On the other side, Jinling, in the Xinghai Research Institute.

After receiving the invitation letter from the Ministry of Industry and Information, Xu Chuan turned his attention to the construction of the space shuttle.

Under the condition that the veteran aerospace enterprises such as aerospace science and technology do not make trouble, but also support and cooperate with related work, the team led by Weng Yunzong and Academician Chang Huaxiang has completed one task and another at a rapid pace.

The space shuttle, which was originally expected to be completed until around May, is now nearing completion, nearly two months ahead of schedule.

With sufficient financial support, both the design team and the engineers are like tightening the clockwork gears, nervously busy in their posts.

Even in order to speed up the production progress of some parts, Shenyang Machine Tool Group even specially deployed two cutting-edge machine tools that used 'nuclear waste disposal technology' to trade technology from small island countries a few years ago to cooperate with the whole process.

Although the performance of the machine tool in the past two days is not comparable to the most advanced top CNC machine on the German side, there is no problem at all to solve the production of parts on the space shuttle.

Of course, the design and manufacture of a space shuttle is far from a simple matter.

In particular, some core materials and components are almost bought back at a high price.

Among them, the most typical is the deep space exploration equipment, star tracker and other necessary but not so critical core equipment on the space shuttle purchased from the United States.

If you want to say whether these things can be made in China, then they can definitely be made, but it takes a long time, basically on an annual cycle.

So in order to save time, these things are purchased from outside.

Of course, some of the core control equipment inside the space shuttle, such as flight control system, high-temperature surface insulation tile, carbon fiber material, etc., are the first batch of designs, and then handed over to domestic manufacturers for strict production acceptance.

The space shuttle Columbia broke away from the external heater due to foam insulation tiles and hit the left wing on the lower edge of the left wing, causing the entire aircraft to disintegrate, and the accident in which all seven astronauts on board were killed has not been forgotten to this day.

This kind of equipment related to the safety of astronauts, neither Xu Chuan nor the senior management dared to relax in any way.

On the one hand, it is indispensable to guard against people, and if NASA resorts to some subordinate means, they will suffer heavy losses.

On the other hand, the restart of the space shuttle is also under a lot of pressure in China, and this route was personally vetoed by Mr. Qian in the early years.

If problems arise during the first test flight, it will deal a major blow to China's development in the aerospace field. Even the development of the entire world space field, the space shuttle will be completely driven to the edges.

After all, there was a United States that planted a heel on the space shuttle, and more than ten years later, they planted it again, and the whole world is afraid that the world will seriously think about whether the road of the space shuttle is really feasible.

Two weeks was not a long time, and at the beginning of March, Xu Chuan rushed from Jinling to the magic capital with the invitation letter delivered to him by the Ministry of Industry and Information.

Although the name Jiangnan Shipyard sounds like 'running away with my sister-in-law', it is the oldest military shipbuilding enterprise in China.

It was founded in 1865 (the fourth year of Tongzhi), and has undergone many changes such as Jiangnan Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, Jiangnan Shipyard, Jiangnan Shipyard of the Navy, Jiangnan Shipyard, etc.

For a century and a half, the company has endured the vicissitudes of history and created countless firsts.

The first furnace steel, the first steel cannon, the first ironclad ship, the first 10,000-ton hydraulic press, the first submarine, the first frigate, and now the first aircraft carrier with controllable nuclear fusion power.

It can be said that this national enterprise has not only made great contributions to the country's military development, but also is a microcosm of the continuous development and growth of Huaguo's industry.

Of course, its real name is not Jiangnan Shipyard, it is just a common name, in fact, its full name is Jiangnan Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd.

Taking the high-speed train to the magic capital, under the driving of Zheng Hai, the Hongqi car drove all the way to the door of the hotel prepared by Jiangnan Shipyard for the invited visitors.

got out of the car, and when Xu Chuan appeared at the door of the hotel, the two men who walked side by side towards the door were all bright, and they walked quickly to meet them.

The man at the head smiled, and stretched out his right hand from afar: "Academician Xu, long time no see." ”

Seeing the figure coming up, Xu Chuan smiled and shook his hand, and said, "Director Gao, I didn't expect you to be here." ”

It was Gao Hongming, who was arranged from the science and technology department to assist in the work when he was researching controllable nuclear fusion technology before.

Later, after the completion of the controllable nuclear fusion technology, the senior director of the Strategic Planning Department also left the Qixia controlled nuclear fusion project, and he was replaced by Wen Yuanhang.

After shaking hands, Gao Hongming let go of his hand and said with a smile: "After the position change, I need to have a more detailed understanding of the work of strategic planning, so I was invited to participate in this sea ceremony." ”

After a pause, he looked at the old man who was standing next to him, who was much older than him, raised his right hand slightly, and introduced:

"Academician Xu, please allow me to introduce that this is the chief designer of Jiangnan Shipyard, Academician Zheng Yuanhang."

"Hello, Academician Zheng."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan smiled and stretched out his right hand and shook hands with the old man with gold-rimmed glasses in front of him.

"I've heard of Academician Xu's name for a long time, and I'm finally lucky to meet him today." Warmly holding Xu Chuan's outstretched right hand and shaking it, this Academician Zheng smiled and said hello.

The three of them exchanged pleasantries for a while and then left the hotel lobby.

After all, tomorrow is the launching and naming ceremony of the Haixi aircraft carrier, and compared to Xu Chuan, the guest who was invited to watch the ceremony, both Gao Hongming and Zheng Yuanhang still have a lot of work to do.

