The rise of nanometers - Chapter 777 Trial voyage
July 15, 2027.
In Mendeleev City on the far side of the moon, three Gonggong-class spacecraft completed the final outfitting work at the 106 Space Shipyard.
Looking down from behind the moon, you can see three ring-shaped buildings. In the middle of the ring-shaped buildings is a “building”.
In fact, these are three Gonggong-class spacecraft. The shipyard is constructed in a semi-open air, and a large part of it is deep underground.
After all, the overall design of the Gonggong class consists of a main shaft in the middle and a rotating wheel well, which looks like a grinding wheel.
The completed Gonggong-class spacecraft has a full load of 87,623 tons and is equipped with 15 sets of 50,000-megawatt nuclear fusion generator sets with a total output of 750,000 megawatts.
In terms of power, a new plasma engine is used.
There is also an emergency backup N-fuel rocket engine, mainly to ensure fast braking and rapid acceleration.
After all, the disadvantage of the plasma engine is that it starts very slowly and requires continuous acceleration to increase the speed of the spacecraft to the expected speed.
Therefore, plasma engines are relatively weak in terms of rapid speed changes.
If you encounter a situation that requires sudden acceleration or sudden deceleration, the plasma engine will not be able to cope with it.
In this case, N-fuel rocket engines that can quickly provide power are very important.
In terms of the internal supporting facilities of the Gonggong-class spacecraft, on the one hand, it is the pseudo-gravity living area of the rotating wheel cabin. The rotating wheel cabin has not yet been fully deployed, mainly because it is still in the shipyard and is not convenient to deploy.
After the Gonggong stage takes off, the rotating wheel nacelle can be unfolded and turned into a rotating wheel with a radius of 7.6 kilometers.
The interior of the rotating wheel cabin is divided into four areas, two living areas, a planting area, and a material storage area.
Inside the rotating wheel cabin, the power system is three sets of independent nuclear fusion generator sets, with a power generation of 150,000 megawatts, accounting for 20% of the total output power of the entire spacecraft’s power system.
The rotating wheel cabin is connected to the main shaft through the swing arm, and the traffic between the two is carried out through the elevator set on the swing arm.
In fact, the rotating wheel well accounts for a small proportion of the total mass of the spacecraft, only about 23,000 tons. The main shaft occupies the bulk of the spacecraft, totaling about 64,000 tons.
Of course, there is still a lot of mass used in fuel, consumables, and water.
The Gonggong-class spacecraft has a complete industrial production system. From raw materials to finished products, as long as there are sufficient raw materials, it can achieve self-sufficiency.
It is equipped with 18 industrial modules including “mineral refining module”, “electric field synthesis module”, “nano-robot processing module”, “3D printing module” and “artificial food synthesis module”.
Even carbon-based chips can be produced in small batches through nanorobot processing modules. On the entire spacecraft, except for nuclear fuel, which cannot be self-sufficient, everything else can be self-updated through internal industrial modules.
This is basically a small city with all the internal organs. The technology above can be said to be the culmination of the Federation’s technologies over the years.
If it were possible to travel through time and space, the technology on this spacecraft could allow a force to quickly achieve technological breakthroughs.
After the outfitting was completed, the pilots drove the Gonggong class and prepared to take off to Blue Star’s 450,000-kilometer orbital area.
This orbital area is relatively empty and is very suitable for sea trials of such large spacecraft.
In order to allow the Gonggong class to take off smoothly, the shipyard was also specially equipped with a batch of external rocket boosters. Driven by the surging light red flame, one of the Gonggong class lifted off smoothly.
In fact, external rocket boosters are common auxiliary equipment for such large spacecraft.
Even after the Gonggong-class spacecraft completes its trial voyage and officially heads to the outer reaches of the solar system, the Ministry of Space Affairs will prepare a batch of large external rocket boosters for it on the moon.
Through these rocket boosters, the flight speed of the Gonggong stage is increased to more than 15 kilometers per second at once, and then the plasma engine is relayed.
When the spacecraft reaches the asteroid belt, it will collect resources in the asteroid belt to replenish fuel and material consumption along the way.
As for the Gonggong-class spacecraft itself, its internal payload needs to be used in key places, and the rocket booster can provide an auxiliary effect.
Trial work begins.
After liftoff, the Gonggong stage quickly unfolded its rotating wheel nacelle, which began to rotate slowly. When the rotation speed reached the set value, obvious centrifugal force began to be generated inside the rotating wheel nacelle.
And this centrifugal force, just like gravity, will “suck” the items inside the rotating wheel well to the floor.
The astronauts Dong Feng and Mu Haodong in charge of the test now entered the living area of the rotating wheel cabin from the spindle cabin through the elevator.
As the elevator approached the rotating wheel cabin, the two of them felt a force pulling their bodies.
As the elevator gets closer and closer to the rotating wheel cabin, this force becomes more and more obvious. Until the elevator cabin reaches the living area, Dong Feng and Mu Haodong feel as if they have returned to Blue Star.
This obvious pseudo-gravity is a completely different feeling from the pressure of the internal pressure suit. This is a relatively macroscopic force field.
The two of them took a while to adapt before stepping out of the elevator cabin.
The living area is actually not all for daily use. The living area – Area A, is actually the work area, which includes the cockpit, kitchen cabin, health cabin, medical cabin and so on.
As for the living area – Area B, there are hibernation cabins, sleeping cabins and entertainment cabins.
Dong Feng and Mu Haodong tested various facilities. During use, the usage status was actually similar to that of Blue Star.
However, just in case, there are special usage regulations for various items inside. For example, liquids such as drinking water cannot be directly exposed in the cabin, but must be stored in special bottles and cans.
The main reason for this strict restriction is that if the rotating wheel well stops rotating, the centrifugal force will disappear.
In this case, the inside of the rotating wheel well will return to the microgravity state.
In a state of microgravity and in a state of blue-star gravity, many items will show different states, and this state may cause fatal danger.
For example, liquids in a weightless state will turn into small water droplets floating everywhere, which can easily be inhaled into the respiratory tract by astronauts through breathing, causing the risk of suffocation.
There are also various floating small objects, such as a ballpoint pen and a pair of nail clippers. In a weightless state, they can easily float around. This will not only cause trouble in finding things, but also cause some potential dangers.
Especially in a rotating wheel cabin with pseudo-gravity, after astronauts get used to this pseudo-gravity environment and suddenly enter a state of weightlessness, they will not be able to react subconsciously.
Therefore, the internal management of the rotating wheel cabin needs to be even more stringent than that of the weightless cabin, taking into account possible potential dangers.
The Gonggong-level working area requires long-term operation in the outer reaches of the solar system, far away from the federal mainland. If a serious accident occurs, the astronauts above can only rely on the astronauts to save themselves.
If you are not careful and prepared, something goes wrong and the astronauts above may have to pay the price with their lives.
The testing work is in full swing.
As for the astronauts sent to the Gonggong class, the selection process has been completed, and 60 astronauts are making final preparations at Blue Star.
Thank you for your support (ω`)