Galactic Tech Empire

Chapter 241 Solutions
If cosmic rays, solar storms, and high-energy particles are the number one factor that causes spacecraft failure.

Then the combustion, explosion or leakage of fuel or oxidant is the second largest factor in spacecraft accidents.

Moreover, the first major factor and the second major factor may affect each other, triggering a chain reaction, which will cause the spacecraft to have an accident.

Like the accident on Apollo 13.

Apollo 13 was the third manned mission to the moon in the Apollo program.

1970年4月11日米粒家用土星5号运载火箭将阿波罗13号飞船发射升空，在升空后接近56个小时的时候，阿波罗13号飞船2号贮氧箱发生爆炸。

幸好在经过地面指挥中心的抢救之后，阿波罗13号上的3名宇航员在与各种恶劣环境斗争之后，成功的于1970年4月17日顺利降落。

What was the situation of the Apollo 13 spacecraft at that time?
Was the oxygen cylinder defective beforehand or was it mishandled during the flight that caused the explosion?
Afterwards, Mi Lijia set up an accident investigation team to find out the cause of the accident.

The reason is that the two thermostat switches installed in the heating system of the liquid oxygen storage tank in the service cabin, due to the arc discharge caused by overload, connected them into a path, making the temperature of the heating pipeline as high as 500 degrees, scorching the nearby wires, and finally Causes an oxygen explosion.

Don't think that oxygen as an oxidant will not explode. Even if there is no fuel for high-pressure and low-temperature liquid oxygen, once the equipment that maintains the low temperature fails, the liquid oxygen will rapidly vaporize and expand, thereby bursting the liquid oxygen bottle. This is a typical physical explosion.

"From the space accidents in various countries around the world, we can analyze that the failure of electronic components and the explosion of fuel and oxidant are the main factors in spacecraft accidents." Huang Haojie clicked on these two factors, and then zoomed out.

"Our space agency has also studied these two factors, but they can only treat the symptoms but not the root cause." Li Zhongting said helplessly.

"The first factor, the failure of electronic components, I think should be solved from two directions. One is to enhance the radiation resistance of electronic components, and the other is to isolate high-energy particles, solar storms, and cosmic rays."

"The radiation resistance of electronic components can only be solved with some radiation-resistant materials. For example, polyimide is generally used on our spacecraft to resist radiation." Li Zhongting said.

In fact, gold is better at shielding radiation than lead, which is why it is used in large quantities on spacecraft.

As for why, now when ordinary people think of radiation resistance, they think of lead. It is because lead has huge reserves and is cheap, while gold is expensive and can only be used in specific fields.

In fact, an element with a larger atomic sequence is more resistant to radiation, but a larger atomic sequence means that the element is rarer and more expensive. Of course, this must exclude those elements that have radiation themselves.

"Then increase the use of gold, instead of gold leaf, use gold plate." Huang Haojie said directly.

As for why he is so confident, because Dr. Yuan Quan from the Seawater Desalination Research Institute has recently realized the gold filtration membrane technology.

Yinhe Technology has established a gold extraction factory on the east coast of Dongdao, which uses solar thin film to generate electricity for self-sustainment, and can extract 15 to 20 kilograms of gold from seawater every day.

A factory can produce 5.4-7.2 tons of gold a year.

If it's not enough, it's a big deal to build a few more extraction factories.

Seeing Huang Haojie's confident appearance, Li Zhongting and others could only bite the bullet and nod in agreement.

"In fact, I have another plan to solve the problem of cosmic rays and high-energy particles, which is artificial magnetic field to deflect high-energy particles." Huang Haojie said his plan.

"Artificial magnetic field?..." Of course Li Zhongting knew the principle of this technology.

That is the principle of imitating the blue star's planetary magnetic field to isolate high-energy particles, and deflect those high-energy particles by creating a magnetic field.

Of course, this method is not 100% isolated. High-energy particles that can be deflected by a magnetic field must be charged. Uncharged particles cannot be deflected, for example, neutrons cannot be deflected.

If artificial magnetic fields are combined with anti-radiation materials, most high-energy particles and cosmic rays can be isolated.

But artificial magnetic field is not so easy, especially such a large artificial magnetic field.

"Maybe it can be realized by room temperature superconductors." Academician Ma said a method.

"That's right, I have the same idea as Academician Ma, that is to use room temperature superconductors to realize artificial magnetic fields, and cooperate with radiation-resistant materials to reduce cosmic rays and high-energy particles."

As soon as the mind was opened, everyone became active, expressing their opinions one after another, and perfecting the plan.

So there are always more solutions than difficulties, and there is always a way to solve it if there is a direction.

