Chapter 953: Skilled people are bold
“Nuclear power is really a good thing. It is a ready-to-use power source. It is installed in a container and is easy to move.” Wu Shengli said with emotion: “The power of 1 megawatt is just enough.”
The Mingzhou Group's Dalieshan Nuclear Power Plant supplies 30 megawatts of electricity. However, in addition to supplying shipyards, this electricity also supplies steel plants and so on. Steel plants in particular are definitely big consumers of electricity, especially refining. As soon as the steel-making furnace is turned on, the electricity meter soars at a rocket speed.
If it is just shipbuilding, then various engineering machinery, such as gantry cranes, bending machines, welding machines, etc., consume much less power. The power supplied to these equipment by 1 megawatt should be about the same. , and can also provide power to the nearby naval base.
Of course, these are all Wu Shengli’s wishful thinking.
Hearing what he said, Qin Tao frowned: "Nuclear power can indeed be used, but are you sure that we will be allowed to use nuclear power here? Will there be environmental experts coming out to compare?"
Although Qin Tao is not afraid of this group of people, he still has to be on guard.
“What’s wrong? We will have nuclear-powered aircraft carriers stationed at our naval base in the future. Who dares to protest?”
“In this case, how about after we get the nuclear power treasure, place it at the junction of our two sides. If anyone comes to compare, say it belongs to your navy?”
Wu Shengli nodded: "No problem!"
"However, nuclear power treasures are still too eye-catching after all. Since we are here, we have to bring clean energy." Qin Tao continued: "The tops of various factories, residences, offices and other buildings in our shipyard, We can install solar panels all over the place, and we need to publicize the use of these clean energy sources and practice it ourselves.”
“It’s up to you.”
The largest photovoltaic power generation project in China is in Zhoushan, which is an island. Although there is external power supply, it is not as useful as its own. So in 2017, they built the world's largest building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) power station, using tempered glass. Photovoltaic panels replaced the roof of the factory. In the end, the entire power station used more than 72,000 photovoltaic panels, totaling 19 megawatts. This project was very shocking.
As for Qin Tao knowing about this project, of course it was because this project was developed by a shipyard. If the roof of the shipyard is used, it can generate 19 megawatts of power, so why use nuclear power?
Of course, it has to be used. After all, it can only generate electricity during the day, but not at night. Today's photovoltaic power generation is not as advanced as that of later generations. It doesn't need to be too much. Even 2 megawatts of power generation is enough. Mingzhou Group built it here Shipyards will mainly use photovoltaic power generation in the future. Let’s see what those environmental experts have to say. Nuclear power is a treasure. The electricity generated can be sold to the navy and used by ourselves at night.
At this time, Wu Shengli obviously didn’t know how powerful this solar panel would be. He just thought that the Mingzhou Group had money, so he let them do it. Only when the construction here is completed and the power is actually generated, will he know how powerful it is.
This place is still a desolate land, but soon, a large shipyard will be built here, and the place will become lively!
It was not until sunset that Qin Tao and Wu Shengli returned to the navy guest house where they were staying. Qin Tao received new news before he could see his children.
Max is here! When he heard that Qin Tao had come to Qiongzhou, Max ran over immediately. I didn't see Qin Tao, so I waited. Qin Tao had to come back.
Even if it is night, Qin Tao still has to see him. After all, Max is one of Qin Tao's most valued subordinates. Max alone can help Mingzhou Group support the entire aerospace industry.
"Sorry, I just came back from the navy." Qin Tao said very politely, "I kept you waiting for a long time."
“Mr. Qin, did you come to Qiongzhou specifically to inspect our Starship Company?”
Of course not. Qin Tao is just traveling with his wife and children. Max, a workaholic, must not know that the Chinese New Year is coming soon. How important the Chinese New Year is to Easterners. For Max, he only has rockets in his eyes. ,Rocket!
“Well, since we are here, we should go and see the Starship Company.” Qin Tao said.
“Great, Mr. Qin, there will be a launch window in three days. Our Dragon spacecraft plans to make its first manned flight in three days. You must come to our launch ceremony!”
The first manned flight in three days? Qin Tao frowned: "Max, let's not be in a hurry, we must be safe. We can't launch in a hurry just because I'm here. If something goes wrong, it will be very serious."
“No, Mr. Qin, we have completed all the tests.”
“What about the space measurement and control ship? If we want to launch a manned spacecraft, we must conduct measurement and control. This is no joke. Our Yuanwang measurement ship is still in the port, right?”
“Yuanwang-3 has just carried out a space measurement and control mission, and is now in the Pacific. Using it, together with our space measurement and control institutions in the Rainbow Kingdom and the Parthian Kingdom, is enough to ensure the smoothness of this flight.”
Over the years, the East has also been deploying a global aerospace measurement and control network out of various needs. The Rainbow Kingdom and the Parthian Kingdom, relying on the relationship between the Mingzhou Group, have established land measurement and control stations, and cooperated with the measurement and control ships at sea. , which is much more convenient to run.
