Chapter 854 Multi-Stage Rocket

Just when everyone was having a headache over the defense of Alaska, a senior staff officer from the Army Aviation Command hurried in. He looked a little flustered and even a little incoherent. "Mr. Vice President, generals, we just found something...very...strange in the sky..."

"Strange thing?" Arnold couldn't help but wonder. "What strange thing, is it the German fleet? Or have the Germans developed a new type of bomber?" The Germans' current ME-264D high-altitude bombers and B-36 super bombers completely crushed their own side in all aspects. Could it be that they have created a more terrifying bomber? Flying at an altitude of 20,000 meters? Or flying at a speed of more than 800 kilometers per hour?

"It's not the German fleet, but..." The senior staff officer shook his head, looking quite strange. "To be precise, that thing is outside the atmosphere, in space."

"What?!" Everyone was stunned. In space? "What on earth is it? A meteorite?" But what's so strange about meteorites? Everyone knows that meteorites are asteroids, comets or rocks from space, and they have seen them before. In Baringa, Arizona, the United States, there is a huge pit with a diameter of 1,280 meters and a depth of 180 meters. According to scholars, this is a "meteorite crater" formed by a meteorite weighing more than 20,000 tons that hit the earth at a speed of 80,000 kilometers per hour 70,000 years ago. And if it is really a meteorite, they said that it has already fallen to the ground, or simply burned in the atmosphere, so what's the fuss.

The senior staff shook his head again and explained. "It's not a meteorite, we can't say for sure, it seems to be some kind of man-made product, someone sent it up." It's incredible. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes through an astronomical telescope, he wouldn't have believed it was true!

"What?!" This really shocked everyone. Although they are not professional physicists, they still have the most basic knowledge. To launch a spacecraft into space, it is necessary to use a huge thrust to generate a fast enough flight speed to break through air resistance and overcome the earth's gravity and soar in space. According to the different operating requirements of spacecraft, the operating speed of spacecraft is usually divided into the first, second and third cosmic speeds. The first cosmic speed, also known as the orbital speed, is when an object flies horizontally at a speed of 9 kilometers per second on the surface of the earth. Its falling rate under the action of gravity is consistent with the curvature of the earth. The object will move along a circular orbit and will not fall to the ground.

At present, their fastest fighter jet has a speed of 650 kilometers per hour, which is about 181 meters per second; someone actually created a flying machine with a speed of up to 9 kilometers per second? This is too terrible!

"Could it be the Germans?!" They naturally thought of the Germans. "Damn, how did they do it?!"

Just as the top leaders in Washington were discussing things in space, Yannick stood on the observation deck at the Algerian Space Launch Base on the other side, looking at the giant rocket next to the launch tower in the distance.

This rocket was not one of those "one and a half" rockets launched before, but a brand new three-stage rocket.

He couldn't help but feel a little emotional, and couldn't help but think of the "Fire Dragon Out of Water" during the Xia and Ming Dynasties, which was the earliest multi-stage rocket in the world.

According to the Ming Dynasty military work "Wu Bei Zhi", the structure of the Fire Dragon Out of Water is to take a five-foot-long bamboo tube, open it and polish it. A wooden dragon head is installed at one end of the bamboo tube, and a wooden dragon tail is installed at the other end. The bamboo tube is the dragon body.

The mouth of the dragon head is facing upward, and there are several rockets in the dragon's belly. The rocket's cords are always connected together and led out from the hole at the bottom of the dragon head. At the same time, two rocket launchers are installed obliquely at the front and rear of the dragon's body, and their cords are always connected together. Then the total cord of the rocket in the dragon's belly is connected to the bottom of the rocket launcher outside the dragon's body. In this way, the two rocket launchers at the front of the dragon's body are ignited, and the dragon body will fly in the air in a certain arc. When the two front rocket launchers (first stage) burn out, the two rear rocket launchers (second stage) continue to burn. After the gunpowder in the rocket launcher burns out, it will lead to the dragon's belly, causing it to fly out and kill the enemy.

The method of making the fire dragon out of water is completely in line with the construction principle of modern multi-stage rockets. Its invention fully reflects the outstanding creative ability of the ancient people. Unfortunately, the limitations of feudal society determined that this invention could not have much room for improvement.

Until 1921, Tsiolkovsky, a Soviet aviation and aerospace scientist and a pioneer in rocket and space research, proposed the idea of ​​multi-stage rockets, providing a theoretical basis for space navigation.

Theoretically, the more stages of a multi-stage rocket, the higher the efficiency of the load, but as the number of stages of a multi-stage rocket increases, its technical complexity increases greatly. Too frequent separation will increase the weight of the connection mechanism and control mechanism and the failure rate of the spacecraft, and the difficulty of recovery will also increase accordingly, resulting in rising costs. Generally speaking, multi-stage rockets mostly use a three-stage setting.

In addition to the transportation cost issue, the rocket adopts a multi-stage setting because the engine characteristics required for rockets flying in the atmosphere and flying in space are different (the lower stage is responsible for takeoff, emphasizing high thrust; the upper stage is responsible for acceleration, emphasizing high specific impulse). With the rocket technology currently mastered by humans, it is difficult to meet two different needs with a single engine (only one aerospace company has done this in later generations).

"30 minutes to prepare!" The loudspeaker at the launch site issued a deafening command, and a group of technicians quickly evacuated the launch site.

"15 minutes to prepare!" The last batch of technicians left the launch site.

"10 minutes to prepare... 5 minutes to prepare... 1 minute to prepare!" The swing arms supporting the rocket on the launch tower were opened one by one, and the various system equipment connected to the rocket on the launch tower also quickly fell off. The rocket has entered the countdown stage before ignition and launch.

"Countdown one minute to prepare, fifty seconds, forty seconds, thirty seconds, twenty seconds!"

"Ten, nine, eight, seven... one, ignition!"

"Ignition!" Accompanied by a deafening roar, a dazzling flame gushed out from the bottom of the rocket. The huge rocket dragged the dazzling light and slowly rose into the air. The strong thrust not only made the rocket fly, but also made the area within a radius of more than ten kilometers feel a slight tremor.

Yannick stared at the rocket that was getting smaller and smaller in his field of vision until it disappeared into the horizon.

"First stage thruster separation!"

"Second stage thruster ignition!"

Soon a meteor appeared in the sky, which was formed when the first stage rocket fell.

As the first-stage thruster separated, the main body of the rocket reduced its weight. After the second-stage rocket was successfully ignited, its speed increased again and flew towards its destination.