Super Copy of Great Power Technology

"Yes, before the booster rocket lands, it will ignite for the last time, reverse thrust to slow down, and adjust the spatial orientation to make the landing point more accurate. In fact, during the landing process, the rocket must ignite and reverse thrust multiple times in succession in order to control the descent speed and not lose control too fast. The two booster rockets used by the heavy Suzaku rocket are exactly the same as the core stage of the Suzaku rocket. On the Suzaku rocket, the core stage has been launched and recovered dozens of times with a 100% success rate, so we are relatively confident in the subsequent booster rocket recovery process."

While Wu Ziqiang was explaining, the booster rocket continued to descend. When it descended to a height of about 100 meters from the ground, the two booster rockets almost simultaneously ignited the Tianque engine in the middle to perform reverse thrust braking. Under the action of the engine, the descent speed of the booster rocket decreased rapidly. When the height dropped to about 50 meters, the booster rocket almost reached the level of hovering. At this height, the two booster rockets calmly opened the four hydraulic support legs at the tail, and at the same time constantly adjusted the rocket's spatial position, aiming at the cross center on the ground recovery site, and then slowly lowered the height and finally landed steadily on the ground. The entire recovery process was smooth and perfect. This is the result of hundreds of recovery and continuous accumulation and optimization. The two booster rockets were successfully recovered, and many staff and media reporters on the scene applauded to celebrate.

Just two minutes later, the core stage also appeared in everyone's field of vision. Compared with the booster rocket, the core stage is much taller and thicker, and the recovery is obviously more difficult. And from the live broadcast, the flying posture of the core stage is not very good. It did not land vertically, but at a certain angle, as if it had lost control. This scene made the reporters on the scene and the netizens in the live broadcast room feel nervous.

"Dr. Wu, we noticed that the falling posture of the core stage seems to be a little wrong. It's not perpendicular to the ground, but has an inclined angle. Is it out of control or is it designed this way intentionally?" Ruan Xiao asked worriedly, with his hands clasped together, watching the rocket high in the sky.

"Don't worry, the falling angle of the core stage was designed in advance and it did not get out of control. From the live broadcast just now, we can see that the core stage flew two minutes longer than the booster rocket. As a result, their flying height and lateral distance from the space city are much greater than those of the booster rocket. In order to allow the core stage to return to the space city for landing and to save fuel, we arranged a ballistic return route for it. The current slightly tilted flight posture is exactly the best flight posture we calculated. Before landing on the ground, the core stage will ignite and use the reverse thrust of the engine to correct the flight posture, and finally land in the recovery site in a vertical state."

"We noticed that the recovery site for the core stage seems to be different from that of the previous booster rockets. It is located more remotely, at the edge of Black Rock Beach, and is also some distance away from the Space City. Why is this?"

"There are two reasons. One is that the existing Rocket Recovery Site No. 1 is designed for ordinary Suzaku rockets. It has a small area and can only recover two booster rockets at the same time without interfering with each other. If we continue to recover the core stage, if there is a mistake and an explosion occurs when landing, it is likely to affect the two booster rockets that have been successfully recovered. Another reason is that the core stage 1 and the core stage 2 are both newly designed rocket modules with a high flight distance. There is no previous recovery experience to refer to, and the possibility of explosions in case of recovery failure is much higher. For the safety of equipment and personnel, the recovery of the core stage 1 and the core stage 2 is placed in the newly built No. 2 recovery site, which is more remote, farther away from other buildings and facilities, and safer."

As soon as Wu Ziqiang finished speaking, the core first-stage rocket in the live broadcast ignited a magpie engine and began to slow down and adjust its flight attitude. The falling speed of the core first-stage rocket decreased rapidly, and at the same time, the flight attitude was adjusted from tilted to vertical, and then the hydraulic support legs were opened, slowly descending to the ground, and finally standing steadily on the ground. Although the camera was a little far from the No. 2 rocket recovery site, the picture taken with a telephoto lens was a little blurry, but it still captured some of the core first-stage rocket standing on the ground, standing tall and proud, and having the momentum of no one else but me. The core first-stage rocket was successfully recovered, and warm applause rang out again at the scene.

