Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 1022 The pride of the aerospace industry

Guan Xuqing still remembers that a few years ago, the Soviets relaxed the production quality of rocket engines in order to save money. As a result, the rocket exploded directly on the launch pad. A level bomb, the power of the explosion tore the launcher in the launch center to pieces.The explosion not only destroyed the Soviet rocket, but also destroyed the launch platform that took ten years to build. Because of this, the Soviets took a big detour when rebuilding the launch center, waiting for a long time in vain.

Accompanied by Braun, Guan Xuqing also visited the special fuel supply station three or ten minutes away from the rocket launch center.

The spectacular sight of the rocket igniting and taking off is dazzling and exciting, but what is the power that makes the huge rocket hold the satellite to travel into space?The answer is the "blood" of propellant rockets. As the most important part of rockets, the production of rocket propellants is not an easy and comfortable thing. Here, technicians are often accompanied by highly toxic and dangerous.

In the rocket's special fuel supply station, Guan Xuqing saw light blue liquid oxygen, colorless and transparent liquid nitrogen, and that seemingly beautiful but extremely dangerous liquid hydrogen. Everything in front of him looked beautiful and beautiful. It makes people feel suffocated, but everyone knows that rocket propellants are highly toxic and extremely dangerous goods. In the special fuel supply station with no one in the five kilometers around, only a few professionals work here, in order to prevent production safety accidents , as much as possible to reduce the secondary injury caused by the accident.Therefore, the special burning station looks lonely, and you can see slogans such as "conscientious and meticulous, foolproof" everywhere here. The red slogan here is very glaring, in order to remind the staff to be cautious anytime, anywhere. Be careful and careful about the work at hand. The person in charge here is Tsiolkovsky, the father of aerospace.From rocket ignition, to satellite space flight, as well as orbit change and landing, the required propellant is provided here.

Guan Xuqing and his team walked into the more than 1000-square-meter rocket "blood" manufacturing workshop. The sight in front of them made it difficult for visitors to associate this place with a "romantic space journey".The roar of the machine, the beating of the instrument, and the equipment of various sizes and shapes are connected by pipes of different thicknesses, which makes people feel suffocated.Braun pointed to a steel pipe extending out of the plant wall and said to the visitors: "This is the air inlet, which filters and inhales the air, undergoes compression, separation, purification and other processes, and finally enters the tall cryogenic separation tower. , after cooling and liquefaction, liquid nitrogen is obtained at the top of the tower, and liquid oxygen is obtained at the bottom of the tower. After a series of treatments, the ordinary air coming in from the air inlet magically turns into light blue liquid oxygen in the fractionation tower And colorless and transparent liquid nitrogen. In another production workshop, a large amount of fresh water is electrolyzed to generate oxygen and hydrogen, and then converted into liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen by equipment.”

In the workshop, staff wearing anti-static clothing kept checking various facilities and equipment.Tsiolkovsky, with a big beard and a big belly, introduced to everyone: the freezing point of liquid oxygen is minus 180 degrees Celsius, and the boiling point is minus [-] degrees Celsius. High concentration of oxygen can cause an explosion if it encounters static sparks similar to putting on and taking off clothes.

Hearing this, all the visitors couldn't help but feel a little nervous. After that, they took every step carefully in the workshop. Every step was gently raised and lowered, for fear that they would accidentally hand over their lives here .Although the visit time is not long, everyone's back feels wet after coming out of here, and everyone feels huge mental pressure in this short period of time, but look at the work still Experts, they have to work here every day, producing rocket propellants is already very dangerous, but even more dangerous is to escort these rocket propellants.The job of escorting rocket propellant is like sitting on the crater of a volcano, and if it encounters the slightest spark, it will cause a violent explosion.

A group of people came to the propellant storage and storage area of ​​the special combustion station, and a faint fishy smell came to their faces.The escort team non-commissioned officers in protective suits are carrying out the propellant transfer operation.When the accompanying imperial photographers were about to step forward to take photos of their work, they were immediately pulled five meters away by the accompanying staff, because the propellant that gave off this fishy smell was highly toxic.

Tsiolkovsky said: "It is very difficult and risky to escort the propellant. It is like sitting on the 'crater'. Once a spark is encountered, it will cause a violent explosion. Every time the escort, the special combustion station The officers and soldiers of the garrison are all taking the lead, and there are currently six groups of personnel performing escort tasks outside."

Afterwards, the visitors had a discussion with the escort officers and soldiers and listened to many of their little-known stories.

