"The total length is 88 meters. After removing the power system module, the total length of the main truss and engine is 63 meters."
"The power module has a mass of 10 tons, accounting for 2.44% of the total mass of Orion II. The command module has a mass of 70 tons, accounting for 17.11% of the total mass of Orion II. Obviously, these masses can be reduced. 80.44% of the entire spacecraft's mass is concentrated on the power module."
Old Cat paced back and forth in the hall of Kunlun Station. He held the model of Orion II in his hands and muttered to himself.
"Old Cat, the angle of attack calculation is complete."
Tang Yue was dozing off on the table. He woke up in a daze and looked at the monitor. "All red!"
"What about the specific impulse … and the engine specific impulse data …" Old Cat turned around and frowned. "All red?"
Tang Yue wiped his saliva and nodded. "What does that mean?
What does this mean?
Is it a good thing? "
"It means that it exploded."
Old Cat leaned over to take a look. Sure enough, the numbers on the monitor were all off the charts, completely out of the normal range. "This means that if Orion II enters the atmosphere with an angle of attack of 20 degrees, then its propellant tank No. 3 will be separated from the main truss, causing the oxidizer pipeline to break, causing a leak, and finally an explosion … nine Raptor 10D engines will explode together."
"Oh, okay." Tang Yue scratched his head.
"Adjust the angle of attack and recalculate!"
Old Cat instructed.
"How much?"
"One second," Old Cat said.
"One second?" Tang Yue asked. "Adjust it to 19 degrees 59 minutes 59 seconds?
What's the difference between that and 20 degrees? "
"There's no difference, but it's worth a try."
Tang Yue adjusted the parameters and the workstation continued to work.
A few seconds later, a warning pop-up popped up.
“ERROR！”
"It crashed again." Tang Yue silently restarted the process and entered the cleared parameters one by one.
During this period of time, the HP workstation had been continuously overloaded. Although Old Cat was quite critical of it, objectively speaking, this computer had worked hard and contributed a lot. The CPU had fully displayed the spirit of hard work. Complex calculations like fluid dynamics and orbital dynamics often required hundreds of parameters to simulate. Without the workstation's help, Tang Yue would have been able to calculate it until next year.
"Tomcat, you have to be nicer to the computer. It's not like it deliberately crashed. We share the same roots, so there's no need to be so anxious."
"You don't have to speak up for it." Tomcat curled its lips. "Cheap machines are just so pretentious."
·
·
·
"… Three, two, one. The engines have been shut down," Mai Dong reported. "The United Space Station has entered orbit."
"OK, Kunlun Station received."
Old Cat and Tang Yue stared at the cursor on the monitor. The latter had successfully entered orbit as planned. "Miss Mai Dong, you have successfully entered orbit."
This was a routine orbit adjustment. The Orion II spacecraft used its own engine to raise the Joint Space Station's altitude by six meters.
The Joint Space Station had to adjust its orbit every once in a while, but it did not have any power. It needed to rely on the Orion spacecraft to provide thrust to raise its altitude slightly. Sometimes this work was done by Orion I, and sometimes by Orion II.
Mai Dong sighed.
"Tang Yue, Mr. Cat, can we start dismantling the Orion spacecraft today?"
"Mai Dong, you rest first," Tang Yue said. "Eat something and wait for the sun to rise."
After the dismantling of the Eagle lander was completed, Mai Dong's task became even more arduous. In order to ensure a safe entry into the atmosphere, the Orion II's power module and main module had to be removed to shorten the spacecraft's length and reduce its weight.
The power module was twenty-five meters long and had a sturdy metal truss with eight solar panels and a supporting servo management mechanism. The total width was sixty meters. It was the most conspicuous and largest part of the Orion spacecraft, but it was also the lightest, weighing only ten tons.
The central main module was the center of the Orion II spacecraft. It was thirty meters long and had a total of eight modules that were connected to each other. It was rather large. In terms of function, it was no different from the space station. However, in terms of usage, the main module of the Orion spacecraft focused more on the daily life support of the crew. Most of the supplies were stored there, and the Joint Space Station was responsible for most of the scientific research tasks.
Modular design was the current mainstream of spacecraft development. The Mars program had set off a new wave of aerospace technology development, and one of them was the standardization of universal interfaces. Orion and the space station's modules were connected by universal interfaces.
After a spacecraft like Orion entered service for interstellar travel, the boundary between the spacecraft and the space station became more and more blurred. Any module on the Orion spacecraft could be dismantled and integrated into the space station. Expanding the space station's scale was as easy as building blocks.
"Which part should we dismantle first?" Mai Dong asked. "The solar panels?
Or the main module's module? "
"Dismantle the central main module's module first, then the power module. But don't rush. This thing is quite troublesome, especially the power module. I haven't thought of an absolutely safe way to dismantle it," Old Cat replied. "We'll do it one step at a time."
The power module was twenty-five meters long and weighed ten tons. If it wasn't handled properly, it could destroy the entire space station.
The modular modification of the Orion spacecraft might sound like building blocks, but in reality, it was like tearing down a building — big, heavy, time-consuming, and dangerous.
The Joint Space Station didn't have the facilities to dismantle the truss. Mai Dong lacked the necessary tools and facilities. The power module was purely made up of the truss and solar panels. It was basically a skeleton mechanical structure. The Joint Space Station's arm couldn't do anything about it without a proper interface. After all, the arm wasn't a real claw, and it couldn't pick up the truss like chopsticks.
Earth's space station was the Orion spacecraft's dock. All repairs and dismantling work should be done in Earth's orbit. In order to deal with the 80-meter-long truss, the new ISS had specially built a set of fixed frames and towing cables that could be used in the weightless near-Earth orbit to safely operate the dangerous metal frame.
"The central main module has a total of eight modules. How many do we need to dismantle?"
The eight modules of the main module were located in the middle of Orion's truss. The most important one was the command module. The spacecraft's computer was located there, and it was the core of Orion.
The other seven modules were the crew modules, including the living quarters and the material storage compartments. Even if they used the fastest high-thrust transfer orbit to fly from Earth to Mars, the journey would still take more than three months. The materials on Orion had to be enough for a six-person team.
"Apart from the command module, all the other modules will be dismantled."
Old Cat was straightforward. "But they can't be discarded. We need to pick out the flexible inflatable modules and use them as airbags for the final landing."
"Using the inflatable modules as airbags, how do we do it?"
Tang Yue asked. "I remember that the previous probes inflated the airbags rapidly at a height of a hundred meters. Can we do the same for these modules?
Do we have an air pump? "
"Of course not." Old Cat shook his head. "We don't have an air pump."
"You want to tie the inflated cabin directly to the lander and then enter the atmosphere?"
"That's right."
"F * ck, you want the Eagle to jump down with a few large balloons tied to it?
Won't those balloons be blown up?
Won't they be blown away? "
In Tang Yue's mind, inflating the airbags was the last step. When they were less than a hundred meters away from the ground, the airbags would be inflated again.
But Old Cat didn't think so. It planned to let the lander fly down with the balloons tied to it.
"Tie them tightly. We can even handle a vertical landing of Orion. What's the big deal about tying a few balloons?" Old Cat was very calm. "Life and death are insignificant. If you're not convinced, do it."