"Doctor Wu, the booster rocket and the core first-stage rocket have all been successfully recovered, and the second-stage rocket and the space telescope have also successfully entered space. Has the heavy-duty Suzaku launch test mission been completed for the most part?"

"That can't be said. In the field of aerospace, results are everything. The core goal of this launch test of the heavy Suzaku rocket is to successfully send the Clairvoyance Space Telescope into the predetermined orbit. Before this goal is achieved, any achievements will only be temporary and will not improve the overall mission completion. As long as the space telescope is successfully sent into the predetermined orbit, even if the subsequent core second-stage rocket recovery fails, the mission can be considered a success, but it is not perfect."

"What Dr. Wu said makes sense. Humans invented launch vehicles for the purpose of sending satellites or other payloads into space and into predetermined orbits. If this purpose is not achieved, it is meaningless to do more fancy things on the rocket. So let's go back and take a look at the current operating status of the Core 2 and the Clairvoyance Space Telescope."

At this time, the director switched the live broadcast screen to the rocket flight demonstration animation. At this time, the combination of the core second-stage rocket and the space telescope has moved away from the earth and entered the space. All the detection equipment on the ground can hardly capture the picture of the combination. Only the demonstration animation can be used to express the flight status of the combination at this time. However, in the lower right corner of the live broadcast screen, a small window is given to play the real-time image captured by the camera on the core second-stage rocket. In the picture, a huge blue planet appears, suspended in a dark space. It rotates slowly, gently wrapped by a thin layer of atmosphere. The sun shines through the gaps in the clouds, reflecting thousands of rays of light, like a divine realm. The blue ocean and the emerald green continent interweave into a breathtaking picture. The boundary between day and night is clear, and smoke and clouds drift in the atmosphere, as if they are the breath of life on this planet. The forest is growing vigorously, the desert is silent in silence, and the river is shining in the sun. Everything is vibrant and orderly. This is the cradle of life and the home of mankind - the Earth.

Seeing this scene, all the netizens in the live broadcast room were stunned, and the messages and comments were all expressing their excitement at the moment.

"Is this what the Earth looks like from space? It's so beautiful. It's hard to imagine that nearly 80 billion humans are supported on a planet like this."

"Of all the celestial bodies in the solar system, the Earth is the most beautiful. The blue water, green land, and white clouds are all the colors of life."

"Unfortunately, the live broadcast window is too small. Apart from the continents, oceans, and large cyclones, nothing else can be seen clearly."

"The image played in the small window is a real-time picture sent back by the Core II rocket. The bandwidth of space-to-earth communication is not high, and the resolution is not very high when used to transmit video signals. If the video is enlarged to full screen, it is still blurry and not as good as the effect of playing in the small window."

"If you want to see high-definition images of the Earth, I guess we have to wait until the core stage 2 is successfully recovered. I hope Ruida Aerospace can make a documentary to show the process of the launch of the heavy-duty Suzaku rocket and the beautiful scenery captured." "That will be a long time in the future, so let's just watch the live broadcast now."

"The obvious boundary between light and darkness on Earth is the terminator. On one side is day and on the other side is night. It's really magical!"

"The birth of life on Earth, and the birth of highly intelligent creatures like humans, is simply a miracle that only occurs once every billions of years."

"Yes, human scientists have used various methods to search for extraterrestrial civilizations for many years, but have still found nothing. The Earth may be the only cradle of life in the Milky Way."

"The entire Milky Way has 1000 billion to 4000 billion stars, and the number of planets is at least ten times the number of stars. Even if the conditions for the birth of life are harsh, with such a huge base, there will always be a few lucky planets that can give birth to life like the Earth, or even advanced life."

