If cosmic rays, solar storms, and high-energy particles are the first major factors that cause spacecraft to malfunction.

Then the combustion, explosion or leakage of fuel or oxidizer is the second most important factor in spacecraft accidents.

And the first and second factors may affect each other and trigger a chain reaction that can cause an accident on the spacecraft.

Like the Apollo 13 accident.

Apollo 13 is the third manned mission to the moon in the Apollo program.

On April 11, 1970, the Apollo 13 spacecraft was launched by the Saturn 5 launch vehicle, and nearly 56 hours after liftoff, the Apollo 13 spacecraft No. 2 oxygen tank exploded.

Fortunately, after being rescued by the ground command center, the three astronauts on Apollo 13 successfully landed on April 17, 1970 after fighting various harsh environments.

So what was the situation like with the Apollo 13 spacecraft at that time?

Was it the oxygen cylinder that was defective in advance or was it mishandled during the flight that caused the explosion?

After the incident, Mi Lijia set up an accident investigation team to find out the cause of the accident.

The reason is that the two thermostat switches of the heating system installed in the liquid oxygen tank of the service compartment are connected into a channel due to the arc discharge effect of overload, so that the temperature of the heating line is as high as 500 degrees, scorching the nearby wires, and finally causing an oxygen explosion.

Don't think that oxygen as an oxidant will not explode, high-pressure and low-temperature liquid oxygen, even if there is no fuel, once the equipment to maintain low temperature fails, the liquid oxygen will rapidly vaporize and expand, thereby bursting the liquid oxygen bottle, which is a typical physical explosion.

"From the space accidents in various countries around the world, we can analyze the failure of electronic components, fuel and oxidizer explosions are the main factors in spacecraft accidents." Huang Haojie clicked on these two factors, and then zoomed them out.

"We have also studied these two factors in the space agency, but they can only treat the symptoms but not the root cause." Li Zhongting said helplessly.

"The first factor, the failure of electronic components, I think it should be solved from two directions, one is to enhance the radiation resistance of electronic components, and the other is to isolate high-energy particles, solar storms, and cosmic rays."

"The radiation resistance of electronic components can only be solved by some radiation-resistant materials, such as polyimide aluminum, gold foil is generally used on our spacecraft to resist radiation." Li Zhongting opened his mouth and said.

In fact, gold is better at insulating radiation than lead, which is why it is used in large quantities on spacecraft.

As for why, now ordinary people think of lead when they think of radiation resistance, it is because lead has huge reserves and is cheap, while gold is expensive and can only be used in specific fields.

In fact, the larger the atomic sequence, the stronger the resistance to radiation, but the larger the atomic sequence, the rarer and more expensive the element, of course, this must also exclude those elements that have radiation.

"Then increase the use of gold, instead of gold leaf, and use gold plates." Huang Haojie said directly.

As for why he is so confident, because Dr. Yuan Quan of the Institute of Seawater Desalination has recently realized the gold filter membrane technology.

Galaxy Technology has built a gold extraction plant on the east coast of the East Island, using solar thin film to generate self-sustaining electricity, which can extract 15~20 kg of gold from seawater per day.

A factory can produce 5.4~7.2 tons of gold a year.

If that's not enough, it's a big deal to build a few more extraction plants.

Seeing Huang Haojie's confident appearance, Li Zhongting and the others could only nod their heads in agreement.

"In fact, I have another solution to the problem of cosmic rays and high-energy particles, and that is to create an artificial magnetic field to deflect high-energy particles." Huang Haojie said his plan.

"Artificial magnetic field ?......" Li Zhongting certainly knows the principle of this technology.

That is the principle of imitating the planetary magnetic field of the blue star, isolating the high-energy particles, and deflecting those high-energy particles by making a magnetic field.

Of course, this method is not 100% isolated, and the high-energy particles that can be deflected by the magnetic field must be charged, and particles that are not charged cannot be deflected, such as neutrons.

If artificial magnetic fields and radiation-resistant materials are combined, most of the high-energy particles and cosmic rays can be isolated.

But man-made magnetic fields are not so easy, especially with such a large man-made magnetic field.

"Maybe it can be achieved with room temperature superconductors." Academician Ma said a method.

"That's right, I have the same idea as Academician Ma, that is, to achieve an artificial magnetic field through room-temperature superconductors, and cooperate with radiation-resistant materials to reduce cosmic rays and high-energy particles."

As soon as the idea was opened, everyone became active, expressed their opinions one after another, and perfected the plan.

Therefore, there are always more ways than difficulties, and there is always a way to solve it with a direction.