What's more, the material science of Yinhe Technology has also greatly reduced the difficulty of realizing many technologies. After all, sometimes it is not that the technology is not good, but that the materials and technology are not compatible.

Just like the current nuclear fusion power generation, Yinhe Technology has solved the problem of room temperature superconductors. Only when someone can solve the problem of anti-neutron irradiation, then the problem of nuclear fusion power generation will be easily solved.

After discussing the radiation resistance of electronic components, the next step is the explosion of fuel and oxidant.

If there is a failure of electronic components, the spacecraft may still be repaired or dragged half-dead, then the failure caused by the explosion of fuel and oxidant is definitely described as a near death.

Especially when spaceflight is still in the atmosphere, 90% of the mass of the spacecraft is fuel and oxidant, and you can know the horror when you think about it.

Just like the Saturn V, the entire launch vehicle weighs only 3000 tons, and the fuel and oxidant in it weigh 2900 tons.

This is not 2900 tons of water, but 2900 tons of liquid oxygen, kerosene and liquid hydrogen. A little spark or static electricity can blow up the entire launch vehicle to pieces.

"This is a hydrogen curing agent developed by Yinhe Technology, which can turn hydrogen into a submetallic hydrogen at normal temperature and pressure." Huang Haojie sent a copy of the submetallic hydrogen information to everyone.

Seeing this name, Wang Guanghai couldn't help asking: "What is the relationship between submetallic hydrogen and metallic hydrogen?"

"Let's put it this way! Submetallic hydrogen and metallic hydrogen are almost the same in density, but they don't have the superconducting and explosive properties of metallic hydrogen. They are relatively stable substances. Unless the temperature exceeds 372 degrees Celsius, submetallic hydrogen will not Burn and explode." Li Xiang explained.

Academician Ma also said:

"We have tested it on the experimental spacecraft. This submetallic hydrogen is very stable. You only need to ensure that the temperature does not exceed 372 degrees Celsius, and there is no problem. Of course, the storage bottle we designed can ensure that the internal temperature does not exceed 100 degrees Celsius."

"Since it is very stable, how to burn it?" Wang Guanghai was very puzzled.

Academician Ma replied with a smile: "What burns is not submetallic hydrogen, but hydrogen gas. When stimulated by certain conditions, submetallic hydrogen will quickly release hydrogen gas."

"That's how it is. That is to say, it is in the state of submetallic hydrogen when it is not in use, and it is in the state of hydrogen gas when it is in use." Wang Guanghai suddenly realized.

"Your technology is very powerful. Even if you don't have a mass catapult, you still have a lot to do on launch vehicles." The spaceship expert was full of admiration.

"That's right! I didn't expect you, Mr. Huang, to hide this trick." Li Zhongting also lamented that Yinhe Technology has a very strong technical reserve.

Change the liquid hydrogen that needs to be stored at low temperature and high pressure into submetallic hydrogen that can be stored at normal temperature and pressure, which reduces a lot of difficulty in the design of launch vehicles or spacecraft.

After all, it is necessary to maintain low-temperature and high-pressure liquid hydrogen. Once something goes wrong, it will be catastrophic. If it is not done well, the entire spacecraft may be blown into slag.

"If submetallic hydrogen is used to replace liquid hydrogen, it will not only be safer and more controllable, but more importantly, the density of submetallic hydrogen is 7 times that of liquid hydrogen, which means that a container that previously stored 1 ton of liquid hydrogen can now store 7 tons." Academician Ma continued.

Wang Guanghai, Li Zhongting and others also calculated that generally speaking, the fuel and oxidant of a hydrogen-oxygen engine, that is, the ratio of liquid hydrogen to liquid oxygen is 1:8.

The reason why it is 1:8 is very simple, because the product after hydrogen and oxygen combustion is water, that is, H2O. According to the atomic mass of hydrogen atom is about 1, and the atomic mass of oxygen atom is about 16, the liquid hydrogen and oxygen atoms can be calculated The specific gravity of liquid oxygen is 1:8.

But the density ratio of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen is very different. The density of liquid hydrogen is 70.8 kilograms per cubic meter, while the density of liquid oxygen is 1141 kilograms per cubic meter.

液氢和液氧的密度比约为1：16，这样一来1吨液氢需要14个立方米来储存，而8吨液氧才7个立方米。

If submetallic hydrogen is used instead, only about 1 cubic meters are needed for 2 ton.

Among spaceships, not only the weight must be weighed, but also the volume.

If you have seen the situation of the Shenzhou spacecraft in outer space, you will know how crowded the space inside is.

Astronauts almost don't even have space to operate the dashboard, which is why Dong Tang and Mao Xiong's spaceship is equipped with a stick, which is used to press the buttons on the dashboard.

(End of this chapter)