Chapter 449: Our goal is a 4th generation liquid oxygen methane engine!

It was another sleepless night. Since the start of the space program, Luo Jia can't remember how many times he drove the night.
The day was getting lighter, Luo Jia stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the office and looked into the distance. The time had entered May, and the sun jumped out of the horizon. The sun was getting stronger and slightly glare.
After doing all this, Luo Jia didn't go back to rest, but turned her eyes back to the huge white board in the office.
On the whiteboard, dense data and formulas are written, which is the result of Luo Jia's countless calculations. From the results, it seems that he is designing the most important mechanical component of the entire space program, the engine.
The space program requires at least two engines, one is a chemical jet engine that pushes the rocket out of the atmosphere, and the other is an ion thruster installed on the spacecraft. Luo Jia is thinking and checking exactly the latter.
Anyone who has studied space navigation will know that the ion thruster has actually departed from the current level of science and technology and entered the category of controlled fusion. Research has begun before controlled nuclear fusion has been achieved, and it seems that Too far ahead.
However, this is Luo Jia's job. He is the leader of the tough guy sky regiment. He must not only focus on the present, but also the distant future. Although the ion thruster project company has not yet started, Luo Jia must prepare early.
"Teacher, everyone is ready." Shen Lang knocked on the door and walked into Luo Jia's office, a little nervous. "Today is the key meeting to decide the rocket engine route. Once we decide which engine technology to use, we can't go back. . "
Luo Jia nodded, indicating that he understood, and then he and Shen Lang came to the brainstorming group's large conference room.
I saw that under this huge vaulted dome, which looks like a university hall, the projection screen has already been prepared, and it is directly connected to the Jiuquan Launching Center in the desert Gobi via the Internet.
"ignition!"
With Luo Jia's order, Zhang Dongning, thousands of kilometers away, pressed the red button in front of him, and even when he saw the smoke rolling beneath the huge white rocket, the flames did not push the rocket up to the sky, but It soon went out. Obviously, this was not a rocket launch test, but an ignition test on propulsion fuel.
"We succeeded!" Zhang Dongning said happily on the other side of the screen.
The Ministry of Chemistry became the third-generation chemical fuel. The final shaping and testing of liquid oxygen kerosene was obviously very proud of Zhang Dongning. Although liquid oxygen kerosene may not be used in the space program, it is always right to prepare it in advance. Then, let's talk about it. The company can use it, but it can't.
Turning his head, Luo Jia addressed his colleagues in the brainstorming group, and quickly wrote on the whiteboard with an ink pen, from the first generation of solid fuel to the second generation of nitrous oxide, to the third generation of liquid oxygen kerosene and the fourth generation of liquid oxygen liquid. Hydrogen and liquid oxygen methane.
Whenever Luo Jia wrote down the name of a rocket fuel, he put a tick below to indicate that the technology is fully mastered.
When Luo Jia wrote about liquid oxygen liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen methane, he did not tick below, but drew a big question mark, indicating that the fourth-generation rocket technology was not ready.
