"Although the core power system cannot be solved now."

Zhang Xingyang took out two pieces of A4 paper and discussed with Geng Bo.

"But the architectural design of a large space platform can already begin."

Geng Bo: "What kind of functions should a large space platform have?" ”

Prior to this, the largest and most complex space man-made design in China was the Tiangong-1 core module, which is still in operation.

His design is also mainly based on the design that Da Mao once designed on the space station.

As for the large space platform that Zhang Xingyang said, they don't have anything to learn from.

The difficulty of design has more than doubled.

It's almost an exponential rise.

"What do you think a large space platform should do?"

Zhang Xingyang asked rhetorically.

After thinking for a while, Geng Bo spoke:

"First of all, there must be different spatial divisions, such as living areas, scientific research areas, and manufacturing areas."

"Different divisions, different functions, these are preferably modular, and can be changed relatively easily."

Zhang Xingyang shook his head: "Modular design is not a very good idea, there are many benefits of modular design on the ground, but these benefits are useless in space." ”

"The integrated design is better than the modular design, the cost is lower, and the structure is more stable."

Zhang Xingyang changed his words and said: "However, the division of professional divisions does have merit. ”

"But there are some necessary things that every functional area still needs to have."

"For example, the air circulation system, the water circulation system, which is necessary to maintain the survival of the human body."

In fact, these have been reflected in the design of the space station in the past.

Now it's just a little bit of a consolidation of them.

Geng Bo nodded, and then said: "The structure of the platform, do you still have to use the current cabin structure?" ”

"Or are we going to develop a completely new structure?"

Zhang Xingyang did not answer this question directly, but asked rhetorically:

"Do you think the current structural design can support how many people can live in the space station?"

Geng Bo fell silent.

Even in this era when aerospace science and technology have been relatively developed.

Those who can go to space are still a few elites among human beings.

All the people who went into space combined, there are less than three hundred.

The proportion of all human beings is not even one in a million.

The actual ratio is about 1 in 20 million.

The largest space station ever designed to accommodate 12 people at a time.

And this is still a short-term accommodation.

In the case of long-term members, it can only accommodate a maximum of six people.

"The design ceiling, without taking into account other factors, is probably less than twenty people."

Geng Bo said with some difficulty.

It was already the maximum he could think of.

More than twenty people, the station's air filtration system will be unbalanced.

If you can't make oxygen for so many people, the only way to wait for everyone in the spaceship is to suffocate to death.

"How many people will live and work in our nuclear-powered starport?"

In the previous PPT presentation stage, Zhang Xingyang once drew a pie in this regard for everyone.

Geng Bo felt that his throat was a little dry, and after swallowing his saliva, he said:

"The initial planning crew is 150 people, the medium-term planning crew is 580 people, and the final construction target is 3,600 people."

According to Zhang Xingyang's ultimate construction goal, this is simply to build a city in space.

Although the population of 3,600 is not even comparable to some normal towns.

But considering where it is.

Once built, it will be one of the most peculiar cities in the world.

Space City!

This name alone can kill all the super metropolises on the planet in seconds.

However, judging from the number of people, it can also be seen that the construction of such a space starport is difficult.

More than 3,000 people need all kinds of daily necessities that can make people collapse.

Adults need at least 2 kilograms of various foods per day to maintain their health.

Especially in space, the conditions on board are even harsher than those on ships in the Age of Discovery.

In addition to the necessary carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, you also need a lot of fruits to supplement various types of vitamins.

Of course, it is also possible to supplement vitamins by taking pills.

However, long-term supplementation may lead to psychological discomfort and even depression.

Roughly calculated, Xinggang needs to consume nearly eight tons of food every day!

If it is completely dependent on ground sustenance, then it is really possible to realize the life of such a large-scale population in space only after Zhang Xingyang has made the space elevator out.

And that's just the food.

"What kind of design do you think can support so many people living in space?"

Zhang Xingyang continued to ask.

He wasn't in a hurry, and he was even in the mood to pour himself a new cup of hot tea.

In fact, he was able to easily come up with a complete set of design plans for the star port.

Even for the nuclear reactor of the nuclear-powered starport, Zhang Xingyang can come up with a mature design plan.

But he didn't want everyone to be too dependent on him.

He is now like a crutch, and in the difficult times, everyone had to rely on his crutch to move forward.

But now that everyone has actually grown a lot, they can get rid of his crutch and move forward alone.

The more important reason is that Zhang Xingyang also discovered another thing.

My body is starting to go downhill.

Ten years ago, when I was just back in this era.

He was even able to stay up for days and nights in a row, just to be able to see the day the material was formed for the first time.

But now, after eleven o'clock in the evening, he is so sleepy that he can't think at all.

Although the brain is still trying to run wildly, the power has been unplugged, and it is impossible to think.

This discovery even made him a little frightened.

At one point, I thought I might not have long to live.

In the future, the phenomenon of declining physical fitness will already be insulated from human beings.

The advancement of technology is not just the technology that has allowed humans to give birth to the canning of brains.

And there are ways to keep the physical body at its peak.

Through micro and nano medical robots, the body's hormone levels, nervous system, and muscle system are maintained at their peak.

So this kind of aging is a feeling that Zhang Xingyang has never experienced in his past career.

Therefore, we have to think about a more long-term problem.

What to do if you die.

This makes him more cautious about the development of various new technologies.

Try not to give too many technologies that are ahead of the times, but to guide others to think in various aspects.

