Chapter 920 Manned Spaceflight (2)

Yannick came to a fitness room, where more than a dozen men and women were sweating profusely on the treadmill. Most of them were young people in their twenties, only his parents, Prince Oscar and his wife were middle-aged, and there was a teenage Elizabeth.

"Your Highness!"

Seeing Yannick come in, the young people jumped off the treadmills one after another, stood at attention and saluted excitedly.

"Thank you for your hard work." Yannick raised his forearm to signal everyone to finish the salute, and the sound of several people lowering their arms was uniform.

Each of these young people was an ace pilot who shot down more than ten enemy planes.

In the early space exploration, selecting soldiers, especially pilots to enter space was a common selection idea for astronauts from all over the world.

For example, the early astronauts of the Soviet Union were all young pilots from the Air Force. Among them, the youngest astronaut in human history, Gorman Titov, was selected. He was the second Soviet astronaut to enter space (second only to Yuri Gagarin, who was less than 26 years old when he entered space, and Gagarin was only 27 years old. At that time, the entire batch of astronauts in the Soviet Union were basically in the age group of 26-28 years old). After that, the Soviet Union gradually lowered the requirements for physical fitness and no longer strictly required top pilots, but during the Cold War, it insisted on the requirement that they must be active military personnel. It was not until the disintegration of the Soviet Union that Russia began to gradually recruit non-military astronauts, such as aerospace engineers and biologists.

The first batch of American astronauts were also selected from the top pilots of the active Air Force. The age of their first mission was generally around 40 years old, generally older than Soviet astronauts. The advantage of being older is that they have rich experience in all aspects, and they have sufficient knowledge and abilities. But they also have problems. They are indeed older. After all, going to the sky is still very physically demanding. Later, the average age gradually dropped.

Why do we have to choose soldiers to go to space? Because the early spacecraft were all test-oriented, and safe return was the first priority. The acceleration of early spacecraft when returning to the atmosphere was quite exaggerated, even reaching a terrifying 11G, which would be a plane crash if it were changed to civil aviation. Although the advanced space shuttles of later generations can be controlled at around 3 or 4G, which is far less than the maximum overload that pilots can withstand, scientists still complained after returning. As mentioned above, after the Vostok 1 spacecraft that Gagarin was on entered the atmosphere, astronauts needed to parachute from high altitude to "escape". It was impossible for a non-well-trained pilot to do such a thing.

As for whether scientists who have not undergone rigorous physical training can do it, there is a very interesting example. In 1964, the Soviet Union launched the "Sunrise 1 (also known as Voskhod 1)", which was the first spacecraft to send more than one person into space. Although the Soviet Union announced that "Sunrise 1" was a new spacecraft, in fact, it was a modernized version of the same aircraft that transported Gagarin to space, and was hastily modified to surpass the US "Gemini" spacecraft.

At that time, "Sunrise 1" carried three astronauts, one of whom was a pilot-born astronaut Vladimir Kamalov, one of the designers of this spacecraft, aerospace equipment expert Konstantin Feokkistov, and the other was a doctor Boris Yegorov. Except for Kamalov, the other two did not undergo rigorous astronaut training and were basically ordinary people. Finally, Feokkistov was confused by the overload of the spacecraft he designed. Yegorov was originally going to study space motion sickness, but he got sick himself and it was quite serious. He almost died in space.

Therefore, only when the performance of the spacecraft is relatively stable, can scientists be carried on board to carry out "formal" scientific research. Even ordinary people with good health (rich people) can spend tens of millions of dollars to stay in the International Space Station for a period of time and experience the life of astronauts.

After greeting everyone, Yannick walked up to Prince Oscar who was still running on the treadmill. "You are going to space tomorrow, is it necessary to do this?"

Prince Oscar said unhappily. "This is your father's habit for many years, don't you know?"

Yannick shrugged. "I really don't know." He was telling the truth. He could count the time he spent with the couple since he came here with ten fingers. How could he know what habits this prince had. "Are you really not afraid? No one can guarantee that the rocket will fly safely into space. It might explode into pieces as soon as it is ignited. Why do you have to take risks? Why not do a dozen manned flights first, and then go up after ensuring safety?" However, there is no absolute safety in the aerospace industry. Even in the 21st century, various aerospace accidents are frequent. As pioneers in space exploration, the United States and the Soviet Union in the original time and space experienced many serious aerospace accidents from the 1950s to the early 21st century. Some of them were rocket disintegration and explosion, which brought economic losses, but for manned space flight, this is likely to be a one-way ticket with no return. There have been many bloody lessons in the history of space flight between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Although the Soviet Union's first manned space flight was successful, Yannick did not dare to guarantee that this launch would be successful as well.

Prince Oscar pressed the stop button on the treadmill, picked up a dry towel to wipe the sweat, and took a breath. "I, your dad, have been through a lot of hardships in my life. I have also admired countless scenic spots. After seeing so many of these beautiful views, I can't help but want to see the entire earth. I thought this was a dream that would never come true in this lifetime, but I didn't expect that thanks to you, I can actually fulfill my ultimate dream in my lifetime. Son, dad is really proud of you."

Yannick rolled his eyes. It seemed that his "father" was determined to go up, and he could not persuade him. He was indeed an "explorer". If it were him, he would not dare to go up even if it was another fifty years.

The princess on the side complained a little. "Son, why don't you ask someone to make the spaceship bigger? I also want to go up with your dad."

Yannick was speechless. "You have to eat one bite at a time and walk one step at a time. We are already very advanced, okay? You can see that the United States across the way doesn't even have a rocket engine. Otherwise, you can ask your dad not to go up first, and wait for a year or two, when the spaceship can carry two people at the same time, you two can go up together."

"That won't work." Prince Oscar said quickly. "I'll go up first to explore the way this time, and I'll take your mother up next time when the spaceship can carry two people. For this space trip, I've even prepared a suicide note."

Hearing the word "suicide note", the princess rolled her eyes at him and reached out to hit him.