Chapter 151 - 147 Explorer_1

"Warm congratulations to the ’Tianzhou’ cargo spacecraft on its successful launch."

On April 29, the Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft carrying the CZ-2F rocket launched from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, conducting the first resupply mission for the 2016 Tiangong Space Station, with a total of 13.5 tons of cargo, including 100 kilograms of vegetables.

The reason for not using the New Yuan series of rockets was that the New Yuan 5A, comparable in capability to the CZ-2F, was not much cheaper, with an external price tag of 1.5 billion, actually not much less expensive than the CZ-2F.

The CZ-2F is a cryogenic fuel rocket, costing only tens of millions more, so let’s still support our own aerospace industry...

The six astronauts who had been in space for nearly 50 days ate fresh vegetables picked less than 10 hours ago and gave a hearty thumbs-up to the ground staff.

It was also possible to eat fresh vegetables on the Tiangong Space Station, as the "Sky and Earth" core module underwent a deep transformation, with a dedicated soilless cultivation chamber growing bok choy, mustard greens, eggplants, tomatoes, and more.

But the 100 kilograms of vegetables came from the ground, and the greater variety clearly excited the astronauts even more; they would also prepare about 30 kilograms of vegetables to bring back on the next return mission, allowing those on the ground to taste genuine space vegetables, beyond just for research purposes.

This won’t take much longer, as the first batch of tycoons who purchased space station tour packages are expected to go to space around May 10, including Chen Weizhang and another coal tycoon, as well as the old Japanese, Mae Mayu.

They will stay in the Original Cloud Palace Space Station, the XS-62 tourist module, for 7 days before returning and will perform an extravehicular activity.

The extravehicular suits they use are really disposable, priced at 50 million, and with a 100% profit margin it’s not considered high; they can take them home as a souvenir after coming down, which is quite meaningful.

In May, there will also be an official launch mission, or rather semi-official: the Chang’e 4 mission.

With New Yuan’s involvement, the total mass of Chang’e 4 prepared for launch by New Yuan 5B has reached 8 tons; the lander had to be redeveloped and will deploy two rovers after landing on the lunar surface.

The landing site was determined after an intensive month-long observation by Magpie Bridge, set to land in the Von Karman Crater on the far side of the Moon.

This will be humanity’s first time sending a spacecraft to land and explore the far side of the Moon, with the significant feature of utilizing relay satellites for communication and navigation, allowing us to glimpse the true face of the far side of the Moon.

The lander for the Chang’e 4 mission weighed 3.4 tons and carried the 150-kilogram Yutu-2 Lunar Rover from the aerospace agency and a 420-kilogram "Explorer" type robot from New Yuan.

Yes, a robot.

"This is... the Explorer?"

Lin Ju looked bewildered at the hideous mechanical eight-legged spider in the empty field.

When the system store first opened, he casually bought the technology for a lunar surface walking robot and then handed it over to engineers to work on a Lunar Rover. The result was a giant spider? Besides, isn’t this thing too ugly?

The engineers explained to him: "Don’t judge the Explorer Type I by its looks... actually, it’s pretty good, and its performance is very impressive. It can move up to 3000 meters per hour on the Moon, while Yutu-2 can only move 200 meters an hour. Explorer Type I is much more powerful."

"That fast!"

Lin Ju found it hard to believe. Even in the Moon’s low gravity environment, to be able to move that quickly, could the battery really last that long?

He had just reviewed the data; the Explorer didn’t have any black tech power sources, just very ordinary nickel-hydrogen batteries. It would have to recharge after 150 minutes of continuous activity using either the lander’s massive solar panel array or its own foldable small solar panels.

The 2.8-ton lander, besides using the aerospace agency’s traditional folding solar panels, also equipped many additional solar panels, which the Explorer was supposed to carry out and set up to serve as a power source.

Of course, the Explorer also possessed a nuclear battery, which was a Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) with a maximum output of a mere 20 watts, generating electricity from the heat produced by isotopic decay, just enough to keep the chipsets running and to maintain the temperature of critical components.

Yutu-2 had a similar device, but with an even lower capacity of 5 watts.

Both types of isotopic batteries were provided by the aerospace agency, the technology was similar, and Explorer’s was simply scaled up, adequate for makeshift use.

America will launch the "Curious" Mars rover a few years later, boasting a nuclear battery that weighs 45 kilograms and provides 140 watts of power. That’s the kind of tech to envy. But New Yuan was close to having its own; Cheng Nankai said it was just a trinket, and by the end of the year, they’d be able to produce a 50-kilogram power source providing 280 watts of power, extremely efficient, already meeting the needs of many spacecraft.

Of course, before that, the Explorer still had to figure out ways to save energy.

The engineer said, "The Explorer has two moving modes. The first is by crawling, which is used when carrying loads or working, achieving about 0.3 meters per second, but it’s really power-hungry; the eight mechanical legs running together will drain the battery in about forty minutes.

The second is an energy-efficient and fast mode of travel, progressing through jumping. The eight mechanical legs only need to provide 200 kilograms of thrust to jump high and far. It can adjust its center of gravity with its legs in mid-air for a safe landing. A single leap lasts about 1.22 seconds, covering 2.48 meters, with a 3.2-second charge between each leap. So, it can travel 46.5 meters per minute, and managing 3000 meters an hour is no problem."

"Can the battery last that long?"

"With the assurance of a 30-minute scientific mission and round-trip, the 240-kilogram batteries can sustain around 800 leaps, covering roughly 2790 meters.

If it uses the lander as a recharging station, then its operational range cannot exceed 1500 meters. Of course, the Explorer could also use its own solar panels to recharge, but it needs at least 100 hours, and that’s when the sun is shining, so it can be fully charged in about half a month."

Lin Ju kept nodding, "That works, very good. The Explorer robot exceeds my expectations entirely."

The Explorer robot was actually completed in February, and when it was discussed with the aerospace agency, they were quite shocked by the bold and advanced technology pathway of the Explorer, but the agency, already numb to surprises, simply assigned it a mission according to its capabilities.

For example, the Explorer had eight flexible claws that could wipe the lunar dust off the solar panel surfaces with built-in small wipers and could also help Yutu-2 get out of tricky situations, among other things.

As for testing the walking technology of the Explorer itself on Earth, it was not possible except with scale models, because the 420-kilogram weight on Earth could not be supported by the total thrust force of approximately 200 kilograms of the mechanical legs—there was no way to test it...

On May 1, the Chang’e 4 mission was officially announced to the public and scheduled for launch a week later, on May 8. The mission emblem bore the intersecting logos of CASA and XAP, clearly indicating that it was a public-private partnership project organized by the Aerospace Development Committee.

Simultaneously, the peculiar device in the probe, the Explorer robot, was also revealed to the public.