"At the very least, it is necessary to be able to circulate materials on a small scale to be able to supply such a large number of people to live in space."

After thinking about it, Geng Bo said:

"For example, all kinds of vegetables and fruits can actually grow and cycle themselves in space."

Space cultivation is actually not a particularly new thing.

In the first batch of crew members of Tiangong-1 that has just ended, there are many related projects.

The crew managed to grow several different fruits and vegetables in space.

Including, greens, lettuce, baby cabbage, potatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, melon and so on.

There are quite a few varieties that have performed very well in space growth experiments.

Not only is the edible portion larger, but the sugar content is also more abundant.

This is mainly due to the abundant light in space.

They can even keep the light on 24 hours a day for as long as they want.

"But in this case, are we going to build a space farm in the starport, won't it make the starport even bigger?"

Zhang Xingyang asked a question here.

"We can build a space farm instead of a starport, but a space farm." Geng Bo almost blurted out.

"The cost of transportation and transmission in space is still far less than that of launching these living materials into space from the ground."

Zhang Xingyang smiled and said, "So do you now know what our large space platform should look like?" ”

Geng Bo felt a hint of inspiration cross his mind, and he calmed down and thought about it for a while.

"Versatility!"

"Large space platforms need to be able to switch back and forth between various uses!"

Geng Bo said excitedly:

"We don't need to integrate all the functional areas into one starport, but we can spread them out and implement them through different platforms!"

Thinking of this layer, Geng Bo also understood what functions a large space platform should have.

"First of all, they need several interfaces that can interface with other platforms."

"Not only can it be used to transmit materials, but it can also complete the flow of people between various platforms."

"This is something that our current automatic docking technology can fully solve."

In terms of automatic docking, a lot of experience has been gained on Tiangong-1 before.

During the few months that the astronauts were in orbit, more than half of the supply spacecraft used automatic docking technology.

The success rate is 100%!

It can be said that in terms of automatic docking technology, Dragon Kingdom is currently in the first position in the world!

"For the core module, we can use a drum ship design."

When Geng Bo talks about the design idea of the core module, he has to be much more careful.

Because in this regard, there is no programmatic reference.

He can only refer to the various aspects he has learned before.

Millions of years of human evolution have taken place on a gravity-dependent Earth.

This makes it difficult for human beings to survive without the gravity of the earth.

Decades of space exploration have obviously not allowed humans to naturally evolve bodies that adapt to life in space.

In terms of biology and medicine, it is also difficult to solve the problem of human space adaptability.

So for the sake of the human body, the time of life in space is either very short, no more than two years.

If you stay in space for more than a year, when you return to Earth, you are basically useless.

It is difficult for the body to readjust to gravity.

Therefore, astronauts after the new century generally do not live in space for more than six months.

In this way, it will be easier to recover after returning to Earth.

"If you want to live in space for a long time, you must have the existence of simulated gravity, and with our current capabilities, it is impossible to directly create a gravitational field."

Geng Bo recounted his thoughts.

In fact, it is impossible to directly create a gravitational field now.

Even in the later generations of science after several major explosions, the reproduction of the gravitational field is already a very difficult and thankless task.

"So we really have to go down the road of simulating the gravitational field by centrifugal force."

"When a circular wheel with a diameter of 10 kilometers rotates at a speed of 200 seconds, the centrifugal force is about the same as the earth's gravity."

"The width of the round wheel can be made very small, no more than a hundred meters of space is enough."

In fact, even if it is only 20 meters, it can meet the living space needs of more than 3,000 people.

The area of the rim of the round wheel is more than 1.5 square kilometers.

Such an area can even be said to be very empty for people nowadays.

However, considering that many of them are functional areas, it is actually pretty much the same.

"How are you going to launch a ten-kilometer-sized drum space station into space?"

Zhang Xingyang did not directly refute anything, but asked another question.

The length of the largest space artifact ever launched is only a few hundred meters.

A circular space station with a diameter of ten kilometers is simply unthinkable for people of this era.

This is already the size of the central part of a large city.

No one thinks it's a simple thing to do.

It is simply impossible to launch directly into space as an integrated thing.

"Maybe we can build it in sections, like the International Space Station now?"

Geng Bo tilted his head, pointed to the ceiling and said.

"The core with a small nuclear reactor is first launched, and then the individual arc-shaped modules are launched into space."

"It also spreads the risk and reduces the risk of the launch to an acceptable range."

The more Geng Bo said, the more he felt that the plan he came up with still had a certain degree of feasibility.

"And this is also convenient for us to expand in the later stage, leaving enough interfaces on the ring cabin, and the subsequent construction of the outer ring only needs to be continuously installed."

"Maybe in the future, there will be the theory of the inner and outer rings, the first ring, the second ring, and the third ring."

Geng Bo couldn't help but laugh after he finished speaking.

"You're such a construction genius!" Zhang Xingyang couldn't help but say.

He is also the first person who can apply the experience of urban construction to space construction.

"Although there is a certain degree of difficulty in the manufacture of curved cabins, it is not impossible with our current machining technology."

Geng Bo said and looked at Zhang Xingyang:

"So now for us, the most difficult thing to solve is the core problem of Starport."

"When the thorium-based molten salt reactor you mentioned before can be solved, it is when Starport can really be born."

Zhang Xingyang smiled slightly: "You first do a good job in the design of the drum space station, and I will solve the matter of the thorium-based molten salt reactor!" (End of chapter)