Chapter 305 Departure

Launching an artificial object into space that can reflect light and be seen from the ground has always been an interesting topic.

China's first satellite, "Dongfanghong-1", was specially designed for this purpose. A sphere that can be unfolded behind the satellite was built. On a night with good light, its reflection can be found with the naked eye.

In the early 19th century, a Chinese imagined launching a mirror into space, and the reflection could be projected onto the streets of the Champs-Elysées.

This nonsensical idea was regarded as an anecdote in his own country, but the Alliance and Amei were interested, but the idea they were inspired by was bigger than that of the Chinese.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of Amei proposed an ambitious plan. They hope to launch an artificial moon with a diameter of 300 meters and a weight of 4,800 tons into low-Earth orbit. According to the calculations of American engineers, the brightness of the artificial moon will reach 10 times that of the real moon, which is enough to provide lighting for the American people at night.

Technically speaking, the difficulty of artificial moon is not great, but the manufacturing cost is quite amazing, which cost 100 billion US dollars at that time. Considering the high cost of artificial moon and the fact that the Soviet Union was already declining, the military finally sealed the plan.

But NASA valued the deep potential of the plan. They believed that artificial moon technology might be used to transform the surface temperature of Mars and improve the charging efficiency of solar cells when colonizing Mars in the future, so they took over the follow-up research work of artificial moon.

However, although Amei's artificial moon did not land during the Cold War, similar projects of the Alliance went a step further and were directly launched into space to complete preliminary experiments.

Alliance scientists used aluminum sheets only 5 mm thick to create a foldable sunlight reflector. After fully unfolding in orbit, the diameter of this reflector reached 20 meters, which could provide considerable lighting.

However, although the satellite carrying the reflector successfully entered orbit, it unfortunately burned up when re-entering the atmosphere. In addition, the economy of the Alliance was on the verge of collapse at that time, so the project was eventually abandoned.

Later, Lucia tried to revive the plan and put a small reflector on the Mir space station. After unfolding, the diameter was 25 meters, and the diameter of the ground illumination area reached 4 kilometers, with a brightness equivalent to the full moon state of the natural month.

After that, they were going to develop a reflector that could make the irradiation area reach a diameter of 7 kilometers, but this reflector was also torn during the deployment, and the research on artificial moon stopped.

So what about the artificial moon of Shuchuan, or the Chengdu Tianfu System Science Research Association?

Ye Changsi: "They just proposed this idea, so they communicated with us and planned to place a reflector that can cover an area of ​​3,400 to 6,400 square kilometers at an orbital altitude of 5,000 kilometers, that is, a diameter of 35 to 45 kilometers, and an unfolded diameter of about 500 meters in the sky. The brightness is 8 times that of the moonlight and about half of normal sunlight.

Such a light intensity can not only eliminate the use of electricity for outdoor lighting, but also generate sunlight, saving Chengdu at least 1.2 billion yuan in lighting costs every year."

Lin Ju: "..."

Imagine a big flashlight shining down from the sky, and Lin Ju couldn't help shaking his head.

"Chengdu, that almost covers us, so can we sleep at night?"

Ye Changsi: "They are also discussing, because there are three problems with artificial moons:

Because it is in low-Earth orbit, artificial moons are always running like satellites, and at least three satellites need to be networked to maintain uninterrupted lighting;

The orbit is too low and the angle can be changed at any time, so a mobile device that can operate almost all the time is needed;

And the ecological impact on the ground, will it cause an environmental disaster."

Lin Ju thought about it, the first two are not a problem. A 500-meter diameter reflector requires some effort, but it can be assembled slowly. The mobile device can use a high-thrust electric propulsion. The biggest trouble is the ecological impact.

Not to mention small animals, at least half of the people will object to the light outside the window when they sleep, which completely disrupts their work and rest.

As for power generation, the efficiency of solar cells under the artificial moon is 50% off, and it is not so easy to network and generate electricity.

Besides, the lighting effect is also affected by the weather. After all, it is not as high-intensity as the sun, so Lin Ju is not optimistic.

Ye Changsi seemed very interested: "I think sunlight is actually a very precious resource. Collecting sunlight means collecting heat and light energy, and it is an energy source with almost no upper limit.

Think about it from another angle. The reflector only needs to be slightly adjusted to drive the light sail of the probe. It can indeed transform planets with atmosphere. If it can be focused on one point, space smelting may not be impossible."

"Then what you mean is..."

Ye Changsi: "I think we can carry out small-scale experiments. What we lack the least is cheap transportation capacity, which is very suitable for some exploration work."

This time Lin Ju nodded without hesitation. Small-scale experiments will not have any impact. As for the artificial moon, the best place for it to exist is on the drawings.

Suddenly, a burst of orange light in the distance illuminated the faces of the two people, and at the same time cast a long shadow on the ground.

After one or two seconds, there was a slight vibration from the ground, and then it took another five or six seconds to hear the continuous explosion in the air.

Lin Ju turned his head, and the Long March 7 began to rise with a 5-meter diameter tank, and the tail flame of the burning kerosene was like a firework.

The fireball composed of 10 liquid oxygen-kerosene engines rose all the way until it became a small dot in the sky and then disappeared faintly in the night.

Ten seconds later, a brilliant firework bloomed silently in the sky.

The burning solid particles flew according to the carefully designed trajectory. Almost 2 seconds later, a rooster in the shape of the motherland's map appeared in the sky, and it became larger and larger as it spread and dropped in altitude, with a strong sense of oppression.

Lin Juqing couldn't help but get goose bumps and tightened the commemorative coat sent by the Aviation Development Commission.

The end of the fireworks show means that New Year's Eve has passed and the new year has begun.

Most people are ready to turn off the TV and rest. After all, for many people, the Spring Festival Gala program is getting more and more boring year by year, and only the fireworks show is a little interesting.

But on a transport ship at Jingu Port, the crew who gathered together to watch the show first dispersed to drink a cup of strong coffee, and then slowly sailed away from the port according to the guidance in the dark.

This is a modified medium-sized container ship, with 7 large containers placed on its hull, which contain the second Long March 10 rocket and a new generation manned spacecraft in full condition.

The Chinese New Year will not affect the progress of the Shuguang Project. The Long March 10 Yao 2 rocket will arrive at the Qiongzhou launch site on the fourth day of the first lunar month, and will be transferred to the launch site on the sixth day of the first lunar month. When most people return to work on the seventh day of the first lunar month, the assembly and launch procedures can be directly entered.

New Year, new rocket, this is very reasonable and festive.