Chapter 244 Even if there is only a 1% chance, we must fight for it
This time, Light Armor Aerospace sent people to Amerikan to find ways to take advantage of it.
Get as much information as you can about Blue Origin’s BE-4.
Guangjia Aerospace has never expected Blue Origin to sell engine technology. Even if Blue Origin is willing to sell, the White House is unlikely to allow it.
I’m not that stupid yet.
Anyone who dares to do so will be punished on the street.
“BE-4 has never failed, it is very successful.” Blue Origin engineers obviously couldn’t bear it.
Unlike SpaceX, Blue Origin’s research and development mechanism is more similar to that of the Chinese Space Administration. It must ensure everything is foolproof on paper and conduct a large number of ground tests before launching.
Zhou Jin raised his eyebrows: "Oh, really?
I remember I saw the BE-4 explosion video on Youtube two years ago.
There was no launch, and there was an explosion in the base. "
"That cannot be considered a failure, it is still in the ground verification process. Our official launch has never failed, and we have successfully completed the expected goals every time. "The other party also began to become impatient.
Because in his opinion, Zhou Jin was just messing around and trying every means to spy on BE-4's information.
"No, no, no. , BE-4 completed all preliminary preparation work in 2017, but two years ago, in 2023, you said you were still doing ground verification?
Can I understand that if there is tolerance for explosions in every plan we make, then we will be able to achieve the expected goal every time.
Then I think there is no risk of substandard delivery of the Trailblazer 1 rocket we deliver to Blue Origin, because it will definitely meet our ‘expectations’ for it. "Zhou Jin emphasized the final expectation and expressed contempt for Blue Origin's insincere words.
Lies will not hurt people, the truth is the sharpest knife.
The fact is, Blue Origin Blue Origin is seriously behind schedule in rocket development. Originally, Blue Origin's self-developed New Glenn equipped with a BE-4 engine was supposed to be launched in early 2020.
As a result, it was delayed until last year. After completing a launch
After the engineers present looked at each other, the person in charge stood up and said: "You only told part of the truth.
It's not the whole picture.
At the beginning, BE-4 was only for internal use of Blue Origin. We did complete all verifications under the circumstances at that time.
But later Blue Origin received orders from NASA and the Department of Defense.
Their new Vulcan Centaur rocket will be powered by Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine.
In the future, we will need to conduct new tests and verifications based on new needs. This is a long process. ”
These are all public information. The Department of Defense and NASA have high hopes for the Vulcan Centaur, hoping that it will not only help NASA complete its desire to return to the moon, but also hope that it can assume some of the military launch functions.
It is precisely because of this that Zhou Jin is particularly interested in BE-4, or in other words, Light Armor Aerospace is very interested in it. Except for BE-4, there is no other option in Blue Origin that can make Light Armor Aerospace Something to covet.
“So how did you avoid the self-pressurization phenomenon that occurs when using liquid helium during the design and subsequent production and testing processes?”
Of course, what they are most concerned about is not BE-4. Design concepts are everywhere on the Internet. What they need is the synthesis path of some special alloys and the data during the testing process.
The former can help them increase the upper limit of the engine. Some good design ideas, which were not practical due to material limitations in the past, can be used after material breakthroughs are achieved.
The latter can help them avoid some detours.
If the synthesis path of special alloy materials is obtained, it can be used not only by light armor aerospace, but also by China. It will also be of great benefit to the engine design of Chinese bombers.
The military purpose will not be stated openly. We are purely commercial discussions, but it does not mean that both parties are unclear. This is well understood.
The technology that Blue Origin obtains from Light Armor Aerospace will be fed back to NASA and the Department of Defense. Likewise, the information that Light Armor Aerospace obtains from Blue Origin will definitely be simultaneously given to relevant parties in China.
“Keeping liquid propellant tanks pressurized is a common and very difficult component of rocket technology as we all know.”
Pressurizing liquid propellants is not difficult in itself. This matter has been studied thoroughly during the space race between American and Damao in the past.
The difficulty is that the technical solution is already very mature, and even a little optimization is very difficult. It is one of the unknown but extremely important engineering challenges in the field of rocket technology.
The most well-known method is to use an inert gas, generally helium, to complete this pressurization process.
