Galactic Tech Empire

Chapter 357 Space Station Ascension

November 12, 3:9 am.

Kaohsiung City, East Island, in the Kaohsiung Aerospace City.

The work related to the orbital improvement of the new Kaohsiung Space Station is being prepared here.

Wang Tu, who has been promoted to the director of the East Island Space Bureau, is in the lobby of the main control room at this time, and beside him is Zeng Baojiang, the person in charge of the Kaohsiung Base.

"The situation in Baojiang, how is the preparation for the orbital upgrade?"

"It's ready, and the orbital upgrade can be carried out at ten o'clock later." Zeng Baojiang replied hastily.

"For some emergencies, we need to make more emergency plans, so as not to be in a hurry." Wang Tu reminded.

"Wang Ju is right to remind you."

Suddenly a staff member ran to Wang Tu and whispered in his ear: "Director Wang, this is a document just sent by NASA, saying that an asteroid is approaching the blue star."

As soon as Wang Tu heard the word asteroid, he immediately became nervous, and hurriedly took the documents over and browsed them.

According to NASA, an asteroid is approaching the blue star at an extremely fast speed. The asteroid discovered by NASA's asteroid tracker at around three o'clock this morning is named 2019XW.

这颗小行星于2019年12月3日被发现以“近距离”轨道冲向蓝星，NASA现在预测小行星XW将在12月10日下午擦肩而过。

They estimate the rock to be between 144 feet and 324 feet (44 meters and 99 meters) in diameter.

According to the upper limit of NASA's valuation, this asteroid is taller than the Big Ben clock tower in the Palace of Westminster in London, and may even be taller than the Statue of Liberty in New York, which is the length of a football field.

According to NASA's lower estimate, the asteroid is as tall as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, Gaul.

According to orbital observations, it is further shown that this rock will fly past the blue star on the afternoon of December 2019, 12.

Asteroid XW will reach incredible speeds of about 15.59 kilometers per second (56124 kilometers per hour), at which speed the asteroid is twice as fast as NASA's Space Shuttle.

However, although the asteroid WX will have a "close contact" with the blue star, after NASA's assessment, it is believed that the asteroid WX will not hit the blue star.

After all, when a near-Earth object orbits the sun, it sometimes approaches the blue star. When it is closest to the blue star, the distance between the asteroid WX and the blue star is 0.02764 astronomical units. One astronomical unit describes the distance between the blue star and the sun. The distance is about 1.496 million kilometers.

In other words, this space rock will pass by about 410 million kilometers from the blue star, which is almost 11 times the distance from the moon. After this flyby, the asteroid will come close to Venus again in August 2021.

It turned out to be a false alarm, Wang Tu heaved a sigh of relief.

"What's wrong with Wang Tu, who was so nervous just now?" Zeng Baojiang asked Wang Tu, whose expression had changed from cloudy to sunny.

"Nothing, NASA notified us that an asteroid is approaching the blue star." After Wang Tu finished speaking, he turned around and instructed the staff who had just sent the document:

"Let our space monitoring department keep an eye on this asteroid."

"Ok."

Zeng Baojiang looked through the files, only to find that the WX asteroid passed by the Blue Star at a distance of 410 million kilometers.

"It turned out to be a false alarm. Things like asteroids approaching the blue star happen every year, but most of them are the same as this WX asteroid, and most of them pass by the blue star."

"I've already had someone stare at the WX asteroid, and we're continuing to prepare for the orbital ascension." Wang Tu also put the matter aside.

November 12, 3:10 am.

"Prepare to change the track." Zeng Baojiang gave an order, and the staff in the entire control room hall immediately became busy.

A series of invisible radio waves continuously travel from the base station on the ground to the specially-made high-altitude (60 kilometers above sea level) 6G airship, and then the signal is amplified.

Since the atmospheric density in outer space is very thin, which is less than one billionth of the atmospheric density in the troposphere, the air has very little effect on the path loss of terahertz communication.

The effective communication distance of 6G terahertz waves in outer space is about 1600-1700 kilometers.

The specially-made 6G airship can be connected to the Nandou satellite system, with the cooperation of the 6G airship and the Nandou satellite system.

One after another radio waves quickly reached the new Kaohsiung City Space Station, after receiving the ground instructions.

The No. 3 and No. 4 compartments of the new Kaohsiung space station are the installation compartments of the two main engines, and the two main engines are ignited and started immediately.

The light blue tail flame is gushing out from the nozzle of the main engine, and the New Kaohsiung Space Station is rapidly changing its orbit under the action of the engine's reverse thrust.

In order to save some fuel, the new Kaohsiung space station chose to orbit multiple times to reach the designated low-Earth orbit of 450 kilometers.

During this period, the main engine needs to be ignited and started at least three times, and the rest of the work is done by the auxiliary engine to adjust the orbit.

In fact, even if the new Kaohsiung space station uses brute force and directly increases the thrust of the engine, it can directly reach 160 kilometers from 450 kilometers in low-Earth orbit.

The problem is that doing this is very fuel-intensive, maybe three times as much fuel.

Although the mass catapult is used to launch materials into outer space, the single cost of the Xuanwu class is about 34 yuan. This cost is mainly the electricity cost and the depreciation cost of the spacecraft.

In addition to the cost of the mass projector system, the cost of a launch is about 100 to 200 million Chinese yuan. The more launches are made, the cost of the spread becomes lower and lower.

But even if it is 200 million Chinese yuan, it is very cost-effective. 200 million Chinese yuan will send 60 tons of materials to low-earth orbit, which is equivalent to 1 Chinese yuan for 3.4 ton of materials, and 1 Chinese yuan for 34 kilogram of materials.

However, the actual shipping cost is still relatively high at present, about 40 to 50 Chinese yuan per kilogram, but as time goes by, the cost will become lower and lower.

This is the advantage of the mass catapult, a huge one-time investment, and then use the cheap launch cost to transport a large amount of materials to outer space, and in this way the construction cost of the mass catapult is evenly shared.

The Space Development Committee estimates that the service life of the two mass projectors in Kaohsiung and Bazhong is 20 to 30 years. If there is a technological breakthrough in the future, it may be possible to extend the service life through upgrading.

The service life of 20 to 30 years is enough for the Space Development Committee to recover the construction cost.

Back to the main control room of Kaohsiung Aerospace City.

"Report, the orbital altitude of the space station is currently 330 kilometers in low-Earth orbit, and the orbital speed..."

"Main engine ready for third firing."

"The ignition was started successfully, and it is expected to reach the designated orbit in 50 minutes."

……

Wang Tu kept staring at the holographic simulation real-time monitoring model in the middle of the hall.

On the low-earth orbit of the blue star, a regular hexagonal red model is constantly orbiting the low-earth orbit of the blue star, but this orbit is rapidly rising.

At this moment, not only the East Island Space Agency and the Space Development Committee are closely monitoring the new Kaohsiung space station.

The powerful space agencies around the world are also paying close attention to this behemoth that is constantly changing its orbit.

Although Wang Tu was very calm on the surface, if someone noticed his forehead at this time, he would know that Wang Tu was also very nervous inside, and his palms were almost sweating.

After the main engine was ignited for the third time, the orbit of the new Kaohsiung space station became bigger and bigger, and the distance from the ground of Blue Star was also getting bigger and bigger.

　Today's update!mwah!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)