After the manned orbit test of the Tongtianqiao Project was successful, the latter part of the plan, the "Tiangong-1 Project" was fully launched.
This "Tiangong-1" is actually a low-orbit space station.
Like the International Space Station in the original time and space, the tube structure is mainly built on the ground and then launched into space for assembly.
But there is a huge essential difference between the two.
The building materials for the International Space Station in the original time and space had to be launched into orbit by a space shuttle or a heavy rocket.
The weight and volume were severely limited, and the construction cost was extremely high.
From the launch of the first component of the International Space Station in 1998, to 2009, 11 years later, the total weight reached 303 tons, the living cabin was 358 cubic meters, the total cabin was about 430 cubic meters, and there were only six crew members.
The amount spent has been Nearly $100 billion.
If inflation is taken into account, it is approximately equivalent to about US$6 billion in 1937.
However, a single residential module of "Tiangong-1" weighs 505 tons, has a volume of 3,000 cubic meters, and was launched in one go.
On the same day, the Xuanpu base carried out a total of six launches and launched six module groups.
There are four living cabins, a command cabin, and a fuel and engine cabin, with a total weight of up to 3,300 tons, and the total cost is less than 2.6 million Chinese yuan.
The main reason is not only low cost, but more importantly, due to the low launch acceleration, the structure and parts do not need to be significantly reinforced.
In addition, since Tongtianqiao has the ability to quickly launch various modules to fill positions, the safety redundancy factor of the crane can be made slightly lower, which also saves a lot of costs.
And this is not over yet.
On the second, third, and fourth days, subsequent cabins and parts with various functions were launched one after another.
Among them, when the front living module was assembled on the third day, the Tongtianqiao Command Center launched a passenger bus and sent a total of 300 workers to assist in the construction.
The sight of more than 200 people walking in space at the same time was very spectacular.
On December 20, 1937, two months after the launch of the Tiangong Project, the Tiangong-1 base was officially completed.
This is a large space station weighing 41,000 tons consisting of a total of 76 various modules.
There are as many as 40 living modules, which can accommodate 1,600 permanent residents.
It can also be quickly Launch new living pods up to add space.
Tiangong-1 has a usual resident staff of 400 people, and the total planned investment is only 200 million yuan.
The launch success rate is extremely high, the process is safe, the cost is low, the throwing volume is large, and the response speed is fast.
These are the huge advantages of the mass projector.
Although Tiangong is a space station mainly for scientific research, there are also troops stationed on it.
The Chinese Air Force has a 30-person team stationed there.
This team is a maintenance team.
However, they are not repairing Tiangong.
Instead, they use Tiangong as a base to take orbital spacecraft to refuel, repair and upgrade Chinese satellites.
We all know that satellites are very expensive things.
Regular refueling, spare parts, and upgrades and repairs from time to time can greatly increase their service life, which is very helpful in alleviating budget pressure.
The Tongtian Bridge is indeed very expensive, much more expensive than a launch vehicle.
The entire Tongtian Bridge project plus various supporting facilities has cost more than 18 billion.
But this expense is mainly due to the construction cost, and the operating cost is much cheaper.
The Tongtianqiao project includes a super-large high-energy battery array and two charging nuclear power plants, with four 1.2 million kilowatt units and an output of 4.8 million kilowatts.
It can launch a fully loaded cargo of 720 tons every three and a half hours of charging, and it can launch a fully loaded passenger vehicle once every three hours of charging.
The nuclear power plant on Tongtian Road is the latest fourth-generation value-added reactor nuclear power unit.
Its electricity cost plus 10% of the net profit is 1 cent and 2 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity.
Therefore, the energy cost of projecting a fully loaded truck is 201,600 yuan, and the cost of operation and maintenance is about more than 250,000 yuan.
The truck is fully loaded with a payload of 660 tons, which is equivalent to a cost of 380 Chinese yuan per ton, or three cents and eight cents per kilogram.
The projection cost of passenger cars is the same but the maintenance cost of the car body is slightly higher.
The cost of a fully loaded passenger car is about 300,000 yuan, and the cost is about 300 Chinese yuan per passenger.
