After erecting the stone monument, Wang Qi arranged for the abdication of the throne and related legal provisions, while integrating resources to promote the establishment of a space agency.
The current total population of the Phoenix Kingdom is only over three million, of which more than one million are just above the literacy level. Those who are diligent and willing to work can do some welding and machine tool work, but they cannot promote industrial progress.
The overall scale is still too small, and it is impossible to really create an aerospace industry.
The "Stele" project has given some researchers some knowledge about outer space. It would be a pity to throw it away directly, because once knowledge and technology are outdated, they have to start from scratch. Especially technology, once it is stored in the database, it will not be available for a few days. I haven't been able to find them all even after ten years of searching.
Therefore, the size of this space agency cannot be too large, and the overall scale must be reduced to the thousand-person level.
It is definitely a fantasy for thousands of people to want to build a rocket, but it can also be done by developing an aerospace plane-style spacecraft based on the form of the super-ancient lander in the mine.
In the early stage, there is no need to consider permanent residence in outer space, so the existing hourly life support system is sufficient. The magic power source based on "vector generation" has been mastered relatively skillfully, and basic extravehicular space suits are also available. There are no technical bottlenecks.
Another purpose of promoting aerospace is to go to outer space to confirm the difficulty of receiving the "stone monument" signal.
Electromagnetic waves attenuated severely with distance in the atmosphere of the exile. When I pulled out the receiving station used for early radio experiments, there was no response at all, so I had no choice but to go outside.
There are still some production-related matters. After waiting for several months, Blue Sky Heavy Industry's large aircraft project finally completed all pre-mass production work including test flights, adjustments, etc., and directly let the large aircraft project team take over the aerospace aircraft.
The jump is really big. The main obstacle is that Blue Sky Heavy Industry has insufficient basic supporting facilities. It only has a transonic wind tunnel and cannot conduct wind tunnel experiments in the hypersonic section.
Between cross-factor and hypersonic speed, if developed step by step, there are still two levels of wind tunnels, namely below 2.5 times the speed of sound, and between 2.5 times and 5 times the speed of sound. The former can be directly operated by humans, while the latter is mainly for unmanned flight. Material services, such as missiles and the like.
Now, if we want to forcefully launch an aerospace aircraft, we can only do more practical operations to collect data.
The appearance of the first generation is directly based on the super ancient lander.
The shape of the lander is composed of a lifting body and an elevated subsonic wing. You don’t need to practice it to know that its low-speed flight capabilities are very good, but it is not without problems.
First of all, the outer shell of the lander is mainly made of niobium-tungsten alloy, which has very strong high-temperature tolerance. Phoenix Steel has not yet produced a niobium-tungsten alloy with exactly the same performance. Using materials with lower temperature resistance, the outer shell may be overheated and melted. Case.
But the solution is the same. First build a prototype and fly it. It doesn’t have to leave the atmosphere, and it doesn’t have to be that high speed. On the premise of ensuring that the aircraft will not disintegrate, collect data at each stage through flight after flight for analysis. Barriers that need to be overcome to fly to outer space.
What is needed next is super equipment for manufacturing aerospace planes.
This thing is different from an airplane. The skin of an airplane is transported in the form of aluminum alloy thin sheets. Aluminum sheets cannot withstand high-speed and high-temperature environments, and neither can titanium. The performance of titanium alloys above 400 degrees is very poor. The best thing is steel, molybdenum steel for turbine engines.
In order to achieve relatively high reliability, welding seams must be reduced as much as possible. It is best to make a complete shell from two to three one-piece forged and cast parts.
Building such a structure requires the use of extremely large equipment, and there are also a series of transportation issues that need to be solved. It cannot be completed in a day or two.
Therefore, the first-generation prototype could only make do with some relatively simple tasks using a stainless steel casing.
As for heat-resistant tiles, inform relevant companies to reserve technology first, and wait until there is a real need to return to the atmosphere. There is no need to slow down the process of breaking through the atmosphere, and the temperature will not be that high.
Such a makeshift prototype was quickly produced by Blue Sky Heavy Industries, which has the ability to assemble large aircraft, and started the development of aerospace aircraft.
After a period of continuous test flights, the aerospace aircraft will soon face the need for replacement.
The upper limit of the speed that stainless steel can withstand is around Mach 3.2. Any faster and the material performance will be attenuated due to aerodynamic heating. Using the built-in magic cooling system for active intervention can further increase the speed.
Therefore, when it comes to breaking through the atmosphere, it only needs to be stronger than stainless steel. There are several alternative materials available at home. Even if it is a little rougher, it is not impossible to use stainless steel directly to the sky.
However, the solidified boundary layer technology used on artillery shells is not easy to control on extremely large surfaces such as aerospace aircraft, and subsequent technological iterations are needed.
In addition, the effect of the shield on the process of penetrating the atmosphere was also tested.
