Chapter 324 - 317: Undetectable 20_1

The atmosphere of Venus is quite peculiar, composed mainly of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, with pressure and mass reaching approximately 93 times those of Earth. The immense pressure turns carbon dioxide into a supercritical fluid, forming a unique type of ocean.

However, between 50 to 65 kilometers above the surface of Venus, the atmospheric composition primarily consists of about 21% oxygen and 78% nitrogen, almost identical to Earth’s atmosphere, allowing humans to breathe without assistance.

Furthermore, below this altitude lies the supercritical carbon dioxide, which theoretically could make buildings "float", thus allowing the construction of uniquely configured colonies.

Therefore, to scientists, Venus, despite frequently experiencing force 12 hurricanes and sulfuric acid corrosion, has colonization feasibility not inferior to Mars. This prompted the Union to send 16 Venus detectors last century, 10 of which accomplished soft landings.

Xiao Okada believed that the prime research target on Venus was that 15 km thick breathable atmosphere, prompting the design of the Venus detectors not as ordinary landers but as capable of aerostatic exploration, and even flight, ideally with sample return capabilities.

This required a reliable room-temperature liquid engine capable of long-term fuel preservation under harsh conditions, or in other words, a high-performance "toxic thruster".

It’s well known that Xie Liaofu utterly detests toxic thrusters, so the C series development was assigned to Guo Shen, who was given a separate plot of land to develop a robust engine that could be ignited multiple times in Venus’s extreme atmosphere to support a detector flying around and ideally bringing back a substantial amount of samples.

In fact, NAPE could also do the job, but that was really too expensive, with a single engine costing more than the total budget for Venus exploration...

The Venus exploration project is set to launch in April, with a key focus on high-end and complex atmospheric probes. Human knowledge about the target zone is still very limited, necessitating vague design standards and as much redundancy as possible, as merely working for several dozen minutes like the Union probes wasn’t quite cost-effective.

Moreover, the Venus exploration window is quite rare, occurring only once every 584 days, which is about 20 months. April is about catching the tail end of this year’s window; any later would be very troublesome.

Xiao Okada is mainly responsible for this project, with Xie Liaofu currently focusing on the new Cloud Ascend project.

Five months ago, Xie Liaofu told the Aerospace Development Committee that the power issue of the Cloud Ascend project, which is the mass production plan of the "Lushan" engine, would be resolved within a year.

In reality, Xie Liaofu has invested tremendous effort into this cost-effective orbital entry scheme. Among all current manned spacecrafts, Cloud Ascend is the cheapest, almost representing the ultimate balance of cost and performance for SSTO with current technology.

Now, the TP-25, the heart of the Cloud Ascend project, has completed the manufacturing of its mass production prototype.

A single engine weighs 1450 kilograms, and ten engines combined can save another 400 kilograms through the sharing of some fuel pipeline systems, providing a peak thrust of 257 tons when in a sharp tip condition.

For a rocket engine, this weight and thrust represent nothing but disastrous industrial waste. One could find a fresh aerospace graduate who would be better off, but seeing the engine’s remarkable specific impulse and that it functions partially within the atmosphere, one can only marvel at the designer’s imagination in breaking boundaries and the wild confidence of the manufacturers.

And just over a thousand kilometers away, this engine, which would cause a huge stir in the aerospace field upon exposure, is currently undergoing electrical preheating.

...

Desert Base.

A dark, truck-sized triangular aircraft is parked at the end of a runway, with ground support equipment providing power and cooling for the fuel.

Dou Ping stood not far away, counting the projects at the base on his fingers:

"Shenlong, Xuehu, rapid launch system, ha, now we’ve got an Unmanned Reconnaissance 20. Our base has never tried to manage this many projects at once."

"Director Dou, has Unmanned Reconnaissance 20 been approved for project initiation?"

By his side, Androff, whose skin had turned somewhat darker from the sun, squinted as he surveyed the base, clearly having become well integrated into the environment.

Androff was at the base due to difficulties encountered in the development of the Xuehu’s airframe. Although its aerodynamic shape could meet the expected speed requirements, it posed several challenges in terms of internal equipment placement and fuel storage.

As a key national defense contractor, New Yuan sent Androff, who was the most experienced in aerodynamics and backed by the System Research Institute. He quickly became the highly respected "Chief Designer An" within the base.

Dou Ping: "It hasn’t officially started yet, but I reckon the Air Force will definitely want it. It doesn’t conflict with other projects anyway."

Indeed, that triangular unmanned aircraft on the runway was a base’s side project to verify the TP25, an upgrade from the Unmanned Reconnaissance 8, but it had undergone major refurbishment, appearing as an ellipse with its upper half cut off, clearly a center-lift body configuration.

It was powered by a TP-25 engine that could output 7 to 11 tons of thrust in jet mode, with a maximum take-off weight of 18 tons, designed as a frontline strategic reconnaissance aircraft.

According to base calculations, after the Unmanned Reconnaissance 20 entered a near-Earth orbit of 180 km, it would retain about 4 tons of mass, capable of providing around 20 hours of low-orbit reconnaissance. After that, it would have to re-enter and return due to loss of speed caused by atmospheric friction.

Since it could reach orbit, range ceased to be a concern. Moreover, if the Unmanned Reconnaissance 20 used its last bit of fuel for a slight acceleration instead of returning, it could achieve a precision-guided warhead with speeds up to Mach 30.

Even without a hydrogen bomb as a warhead, the sheer kinetic energy would be remarkably powerful, especially against slow-moving (relative to the Unmanned Reconnaissance 20) large targets (such as large ships). Even a near miss could temporarily incapacitate them.

More crucially, compared to missiles, the body of Unmanned Reconnaissance 20 was very cheap to produce, and launching it was more convenient than a temporary low-orbit reconnaissance satellite, with better survivability.

After all, even when the TP-25 worked at full capacity, it was far less detectable than the tail flame of a small solid rocket, and afforded greater flexibility; any small airport could serve as a launch site.

Originally meant as a test project for the TP-25 in high-altitude conditions, Desert Base quickly recognized its immense potential. Dou Ping promptly assigned it the code "Unmanned Reconnaissance 20," and it was almost certain that the military would not abandon this project but continue it further.

The only slight problem was that due to Unmanned Reconnaissance 20’s size and weight restrictions, the containers for storing liquid methane and liquid oxygen were not perfect. On the ground, they had to rely on the ground support equipment to cool them and cover them with insulation blankets, preventing wing icing and crash due to ultralow-temperature fuel.

Ground support even had to manually defrost with heaters, as even slight weight changes were significant for Unmanned Reconnaissance 20, which was already carrying most of its weight in fuel.

Only after takeoff could the engine provide sufficient power for the aircraft, so to a certain extent, Unmanned Reconnaissance 20 was still a finicky princess...