For comparison, China's current heavy-duty launch vehicle Sheng Long 2 pushes a 20-ton payload to low orbit at a unit price of 3 million Chinese yuan.
The cost is about 150,000 Chinese yuan per ton, a difference of 395 times.
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If you consider personnel transportation, the difference is even greater.
Even if all spaceships are changed to passenger transport, they can only carry a maximum of twelve people.
The unit price of the spacecraft is 600,000 yuan, which means that including the cost of the rocket, it will cost 3.6 million yuan to transport 12 people to orbit.
The price for one person is 180,000 yuan, a difference of 1,000 times.
After the celebration party for the completion of Tiangong-1, Qian Xuesen found Wen Desi after the banquet and said seriously: "Mr.
Wen, I admit that the budget for Tongtian Bridge has been reduced by at least one-third than planned.
But Mr.
Wen, I still insist on my opinion.
It may be difficult for this plan itself to recover the cost.
I'm afraid you made a mistake this time."
"Oh, Director Qian, why do you have such an idea?"
Wen Desi asked in surprise.
"Mr.
Wen, I have calculated.
If we charge 1,050 Chinese yuan per ton of goods, which is a profit of 200, and project it day and night, we can recover the construction cost of more than 18 billion after 18 years.
But this is 2,600 The total projection capacity is 10,000 tons, but how can we have so much cargo that needs to be projected onto the orbit?
Even the planned orbital photovoltaic power generation transfer system will not use that much.
The planned orbital photovoltaic power station plus the supporting system does not exceed 50,000 tons, which can already produce nearly one million kilowatts of electricity, which is equivalent to the projection capacity of one nuclear power unit even if 100 are built.
Besides, the photovoltaic panels themselves are very expensive, and you will never be able to recoup the cost.
You see, this is the result of my calculation."
Qian Xuesen took out a piece of paper full of words and handed it to Wen Desi.
"Yes."
Wen Desi took it and looked at it.
Director Qian calculated it very carefully and included the maintenance time.
Qian Xuesen suffered a heavy loss at Tongtian Bridge.
After returning home, he discussed the problem with his colleagues and discovered the problem.
According to their calculations, the cost of Tongtian Bridge is too high, and the cost cannot be recovered according to the current use method.
"Mr.
Wen, although our country is much richer than before, such a large investment is still very difficult."
Qian Xuesen said seriously.
He was not trying to grab funds now, but out of a sense of responsibility.
He felt It is a shame that the country has spent so much money.
Wen Desi smiled and said: "Director Qian, you are a very good scientist, but you are not a good businessman.
Why do you only give us a profit of 200 from Tongtian Bridge?
This is an exclusive monopoly in the world. , other countries don’t even have launch vehicles.
We can say how much the shipping cost is.
A profit of 200 is too conservative.
In my opinion, a profit of 1,000% or even 10,000% is very suitable. of."
"Mr.
Wen, if you are making money from foreigners, it doesn't matter how high the profit is.
But if it is for our own country, it would be inappropriate to set such a high profit rate," Qian Xuesen thought for a while and said.
"You are right.
The most important purpose of our Tongtianqiao is to achieve China's technological take-off, so of course the profit margin of the internal price cannot be so high.
If it is too expensive, others cannot afford it, so the maximum is 300 Let’s make a profit of 500 .
So we need to find other ways to make money and increase the total cargo volume, instead of just focusing on the unit price.
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In my opinion, this is the beginning of the fourth industrial revolution.
Beginning."
Wen Desi also said seriously.
"The Fourth Industrial Revolution" Qian Xuesen was stunned for a moment.
"Yes, the fourth industrial revolution.
The first industrial revolution is the steam engine, the second industrial revolution is the electric revolution, and we are already in the process of the third industrial revolution, which is the information revolution brought about by the computer industry.
And the third industrial revolution is the information revolution brought about by the computer industry.
The fourth industrial revolution depends on the space industry.”
Qian Xuesen asked curiously: "So what do you think these industries include?"
"New materials, new energy and new tools.