“Falcon 9, they use a carbon fiber composite bottle, which is installed at the bottom of the LOX tank. The cooled helium gas passes through the engine gas generator connection part to achieve a heat exchange cycle. After heating in this link Enter the liquid oxygen and kerosene storage tanks to ensure smooth pressurization during flight.
Falcon 9 uses the Soviet Kerolox architecture.”
Blue Origin’s engineers are so stupid that they don’t talk about BE-4’s technical solutions and instead talk about Falcon 9’s technical solutions.
If there is a leak later, it will not be leaked by us. The technical solution of Light Armor Aerospace is different from Blue Origin.
“According to the information we have received, the starship uses self-generated augmentation technology, and Falcon 9 uses purely mechanical valves to do this.
It seems that their starship The ship adopts new self-pressurizing technology." Zhou Jin quickly caught the other party's potential thoughts and revealed a piece of information to the other party.
Starship, as the latest technology of SpaceX, rarely exposes specific technical details to the outside world.
This sentence immediately aroused the interest of Blue Origin engineers: "How do they do it?
Is it possible to achieve the effect of saving helium by increasing the complexity of the helium pressure system?"
"I guess so, otherwise they wouldn't have such a high thrust-to-weight ratio."
After whispering for a while, the Blue Origin engineers were secretly shocked by the information they didn't even know about. However, China's Light Armor Aerospace knew that there were only two possibilities?
One is that Guangjia Aerospace and SpaceX maintain a high degree of mutual trust, and the other is that Guangjia Aerospace has people within SpaceX.
Considering that SpaceX is the same as them, and even SpaceX is monitored much more strictly by Amerikan, they do not think that SpaceX will disclose such critical information to Light Armor Aerospace because of the personal relationship between Musk and Wright.
“According to our intelligence, SpaceX uses monitoring the heat in the heat exchanger to determine the degree of helium pressurization.
Because the heat of the heat exchanger changes with the engine valve and throughput, you are right, they do increase the complexity of the pressure system I
The starship uses a regenerative cooling loop around the combustion chamber to heat the liquid methane and liquid oxygen. Gaseous methane and oxygen to pressurize the relevant storage tanks.
This design idea cannot be used on other kerosene engines, because kerosene is not a cryogenic liquid, and the same operation on kerosene cannot make it boil. ”
"Old Zhou, how do you know the design ideas of starship engines? I don't even know." Lin Tianmin still remembered Zhou Jin's talkative performance during the morning exchange. He asked curiously after returning to the hotel in the evening.
Zhou Jin said: "I don't know." This sentence was very natural.
Lin Tianmin was stunned at once: "Then the Blue Origin people you talked about this morning were stunned for a while.
I observed carefully that the engineer sitting in the corner was holding a I haven’t stopped holding my laptop, and I’ve been recording what you said. If you fool them, will they not understand?”
Zhou Jin smiled and said: "Haha, you are talking about this. This is one of the possible design ideas for the Raptor engine of the starship that Guangshen mentioned when we were communicating privately.
Guangshen told us enough There are four types.”
If he heard about it for the first time, Lin Tianmin would think that this person is no longer a human being. Now that he has been working in Guangjia Aerospace for so long, he will only think that it is normal after hearing: "Oh."
"I had only been in Guangjia Aerospace for less than half a year at that time. I was half-convinced about the design plan proposed by Guangshen. Of course there was no problem from the theoretical level.
The implementation level of the specific plan ? There may be no problem, or it may be all problems.
Take the design of the helium cooling system as an example. The corrosion resistance and high temperature resistance of the material are very high, and considering the overall weight, a trade-off must be made between these.
I asked Blue Origin not only to see their reaction, but also to see if Americen’s technical reserves in the field of materials are sufficient to implement such a solution.
Looking at it now, they really don’t seem to have any big problems.
The group of people didn’t raise any questions in the morning. ”
Zhou Jin’s logic is: Although Blue Origin and SpaceX are different companies, their suppliers have a great degree of overlap. If there are problems with such a plan, then Blue Origin will definitely be able to Realize.
There cannot be any special alloys. The suppliers only provide them to SpaceX and not to Blue Origin. You must know that Blue Origin is also a commercial aerospace company deliberately supported by NASA.
In a sense, it can be regarded as a model project for the world.
Blue Origin’s reputation is not as good as SpaceX’s, simply because the level of management is not as good as Musk’s.
