A big country of aerospace with black technology

From Dunhuang in the Gobi desert, we continue thousands of kilometers westward and pass through the foot of the Kunlun Mountains at the southern end of the Tarim Basin.

Zhang Xingyang and his party finally arrived at the last stop of their trip, Kashgar.

"General Master Zhang, this trip is really tiring."

Even Zhou Xuan, who was in relatively good health, couldn't help but complain when he was about to arrive in Kashgar.

Zhang Xingyang stretched, and the bones in his body crackled:

"When we go back, we can take a plane."

Hearing Zhang Xingyang tell this good news, the whole group was moved to tears!

This journey has been so hard!

Who knows the road conditions these days?

What's more, they drove nearly three thousand kilometers!

Among the group of people, Zhang Xingyang, who had the best physical fitness, felt like his whole body was falling apart.

Not to mention everyone else.

"If we finish our work early, we can go back early."

They traveled such a long distance this time not only to select a site for the molten salt power station, but also to go to the westernmost part of the motherland to plan a large radar communication station.

This radar station is actually one of the supporting projects of the lunar exploration plan.

Although the moon is closer to us than other planets, it is still hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.

At such a long distance, even the fastest electromagnetic waves in the universe will have a certain delay.

The delay is not bad, after all, in the early days we did not particularly need real-time communication.

But another problem is a bit unbearable.

That is measurement and control accuracy.

In order for lunar exploration satellites to accurately reach the lunar orbit, the signal requirements are very high.

When the moon enters orbit, if the measurement and control accuracy is not in place, deviations may easily occur.

Not only may additional fuel be consumed, reducing the satellite's service life.

It is more likely that the satellite failed to enter orbit due to insufficient fuel.

This is actually a very common reason for failure in the history of lunar exploration by various countries.

"How about you guys take a rest first?"

Zhang Xingyang asked as he looked at the people around him who seemed to be about to collapse from exhaustion.

"No, no."

Zhou Xuan quickly shook his head and refused. What he wanted most now was to go back and have a good rest for a few days.

If we delay for one day today, we don’t know how many days we will have to delay before we can go back later.

After all, flights back there are not available every day.

"what about you?"

Zhang Xingyang asked several other people.

Of course, the main ones are the technical staff here, and those responsible for Zhang Xingyang's security work are not among them.

From the outside, he seemed to be fine.

"We'd better start working as soon as possible!"

Almost everyone did not want to waste time due to rest, and asked to start working directly.

"Okay, let's go straight then."

Zhang Xingyang didn't say much when he heard this. Since everyone was very enthusiastic about work, it was not easy for him to dampen everyone's enthusiasm for work.

The person responsible for guiding everyone is a local young man.

“Welcome to Kashgar!”

Young people are very enthusiastic.

After meeting everyone, shake hands with everyone warmly.

This made many people present feel a little embarrassed.

"We are going to a rural area this time, and it may take a while."

It is very standard for young people to speak of ordinary people. If it were not for the deep eye sockets and high nose bridge that are different from everyone else, everyone would probably think of him as an ordinary Han guy.

"But it's not that far. We'll be there in just over an hour."

He drove the car in front to guide everyone, and everyone followed behind in the jeep that had been with them for thousands of kilometers.

Entering the Kashgar area, the desert and Gobi scenery that was common before was gone.

Instead, there are large areas of farmland and orchards stretching on both sides of the road.

Although it is already the season of October, you can still see large tracts of green, stretching from the distant sky to your eyes.

These are among the achievements of wind prevention and desertification control in recent decades.

"If it weren't for the farmers walking on the road, whose appearance was different from the ones I've seen before, I would have thought I had returned to my hometown!"

Looking at the continuous farmland on both sides of the road, Zhou Xuan couldn't help but sigh.

"Kashgar, people have been cultivating and settling here since ancient times. It is no different from other places."

Zhang Xingyang put one hand on the window of the jeep and said calmly.

