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Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in oicq.net -> Sci-fi -> Lost in the stars Volume 4: Walking in the Solar System Chapter 18: Nuclear Rocket
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- The Tokmak fusion reactor used for TPP is too heavy, and ASA can only watch. To use the model of a nuclear fusion power plant, it is better to use a nuclear fission rocket for propulsion. In fact, asa also did this. Scientists first developed a nuclear fission rocket, conducted a flight test in November last year, and used it on a large unmanned exploration spacecraft launched in early December.
The nuclear rocket is a tripartite cooperation project between asa, the Institute of Theoretical Physics, and the Institute of Applied Physics, which has lasted for nearly ten years. Nuclear rockets are divided into nuclear fission rockets and nuclear fusion rockets. The former is easy to implement. NASA achieved the first flight of a nuclear fission rocket six years ago. Needless to say, the difficulty of the latter is known to anyone with a little common sense.
After the gold storm, although Citigroup faced huge claims from various countries, it was still the largest country in the world, with a GDP comparable to that of Germany and France. After a few years of silence, NASA returned to its previous habits and liked to show off. Their technology is indeed very powerful, with nearly a hundred years of accumulation. This is not something that ASA can completely catch up with in the short term. There is no news about the progress of NASA's high-power ultrasonic fusion rocket and inertial confinement fusion rocket, and they are kept strictly confidential. ASA's expert analysis suggests that no initial results should have been achieved, otherwise the loudmouth of the spokesperson would have started shouting a long time ago.
Nuclear fission rocket is a transitional technology, and the issue of radiation protection is a headache. Scientists say there is no problem, but engineers cannot guarantee it, so they have to use chemical rockets to send nuclear fuel and reactors to space for assembly every time. Fortunately, robot technology is now advanced, otherwise the astronauts would be exhausted.
"Is there any progress in the research of nuclear fusion rockets?" Li Zhuang could only think this way. He used to go to Xinwei City frequently, and he might be as interested in this area as ordinary people. Later, he found that the progress was slow, so he changed his visit to once every two weeks. Andreev often called him to report on the progress. This bear got along well with Li Zhuang and was a frequent visitor to Li Zhuang's family. His children were also friends with the children of Li Zhuang's family.
Zhou Qisen rarely goes to Xinwei City now. He is very busy. Of course, the most important reason is that asa now has a complete management team. Dean Andreev has four vice-presidents: Chen Deqi from CNSA, Masu Hamilton from NASA, German Raymond Kestrap von Rieg from ESA, and Australian Former ASRP program leader Billy Cornforth. The source of senior managers fully reflects the original structure within ASA, but now the main employees of ASA are trained internally, and most of them are the children of employees who have been with the company for more than ten years.
Most of the behemoth asa is made up of new blood. The supervisors and core employees are veterans transferred from other research institutes. The ordinary employees are all college graduates who are interested in engaging in the aerospace industry. In addition to some of these young people graduating from universities under the Sunway Education Group, most of the others are from prestigious local universities in Australia.
Li Zhuang¡¯s entourage to the Xinwei Space Center has changed very little. There is only one more tail, Lisa¡¯s cousin Arthur Wilson, who has just retired from the Australian Army. Li Meng and Chen Xiaojun are a bit old as bodyguards. If Li Zhuang didn't go out very often, they probably wouldn't be able to bear it.
The Aerospace Power Research Institute is the largest department of ASA, and the rocket engine laboratory has been split into a chemical engine laboratory and a nuclear engine laboratory. The chemical engine laboratory is not small. Both the hydrogen-oxygen engine project team and the liquid oxygen-kerosene engine project team have research teams of nearly 5,000 people. The Nuclear Engine Laboratory slightly exceeds that, with 6,000 researchers in the nuclear fission engine project team and 7,000 researchers in the two fusion engine project teams.
Cross-research between the two rocket engine laboratories and other departments is very common. Many high-end technologies come from other research institutes. Asa and WLM are the departments that receive the most technical support within the company.
Chemical rockets have been making progress, but there is not much room left. This technology has been developed for hundreds of years. Limited by the energy base, it is difficult to make a substantial breakthrough. However, the improvement of economy and recycling technology has made it possible to launch frequent asa launches. Although it is still not self-sufficient, as long as the lunar base Once completed, the resources collected from various mining factories will quickly make up for Asa's deficit, making it a major profit maker.
From the perspective of ordinary financial analysts, blindly relying on blood transfusions from the headquarters will affect the competitiveness of other departments. Of course, it is impossible for them to understand the actual situation inside United Technologies. Except for a few senior executives, no one can figure out the company's annual net profit.