“Welcome to SpaceX.”
Unlike Blue Origin, where a group of engineers came to entertain them, after arriving at the SpaceX headquarters building, it was Musk himself who came to greet them.
"Wright and I have a very good relationship. We have many similarities. We welcome colleagues from Light Armor Aerospace to visit and communicate at SpaceX. I believe we can cooperate in many fields."
Ma Sk was very enthusiastic, so enthusiastic that even the SpaceX employees who were watching felt uncomfortable.
“If I hadn’t known who Wright was, I would have thought that Wright came in person. The boss doesn’t look like this at work.”
“If Wright came in person, then what would happen if Wright came in person? I’m afraid it’s not Musk and us who are waiting here, but the ‘staff’ in black uniforms.”
“That’s right. I’ll put this video on Reels when I go back in the evening. There will definitely be a lot of them. People like it.”
"Of course, there are Guangjia Aerospace and Elon, these are hot spots."
Reels is a short video application that replaced tk after tk launched the Amerikan market. Behind it is Facebook and ins.
Musk took the Light Armor Aerospace team to visit the SpaceX office and introduced the current progress of the starship. Some of the staff around him stood up and took photos and videos with their mobile phones, and some pretended to be working.
Lin Tianmin complained to Zhou Jin in Chinese: "Lao Ma really values us."
"Absolutely, even if we don't consider the personal relationship between Lao Ma and Guangshen, he still has to entertain us well. .
After all, Starship is counting on our space station project to bring it substantial profits. ”
Globally commercial aerospace does not have that much launch demand. NASA’s launch needs come from SpaceX, and China’s launch needs come from China Space Administration or Guangjia Aerospace.
It is impossible for the two parties to meet. There is a crossover.
Even if Blue Origin is looking for a deal with Guangjia Aerospace, it is buying technology, but it is impossible to buy transportation orders.
The two parties are just like water in the river, and there is no trade relationship. This barrier is even more serious than the Internet.
If American Internet companies are willing to abide by Chinese laws and regulations, they can still enter the Chinese market.
But no matter how SpaceX abides by laws and regulations, it cannot get the Chinese market. Let alone the Chinese official market, even launch orders from Chinese state-owned enterprises cannot be given to SpaceX.
So the starship has ultra-low launch costs and a large single-launch load, but there is no market.
Since France bought the Trailblazer One, orders from Europe have also dropped sharply.
To the extent that the Starship's return on investment is solely supported by the demand for Starlink created by SpaceX itself.
Making a profit is far from possible.
Can Starlink really replace global network communications and become a mainstream telecommunications service provider? Not realistic.
So before humans leave the earth, SpaceX will not even think about making a substantial profit and creating a wealth myth like Tesla.
Originally it was not possible, but with the advent of light armor spaceflight, it became possible.
Guangjia Aerospace’s space station plan involves sending a large number of modules into space.
According to the scale that Chen Yuanguang said in an interview, it is enough for the launch and operation of starships from now until the next generation of recyclable rockets appear.
So even if he knew the possibility was one percent, Musk had to try to see if he could get a piece of the cake from Light Armor Aerospace.
After all, on the surface, the next generation of Guangjia Aerospace’s own Trailblazer series rockets has not yet been born.
Starship still has a very obvious advantage in cost.
“Of course the advantage of the starship is the transportation cost. The transportation cost in low-Earth orbit is as low as two thousand US dollars per kilogram.
If we calculate based on the weight of a single module of the space station of 30 tons, using a starship to launch the space station module, the cost of a single module is 60 million US dollars.
If you launch a hundred modules, it will only be 6 billion US dollars. "In the conference room after the visit, Musk talked about the starship.
"Think about it, this cost is low enough, but there are even lower ones. Our goal is to reduce the launch cost. Reduced to US$10 per kilogram.
That is to say, if you launch 100 modules, it only costs 30 million US dollars. ”
“Sir, this is the goal. ”
"Yes, this is the goal, but I believe that with Guangjia Aerospace and SpaceX joining hands, such a goal can be achieved soon.
We provide technology and actual launch capabilities, and Guangjia Aerospace provides orders to help spacecraft The ship continues to iterate, and I estimate that this goal should be achieved in about ten times.”
(End of this chapter)