Xu Chuan didn't care, and after showing the invitation letter with a barcode to the hotel staff, he brought his belongings and entered the room.

The next day, the launching and naming ceremony of the 'Haixi' aircraft carrier was officially held at the Jiangnan Shipyard of Huaguo Shipbuilding Group Co., Ltd.

In the early morning, Xu Chuan woke up very early, and before seven o'clock he washed and dressed himself, and then pressed the third floor along the elevator and rushed towards the restaurant.

Although the launching and naming ceremony of the Haixi did not begin until 11 a.m., he was interested in the historic shipbuilding company.

Especially in 19 years, Modu Unicom and Jiangnan Shipbuilding integrated the industrial chain, and jointly promoted the intelligent transformation project of 5G private network + collaborative manufacturing, which was some of the key points he had learned before he came.

Industrial production is moving towards intelligence, which is the development trend of the times, and it is something that will inevitably be touched.

Xinghai Research Institute is now also working with some enterprises to build its own intelligent platform, so learning from other companies that already have a mature system can undoubtedly save him a lot of time and energy.

In the restaurant, Xu Chuan picked out some breakfast with a plate.

I have to say that the breakfast in this hotel is quite rich, from steamed buns, fried dough sticks to noodles, rice noodles, steamed dumplings and everything.

Of course, it is also possible that it was specially prepared for the launching and naming ceremony of the Hercynian in reception.

I picked something to eat casually, and just wanted to find an empty place to sit down, a familiar voice came to my ears.

"Academician Xu got up so early? Why don't you take a break? ”

A voice with a little kindness and a smile sounded in his ears, Xu Chuan followed the voice and looked at it, and the person who greeted him was the person who often exchanged letters with him in the past.

"Good leadership."

Xu Chuan hurriedly said hello.

The other party smiled and waved his hand, and said, "What are you doing so politely, and you're not an outsider, sit, sit first, and have breakfast together." ”

The other party smiled and took the dinner plate, found a quiet corner and sat down, Xu Chuan followed with breakfast, and the two chatted like this.

"Speaking of which, I really didn't expect you to be interested in the ceremony of launching an aircraft carrier."

Tearing off a little white-flour steamed bun, the old man put it in the beef soup and soaked it, then put it in his mouth and said with a smile.

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "It's definitely a little interested, after all, this is an aircraft carrier." In the past, when I watched the news, I always wanted to go up and see what the aircraft carrier looked like, but today I might have the opportunity to see it. ”

The old man laughed and said: "This kind of wish, just say it, let alone go to the aircraft carrier to have a look, even if you want to drive it, there is no problem." ”

Hearing this, Xu Chuan hurriedly waved his hand and said, "Just go up and take a look, I'm afraid I won't even be able to recognize the dashboard if you drive an aircraft carrier or something." ”

The old man smiled and said, "It's thanks to Youling." ”

After a slight pause, he said with some nostalgia: "In the past, we always thought about when we could have a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier of our own. ”

"After a long discussion, in the end, the conventional power was determined due to various reasons such as immature technology."

"I didn't expect it, I didn't expect it."

As he spoke, the old man looked at Xu Chuan with a smile, and then said: "Now our Hercy is not only nuclear-powered, but also nuclear-fusion-powered. No one dares to think that all this is thanks to you. ”

For controllable nuclear fusion technology, although the fusion reactor on the ship is not quite in line with people's assumptions of this 'science fiction' technology, it will sound a little low, after all, fusion reactors have come out, and space carriers and aerospace fighters are more in line with science fiction ideas.

Either way, the deterrent effect is real.

The old man knew very well that the changes brought by miniaturized nuclear fusion technology to the Haixi aircraft carrier were relatively compared to its original conventional power, no, even compared to the nuclear fission reactor power aircraft carrier, the small size of the fusion reactor itself was enough to bring great changes.

It is smaller than a fission reactor and does not need to carry large amounts of fuel, so it has a more spacious interior and can carry more carrier-based aircraft and weapons and ammunition.

And, more crucially, the endless energy that fusion reactors can provide.

It can not only provide great convenience for the aircraft carrier itself and the electromagnetic acceleration orbit, but also provide a steady stream of supplies for electromagnetic weapons, laser weapons and other equipment.

Not to mention the former, both its endurance and electromagnetic acceleration orbit are quite important for the significance of the aircraft carrier.

The latter, whether it is electromagnetic weapons or laser weapons, have the advantages of lower cost, higher security, smaller size and weight than traditional artillery and missiles.

However, the disadvantage is that the technology is difficult to manufacture, and both are large energy consumers.

You must know that such things as shipborne high-energy electromagnetic weapons and laser weapons, even aircraft carriers that use the function of nuclear fission reactors, it is difficult to provide a continuous and sufficient supply of high-power electrical energy for electromagnetic/laser weapons.

A large, full-powered electromagnetic cannon can easily swallow up all the power generated by a small power station.

Not to mention laser weapons, which are pure energy in their own right.

To supply these two weapons, the requirements for the energy supply system can be described as extremely demanding.

But a fusion reactor is completely different, and even if you fill the hull with the latter two, it can take on the corresponding power load.

Equipping these two weapons on an aircraft carrier can greatly improve the combat capability and survivability of the aircraft carrier itself, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is an unsinkable fortress.

(End of chapter)