Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 651 The maiden voyage of the Jade Rabbit II interstellar spaceship
In late January, after several short test flights without any problems, the Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft refueled a large amount of fuel from the Centaurus space station and left the Centaurus space station carrying tens of tons of supplies. It was about to embark on its journey to the Sirius space station on the moon.

This is a long journey!
After the Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft detached from the Centaurus space station, it began to adjust its course and orbit. At this time, the Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft was traveling at a speed of about eight kilometers per second, which was just within the first cosmic velocity line. This speed was enough to allow the Centaurus space station to maintain its orbit around Earth without crashing, and also to prevent it from flying directly away from Earth.

The Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft maintained this speed when it entered the Centaurus space station orbit.

After leaving the Centaurus space station's orbit, the two main engines at its tail ignited. The task of these two engines was to accelerate the Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft to between 10.6 and 10.9 kilometers per second.

This speed is just right to enter the Earth-Moon transfer orbit... There's no need to worry about being too slow to leave Earth, nor about being too fast to fly away. It's just right to approach the Moon at a certain angle, and after getting a certain distance from the Moon, decelerate to about two or three kilometers per second, so that it can be captured by the Moon's gravity and then smoothly enter the lunar orbit.

After flying in space for several days, the Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft successfully braked as it approached the moon and then entered lunar orbit.

Next, the Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft adjusted its orbital angle and altitude precisely to match those of the Sirius space station.

Three hours after entering lunar orbit, the Yutu-2 rover successfully docked with the Sirius space station with the support of its autopilot system.

After successful docking, the cargo began to be unloaded automatically under the control of the intelligent driving system, using automated equipment such as robotic arms and robots in the spacecraft and space station.

At the same time, a large amount of fuel was also transferred to the Sirius space station... This was not for the Sirius space station, but for the lunar transport system, namely the 'Queqiao spacecraft'... The fuel used by the Queqiao spacecraft also needs to be transported from Earth.

Transporting fuel over such a long distance is very costly. Nanmen Aerospace, along with its partner companies and institutions, is developing technologies for directly producing fuel on the moon.

In particular, water has been discovered on the moon. Nanmen Space's lunar probes have even found a large amount of water ice in the moon's shadow region. Ground probes sent to the moon's shadow region have even found water ice with a purity of over 90% in this area.

Although extracting water resources in the permanently shadowed areas of the moon is very difficult, Nanmen Aerospace has the corresponding technological reserves, and the use of a variety of new materials is sufficient to support this ultra-low temperature working environment.

Nanmen Aerospace currently uses space robots on a very large scale...and they face even lower temperatures...the temperature in space is close to absolute zero, which is even lower than the temperature on the moon.

Space operations/mining is an important topic that Nanmen Aerospace has been researching for many years, and they have already found several promising cryogenic materials!
Currently, Nanmen Aerospace is actively developing various technologies and equipment needed for space operations, mining, lunar operations, and other mining activities with Fairy Mountain Holdings, Zhiyun Group, and other partner organizations.
Moreover, the progress is quite good... Nanmen Aerospace dares to mine helium-3 on the moon, and they have the confidence to do so. They have already accumulated various underlying technologies in advance, and the mining of water resources on the moon is also progressing simultaneously.

According to Nanmen Space's plan, once the second phase is nearly complete, the third phase can begin. In this third phase, they will attempt to directly extract water resources on the moon and electrolyze the water to obtain liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen!

These two materials are also among the main fuels for future spacecraft, especially the lunar transport system 'Queqiao', which will primarily use liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen fuel as its core fuel.

Of course, the lunar base is not yet completed; there is only a small-scale experimental lunar base. Therefore, all the equipment and fuel needed for the entire lunar base project still need to be transported from Earth, and the overall initial costs are still relatively high.

In other words, Nanmen Aerospace has the No. 7 and No. 8 rockets, as well as the Yutu-1, Yutu-2, and Queqiao spacecraft, which are low-cost interplanetary transportation tools that can be reused multiple times!
The cost of transporting the Long March 8 rocket to low Earth orbit has dropped to below $300 per kilogram!
With such low costs, Nanmen Aerospace is able to transport such large quantities of supplies and fuel to space and the moon...

In the traditional rocket mode, the cost of transporting each kilogram to low Earth orbit is tens of thousands of US dollars... Not to mention transporting it to the moon, just transporting the cargo to low Earth orbit would bankrupt Nanmen Aerospace.

