having a good time now, the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen engine YF77 used by the Long March 5 is very average, and the thrust is only 50 tons, far lower than that of the West, the neon LE-7A has 85 tons of thrust, the European Vulcan engine is 135 tons, North America is SSME186 tons, and the RS-68A is as high as 313.7 tons."

"Of course, assuming that the national team successfully develops the YF220 engine for the Long March 9, we will gain the strength to fight with the West in the field of heavy-duty rockets, but at the same time, I also said that the national team does not want to put all its eggs in one basket, so we need to join."

"At present, the situation is like this, North America has NASA and SpaceX, Huaxia has aerospace science and industry and our Xingchen Technology, two to two, North America has an overall advantage, we are the chasers."

Everyone couldn't help but sigh, Luo Jia's words of the all-round dominance of North America made everyone feel very uncomfortable, but according to the principle of seeking truth from facts in the tough guy Tiantuan, everyone also admitted the existence of the gap.

"No matter what kind of rocket, the engine is the most important, Mr. Luo, since we start from scratch and build our own rocket engine, then which route should we choose?" Xiong Ningyuan, who was in charge of nuclear physics, asked.

Luo Jia smiled, "Lao Xiong asked this question well, what is the quality of the rocket, fifty percent depends on the engine, as we all know, the fourth generation of launch vehicles has two routes, one is liquid oxygen liquid hydrogen, and the other is liquid oxygen methane, of which liquid oxygen liquid hydrogen engines have been manufactured by various countries, and liquid oxygen methane So far, no one has made a finished product, and some are just some design blueprints." ”

"The Long March 5 rocket that had an accident not long ago uses a 120-ton YF100 liquid oxygen kerosene engine for the booster, which belongs to the third generation of technology, and the core stage uses a 50-ton YF77 liquid oxygen liquid hydrogen engine, which belongs to the fourth generation of technology, so the Long March 5 is a hybrid of the third and fourth generation engines, not a complete version of the fourth generation technology."

"The main reason for the backwardness of technology is that the national team has not been able to keep up with the pace of research and development in the West, which has many secrets that are not known to outsiders, including in the nineties of the last century, even the Ministry of Aerospace was almost disbanded, and scientific research has stagnated, leaving a huge pit today."

"To put it bluntly, the reason why the Long March 5 exists is to make up for the lessons that fell a few years ago, when the neon LE7 engine and the North American SSME engine both use the staged combustion cycle, our YF77 is still using a gas generator."

"For the sake of safety, we will not discuss the specific details and reasons, I said these just to tell you a fact, whether we are engaged in liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen, or liquid oxygen methane, the difficulty is about the same, because the national team does not have much technical support for us, we have to start from scratch."

Ay~

Luo Jia's words made everyone feel sad, Huaxia has been bumping and bumping along the way, and he has been stumbled by the enemy, it is really not easy, in the computer and semiconductor circles, there are a lot of compradors who think like anything, and even such an important national capital as aerospace was almost taken to the gutter.

Ordinary people will never know those dusty pasts, how many times this land has been on the line, and how many times has it been stepped forward to turn the tide and collapse.

History will one day make the most fair judgment, and in a few decades, who will forever be recorded in the annals of history, who will be nailed to the pillar of shame in history, everything will be clear.

Luo Jia did not over-interpret the history, and directly entered the core technical link, while writing quickly on the whiteboard, he said in a deep voice: "To put it simply, liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen have the highest specific impulse and the strongest performance, but the engine design is extremely difficult, and the design of the storage fuel tank is also not easy, after all, liquid hydrogen is too much space, and there is a temperature difference with liquid oxygen, which must be insulated, resulting in the rocket being fat and expensive." ”

"The most ideal state is to use liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen as the second or third stage, and make the most of its super-large specific impulse, the most bullish rocket Saturn V in human history, is to use liquid oxygen kerosene as the first stage, and the second and third stages are liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen."

"The specific impulse of liquid oxygen methane is lower than that of liquid oxygen liquid hydrogen, higher than that of liquid oxygen kerosene, no carbon deposition at all, maintenance is very convenient, and the engine can be used indefinitely as long as it is not burned out."

"In terms of preservation costs, liquid oxygen needs minus 173 degrees, liquid methane needs minus 162 degrees, far lower than the minus 253 degrees required for liquid hydrogen, all along, the storage of liquid hydrogen in rockets, is a headache for scientists, at the same time, liquid methane density of 422 kilograms per cubic meter, much higher than liquid hydrogen 71 kilograms per cubic meter, the same size of fuel tank, liquid methane can make rockets fly farther, and the speed requirements for rocket engine turbopumps are not as perverted as liquid hydrogen."

"Anyway, when we take all the factors into account, we will find that liquid oxygen methane ranks second in the performance of the five major rocket fuel systems, but almost all the other indicators rank first, especially the engine has no carbon deposit at all, and can almost be recycled indefinitely, which can save us huge costs!"

"As we all know, our biggest problem at present is how to transport tens of thousands of tons of materials into the earth's orbit, which will exceed the total amount of human beings ever launched into space!"

"Therefore, there is only one choice in front of us, that is, to develop a liquid oxygen methane engine, only this kind of engine that can be infinitely reused, built quickly, and at a very low cost can complete the transportation of tens of thousands of tons of materials, which is an almost impossible task!"

Smiling slightly, the corners of Luo Jia's mouth raised a touch of Hudu and said: "So far, no one, including the invincible NASA, has completed a liquid oxygen methane rocket engine, and we will be the first!" ”