When the nuclear fission rocket was successfully tested last year, Li Zhuang happily ran over to congratulate him and personally distributed bonuses to the scientific researchers. Of course, it was just a ceremony. The development of nuclear fusion engines started five years ago, and many senior managers were transferred from the Institute of Theoretical Physics and the Institute of Applied Physics. Xavier complained several times because of this, saying that it would affect the research on nuclear fusion reactors.
According to the company¡¯s internal reception rules, no one except administrative staff will stand at the gate to greet Li Zhuang. This habit has now been developed. The computer expert took the people through complicated security procedures and went straight to the nuclear rocket engine laboratory.
The nuclear rocket engine laboratory is not in the same area as other engine laboratories, mainly due to the danger. Xinwei City is now completely occupied by ASA researchers and family members. This new city was built deep in the desert. It has a population of nearly one million, an area that has expanded to 100,000 square kilometers, and an industrial chain covering aerospace technology. each field.
The reason why ASA¡¯s rockets can be built very large is related to this layout. Unlike other countries that require the cooperation of various companies due to complex interest issues, road transportation conditions limit the size of many parts.
Ultrasonic nuclear fusion and inertial confinement nuclear fusion are the main research directions of the Nuclear Rocket Engine Laboratory. This was determined by the top scientists from Was and Wae after detailed research. Combined with the company's actual theoretical research, they have done a very solid job and basically ruled out other options.
Li Zhuang has always been very concerned about the development of the company's laser technology. He lives not far from the Laser Engineering Research Institute and is very familiar with the progress of the company's laser field. Compared with ultrasonic nuclear fusion, the company's technical scope in magnetic confinement nuclear fusion is very broad, which is enough to increase the current power generation efficiency by 30% in the next twenty years. He is not very optimistic about ultrasonic fusion rockets and believes that this design has many limitations in its application in space. The consulting team of was and wae wanted to give it a try. He was not an expert in this field, so he let people who knew the industry make the decision.
"Is there any progress in inertial confinement nuclear fusion?" Li Zhuang caught Andreev running around and asked.
There was a hint of embarrassment on Andreev's face. The leader of the ultrasonic fusion engine project team was his younger brother Slava Gubaev. This older brother was very awesome when he came in, and Andreev also tried his best to advocate for him. . Gubaev has a very bad habit, that is, he likes to brag. Of course, he is qualified and his research level is unparalleled. He quickly gained recognition from everyone in the laboratory, and his big mouth was taken for granted.
Zhou Qisen dislikes Gubaev very much, but Li Zhuang believes that everyone has shortcomings, this industry is stressful, and there are many people who like to brag, so he still agreed to the application submitted by the asa joint meeting.
"The inertia constraint engine has not been successful for the time being, but the ultrasonic fusion engine has made good progress," Andreev quickly adjusted his expression and reported credit to Li Zhuang.
"Really? Take me over and have a look," Li Zhuang said.
Walking through the long corridor, Andreev took the visitors into the large test workshop where the ultrasonic fusion engine was installed, where hundreds of scientific researchers were busy working up and down.
Gubaev watched the two people come in and came up to say hello. He is forty years old and very tall. Unlike the typical Russian bear, he is as thin as a bamboo pole.
Li Zhuang visually inspected the engine. It was about eight meters in diameter. It was a big thing with an integrated power generation system. Compared with the Tokmak device, it was much slimmer. The Tokmak fusion reactors designed by the company were all over twelve meters in diameter, and the largest one was nearly 12 meters in diameter. Twenty meters, not including the generator set.
It takes a long time to develop a new rocket, and the more complex the structure, the more problems there are. Therefore, the asa management decided to use the old nwww.piaotia.comwr-26, which has a larger near-Earth payload than the Saturn V, with a maximum core diameter of 10.5 meters.
Engineers carefully inspected the ultrasonic generator, and the components of the core transducer were repeatedly tested, which was developed by ASA by the Institute of Applied Physics.
"How often does it work?" Li Zhuang felt that this thing was very unreliable.
"500-900khz, you can think of it as an adjustable high-frequency ultrasonic cleaning machine, next to a microwave oven," Gubaev said.
Li Zhuang was dizzy and gaped at the "bamboo pole" being explained next to him. Then he looked at the fuel that the researchers were adding. It seemed to be a light yellow transparent liquid, and he felt even more incomprehensible.
¡°Boss, how difficult do you think it is? The principle is very simple, it¡¯s just three things, an ultrasonic cleaning machine, a microwave oven and an advanced formula of deuterium and tritium compounds. The food you make is of course energy,¡± Gubaev said in a relaxed tone.
