Chapter 104 - 100 CZ-6 Remote 3_1

Finally, driven by Lin Ju’s piqued curiosity, the CS75 not only completed a lap around the entire base but even, despite the engineers’ objections, ventured onto the road outside the base, hitting speeds close to 100.

Many employees who saw the car thought it was a masterpiece of Xin’an Intelligent Driving Department, which left them completely puzzled.

When night fell, Lin Ju got out of the car, touched by SC09’s exterior wiring and couldn’t help but muse:

"The production of X32035 is too low, with an average daily output of 120 units. It takes eight units to operate an SC09. Even if reduced to four, that’s only enough for 30 vehicles. Even if all supply went to automotive use, that would only satisfy the demand for ten thousand cars a year, which is far too few."

And this was impossible, as the demand for spacecraft and internal needs was greater; X32035 supported supercomputing and had the potential for deep AI learning. Allocating some of those to the automotive industry was simply not feasible.

Another point was that the costs of automated production lines were very high. The average production cost of this batch of X32035 was 35,000 yuan per unit. Such costs were negligible for aerospace use, but not viable for consumer applications.

Therefore, it was necessary to design a silicon wafer version of a ternary chip and components and have chip enterprises OEM manufacture them. This would not only reduce prices but could also greatly increase production.

However, this aspect was already under the efforts of the electronic component department’s microelectronics science, especially since acquiring X32035 enabled substantive ternary compilation design, which would surely make progress fast.

...

In Liangshan Autonomous Prefecture, He Tang and a few people welcomed a group of special "passengers" outside the train station.

Half an hour after the train arrived, New Yuan’s liaison personnel approached them with two oversized metal-shell suitcases.

"Here are two sets of rocket recovery control systems, already programmed according to YF100K and CZ-6 data, and directly delivered to the Selenium Chang Satellite Launch Center," they said.

The repeatedly postponed CZ-6 Remote 3 Rocket would be outfitted with one of the two sets, a custom control system worth 20 million yuan, and retrofitted to the RX01 technology bus standard, expecting it would take 9 days and be launched on August 28.

This was another project approved by the Aerospace Development Committee, to retrofit the Long March series of launch vehicles for recovery, beginning with the CZ-6.

Originally, China’s National Space Administration wanted to buy both the technology and the finished product, but New Yuan wouldn’t sell. After all, it represented the accumulation of countless launches in a parallel world. The data in the sold control systems was encrypted with a ternary algorithm, and the systems were completely sealed off to prevent reverse engineering.

After several unsuccessful negotiations, the space administration had no choice but to accept the offer, while also issuing an internal directive to "walk on two legs."

If they could succeed with New Yuan’s recovery control system, wouldn’t they at least accumulate some experience? Now that they had the finished product, reverse engineering... if they couldn’t break through the technology, they would have to assign responsibility.

The components in one suitcase were worth 20 million yuan, but for a reusable rocket, this cost was not considered high, and the economic benefits would surely make up for it, so the space administration was willing to invest this money.

In the following days, He Tang led his team, with the assistance of New Yuan engineers, to complete the CZ-6 modification project ahead of schedule by two days, ready for launch on August 26.

At 11 a.m. that day, the CZ-6 Remote 3 Rocket launched, delivering the satellite into its intended orbit before making its third recovery attempt.

While the space administration waited, nervous yet hopeful, and the New Yuan engineers stood by as calm as veterans, the CZ-6 safely landed right in the center of the landing field without a hitch.

"Congratulations, congratulations to Mr. He, the CZ-6 reusable version has made it," someone said.

Receiving the somewhat dubious congratulatory remarks, He Tang restrained his urge to dismantle the control system and let out a sigh of relief.

Even if the technology wasn’t up to par, having the finished product in hand and still not being able to reverse-engineer it would be embarrassing. If they couldn’t develop their own recovery control system after this, then it would indeed be time for a serious reconsideration and perhaps even a resignation.

Moreover, the rocket configurations of two models from Aerospace First Institute were completely changed.

These were the siblings, CZ-7 and CZ-8.

