Homo sapiens

Suez Branch.

In early June, the two underground drainage tunnels for the Nile River in the Kom Ombo hub project were officially completed.

Then the engineering team cut off the surface channel of the Nile River and allowed the river water to pass through the underground drainage tunnel. The cut-off Nile River was 3 kilometers long.

A canal ship dug out the land between the Nile channel and the southern canal, and then pushed it through the desert area to the west.

After more than a month of digging.

Finally, the southern canal was dug to the Kharij oasis area, and then the canal boat turned around and dug a parallel double line.

As the canal arrived in the Harij Oasis area, the space city previously set up near the Jiajie Manor in the Harij Oasis area also received the first wave of large-scale supplies.

Dr. Mikoyan and others, who had been eating sand here for more than half a year, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, it is too frustrating to watch other space cities develop rapidly while they are still doing theoretical research here.

On the temporary dock.

Dr. Mikoyan and base director Wu Zhi stood in the communication tower of the base, watching three 50,000-ton container ships docked at the dock, unloading a large amount of supplies. In addition, about 5,000 new humans came here to support them. .

“With supplies and people initially satisfied, our project can officially begin.”

"Doctor, are you sure you want to use that plan?"

Mikoyan nodded: "This is the most promising plan at present. If it succeeds, then we can start the alien colonization plan."

But Wu Zhi looked confused.

Dr. Mikoyan said confidently: "Don't worry, that plan has been simulated many times using supercomputers, and there will basically be no major problems."

"Doctor, Dr. Sen from the shipyard has arrived." The assistant shouted from a distance.

Dr. Mikoyan patted Wu Zhi on the shoulder: "I'll leave you with the dock. I'll go over and discuss the space shuttle plan with Dr. Sen first."

"Okay!" Wu Zhi could only shrug. He knew that these scientific researchers were sometimes very stubborn.

Mikoyan and his assistants came to the underground area of ​​the base.

In a small office, he met Sen Shangzhe, who had made a special trip from the New Luzon Shipyard, and five other related engineers and researchers.

The group chatted for more than ten minutes and then got straight to the point.

Sen Shangzhe spoke first: "Dr. Mikoyan, I have already seen the plan. I don't know much about the design of the space shuttle, but if it is the design of an enhanced structure, then I can still provide some help."

"Sorry to trouble you, our plan is very simple, that is to enlarge the proportion of the space shuttle so that it can withstand the explosion impact of metallic hydrogen." Dr. Mikoyan said while projecting the conceptual model.

Through holographic projection, everyone can see the model of the space shuttle.

"Don't you consider passivating metallic hydrogen at all?"

"What a simple and crude solution."

Mikoyan was not angry, but smiled and said: "This is also the most effective solution. The maturity of metal hydrogen passivation technology is still unknown, and I don't want to waste time."

But Sen Shangzhe thought about it seriously, because this thing was in line with his aesthetics.

They calculated the explosive power of metallic hydrogen and substituted it with current metal materials. After simulation calculations, they adjusted the explosion chamber and nozzle parameters of the engine little by little.

In order to balance the explosive power of metallic hydrogen and preservation issues, they enlarged the size of the space shuttle to the extreme.

After more than three hours of discussion, we finally came up with a preliminary plan.

But looking at the various parameters of this plan, an engineer hesitated: "Can this thing really fly?"

The engineer said this mainly because the space shuttle is so big, with a fully loaded launch mass of 32,000 tons, which is almost eight times that of the largest launch vehicle, the Saturn V.

This thing is about the same quality as a Luzon-class amphibious assault ship.

It's crazy to think that this is a space shuttle.

Dr. Mikoyan reminded: “Don’t forget the thrust and specific impulse of metallic hydrogen.”

Although the metallic hydrogen of Homo sapiens belongs to substate metallic hydrogen and is not a complete metallic hydrogen, its specific impulse is still 3.2 times that of ordinary liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen engines, reaching 1297 seconds.

And because Homo sapiens has a good foundation in explosive shock wave engine technology, it can use explosion shock waves to further improve the thermal efficiency of fuel.

According to the results of simulation calculations, the thrust of the explosive shock wave engine they designed can be further improved when using metallic hydrogen as fuel.

The space shuttle designed by Mikoyan and others will carry 5,000 tons of metallic hydrogen as fuel, which is enough to push a space shuttle fully loaded with 32,000 tons into low-Earth orbit.

Of course, metallic hydrogen can only be used as a one-time fuel and cannot be stored for a long time, so it can only be used during the flight out of the atmosphere.

According to Dr. Mikoyan's design, the space shuttle does not need to stay in low-Earth orbit, or go to synchronous orbit, the moon and Mars, but rather serves as a carrying platform.

After flying out of the Kármán line, the spacecraft can be launched directly, and then the space shuttle will turn around and return to the atmosphere and return to the space city.

The payload of the space shuttle of this design is about 12,000 tons.

The mass of dozens of international space stations can be transported to low-Earth orbit at one time. Unless the Homo sapiens space elevator project and mass projector project can succeed, no launch vehicle at this stage has a payload that can match this project.

Dr. Mikoyan no longer likes the payloads of tens of tons of ordinary launch vehicles. He feels that if he wants to play with them, he must play with something big.

After all, the Guigong Project must be completed before 2030. With the current small rocket alone, the little transportation volume is simply a drop in the bucket.

Only this kind of super space shuttle can satisfy the space strategy of Homo sapiens.

The Space Division, which is not short of money, has also approved Dr. Mikoyan's super space shuttle project, allowing Harij Space City to complete the first experimental aircraft before the end of next year.

This is why he hurriedly found engineers and researchers from other systems to help.

Now that he has assured the Space Division, Dr. Mikoyan will naturally go all out to build the experimental machine as soon as possible, and then ask the Space Division to pay as soon as possible.

Because this project was carried out at the Suez branch, it was named the "La" space shuttle project, or "La Project" for short.

Sen Shangzhe and others communicated at this base for more than a week.

During this time, they continued to refine various shuttle designs.

For example, in order to maintain the ultra-low temperature maintenance system of the space shuttle and regulate the wing feathers, a lot of electrical energy is required, so two small thorium-based molten salt nuclear reactors were simply launched.

The other is the location of the spacecraft. After some simulation research, it was decided to place the spacecraft above the space shuttle.

In fact, it is similar to Lao Maozi's Buran space shuttle.

The main reason for this design is that the weight of the puller is too great, and there is no way to stand it up and launch it vertically, so it can only take the slope runway.

For a run-up on the runway, the spacecraft must not be hung at the bottom. It can only be placed on the back of the space shuttle and let the space shuttle hold the spacecraft.

Another system is the security system.

Considering the dangers of metallic hydrogen, Dr. Mikoyan decided to abandon the manned driving plan and adopt an unmanned driving mode after discussion with a group of colleagues.

Even the spacecraft is not intended to carry astronauts. The astronauts can first go to outer space through another launch vehicle, and then board the spacecraft from low-Earth orbit.

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