Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1152 From Fengyun to Tianyan (Second update, please subscribe)

Early in the morning, in a small roadside breakfast shop, Wang Hongyi sipped milk and looked at the document bag in front of him. Although he had just graduated from college, he had already got a very good job.

It is easy to get a job in Nanyang, especially for college students. Basically, you can get a pretty good internship position in your last semester. When you graduate, you can sign a long-term employment contract with the company.

But Wang Hongyi's work is different from most people's.

Nanyang Aerospace Agency!

Thinking about going to Wanhujiao to work, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly, and he recalled the first time he and his classmates observed a rocket launch.

From that day on, he made up his mind to become an engineer of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and do his part for the aerospace industry of Nanyang!

In fact, this is the most fashionable job in Nanyang now. Putting on a hat with the logo of the space agency will immediately make you the coolest guy in the village.

Is there any job that is more fulfilling than sending satellites and humans into space?
After finishing breakfast, Wang Hongyi picked up the document bag and the car keys beside him. The blue Rongguang car parked outside the door was his car.

Two days ago, after paying a down payment of 100 yuan, Wang Hongyi owned his first car.

This is Nanyang!
It's a Nanyang-style life. Even if you have just graduated from university, you may own your own car. As for the house... he is not worried at all. In Rocket Town, the bureau should have arranged a single apartment for him. If nothing unexpected happens, it should be a two-bedroom apartment. When he gets married, he will apply for his own public housing.

In less than ten minutes, he was behind the wheel of the Rongguang car, driving it out of the town, back onto the highway, and heading towards Wanhu Cape.

More than two hours later, Wang Hongyi had passed the checkpoint and drove into Wanhujiao. Just as he arrived at the launch center, he saw a rocket flying towards the sky in the distance, trailing smoke.

Today is the launch day of Fengyun-1.

Fengyun-6 is the world's first meteorological satellite. In addition to TV cameras, remote-controlled tape recorders and photo data transmission devices, it also carries a multi-spectral visible light infrared scanning radiometer with multiple channels for obtaining day and night visible light, infrared cloud images, ice and snow coverage, vegetation, ocean color, sea surface temperature, etc. Although its design and testing adopted experimental technology, its design life is up to months.

Wang Hongyi has always been very concerned about the Fengyun-1 meteorological satellite. After the launch of the Tianwen-5 last year, the Space Administration announced their plan to develop a meteorological satellite. They even analyzed and studied the cloud maps through photos of the earth taken by the Tianwen-5, thus determining the research direction.

After nearly a year of preparation, the Fengyun-1 satellite was finally developed.

Looking at the rocket flying away, Wang Hongyi said to himself:
"Well, with the weather satellite, we can prepare for typhoons in the future."

Although Chang'an is a windless place and has almost never been hit by typhoons, Nanyang, located near the equator, is also often hit by storms. Typhoons bring huge property losses to Nanyang every year. Although the meteorological department has been improving its meteorological monitoring and forecasting capabilities, there are still many shortcomings.

Now that meteorological satellites have come out, can they fundamentally solve the problem?

Just as Wang Hongyi entered the personnel office with this question in mind, in a conference room of the Space Administration, two officers were discussing with several engineers.

"…The current plan is to use a high-definition camera to take pictures of the designated target, and when the film is exhausted, the reconnaissance satellite will return to Earth to retrieve it in the same way as the spacecraft."

In the conference room, Xia Minghui introduced his plan and pointed to the large lens on the satellite.

"The diameter of this lens will be more than one meter, and the resolution will meet basic needs."

"Compared to the ghost, how big is the gap?"

As a technical officer of the Air Force, Liang Zuo has been working with the Space Administration to develop a "reconnaissance satellite" required by the Air Force over the past year. Just last month, the United States launched their reconnaissance satellite. Nanyang has only just proposed a plan.

In fact, their plan was proposed earlier - after discovering that the Soviets had anti-aircraft missiles, the Air Force immediately realized the danger. After all, according to the Air Force's experience - anti-aircraft missiles can shoot down Ghost reconnaissance aircraft.

It is for this reason that the military has a direct demand for reconnaissance satellites capable of conducting reconnaissance in space.

This need led to collaboration between the military and NASA.

After learning about this plan, especially the number of photos it would require, Liang Zuo was stunned.

"This is too expensive!"

"what?"

"Even if we use a large film capsule, after it flies around the earth a few times, the film will be almost used up and then it needs to be recovered. How much does it cost to launch a reconnaissance satellite? Even if we lower the price of satellites, the cost of sending a large satellite weighing more than ten tons into space is still there, which is more than ten times more expensive than the Ghost reconnaissance aircraft. What is the result?"

Pointing to the satellite drawing, Liang Zuo said:

"It can only be used once. The cost is so high that the Air Force can't afford it!"

"There is no other way. After all, the film needs to be recycled. If we don't, how can we complete the reconnaissance mission? Commander Liang, a reconnaissance satellite is almost equivalent to a reconnaissance plane. It flies around the earth in higher space, takes pictures, and then returns to the earth. We develop the film and analyze the pictures... Yes, that's it."

