Chapter 247 Breaking out of the Karman Line
January 6, 22nd year.
In Chin State, southwest of Hongsavady.
On a high ground near the central Longlang Mountains, under the cover of the Green Umbrella System, a behemoth is carrying out its final inspection.
This is the No. 3 launch site belonging to the Caijin Town Space Base.
Li Qingye, who had recently come to Hongsawadi for inspection, also appeared here at this time.
Base director Wu Gang and the chief engineer of the Longgrande cannon project, Bull, were accompanying Li Qingye and looking at the huge monster in front of them.
The appearance of this behemoth is like an enlarged version of a battleship turret, with a pipe with a diameter of 800 mm and a length of 80 meters.
Li Qingye looked at the long pipe calmly: "Doctor, how confident are you about this test?"
"About 50%. After all, this is the first actual measurement." Dr. Bull was not very sure.
Although their project borrowed a large amount of data from the previous "Barbados Cannon" project and conducted a series of supercomputer simulation calculations.
But the super cannon in front of him has a caliber of 800 mm and uses an unprecedented 100-caliber barrel.
If it weren't for the fact that Sapiens Corporation possessed the technology to produce integrated bio-alloy materials, there would be no way to produce such a powerful cannon.
"Chairman, let's go to the control room!" Base commander Wu Gang suggested with a slightly worried expression.
Although the people in the base are all new humans and soldiers, and there is no one hostile to Li Qingye and the Homo Sapiens Company, it does not mean that Wu Gang is not worried.
The main reason is that the propellant of the cannon is very dangerous.
"Well, let's go to the control room!" Li Qingye was not the kind of person who was inconsiderate to his subordinates. He knew that with him here, Wu Gang would definitely not dare to ask people to prepare propellants.
On the way to the control room.
Li Qingye asked, "Doctor, is the propellant of the giant cannon still unstable?"
Dr. Bull shook his head: "It must be kept at ultra-low temperatures to ensure safety. Even at ultra-low temperatures, it only extends the shelf life."
The propellant they were talking about is actually metallic hydrogen.
Of course, the metallic hydrogen produced by Sapiens is actually a semi-finished product.
Its core technology is a variant of crystal sponge - hydrogen storage crystal sponge.
This hydrogen storage crystal sponge is placed in liquid hydrogen, fullerene is introduced as a catalyst, and then electricity is applied. A pressure of 500,000 atmospheres is applied to the crystal sponge that is full of liquid hydrogen, and a piece of metallic hydrogen filled with impurities can be obtained .
However, this thing must be kept below minus 175 degrees Celsius to maintain a stable form. Once the temperature exceeds this limit, it will explode instantly.
And even in an environment of minus 175 degrees Celsius, it can only last for 230 to 270 hours.
During this period, the metallic bonds between hydrogen atoms will gradually break, releasing heat and hydrogen, while destroying the lattice structure of the crystal sponge, and finally turning it into a piece of waste material.
In other words, this unstable metallic hydrogen enters a state of continuous "exhaustion" the moment it is manufactured.
Usually within the first day after manufacturing, the concentration of metallic hydrogen in the metallic hydrogen crystal sponge is the highest and can basically be maintained at a concentration of more than 90%.
Therefore, this metallic hydrogen crystal sponge is best made and used immediately so that the energy density can be maximized.
This is also the usage option chosen by this base.
Therefore, Wu Gang just asked Li Qingye to go to the safe control room. After all, the control room has nuclear bunker-level protection. Even if an accident occurs at the base, the control room will be fine.
Just after Li Qingye and his group arrived at the control room.
Wu Gang immediately ordered the hydrogen factory in the base to start producing metallic hydrogen.
at the same time.
A "cannonball" with a diameter of 804 mm was stuffed into the barrel of the giant cannon. The reason why the diameter of the cannonball was larger than the caliber of the barrel was mainly for sealing.
