Chapter 207 Project 909

July 20, Thursday.

The U.S. Senate passed a bill submitted by the Pentagon to conduct research on future nuclear-powered space platforms, namely the FATS program, with participation from NACA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Bell Labs, Northrop Grumman and many other companies.

The abbreviation FATS happens to be the plural form of the word fat, so the FATS program is also called the "Fat Man" program.

The first batch of FATS will invest $3 billion in the budget, which is to first build a nuclear-powered engine that saves fuel and has a huge power generation capacity, and then transform a space shuttle for testing.

That's right, transformation, the newly built space shuttle will be more advanced and more complex, and it will take more time to build, at least three years.

And H2 has now made its first flight. In order to catch up with the progress and save money, Michael Carey proposed to carry out a large-scale transformation of the retired "Endeavour" and build the first nuclear-powered space shuttle within 18 months.

Endeavour's last flight was in May 2011, and it has only been five years since then. It is still in good condition. After evaluation, NACA also believes that if a thorough overhaul and upgrade is carried out, not only Endeavour, but also the remaining two Discovery and Atlantis are in good condition and can be put into service again.

Therefore, the FATS plan also lists the remaining two space shuttles as reserve options, which can be restarted when appropriate, and small-scale repairs can be carried out in the early stage.

Boeing is the happiest about the FATS plan, because whether it is the STS plan or the current FATS, they built the space shuttles, which is definitely a business that can last for another 30 years.

NACA began to search in its huge database again. In the last century, they launched the "ROVER" and "NERVA" plans to study nuclear thermal rocket engines, and manufactured 8 types of engines. The data is quite rich, and theoretically they have the richest experience reserves in the world.

As for nuclear engine technology, to be honest, only when the Alliance was still there could they compete with NACA. Looking at the world today, NACA is the first, and others are embarrassed to be ranked second, because NACA is too far ahead in this regard.

The fission nuclear program is inseparable from heavy pollution. It was only in the last century that Aramco seized the opportunity and took advantage of the fact that a series of increasingly stringent nuclear pollution limitation treaties had not yet been formed, and used its first-mover advantage to conduct countless nuclear tests.

Although the first batch of investment in the FATS program is much smaller than that of the Artemis program, it cannot be generalized.

FATS was promoted by the Pentagon. Those military leaders are much better at talking than scientific researchers. If they really want a project to be completed, the support will definitely be unexpected.

AAF has been suppressed since the 1990s. The F22 production line was dismantled after more than 100 aircraft were produced. The manufacturer that produced parts for the B2 bomber went bankrupt and needed archaeological research to find information. In order to be "cheap", AAF was forced to work with NAVY on the JSF joint fighter program, and produced the F35, whose maximum speed is not as fast as the Tu-160 cruise, and it was code-named "Lightning".

The military leaders of the AAF have long been dissatisfied, so Michael Carey got strong support from the AAF this time. With the combination of internal and external factors, the FATS program was approved in Congress with extremely high efficiency.

However, although the FATS program was prepared to reduce costs by reusing retired space shuttles, NACA is still unable to do so.

Due to the decline that lasted for more than 20 years, NACA has spent a lot of energy on promoting the Artemis program.

Even in its heyday, when one worker could support a family of five and buy a car to travel, and when Aramco's industrial manufacturing capabilities were the best in the world, the moon landing program and the space shuttle were also arranged in order, one by one.

Now that the moon landing and two space shuttle programs are being carried out at the same time, the pressure on NACA is actually very huge.

However, NACA's great pressure has produced results, and some people on the other side of the ocean are also cursing.

…

"Damn it, a nuclear-powered space shuttle equipped with a laser cannon? This damn Aramco is really bold, I didn't even think of it!"

Even through the thick solid wood door, the voice of the superior can still be heard.

When Congress just passed the FATS program, the space agency was still stable, thinking that this project was just one of the many unreliable and fanciful plans of AAF, and didn't take it seriously.

But when NACA heard that the Endeavour, which was used as a relic at the Kennedy Space Center for patriotic education for elementary school students in Amei, would be taken out next month and cleaned up again, and the space agency discovered something was wrong.

Amei, are you serious?

Then the domestic secret agency responded and evaluated the FATS plan.

Why use a nuclear-powered space shuttle to carry a laser cannon instead of a satellite?

The space shuttle has many advantages:

First, it is easy to maintain and can return to the atmosphere for manufacturers to upgrade and transform. The 100-ton body can provide a considerable payload, and the satellite platform of the same level weighing dozens of tons is not cheap;

Second, it is flexible. The nuclear-powered space shuttle can maneuver in space with its own fuel. If it is a nuclear engine like the A100, it can even hide on the moon, which large satellites cannot do;

Large satellites frequently and quickly change orbits, which consume a lot of fuel. If they are also equipped with nuclear reactors or engines, the cost will be too high.

But we do have aircraft that can fly around in the sky and attack targets with lasers, such as the "Xue Hu" near-space aircraft, which has already completed more than half of its design.

Xue Hu can fly to an altitude of more than 50,000 meters, or more than 50 kilometers, and has basically left the densest atmosphere. The attenuation of laser weapons is not much, and it can also attack satellites.

Although it is not like the space shuttle that can carry more than 20 to 30 tons of lasers, 12 tons is not small, and no matter what, an aircraft in the atmosphere must be cheaper than a space shuttle.

Not only will the cost be cheaper, but maintenance will also be cheaper and take less time.

Even if Xue Hu is not as good as FATS, the money to manufacture and maintain a FATS is enough to maintain 10 equivalent Xue Hus, even if it is 5, the military would rather want the latter.

However, the military also feels that although Xue Hu is not bad, FATS is really good and looks ideal.

More importantly, Amei's FATS has just started, but China's FATS, H2 space shuttle has already started prototype testing.

If we use H2 as the carrier to develop China's FATS, wouldn't it be possible to save a lot of R&D costs and only need to solve the problem of lasers? Moreover, H2 has a higher progress and more advanced technology and can enter service earlier than Amei?

Once this idea came up, it couldn't be stopped, so I reported it to my superiors.

Finally, the Third Academy of the Space Administration got this project, codenamed "Ghost Bird".

A nuclear-powered space shuttle equipped with a high-energy laser can at least allow two to three astronauts to stay in space for 40 days. As long as they are radio silent, they will not have the means to find a spacecraft that can maneuver with nearly unlimited energy in a large range in the vast space.

When the enemy is on edge, the laser is used to instantly destroy the enemy's spacecraft, and it is elusive, so the project codename is given in advance: Ghost Bird, and the internal project codename is Project 909.

The core of Project 909 is not the laser weighing dozens of tons, but the basic carrier, so the Third Academy hopes that the latter will provide customized H2 aircraft and cooperate with the transformation.

The budget applied by the military for Project 909 is... 50 billion, in the early stage.