This is the reconnaissance satellite - Tianyan No. 1. When designing the reconnaissance satellite, they adopted a very simple and crude method, that is, directly moving the camera and film onto the satellite, and then after taking pictures, the satellite returned to the ground, and then recovered the film and developed it.

These technologies are very mature. After all, Nanyang has sent astronauts into space twice. Satellite return technology is much simpler than spacecraft return.

Xia Minghui introduced: "This is the current method."

“I know, but it’s too expensive!”

Liang Zuo simply shook his head and said.

"According to this cost, every photo we obtain is almost made of gold. The Air Force cannot afford such expensive reconnaissance costs! Therefore, we must change the transmission method!"

After thinking for a while, Liang Zuo looked out the window and said.

“Can the transmission mode of the Fengyun-1 satellite just launched be used on reconnaissance satellites?”

"Fengyun No. 1?"

Liang Zuo’s suggestion made Xia Minghui stunned and said.

"You mean using the transmission method of a television camera?"

"Yes, we use your method to remotely control the tape recorder and the photo data transmission device. In this way, we don't need film. We can develop the photos on the ground based on the signals received from space.

This not only reduces costs, but also allows the satellite to take pictures as long as it is in space. Moreover, it is time-efficient. After all, it takes time for the satellite to complete taking pictures and return to Earth.

But using this method, we can get real-time photos, and we can even make appropriate changes to its orbit in space, so that we can adjust the reconnaissance target..."

This is how the Fengyun-1 satellite transmits data to Earth, which is recorded on magnetic tapes, the same basic technology as music tapes - but much larger, with two bulky broadband videotape recorders, each with hundreds of meters of tape. After receiving the data converted from the tapes, the photographic images are generated and printed out.

Faced with Liang Zuo's request, Xia Minghui was completely stunned. What surprised him was not the other party's "idea", but...

"Captain Liang, you have to know that the resolution is there. After the television camera shoots the signal, it is first burned into the tape, and then the tape is converted into a radio signal through the photo data transmission device and transmitted to the earth. In this process, the clarity of the photo itself is not high. It is okay for analyzing cloud maps, but if it is used for reconnaissance, its resolution simply cannot meet the needs."

Xia Minghui then explained the difference between the imaging effects of television camera technology and film imaging, and finally told the other party straightforwardly - it is impossible to use television for reconnaissance!

At least not possible now.

"Although it's impossible, your suggestion does give me an idea. We might consider shooting with film and then scanning it, converting the photos into electronic signals and transmitting them back. In this way, we can solve the problem of timeliness."

This is often the case with scientific innovation, where one person's suggestion often inspires another.

Inspired by the other party, Xia Minghui, who had thought of a new method, looked at the other party with anticipation. In his opinion, this was the best method, which could combine the advantages of both methods. However, this further increased the complexity of the technology. After all, it involved technical issues in various aspects such as automatic film washing and scanning in space.

But in his opinion this is not a problem. As long as it is a technical problem, it can basically be solved through research.

But then I heard Liang Zuo say.

"This may solve some of the problems and reduce costs, but it still does not fundamentally solve the cost problem. After all, we need to load film onto the satellite, and when the film is used up, the satellite will simply become a pile of waste, floating in space without any purpose."

After thinking for a while, Liang Zuo said.

"So the best way to solve the problem is for us to develop a new photo shooting and storage mode. Well... it should not require the use of film. After all, film is the biggest problem that limits the use time of reconnaissance satellites. As long as this problem is solved, we can fundamentally solve the problem of the life of reconnaissance satellites.

Therefore, we need a new storage method that can convert the object being photographed into some special signal, store it in the form of images or videos, and then transmit it back to the ground receiving station. This not only has good timeliness and can provide reconnaissance intelligence in a timely, accurate and continuous manner, but also reduces its overall cost to the greatest extent. It can fly in space for half a year, a year, or even several years. Only when the overall cost of long-term use is reduced can the military afford to use it, otherwise..."

Looking at the blueprint, Liang Zuo shrugged his shoulders and said:
"Maybe it can provide us with high-resolution photos, but so what? With the current usage, even if we launch it into space, it doesn't make much sense. After all, it's too expensive. Instead of spending the money for a dozen Ghosts to get this kind of satellite, it's better to develop a reconnaissance aircraft that can fly higher, such as 3 meters, or even 35000 meters. As long as it flies high enough, it can always avoid missiles."

When Liang Zuo said this, a young engineer next to him casually said.

“Maybe, we can fly into space, who knows?”

"Yes, who knows? Maybe we can consider this, but that is later, in the future. Now..."

Pointing to the satellite on the drawing, Liang Zuo said directly.

"We have to find a way to solve this problem. Otherwise, it will have no future at all, at least for us. Even the military cannot afford such an expensive one-time satellite."

Liang Zuo's judgment made everyone in the conference room fall silent. They all knew very well that everything came down to money. Without funds, everything was empty talk. In fact, Nanyang's current space exploration was progressing slowly because of funding issues.

"Well, let's work towards this direction..."

Xia Minghui thought for a moment and said:
"It just so happens that a group of young people have just arrived at the bureau. Let them study it."

(End of this chapter)