The Shenzhou-2 manned spacecraft first flew in an elliptical orbit of 200 kilometers perigee and 300 kilometers apogee.
This is mainly done from the perspective of saving energy.
Although the thrust of the Hongyan rocket is very large, the thrust is not infinite after all.
Every gram of rocket weight needs to be carefully considered.
It can save a lot of fuel consumption and greatly improve the time of manned spacecraft in orbit.
The night of the rocket launch, 21:00.
The Beidu Flight Control Center injects orbit change instructions into the manned spacecraft through Yuanzhi-2 in the Pacific Ocean.
The four high-thrust engines above the propulsion cabin started working and continued to adjust the flight angle and speed of the spacecraft.
Because the altitude during adjustment is at the apogee of the elliptical orbit, less fuel is required.
The propulsion module of the manned spacecraft works very efficiently and completed the orbit change in a very short time.
Compared with Shenzhou 1, Shenzhou 2 has more space experiment projects.
The main purpose of Shenzhou-1 is to test the reliability of the launch and recovery system, and there are not many experimental projects.
The orbital cabin contains a large number of experimental equipment.
It includes a multi-station space crystal growth furnace used to verify material production experiments in microgravity and a supporting crystal growth observation device.
Because Shenzhou-2 is still an unmanned spacecraft, these experimental equipment are all produced in an automated manner.
In addition to the crystal growth furnace, what is more important is the widely watched cell "space wedding" - two space cell fusion experiments of animal cells and plant cells.
They are the fusion experiments of B lymphocytes and myeloma cells used to explore pharmaceuticals, and the fusion experiments of Nicotiana tabacum protoplasts and Gengxin No. 1 tobacco protoplasts.
The main thing is to explore new methods of space medicine. After all, the microgravity in space is difficult to achieve on the ground.
This is the first time these devices have been put into space, so their working condition is what everyone is most concerned about.
"Has our superalloy crystal growth begun?"
Zhang Xingyang asked curiously, and Su Xiao, who had been in contact with the flight control center, asked.
The crystal growth furnace on the manned spacecraft needs to grow many materials, including: semiconductor optoelectronic materials, oxide crystals, metal alloys, etc.
The Inconel superalloy used by the Rocket Research Institute for the turbine disks originally used in the YF-100 rocket engine and WS-10 aeroengine was included in this experiment.
The microgravity environment in space prevents the crystals in the growth furnace from being affected by the earth's gravity during the growth process.
It can grow uniformly and have a more perfect crystal structure.
However, because it is an unmanned spacecraft, everyone still has some doubts about whether it can succeed.
"Ten minutes ago, they just said the experiment had begun."
The answer given by Su Xiao did not have any useful information.
"The space growth furnace detection device, has the data been returned?"
Although there is no way to control the process of materials in the space growth furnace, the crystal growth process can be observed.
Then the situation during the crystal growth process is analyzed to provide a theoretical basis for subsequent performance analysis.
"It hasn't been sent back yet. Judging from the reply there, it will probably take a few days to get the data."
Su Xiao told Zhang Xingyang the results of the previous communication with the center.
"Okay, let me know as soon as the data is sent back."
Although there was no way to get the data right away, Zhang Xingyang was not too angry.
He also knew that at this time, centers all over the country were conducting various experiments, especially the orbital observation of manned spacecraft by the flight control center, which was more important than their experiments.
With limited data transmission capacity, it is natural to prioritize meeting their needs.
Moreover, for their superalloy crystal growth experiment, there will be no problem even if the data is obtained later.
To say that what the flight control center pays the most attention to now is the manned spacecraft itself.
The flight orbit of the spacecraft is in a circular orbit of 300 kilometers. At this altitude, the gravity of the earth can still have a considerable impact on the orbit of the spacecraft.
Among the scheduled test projects of the spacecraft, during the first six days, the spacecraft will not turn on the engine of the thrust module to maintain its orbital altitude.
This is also to test how much influence the earth's gravity will have on the spacecraft.
Although the theoretical daily deviation value can be obtained with a little calculation, the actual situation is always the most complicated.
Without actual testing, no one knows what the real deviation will be like in space.
In space, in the space growth furnace inside the orbital module, the superalloy is growing slowly.
But what is even more eye-catching is the spatial cell fusion experiment.
After all, these days, in many film and television works and street stall literature, there are many scenes about creatures entering space and then mutating under the action of high-energy rays from the universe.
With such preconceived notions, many good people are discussing whether the new cells born after cell fusion will mutate.
What's more, some people think that humans should not go into space. After entering space, the human body's genes will mutate and produce deformed offspring.
Especially in various hero comics and animations, many superheroes mutated after being exposed to high-energy rays.
However, those who really understand the situation actually know that the orbital module is the place where astronauts live and work in space.
It has a thick enough radiation shielding layer to protect it from all kinds of radiation.
Otherwise, it is very likely that the body will be damaged during the exposure process of high-energy cosmic rays.
Therefore, experiments conducted in the orbital module will not be affected by cosmic rays. The greater impact is actually the microgravity environment!
Six days later, the flight control center had obtained enough orbit data and began to inject orbit change data into the spacecraft.
The spacecraft's propulsion cabin engine started working, slowly raising the height of the spacecraft.
After experiencing the rising and setting of the sun several times, the spacecraft began to maintain its altitude at 300 kilometers.
"Brother Xingyang, the data analysis of the space growth furnace has been completed."
At the Materials Experiment Center of the Rocket Academy, Su Xiao handed the latest completed material analysis report to Zhang Xingyang who was standing aside.
After receiving the report, Zhang Xingyang quickly read through it.
Basically, we understand the process of superalloy crystal growth in a microgravity environment.
