This star is going to the moon

Chapter 459 The Kilometer-Class Spacecraft Project! Bigger is better!
As a young man, Lu Yun lacked the composure and gravitas of the seasoned veterans when giving speeches, so...

Many people enjoy listening to his speeches!

Like now.

After he made his outrageous remarks, the number of comments on the screen quickly increased.

[Haha, even the director of the space agency sitting next to Lu Yun was stunned.]

[666, as expected of Lu Yun!]

Although the language is a bit rough, it's really true when you think about it.

That's true. The X-33 was the first space shuttle designed by the US that was 100% reusable with a single stage-to-orbit capability, but they still haven't made their maiden flight.

[This is still quite different; the Kite-class space shuttle is even more advanced than the X-33.]

[It can only be said that the Kite-class space shuttle was just a concept in the US's presentation slides; they couldn't build it, and even the X-33, which was downgraded two levels, was never built.]

[This isn't classic enough; military weapons are truly classic, like the Type 055 destroyer. The Zumwalt-class destroyer exclaimed upon seeing it, "That's practically me!"]

Hypersonic weapons are truly impressive; the Dongfeng-17 that appeared in the military parade a couple of years ago was just a concept the US had presented on a PowerPoint presentation.

(Dongfeng-17 image)
[I saw a military blogger mention this; the US envisions bombers carrying AGM-183A hypersonic missiles striking anywhere in the world within an hour.]

[Haha, it turns out the AGM-183A missile launch was unsuccessful; both test launches failed...]

For a long time, the U.S. military has repeatedly claimed that new hypersonic weapons will be key to future warfare, especially in potential conflicts with country X and country XXX.

The AGM-183A hypersonic missile is their envisioned answer.

It is carried and launched by a carrier aircraft, with a range of over 900 kilometers and a flight speed of over Mach 5. It is mainly used to strike high-value fixed targets such as missile sites, air defense facilities, and medium to large-sized buildings.

This weapon is based on an experimental aircraft design previously developed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). It uses a "tactical boost glide" warhead and flies in near space, making it difficult to detect and track.

It employs a "boost-glide" trajectory and is capable of lateral maneuvering, enabling it to evade anti-missile systems and increase its penetration probability.

That's... wishful thinking.

The AGM-183A failed to detach from its carrier aircraft during its first test launch in April of this year, ending the test as a failure.

A second test launch was conducted at the end of July, but the booster failed to ignite after the missile separated from the carrier aircraft, resulting in the test failure.

However, the US considers the second test to be a partial success, at least in that the missile safely detached from the carrier aircraft.

This provides valuable data for research.

win!
At first, the audience followed along with Rowon's words and made fun of the Americans, and then they heard about "kilometer-class spacecraft"!
【? ? ? ? 】

What is a kilometer-level?

[Wow, are they really going to build interstellar warships?]

[Fun fact: In Star Wars, warships that are over a thousand meters long can be called "Star Destroyers."]

Comrades, "one kilometer" may not sound like a long distance, but "one kilometer" is absolutely awe-inspiring—a starship that's a kilometer long!

[Oh my god!]

[Stop calling me "Mom." Haven't you all read the 14th Five-Year Plan? It mentions that this kilometer-class spacecraft is for scientific research and exploration.]

Uh, most people probably wouldn't be interested in the 14th Five-Year Plan...

I definitely wouldn't have been interested before, but now that I know from Lu Yun, I'm interested.

Some netizens were incredibly resourceful and quickly found the source. [Wow, it really is there! It's the "Guideline for the Major Project 'Dynamics and Control of Space Assembly of Ultra-Large Aerospace Structures'!"]

[Awesome...]

(picture)
This plan involves building a super-large spacecraft with a size on the order of kilometers, which will be used for future space resource development and utilization, exploration of the mysteries of celestial bodies, and long-term on-orbit space habitation research.

Although it wasn't the interstellar warship that netizens had imagined, it was still quite impressive.

After all—bigger is better!
Just how impressive are kilometer-class large spacecraft?

The International Space Station, currently the largest spacecraft built by mankind, is 110 meters long and 88 meters wide. Its unfolded solar panels are roughly the size of two football fields, and its total mass is over 400 tons.

The size of a kilometer-class large spacecraft is equivalent to the length of ten International Space Stations lined up side by side.

Of course, if it's really going to be over a thousand meters tall, it certainly won't be as "thin" as the International Space Station, so its weight won't be more than 4000 tons, but at least 10,000 tons!

However, although 10,000 tons seems like a lot, the displacement of the 180-meter-long Type 055 destroyer actually exceeds 10,000 tons.

The USS Ford, a supercarrier, is over 330 meters long and has a displacement of over 10 tons!

Therefore, a kilometer-class spacecraft weighing tens of thousands of tons is undoubtedly a behemoth in space, but it is still "thin-skinned and big-filled".

Fortunately, that's how spacecraft are; their purpose is not determined by weight, but by their function.

Even disregarding other uses, the sheer size of a kilometer-class spacecraft, making it visible to the naked eye on Earth, is a huge asset!
The size of a spacecraft reflects the strength it demonstrates!
In fact, the International Space Station and Tiangong Space Station can be seen by the naked eye on Earth, but they are too small. What people see is just a point of light, and even if they see it, they don't know what it represents.

However, for a spacecraft that is a kilometer in size, its huge solar panels can reflect a considerable amount of sunlight, enough for the human eye to see its outline clearly.

The kilometer-level spatial perception seen by the human eye is roughly like a business card a few centimeters in size hanging in the sky.

If the solar panels and hull were painted red, regardless of whether there were gold five-pointed stars or hammers and sickles on them, it would scare the Americans so much they wouldn't be able to sleep.

Tell me, isn't this very useful?
Of course, building such a behemoth in near-Earth orbit undoubtedly presents numerous risks and challenges.

First, the cost of sending such a massive device into geostationary orbit is enormous.

Secondly, its construction process involves multiple complex stages such as modular structural design, multiple launches and space assembly, and also requires solving highly difficult problems such as dynamic coupling.

So now they've just put a project guideline into the 14th Five-Year Plan, indicating that the country will definitely launch this mega-project in the future, and various departments will start discussing its feasibility.

Whether it's cost, technology, engineering, or anything else, we need to discuss it.

Don't wait until the project is actually about to start and then be unable to come up with a usable solution before scrambling to find one.

Therefore, neither the aerospace officials nor Lu Yun responded to the various advanced questions raised in the live stream. Instead, they said near the end of the broadcast, "We will provide further information at this year's International Astronautical Congress."

"Alright, that concludes today's space lesson. Have a wonderful day, goodbye!"

Seeing that they couldn't get anything out of Lu Yun, the netizens started discussing it amongst themselves, and the discussions became increasingly explicit.

If you don't tell me the standard answer, then I'll just have to... make it up myself!
Meanwhile, a heated discussion also began late at night in the United States. Many people who did not need to follow Lu Yun and the news about China's space program were already asleep, but were forcibly woken up to go online and discuss it.

Many Chinese netizens don't read the 14th Five-Year Plan, but they have previously analyzed it in detail.

They discussed the "kilometer-level spacecraft" plan after it was discovered, and now that they've found Lu Yun is involved, they have to discuss it again.

After all, Lu Yun's identity as a "weathervane" is not just a nickname.

Even after the live stream ended, the official China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) did not take a break but instead started the next test project.

"Is the space emergency escape device ready?"

(End of this chapter)