A cost difference of tens of times!
Then there's the Earth-Moon transportation. For Nanmen Aerospace, although the initial investment costs are relatively large, such as developing and building the Earth-Moon interplanetary spacecraft, and expanding two space stations, these initial investments are considered one-time investments. Subsequent investments are reusable, and daily operating costs only include fuel costs, necessary maintenance costs, and depreciation costs of interplanetary spacecraft and other equipment.

These costs are currently considered relatively high, but as time goes on, the number of uses increases, and the freight volume increases, the transportation cost per kilogram of goods is rapidly decreasing.

Finally, there's the Queqiao spacecraft in the lunar transport system, which is also reusable... The earliest Queqiao spacecraft currently in service on the moon has been reused more than thirty times!

The aforementioned Long March 7 and Long March 8 rockets, the Yutu series interplanetary spacecraft, and the Queqiao lunar spacecraft are all reusable and employ a commercial research, development, manufacturing, and operation model, resulting in very low overall costs…

And each use reduces costs, the more you use it, the cheaper it gets!
These three industrially mass-produced reusable transportation systems are also the core transportation tools supporting the lunar base... Without them, the cost of transporting supplies to the lunar base would be astronomical and simply unbearable.

After successfully docking with the Sirius space station, the Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft unloaded its cargo and began its return journey!
Its two main engines started up again to accelerate... In fact, to get out of lunar orbit, the speed doesn't need to be too high, 2.4 kilometers per second is enough.

The problem is that Earth's escape velocity is 7.9 kilometers per second... If it were lower than this speed, the Yutu-2 interstellar spacecraft would be captured by Earth's gravity when it approaches Earth, and then crash directly into Earth's atmosphere.

Therefore, the Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft needs to gradually accelerate to above Earth's escape velocity before returning to Earth's orbit and orbiting the planet, so as not to 'fall' back down...

During its flight, the Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft also conducted a series of simulation experiments, such as simulating spacecraft malfunctions and using the spacecraft's onboard maintenance robot for extravehicular repairs.

Simulating a spaceship malfunction, the emergency personnel escape mode is activated... A simulated dummy of equal weight is sent into the escape pod, which then detaches from the spaceship and begins its independent return to Earth!
One of the escape pods underwent another emergency simulation, simulating a power failure that prevented it from accelerating to the predetermined speed, necessitating an emergency rescue operation!
As per the contingency plan, the Yutu-1 spacecraft carried out an emergency rescue mission, heading into space to conduct the rescue.

This space rescue mission is extremely difficult... The Yutu-1 spacecraft needs to accurately calculate its orbit, then accelerate and decelerate at just the right time, change its orbit, and finally capture the escape pod and bring it back to Centaurus Space Station.

Unfortunately, due to insufficient technology, the Yutu-1 spacecraft was ultimately unable to capture the simulated failed escape pod... In the end, the simulated failed escape pod activated its own power to adjust its course and returned to the Centaurus space station.

This experiment exposed a series of technical defects and deficiencies in the field of space rescue.

However, it also verified the reliability of the escape pods... All three escape pods used in the experiment successfully returned to Centaurus Space Station and were recovered.

Furthermore, the life support systems inside the escape pod remain intact, ensuring the emergency escape of personnel.

This laid a solid foundation for future manned flights. Although the first round trip between Earth and the Moon by Yutu-2 was marred by a failed escape pod rescue experiment, it was still considered a great success overall.

After all, spacecraft like the Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft are different from rockets like the Long March 8, which can conduct multiple flight experiments on the ground... The Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft can only conduct a limited number of experiments on the ground, and many more steps of experiments can only be carried out after entering space.

This also means that many subsystems, components, and mission coordination were first tested during the first round-trip flight between Earth and the Moon. To succeed on the first try under such circumstances is quite remarkable.

Xu Shenxue, while in Shenzhen, received news that the Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft had successfully completed its first round trip between Earth and the Moon. He then sent a congratulatory email to the team at Nanmen Aerospace and encouraged them to continue their efforts, make bold innovations, and strive to complete the lunar base project as soon as possible.

Nanmen Aerospace has also released some information about its related activities... They have no choice but to release it, as a whole host of telescopes in space and on Earth are watching Nanmen Aerospace's space activities.

On foreign websites, accounts of space agencies frequently update photos of the telescopes on the Centaurus space station, owned by Southgate Aerospace.

Not only photos of the space station, but even Nanmen Space's base on the moon was 'live-streamed'... American space agencies' lunar orbiting satellites take photos of the moon every now and then!