¡°Hey, if it¡¯s so simple, you don¡¯t have to do experiments for decades,¡± Li Zhuang felt that this guy¡¯s habit of bragging had happened again. Gubaev was once a genius boy. He received a doctorate from Moscow University at the age of 21. When he was studying, he studied nuclear fusion. The oldest person in the group was Dr. White from Citigroup. He studied in this field for three years. ten years. After the previous research institute ran out of money and was disbanded, he came to asa to continue his research.
The experiment began, and Li Zhuang followed the supervisors and stared at the monitor screen intently. Each system first self-checked, and the green lights of the devices Gubaev called "ultrasonic cleaning machine" and "microwave oven" turned on, and each equipment started smoothly and sequentially according to the design.
The input energy index is rising steadily. The powerful ultrasonic vibration causes the deuterium and tritium mixed liquid in the reaction chamber to vaporize in the reaction chamber, and femtosecond-level explosions occur frequently. Check the detection systemWhen the neutrons and energy produced by deuterium and tritium nuclear fusion were reached, the energy output index began to rise. The heat exchange system drove the generator to join the power supply system. After the input-output energy ratio reached 1:5.5, the external power supply was cut off.
With the slow addition of fuel, the input-output energy ratio finally reached 1:5, and it always maintained stable operation.
"Yeah!" The researchers cheered together, and Gudayev even danced awkwardly.
Li Zhuang was happy to accompany them, but he still felt that it was far from being practical. He had just read the information. This time, more tritium was used, which was very expensive. Moreover, the efficiency of the power generation system was not high, only 20%, which was only slightly higher than the 16% of advanced isotope batteries. High-energy particles could not be used.
Controlled nuclear fusion is different from the violent explosion of a hydrogen bomb. Energy must be expended to stimulate nuclear fusion and control the rate of energy release. Just as he was thinking about it, Gudayev handed over a form with future plans written on it.
The ultrasonic fusion engine project team is preparing to develop a deuterium-helium fusion engine, which is the most promising nuclear fusion engine. The products of nuclear fusion are charged particles that can be directly injected to propel the spacecraft.
When a deuterium-tritium fusion engine is launched from the earth, it directly uses propellant to exchange heat; in space, it is used in conjunction with an ion engine to make full use of high-energy particles.
Li Zhuang praised him a few words, asked him to continue working hard, and then left with Andreev.
"Zhuangtou, was it successful?" Li Meng was a little curious when he saw him coming out.
"The test went well, but their method will require another ten years to use a new type of nuclear fusion rocket," Li Zhuang said.
Andreev stood by with a depressed look on his face. He was an expert. After seeing the test process and related parameters, he knew that it would take a long time for the nuclear fusion rocket to fly out of the earth on its own. He secretly made up his mind to urge the guys at the Energy Research Institute. They were living too comfortably during this period.
Li Zhuang feels that some things cannot be rushed and have their own rules, so it is impossible to leap out of thin air. Fortunately, the nuclear fission rocket has been successful, and the ASA Aerospace and Vehicle Research Institute is stepping up the design of a giant moon landing spacecraft, which is almost completed.
"Alexander, we have an aerospace plane and an electromagnetic catapult. Even if the nuclear fusion engine cannot take off from the earth, it should be no problem to propel the spacecraft. It is always better than the chemical engine," the computer expert comforted.
"The aerospace plane is indeed good, but the electromagnetic catapult is not easy to use. Last time it almost knocked down another country's satellite. It took a lot of time for the space station to catch the cargo," Andreev's face turned from gloomy to bright.
Li Zhuang touched his nose and felt a little embarrassed. This electromagnetic catapult project, which was favored by countless people, did not work as well as expected. Not to mention the complicated technology and huge power consumption, it was not easy to launch to the designated location, and there were too many aircraft in space.
The computer expert hadn't answered the call yet, and Andreev said to himself: "This thing is good. Let the Institute of Applied Physics continue to develop it and try to add an engine so that it can be adjusted in space and fly to the location of the space station on its own. .¡±
"Well, I hope so," Li Zhuang felt that the engine expert had made some things easy. This was not an aerodynamic cannonball.
On the way back, Chen Xiaojun said that a large-scale mecha had been developed by the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute and asked Li Zhuang if he wanted to go over and take a look.
"How do you know this?" Li Zhuang was a little curious. The company has its own confidentiality system, and unrelated people are not allowed to ask random questions, even close people.
"Zhuangtou, you will never guess where Qian Lin placed the mecha. This matter has been making a fuss since yesterday. You probably don't know," Chen Xiaojun said.
Li Zhuang received the Xavier team yesterday. He was busy all day and did research at night. He really didn¡¯t pay attention to any weird things happening in the company.
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