“Of course, we can’t always rely on domestic aerospace measurement and control centers in the future, so we also plan to build a Starship Company’s own aerospace measurement and control ship. Our Mingzhou Group is also a shipbuilder anyway, so this should be very simple.”
Build your own aerospace measurement and control ship?
Qin Tao murmured in his mind, how much would such a boat cost? Although he used a bright future to deceive Max, he had no intention of investing much money in the Starship Company. But people like Max never cared about spending money. He could give whatever money he had. Spend it out.
Although he was unhappy, Qin Tao had no way to say it out loud, otherwise it would be contrary to his original promise.
"When our aerospace measurement and control ship is built, we will not only be able to use it for ourselves, but also provide aerospace measurement and control tasks for domestic and other countries." Max was still talking there: "Mr. Qin, although the construction cost of this ship is higher, , but we will definitely make money in the future, and we will never make a loss-making business."
Qin Tao had no choice but: "Okay, Max, since our Starship Company needs it, let's build it. Our Mingzhou Group will definitely support it."
Provide it to others? Who needs it? Except for the North Kimchi Country, which does not have this kind of space measurement and control capability, every other major space country has it. The North Kimchi Country has never worried about its own spacecraft orbit measurement. Other countries have measured it very accurately.
Although Qin Tao is not optimistic, he still has to support it now.
"Aerospace measurement and control requires high precision, and the error of ship shaking will have a major impact, so the larger the displacement, the better. Our ship should preferably have a displacement of 30,000 tons." Max continued: "Thousands of various sets of various equipment must be installed on the ship. Measuring equipment, this also poses a high challenge to the power system and power generation capacity of the ship. Therefore, we hope that the power of the main engine used on this ship can be larger, at least 40 megawatts, so as to meet the needs. Of course , if the power can be doubled to 80 megawatts, then this ship can also reach a high enough speed on the sea. For the measurement ship, the speed is also very important. Often after the measurement and control of a point is completed, You need to rush to the next area, the faster the better.”
Qin Tao frowned. With a displacement of 30,000 tons and a power system of 40 megawatts or even 80 megawatts, is this still an ordinary aerospace measurement and control ship? This is simply a medium-sized aircraft carrier!
“We are not familiar with ship chassis, so the chassis can be built by our shipyard. As for the upper body, we have to cooperate with relevant domestic departments to install various measurement and control equipment. We have already inspected it.”
Looking at the documents that Max put down, there were densely packed equipment purchases written on them. These were probably a lot of money.
“Max, why didn’t you say anything during the annual meeting?”
Of course we couldn't tell. At that time, we were supposed to report good news but not bad news, so they picked up the good ones and said that this kind of project must be reported separately. There was no need to let others know. Although Max didn't do much socializing, it was just because he didn't care. Therefore, he is also very clear about these doorways.
When Qin Tao asked this question, he said seriously: "Because the materials had not been compiled yet, there was no way to report it at the meeting. Moreover, our meeting was an annual summary meeting, not a planning meeting for the new year. ."
Max's reasons were quite sufficient. Even Qin Tao had no way to refute. He could only nod: "Okay, we can arrange this project." "Mr. Qin, I will leave these materials here for you until tomorrow." I'll be waiting for you at Starship Company."
With Max’s warm invitation, Qin Tao had no choice but to promise to visit Starship Company tomorrow.
I still chose the wrong place. If I had known earlier, I would have gone to Shuangsha Island for vacation. I went there to celebrate the New Year and made sure no one would disturb me.
But, will the launch of the Dragon spacecraft be feasible?
Qin Tao had just seen off Max, and Wu Shengli came over with a smile: "You are really awesome. Our country has been working hard for ten years to engage in manned spaceflight, but it has not yet achieved the first manned flight out of outer space. You Mingzhou Group actually wants to grab this first place.”
"I didn't know Max was so fast." Qin Tao also lamented: "How did I know that our Dragon spacecraft was about to fly with humans? I didn't know if it was reliable or not. If this spacecraft goes up, it won't be able to come back. That would have a huge impact on Starship Company.”
"Yes, your speed is very fast, but you are standing on the shoulders of giants. There are a large number of NASA technical experts in Starship Company. They are very familiar with manned spaceflight. They are different from those in our country. We But it was done independently.”
Wu Shengli is very familiar with the development of Starship Company. Qin Tao nodded: "I hope, if they can successfully launch, Starship Company can also become a major profit maker in our Mingzhou Group."
The Dragon spacecraft can carry seven people at a time. If it is configured with two astronauts and five passengers, it can charge five tickets. Tickets to outer space are not cheap, although Max has announced that the ticket price will eventually be reduced. It has been reduced to 100,000 US dollars per ticket, but the initial ticket price is probably over 100 million US dollars.
I guess their starship company also saw that other companies were making money, and they were the only ones who were still spending money. So they were eager to launch manned spacecraft to make money. No matter what, this was a great start.
The next day, Qin Tao came to the Wenchang Launch Center.
Starship Company only builds rockets, and the launch site still has to be rented. After the Wenchang Launch Center was built, the first-come-first-served buildings near the water became the most suitable venue for starship launches.
