Chapter 716 The Important Thing Is that It Is There

After the meeting, the Xiaguang aerospace plane was formally established, and Hou Guang was still in charge.

Time passed day by day, and time soon reached the end of January.

After a long wait, the Bureau of Science and Industry, the Space Administration and other units jointly announced the winning bid for the manned moon landing program on their official website.

Without any suspense, the Xiangrui, which was the first to achieve a delivery capacity of 50 tons in low-Earth orbit, won the competition without any suspense, and successfully won the bid for the most crucial item in the entire manned moon landing project-namely, about Carrier items.

In fact, here, it doesn't matter whether there is a bet or not.

After seeing the excellent performance of the Xiangrui, I believe that anyone with a normal IQ will make the right choice.

A total of 10 billion funds were put in place, which quickly solved the urgent need of Xingkong Technology.

According to the agreement with Ahri Group, Xingkong Technology repaid all the corporate loans, and used the remaining funds to start the final preparations for the upcoming manned moon landing program.

As for the lunar module, command module, service module, extravehicular space suit, lunar rover, lunar communication satellite and other components necessary for the lunar landing project, more than a dozen aerospace companies including the Aviation Science and Technology Group won the bids.

Many of these projects have been completed, such as the most critical command module and lunar module. As early as December last year, the powerful Hangke Group had exhibited related samples.

As long as the high-thrust rocket with the delivery capacity of more than 24 tons of earth-moon transfer orbit is completed, the entire moon landing project can be started at any time.

Judging from the current carrying capacity of the Xiangrui, there is no doubt that this condition has been met.

After meetings and discussions between high-level officials and various departments, the manned moon landing plan was finally set on the day before the Spring Festival in 2021.

In the less than a month before the Spring Festival, the main task of Xingkong Technology is to discuss and formulate specific launch plans with other moon landing project participants, and coordinate specific launch work.

The funds allocated by the state this time are quite sufficient, and the outstanding performance of Xiangrui in the test flight has also greatly boosted the confidence of domestic aerospace companies. , to present a special New Year gift to the people of the whole country and the world.

Early morning at the end of January.

Sun Taiping, the boss of Aviation Science Group, arrived in Jinling by plane with several experts.

A black car parked low-key at the entrance of the Space Shuttle Assembly Center. After getting out of the car, Sun Chengping enthusiastically extended his right hand and walked forward, holding Lu Zhou's hand and shaking it.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, I've heard about Professor Lu's name for a long time."

"Mr. Sun is polite," Lu Zhou responded with a decent smile, and after letting go of his hand, he made a gesture of invitation, "Let's save the greetings for a while, everyone, please follow me."

The command module and the lunar module of this launch mission were completed by the Aviation Science and Technology Group, so this involves a very important issue, that is, the compatibility of the lunar module and the command module with the Xiangrui aerospace plane.

Whether the equipment can go out of the cabin smoothly, whether it can be successfully recovered after leaving the cabin, and whether there will be interference between spacecraft during the moon landing mission, these issues must be studied and discussed by professionals. If you don’t solve this problem, it will be embarrassing if you throw something down on the moon and find that you can’t get it back.

Following Lu Zhou's footsteps, the group quickly saw the behemoth parked in the hangar.

It was the same expression as the experts of the Air Force Equipment Research Institute. After seeing the real guy, almost everyone's face was deeply surprised and shocked.

Especially those five rough electric propulsion nozzles.

On the shiny metal shell and the spiral texture, almost all the aerospace and aviation research personnel's lifelong dreams are condensed...

After being dazed for about six or seven seconds, Sun Taiping said with emotion when he came back to his senses.

"Is this the Xiangrui?"

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "This is the first time I saw you?"

"That's not enough," Mr. Sun shook his head, and said in a rather emotional tone, "I've seen it twice on TV. It's just that no matter how long I watch it through the screen, it's not as shocking as seeing it with my own eyes."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Want to sit up there? I promise it will be more exciting."

Sun Taiping coughed dryly and said, "This...isn't necessary, I'm a little afraid of heights."

At the same time, beside the Xiangrui, experts from the Air Science Group have begun to communicate with technicians from the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

"...What is the carrying capacity of your earth-moon transfer orbit?"

Hou Guang: "Theoretically, it can reach a maximum of 25 tons."

"25 tons?" After thinking for a moment, the experts from Hangke Group continued to ask, "Then which solution do you think is more appropriate?"

Hou Guang: "At present, the most reliable method is still the lunar orbit assembly. Our suggestion is to integrate the command module into the Xiangrui module, and only put the lunar module on the lunar surface after entering the lunar orbit. Potential risks in the recovery process of the capsule."

There are four main methods of landing on the moon, direct takeoff, earth orbit assembly, lunar surface assembly, and lunar orbit assembly. From the point of view of safety factor, it is 1>4>2>3. From the perspective of rocket performance requirements, it is 2>4>3>1.

In fact, in history, the Apollo spacecraft also chose option 4, that is, the method of gathering lunar orbits. First launch a spacecraft to fly to the lunar orbit as a whole, a part (the lunar module) lands on the moon, and a part (the command module) stays in orbit. After the mission to the moon is completed, the part that landed will return to the orbit of the moon, and then return to the earth after assembly.

After listening to Hou Guang's words, the engineer stroked his chin and nodded.

"Integrate the command module on the spacecraft? It's an interesting idea, we will consider it..."

Looking at the engineers standing next to the Xiangrui and exchanging opinions, Sun Taiping said in a rather emotional tone.

"I didn't expect that in my lifetime, I could see the footprints of our Chinese people on the crescent moon above the nine heavens."

Lu Zhou said with a smile: "The crescent moon above the nine heavens is just the beginning, and we will go further afield in the future."

Turning his gaze from the aerospace plane to Lu Zhou, Sun Taiping spoke in a somewhat perplexed tone.

"Can I ask a question?"

Lu Zhou: "What's the problem?"

Sun Taiping: "Actually, I have always been curious. You have always insisted that you are a mathematician, but your contributions in other fields have far surpassed your achievements in the field of mathematics."

Lu Zhou smiled and asked, "Do you think so?"

Sun Chengping: "Isn't it?"

Lu Zhou thought for a while and said, "Whether it's controllable fusion or aerospace, these super projects will be solved sooner or later with the development of society. What people need is a lot of resources and time for trial and error. However, in mathematics There is an essential difference between a hundred years and two hundred years. Even if a mathematical tool has been perfected, if no one climbs these Everests of the human mind, those questions will never be answered .”

Sun Taiping smiled and said, "Then I find it even more strange."

"What's strange?"

Sun Taiping: "Since you think mathematics is so important, why are you interested in aerospace?"

Lu Zhou: "Are you curious about my motivation for researching this thing?"

Sun Taiping nodded.

"That's right."

Lu Zhou smiled and replied in a relaxed tone.

"It doesn't matter at all."

"The important thing is that it's there, waiting for me to fix it."