Mainly these three aspects."
Seeing Qian Xuesen's hesitation, Wen Desi smiled kindly and said: "Let me give you a few specific examples.
For example, new materials, I Let me tell you a secret information.
Our more than a dozen materials research institutes have actually invented many new materials, many of which have never been heard of before.
The performance of new materials far exceeds the imagination of contemporary people, but now less than one-fifth of their achievements are put into practical use.
Do you know why?
Because many things are extremely expensive to produce on the earth.
It cannot be produced on earth with current technology, but if it is produced in outer space, it will be completely different.”
"For example, super alloys.
When alloys are refined on earth, because different metals have different specific gravity, the heavier alloy components will sink while the lighter ones will float when melted, so it is not very uniform.
For example, our iron-aluminum conjugate Alloys, a lot of effort has been spent to solve this problem, and it is necessary to Special equipment is required, so the output has been limited.
However, in the gravity-free environment of orbit, alloys with any metal composition can be perfectly and uniformly mixed.
Metal alloys with too different specific gravity can be made on earth.
It can be easily done on the track.”
"The second is the issue of impurities.
When metal is smelted on earth, just the mixing of air will cause impurities, such as nitrogen, hydrogen, etc.
These problems are very troublesome to deal with, and the cost of establishing a vacuum environment in the steelmaking furnace is quite high.
High.
However, in orbit, it is a vacuum environment, so there is no cost to create a vacuum.
In addition, the cost of orbital smelting is relatively low because there is no air and heat energy is not easily lost due to convection.”
"There are also alloys with special structures, such as foam metals."
Wen Desi naturally used the industry he is most familiar with as an example.
No one in the world is better than him in mining and metallurgy, especially in mining and metallurgy.
In extraterrestrial mining and metallurgy.
He continued: "For example, have you seen I-beam rails with mesh steel plates, or even honeycomb metal structures in aircraft wings?
These are all solutions that try to reduce the weight of the material while maintaining the strength of the material.
But.
In a gravity-free environment, foam metals that are ten times stronger than these can be easily made.”
Qian Xuesen thought for a while and said: "Foam metal, I have heard of this material.
Information about this has been published in previous scientific journals.
It is said that this kind of thing can significantly reduce the performance of the metal without reducing its performance too much.
Material weight.
However, this kind of thing can only be produced in small quantities in the laboratory, and it is completely impractical.
"People in the rocket industry are used to "caring about every detail", and they are very sensitive to the weight of materials.
"Yes, that's it."
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Wen Desi nodded.
"Because it is difficult to smelt foam metal on the earth.
Because there is gravity on the earth, once gas is poured into the molten metal, the bubbles will float quickly and there is no way to distribute them evenly.
However, there is no gravity in space, so stirring The bubbles can be evenly distributed in the metal solution.
After cooling down, the bubbles will be filled with perfectly round bubbles.
Foam metal.
For example, foam steel, the simplest among foam metals, can be made lighter than water and can float on water.
Its load-bearing capacity and endurance are not much smaller than steel of the same volume.
The point is that it is very cheap and can Save materials.
This is an incredible material.
If it is used to build cars, ships, aircraft and equipment, the performance will be huge. " "Another example is ball bearings.
This is a key industrial product.
During World War I, when the Allied Powers and the Allied Powers carried out strategic bombings against each other, the first priority was the ball bearing factory.
The key to ball bearings is the ball.
This kind of thing looks simple. , but it is quite technical.
There are no more countries in the world that can produce qualified ball bearings than Twenty, and the manufacturing process is very cumbersome, but if it is made in space, the cost of manufacturing this thing will be very low, and the process will be greatly simplified.
Even polishing is not needed.
The molten alloy liquid is directly dripped out in appropriate amounts.
It will shrink into a perfect circle in the air, and its accuracy is several orders of magnitude higher than the best products produced by factories on earth.”
Wen Desi paused and said: "In addition, there is pharmaceutical industry.
The pharmaceutical industry requires an extremely high dust-free vacuum environment to avoid contamination, and the cost of maintaining a dust-free vacuum environment artificially is extremely high.