The main reason is that Southgate Space's actions are too big and too frequent, so other countries' space agencies have no choice but to pay attention... Then they watched helplessly as the Centaurus space station transformed from a small space station into a large space station with six long-term fixed large modules and more than a dozen medium and small auxiliary modules or space equipment in just a few years.

Then this space station is also very busy... It needs to frequently receive space shuttles from Earth for docking and transfer, and it also needs to dock with two Yutu series interplanetary spacecraft to provide them with fuel and perform basic maintenance and material transfer.

Not every day, but every month there are new changes on the Centaurus space station... It might add a large robotic arm, a few more auxiliary spacecraft on the outer layer, or a bunch of solar panels.

If you're not careful, you might find that there's another space shuttle or manned spacecraft.

This rapid cycle of change is very eye-catching... Of course, this attention is inevitably accompanied by envy, jealousy, and resentment.

They also want to build such a space station, and they also want to build a lunar base... but the technology doesn't allow it!

Because if they were to follow Southgate Aerospace's existing traditional aerospace technology and rockets, even with the support of Musk's SpaceX Falcon reusable rockets, they would go bankrupt... The transportation costs for the two sides are on completely different levels.

One costs several thousand dollars per kilogram, while the other costs two or three hundred dollars per kilogram!
That's a huge difference... a cost gap of ten or twenty times.

If other countries' space agencies were to undertake such large-scale space activities, they could bankrupt those countries.

Moreover, even if they had the money, they couldn't handle many of the projects involved... their technical skills were simply lacking!
Examples include the Yutu series interplanetary spacecraft in the Earth-Moon transportation system, as well as the supporting space station's fuel replenishment and material transfer system, and the supporting space operation and maintenance robots... There are far too many technological limitations involved.

It's not like they can just do it if they want to; they don't have the technology!
Nanmen Aerospace's top-notch technology is not something readily available; it is the result of years of continuous investment in funding and talent, and most importantly, the support of a scientific research system.

With the support of the scientific research system, a series of scientific research projects have made great leaps forward, from materials to engineering design and manufacturing, and the writing of software algorithms.

Only then did a large number of mature and usable technologies emerge, which in turn supported the entire lunar base project!
Other countries, no, even the entire Western industrial system combined, cannot do it...

Xu Shenxue is quite pleased with the series of space activities led by Nanmen Aerospace, especially the various technological breakthroughs. If things continue like this, perhaps it won't be long before we can enter the initial mining plan for helium-3 on the moon in three years.

By then, the Xinghai-1 controlled nuclear fusion experimental reactor should have been completed... Xinghai-1 requires helium-3 as a raw material, and helium-3 extracted from Earth can be used for the initial experiments!

However, this situation is unsustainable because Earth's helium-3 reserves are too low, and extraction costs are extremely high. If Earth's helium-3 were used as a raw material to operate the Xinghai-1 controlled nuclear fusion reactor, it would be a recipe for disaster...

Therefore, if the future Xinghai-1, Xinghai-2, Xinghai-3, and other series of controlled nuclear fusion projects based on existing technological routes are to be commercially operated and have actual commercial value, then it is necessary to mine and refine helium-3 from the moon... Otherwise, the fuel cost is too high and it is simply unusable.

Given that the Xinghai-1 experimental reactor is progressing smoothly and has now entered the actual manufacturing stage, it is estimated that construction will be completed in about two and a half years.

Therefore, the lunar helium-3 mining project led by Nanmen Space is on a tight schedule... We can't have a controlled nuclear fusion reactor and then be unable to start it up due to a lack of fuel, or simply use helium-3 extracted from Earth and operate it at a loss...

If that were the case, it would be somewhat frustrating.

I've already developed a killer weapon like controlled nuclear fusion, and you're telling me it can't be used because there's no fuel?
That's ridiculous!
Therefore, Nanmen Aerospace's lunar base plan must maintain its current rapid research and development and construction pace, and must proceed with the project according to the timetable.

Because of the tight schedule and the importance of the research tasks, many researchers involved in the project were unable to go home for the Spring Festival this year!

Even researchers working on some core projects cannot explain to their families why they cannot go home for the Spring Festival. These core projects they are involved in are highly confidential, and not a single word can be revealed to the outside world!
On the other hand, Nanmen Aerospace, which is publicly known, doesn't need to be so nervous. Many of their projects are quite public, and even if they weren't publicly disclosed, they couldn't be kept secret...

Such massive structures as the Centaurus space station, the Yutu-2 rover, the Sirius space station, and the lunar base... any space agency with a modicum of capability could keep an eye on them.

However, outsiders can only see the general appearance... but they don't know anything about the internal parts or some details.

(End of this chapter)