"You see." Luo Jia knocked on the whiteboard and said, "We have made good progress in the development of rocket engines. We have caught up with the third-generation technology in the West and are rapidly evolving to the fourth-generation technology. Such achievements It's worth celebrating. "
"Although we are determined to build a space elevator, the rocket technology cannot be ignored because the launch vehicle is the front-end technology of the space elevator and tens of thousands of tons of materials are waiting for us to be sent to earth orbit. China does not have a super launch vehicle similar to Saturn V. , So the only option is to make it yourself. "
"At present, the world is engaged in major events and wants to build bigger and more fierce rockets. Take China as an example. The planned Long March 9 rocket is 110 meters in height and 10 meters in diameter. It uses a three-stage model and a take-off thrust of 3,000 tons. Near-Earth orbit capacity is 140 tons, geosynchronous transfer orbit capacity is 66 tons, lunar transfer orbit capacity is 50 tons, and Mars transfer orbit capacity is 37 tons. "
"From the perspective of theoretical data, the Long March 9 is still very aggressive, but our opponents are stronger. North America not only has a large rocket program, but also two, Musk's large falcon, and NASA's SLS space. If you add the launch system to the Super Falcon program that Musk just announced a month ago, North America has three super heavy rocket projects in progress at the same time. Its purpose of occupying space and even building space-based weapons is obvious. . "
"The time is urgent and the situation is critical. Even Russia, which is already declining, feels the threat, tightens its belts, engages in an energy plan No. 5, prepares to escape, and builds a large rocket with a carrying capacity of 80 tons in low earth orbit. Under such circumstances, there is no reason for our country to lag behind, and the launch of the Long March 9 plan is completely logical. "
"But I have already said hello to the national team. The super carrier rocket, we do it ourselves, and we will not mix it with aerospace technology. After all, aerospace technology is a national team, and we are private enterprises, and there are a lot of foreigners. Experts, it is not easy to cooperate. "
The crowd didn't say much, but they knew very well that the aerospace science and engineering industry had a lot of troubles, not to mention the Long March 9, they hadn't even completed the Long March 5, which was carrying 25 tons in low-Earth orbit. Opened at least two positions.
The national team approved Xingchen Technology to start another stove with the idea that eggs cannot be placed in one basket. In addition, the privately-owned Xingchen Technology entered the aerospace field, which is also a great stimulus to domestic aerospace companies and scientific research institutes, hoping to inspire them. Potential.
Luo Jia said with a smile: "Although the whole world says that to compete with North America, even India has ambitiously formulated a return-type rocket plan, but in practice, only we can do with North America!"
"Russian Energy V, let alone seem to have little hope of success. What if they succeed? The low-Earth orbit carrying capacity is only 80 tons, which does not meet the 100-ton starting standard for the next generation of space competition."
"As for Europe, they have given up treatment. Everyone should know that we have recently dug a lot of experts back from Europe. In addition to high-paying benefits and immune activation, there is another important reason: the prospect of ESA is too bad. The Aliana VI they built is a medium-sized rocket, carrying only 20 tons in low-Earth orbit, lower than Musk's Falcon 9 and China's Long March 5 and lower than Russia's Angara rocket. "
"In short, the national team is not having a good time now. The liquid oxygen liquid hydrogen engine YF77 used by the Long March 5 has a low specific impulse and room pressure, and its thrust is only 50 tons, which is far lower than that of the West. The neon LE-7A has 85 tons of thrust, 135 tons of European Vulcan engine, 186 tons of North American SSME, RS-68A is as high as 313.7 tons. "
"Of course, assuming that the YF220 engine supporting the Long March 9 is successfully developed by the national team, we will get a battle with the West in the field of heavy-duty rockets, but I also said that the national team does not want to put all eggs In a basket, so we need to join. "
"At present, the situation is like this. North America has NASA and SpaceX, Huaxia has aerospace science and technology and our Xingchen Technology. Two to two, North America is dominant, and we are chasers."
Everyone couldn't help boasting that Luo Jia's phrase of North American predominance made everyone feel uncomfortable, but according to the principle of seeking truth from facts by the tough guy sky group, everyone also acknowledged the existence of the gap.
"No matter what kind of rocket, the engine is the most important. President Luo, since we start a new stove and build a rocket engine ourselves, then which route should we choose?" Xiong Ningyuan, who is responsible for nuclear physics, asked.
