"The collection of leaked nuclear fuel has been completed and the pipeline is being replaced."

After Liu Sheng's report was completed, he began to use the tools in the spacecraft to disassemble the work.

As the temperature drops, the molten salt nuclear fuel inside the pipeline has long since been cooled.

It turned into an incredibly hard solid block, stuffed with zirconium alloy pipes.

Liu Sheng carefully completed the dismantling work.

Fortunately, these things have been done often in the past ten years of his work.

Practice makes perfect.

"The broken pipe has been dismantled and is being prepared for packing."

The nuclear fuel inside the pipeline is first removed and packed in a lead box.

The pipes, which also have a trace of emission, are contained in a separate special lead box.

After finishing all this, Liu Sheng breathed a sigh of relief.

Even though I was wearing an anti-nuclear suit, I still felt a little panic.

Pack the sealed boxes into the warehouse.

Just wait for the next time you return to Earth and bring it back.

"The packing has been completed and preparations are underway for the pipe replacement."

A brand new pipe was reloaded onto the reactor.

This time, even if the mission is completed, it is a complete task.

"Prepare for separation and return to the space station."

From the cargo spaceship, Liu Sheng, who floated back into the engineering spaceship, said to Xue Feng relaxedly.

"Now that my job is done, it's up to you."

In this mission, Liu Sheng is mainly responsible for reactor-related content.

For example, Liu Shenglai is basically responsible for the experimental tasks of the reactor.

Xue Feng's task is to be responsible for the construction of the first module of the starport and the installation of the first reactor.

The first thorium-based molten salt reactor for space has a power of 335 megawatts.

Enough to support a massive space station.

Now, it's just powering a section of Starport.

As you can imagine, the scale of Starport far exceeds that of any space station in the world.

Even the Tiangong space station, which is currently the most large, is only a younger brother in front of it.

"The materials for the construction of the first module have been launched from the ground, and we can start construction tomorrow."

The construction of the cabin section contains a large amount of equipment and is complex.

The main body of the cabin is processed with materials, various attitude adjustment engines, and the key spin engine.

There is also a large number of electronic equipment inside the module, waiting on the ground for launch.

Back at the Tiangong space station, the two first floated in the cabin to rest.

For others, the Tiangong space station is a place of experimentation and life.

The experimental part accounts for a higher proportion.

For Liu Sheng and Xue Feng.

The space station is more of a logistical harbor.

In addition to supplying people, you can also communicate with others.

"A cargo ship that just arrived today, with your new equipment on it."

As soon as he rested, Nie Haisheng floated over with a list.

Xue Feng took the list and took a look, and it was mainly a variety of small processing equipment.

The star port itself has the ability to make blood.

Although theoretically, launching various finished products from the Earth is the optimal solution.

After all, processing is lossy.

But taking into account the question of the duration of the launch.

In the end, it was decided to add some processing equipment to the Star Port.

Otherwise, if there is an urgent need for some kind of spare parts on the starport, they will be temporarily transferred from the ground.

A minimum of twenty hours of flight time is required.

This is still the ideal time for the local weather conditions at the launch site, regardless of the rocket launch window.

Starport is actually more of a large space port, manufacturing complex.

According to Zhang Xingyang's plan, after the development of space mining in the future.

All kinds of resources collected from the moon, Mars, and asteroid belts will be preliminarily refined on the star port.

It will even directly build some space engineering ships, space battleships, and so on.

Xue Feng put away the list of materials and went to the warehouse first to count the processing equipment.

After confirming that it is correct, it will go back to rest.

The next day, the sun rose through their portholes for the twelfth time.

Inside the space station, you can see nearly 50 sunrises and sunsets a day.

"Pay attention to safety on the road, and call us for support at any time if you have any problems."

Nie Haisheng admonished before the two left.

There is still a distance of more than 30,000 kilometers from the space station to the location of the star port.

With current technology, flying so far with a manned spacecraft.

It's almost the equivalent of the first circumnavigation of the world.

Unexpected dangers can arise at any time along the way.

Just because you succeeded last time doesn't mean you won't be at risk this time.

