"It's a pity that the heavy launch vehicle has not yet fully passed the tests.

Otherwise we don't know how much we will be able to take to the moon this time! ”

Zhang Xingyang said with some regret.

The launch of Chang'e-2 is imminent.

The mission goal is to launch a lunar lander and a lunar rover.

"Even if the heavy launch vehicle passes the test, it will not be needed now."

Geng Bo poured a wave of cold water on the side:

"Whether it's a moon-orbiting communications satellite or a large lunar rover, the speed of their development is too slow.

It simply can't keep up with us. ”

Geng Bo complained that the research and development progress of the Deep Space Research Institute was too slow.

However, whether it is an Earth-Moon communication satellite or a large lunar rover, it is a research and development project that China has not been exposed to before.

So their R&D speed is relatively slow.

It's also understandable.

Zhang Xingyang's view is more objective: "Their speed is fast enough.

In just three years, a reliable lunar rover can be developed.

I don't know how many people have been exceeded! ”

Geng Bo complained slightly, he also knew that the research and development unit of the lunar rover had been developing almost day and night.

The development of their heavy-lift launch vehicles has been smooth, mainly because of the abundant technical reserves over the years.

In the last decade, the Rocket Research Institute has spent billions of dollars on research and development every year.

Most of the proceeds are invested in R&D.

That's why the research and development of heavy-duty launch vehicles can be completed so smoothly and quickly.

Other units are not like them, with a large amount of R&D funds and technical reserves.

So the speed will definitely drop somewhat.

"But it's interesting that the public voted for the name."

After Geng Bo complained a little, he turned his head and talked about the online voting of the lunar rover with great interest.

Unlike previous names, which are basically decided internally by the space system.

The naming of the lunar rover opened up channels for online voting and SMS voting.

Before the vote, everyone was shocked by the number of name proposals received.

Even because the Internet hasn't been too widespread these days.

However, the space sector still received 120,000 online proposals.

And nearly 40,000 offline mailing plans!

It took weeks just to review the proposals.

Ten names were eventually chosen.

They are Jade Rabbit, Exploration, Lanyue, Qian Xuesen, Dream Chasing, Dream Hunting, Moon Chasing, Dream, Mission, and Advance.

Voting was conducted online and via SMS.

Consider the possible online ticket swiping behavior.

Each IP can only cast one vote.

Even so, a total of more than 12 million votes were received.

This number of votes even surpassed the lunar rover voting in previous lives.

Mainly, the name of the lunar rover was advertised in the Spring Festival Gala before.

Not too long has passed.

After hearing the news, everyone basically voted for it.

Among the 12 million votes, the two names that received the most votes were the Jade Rabbit and Qian Xuesen.

The Jade Rabbit is close to 2.5 million votes.

The Qian Xuesen had more than 1.9 million votes.

The Jade Rabbit won the voting event by a large margin.

For most ordinary Chinese people, the Jade Rabbit is still more familiar.

In the end, the lunar rover launched this time was named Jade Rabbit!

"Chang'e hugged the rabbit and ran to the Toad Palace."

Zhang Xingyang said after reciting a poem:

"For Chinese people, the jade rabbit and the moon have a deeper connection."

"It's normal for everyone to have a higher level of recognition."

As soon as Geng Bo opened his mouth, Zhang Xingyang probably knew what he thought.

You know, at the time of voting.

Geng Bo mobilized many people to vote for Mr. Qian.

Qian Lao can be called the originator of the domestic rocket industry.

Everyone hopes that he will be able to leave his name in this famous space activity.

But Qian Lao himself didn't care.

Voted for the Jade Rabbit.

Although the old man was not in good health at this time, he was concerned about the development of the domestic aerospace industry.

Zhang Xingyang's words just now can be regarded as a little persuasion of him.

Don't take it too seriously.

According to Zhang Xingyang's idea, what is the name of a mere lunar rover?

Wait for the whole big one later!

Just name the old man a moon or a Martian base!

However, countries that are now able to achieve a soft landing on the moon.

There weren't a few of them.

There are only hairy bears and eagle sauces.

If this time the soft landing on the lunar surface is successful.

Then the dragon kingdom will become the third country to have a successful soft landing.

This honor is very loud in the world.

