Chapter 331 - 323: Thousand-Jun Stick No. 1_1

Send a robot to impersonate a human on the Moon mission?

Those who heard it first reacted with skepticism, then considered that there might be some sense to it.

Warrior II’s battery could support two hours of operation, and with some optimization, perhaps two and a half hours wouldn’t be a problem. Plus, since it would be on standby most of the time, maintaining it for three to four hours shouldn’t be too difficult.

It could even be externally powered, completely eliminating the life support component for the human body from Warrior II’s spacesuit and replacing it with an external power source.

Given Warrior II’s current flexibility, it might even attempt "manual" operation of the lander, as well as complete tasks that a human could accomplish.

Academician She believed that an unmanned Moon flyby should be done first as a precaution, didn’t he? Putting a robot up there wouldn’t affect anything.

Mr. Lin had mentioned the idea casually, but he immediately thought it had great potential, and the workload wouldn’t be too heavy.

"This robot project," he pointed at the Warrior II that was currently disposing of kitchen waste, "the Space Agency hopes to be involved."

Ye Changsi said, "I can’t make this decision on my own. Vice President Xie is in charge of this, and since the priority of the Warrior series has been increased this year, it might also require Mr. Lin’s agreement."

Mr. Lin nodded, not surprised by this. The Warrior series hadn’t seemed advanced to him before; only the speed of artificial intelligence evolution was beyond imagination. It had now reached an exaggerated extent.

"Then, should we disclose to the public whether or not it’s a robot... "

Someone asked, and Mr. Lin decisively shook his head.

"There’s no need for mystery; better to be clear about it... As for the robot itself, we can keep it confidential. Let them guess without being able to discover the truth. Let the Americans fret and wonder!"

"Where’s Lin? I’m going to find him right now. Warrior II should start training for this as soon as possible. Hey, why aren’t you preparing for this?"

Ye Changsi’s assistant hesitated, then explained: "Boss, according to our plan, it’s still early days for humanoid robots to land on the Moon. And our target is the type of Warrior I, which operates in a much more complex environment than Warrior II."

After finishing his explanation, Ye Changsi then mentioned Lin Ju’s movements.

"Mr. Lin went to Qingshan Base yesterday, and he won’t be back until tomorrow. So, you see..."

As soon as he heard "Qingshan Base," Mr. Lin understood what was going on; it definitely involved corporate secrets. He smoothly expressed his willingness to wait.

Meanwhile, dozens of kilometers away, Lin Ju and Zhao Xiaowen were tensely awaiting something atop a secluded hill on the outskirts of Qingshan Base.

The latter glanced at his confidential tablet, switching to the satellite network’s operational trajectories in the sky, where one of the stars was a distinctive red color.

"Thousand-Jun Stick No. 1" was the first experimental laser satellite produced by the laser laboratory after long efforts. Weighing 22 tons, it had been launched into space just a week ago.

This satellite operated in a low Earth orbit at 270KM, constantly requiring its ion thrusters to eject high-velocity gas to maintain its orbit, or else it would fall due to atmospheric friction in less than a year.

Thousand-Jun Stick No. 1 was 4.3 meters in diameter and 9 meters in length, equipped with 7 140-kilowatt carbon dioxide gas lasers positioned in a circular layout. When used, they focused on a single point to create a combined destructive effect.

Not including R&D expenditure, how much does it cost to manufacture just one Thousand-Jun Stick No. 1?

2.7 billion yuan, and that’s simply the manufacturing cost for a "verification model"!

The entire satellite has a peak power output of up to 1100 kilowatts. To provide such an insane amount of power, New Yuan procured the latest generation of large-area solar cells from the aerospace bureau, installed the most expensive miniature nuclear reactor ever manufactured by Qingshan Base, as well as a set of even costlier supercapacitors.

If all seven lasers are activated simultaneously, with the capacitors and both types of batteries supplying power at the same time, they could maintain a maximum duration of 60 seconds; by activating only three or fewer lasers, the batteries alone could sustain 300 seconds of intermittent 20-second long exposures.

When Thousand-Jun Stick No. 1 is in flight on its orbit, its top speed exceeds 8 kilometers per second, and to precisely strike a high-speed target at such velocities, it requires extremely accurate attitude control and calibration systems.

Each aiming sequence progresses from the outside in: RCS, ion thrusters, high-precision gyroscopes, electromagnetic suspension lens fine-tuning, etc., just the solution to the aiming problem takes up more than 1 billion yuan of the budget.

Without this system, the beam would move with the satellite at a speed of 7.9 kilometers per second while the lasers are on, and this simply wouldn’t do.

In fact, if properly adjusted, Thousand-Jun Stick No. 1 can firmly lock onto a target for 30 to 50 seconds.

The 11 lenses of the laser were meticulously selected from over 300 lenses developed in residence by New Yuan in Changchun’s optical machinery factory. The laser assembly environment is the cleanest cleanroom in the world, built at great expense by the laser laboratory. When it was air transported out of the factory, the entire flight route of the An-1250 was subject to computer-assisted adjustment.

To secretly send this behemoth into space, New Yuan specifically staged a "New Yuan-2 single-stage to orbit test", disguising Thousand-Jun Stick No. 1 in thick cushioning material as a "certain type of space nuclear reactor test stack cum counterweight", acting like a routine trial, and carefully loaded it onto the rocket.

The Aerospace Development Committee didn’t think much of the single-stage to orbit test, simply offering well-meaning advice that single-stage to orbit causes severe ablation to the rocket, affecting its recovery life. However, they did not pay further attention. The A100 nuclear component for the space nuclear reactor test was an internal filing within New Yuan, something already known domestically.

The outside world wrote a few articles because of the hype over the single-stage to orbit, but when the rocket placed the "counterweight" only into a low orbit of 200 kilometers, attention shifted away. Without a doubt, this showed that the rocket’s carrying capacity suffered a tremendous loss, and it was simply not worth the cost.

In the end, the sacrificial No. 2 rocket nearly crashed due to insufficient fuel, and its surface was severely ablated. The recovery team shook their heads after assessing it and had to scrap it.

Thousand-Jun Stick No. 1 became a "black household" in space without raising suspicions. To avoid frequent communication detection, it employed laser communication control methods. The Meridian satellite network’s 11 satellites indirectly controlled it through ultrashort wave and laser to prevent being noticed.

The laser laboratory was exceptionally careful in performing various checks on Thousand-Jun Stick No. 1, confirming all parts were operating well and that there were no issues with power supply, finally deciding to conduct a simulation attack test.

The first target was the "Meridian 04", one of the first batch of Meridian satellite network satellites launched last year, and it was the most basic and least expensive small satellite. Losing it wouldn’t affect the network; they could just launch a replacement later.

Although it was just a small thing weighing 300 kilograms, to test Thousand-Jun Stick No. 1, they went all out. After several hours of repeated calibration, it was authorized to fire at full power at the little thing that had just moved to the closest distance between the two stars.

The exposure lasted only 4 seconds, during which the laser’s path moved with the predetermined route of the target, and then quickly moved away.

Then, after two hours of searching, they barely managed to detect a faint metallic reflection signal on the orbit where "Meridian 04" was supposed to be operating, primarily from the cooling of melted gold foil that reflected more intensely. However, the signal was very weak and only detected by a satellite passing at close range for a short time.

Based on the calculations, that should be "Meridian 04".

A 980-kilowatt laser exposure was too horrific for this little thing; had the exposure lasted any longer, probably nothing would have been found at all.

However, the laser laboratory was extremely excited, Zhao Xiaowen immediately notified Lin Ju, and then organized a second test.