During the process, the power team also obtained the thrust distribution data required to break through the atmosphere.
The existing "vector generation" device is fully sufficient to push a stainless steel aircraft into the sky, but if the weight of the subsequent aircraft increases, some margin still needs to be left. The working direction of this group is also relatively clear, which is to maximize the output and controllability of the power source within a fixed size space.
After the first batch of test flights, questions about returning to the atmosphere will need to be answered during the construction process of the No. 2 aircraft.
There are only two main issues when it comes to regression, posture and heat.
Attitude refers to the attitude of the aircraft towards the atmosphere.
It is completely different from the requirements for breaking through the atmosphere. Returning to the atmosphere requires partial deceleration in the upper space. Otherwise, you will fly directly with the nose of the aircraft and hit the middle and low-level air at ten or twenty times the phone. Even if the power is enough to decelerate, people will become A pool of blood and bones.
The structure of ancient landers is inherently suitable for landing. In wind tunnel experiments, the belly of the aircraft can be aligned with the landing direction, achieving self-stability without the need for additional power control.
The problem now is that no one knows how high the temperature will rise if the belly of the plane is facing the wind.
The reliability and heat resistance limit of the shell material of Unit 2 is 1150 degrees. Magic temperature control can only resist the increase in calorific value, but cannot improve the heat resistance limit of the material. Under the premise that the actual data is unknown and the discipline is imperfect, it is still necessary to add insulation Hot tiles are safer.
Although insulation tiles are useful in various furnaces and kilns, they are not specially designed for spacecrafts. The ones cobbled together by relevant companies may have problems such as insufficient strength. They can only use the magic system to break through the atmosphere as much as possible. process, protecting its integrity.
For the test flight of Unit 2, we will first repeat part of the project of Unit 1. After confirming that there are no problems in all aspects, we will start the suborbital flight.
Suborbital can break through the atmosphere, but cannot complete the route of moving around the world. It is like throwing a stone from underwater to the surface of the water. Just throwing it out of the water is also called suborbital. If it is thrown into outer space, as long as it can fall back into the water, it is also called suborbital. suborbital.
The suborbital speed is far different from that of satellite orbits. The ultimate speed of the first suborbital test flight of the No. 2 aircraft was only Mach 5, and the maximum altitude reached 80 kilometers.
There were no surprises throughout.
The main power assist is "vector generation", which is an omnidirectional power system. When the belly of the aircraft is aligned in the forward direction, it can also provide force in the appropriate direction to better control the landing process.
The subsequent test flights became more and more troublesome, because as the speed of breaking through the atmosphere increased, in order to ensure safety, the parabola had to be placed relatively flat, and throwing stones would make them farther and farther away.
Two thousand kilometers, three thousand kilometers, the project had to be suspended at this point, and the No. 2 machine was modified again, and toilets, beds and other things were added to make the astronauts more comfortable during the flight back.
Someone in the middle proposed to simply let the astronauts drive the spacecraft out of the atmosphere and return, but Wang Qi rejected it directly.
Returning from outer space is fast, but the risk is not just doubled. When all the support systems are very adequate, doing so will undoubtedly put the astronauts at risk.
After several suborbital tests, the administrative structure of the space agency is almost the same, and it is beginning to be able to synchronize the efforts of more manufacturers.
Just like the "Stone Monument" project, the manufacturers participating in the project are not just doing this, but coordinating several technical backbones, and the new technologies acquired in the process are also the manufacturers' own.
More manufacturers mean stronger technical support, and progress will also slow down.
While waiting for news about Unit 3, we first used the suborbital experiment of Unit 2 to start tracking the "Stone Tablet" signal.
The relevant staff thought a lot about it, but it is not that difficult in practice. The large exposed metal shell itself is a large omnidirectional antenna. In addition, the exile itself is a low-frequency electromagnetic black hole. It is easy to hear the signal from the stone monument in suborbital orbit. .
The stele signal consists of three parts.
The first is a string of passwords. The main function of this password is to participate in the deciphering of the remaining parts. If you can't even pass this step, it means that the mathematical foundation is too poor. Without the mathematical foundation, you can't find the way out of the planet.
The second part covers the results of magic research so far and some conjectures. In fact, civilizations that receive the signal in the future will definitely notice the abnormality of magic in the penal colony if they can dig deeper into these issues.
The last part is completely speculation, the relationship between God and the source of magic, etc.
Now that he had an explanation for Solaris, Wang Qi chatted with Solaris for a few words and couldn't wait to pass on the throne. He and Li Xiang moved to the aerospace system as consultants.
Although he has passed his hope to the future, Wang Qi still wants to do more for the development of civilization. If there is a space station that can have unlimited endurance and adaptively adjust its orbit, this civilization line that combines magic and industry will no longer be affected by surface changes. cut off.
Even if the will of the world or gods take the initiative to destroy the space station, it will only leave more research clues for future people.
