Chapter 398 Wonders +1
Suez Branch.
In early June, two underground drainage tunnels for the Nile River in the Kom Ombo Hub project were officially completed.
The engineering team then cut off the surface channel of the Nile River, allowing the river water to pass through underground drainage tunnels. The cut-off section of the Nile River was 3 kilometers long.
A canal-digger dug through the land between the Nile channel and the southern canal and then pushed it toward the desert area on the west side.
After more than a month of excavation.
Finally, the southern canal was dug to the Kharji Oasis area, and then the canal-drilling ship turned around and dug a parallel double line.
As the canal arrived at the Harije Oasis area, the aerospace city previously located near the Jaje Manor in the Harije Oasis area also ushered in the first wave of large-scale material supplies.
Dr. Mikoyan and others, who had been eating the straw here for more than half a year, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, it is really frustrating to see other aerospace cities developing rapidly while they are still doing theoretical research.
On the temporary dock.
Dr. Mikoyan and base commander Wu Zhi stood in the base's communications tower, watching three 50,000-ton container ships docked at the dock, unloading large quantities of supplies. In addition, about 5,000 new humans came here to support them.
"The materials and personnel are initially sufficient, and our project can officially begin."
"Doctor, are you sure you want to use that plan?"
Mikoyan nodded: "This is the most promising plan at the moment. If it succeeds, we can start the extraterrestrial colonization plan."
But Wu Zhi looked conflicted.
Dr. Mikoyan said confidently: "Don't worry, the plan has been simulated many times using supercomputers, and there won't be any major problems."
"Doctor, Dr. Sen from the shipyard has arrived." The assistant shouted in the distance.
Dr. Mikoyan patted Wu Zhi on the shoulder and said, "I'll trouble you with the dock matters. I'll go over and discuss the space shuttle plan with Dr. Mori first."
"Okay!" Wu Zhi could only shrug his shoulders. He knew that these researchers were sometimes very stubborn.
Mikoyan and his assistant came to the underground area of the base.
In a small office, he met Mori Naoto, who came all the way from the New Luzon Shipyard, and five other relevant engineers and researchers.
The group chatted for more than ten minutes and then got straight to the point.
Mori Shangzhe spoke first: "Dr. Mikoyan, I have seen the plan. I don't know much about the design of the space shuttle, but if it is the design of the enhanced structure, then I can still provide some help."
"Thank you for your help. Our plan is very simple. We need to enlarge the scale of the space shuttle so that it can withstand the impact of the explosion of metallic hydrogen." Dr. Mikoyan said as he projected the conceptual model.
Through holographic projection, everyone can see the model of the space shuttle.
"Don't consider passivating metallic hydrogen at all?"
“It’s a really crude plan.”
Mikoyan was not angry. Instead, he smiled and said, "This is also the most effective solution. The maturity of metal hydrogen passivation technology is still an unknown. I don't want to waste time."
However, Mori Naotoshi started to think about it seriously because this thing fits his aesthetic standards.
They calculated the explosive power of metallic hydrogen, substituted it into the current metal materials, and through simulation calculations, adjusted the engine's explosion chamber and nozzle parameters little by little.
In order to balance the explosive power of metallic hydrogen and the issue of preservation, they enlarged the size of the space shuttle to the extreme.
After more than three hours of discussion, they finally came up with a preliminary plan.
But looking at the parameters of this plan, an engineer hesitated: " Can fly?"
The engineer said this mainly because the space shuttle is really too large. Its launch mass when fully loaded is 32,000 tons, which is almost 8 times that of the largest launch vehicle, the Saturn V.
This thing weighs about the same as a Luzon-class amphibious assault ship.
It's crazy to think that this is a space shuttle.
Dr. Mikoyan reminded: "Don't forget the thrust and specific impulse of metallic hydrogen."
Although Homo sapiens' metallic hydrogen is a substate of metallic hydrogen, not a complete state of metallic hydrogen, its specific impulse is still 3.2 times that of ordinary liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen engines, reaching 1297 seconds.
And because Homo sapiens has a good foundation in the technology of explosive shock wave engines, they can use the explosive shock wave to further improve the thermal efficiency of the fuel.
According to the results of simulation calculations, the thrust of the explosive shock wave engine they designed can be further improved when using metallic hydrogen as fuel.
The space shuttle designed by Mikoyan and others will carry 5,000 tons of metallic hydrogen as fuel, which is enough to push the space shuttle with a full load of 32,000 tons into low-Earth orbit.
Of course, metallic hydrogen can only be used as a one-time fuel and there is no way to store it for a long time, so it can only be used when flying out of the atmosphere.
According to Dr. Mikoyan's design, the space shuttle does not need to stay in low-Earth orbit, or go to synchronous orbit, the moon, and Mars, but rather serve as a carrying platform.
After flying out of the Karman line, the spacecraft it carries can be directly launched, and then the space shuttle turns around and returns to the atmosphere and returns to the space city.
The space shuttle designed in this way has a payload of approximately 12,000 tons.
It can transport the mass of dozens of international space stations to low-Earth orbit at one time. Unless Homo sapiens' space elevator project and mass projector project can be successful, no launch vehicle's payload can match this project at this stage.
Dr. Mikoyan no longer cared about the dozens of tons of payload of ordinary launch vehicles. He felt that if he wanted to have fun, he had to go big.
After all, the Guigong Project must be completed before 2030. Relying solely on the current small rockets and their limited transportation capacity is simply a drop in the bucket.
Only this kind of super space shuttle can meet the space strategy of Homo sapiens.
The Space Division, which is not short of money, also approved Dr. Mikoyan's super space shuttle project, allowing the Kharik Space City to complete the first experimental aircraft before the end of next year.
This is also the reason why he hurriedly sought help from engineers and researchers from other systems.
Since he had already made a promise to the Space Division, Dr. Mikoyan would naturally go all out to build the experimental machine as soon as possible and then ask the Space Division to transfer the money as soon as possible.
Because this project was carried out at the Suez branch, it was named the "La" space shuttle project, or "La Project" for short.
Mori Shangzhe and others communicated at this base for more than a week.
During this time, they continued to refine various aspects of the shuttle's design.
For example, in order to maintain the space shuttle's ultra-low temperature maintenance system and adjust the wing feathers, a lot of electricity is needed, so it is better to just launch two small thorium-based molten salt nuclear reactors.
Another issue is the location for the spacecraft . After some simulation research, it was decided to place the spacecraft above the space shuttle.
In fact, it is similar to the Russian Buran space shuttle.
The reason for this design is that the La-X is too heavy to be stood up and launched vertically, so it can only take a sloped runway.
In order to run on the runway, the spacecraft must not be hung at the bottom, but can only be placed on the back of the space shuttle, and let the space shuttle hold the spacecraft.
Another system is the security system.
Considering the dangers of metallic hydrogen, Dr. Mikoyan and his colleagues discussed and decided to abandon the manned driving plan and adopt the unmanned driving mode.
Even the spacecraft is not intended to carry astronauts. Astronauts can first go to outer space via another launch vehicle and then board the spacecraft from low-Earth orbit.