In the growth furnace, in the ground environment, it is difficult to avoid buoyant convection due to gravity. Therefore, during the crystal growth process, the solute transport process and the interface characteristics between the crystal/solution will be greatly affected. , which in turn will affect the size and quality of the crystal.
In the microgravity environment of space, because the influence of the earth's gravity is very small, gravitational settlement will not occur, and the aggregation between particles will be suppressed.
In the growth furnace, the number of crystal nuclei that can nucleate spontaneously will also be greatly reduced, making it easier to grow larger-sized crystals.
The purity of the crystals will also be greatly improved.
Judging from the situation in the report, although it has not reached the level of crystal growth furnaces placed in high orbits and near zero gravity environments in later generations.
However, judging from the current conditions, the gap with Zhang Xingyang's expected data is not particularly large.
"Do you think this kind of data is good?"
Looking at Zhang Xingyang who was still reading the report, Su Xiao asked.
As the person in charge of the Materials Experiment Center, Su Xiao has grown a lot in the past few years, but she also knows it.
In front of Zhang Xingyang, his own level was like the stars before the bright moon, dim and lackluster.
"Judging from the data alone, the crystal structure we grew was better than when we originally grew it on the ground."
After Zhang Xingyang finished reading the report, he put a dozen thick papers under his desk, looked up at Lidya Su and said.
"Basically, it's been as good as I expected."
At this time, Lidya Su also breathed a sigh of relief.
Being able to get such an evaluation from Zhang Xingyang shows that there is nothing wrong with his material formula.
The material formula this time was mainly developed by Su Xiao.
After all, Zhang Xingyang has a lot of major projects on his shoulders. He doesn't have that much time to focus on sub-projects like this.
At most, we just set aside some time at some critical nodes to look at the progress of the project.
"That's good."
Lidya Su said with a relaxed expression at this time.
"However, the most we can do now is explore microgravity environment production."
"Practical application is probably still far away."
Simulating the microgravity growth environment on the ground is still a relatively difficult research topic.
Everyone in the world is basically in the exploratory stage.
"In fact, there are still many ways to achieve microgravity crystal growth on a large scale."
Zhang Xingyang is more optimistic, at least he has a lot of ideas.
"Depending on the route, there are probably two ways."
"The first is to find a way to build a large-scale orbital crystal growth furnace cluster in orbit."
"There are two main difficulties with this route. One is that if we want to mass-produce, we must build a large-scale space station. This is still difficult for us."
"Another difficulty is that maintaining such a huge space creation requires a large number of astronauts to perform maintenance work in space."
"This is also difficult for us."
“So it’s very difficult to follow this technical route!”
When Lidya Su heard this, her heart felt cold.
“Then we have to wait until a few decades before we can mass-produce it again?”
Zhang Xingyang looked at Lidya Su strangely, wondering how she came to such a conclusion.
"It doesn't take decades. It only takes ten years at most to follow this path."
"Of course, there is a faster way."
"any solution?"
At this time, Su Xiao was also a little curious about what kind of solution there was.
"You also know that the advantage of microgravity is mainly that the buoyancy convection caused by gravity no longer exists."
"Then if we want to get the same growth effect as in space, we only need to start with buoyancy convection."
"For example, the magnetic field can be strengthened outside the growth solution to weaken the gravitational settlement and buoyancy convection in the solution during crystal growth."
Hearing the technical methods mentioned by Zhang Xingyang, Su Xiao's eyes lit up.
Yes, since the biggest impact is buoyancy convection.
Then think of a way to remove it!
In fact, Zhang Xingyang did not mention the disadvantages of this technology.
First, a strong magnetic field will slow down crystal nucleation and production efficiency, hindering the crystallization process and greatly increasing the crystal growth time.
Secondly, strong magnetic fields are not so easy to achieve and require a lot of advanced equipment.
Zhang Xingyang did not mention these bad points because he did not want to take such a technical route at all.
He is still more optimistic about the space production base plan.
Just when Zhang Xingyang and Su Xiao were communicating on the ground about future material production methods.
The manned spacecraft constantly uses the engine on the propulsion module to maintain its altitude in space.
The high-energy radiation monitor of the sun and cosmic objects in the orbital module began to work on its own.
Because the earth is protected by the atmosphere, most of the various high-energy rays from space will be absorbed by the atmosphere.
This is also an important reason why the creatures on the ground can grow healthily.
But precisely because of this, it is basically impossible to detect cosmic rays on the surface.
If you want to truly detect cosmic rays, the best way is to take the test equipment into space and conduct field tests.
The high-energy radiation monitor of cosmic objects continuously records data and records the intensity of various monitored radiations in the data box in the cabin.
The data box adopts a special reinforced design, which allows it to survive the extreme conditions during the recycling process and ensure that the data inside is not lost.
Shenzhou-2's on-orbit time far exceeded that of Shenzhou-1, reaching an astonishing twenty days.
This is mainly due to the fact that the thrust of the Hongyan rocket is large enough, the manned spacecraft can carry more experimental equipment, and the engine of the propulsion cabin can carry more fuel.
Maintain the spacecraft's orbital altitude for a longer period of time
Shenzhou-2 is compared with the previous Shenzhou-1. There are a lot more on-orbit experiments, and when Shenzhou-1 was launched, what everyone was most concerned about was whether they could successfully send the spacecraft into orbit.
No particular emphasis is placed on other aspects.
On January 25, after twenty days of in-orbit flight and 324 revolutions around the earth.
The return capsule turned into a meteor and returned to the Amugulang grassland.
After the recovery of the simulated astronauts, experimental equipment, and various seeds in the return capsule is completed.
The Shenzhou-2 mission was a complete success.
Next, manned spaceflight will enter the most important level.
Shenzhou-3 will take China's first astronaut into the sky.
Complete the first step of the three-step plan for manned spaceflight.
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(End of chapter)
