Chapter 538 - 527: The Second Flight_1

"Dava... Cut it out, Chief Designer Yun, this spaceflight mission is solely to prove one thing: even an untrained ordinary person can enter space.

Besides, we usually pilot planes, so you are the truly ordinary person here."

"But isn’t this a bit too hasty?"

Seeing that Yun Hongjun was still somewhat uneasy, Xie Liaofu patted his shoulder and said:

"Relax, we are not docking with the space station nor conducting extravehicular activities. We’re just going to orbit space for a turn and come back after 24 hours.

Now, it’s too much pressure on them to dock with the space station with 22 people at a time, maybe they can visit it when there are fewer people in the future."

"..."

While they were talking, everyone had already started boarding, and the two Chief Designers insisted on being the first to get in, then sat together in the last row of seats.

Upon entering, Yun Hongjun realized that the seating layout here was 1+1. With 20 people spread over 10 rows, it was as narrow as a regional jet but felt quite spacious.

"Why not put in two more rows of seats? 2+2 or even 2+1 would also work. This big plane can fit thirty or forty people, right?"

But the one who answered him this time wasn’t Xie Liaofu, but a young man in the front row fastening his seat belt:

"Chief Designer Yun, this is an Aero-Space Plane, not Spring Airlines. Let us first-timers in space enjoy it a bit."

Such a grumbling individual couldn’t be from the Space Agency, so it had to be someone from the Xinyuan Company, probably a rookie who had recently joined.

Yun Hongjun thought for a moment and asked what he did, then listened to the young man’s reply:

"I’m from the Class of 2017. Mr. Lin said we are going to take our graduation photo in space, so here I am."

"Just for that reason?"

The young man pointed to the front cabin:

"This mission is mainly for us newcomers. The captain is Gao Qitao, and Deng Lei is the deputy captain.

I heard that they originally planned to send our whole class up at once with the Storm, but now they chose the Aero-Space Plane to save money. I’ve trained for so long just to experience the rocket’s thrust!"

"..."

Yun Hongjun counted and saw there were about 10 students, so he turned to look at Xie Liaofu:

"Are you saying that you’ll have to fly several times to send all the trainees up?"

"Something like that. The Storm’s passenger cabin has been built, but the Aerospace Development Committee won’t approve its flight. It cost a lot of money too."

"..."

...

"France People and the old Russia want to include the Cloud Ascend project in the Huayin Treaty Organization? No way, what a pipe dream."

The moment Academician She relayed the news in the Aerospace Development Committee office, Lin Ju blew his top.

After the maiden flight of Cloud Ascend, it immediately drew global attention. Russia and France, the countries closest to China in spaceflight, came knocking, hoping to cooperate on the Aero-Space Plane through the Huayin Treaty Organization.

Their reason sounded noble enough: building a few more planes was beneficial for international space collaboration and was good for everyone.

But certainly, domestically there would be no agreement to such a proposal. At best, the Aero-Space Plane might undertake flight missions for the Huayin Treaty Organization and perhaps be offered at a discount.

Academician She shared the same view. Such a treasure would have been tightly guarded if possible, and was not something for which technical details could be leaked.

So far, Cloud Ascend had only revealed two major pieces of information: a composite power system and a spike engine. Countries around the world engaged in hypersonic technology research were aware of the composite power system, but those working on the spike engine were few.

The spike engine wasn’t inherently complex, but to manufacture it for sustained, stable, and controllable thrust was rather troublesome. America had a company that attempted an unconventional approach, but they hadn’t succeeded, indicating the technology was not simple.

The advantage of the spike engine was its ability to maintain peak efficiency across different atmospheric pressures. Plus, it did not require the massive nozzle characteristic of traditional engines; a well-designed engine could be more compact.

The XH40, which did not operate within the atmosphere, used the spike engine design to reduce its size, making thrust vectoring adjustments more convenient. The massive nozzles of traditional vacuum engines were indeed a hassle.

Besides increasing investment in the two known critical technologies, if one wanted to quickly obtain intelligence on the Aero-Space Plane, the only channel was through the Aerospace Development Committee.

"Don’t worry, we definitely won’t agree to their request, but we need to negotiate a bit since we have several related matters that shouldn’t affect other collaborations."

"Other collaborations" obviously referred to nuclear-related matters, as except for the appearances of Luo Luo at the start, the world was still unaware of the shocking nuclear bomb trade agreement reached by the five permanent members of the Security Council.

Discussions on the specifics of deploying hydrogen bombs on the Moon hadn’t stopped these days. Eventually, everyone agreed that making the details public could have adverse effects, so only selective disclosure was needed.

Letting the world know about the intent to use hydrogen bombs for lunar mining was fine, but the number and yield of the bombs would remain classified, ensuring no adverse effects on the Moon.

Lin Ju suddenly recalled his previous visit to Academician Yu and the question he had posed: could a two-hundred megaton hydrogen bomb, as depicted in Three Body, actually be powerful enough to slow down Mercury and cause it to fall out of orbit into the Sun?

Academician Yu, getting back into his old trade, didn’t have to think much before giving an answer:

"Destroy a planet? Forget two hundred megatons, even two hundred billion tons wouldn’t be enough. Even blasting just the surface would require at least five hundred billion tons of yield. The aftermath of two hundred megatons would only amount to dust."

When they really got down to calculating, the thirty-eight hydrogen bombs United Mining was preparing to throw on the Moon were comparable to a slightly larger asteroid impact, and the Moon had withstood far stronger impacts than this before.

The difference was merely that the impact of an asteroid and a detonation bore somewhat different outcomes, but not by much.

Let’s just consider it an extra impact on the Moon.

But this matter involved participation from all five parties; the likelihood of sabotaging it seemed small, after all, there wasn’t any direct benefit...

Having heard Lin Ju’s reasons, Academician She nodded in agreement, then suddenly remembered some arrangements by the IAEA.

Although the space sector lacked hydrogen bombs, bombers, and missiles, it was mostly informed about the clean-up plans for the Fukushima Power Station.

After all, in the new century nuclear tests had halted globally, but due to limitations of the era, data on explosive force observations from space were scarce. It required not only satellite observation but also the use of some less important small satellites for testing.

Now the first hydrogen bomb for the test detonation had been confirmed, provided by America. Although Jon and others didn’t reveal more information, it was basically determined to be a modification of the current W88, with the outer layer of uranium-235 removed to control the yield within 150,000 to 200,000 tons.

The reason America provided the first bomb went without saying; the image was quite fitting.

The satellites from the Aerospace Development Committee were ready, and several ships for observation effect measurements were also preparing to depart.

According to the schedule, isn’t it time for a public announcement now?