Chapter 485 - 476 Part_1

B-level Base.

The B4043 craft touched down lightly on the runway before its nose flipped open, revealing stacks of wooden crates of various sizes inside. They were then carefully lifted one by one by the forklifts that had been waiting and placed onto the factory’s internal transport vehicles.

Xie Liaofu, wearing a shirt and standing with his hands clasped behind his back, stood beside the plane, exchanging ideas with Zeng Hongwei, the deputy chief engineer of the Cloud Ascend Project from the third institute, and Yang Wei.

These different crates were loaded onto the plane from places like Fengtian, Chang’an, Qian Province, and Modu City. Accompanying them were technicians sent by the manufacturers, who took the spacious passenger cabin of the transport aircraft and flew here together.

The larger crates contained tail fins, control surfaces, and landing gear hydraulic systems, etc., while the smaller ones housed electronic equipment and sensors for the fuselage. Except for the main fuselage and the engine, almost all other components were now here.

Of course, the Rong Institute also undertook the task of developing some parts but they transported them by truck directly, which wasn’t so troublesome, and Yang Wei even came in person to help.

Technicians who had flown in from all over the country were now lining up under the plane, reinforcing the base’s confidentiality rules once again. Luckily, those who could come here were already deemed "reliable," and there was no need for excessive vigilance.

"All parts for the Cloud Ascend prototype have arrived. We’ll use half a month for assembly and another half to one month for ground testing before aiming to have the first flight by the National Day," Xie Liaofu said.

Zeng Hongwei had no objections to Xie Liaofu’s schedule. Not only was the latter the chief designer, but Zeng also truly understood the rapid progress of the Cloud Ascend Project.

After sending the model to Chang’an for wind tunnel testing, the base built two full-scale static test prototypes in May and June and then scrapped them all in July.

The task to prototype the components of the original model was issued in April after the TP25 engine prototype passed its tests; four months later, they finally obtained all the qualified components.

Moreover, the TP-25 had completed its first production run of 12 units, one of which performed exceptionally well on the UAV-20 at the Desert Base. He believed there would not be any major faults.

Yang Wei, however, was somewhat hesitant:

"The Cloud Ascend project is too advanced. This is an SSTO, shouldn’t we build another scaled-down prototype?"

Zeng Hongwei replied, "Don’t worry about the technical issues. In fact, the sooner Cloud Ascend is commissioned, the better. With it, our manned space missions will become much cheaper. After all, this is ultimately a... non-military project."

Yang Wei retorted, "But didn’t the military say they wanted to try using the Cloud Ascend project as a first stage, to send up a 30-ton spaceplane?"

Zeng Hongwei responded, "That will be the next project."

Though the Cloud Ascend project was designed as a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle, both the space administration and the military later suggested an improvement: to make minor modifications to the airframe so that, like the original Cloud Ascend project’s first stage, it could carry small rockets or spaceplanes to send larger payloads into space cheaply.

This method was similar to the launch method of the "Lightning Number," but it had the advantages of higher payload efficiency and no need to discard fuel tanks since it could send either a 30-ton spaceplane or a 20-ton satellite into orbit, which is comparatively more convenient and discreet.

A single-stage-to-orbit with a mere payload of 2.8 tons was somewhat lackluster in usability compared to manned flights.

As the two discussed the future evolution of the Cloud Ascend project, Xie Liaofu suddenly interjected:

"Do either of you know about МГ-19 (MR-19)?"

The two did not understand the pronunciation of the Cyrillic characters, and Xie Liaofu explained:

"In 1974, the Union planned to develop aero-space planes. There were several directions at the time, including American-style space shuttles and aero-space planes. Tupolev proposed the Tupolev 2000 aero-space plane, and Miaseishchev’s design was the MR-19 nuclear-powered aero-space plane. Both were SSTO, single-stage-to-orbit."

"Replacing the combustion chamber part of the turbojet and ramjet engines with nuclear power and using liquid hydrogen as the fuel, a takeoff mass of 500 tons could send up a 40-ton payload. If we revive it, the takeoff mass could be reduced to between 350 and 400 tons."

"..."

"..."

"Don’t worry about nuclear pollution; its principle is different from that of the A100. The hydrogen atoms ejected won’t be radioactive. Furthermore, because of the nuclear power, it could re-enter the atmosphere and re-orbit multiple times and even reach speeds over Mach 15. It’s an extremely ideal military aircraft."

Yang Wei subconsciously thought this sounded too difficult, but after giving it some thought... New Yuan’s nuclear propulsion technology was quite advanced, it actually seemed possible?

Just thinking about a nuclear reactor zipping through the atmosphere at Mach 15 made him shake his head in haste.

Zeng Hongwei also widened her eyes. It was one thing for nuclear aircraft to fly in space, but to bring them to Earth was madness. Each second they spent in the sky would be a provocation to the air defenses of countries around the world.

"Mr. Xie, it’s enough to scare people with the New 10 Project (Xuehu project code name). Nuclear-powered Cloud Ascend... how expensive is liquid hydrogen, it’s not cost-effective, please don’t report this up."

...

Moon.

"Deng, Li, can this console be placed here?"

Reyna, holding a half-person-tall comprehensive science experiment station and tool cabinet, hesitated about where would be appropriate to set it down.

"Just put it next to the support leg, let me get the lunar rover down first."

Li Wei was lowering the second lunar rover, preparing for the second extravehicular exploration mission.

And what was Deng Lei doing? Deng Lei was looking for a spot for the publicity press conference.

He drove the first lunar rover up a small hill to find a suitable angle, then set up broadcasting equipment to transmit back to Xin’an for propaganda purposes, took a picture for the camera, and would come back to clean up after an hour.

The mission schedule of Skylight II was quite tight. They had to complete three extravehicular tasks in 48 hours—the first was basically for advertising and preparing materials; the second and the third were for exploration.

This time, however, things were a bit easier. The following missions in the Skylight series were mostly supported by United Mining. Every step had to be economical, as the consumed materials could be considered United Mining’s assets—purchased by the company’s accounts. Time was truly money.

Li Wei swiftly got the "Red Hare 02" lunar rover down. The new space suit, coupled with the low-gravity environment, made him relatively agile. After driving the lunar rover a short distance, he and Reyna began setting up the equipment together.

There used to be an Explorer robot near the mining site, but, unfortunately, the robot lost contact after one lunar night the week before the mission launched. It could have "died" or gotten trapped in a crater and had its signal blocked.

The mechanical structure of the Explorer series wasn’t exceptional. The price of being agile was a quickly deteriorating lifespan, so losing one was expected.

After analyzing the Dawn III mission, Li Wei felt that the assistance provided by the robots was significant. Had he known in advance, he would have swapped one of the two lunar rovers for a robot, given the weight was almost the same.

When the three astronauts were almost done with their preparations, five hours had passed since the beginning of the extravehicular activity. Li Wei pulled out a handheld camera from the tool bag around his waist, aimed at Earth, which showed just a hint of blue, and pressed the shutter.