Luo Jia smiled. "The old bear asked this question very well. What is the quality of the rocket? Fifty percent depends on the engine. As we all know, the fourth-generation carrier rocket has two routes, one is liquid oxygen liquid hydrogen, the other is liquid Oxygen methane, of which liquid oxygen and hydrogen engines have been manufactured in various countries, and so far, no one has made finished products, and some are just some blueprints for design. "
"The Long March V rocket that had an accident not long ago, the booster used a 120-ton YF100 liquid oxygen kerosene engine, which belongs to the third generation technology, and the core class uses a 50-ton YF77 liquid oxygen liquid hydrogen engine, which belongs to the fourth generation technology, so the Long March V It is a hybrid of three or four generation engines, not a full version of the fourth generation technology. "
"The main reason for the technological backwardness is that the national team failed to keep up with the pace of Western R & D. There are many secrets unknown to outsiders, including the 1990s, when even the Ministry of Space was almost dissolved, and scientific research was completely stalled. There is a huge pit left for today. "
"To put it bluntly, the reason why the Long March 5 exists is to make up for lessons from previous years. When the neon LE7 engine and the North American SSME engine used staged combustion cycles, our YF77 was still using gas. Device. "
"For the sake of safety, we will not discuss the specific details and reasons. I said these just to tell you the fact that whether we engage in liquid oxygen liquid hydrogen or liquid oxygen methane, the difficulty is similar, because the national team does not have much technology. Support us and start from scratch. "
Hey ~
Luo Jia's words made everyone distressed. Huaxia has been bumping along the way and was not tripped by the enemy. It is not easy. There are a lot of compradors in the computer and semiconductor circles, even aerospace. The important country is almost brought into the gutter.
The ordinary people can never know the past events that have been sealed up, how many times this land has been suspended for a while, and how many times have been stepped forward to turn the tide.
One day, history will make the most impartial judgement. In decades, whoever will carry the annals of history and who will be nailed to the pillar of historical shame, everything will be clear.
Luo Jia did not over-interpret history and went directly to the core technology. While writing quickly on the whiteboard, she said in a deep voice: "In simple terms, the ratio of liquid oxygen to hydrogen is the highest and the performance is the strongest, but the engine design is difficult. It ’s huge. The design of the storage fuel tank is also not easy. After all, the liquid hydrogen thing takes up too much space, and it has a temperature difference with liquid oxygen. It must be insulated, which makes the rocket fat and expensive. "
"The most ideal state is to use liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen as the second or third stage, and make the best use of its large specific impulse. The most powerful rocket Saturn V in human history is liquid oxygen kerosene as the first stage. The second and third stages are both liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. "
"The specific impulse of liquid oxygen methane is lower than liquid oxygen liquid hydrogen and higher than liquid oxygen kerosene. It has no carbon deposit at all and is very convenient to maintain. As long as the engine is not burned out, it can basically be used indefinitely."
"In terms of storage costs, liquid oxygen needs 173 degrees below zero, liquid methane needs 162 degrees below zero, which is much lower than the 253 degrees required by liquid hydrogen ~ EbookFREE.me ~ For a long time, the storage problem of liquid hydrogen in rockets It's a headache for scientists. At the same time, the density of liquid methane is 422 kg per cubic meter, which is much higher than 71 kg per cubic meter of liquid hydrogen. With the same size of fuel tank, liquid methane can make the rocket fly farther. And the speed requirements of rocket engine turbo pumps are not as abnormal as liquid hydrogen. "
"Anyway, when we take all factors into consideration, we will find the fact that liquid oxygen methane ranks second in the five major rocket fuel systems, but almost all other indicators rank first, especially the engine. There is no carbon deposit at all, and it can be used almost infinitely, which can save us huge costs! "
"As we all know, our biggest problem at present is how to transport tens of thousands of tons of materials into Earth orbit. The quantity will exceed the total amount launched into space by mankind in history!"
"So, in fact, there is only one choice in front of us, and that is to develop a liquid oxygen methane engine. Only this kind of engine that can be reused infinitely, is fast to build, and has a very low cost can complete the delivery of tens of thousands of tons of materials. Is an impossible task! "
With a slight smile, Luo Jia raised his lips and said, "So far, no one has completed the liquid oxygen methane rocket engine, including the incredible NASA, and we will be the first!"