"We understand that we will keep you informed of what we are going to do."

Xue Feng nodded and said.

Liu Sheng plays more of an auxiliary role in the construction of Xinggang.

It was Xue Feng who really carried out the construction work.

Two Tiangong engineering spacecraft and several cargo spacecraft formed a combination and flew together to the 36,000-kilometer starport orbit.

Liu Sheng piloted the Tiangong No. 2 engineering spacecraft that Xu Ying rode on last time.

Xue Feng piloted the latest Tiangong No. 3 spacecraft.

The last time Xu Ying returned to the ground, he made a lot of suggestions about engineering spacecraft.

As the first engineer to actually do space work.

His opinion was duly heeded.

Finally, before Xue Feng and his crew went into the sky, they completed the development of a new engineering spacecraft.

The first thing to improve in the new engineering ship was the propulsion system.

After Xu Ying returned to the ground, she asked a question.

That is, the engineering spacecraft is prone to continuous vibration problems during the acceleration process.

Although there was no actual crisis, it did cause strong discomfort to the occupants.

The developers added a lot of shock absorbers inside the spacecraft.

At the same time, adjustments were made to the propulsion system.

Make it smoother during acceleration and reduce vibrations.

The more than ten hours of flying was not difficult for the two of them.

Last time, Xu Ying was a little lonely alone.

But the two of them chatted casually, and it passed quickly.

"Report to the command center, about to reach the designated orbit."

After approaching the star port, Xue Feng reported to the ground command center.

The Hall thrusters on the huge keel of Starport activated from time to time, spewing out pale blue plasma.

Adjust the orbit of the starport.

to prevent it from colliding with other objects in orbit.

Although with the hardness of titanium-nickel alloy, it is difficult for anything to hit it.

"Preparing to dock with Tiangong No. 1."

After Xue Feng reported, Liu Sheng began to operate the spaceship combination.

Adjust the angle and prepare for the docking work.

Now they ride in a heavenly combination.

It has two engineering ships and four cargo ships.

If you want to complete the docking without being affected, you must adjust the angle.

Otherwise, it is easy to produce all kinds of bumps.

After the angle is adjusted, the combination first accelerates to the front of the starport.

Then slowly slow down to complete the docking with the Tiangong-1 spacecraft.

Tiangong-1 is currently responsible for the maintenance of the orbit of the star port.

It became the de facto thruster of Starport.

Xue Feng first released a cargo spaceship.

The initial construction of the star port began.

The ring-shaped cabin of the star port cannot be formed in one piece at present.

There are many reasons for this.

First of all, large-scale machining is inherently difficult in the ground environment.

Imagine machining a piece of aluminum alloy with a height of 200 floors.

And to keep its surface smooth.

Such aluminum alloy sheets require at least dozens of pieces to form a finished ring.

Processing itself is very difficult.

Secondly, the launch of large-sized objects is also a problem.

The largest rockets at present are only capable of carrying objects that are no more than 20 meters long and wide when folded.

Unless the construction of the space elevator is completed immediately.

Master the technology of transporting substances into space in large quantities.

Otherwise it's almost completely unfeasible.

The space elevator technology requires a super-large space station as a front-end technology.

Because the space end of the space elevator itself can be regarded as a super-giant space station.

For this reason, the researchers of the Dragon Kingdom have found another way.

It was decided to take an alternative approach.

That is, the raw materials are transported into space, and then processed in space to produce oversized modules.

In this way, it is possible to solve various problems caused by large-scale components.

The cargo ship detaches deftly from the assembly.

Then a very small lid on the cargo ship opened.

An interface with a size of just a dozen centimeters appeared.

The cargo ship skillfully flew directly in front of the keel.

Then the keel enters right through the interface.

It was like wearing a sugar gourd, directly running through the entire cargo ship.

When one end is pressed against the central spindle keel, the interface automatically shrinks inward, completely submerging the original gap.

The cargo ship was fixed directly to the keel.

Inside, it is equipped with a melting furnace for processing aerospace aluminum alloys.

It is possible to process large sizes of aerospace aluminum.