Before a rocket was launched, these escort officers and soldiers transported propellant to Jiuquanwei, and the refrigeration compressor suddenly stopped, which made the officers and soldiers extremely nervous. If the temperature of the propellant transported in the vehicle rose too high, it would boil. , Gasification, and then lead to accidents, the consequences are disastrous.After two days and nights of continuous investigation of all lines and contacts, the fault was finally found, which was caused by the displacement of a part of the compressor due to the turbulence of the train.At that moment, the escort members hugged each other tightly. This was not the cry of joy when the soldiers struggled back from the death line, but to ensure that the rocket launch mission was completed on time. For this goal, the escort soldiers had already set themselves life and death.

In another escort mission, the propellant was escorted to the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.On the way, during a routine inspection, the escort team found that the propellant leaked from the sampling tube. At this time, once it encountered sparks, it would cause a violent explosion.It was too late for other treatment measures, and a team member immediately put on rubber gloves to tightly plug the leak, and the leakage stopped.Then, he asked his comrades to tightly bind their hands to the sampling tube, and persisted in the pungent carriage to the destination.As soon as he got out of the car, he was admitted to the hospital for half a year.

What makes these escort officers and soldiers most uncomfortable is the loneliness of long-distance escorts. Since the escorts are extremely dangerous explosives and highly toxic drugs, the vehicles along the escort will try to avoid living areas as much as possible. There were heavy casualties and building damage, and most of the vehicles were secretly escorted at night.This stop and go is bound to prolong the delivery time.These escort officers and soldiers sometimes left for more than three months, and the magazines they brought were torn apart, and they could recite newspapers and magazines backwards.But no matter how long the parking time is, no one can leave the station for half a step.

"It's unknown, but when I saw the rocket take off, I felt very beautiful in my heart." An escort veteran shyly talked about his true feelings to the emperor.

Beside the propellant storage warehouse, a device composed of glass columns has attracted many people's attention.Under the introduction of the person in charge of the warehouse, everyone knew that despite its simple structure, it could solve a very big problem.It is a device consisting of twelve glass columns with a diameter of fifty millimeters and a height of four meters.When Zhang Zuolin asked curiously about its name and purpose, Tsiolkovsky said proudly: "This is called a propellant photolysis purification device. Among liquid rocket propellants, dinitrogen tetroxide is more commonly used. Dimethylhydrazine, monomethylbenzene, liquid ammonia oil, liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen, etc. The specific impulse value of hydrazine fuel is very good. Although the propellant and combustion products are more toxic, they are highly reliable. Only hydrazine The propellants are easy to turn yellow during storage and transportation, and the general method is to discard or return them to the factory for disposal, resulting in a waste of manpower, financial resources and time. After years of research, experts have figured out the mechanism of yellowing and deterioration of propellants, and found found an effective solution, and finally developed this device, which can process [-] tons of yellowing and deteriorating hydrazine propellants a day, saving a lot of money for the empire. The research and facilities have also won the first and second prizes of the empire's scientific and technological progress. prize."

Tsiolkovsky touched his beard and continued: "However, the current launch vehicle is still very traditional liquid propellant, but a negative effect of liquid propellant is that the rocket propeller needs to be filled before each launch. Fuel, this process takes one hour to three hours, and in the army, such a long time will inevitably cause delays for fighter planes, so as a more advanced solid rocket, it has become the first choice for the development of intercontinental missiles, only solid fuel launch vehicles It can be launched at any time and has a multi-in-one strike effect."

Guan Xuqing encouraged the experts and asked to overcome difficulties and speed up the development of intercontinental missiles.After leaving the rocket launch base, Guan Xuqing said refreshedly, "Let's go to Chiba Islands and see what that lunatic in Tras is doing."

As time goes by, the Dome Laboratory has been established for two years in a blink of an eye, and the wheel of history slowly rolls to March 1920. At this time, the Dome Laboratory is like a big tree growing, adding a thick layer of The annual rings became thicker.

On this day, in the basement of the vault laboratory, two men in casual clothes were trying to knock on a wooden door.

"bang bang"

There was a loud knock on the door, and the annoyed Truss turned around and opened the door, his blood-red eyes were like beasts eating people, and he yelled fiercely at Kang Guangren who was smiling outside the door: "Your Excellency, You have never disturbed my research so much, this time you must honestly give me an explanation! After all, I just handed over the radiation energy conversion device to you, and it has not been half a year!"

Kang Guangren didn't mean to dodge at all, he still looked at the sloppy beggar-like Truss in front of him with a smile, and said with a smile: "Old Te, you forgot what I told you last time when you asked me to apply for enriched uranium." Is something wrong?"

While talking, Kang Guangren stuck his head through the crack of the door, and only after he saw the quartz clock on the inner wall of the room did he think of a question: "Old Te, how long has it been since you changed the battery for your quartz clock?"

(End of this chapter)