I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

"Lian Zhi, we are in trouble."

In the "Full Moon" ascender, which is not too big, four astronauts are busy holding their noses with simple masks:

They are trying to figure out how to brush the lunar dust out of the cabin.

Friends who often go to the moon know that it is easy to get rid of the dust when going to the moon.

Because of its high metal content, lunar dust is rich in static electricity and is easily adsorbed on objects, which is an important factor in damaging the life of the detector.

It is also harmful to astronauts. These particles can easily enter the human body. Inhaling too much can cause lung disease and functional damage. They are also corrosive to space suits.

The spacesuits used outside the International Space Station can last for many years if well maintained, but the spacesuits recovered during the Apollo 11 mission were directly judged to have lost their use value, and their surfaces were severely damaged.

Of course, NACA at that time had considered this problem before landing. The solution they came up with was to use a small brush to brush away as much moon dust as possible before entering the cabin.

The handling measures for the Dawn mission are similar, except that magnetic adsorption and electrostatic adsorption functions are added.

However, during several extravehicular missions, more lunar dust adhered to it than expected, and the cleaning was not careful in order to rescue Artemis.

It was even more of a disaster for Victor and Koch. Their spacesuits were almost covered in moon dust. Even the brushes were used up and they couldn't clean it off, so they had to enter the cabin first.

The astronauts got up after a good sleep and found that moon dust was floating everywhere in the cabin, so they all stuck their butts out and began to clean up bit by bit:

If we don't clean it up, if these little things enter the circuit and affect something, it will be a huge problem. The first wave of astronauts returning to the moon will be wiped out.

The small space is not spacious for four people, but there is nothing good to do on the ground for the time being.

In fact, the best measure is to add a transition cabin at the exit. The astronauts are first sprayed with cleaning fluid in this cabin, and then use an electrostatic generator to slowly suck away the lunar dust. After that, they take off their spacesuits and enter life. The cabin is very safe.

But obviously "Full Moon" doesn't really have that much space to arrange. Only the permanent base in the future will have this function. For now... let's make do.

In fact, the current environment in the lander is not just a squeeze because of two more people, there are many more troubles:

First, the consumption of food and drinking water has doubled, and the originally abundant storage is now just enough;

The oxygen supply is okay, it can be supplied with the remaining fuel of the lander, so it’s not a big problem;

The biggest trouble is going to the toilet. Although all four astronauts can use the toilet and tolerate the smell, it is different when there is an additional woman.

When Koch said awkwardly that he couldn't help it and they couldn't escape from the cabin, the three grown men could only face the wall and chat quietly, even though Koch said he didn't care.

The trip to the moon, which was originally full of novelty and adventure, has lost its appeal. The four astronauts are all thinking about going to space as soon as possible.

In particular, Koch and Victor are particularly interested in the "Black Rabbit". The latter's living cabin has a mass of up to 50 tons. If you think about it, it is infinitely more comfortable than the "Portal".

Although some of the problems they encountered cannot be solved for the time being, these have been faithfully recorded by the ground and will definitely be taken into consideration for future improvements.

…

"The reusable lander we designed must have this transition module, otherwise it will be too harmful to the astronauts.

Just like workers in mines and fiberglass production lines in the past, the dangers of moondust are more serious than that. "

After Lin Ju learned about the problems encountered by Shuguang-3, he first checked whether this had been taken into account in his lunar development plan.

After all, the reusable lander determined in the joint research with the Fifth Academy is actually similar to the "Blue Moon" configuration, weighing about 40 tons. Although it is larger, it is still a bit troublesome to set up a transition module.

Guo Shen is responsible for the docking and lander design there. He is currently leading mostly subsystem design projects and is in Qiongzhou with Lin Ju.

He took out the sketch plan of the lander designed by Xinyuan, pointed to its unique circular hatch and said:

"Currently, I plan to use the folding airlock module proposed by the space agency, which is the technology used by the Alliance in the out-of-vehicle walking of Voskhod-2.

The airlock cabin is a flexible inflatable design that inflates and expands after landing to play a transitional role. "

The advantage of the flexible airlock is that the launch volume is small and light, and it does not need to occupy the already scarce space. It is a very easy way to implement for small landers.

But when Lin Ju saw this thing, he immediately thought of the scene in "The Martian" starring Matt Damon, in which the airlock cabin of the camp he lived in was blown up into the sky. And now it is still a flexible design... It doesn't seem very reliable. The spectrum looks like.

Guo Shen explained: "Flexible cabin technology has been applied for a long time. Now all countries are developing this new technology. Although it seems unreliable, it will soon mature with the development of technology."

"But we are required to work on the lunar surface, and we need it to expand frequently. Such working conditions must be very harsh, and lunar dust particles will continue to wear the outer wall of the inflatable."

"This..." Guo Shen is also a little embarrassed. The current design of the repeatable lander is actually a replica of the MTV cargo spacecraft used to transport fuel. The transformation potential itself is relatively limited. If the airlock cabin is designed into the spacecraft, it will be huge. Compressing available space is a bit of a waste.

"Then we might be able to make the airlock into a ground part, attach wheels to it and turn it into a lunar rover. The lander can be docked and used after landing. Although it's a little troublesome, the risk is much smaller."

This suggestion was a bit tricky, but Lin Ju had to admit that it was indeed very effective and a solution.

Of course it is possible to re-develop a larger one, but the repeatable lander is required to be put into use this year, and it has the same configuration as the cargo MTV to save costs and facilitate maintenance, so it is not so easy to modify.

It would be great if there was an atmosphere on the moon. The space shuttle could land directly. Most of them now... Something flashed through Lin Ju's mind. He thought hard for a long time and finally thought of the lander being developed by the same base: XN- 90.

Of course, there is no problem with the XN90's body. When used on the moon, it can reach a take-off mass of 300 tons. It is not a big deal to fit an airlock into the huge volume of 72*44 meters.

Of course, we definitely can’t count on XN90 now, but...if it doesn’t require taking off from the ground, there’s no need to wait for NPAE.

Anyway, when the lunar surface becomes self-sufficient in fuel, it will be enough to switch to a hydrogen-oxygen or methane engine with low thrust, and the biggest technical obstacle will be overcome.

Airframe... It seems that the XN90 airframe test prototype has already entered production? It shouldn’t be a big problem if we change this progress to a conventional powered lander, right?

I'm going to check my teeth. Give me a little pull.