That's why Geng Bo and they are so concerned.

"I hope this name can bring us a little luck!"

Geng Bo also smiled and said.

Apparently already seen away.

"Hopefully the soft landing of the lander will be a smooth success!"

The launch vehicle carrying Chang'e-2 is a Hongyan-A rocket modified by Hongyan.

A number of technical transformations have been carried out.

By replacing the high-precision gyroscope, the accuracy of the rocket's orbit entry was improved.

Someone once used the phrase "from playing golf in Paris to hole-in-one in Shanghai" to describe the precision of the moonfall.

The reliability of the modified rocket has been increased to 97.82%.

In the three years prior to this, the Hongyan series of rockets had carried out more than 300 launches, and there had never been a failure.

It's an unimaginable miracle for the whole world!

The second improvement is the expansion of the selection of the launch window.

It's not the same as launching a satellite in Earth orbit.

The launch of the lunar probe is greatly affected by the motion laws of the earth, the sun, and the moon.

Different launch windows mean different rocket flight times.

The shortest flight time of the rocket is probably more than 1100 seconds, and the longest time is more than 1400 seconds.

Longer flight times mean more than just increased fuel consumption.

It also represents an increase in the number of problems that may arise in the middle.

There are a total of six launch windows for this launch.

During the three days pre-selected for the launch time.

There are two windows for each day.

The width of the first launch window is four minutes.

It's also the best time for a launch window.

The width of the second launch window is only a minute!

"Six different orbits launched, we all made rigorous calculations.

For different windows, our hardware and software are debugged accordingly.

There are no surprises. ”

Zhang Xingyang patted the other party's shoulder and said.

If one track misses, they have a second back-up.

and even the third article.

Article 4.

All the way up to Article 6.

There are a total of five backup options.

From the perspective of never taking precautions, it can be regarded as the limit.

Fault tolerance has been extended to an unprecedented degree.

"That said, but sometimes space engineering seems to be a matter of luck."

Geng Bo retorted slightly.

Zhang Xingyang actually knows more about this.

Luck is actually stacked up by a lot of small events.

However, Zhang Xingyang did not dwell too much on this.

"Luck must be on our side this time."

"Let's go, let's see our lunar rover."

After Zhang Xingyang finished speaking, he walked to the assembly workshop.

In the workshop, the lunar rover, which was transported by special plane in advance, has not yet begun to be loaded into the lander.

The surface of the rover is covered with a layer of gold leaf.

Almost all exposed surfaces have a layer of gold leaf.

Only the flag was not wrapped in gold leaf.

However, surface treatment has also been applied to prevent damage caused by the strong light and radiation of high-energy particles on the surface of the moon.

Because there is no atmosphere on the surface of the moon, when sunlight shines, the light is much stronger than on Earth.

And the moon rock also reflects light very strongly.

That's why everywhere, even the underside of the rover's chassis is wrapped in gold leaf.

Gold doesn't just reflect bright light.

What's more, it protects against high-energy particle radiation.

"It still looks good."

Geng Bo said after seeing the lunar rover.

"But it's a lot smaller than I thought."

The lunar rover is really not that big.

It is 2 meters long, 1.5 meters wide and 1.4 meters high.

Weighs 245 kg.

It is said to be a "car", but it is actually much smaller than a car.

Maybe barely the equivalent of a minicar?

This is also the first reaction of most people after seeing it.

Of course, this size does not include the size of the solar panels after they are unfolded.

If you unfold the solar panels, it may be even larger.

"That's pretty big."

Zhou Xuan was next to the lunar rover and said after looking at Geng Bo a few times.

"In addition to those manned lunar rovers, the size of our lunar rovers is already among the highest."

When it comes to his own knowledge blind spots, Geng Bo didn't say much.

"Did the lander check for something?"

Zhang Xingyang approached Zhou Xuan and asked:

"How did you get the rover out?"

If Zhang Xingyang remembers correctly, the lander and lunar rover were installed when they were transported.

On the side of the final assembly center, it is only necessary to load the integrated lander into the rocket.

"No problem, it's just a final check in case something goes wrong during the shipping process."

Zhou Xuan explained why the lander and rover were separated.

After listening to this, Zhang Xingyang nodded and said:

"Our first launch window, on the night of the 8th, don't forget."

