"Professor, there's a letter from NASA and I want to talk to you about cooperation."

In the office, assistant Tang Ran walked in quickly and handed over the documents in his hand to report.

"NASA?"

Hearing this familiar unit, Xu Chuan glanced up at Tang Ran in some surprise and asked, "They are looking for me to cooperate?" What to work with? ”

"It has something to do with the Webb telescope."

Tang Ran quickly replied: "NASA hopes to use our Xinghai space shuttle to carry a group of restoration engineers to the second L2 Lagrange point to carry out mirror restoration work on the damaged Webb Space Telescope. ”

"Fix the Webb telescope? Looking for us? ”

Hearing the news, Xu Chuan was stunned for a moment, and asked them to borrow the space shuttle to repair the space telescope? What's going on?

Although there was an accident in the last Artemis plan to land on the moon, it can only be regarded as an accident, and the lunar module is too unlucky.

As the world's largest space power, NASA's strength is still the world's first as a whole, how can it not even have the strength to repair a telescope?

In fact, he really misunderstood NASA about this work.

If it's a conventional telescope restoration, including the Hubble telescope, NASA can do it.

But the Webb Space Telescope is not among them, which has a lot to do with the location of the Webb Telescope.

Affected by the declining performance of the Hubble telescope and its inability to meet the needs of astronomical observations, as early as 1996 in the last century, NASA invited bids from the whole country to find a new space telescope program with extreme precision.

In the end, TRW was approved for development after strict screening, and it took a full 20 years to finally complete the design and manufacturing, and it was launched into space at 20:15 Beijing time on December 25, 2021.

And its final landing point is the L2 second Lagrange point, which is 1.5 million kilometers away from the Earth.

This distance is far more than the average distance of 380,000 kilometers between the Earth and the Moon, and almost four times that of the latter.

Such a long distance caused NASA to cut off its own arm, 'abandoning' the use of the space shuttle, unable to send astronauts to repair and maintain it.

Tang Ran nodded and said with a smile: "Yes, due to the impact of micrometeors and micrometeorites several times before and after, some areas of the C3, A1 and other mirrors of the Webb Telescope have suffered irreparable damage. ”

"Due to the distance of the L2 Lagrange point, NASA is currently unable to repair it, so we hope to use our space shuttle to carry out the repair work."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan touched his chin thoughtfully.

Interestingly, NASA would actually ask them to cooperate?

Based on what he knew about NASA, even if the Webb telescope was damaged, the Director Bill Nelson probably wouldn't have thought about him.

After all, with the 'proud' character of the Chinese people, especially in the field of aerospace, how can they easily ask for help from outside?

And it's still Hua Guo, who has always been uneasy with them, so he will lose his face when he says this, okay?

After thinking for a while, Xu Chuan looked up at Tang Ran and asked, "Was the Webb telescope hit by a meteorite and couldn't work properly?" ”

As far back as he can remember, the Webb telescope has been hit by many miniature meteors and miniature meteorites, the most serious of which seems to have damaged two mirrors and caused a long period of downtime.

But that seems to be something that will happen in 2027 or 2028, and it's only 2023 now, so it seems like there are still a few years left before that impact, right?

As for whether there was such a serious accident before, he really couldn't remember clearly.

After all, he didn't involve astrophysics in his previous life, and he didn't pay much attention to the Webb telescope.

Tang Ran shook his head and said: "It doesn't seem to be, judging from the relevant impact data previously released by NASA, the most serious impact event is the impact of a micrometeorite on the C3 segment in May 2022, causing irreparable damage." ”

"However, it is reported that the impact of the impact on the entire telescope was minimal, as only a small part of the telescope area was affected."

"And the Webb telescope itself was designed with this aspect in mind, with performance margins in optical, thermal, electrical, mechanical design and manufacturing to ensure that it can perform scientific missions even after years in space."

"Overall, the current Webb telescope is still working properly."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan nodded slightly, thought for a while, and then said, "Help me make an appointment with the director of NASA Bill Nelson to have a video conference to chat." ”

As for the business of repairing the Webb telescope, even if he knew that the other party might have some other ideas, he didn't really mind

On the one hand, this is of great help to China's reputation in the international aerospace field.

After all, what NASA can't do, Xinghai Research Institute can do, which is better or worse, and make a judgment.

On the other hand, based on the restoration work of the Webb telescope, he has some other plans in mind, and wants to see if he can talk to NASA about another cooperation.

On the other side, Tang Ran nodded and quickly responded, "Okay, professor." ”

After writing down the interview, she continued: "Another thing, several princes and royals of Saudi Arabia, Carthus and other countries in the Middle East contacted us through the channel of Prince Faisal and wanted to take a space trip aboard the Star Sea. ”

Hearing this, Xu Chuan didn't pay much attention to it, and replied casually: "Since it was introduced by Prince Faisal, you can contact Academician Chang Huaxiang and Director Weng Yunzong and ask them to arrange a space travel activity." ”

After the last space trip with Prince Faisal, when the prince was in the capital to concuperate, he told him to introduce him to business.

At the time, he thought it was a joke and didn't pay much attention to it, after all, space travel can be considered a high-risk activity at the moment.

Prince Faisal's own adventurous lifestyle doesn't mean that other Middle Eastern tyrants and royals also enjoy this kind of adventure.

However, it seems that Prince Faisal still did what he said and brought him a group of 'tourists'.

In that case, he can't do anything bad to others.

Anyway, with the capabilities of the Xinghai, a space trip is like taking a long civil airliner to travel abroad, as long as the inspection is completed, it can be carried out at any time.

After all, low-orbit space travel doesn't have much of a requirement for launch times and windows, as long as it doesn't crash into other countries' low-orbit satellites.

