Chapter 338 - 330: De Lu_1

As the only monolithic spacecraft moon landing plan in the world currently, the design of the Dawn Spaceship largely remains consistent with that of the Apollo Spacecraft half a century ago.

In front of the Dawn Spaceship’s command module is the "Full Moon" lander, attached to the docking port of the command module with its bottom fixed port.

That is to say, just like the Apollo Spacecraft, when astronauts need to land on the Moon, the lander must first separate, then rotate 180 degrees to dock again with the command module before the astronauts can climb into the lander.

The rationale for this procedure is that if the ascent stage of the lander were to dock with the command module at ground launch, the docking port wouldn’t be capable of meeting safety standards for load-bearing capacity and overall structural strength. It requires bottom fixation with explosive bolts and then separation once in lunar orbit.

Half a century ago, performing this operation on the Moon was somewhat challenging, but now it no longer presents any risks or challenges.

The only difference with the Dawn Spaceship’s lander is that it uses a single engine for landing thrust instead of multiple small engines like the Apollo Spacecraft, which means a longer fixed structure.

At this moment in the global live broadcast, the camera on the command/return module is pointed at the lander in front. Following the separation command, about 3 seconds later, a slight tremor appears in the feed, a vibration caused by the explosive bolts.

The "Full Moon’s" four RCS thrusters carefully push the lander away from the command module, pausing about 10 meters away.

Then, with adjustments made by the jets, it slowly turns around, aligning the ascent stage’s docking port with the command module, ready to dock.

Although this is an unmanned mission, it still simulates the entire process of a manned mission, repeating the docking and separation, and automatic opening of the docking port hatch as if astronauts were entering.

This whole process takes about 30 minutes, all controlled automatically by the Dawn Spaceship’s onboard computer, with no intervention or enough time for intervention from the ground.

After the "Full Moon" separates again, three "Laurel" resource exploration satellites, as well as a bunch of detectors on the ground, provide it with position guidance services, something unimaginable during the Apollo era.

The Explorer series detectors on the lunar surface all have high power and are the brightest beacons in the dark, making it almost impossible for the "Full Moon" to find the wrong location.

Entering the third hour of the landing, the aerospace control center sends the landing command.

The "Full Moon" begins to slow down and lower its orbit according to the planned route. In order to save fuel, it fires its engines multiple times, taking about an hour.

Claire Borden glances at the countdown displayed in the top left corner of the live stream before temporarily switching back to her own Isis No. 1 landing broadcast.

As he switches, the online viewership for the Isis Rover also surges.

So... is everyone else taking advantage of the gap in Dawn 2’s schedule to come over?

However, Isis No. 1 has already landed two hours ago and is now hurrying toward Kuom Impact Crater during the changing sunlight angles!

As it turned out, NACA still had the technology. Although it had been years since they had undertaken lunar surface exploration, the sky crane designed for Mars originally worked perfectly on Isis No. 1. After gently placing the lunar rover on the surface, it flew aside, becoming a pile of garbage.

The landing site of Isis No. 1 is only 17 kilometers away from Kuom Impact Crater. Considering its speed and traveling 10 hours a day, it would take only half a month, although actually one month is a more reasonable estimate.

So now there are 9 detectors around Kuom Impact Crater...

Currently, Isis No. 1 is stubbornly turning its wheels, advancing at a speed of over 160 meters per hour.

...

"Old Shen, what do you think about Isis No. 1 coming over? Should we go and say hello?"

Shen Zuozhou: "I don’t think it’s necessary."

"It’s not like it’s causing trouble. Just think, two detectors coming together from 380,000 kilometers away. Explorer II could even bring them a chunk of ice as a gift."

The representative stationed by New Yuan lets his imagination run wild, coming up with ideas to "welcome" Isis No. 1.

"Besides, Isis No. 1 is coming too slowly. It would take Explorer II no more than a day to get there. We could follow it and study its structure closely, which would be useful when building Mars rovers in the future."

Shen Zuozhou: "But isn’t ’Firefly’ already being selected?"

"Firefly" is the codename for the final nuclear-powered Mars rover project planned by the Aerospace Development Committee, a concept for creating four universal nuclear-powered wheeled survey platforms.

The current specifications call for a weight between 2.1 and 2.7 tons, a power generation capacity of over 5KW, and various comprehensive detection abilities, among others.

There are currently 4 configurations being compared, with plans to officially land and enter the development and construction phase before May.

Regardless of the configuration chosen, all are far more powerful than the "Curious" rover platform.

Shen Zuozhou has contributed to one of the configuration proposals, though not with great confidence.

The two of them chatted idly, occasionally checking the state of "Full Moon". The hour passed quickly.

At this moment, the laser rangefinder on the Yutu-3 lander is pointed at the "Full Moon" to guide its course corrections.

The powerful YF75M engine flexibly maneuvers its nozzle under precise control, with the lander maintaining a descent rate of 15 meters to continue reducing altitude.

By now, those with sharper vision could make out two small black dots underneath in the images transmitted back by the lander’s camera; these are Yutu-3 and the Explorer 6 Robot.

As it comes within 30 meters of the lunar surface, the YF75M’s throttle valve fully opens, its powerful reverse thrust reducing the lander’s speed to near zero just a few meters off the ground, then completing the last few meters of descent under the action of the backwash.

The engine shuts down, and with the landing legs plunging into the Moon Soil, "Full Moon" achieves a perfect landing at the predetermined site.

Yutu-3 and Explorer 6 are both positioned over a hundred meters away, currently walking on their four legs, the other four embracing large chunks of ice or Moon Rock they have collected from farther locations and brought over.

Inside the lander’s ascent stage is a cylindrical storage container, which the robots must climb into themselves to extract, carefully placing their collected samples inside along with the Moon Soil they dig up onsite, sealing it properly inside the ascent vehicle, with the intention of sending these back to Earth after another ten days through several docking transfers.

Meanwhile, as the lander waits for the robots to arrive, it is not idle; two lunar rovers attached to the side are being unfolded and lowered.

These are true Lunar vehicles, with no special functions, simply made for astronauts to move quickly across the lunar surface.

The name of the Lunar vehicle is "De Lu," meaning speed. It can reach a maximum speed of 45km/h on the lunar surface and has a range of 70 kilometers (not overstated).

The wheels of "De Lu" are not solid rubber or metal mesh tires but are pressurized pneumatic tires at 10 kilopascals internally. Although more technically challenging, they provide higher speeds and improved comfort.

With a self-weight of 220 kilograms, it can carry two astronauts and support a load of up to 480 kilograms, powered by traditional chemical batteries with a maximum power output of 950 watts.