For a space launch mission, every gram of material needs to be carefully calculated.

After all, for every extra gram of weight, the cost will increase a bit.

Even for the 26-ton Hongyan rocket with LEO orbital carrying capacity, weight saving is necessary.

After all, the cost of each kilogram is also about 1750 yuan, although the cost is not very high, but as a satellite developer who is used to living a hard life and has a careful calculation of every gram of weight.

Even just a few grams of excess weight is an unforgivable thing.

And now, the communication satellite developed by the One Zero One Satellite Research Institute is overweight by 50 kilograms!

According to the pre-established data table for communication satellites, the weight of low-orbit communication satellites should be in the range of 670 kilograms.

And now the first generation of experimental models made by the One Zero One Satellite Research Institute weighs 720 kilograms!

"Dean Zhang, this is already the limit of what we can do technically!"

Zhong Zixin, as the director of the One Zero One Satellite Research Institute, said to Chen Zhongyan and Zhang Xingyang.

Three days ago, Zhong Zixin, who assisted in the research of communication satellites, and Zhang Xingyang and Chen Zhongyan reported that they had now made the first prototype satellite.

Originally, the two of them were quite happy after learning about this, after all, in less than a year, it was already very good to be able to develop the satellite.

Therefore, the two did not have much expectation for the performance of the satellite, after all, the current domestic technical level, the two of them did not know.

But when they saw this overweight satellite almost ten percent in person, the two of them were still a little surprised.

After all, the design life of this communication satellite is not long, and the orbital altitude is relatively low, and its quality has been designed to be quite high when formulating design parameters.

Of course, this is only relative to satellites in the same orbit, as for those high-orbit satellites whose daily work is in geostationary orbit and weighs more than three tons, it is still incomparable.

"Although we had foreseen that the weight of the satellite would definitely be relatively high when the parameters were formulated before, your weight is too exaggerated!"

"And didn't we give you a forty percent weight relaxation when we made it before?"

"How can you be so overweight!"

Chen Zhongyan frowned and looked at the satellite prototype in front of him, and asked.

Although at the beginning of the project, Chen Zhongyan had thought that he might be overweight, but he also did not expect that it would be possible to be overweight.

"The problem here is more complicated, although the weight in other aspects is reduced because of the design life, but because the number of access users is too large to meet at the same time, those high-power antennas are a little overweight!"

"And the communication equipment in it is also overweight, and this is the latest achievement of the Communications Research Institute!"

Zhong Zixin is also very helpless, being able to do this is actually the result of all the scientific researchers of the One Zero One Satellite Research Institute working overtime!

The goal of the first phase of the construction project is to launch 40 low-orbit communications satellites and complete the initial networking work.

The satellite communication network that has not yet been built is mainly responsible for areas with relatively dense users, such as East and South China.

Of course, at this time, there were actually no mobile phone users in the whole country.

By the end of '97, there were only 13 million mobile phone subscribers.

Even if 40 satellites are used to cover mobile phone users nationwide, each satellite is actually responsible for less than 350,000 users.

And it's actually impossible for these 350,000 users to use communication services at the same time.

According to the analysis of the current user usage period, even during the peak usage time, the number of simultaneous users will not exceed 200,000.

Of course, in order to have some margin in case of some emergencies, when formulating the design parameters, the peak number of users is designed to be 400,000.

This number of users is actually very difficult to achieve with today's communication technology.

In order to be able to connect communication satellites to the same time to reach the design capacity of 400,000 users, the Institute of Communications Research has no better way to meet the design requirements by strengthening and increasing the method.

"Is there anything I can do here, can I continue to lose weight?"

Zhang Xingyang circled around the communication satellites that didn't look very big, but had several thick antennas, and only after a few turns did he ask Zhong Zixin.

Weight reduction was a must, and when it was first planned, the predetermined weight of the satellite was actually designed to be about 300 kilograms.

Even later, the weight of the satellite was loaned again and again, almost more than doubled, reaching 650 kilograms.

"We're also doing weight loss at the moment, but judging from the current situation."

"Unless the communication research institute has made relatively large progress in communication equipment manufacturers."

"Otherwise, it is not very likely that we will be able to rely on us to make a fuss about other parts of the satellite and make a lot of weight loss!"

As the person in charge of the entire satellite project, Zhong Zixin also wants to reduce the weight of the satellite, but the work that needs to be done here cannot be achieved by the Satellite Research Institute alone.

"On top of that, if we put a lot of effort into reducing weight, the development of the satellite could be delayed for a while."

"No, the satellite must be in the sky by June!"

As the general person in charge of the entire low-orbit satellite communication network project, Chen Zhongyan heard the problem of time and quickly rejected Zhong Zixin's idea of delaying the launch time of the satellite.

"In terms of rockets, Dean Zhang, they have been prepared for a long time, and they have been waiting for your satellite!"

"In any case, even if it is overweight, the first batch of communication satellite launches must be completed by June!"

It is not for nothing that Chen Zhongyan is in such a hurry, in fact, it is a satellite that is operating in space and is planned to be used for international communications work in the future.

It is necessary to apply to the International Union of Communications for an orbit, and if it is not possible to complete the launch of the satellite before June, the communication satellite can be put into the scheduled orbit.

In this case, the track that was originally applied for will be automatically invalidated, and if you want to use it, you need to apply again.

Here, back and forth, maybe months have passed.

Then the state's project planning for the entire satellite communication network must be postponed.

Such a heavy responsibility, even Chen Zhongyan can't afford it.

"If it really doesn't work, then we can only find a way to launch this big guy regardless of the weight."

Zhang Xingyang said a little helplessly.

In fact, there was a reason why the weight of 650 kilograms was originally set, so that all the 40 satellites built in the first phase could be launched into space at one time within the carrying capacity of one Hongyan rocket.

Now that the weight has increased by 50 kilograms, it will be necessary to launch the first phase of the satellite system in two missions.

"We can launch 30 satellites in the first batch, and the second batch of satellites can actually use second-hand Hongyan rockets."

Although the Hongyan rocket was recovered, the actual launch of the second-hand rocket was not carried out.

But Zhang Xingyang is still confident that he can complete the task satisfactorily for the Hongyan rocket that he completed by himself!

(End of chapter)