Chapter 406 Derivatives (I)
August 22nd.
The Northern Aerospace City of the Motor Island Branch - within District 12.
Baisha, who is in charge of the airship design, is currently working at the airship manufacturing factory in the district.
In order to support the Dandelion project, not only hundreds of airship design engineers and researchers were gathered together, but an airship manufacturing plant was also built locally.
Many large-scale scientific research projects often bring about some derivative products.
For example, the Dandelion project in front of us.
Baisha's initial airship design was a helium airship, but as they improved it, they actually came up with the cutting-edge technology of a vacuum airship.
They used a new material called "super-sphericalene," which was a byproduct of another laboratory's research on carbon nanotubes.
Although there is no way to develop ultra-long pure carbon nanotubes in ideal conditions, it is possible to synthesize a two-dimensional carbon material, namely super-footballene material.
This material allows certain atomic-level defects to exist, and can be used to make spherical films with a radius of tens of meters, and the entire sphere is a molecule.
After being made into a sphere, this material will form a special mechanical structure - an eggshell-like structure, which exhibits super resistance and rigidity when resisting uniform external pressure.
A carbon sphere of about one cubic meter can withstand a pressure of 17,375 tons, while a one cubic meter vacuum container at sea level needs to withstand about 10 tons of pressure.
This means that the carbon spheres can be used on the ground.
A carbon sphere is very light because it is a two-dimensional structure with only one layer of atoms.
Of course, since the molecules of carbon spheres have a honeycomb structure, the gaps between their atoms can allow air to pass through.
In order to increase its airtightness, Baisha collaborated with that laboratory to study dislocation composite carbon spheres.
As long as 12 layers are stacked and the honeycomb structure is staggered, not only can the airtightness be ensured, but the rigidity strength of the carbon sphere can also be further improved.
In the assembly yard in front of us.
Carbon spheres with a radius of 30 meters have been installed in the carbon fiber frame, forming a circular airship with a radius of 3 kilometers.
The carbon sphere was not evacuated at this time, so the airship could still stay on the ground.
Once the vacuum is drawn, these carbon balls with a volume of 2 billion cubic meters will be able to generate 2.58 million tons of buoyancy, which is a buoyancy that is only available at an altitude near sea level.
For example, when flying to an altitude of 50,000 meters, the air density there is only 0.001 kilograms per cubic meter, and 200 million cubic meters of vacuum can only provide 2,000 tons of buoyancy.
The Dandelion airship weighs 1,430 tons, thanks to the carbon sphere's total weight of only 2.45 tons and the use of a lightweight high-strength carbon fiber frame.
The weight of the various components of the entire airship includes 1,074 tons of carbon fiber frame, 54 tons of solar film, 32 tons of auxiliary thrusters, 40 tons of batteries, 24.5 tons of vacuum carbon spheres, 47 tons of vacuum equipment, and 181 tons of electronic equipment and other auxiliary equipment.
Only about 570 tons of payload remains.
So how does this weight support thousands of tons of hose?
The reason is very simple.
Because the Dandelion Airship is not just one, but a series of them.
Based on the air density at different altitudes, the buoyancy of the Dandelion airship at various altitudes can be calculated.
50,000 meters 0.001, buoyancy 2000 tons.
40,000 meters 0.004, buoyancy 8,000 tons.
0.018 at 30,000 meters, buoyancy 36,000 tons.
25,000 meters 0.04, buoyancy 80,000 tons.
0.088 at 20,000 meters, buoyancy 176,000 tons.
15,000 meters 0.194, buoyancy 388,000 tons.
0.41 at 10,000 meters, buoyancy 820,000 tons.
This is the approximate buoyancy of the Dandelion Airship at various altitudes.
Although part of the buoyancy must be used for counterweight considering the air currents in the troposphere, its buoyancy is also rapidly increasing as the airship gets closer to sea level.
Today Baisha brought Zhang Wei, the head of the communications business unit, to inspect the performance of the vacuum airship.
"How safe is this airship?"
Baisha explained with a smile: "Since we use new materials, there are not too many safety issues. The strength of the carbon sphere is enough to withstand large-caliber machine guns or small missiles, but it is not resistant to high-temperature combustion."
Zhang Wei discussed in a low voice with several technical staff from the communications division for a while.
After a few minutes, Zhang Wei asked again: "At an altitude of 30,000 meters and a payload of 5 tons, how big an airship would be needed? How much would it cost?"
Baisha calculated: "Hmm... We'll probably need an airship with a capacity of 1.2 million cubic meters. If we only provide the airship, excluding other equipment, the cost will be around 350,000 to 400,000."
"350,000 to 400,000?" Zhang Wei turned around and started talking to the staff from the Communications Division.
He could accept the price.
Because as a communications airship , it can cover a large area of the earth at an altitude of 30,000 meters.
After discussion with a group of communications department personnel, Zhang Wei all agreed that this type of airship was good and could effectively supplement the communications system of Homo sapiens.
Since future low-Earth orbit enterprises are likely to become a space battlefield for various forces, the stratosphere has become another special space.
Especially in the area with an altitude of 30,000 to 50,000 meters, even high-altitude fighter jets can hardly reach it, while ordinary civilian aircraft fly in the airspace below 15,000 meters.
Communication airships can float in fixed airspace for a long time and serve as communication base stations, surveillance radars, and remote sensing monitoring.
However, Zhang Wei still hopes to reduce the cost: "Team Leader Bai, if the payload is reduced to about 1 ton, how much cost ?"
"This?" Baisha estimated, "It can probably be reduced to about 100,000 per ship."
Zhang Wei nodded and said, "On behalf of the Communications Department, I will cooperate with your base to build 100 high-altitude communication airships."
"No problem." Baisha's face was full of smiles.
Although this kind of cooperation does not bring any direct benefits to him personally, it is also a common situation among Homo sapiens.
Improving the communication system would benefit the entire Homo Sapiens company, and Baisha had no reason to refuse.
What's more, with orders, the airship factory can maintain production. After the Dandelion project is completed in the future, there will be no need to arrange for employees to change jobs, which reduces some trouble.
In fact, this is also one of Li Qingye’s purposes in promoting major projects .
By promoting such large-scale projects, we can drive the research and development of various materials and technologies, and also provide a large number of jobs for internal employees.
This time, the Communications Division saw the potential of vacuum airships and planned to build a batch of communications airships, which are derivative products of the Dandelion Project.
Communications airships have advantages over the Starlink satellite system in terms of cost and security.
After all, airships have a larger load capacity, lower cost, longer service life, are easy to maintain, can stay in a fixed airspace for a long time, have a larger capacity of communication links, and have shorter communication distances.
Although the cost of Starlink satellite itself is not high, the problem is that it needs a carrier rocket to launch it.
With a single launch price of $62 million for a Falcon launch vehicle, 60 Starlink satellites can be launched at one time. The launch and shipping cost of a single Starlink satellite is $1.03 million. Even if Musk gives himself a 50% discount, it will still cost $510,000.
Plus the cost of the satellite itself.
This is not cost friendly at all.
Moreover, the service life of Starlink satellites is worrying. The communication density is relatively low, they are far away from the surface, and they cannot be fixed in one airspace. These are all problems.
The vacuum airship has solved the problems of safety and buoyancy maintenance. If it carries a 1-ton payload, it can achieve a communication density of about 20T and cover an area with a radius of hundreds of kilometers.
The price/performance ratio is really great.