Such an important time, of course, Zhou Xuan will not forget.

But he nodded his head, indicating that he understood.

On April 8th, it was a very clear evening.

The carrier rocket carrying the Chang'e-2 probe has already arrived at the No. 3 launch position at the Wenchang launch base through a special transport vehicle.

The inspection work before the launch of the rocket has also been completed for a long time.

Everyone is waiting for the launch window to arrive.

This is the first domestic launch of a lander to an alien planet.

Except for Zhang Xingyang, most people have no bottom.

Whether it is Geng Bo, who is in charge of the rocket part, or Zhou Xuan, who is in charge of the lander.

It's all true.

The window period for Chang'e-2 tonight is between 1:30 and 1:34.

It's a total of four minutes.

During this time, God is also very face-saving, and there is no little dark cloud.

The launch conditions are better than ever!

As the launch center begins, the blood-red countdown goes to zero.

After 340 milliseconds.

The electrical signal is transmitted to the rocket launch pad.

Launch vehicles take off!

Preparations are underway to transport the Chang'e-2 probe to the moon, 380,000 kilometers away.

Rocket launch process, for the staff of the launch center.

It can be said that I am familiar with it.

The launch process of the Hongyan rocket, during these years.

They have done it almost a thousand times.

All aspects simply cannot be described as skillful.

Basically, you can perform every step with your eyes closed.

Which second the rocket flies to what position.

Everyone knows it.

In the 140th second, the Chang'e-2 launch vehicle booster separated.

In the 150th second, the first and second stages of the Chang'e-2 launch vehicle separated.

In the 230th second, the fairing of the Chang'e-2 launch vehicle separated.

In the 340th second, the second and third stages of the Chang'e-2 launch vehicle separated.

In the 590th second, the third stage of the Chang'e-2 launch vehicle was shut down for the first time.

In the 830th second, the Chang'e-2 launch vehicle was ignited twice in three stages.

In the 1140th second, the Chang'e-2 probe and the rocket separated.

Subsequently, Chang'e-2 began its solo voyage of hundreds of thousands of miles between the Earth and the Moon.

After 28 minutes, Chang'e-2's solar panels unfolded and began to receive energy from the sun.

The launch of Chang'e-2 was a complete success.

But for the lunar lander, this is only the first step.

Four days later.

After a long flight.

Chang'e-2 is only a few hundred kilometers away from the moon.

The Space Flight Control Center began precise control of Chang'e-2.

In order to allow him to smoothly enter the 100-kilometer orbit around the moon.

The orbital entry went very smoothly.

So, four days later, the second orbit change operation continued.

The flight control center injects attitude adjustment and orbit change parameters into Chang'e-2.

Two and a half hours later, Chang'e-2 successfully entered an elliptical orbit with an altitude of 15 kilometers at the perilunar point and 100 kilometers at the apogee.

After completing the orbit change.

Chang'e-2 began to choose its own landing area.

There are a total of five alternative landing areas.

They are the Hongwan, Jiuhai, Wethai, Kepler and Ariskey impact craters.

Among them, the terrain of Hongwan is relatively flat.

And this area has never been investigated for scientific research, and its value is high.

Therefore, Chang'e-2 chose Hongwan as its landing area.

The landing program began three days later.

After the variable thrust engine was turned on, the power of Chang'e-2 began to decline.

The whole descended towards the moon at a speed of 1.7 kilometers per second.

After a series of deceleration maneuvers, Chang'e-2's speed dropped to 600 meters per second.

And by landing the camera began to observe the ground.

Fine-tuning of the landing site through an autonomous control system.

The main thing is to avoid some ground gravel and small ring pits.

Twenty minutes later, at a distance of 3.5 meters from the lunar surface, Chang'e-2's speed dropped to zero and it descended in free fall.

Successfully landed in the eastern region of the Moon's Rainbow Bay!

The Dragon Kingdom became the third country in the world to master a soft landing on the moon!

An hour later, the Earth Command Center gave the order to separate the lander from the rover.

After almost two hours of internal testing.

The Jade Rabbit slowly emerged from the lander and successfully landed on the surface of the moon.

And a few hours later, I sent back my first selfie!

(End of chapter)