After the shell was inserted, more than half of the liquid oxygen was injected into the explosion chamber at the last section of the barrel. At the same time, the refrigeration equipment outside started to operate, quickly lowering the internal temperature to minus 180 degrees Celsius.
Half an hour later.
Inside the control room.
"Report, the metal hydrogen propellant has been prepared."
Wu Gang turned his head and looked at Li Qingye.
Li Qingye waved his hand, signaling him to follow the procedure.
"Begin loading the propellant."
"receive."
The explosion chamber of the gun barrel is not actually integrated with the gun barrel itself, but is a split design to facilitate the loading of metallic hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
After filling the metal hydrogen into the device using a special device, the joint is sealed with a thin film steel similar to Invar steel.
The barrel and blast chamber are then connected together, similar to a sleeve, completely locking the two components in place, and a super-strong alloy is then used to reinforce the connection.
"Begin vacuuming."
"receive."
The muzzle of the gun barrel is covered with a special lid and locked and sealed. A tiny pipe is designed in the inner wall of the muzzle, and vacuum is drawn through this pipe.
Since the diameter of the shell is larger than the caliber of the barrel, the shell will be firmly sucked during the vacuum process and will not slide upward.
After the vacuum was completed , the special nano-film on the muzzle cover was sucked into the muzzle by several centimeters due to the negative pressure.
"Begin adjusting the shooting parameters."
"receive."
Click... Various mechanical parts moved slowly, and the muzzle of the giant cannon was tilted at a 45-degree angle towards the southeast sky with the sea level as the horizontal reference.
The reason why it is southeast is that it can take advantage of the acceleration in the direction of the earth's rotation.
Wu Gang checked the time and said, "All departments, please pay attention and enter the safe zone immediately."
"receive."
Soon, the staff at the base quickly entered the security zone with a very high level of protection.
Wu Gang asked the heads of various departments to reconfirm before announcing: "The countdown to launch is 60 seconds!"
"59..."
"10..."
"1...fire!"
As the button was pressed, the temperature in the explosion chamber rose rapidly in an instant, and when the temperature rose to minus 165 degrees Celsius.
The metallic hydrogen finally entered a violent state.
Boom! A terrifying explosion occurred in the explosion chamber. Even with the 1.5-meter-thick super-strong composite alloy and the 0.8-meter-thick reinforcement structure, it still emitted a shrill roar.
The shell was naturally squeezed into the barrel in an instant, and then under the dual effects of negative pressure and the explosion shock wave, it penetrated the membrane at the muzzle in an instant.
Boom! With an initial velocity of 8.6 kilometers per second, the shell instantly hit the air, creating a terrifying sonic boom. At the same time, the intense friction heat also made the surface of the shell seem to be burning.
A dazzling meteor flew towards the sky over the Indochina Peninsula at an angle of 45 degrees.
The ablation layer on the surface of the shell peeled off layer by layer due to the intense friction heat of the air.
By the time the shell penetrates the atmosphere and crosses the Kármán line, about one-third of the ablated layer on the surface remains.
And at the moment when the shell flies across the Karman line, the shell's rocket boost engine quickly ignites and then accelerates to a higher orbit.
Responsible for monitoring and tracking are the radar stations in Indochina, Palawan, Medan, and a communications radar ship near Nauru Island.
The location of the shells was quickly reported to the Caijin Town Space Base.
163 seconds later.
The shell reached a low-Earth orbit of 650 kilometers, and then the rocket engine began to adjust its direction, turning the shell into an artificial satellite orbiting the Earth.
The total weight of the shell is 7.3 tons. Excluding the burned heat-resistant layer and methane liquid oxygen fuel, the various instruments and equipment it carries weigh about 2.8 tons.
The satellite currently has 1.93 tons of fuel left.
After unfolding the solar panels, this artificial satellite named "Hongsavadi 1" officially appeared in the Earth's low-Earth orbit.
And during these 163 seconds, the whole world was stunned.