What's more, the material science of Galaxy Technology has also greatly reduced the difficulty of implementing many technologies, after all, sometimes it is not that the technology is not good, but that the materials and technologies are not right.

Just like thinking about the current nuclear fusion power generation, Galaxy Technology has solved the problem of superconductors at room temperature, and only if someone can solve the problem of anti-neutron irradiation, then the problem of nuclear fusion power generation will be solved.

After discussing the radiation resistance of electronic components, the next step is the explosion of fuel and oxidizer.

If the failure of electronic components can be repaired or dragged half-dead, then the failure caused by the explosion of fuel and oxidizer is absolutely life-or-death.

Especially when space is still in the atmosphere, 90% of the mass of spacecraft is fuel and oxidizer, and you can see how terrible it is when you think about it.

Just like the Saturn V, the entire launch vehicle weighs only 3,000 tons, and the fuel and oxidizer weigh 2,900 tons.

This is not 2,900 tons of water, but 2,900 liquid oxygen, kerosene and liquid hydrogen, a little spark or static electricity, and the entire launch vehicle can be blown to pieces.

"This is a hydrogen curing agent developed by our Galaxy Technology, which can turn hydrogen into a kind of submetallic hydrogen at room temperature and pressure." Huang Haojie sent a copy of the information on submetallic hydrogen to everyone.

When Wang Guanghai saw this name, he couldn't help asking: "Submetallic hydrogen?" What is the relationship with metallic hydrogen?"

"Let's put it this way! Submetallic hydrogen and metallic hydrogen are almost the same in density, but they do not have the superconducting and explosive characteristics of metallic hydrogen, and it is a relatively stable substance, unless the temperature exceeds 372 degrees Celsius, otherwise submetallic hydrogen will not burn and explode. Li Xiang explained.

Academician Ma also said:

"We have tested it on the experimental spacecraft, and this kind of submetallic hydrogen is very stable, as long as the temperature does not exceed 372 degrees Celsius, there is no problem, of course, we designed the storage bottle to ensure that the internal temperature will not exceed 100 degrees Celsius."

"Since it's very stable, how do you burn?" Wang Guanghai was very puzzled.

Academician Ma replied with a smile: "It is not submetallic hydrogen that is burned, and hydrogen, stimulated by specific conditions, will quickly release hydrogen. ”

"I see, that is to say, when it is not in use, it is in the state of submetallic hydrogen, and when it is used, it is in the state of hydrogen." Wang Guanghai suddenly realized.

"Your technology is very powerful, even if you don't have a mass projector, you have a lot to do on launch vehicles." Spacecraft experts were amazed.

"Yes! I didn't expect you, Mr. Huang, to hide this hand. Li Zhongting also lamented that the technical reserves of Galaxy Technology are very strong.

Changing the liquid hydrogen that requires low-temperature and high-pressure storage to submetallic hydrogen that can be stored at room temperature and pressure reduces a lot of difficulty in the design of launch vehicles or spacecraft.

After all, to maintain liquid hydrogen at low temperature and high pressure, once something goes wrong, it will be catastrophic, and if you don't get it, the entire spacecraft may be blown into slag.

"If submetallic hydrogen is used to replace liquid hydrogen, it is not only safer and controllable, but more importantly, the density of submetallic hydrogen is 7 times that of liquid hydrogen, which means that the container that used to store 1 ton of liquid hydrogen can now store 7 tons." Academician Ma continued.

Wang Guanghai, Li Zhongting and others also calculated that generally speaking, the specific gravity of the fuel and oxidizer of the hydrogen-oxygen engine, that is, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, is 1:8.

Why is it 1:8, the reason is very simple, because the product after the combustion of hydrogen and oxygen is water, that is, H2O, according to the atomic mass of the hydrogen atom is about 1, and the atomic mass of the oxygen atom is about 16, you can calculate that the specific gravity of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen is 1:8.

However, the density ratio of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen is very different, the density of liquid hydrogen is 70.8 kilograms per cubic meter, while the density of liquid oxygen is 1141 kilograms per cubic meter.

The density ratio of liquid hydrogen to liquid oxygen is about 1:16, so that 1 ton of liquid hydrogen requires 14 cubic meters to store, while 8 tons of liquid oxygen only 7 cubic meters.

If you switch to submetallic hydrogen, 1 ton will only need about 2 cubic meters.

In a spaceship, not only the weight must be compared, but also the volume.

If you have seen the situation of the Shenzhou spacecraft in outer space, you will know how crowded the space inside is.

The astronauts almost didn't even have the space to operate the dashboard, which is why Dongtang and Mao Xiong's spacecraft was equipped with a stick, which was used to press the dashboard button.