In the future, due to the application of planetary weather control systems, such scenes will actually become rare.

Because at that time, there was no difference between here and Jiangnan.

Although the industrial power of mankind is indeed worthy of admiration, the scene of farmland and desert Gobi at this time also made Zhang Xingyang feel that it had a special charm.

He took out a film machine he carried with him.

Zhang Xingyang took a photo while the vehicle was driving.

In the photo, there are tall and straight poplar trees in the distance, and as the picture gets closer, there are vineyards.

After driving for nearly an hour and a half, we finally arrived at today’s destination.

"I'm sorry, the roads here are not easy to walk on. Are you feeling well?"

The young man in charge of the guide said apologetically after jumping out of the car.

"It's nothing. I think everyone should be used to it during this time."

After Zhang Xingyang looked at everyone, he smiled and said.

In the past few days, they had almost always walked on such a dilapidated road.

In fact, this section of the road was much better than the one they took before.

"This is the site where the radar station is expected to be built."

The young man pointed to the open space in front of him and said to everyone.

"At present, the simple work of three connections and one leveling has been completed, and construction work can start at any time."

Zhang Xingyang first looked at the situation around here.

I didn’t know what this place was used for before, but water and electricity are available.

Of course, these are not the point.

The point is that it is far away from cities and large factories, and there is not much farmland around it.

It is quite beneficial for the construction of large communication antennas.

Because such an electromagnetic wave environment is relatively clean and less susceptible to interference.

"What was this place used for before?"

Zhang Xingyang touched a cement telephone pole on the edge of the field and asked.

"Before this place, it was actually a small expired ammunition destruction site, so there were not many people around here."

The young guy smiled and said:

"If you dig through the soil here, you might be able to find bullet casings in the soil that haven't been taken away."

When Zhou Xuan heard this, she kicked the ground in front of her a few times. Unexpectedly, a bullet casing actually came out.

"Oh, there are actually bullet casings!"

Several people surrounded the site and carefully made several measurements using the instruments they carried with the vehicle.

It is determined that this is indeed suitable as a construction site for supporting antennas for lunar exploration projects.

"Our large 18-meter antenna has finally found its nest!"

After the detection, Zhang Xingyang said with some relief.

In fact, there are two antennas for the lunar exploration project, both of which are large antennas of 18 meters.

It's just that one is in the east and one is in the west.

Almost at the east and west ends of the country, this is also due to the consideration of expanding the communication range of lunar exploration satellites.

——

"We are going to build the world's largest telescope here!"

"Let us see the vast sky!"

Nan Rendong, wearing a blue and white safety helmet, pointed at the mountains in front of him and said.

The karst landforms in the southwest mountains are indeed very suitable for building large-diameter spherical radio telescopes.

Eight years ago, he proposed the construction of a "500-meter aperture spherical radio telescope."

In the next nearly ten years, he visited more than a thousand lowlands and traveled tens of thousands of kilometers.

Finally found a suitable place to build the "500-meter spherical radio telescope", Dawotang!

Zhang Xingyang, who had just returned from the northwest and still smelled of wind and sand, was involved in the technical demonstration of this important basic scientific facility as an expert in engineering mechanics.

The place where everyone is standing is still almost a primitive jungle.

There are no roads at all.

When several people came, they climbed up bit by bit.

And this kind of road, which the nearly sixty-year-old man in front of me has walked for nearly ten years, has formed all over the mountains in the southwest.

"Construction in a place like this is very difficult. Nan Lao, you have to think about this."

The people from the Basic Science Foundation who were accompanying him couldn't help but remind him.

His idea is simple, that is, building here will consume huge amounts of money.

In fact, this idea is understandable. After all, the construction of such a large project itself will cost a lot of money.

Now that it is built in this inaccessible place, it will cost even more money.

Nan Rendong naturally knew this, but he also had his own considerations.