The original plan for CZ-7 had a core stage with a diameter of 3.35 meters and two YF100 engines, coupled with four 2.25-meter boosters, each with a YF100 engine. The six YF100 engines provided a total thrust of 727 tons and a LEO payload capacity of 14 tons.

The first-stage configuration of CZ-8 was essentially a CZ-7 with two fewer boosters, four YF100 engines providing a total thrust of 480 tons, and an approximate LEO payload capacity of 8 tons.

The new configuration was as follows:

New CZ-8, using a 3.35-meter reusable core stage equipped with one YF100K engine, flanked by two boosters each carrying two YF100K engines, five YF100K engines delivering a lift-off thrust of 625 tons, a lift-off mass of 500 tons, and a LEO payload capacity of 9 tons. The boosters would not separate during recovery; they would be attached to the core stage for an integrated recovery, controlled by the core stage engines to slow down for landing;

New CZ-7, four 3.35-meter boosters in tandem with two YF100K engines each, with the core stage still featuring a 3.35-meter diameter and one YF100K engine, totaling nine YF100K engines with a thrust of 1125 tons, and a lift-off mass of 890 tons. It also was designed for integrated recovery, with a LEO payload capacity of 20 tons.

Although the costs increased significantly, and the dead weight for recovery was large, the conservative technical approach made it easier to achieve, even if the payload-to-lift-off mass ratio was a bit touching... But it met the positioning requirements, didn’t it?

The only thing lacking was a mature 3.35-meter core stage recovery control system.

And this control system’s development task was assigned to the Eighth Institute...

The first technical cooperation under the Aerospace Development Committee’s leadership was considered a complete success, and the ISS began its final selection of the contractor for the crewed launch mission in September.

Though it seemed like a fair competition on the surface, with Sky Fork, New Yuan, and Russia throwing in their proposals and comparing parameters, the ISS had actually added an American and a European astronaut to their team, clearly showing a bias towards New Yuan in their actions.

In an internal survey of astronauts’ preferences for future missions, except for a few Russians who believed their own Union Spaceship was the best, the rest felt that the most comfortable ride was on a space shuttle.

If the mission were to be carried out by the Unity, its docking port would be reconstructed from the existing 0.9-meter docking port on the "Harmony" module, built by Italy, to accommodate a 1.2-meter round port. The modification involved removing half of the existing 0.9-meter port and adding an adapter about 50cm high to connect with the 1.2-meter port. Since the docking port was on the upper part of the hull, it had little impact on structure and insulation, and the design was relatively reliable.

Data on the European standard 1.2-meter port had already been sent by Arianespace, and the adapter was in production. The modification on the existing port, including installation, would take about ten days.

Although Ma Yilong’s Dragon Spaceship had impressive specifications, because it had not yet conducted a crewed flight, its chances of winning were slim. It would be temporarily impossible for the Union TMA-18M as well.

Hence, the final stretch now consisted of ISS member countries squabbling internally to secure a better deal in the exchange of interests.

On the last day of August, under heavy pressure from various parties, NACA finally compromised and awarded the launch mission, initially scheduled for September 2, at a contract value of 145 million US dollars to the Unity spacecraft. It would be launched by the New Yuan-2 rocket on September 17.

The reason for choosing New Yuan-2 was that along with the astronauts going up, four more from the space station were to return to Earth as part of crew rotation. Originally, three were supposed to return on the Union TMA-16M, but in the end, ISS retained TMA-16M as a reserve at the space station.

If they had waited for New Yuan-5, the launch would not have taken place until November, which would have severely disrupted the ISS’s scheduling.

The return of the four astronauts also meant that Unity would come back, with return tickets offered at a buy three, get one free deal. Each ticket cost 1 million US dollars, totaling 3 million dollars, saving the cost of one Union spaceship, which would economize funds for subsequent missions.

Transporting five astronauts up and four down for less than 150 million made the ISS member countries feel they got a great deal. The cost per person was much lower compared to earlier missions.

A spokesperson from the European Space Agency even stated that China intended to extend its low-cost approach from the ground to space and believed that excluding China’s National Space Administration from the ISS was a huge mistake.