"I hope that the Earth is not alone in the universe, and that humans can find a second habitable planet in the near future."

"Even if we find a habitable planet, it's too far away, tens or hundreds of light years away. With the current aerospace technology of mankind, it will take at least hundreds of years to fly at full speed to reach a place dozens of light years away."

……

Seeing the beautiful scenery of the earth in front of him, Ruan Xiaoshuang was also absent-minded for a moment, and only woke up a few minutes later and explained: "Just as the animation shows, the core second-stage rocket has been ignited for the second time and continues to accelerate, sending the space telescope to the Lagrange L2 point far away from the earth. We noticed that the flight speed and altitude of the second-stage rocket and the space telescope combination at this time are marked in the upper right corner of the demonstration animation. The altitude is 40023 kilometers, which has exceeded the altitude of the geosynchronous orbit. The flight speed is 14KM/second, which has exceeded the second cosmic speed. Only in this way can the space telescope be pushed away from the vicinity of the earth and head to the Lagrange L2 point. Dr. Wu, how long will the core second-stage rocket fly before it separates from the space telescope and enters the recovery phase?"

"The core stage two rocket carries limited fuel, and almost half of it was used up when it broke out of the atmosphere. So the core stage two rocket will not last long after the second ignition, and the fuel will run out in about four or five minutes. At that time, the core stage two rocket and the space telescope will separate, and the space telescope will continue to move along its original orbit. The core stage two rocket will adjust its attitude and turn around on the spot, ignite and return to Earth. After a few minutes of flight, the core stage two rocket will reach the upper edge of the atmosphere. At this time, the core stage two rocket will make a second turn, and finally re-enter the atmosphere with its head up and its feet down, and return to Ruida Space City."

While Wu Ziqiang was explaining, a new command came from the loudspeaker, "The rocket and the satellite are separated, the core stage enters the recovery process, and the space telescope deploys the solar panels." As the command was issued, the core stage rocket and the Clairvoyance space telescope slowly separated in the animation. Then the attitude adjustment engines on both sides of the core stage rocket body started, spraying some small flames, driving the core stage rocket to turn 180 degrees, and the rocket ignited for the third time and flew towards the earth.

"We noticed that the Telescope has reached an altitude of 45000 kilometers, but it is still very far away from the Lagrange L2 point. The Telescope is not too big and cannot hold too much fuel. So what kind of power will the telescope rely on to complete the last leg of its journey?"

"The flying speed of the Telescope is now very fast, reaching about 15KM/second. In space, there is almost no air, and thus no air resistance. With the current speed of the Telescope, it can fly for a very long time. It will have no problem flying to the vicinity of the Lagrange L2 point. In addition, we have installed several plasma engines on the space telescope. This type of engine is powered by electricity, has a small size, low thrust, and consumes very little propellant. As long as there is electricity, it can keep working. It is the most advanced satellite power system currently available." When talking about professional knowledge, Wu Ziqiang talked eloquently in front of the camera, without any trace of the shyness of a science and engineering man.

"Oh, there is such a magical engine. Can you give us a detailed introduction to this plasma engine?"

"Of course, no problem. Plasma engines, or ion thrusters as they are commonly known, use a completely different design concept from chemical rockets. They use the Lorentz force to accelerate charged atoms or ions through a magnetic field to reverse drive the spacecraft, the same principle as particle accelerators and rail guns. Plasma engines provide relatively little thrust for a certain period of time, but once they enter space, they will gradually accelerate like a sailboat with a tailwind, until their speed exceeds that of chemical rockets. The main working mechanism of the plasma engine is: an axial electric field is applied between the anode and cathode of the engine, and a radial magnetic field is generated by the charged coil. The electrons are bound by the magnetic field and drift in the circumferential hall, colliding with neutral atoms in the channel to generate ions. The ions are accelerated by the electric field and ejected at high speed to generate thrust. Since the mass of ions is larger than that of electrons, the movement of ions is almost unaffected by the magnetic field." (End of this chapter)