The history of the development of the Space Shuttle can be said to have a long history.

Since the completion of the Apollo program in the sixties, the United States has focused its research and development efforts on the space shuttle, which can be launched multiple times and is simple to maintain. In this space race, the Soviet Union naturally followed suit, successively producing three space shuttles, including Buran and Little Bird, and achieved certain results.

In this context, Huaguo is naturally not far behind, and the corresponding plan is also being introduced.

For example, the original project codenamed 863-204, that is, the so-called "space-to-earth round-trip transportation system", in the early stage of the project bidding, domestic aerospace experts broke out a protracted debate over the "space shuttle". Even the voices in favor of the space shuttle once prevailed.

However, just when everything seemed to be settled, this report was sent to Mr. Qian, who had taken a back seat at that time.

After reading the report, Mr. Qian only annotated nine words on it, and it was precisely these nine words that completely changed the technical route of the space shuttle, which was almost certain, and also changed the future appearance of China's aerospace industry.

"The spaceship case should also be reported to the central authorities."

Looking back now, there is no doubt that such a trade-off was made at the time.

The space shuttle is not as glamorous as it seems on the surface, and even two superpowers, which compete with each other "with the strength of the whole country", can hardly support mankind's dream of free travel to and from the sky.

In the United States, for example, Columbia has a design life of 20 years per 100 launches, but all five U.S. space shuttles in service have barely more than 100 launches, and the cost of each launch and maintenance is much higher than estimated at the beginning of the design.

The Soviet Union was even worse, three space shuttles were launched once, and after the nineties, they could not fly, and one of the test machines was bought by Germany and put in a museum.

Instead of tossing so much, it is better to simply use rockets and study how to recover the second-stage rocket, the cost may not be much more expensive than the mature space shuttle technology.

However, times are always changing.

If we look at problems from the perspective of development, we can find ways to solve any problem.

Space Shuttle Assembly Center.

Standing next to the industrial robot, Lu Zhou, who was wearing gloves, picked up a metal cylinder the size of a mineral water bottle from the plastic basket, weighed it in his hand, and then approached the port of the metal cylinder and carefully examined it along the smooth metal surface.

"How do you feel two laps bigger?"

On the terminal screen of the CNC machine tool next to it, a string of bubbles popped up.

Xiao Ai: [I'm sorry master! This is already the smallest size that Xiao Ai can do...... QAQ】

Lu Zhou: "Don't be like this, I don't blame you...... You've done a great job. ”

Xiao Ai: [Really? 0.0】

“…… Hmmm"

Xiao Ai: [Happy! φ(≧ω≦*)?】

Lu Zhou: "......"

What he is holding in his hand at the moment is an enlarged version of the Hall thruster on the wreckage No. 3, which is also the limit of what this CNC machine can process.

It's not that Lu Zhou didn't try to make Xiao Ai smaller without sacrificing performance, but from the current volume, every 1mm reduction in the maximum diameter of the cross-section, not only will the overall processing difficulty increase geometrically, but the stability of the propulsion unit will also be seriously affected.

However, even if it is difficult to completely restore the technology on the wreckage three, this imitation is quite awesome.

The 1.32-meter-diameter engine port can integrate about 200 Hall propulsion units, and by pressurizing and rectifying the plasma-state xenon gas in the ionization chamber, it can eject a plasma plume that accelerates to one-thousandth of the speed of light, thereby generating a maximum thrust of 200 KN.

The thrust of a single engine is 200KN, and the sum of 5 engines is 1000KN.

Even with a full load of 50 tons, an acceleration of nearly 1G can be obtained in a gravity environment. Although it is faster than a chemical rocket in acceleration, its advantage in specific impulse allows it to send itself into low earth orbit without carrying a heavy working fluid.

The only trouble now is that a 100M fusion battery is probably only enough for one X-Hall thruster.

To meet the energy consumption of this Hall thruster, he would have to further upgrade the power of the fusion battery.

"It seems that the power of the fusion battery must be increased to more than 500M...... It's better to have 1000M," Lu Zhou thought as he stared at the Hall propulsion unit in his hand, "and the power management system needs to be improved...... Speaking of which, is there a way to integrate the ionization chamber of five engines together? Or simply get a larger, more integrated Hall thruster. ”

After putting the Hall propulsion unit back in the plastic container and fixing it, Lu Zhou turned around and left the assembly center building, came to an office in the main building next to it, and found Hou Guang, the technical director of the Space Shuttle Assembly Center of Star Technology.

Speaking of this Hou Guang, he is also a bull.

As a veteran professor who had participated in the 863-204 project, although he was working on the design of the space shuttle as an intern with his mentor at that time, he still accumulated considerable research experience in this field. Later, he served as a professor at Beijing Aviation University, engaged in research in the field of aerospace.

It stands to reason that such a cow is difficult to dig, but after learning that the boss of the company is always Lu Zhou, and Lu Zhou plans to build a space shuttle, he didn't even talk about the treatment in detail, so he accepted the offer of Star Technology without saying a word, and rushed to Jinling the next day.

More than a month has passed since he took up the position of technical director.

Lu Zhou has always been very satisfied with his work.

How to design this space shuttle, after all, is not his specialty, and it is better to leave this kind of professional matter to professional personnel.

“…… I've carefully studied the design of the shuttle, and more than 40% of it had to be redesigned, given the size of the energy supply components and the electric propulsion system. ”

Lu Zhou: "What is the concept of more than 40%? ”

Hou Guang thought for a while and gave a clearer statement.

"Probably from the wing position backwards, it all had to be redesigned."

Lu Zhou nodded.

"You're an expert at the space shuttle, just do what you say. Also, based on your experience, I would like you and me to briefly assess how much the whole project will cost? ”

Hou Guang pondered for a while and spoke.

"A conservative estimate of $1 billion...... Of course, until the new design comes out, no one can say exactly how much it will cost. ”

$1 billion ......

In terms of the cost of the space shuttle, this price is not expensive, after all, Columbia cost Americans a total of 2.5 billion from development to construction, and it was 2.5 billion decades ago. The fact that it could be built for $1 billion is largely due to the fact that most of the designs were completed before the 90s to the millennium, and the fact that the assembly center was able to process most of the parts and only needed to supply basic raw materials.

However, although it is ready to burn money......

The cost of $1 billion is really a bit out of his budget.

Thinking of this, Lu Zhou couldn't help but worry about money for a while.

Want to sell a little East Asia Power stock?

Although it is not listed, it will definitely not worry about selling if it is sold, after all, everyone can see the potential of this fusion industry giant in the future. However, now the construction of the Fuxi pile in Daya Bay has just begun, and the Southeast Asian power grid project has just completed the first phase, so it is really a loss to go out at this time.

Do you want to borrow money from the bank?

However, this is an aerospace project, this kind of project with a long investment cycle and no obvious profit expectations can be seen, how can it be so easy to get a loan.

Just as Lu Zhou was hesitating, there was a sudden knock at the door.

Retracting his divergent thoughts, Lu Zhou looked at the door and spoke.

"Please come in."

The door was pushed open, and the secretary of the office of the director of the assembly center appeared at the door.

It seemed that she didn't expect Lu Zhou to be here, and the secretary was slightly stunned when she saw Lu Zhou, but soon a surprised expression appeared on her face.

"Professor Lu!"

Lu Zhou: "What's the matter?" ”

In an excited tone, she continued.

"The funding we applied for from the space agency some time ago has been approved!"