Moreover, with Xinghai's excellent autonomous navigation ability, even if it happens to be at the same altitude as the low-orbit satellite, it still has enough time and power to complete the orbit change.

On the other side, Tang Ran said a little tactfully: "This is no problem, but there are more royals who want to contact us for space travel." ”

"Even according to the maximum crew plan of Xinghai, it may take at least three space activities to carry out."

WTF？？？？

Hearing this, Xu Chuan had a question mark on his face.

If he remembered correctly, the Star Ocean could carry more than twelve passengers at a time if it only carried out a short-term space voyage with the largest number of crew members, right?

It will be carried out at least three times, how many people has Prince Faisal pulled for him?

"At present, there are a total of 15 members who have completed the registration and officially paid the fee. In addition, eleven people are hesitating and consulting. ”

"Judging from the strength of willingness, it is very likely that these seven people will choose to pay for the second batch of space travel after the completion of the first batch of space travel."

After a slight pause, Tang Ran glanced at Xu Chuan and prompted euphemistically: "In addition, the news of 'space tourism' announced by you on platforms such as Twitter around the neck has aroused the interest of many business people in the business world. ”

"So far, the number of appointments on the official website of Xinghai Research Institute has exceeded 50. And it's growing. ”

"Based on the current situation and the number of reservations, if we fulfill our promise, the space shuttle will be used for commercial space travel activities for at least the next three months, or even longer, and our own space development will be greatly limited."

Hearing Tang Ran say this, Xu Chuan was immediately dumbfounded.

Posting messages on online platforms such as scarves and tweets to solicit space travel tourists is a small matter for him, and he has long forgotten about it.

But he underestimated his fame too much.

The news he posted on major platforms rushed to the hot search of major platforms for the first time, and was naturally seen by various bigwigs in the business world.

For 19,980,000 meters of gold, less than 20 million meters of gold, you can carry out a 24-hour space travel activity.

This is not too cheap for those in the business world who have money and no place to spend, have long enjoyed all kinds of top-notch luxury services, and have long regarded money as a number.

And more importantly, Professor Xu and Prince Faisal of the Middle East, as well as Prince Ahmed Abdulrahman of the United Arab Emirates, have all been on board the space shuttle Xinghai and have come down safe and sound.

It can be said that the safety factor is full.

So as soon as the news came out at that time, many rich people were moved, and even took action.

But for Xu Chuan, it was just a whim after he saw NASA's press conference on 'space travel'.

After the relevant news was sent, he almost forgot about it.

But for the Xinghai Research Institute, the news and things he made public were naturally promised to be done.

So Chang Huaxiang, Weng Yunzong and Wen Yuanhang added them together, since this is the case, let's get one.

On the one hand, it can deal a blow to the reputation of NASA and the United States in the field of astronautics, and on the other hand, it can also earn funds for the space research institute.

In addition, space data such as the launch, operation, and return of the space shuttle is also a valuable asset, so why not have someone pay to help them collect data.

The things that kill multiple birds with one stone are also carried out in this way.

But the problem is that with the fermentation of time, and the praise and publicity of some rich people who have grabbed the first two batches of 'space travel' places from space, more and more rich people are interested in this matter.

More and more wealthy people have signed up, and even took the initiative to communicate with the Xinghai Research Institute, hoping to 'add money' to join the queue and experience space travel services in advance.

Although this can bring a lot of funds to the Xinghai Research Institute and the Aerospace Research Institute in a short period of time, it will undoubtedly occupy a lot of their own space resources.

After all, even if the performance of the space shuttle itself is strong, and the launch process is simpler than that of traditional chemical fuel rockets, you still need to do inspections, repair places, and consume time when you come back from space.

Civil airliners in the atmosphere have to be routinely inspected after landing, not to mention the space shuttle that breaks through the atmosphere to outer space.

What's more, at present, the Xinghai Research Institute can be used to carry out space missions, and there is only one Xinghai.

And according to the current situation, their space shuttle Xinghai has been reduced to a nameless 'commercial spaceliner'!

Although this is indeed the route that must be taken in the space field in the future, it is also the route to earn a lot of income funds through space travel.

But for the time being, the main task of the space shuttle is still to carry out various scientific research activities.

For example, the launch and recovery of satellites, replenishing resources for the space station, going to the moon to carry out exploration activities, and so on.

These scientific research activities are the main areas of focus of the current Xinghai Research Institute, and space travel is just a 'incidental' activity in these scientific research projects.

But now it has been crushed in reverse, taking up most of the space shuttle's sailing time.

This situation was something Xu Chuan had never thought of before.

Of course, this is not a bad thing for the Xinghai Research Institute.

After all, the reputation in the aerospace field has been beaten, and after occupying the market of space travel first, no matter who thinks of this aspect in the future, they will be given priority to think of them, and then earn a lot of money and market for the Xinghai Research Institute.

It's just that now, the space capacity is limited, which is a problem they need to solve right now.

Shaking his head with some tears and laughter, Xu Chuan said: "I will discuss this matter with Academician Chang Huaxiang later, and then I will answer you when the time comes." ”

After a slight pause, he continued: "As for now, let's just carry out the work according to the space mission that has been arranged so far." ”

"Okay, Professor."

Tang Ran nodded, answered after recording it, and after handling the work in hand, he turned around and left the office.

Behind the desk, Xu Chuan shook his head with a smile, sorted out the information on the table, and got up and walked towards the Aerospace Research Institute.

What is it called that commercial activities occupy the resources of scientific research and engineering in reverse?

It seems that the research and development of the second-generation space shuttle has been accelerated, including the first-generation Xinghai, maybe two more can be built?

After all, the money sent to the door, it still has to be earned!