Chapter 239 - 233 S2100_1

Thirty-five billion to forty-five billion, that was the assessment by the space agency of the research and development, as well as manufacturing costs, of the Forward Space Station.

For such a man-made creation that could serve both as an enormous space station and a spacecraft, the space agency was extremely interested. So were the higher-ups, who specially approved twenty billion yuan. Should there be joint operation of the Forward Space Station, half of the funds could be directly provided.

Of course, the twenty billion wasn’t in strict cash but rather a portion in funds and another portion where the space agency would participate in the manufacturing of some modules according to their ideas.

Thinking of this, Lin Ju felt that the problem wasn’t significant.

New Yuan was powerful in aerospace technology, but lacked high-end precision scientific research equipment; they had always had to buy it, and developing it themselves was very draining.

Working with the space agency, they would have access to channels for obtaining the most cutting-edge scientific research equipment.

Lin Ju, "Let’s do this: all six crew cabins will be made by New Yuan, and for the service module, let’s fill half with your equipment and requirements. But I have one condition. The progress must be fast. By around next October, the Forward Space Station should be completed."

"That soon?"

"You know, the majority of limitations in aerospace are due to lift capacity. Most segment constructions have already been automated by us, making the efficiency very high."

Academician She sighed again. Treating aerospace like normal industry had its benefits—it helped lower costs. SpecaX and XAP are role models in this respect.

"The collaboration on Forward seems roughly settled. By the end of the year, the Fifth Academy should have the energy to discuss the details with you. By the way, are you still developing New Yuan No. 4? No. 3 is already sufficient, right? With a near-Earth orbit lift capacity of 247 tons, this is truly unprecedented."

"No. 4? Maybe, but 800 tons of near-Earth orbit lift capacity is indeed too exaggerated. It’s all forced up by hydrogen-oxygen engines, and the cost is too high."

...

"Who would have thought that one day we would also be able to use solid boosters with such great thrust. It’s simply the perfect match for hydrogen-oxygen engines."

At Desert Base, outside the launch tower in the Gobi desert, a long, hazy construction had been built. A segment of white object, 47 meters in length and 5 meters in diameter, lay transversely on a V-shaped cement fixator, firmly secured by numerous robust giant expansion bolts.

This was a solid rocket booster, intended for use with the New Yuan No. 4 super-size rocket.

As a brutish product of the system, a single SRB segment with a thrust of 700 tons was expensive, but indeed worth the price.

This 47-meter-long booster consisted of three S700 segments in series, providing a total thrust of a staggering 2100 tons!

If a rocket was strapped with two of these beasts, its thrust would be increased by 4200 tons directly!

If two were attached to New Yuan No. 3, it could increase its LEO payload capacity from 247 tons to 324 tons, a direct increase of 77 tons.

No wonder solid rocket boosters are called the godly tools of rocketry. They increase payload capacity in a simple and brutal manner. The classic use is to employ high-thrust solid boosters as auxiliaries, combined with the core stage’s low-thrust, high-specific-impulse hydrogen-oxygen engines.

The high-thrust solid booster takes care of getting the core stage out of the Earth’s atmosphere, then the high-specific-impulse hydrogen-oxygen engines send the rocket into orbit. There’s no need to exert effort to develop high-thrust liquid engines.

The only regret is that they are too expensive. Although the casings can fall into the sea for recovery and reuse, the value of a solid rocket doesn’t lie in the casings.

However, the S2100 at Desert Base isn’t meant for building rockets; instead, it is planned as the launcher for the unmanned H1, also known as the new Shenlong project.

The SL-1A had been deployed in space for three months and returned to Earth the day before yesterday for maintenance and fuselage inspection.

This hastily modified prototype performed extremely well, boasting high power generation, strong maneuverability, and the ability to operate continuously in space for about a year without any problems, as verified by tests.

Moreover, the lifting body’s design resulted in a large internal volume, and after months of preparation, the base is ready to deeply modify the SL-1A, packing it with equipment to make it battle-ready.

The most crucial piece is an 80KW laser, which is charged by solar panels and can store energy for an attack. Considering heat dissipation and charging, it could be fired every 15 minutes at the fastest.

A laser of this power could significantly damage satellites, and the base plans to test it by attempting to destroy a decommissioned "Fengyun" satellite the next time SL-1A is sent up.

In addition, the mechanical arm hasn’t been neglected; if the Fengyun satellite is indeed destroyed, it could change course, grab it with its mechanical arm into Shenlong’s narrow cargo bay, and bring it back to Earth for damage assessment.

Although little is known about the X-37B, Desert Base believes that in terms of operational capability, H1 has already surpassed it, ready to be deployed for actual combat.

To be prepared for combat deployment means initially producing about four units and then using solid rockets as strategic duty equipment for rapid launch.

At 20 tons, H1 is far too heavy, requiring medium to large liquid rockets for launch, and its preparation time and launch site requirements fall far short of warfare readiness standards.

Although there is no imminent great war in which SL-1A might be used, it doesn’t mean that this kind of preparation is unnecessary; in some ways, the importance of SL-1A is on par with nuclear weapons.

Four SL-1A units would be capable of destroying most of the enemy’s satellites before running out of fuel, a much higher efficiency compared to missiles, which are also much more expensive.

But the problem with having SL-1A on constant deployment is the lack of ultra-large solid rockets; actually, to get a 20-ton payload to low orbit with pure solid rockets, the rocket’s thrust requirements are much higher than those for liquid rockets.

Initially, Desert Base considered working with the Fourth Academy to develop a single-rocket body design using three solid stages plus one liquid stage for a total of four, sending SL-1A into space with the fourth stage’s liquid fuel added just before launch to save time.

However, after hearing about it, Guo Shen brought out the powerful S700, deciding to create a miracle with force.

A three-stage solid rocket, stringing together three S700s for a thrust of 2100 tons and a weight of 1000 tons, plus a small solid rocket motor for the second stage, achieving orbit with just two stages.

No finesse, just sheer brute force; nearly a single-stage to orbit capability with S2100’s incredible thrust, forcibly sending SL-1A, weighing less than 25 tons, into space. The second stage’s solid thrust would only need to work briefly and be discarded after use, which isn’t too expensive.

Because of the massive vibration, S2100 was transported to Desert Base in an An-1250 cargo bay for testing, which made solid rocket experts from the Fourth Academy take in a sharp breath when they saw this behemoth.

The Fourth Academy also had their own large solid rocket motor plans with a diameter of 3.35 meters, single stage thrust of 500 tons (successfully tested in the original timeline of 2022), and they are still in the early stages of the project.

With a diameter of 5.05 meters and a single stage thrust of 700 tons, the S700 is simply a behemoth beyond imagination.

When the base ordered the test firing, the S2100 activated; its star-shaped hollow charge columns began to burn from the inside out, and the entire shell served as the solid rocket’s combustion chamber and engine.

Even hiding in the underground control room, the over 2000-ton ferocious thrust felt like tearing open the earth upon S2100’s activation; those underground could vividly feel the ground shaking incessantly. The S2100’s smoke column was so massive that, within seconds, it covered the entire test site, stirring up a sky full of yellow sand that intertwined with the gray-white smoke, a sight both spectacular and daunting.