"Mass projector...... That's how it goes. ”

Zhong Cheng automatically ignored the previous term, the space elevator is still too far away, and it may be difficult to reach in ten years.

But mass projectors are different, and mass projector technology based on superconducting electromagnetic acceleration orbits is not complicated, especially the lunar mass projector construction plan that already exists on paper in United Mining.

The biggest difficulty of the electromagnetic acceleration orbit used to throw ore into space is not the technology, but the scale and cost of construction.

Outside of rocket and aerospace aircraft technology, this is the most likely low-cost means of transportation that humanity is most likely to achieve.

Lin Ju: "It's just that the limitations are too great, the cheap means on the earth still have to wait for the space elevator, and the other carrying capacity is too small, and the size and weight requirements are very strict." ”

Zhong Cheng: "But even if it is carbon nanotubes, the center of gravity is very difficult to control, so to build a very large super space station, there are also material problems, at least 50 times stronger than our existing carbon nanotube technology, and the toughness will be greatly increased." ”

In fact, the earliest related concept can be traced back to Tsiolkovsky, the father of astronautics, who published an article in 1895 imagining an "equatorial tower" that extends to a synchronous orbit.

In 1960, the same Lucia engineer modified the idea and officially proposed the "space elevator", the most common scheme of hanging a rope from a synchronous orbit.

At the time, it was not considered feasible.

In a geosynchronous orbit at an altitude of 36,000 km, where the spacecraft is stationary relative to the ground, the ropes hanging down only need to bear their own gravity.

In the original scheme, it was also necessary to place a "counterweight" in a higher orbit above the synchronous orbit, which was connected to the space station in the synchronous orbit for trimming, so that the center of mass of the entire space elevator system was maintained in the synchronous orbit, otherwise the whole system would fall downward during operation, and finally tear the cable due to the difference in speed between the upper and lower orbits.

Later, it was realized that this was too demanding for the material and lowered its standards:

Instead of connecting the bottom end of the rope to the ground, connect a satellite in low orbit and a satellite in a higher geosynchronous orbit at the other end, so that their centers of mass also happen to be in synchronous orbit.

The purpose of this is to reduce the signal transmission power of the high-orbit satellites while maintaining the communication strength, and the signals of the two satellites are relayed through the connected cables.

In 1972, the Tethered Satellite program was changed, and it was suggested that it be combined with the Space Shuttle.

In 1974, the scheme evolved into a space shuttle hanging a cable to cut the Earth's magnetic inductance lines as it flew around the Earth for testing the spacecraft's power.

In 1992, the first test of the space shuttle "Atlantis" was carried out, and the rope got stuck after being released 200 meters.

In 1996, the space shuttle Columbia conducted a second test, and the rope released a full 19.3 kilometers, gaining a voltage of several tens of volts, and then broke.

In the new century, with the breakthrough of carbon nanotube materials, the space elevator has once again become a hot topic, but the results of specific calculations are still very disappointing.

Even with the most advanced technology at the time, if a hollow carbon nanotube cable with a diameter of 2 cm was built and only 1.7 grams per cubic centimeter, such a long cable would weigh 76,000 tons.

This means that it is impossible to launch a counterweight of about 76,000 tons above the geosynchronous orbit to launch a counterweight of about 76,000 tons.

This is just one, according to the ideal model, the space elevator needs at least 100, that is, 7.6 million tons, which is equivalent to 700,000 cubic meters of lead.

Modern carbon nanotube materials have advanced again, and they are only hovering around 1g per cubic centimeter, and it is impossible to realize a space elevator by calculation.

In order to achieve the level that can be achieved by manpower, the density of the material must be reduced by 2 or at least 1 order of magnitude, and the strength must be increased by more than 1 order of magnitude, that is, the comprehensive increase of 100 or 1,000 times.

Therefore, it is precisely because Zhong Cheng has systematically studied this technology that he is pessimistic about the prospects of the space elevator, compared to the construction of a 1,000-kilometer acceleration orbit on Mount Everest, it seems so easy, at least as long as it is really possible to spend money desperately.

Zhong Cheng obviously didn't believe it, but Lin Ju didn't explain much.

According to the judgment of several cutting-edge physicists, when the space weak force/super magnetic confinement laboratory is completed, there is no problem in manufacturing "Chi Yan" in small batches.

If the "Chi Yan" is used as the space elevator material, the mass of the 36,000-kilometer length is only 600 tons, and the minimum 6 can meet the actual needs, that is, the mass of the synchronous orbit space station is required to be more than 3,600 tons, which is completely within the feasible range.

If it is only used for preliminary verification tests, 5 tons of material is enough, although it is basically of no practical significance, but as long as it can be connected to the ground from the synchronous track without breaking, it can already prove its excellent performance.

While the two were discussing the future in full swing, Qiongzhou, thousands of kilometers away, launched the "Tianwen-1" probe on time, and the Xinyuan-2B rocket with a third stage was successfully launched, kicking off the prelude to large-scale Mars exploration.

……

"I once again set up the banner of the Huayin organization and announced the success of mankind's first multinational joint lunar exploration operation, and the Guanghangong base will become mankind's first extraterrestrial international residence (in Russian and French)."

Oleg Kononenko, along with Meng Forest and Thomas Speyke, planted the flagpole on the pedestal and read the prepared lines to the broadcast camera.

Then Meng Forest rotated the flagpole slightly, so that the flag of the Huayin organization was displayed to the greatest extent.

The design of the flag of the Huayin Treaty Organization contains a variety of elements, with a red background, a ring composed of stars in the middle, two hands clasped together inside the ring, and several mainstream rocket patterns and olive branches on both sides of the ring, and a streamer composed of flags of 12 countries below, and the top of the ring is the pattern of Huashan.

Then the three astronauts unloaded a large pile of folded alloy tubes from the landing module in turn and assembled them, and planted 6 flags on each side of the Huayin flag, and 13 flags spread out in a long row, which can be called the largest scale.

Originally, they also planned to add the United Nations flag, but Ami did not agree, so they had to give up in the end.

These 13 flags are basically the main tasks of the Dawning No. 4 mission, and it took more than three hours just to place them, which made the audience squatting in the live broadcast a little impatient.

After all this was done, there were televised speeches by several major parties on the ground, and the first day of the Aurora-4 mission came to an end.

When the direct broadcast camera was turned off, Kononenko finally shouted with relief:

"Britt, Davarich Lee, I want to drive your lunar rover."

Li Wei and Fu Xiangjie, who had arrived an hour earlier, sat on a small dirt slope not far from Shuguang No. 4, waiting to pick them up and take them to the Yushu base.

"Kononenko, it's a pleasure to see you again."

(End of chapter)