This is thanks to the vacuum aluminum processing technology developed by the Space Technology Research Institute in a large vacuum laboratory.

Otherwise, the processing and manufacturing of the cabin section may be delayed for a longer time.

Xue Feng fixed four cargo spaceships, which were equivalent to industrial mother planes, on the umbrella-shaped keel one by one.

This process lasted more than four hours.

The reason is that the keel itself is relatively slender.

And both the starport and the spacecraft itself are in high-speed flight.

If there is a slight deviation, it may not be inserted.

In order for the two to be able to align.

Xue Feng also consumed the fuel of the Starport Temporary Propulsion System, which was not much.

"The trial processing of aluminum will soon begin."

Xue Feng reported to the ground.

At the same time, the progress of the work will be reported to the space station, which is also in space.

The furnace begins to melt the aluminum inside under electric heating.

The aluminum alloy has actually been smelted on the ground.

Xue Feng's task is nothing more than to reshape them.

At low temperatures, aluminum alloy sheets with a width of about 10 meters are continuously processed.

Later, at the other end of the ship, it was rolled into a roll by a plate bending machine.

Subsequently, this roll of aluminum was transferred to space by a robotic arm.

Then through straightening, curling and other means, it is shaped into an arc with a small arc.

The first high-strength aerospace aluminum alloy plate with an arc length of 600 meters has finally completed the manufacturing work.

In space, it's also an incomparably huge thing.

And four more aluminum alloy plates of this size!

Xu Ying, who carried out the space construction mission for the first time, only spent less than a week in the synchronous orbit.

However, the processing of the first high-strength aluminum alloy plate took Xue Feng four days.

Although the speed of the next four boards has increased.

But just to process the plates, Xue Feng spent more than half a month.

Not to mention that it took half a month to fix the plate on the keel and form a ring with a diameter of 900 meters.

But after a month of construction.

Starport was finally able to see more than just the original dragon skeleton.

Large areas of entities have also appeared.

"Let's go back and replenish the supplies first, and receive a new batch of materials by the way."

After completing the construction of the first ring, Xue Feng said to Liu Sheng.

The ring that has been completed so far is actually a cylinder with a diameter of 900 meters.

It also needs to be closed on both sides of it.

and adding a small ring inside.

Between the big ring and the small ring is the area where human beings can live and carry out production, manufacturing, and scientific research.

The space from the small ring to the main axis is not suitable for long-term human life because of the rotation problem.

"Our current spacecraft is still a bit slow, when can we be faster."

Liu Sheng said with a slight complaint.

At present, every time they go back and forth to the synchronous orbit, it takes more than ten hours each way.

Many supplies can only be replenished every other month.

If you can compress the time to less than an hour.

Then it is even possible for them to realize the life of living on the space station and working in the starport.

"Today's engines can only achieve this specific impulse, and we want a shorter time, unless we don't care about the cost."

Xue Feng saw a little more openly.

It's not that there is no domestic engine that can reach greater speeds.

But more thrust means more fuel.

At this stage, cost performance is still a part of the construction of Xinggang that needs to be considered.

If the cost is too high, it will slow down the entire starport construction process.

"I mean, I know it's impossible."

Liu Sheng has been a spaceship pilot for this time, and he knows very well the spaceship he is piloting.

How much fuel to eat if it's really running at full power.

A new batch of equipment and materials has arrived at the space station with the latest missions.

Just waiting for Xue Feng to take them away.

This includes several high-precision machine tools and 3D printing equipment.

It is used for more detailed processing work.

"You're lucky to have a lot of good things this time."

Nie Haisheng warmly greeted the two people who had just returned from thousands of miles away.

"This time, there are a lot of fresh fruits coming up with the cargo ship, and you can take some of them with you then."

It is very difficult to eat fresh fruit in space.

In general, there are only various dried or freeze-dried fruits.

Like fresh fruit, it has only been seen a few times.

And the number of each time is also very small, and each person can only divide a few.

Let Xue Feng take some of them away, and the rest may be enough for each of them to eat a bite.

(End of chapter)