The tall rocket stood on the launcher. The stainless steel shell was shining and looked very dazzling. Looking at this huge rocket, Qin Tao had a trace of doubt in his heart: This should be Starship MK1, right? The near-earth carrying capacity is 60 tons. Will using this thing to launch the Dragon spacecraft be overkill?
With this question, Qin Tao looked at Max, who was confident at the side: "Max, do we only have this kind of rocket at the moment?"
"Yes, we have a series of rocket development plans, but these are all based on our brand-new liquid oxygen methane engine. Now when we perform space missions, we only have this kind of rocket to choose from. However, this kind of rocket The rocket can already be reused, so overall it won’t be too wasteful.”
“You mean, let our astronauts fly to space on second-hand rockets? What if something unexpected happens?” Qin Tao was frightened.
"It doesn't matter, we have a carrying capacity of sixty tons, and our Dragon spacecraft only has a maximum weight of fourteen tons. In other words, even if half of the engines of our rocket fail to ignite successfully, we can still ensure normal mission execution. "
Qin Tao clicked his tongue for a while, what is this called? Are talented people bold?
“By the way, how many unmanned missions have we carried out?”
"once."
"What?"
Qin Tao regretted that he had not asked clearly and should not have come today.
In order to carry out manned spaceflight, our country has carried out four unmanned flights. Only one person went up on the fifth flight, and it was only one person. Wasn't Max too brave?
A second-hand rocket, a spaceship that has only flown once, still dares to carry people into the sky?
"No problem." As if he knew Qin Tao's concerns, Rubio, the spacecraft designer on the side, said: "Mr. Qin, our relevant technologies are mature. In the early years, we were working on the Apollo moon landing spacecraft. At that time, it first conducted five test flights with a simulated spacecraft, and then conducted four unmanned flights with the Apollo Block I spacecraft, namely AS-201, AS-202, Apollo 4 and Apollo 6, and then We developed the Block II spacecraft, carried out manned missions from Apollo 7, and landed on the moon for the first time with Apollo 11, all because of immature technology.”
Speaking of this, Rubio was gushing: "But when it came to the space shuttle, our technology had matured, so we had nothing to be afraid of. Our space shuttle launched two astronauts for the first time. .”
Lao Maozi's Buran also flew in unmanned mode several times, but it was not the manned turn. As a result, the Red Empire collapsed. Later, when it came to Boeing and SpaceX's spacecraft, they only conducted one unmanned test flight. The second time So he took the people up.
When the technology matures, launching unmanned spacecraft multiple times will be a waste.
Mature? Where is the maturity? Our manned spacecraft uses a brand new two-stage design, and it has to bring as much payload as possible back. When it comes back, it still uses a buffer rocket to land. You actually call this mature?
Qin Tao was completely speechless about these people. What was on his mind: "Where are the astronauts? Have we selected the astronauts? How many people will go up this time?"
When he went to the domestic space agency for inspection, Qin Tao contacted the astronauts. According to his memory, those astronauts who had never been in space were all selected by him to be the astronauts of the Dragon spacecraft, hoping to realize the dream of these astronauts to fly into the sky. .
Now, how many people are going up?
“Zhao Dong and Deng Ming are the crew members on the first flight. If this flight goes well, the six of them may go up together next time,” Max said.
“Two people got on the first flight?” Qin Tao frowned: “How much personal accident insurance did you buy?”
Qin Tao was speechless. Isn't this too bold?
“No need.” At this moment, a voice came from behind.
Qin Tao turned his head and saw Zhao Dong, who was slightly short in stature. At this time, he was holding a popsicle in his hand and finishing the last bite.
Three days, no, there are still two days before they go to heaven. Before going to heaven, every move of the astronauts must be strictly valued. They cannot be called transportation vehicles. They must pay attention to their meals and they must be prepared for launch. All preparations.
Qin Tao remembers very clearly that when the Shenzhou 5 was launched for the first time, all the astronauts were very nervous. They were all excellent. At the last moment, whoever's pulse beat more steadily would go up first.
What now?
Here, getting to heaven is as easy as going on a trip, and why are you still eating popsicles here in a leisurely manner? Qin Tao was completely speechless.
Aren't you afraid of diarrhea?
"Mr. Qin, since we have chosen the aerospace industry, we have never been afraid of danger. Now, everyone in our astronaut brigade envy a few of us because we can fly spacecrafts from private companies. We only hope to realize our dream as soon as possible. Feitianmeng, we don’t care about personal accidents.”
“Before flying, shouldn’t you have a strict routine and diet?”
"Oh, that's it. Chief Rubio said that astronauts should try to relax as much as possible before taking off. They should eat and sleep when they should. Anyway, it won't take long this time, and we don't have to go to the toilet in space. , before taking off, you must have an enema or something to clean out everything in your stomach." Zhao Dong said: "It is best for us to maintain a relaxed and happy mood."
The majority of foreigners in this starship company have moved closer to foreigners in terms of culture and habits. Qin Tao felt very emotional. Sometimes, being careless is better.
(End of this chapter)