This is a good place that he has been looking for for nearly ten years. Whether it is geographical conditions or electromagnetic wave conditions, it is very suitable for building a "500-meter aperture spherical radio telescope."

It can even be said that even if it takes another ten years to search, Nan Rendong doesn't think he can find a better place than this.

"This is already the best construction location we can find. If we want future radio telescopes to achieve ideal results, other than here, our other alternative locations are actually not very ideal."

Nan Rendong carefully explained to everyone the reason why he chose to be here.

In fact, looking at the satellite map, we can also find that this is really an ideal location.

First of all, its geographical location is very good. It is 85 kilometers away from Pingtang County in the northeast and 45 kilometers away from Luodian County in the southwest. It is very little affected by the city's electromagnetic waves and has an extremely clean electromagnetic environment.

Secondly, the terrain of Dawodang is also very suitable for building large-diameter radio telescopes, and the concave area in the middle can be a good place to place large-scale radio telescopes.

The cable device that controls the direction of the sphere can be directly installed on the surrounding mountains.

"Down here, if construction starts, the water should be drained, right?"

Zhang Xingyang pointed to the swamp below and said.

As a typical karst landform, there are small pools below.

"After the construction begins, the lower part will be dug out and then piles will be driven."

The civil engineering experts on the side began to explain the construction process to everyone in a timely manner.

"Actually, the construction difficulty of the project is not very difficult. The most difficult thing is the environment here."

As he spoke, he swatted an insect that crawled onto the back of his hand to death.

There are always a lot of mosquitoes in the southwest.

Such a harsh environment is difficult to change even in today's industrial age.

"If construction starts, we must be prepared to prevent insects and dysentery."

"You've already done the civil engineering part, but the electromechanical part is difficult, okay?"

Before he could continue, the expert in charge of the electromechanical part of the project started talking.

"The project requires us to carry out high-precision control of a 30-ton feed cabin at an altitude of 140 meters and within a range of 206 meters."

“The requirements are even down to the millimeter level!”

Such a behemoth and such high precision are indeed very difficult.

Zhang Xingyang couldn't help but give them a thumbs up in his heart.

"In fact, we can not use the rigid body support mode, but use the flexible cable support method."

After listening for a while, Zhang Xingyang found that they seemed to have not considered the methods they had adopted in history, so he gave a reminder.

"Professor Zhang, please tell me carefully."

Zhang Xingyang just started, and the person opposite seemed to have thought of something and said hurriedly.

"Today's traditional radio telescopes use relatively fixed rigid body supports for the feed cabin and reflecting surface."

"Our large-aperture radio telescope obviously cannot adopt such a method."

"Not to mention the strength of the rigid body support for such a big thing, it is basically impossible to rotate it."

"But if we use flexible ropes to support it through support towers, there won't be so many problems."

Zhang Xingyang had just talked about the general technical direction, and the other party praised him loudly:

"It is indeed a good idea, so that even the control problem of the feed cabin can be solved together!"

"Relying on the control of the cable, the control accuracy of the feed cabin can be greatly improved!"

"Professor Zhang is truly an expert in mechanics. He was able to think of a solution so quickly."

The other party gave Zhang Xing a rainbow fart.

However, Zhang Xingyang was not too modest, he just smiled lightly and said:

"This is what I'm supposed to do."

When Zhang Xingyang lowered his gaze to the puddle below, he began to discuss this technical route in a low voice with the people around him.

Zhang Xingyang threw a stone casually, and after a few seconds, the sound of the stone breaking through the water was heard.

"The height is about one hundred and twenty meters."

Zhang Xingyang thought silently in his heart.

Looking at the big pit in front of him, he suddenly remembered two old sayings:

"The Kun is so big that it can't be stewed in one pot!"

"Only Heaven's Eye can stew Kun in one pot!"

Thinking about it, Zhang Xingyang laughed.

"Professor Zhang, why are you laughing?"

"Nothing, I thought of something funny."