But space does not require any cost, and there is no cost.
The dust vacuum is several orders of magnitude higher than on the ground.”
"The last one you may not be aware of is the computer industry.
The manufacture of computer central processors also requires an extremely high dust-free vacuum environment.
In addition, there is the problem of the growth of semiconductor silicon wafers.
The larger the wafer, the higher the cost of the semiconductor.
Low.
We can only make wafers with a diameter of 200 mm, so the current processor is more expensive than gold.
In addition, the cost of solar panels is extremely high, and the same is true for silicon-based solar wafers.
Cut from silicon wafers.”
"Although the wafer diameter can continue to increase with hard work, a lot of money and time will be invested.
For example, if we want to produce 300 mm, 400 mm or even 500 mm wafers, it may take more than ten or twenty years of research.
Time and tens of billions of investments, but not in space.
Gravity, in this ultra-vacuum, ultra-dust-free, gravity-free and even vibration-free environment, single crystal silicon is grown.
The diameter area that the wafer can grow is almost unlimited in theory.
This will allow us to grow.
The cost of manufacturing integrated circuits and solar panels has been significantly reduced.”
"As for energy, the orbital photovoltaic power station is just one of them.
There is also another project, also proposed by Mr.
Tesla, which is the orbital magnetic energy power station, a device that uses the magnetic lines generated by satellites to cut the earth's magnetic field to generate electricity.
In addition, we are now The fuel for the controlled nuclear fusion project being studied must also be obtained from space."
"Finally, in terms of new tools, spaceships, space stations, etc. are very good tools in themselves, and they have many uses."
Wen Desi said a lot, and he personally poured a cup of tea for Qian Xuesen.
He smiled and said: "The Tongtian Bridge itself may not be able to recover its cost within the 18 years you estimate, or even within the expected 30-year life span.
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Of course I think there should be a chance, but even if not, it is very worthwhile."
Because it is our ticket to the fourth industrial revolution.
Over the past hundred years, China has missed being the leader of the first and second industrial revolutions.
We have already caught the third industrial revolution.
But the fourth industrial revolution is the key to human sublimation, so we must not give up.”
Of course, in addition to these things, there are other uses that Wen Desi did not mention, and that is military uses.
With the Tongtian Bridge, large orbital bombers and missile interception platforms can be deployed very conveniently.
Besides, Tongtianqiao itself is a super giant electromagnetic gun.
Of course, it can also be used to launch giant guided artillery shells.
Because this giant guided artillery shell does not require energy during the take-off stage and only requires a small amount of fuel for trajectory change and correction, it saves at least 90% of the weight compared to conventional ballistic missiles.
One gun is a 720-ton guidance Cannonball, just thinking about it makes me feel sour.
If you replace it with a nuclear warhead China is carrying out space projection so intensively and building the huge "Tiangong-1" in low-Earth orbit.
This is not unreasonable.
In December 1937, several astronomers from the Hungarian National Observatory accidentally discovered this artificial creation while conducting routine observations on the moon.
At that time, they were greatly surprised and thought they had seen it wrong.
By the time they remembered to connect the camera to take pictures, "Tiangong-1" had already flown out of their telescope's field of view.
Anyone who has conducted astronomical observations knows how difficult it is to capture an artificial celestial body orbiting the earth in the vast space, because their speed is too fast, and the time it takes to pass from the sky is often only a few minutes. .
Unless their orbits and travel times are known in advance, there is no chance of capturing them.
Of course, with so many observatories and astronomy enthusiasts on Earth, there are always lucky people.
On February 7, 1938, when a Swiss astronomer was photographing sunspots, he inadvertently took the famous photo known as the "Celestial Occultation of the Sun" by later generations.
At that time, "Tiangong-1" happened to pass outside the sun.
Although it was completely out of shape due to light refraction and other reasons, it could still be seen that it was an obvious artificial creation.
And because it’s out of shape, the “Tiangong” in the photo looks like an alien spacecraft from a science fiction movie.
After this photo was released, it caused an uproar in the world.
People thought that aliens were coming, and a science fiction craze arose
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