Chapter 356 - 348 Expansion_1

This result is very gratifying.

Even if the cost of the last Cloud Ascend breaches 3 billion New Yuan, its convenience and rapid response are much greater.

Even if in terms of single flight economy it may not have an edge over traditional spacecraft—perhaps even higher—but the significance of what Cloud Ascend represents cannot be denied: it is SSTO.

Single-stage to orbit, apart from fuel it does not abandon anything, and can fully return to the ground!

It has almost ushered in a new era of the space age; such a product may encounter some troubles in the early stages, but its prospects are unimaginable.

Telling the truth, when the aerospace bureau switched from a two-stage to a single-stage orbit with the Cloud Ascend project, there was considerable nervousness, extending the timeline from 2025 to 2030, and even 2035 would have been acceptable. Nobody expected progress to be this fast to the point where targets could be set!

The Big Shot straightened his body with some excitement, "That’s great, that’s great. When can it take off? Can the proof-of-concept vehicle have its first flight this year?"

Lin Ju nodded, "Yes, Xie Liaofu plans to manufacture two proof-of-concept vehicles. If nothing unexpected happens, having a first flight within this year shouldn’t be a problem."

Academician She said, "I still can’t believe it... I always thought SSTO was a dream. Once this thing takes off, we can draw a line with the aerospace community; it’s akin to the advantage of a dreadnought over a pre-dreadnought... How did Xie Liaofu manage to control the empty weight at less than fifty tons? This thing is designed to return through the atmosphere."

"Fourth-generation thermal insulation technology, even more advanced than the ones used on H2," Lin Ju explained, then gestured,

"The structure was simplified as much as possible, from the outermost skin to the internal fuselage walls, there are only four layers of materials, processed into shape with a unified curve, and can you imagine, the thickness of the Aero-Space Plane’s fuselage walls can even be thinner than some commercial jets.

We invested nearly an additional one billion New Yuan for this, and it also means that work hours and costs will increase substantially, but it’s worth it. This technology has reduced the weight of the fuselage by at least 20%."

"Hiss," the audience already knew what Lin Ju was about to say.

"So New Yuan hopes that the Cloud Ascend project will receive an additional funding of no less than 3 billion New Yuan, to support the manufacture of the first prototype as well as the cost of technological upgrades..."

The Big Shot couldn’t resist anymore, "Lin, although the Cloud Ascend project has great significance, this capital demand is terrifying."

Lin Ju replied, "If we proceed step by step, it would take ten or even twenty years to complete, and it would cost even more money; we are saving future expenses."

"But I feel like there will still be various other expenses in the future, won’t there?"

"..."

Lin Ju forcibly suppressed the urge to nod. Spending money was definitely necessary, as without it, progress could not be made.

However, the Big Shot didn’t say much more. Such a big matter was not for him to decide alone, but he was sure to get an earful again. Every time the aerospace bureau had made a proposal this year, it had been to ask for an increased budget, drawing envy and dissatisfaction from various departments.

He decided to put some pressure on Lin:

"You don’t have plans tonight, right? How about you come over to my place? I have a nephew who has always admired you, really wants to meet their idol..."

"This nephew, are they a boy or a girl?" Lin Ju interrupted directly.

"What difference does it make if they are a boy or a girl? Last Spring Festival my spouse invited you over for dinner and you didn’t come, so you can’t escape this time."

"..."

Lin Ju decided not to boldly express his crazy idea of living with robots and nodded in agreement.

...

"The ISS Organization had meetings regarding the International Space Station expansion plans and the construction of new functional modules, with Montal and Yuri arriving in Paris for discussions."

On April 6, representatives from the member countries of ISS met in Paris.

There was no choice, as the living images of the five astronauts inside the Forward Space Station were spreading everywhere, causing a huge public outcry.

The most impactful and widely circulated on TikTok was a "challenge" completed with astronaut Tang Hubing.

He was pushed by two other astronauts from the bottom of a radiating cabin, curled his legs and flew forwards without touching the cabin walls, passing straight over the central node cabin to the opposite bottom of another radiating cabin, covering exactly 100 meters, and did so without veering or touching anything, all very precisely.

A camera fixed on his clothes faithfully recorded this 100-meter unpowered float forward, displaying in the most unembellished way the vastness of the interior of the Forward Space Station to the world arrogantly.

One hundred meters, on Earth, Bolt could run from one end to the other in only 9.58 seconds, but since Gagarin flew into space, it took humanity more than half a century in space to achieve a connected living space of a hundred meters.

If it weren’t for the fear of not being able to stop and hitting his head, Tang Hubing could have used the advantage of low gravity to exceed speeds even Bolt couldn’t achieve and break the new hundred-meter record, but that was too dangerous and not permitted by ground control.

The video had an unimaginable impact on the Aerospace community, directly spurring the member countries to be ready to move forward a few steps.

Montal seized the moment to release the plan to expand six modules, adding a truss to increase the mass by 230 tons, and Russia threw out a big move: the HGD rigid rotating gravity module.

Of course, it’s not a massive structure like the Forward Space Station, but a smaller, more compact centrifugal space station module.

The rotating diameter is only 40 meters, much smaller than the Forward Space Station’s 120 meters, and with only two habitable modules, the whole mass is less than 30 tons.

But the gravity generated by this little device could even be greater than that of the Forward Space Station, which only generated 0.28G. The mini centrifugal module could produce 0.5G of gravity; the price being a rotational speed of five rotations per minute, significantly higher than the two rotations per minute of the Forward Space Station.

Not only is the diameter smaller, but the angular velocity is also greater, exceeding the threshold of two rotations per minute previously considered by scientists as the maximum rotational speed.

A smaller diameter means that the body experiences a graded, uneven distribution of gravity from top to bottom when standing, and a higher angular velocity can cause symptoms like dizziness, nausea, a sense of disorientation, and in severe cases, even fainting.

The proposer of the scheme is, of course, aware of this, so the two centrifugal modules are not at all intended for the astronauts to live in: they are sleep pods.

Lying down to receive centrifugal force, naturally eliminates the issue of uneven gravity exposure, and being asleep without visual references can greatly reduce dizziness.

The designer’s idea is to let astronauts go into these pods to experience 0.5G of gravity while sleeping. Eight hours of sleep would be equivalent to two to three hours of exercise under zero gravity, extending work hours during the day and improving health without the need for strenuous exercise.

However, the most important point is that it is very cheap; the whole module is projected to cost between 1.5 and 2 billion US Dollars, merely a fraction of the cost to build a huge centrifugal space station, and much simpler in technical requirements.