Chapter 410 Quetzalcoatl
September 11th.
The disturbances in the outside world did not affect Li Qingye's daily work.
He was currently in the Hugang Basin of the Hongsavadi Branch.
It is one of the five space cities where Sapiens Company has made key investments.
Compared with the other four space cities, this place has a stronger military style.
Wu Feng, who was previously in charge of the Longglang Mountain Base, was recently transferred here to be specifically responsible for the management of this aerospace city.
In addition, people from the Space Business Department and the External Security Business Department also appeared here.
Mang Qingshan, who was sent by the External Security Division, explained to him: "Chairman, this is the Feathered Serpent Corps we recently formed."
"How do you train?" Li Qingye was a little curious. He knew that the External Security Division was forming the Quetzalcoatl Legion. After all, such a big event must have his consent.
Mang Qingshan was the head of the corps. When he heard the question, he quickly replied: "We have cooperated with the Space Division and borrowed some astronaut training facilities. As for actual combat training, there is no solution at the moment."
"I heard that the External Security Division is currently revising its previous plan?"
Mang Qingshan nodded: "Yes, it's because of the emergence of new technology and the technical adjustments made."
“Which part was adjusted?”
"We previously planned to use a space shuttle to take off from the ground, but now we have changed it to taking off from 30,000 meters in the stratosphere."
Li Qingye's eyes flashed with understanding: "Vacuum airship platform?"
"Yes, taking off from the middle of the stratosphere, the atmospheric drag will drop by about 15 times, and the distance to the Karman line will be only 70,000 meters, which is enough for a large-load space shuttle to enter and exit the atmosphere."
Li Qingye stroked the stubble on his chin, then ordered, "Look at the plan from the External Security Division."
"Please wait a moment, I'll arrange it right away."
After a while, Mang Qingshan retrieved an internal planning document of the External Security Division and projected it onto the holographic device.
There are not only various planning schemes, but also many conceptual models and scenarios.
Specifically, it is to build an airship platform that is about the same size as the Dandelion airship, but with twice the vacuum volume. The platform will have a vacuum volume of 4 billion cubic meters.
At an altitude of 30,000 meters, the airship will have a buoyancy of 40,000 tons. Minus the weight of 10,000 tons of supporting facilities, the remaining 30,000 tons of buoyancy will be used to carry the space shuttle.
To be precise, it is not a space shuttle, but an aerospace fighter and an aerospace transport aircraft.
The Quetzalcoatl is the department responsible for managing the aerospace carrier. It is also a special security force, because the Quetzalcoatl has three orbital airborne regiments that can land in any area of the earth from the suborbital.
As for why this is unnecessary.
The reason given by the External Security Division was to avoid the airspace of other regions.
Airspace in the usual sense refers to the airspace below the Kármán line. The suborbital and low-Earth orbits above the Kármán line are both international public areas and can be passed freely without the permission of other forces.
In other words, those inland areas actually have a "coastline", and that coastline is the Karman Line at an altitude of 100 kilometers.
If the Homo Sapiens Company wants to "invest" in the Mobei region, it must pass through Russia or the Far East using traditional means of transportation.
However, if a suborbital route is adopted, then the Sapiens Company will not need to pass through the territories of Russia and the Far East, and naturally it will not need the other party's permission.
In this case, Sapiens can use the concept of "cosmic sea" to radiate its influence to a number of inland areas and carry out various "investments".
Li Qingye looked at the cost again.
The total construction cost of the Type 2 aerospace carrier is estimated to be 520 million yuan per ship.
An aerospace fighter costs 7.5 million gold yuan each.
An aerospace transport aircraft costs 38.6 million gold yuan each.
A set of orbital airborne armor costs 80,000 gold yuan.
In terms of operating costs, the aerospace carrier uses a nuclear reactor, and the energy consumption cost is 6 million yuan in 50 years.
Aerospace fighters and aerospace transport aircraft use methane liquid oxygen engines, and the fuel cost of a single flight is only about one thirtieth of that of ground launch .
Li Qingye saw five aerospace planes designed jointly by the External Security Division and the Space Department.
One of the aerospace transport aircraft has a payload of 2,000 tons and a dead weight of 1,200 tons, but only 3,000 tons of methane and liquid oxygen.
If it is launched from the ground, at least 60,000 tons of methane and liquid oxygen will be needed to send a 3,200-ton payload into suborbital space.
Launching at high altitudes can indeed save a lot of fuel and effectively reduce operating costs.
As long as it enters the suborbital area, it can easily fly over the target and then drop a 2,000-ton payload.
The 2,000-ton payload will land using a technique similar to rocket recovery. It could be a special aerospace container, a dedicated airborne force, or simply a bunch of bombs.
In fact, when launching solid-fuel rockets in a suborbital space, with the help of gravity acceleration, it is easy to reach more than ten times the speed of sound.
You can even use an electromagnetic gun directly to fire tungsten steel rods at the target ground.
When you are in a high position, there are so many means that you can use. Even if you throw a steel ball down, its power is comparable to that of a bullet.
The purpose of establishing the Quetzalcoatl Corps is to enhance the mobile security capabilities of the Sapiens Company in the suborbital space, while also taking advantage of loopholes in the existing rules.
The cost of launching a 2,000-ton payload into suborbital space is actually 3,000 tons of methane and liquid oxygen, which costs about 40,000 gold yuan, with an average transportation cost of 50 gold yuan per ton of payload.
The cost is not too high, but it is not cheap either.
However, for some closed inland areas, a transportation cost of 50 gold yuan per ton is acceptable.
For example, this method can be used to transport emergency supplies, special equipment, important items, etc., and they can be delivered quickly.
Li Qingye understood the ideas of the External Security Division.
They probably considered that the Homo Sapiens Company would "open branches" in other regions in the future, and did not want to waste words with other forces along the way, so they promoted suborbital transportation and suborbital airborne operations.
After all, the relationship between Sapiens Company and many regions is not very good now.
Even the parties in Africa, South America and West Asia that appear to be cooperating with Homo sapiens are actually secretly very wary of various investments made by Homo sapiens companies in their territories.
This is mainly because the Sapiens Company has a history of forcibly establishing fully-powered branches in some regions, a behavior that is obviously unacceptable to most forces.
If Homo sapiens were not strong enough, the great powers would have formed a coalition to deal with the Homo sapiens company long ago.
Therefore, it will certainly not be easy to pass through the airspace of other regions in the future, and the forces along the way will certainly be very wary of the Homo sapiens air force entering their territory.
You can't fight all the way there, right? If you do that, it's like making dumplings for a dish of vinegar, which is not worth it.
Li Qingye didn't say anything about this. It was a good thing that the External Security Division had this strategic thinking.
The development and progress of technology will inevitably lead to innovation in tactics and strategies .
There is no need for the Foreign Security Division to be too conventional. Just like when America was developing information warfare, it was the development of information technology that brought about military changes.
Now Homo sapiens are also exploring new tactics and strategies to take full advantage of the advantages brought by new technologies.
The suborbital space is a special interstellar public area that was previously beyond the reach of technology. Many forces were unable to utilize it and could only conduct theoretical research.
Now, Homo sapiens must lead the times and develop a completely new model.
He finished reading the internal documents of the External Security Division and said, "Wu Feng, put them away! Let's go to the training base and take a look."
Wu Feng quickly turned off the projection and told his assistant to clean up all traces of the document.
He took Li Qingye to the suborbital airborne training base.
