Chapter 298 Satellite Launch
Xige and Boktu looked at each other, it was true that the strong never complained about the environment.
Half an hour later, Blitz drove to the parking lot of the luxury villa and sent a message. The chief came downstairs, and Sadie changed into a new set of clothes, complaining that his actions were too violent, while the chief said that he had been very restrained.
"Let's go. Don't keep the people in the lab waiting too long." Zhang Ailun led a few people out. Sadie was not feeling well and could not travel long distances, so she could only choose to rest at home.
After saying hello to Blitzcrank, they got into a Bentley belonging to Sadie's family. With Sig driving the car, the four of them headed to the rocket laboratory in the suburbs.
During the drive, Blitz also asked in confusion, "Why did you let me arrive an hour late before? Are you busy with something? Why are you leaving on time now?"
The chief leader coughed lightly and said, "It's nothing serious. I just chatted with a friend after not seeing him for a while."
Xige and Boktu looked strange. Did you just chat for a while? You were just short of eating the juicy cabbage in front of the old man's father.
If they were not related in a special way, and considering the fact that the chief leader was quite wealthy, which old father would be willing to see his cabbage being eaten by others? He even took the initiative to find an excuse to give up the venue.
What a good old father.
Why don’t you hurry up and worship him as your godfather?
Zhang Allen changed the subject and asked Blitz, "Have you prepared everything?"
"Of course, I can't say that I understand everything about network technology, but I know most of it. It shouldn't be a problem to figure out the program for docking with the satellite." Blitz took out his computer, having already written some programs.
The black box of the microsatellite itself also has a pre-written basic program backup, so it is easy for him to dock and gain control. If he is not satisfied with something or needs to make changes, he only needs to update the software program.
Zhang Ailun nodded, and seeing that Blitzcrank was fully prepared, he didn't ask any more questions.
After all, the chief leader doesn't know much about professional knowledge. A half-full bottle of water is not enough, so professional matters should be left to professionals.
It took more than twenty minutes to reach the destination.
When we arrived here, we found that it was an empty space the size of a football field with several bungalow buildings, surrounded by high-voltage barbed wire and warning signs. There were also helipad buildings and platform facilities for launching rockets, including a pile of waste and iron shells, which seemed to be rocket launchers that had been recovered after a failed launch.
Zhang Ailun looked at this ordinary laboratory and felt that it was slightly different from what he had imagined and seemed a little bit shabby.
The rocket research laboratory seemed to conduct experiments frequently, and in order to prevent the noise from affecting the surrounding residents, they chose such a remote place.
Speaking of rocket launchers, the chief has come into contact with them before. Although the thrusters sold to them by an old man who retired from NASA were a bit too fanciful and outrageous, and the thrust was about the same as a windproof lighter, the technology was still there, and rounded off, the functionality and principles were similar.
After asking Sig to park the car on a deserted road, Zhang Ailun got out of the car and made a phone call to the other party. After the call was connected, he informed the other party that he had arrived.
In fact, there was no need to notify the other party, because when they parked the car on the side of the road, the electronic eyes and sky eye cameras installed around the laboratory had already monitored them. The chief leader had no intention of hiding anything and simply ignored them.
After chatting with the other party for a few words, they hung up the phone. A minute later, several researchers wearing white coats and glasses, who looked very professional, came out of the bungalow and greeted them warmly.
The middle-aged man in the lead unlocked the security door from the inside, walked out to welcome the arrival of several people, and introduced himself: "Hello, I am the head of GBT's T2 Rocket Research Institute, you can call me Martin. Are you Mr. Jin who made an appointment for rocket service in advance? The company headquarters has informed me of the situation. We will definitely complete the task and use our equipment to send the satellite into space!"
"Hello, Martin." Zhang Ailun also smiled and nodded in response, introduced Sig and the others around him to the other party, and took the private satellite from the car.
The other party then invited several people to come into the laboratory to observe. Zhang Ailun naturally did not refuse and readily agreed. He also half-jokingly said: "Aren't you afraid that we will steal your experimental data?"
"There is no experimental data. It's all worthless theoretical knowledge. There are a lot of internet celebrities who popularize science on the Internet. As long as there is financial investment and a few professionals to help, anyone can send a rocket satellite into space." Martin explained modestly: "If we really don't have the money to develop a new rocket program, we would not have been acquired by GBT."
1+1=2. You have learned it.
So let's try to calculate the mass of the black hole and the motion data of the celestial planet's orbit.
"Is there such a thing?" Zhang Ailun was also a little surprised. He had reason to suspect that he was pretending.
But he didn't say much and followed the other party into the laboratory.
After taking a look at the environment, I found that it was a different world. Although the room did not look very big from the outside, it was a medium-sized research institute connected to the basement.
There were ten staff members doing some research in front of computers. Even the chief leader couldn't understand the jumping data content. There were also people rubbing parts with professional instruments. There was also a vehicle-mounted satellite rocket next to them.
It is not large in scale and is mainly used to separate the first and second stage rockets, break through the atmosphere, and successfully send micro-satellites into satellite orbit. The serial number sg52-015 is also written on it, and it seems that it has been tested several times.
If it is a large satellite, a rocket with greater thrust will be needed. The financial and technical consumption are not something that an ordinary small company can afford. For example, Starlink satellites require professional large companies and technological background to be able to contract such rocket launch missions.
The launch difficulty and rocket models used for medium and large satellites, small satellites and microsatellites are all different. Microsatellites have the highest cost price and the highest performance-price ratio, and most of them are satellites used by companies and individuals.
The diversified functions and attributes of a set of micro-satellites are not inferior to those of professional medium and large satellites. The main point is that if the quality is not enough, the quantity will make up for it! Quantitative change will lead to qualitative change.
Starlink also uses this principle, winning by numbers, and building a dense celestial network. However, Starlink is not only large in number, but each satellite is also very professional, all of which are medium-to-large satellites. The cost of launching one is at least millions of dollars.
Martin introduced the roles and functions of various instruments and equipment to the group, and then led them to the test rocket. "This is our latest satellite launcher. We have already developed a satellite rocket and successfully launched a private satellite into low orbit. We are confident that we can complete this test and launch. I wonder what your satellite is mainly used for?"
Blitz replied: "We mainly use it for routine weather monitoring and location navigation. It enables communication equipment to connect to the network and have signals, so that we can make satellite calls and video calls. We are also planning to build an independent information database to store data."
“This gentleman should be a programmer who understands software technology development, right? Then you don’t need our help with any issues regarding network technology. Private satellites also have their own basic data packets, and you should be able to solve this problem. Don’t worry, leave the launch to us, there will be no problem! A YouTube celebrity placed an order with us before. He mainly launched micro-satellites to take 4k and high-definition photos of celestial bodies, and also hired someone to build an information database. We also helped him complete the satellite launch, and he only spent $.” Martin said with a smile.
The launch of a satellite is a tedious task, and the preparations take several hours. However, the people in the laboratory are busy and have been waiting for field tests. If the test of launching a satellite cannot be completed, it means that the product quality is not good and there is no way to sell it on the market. Even if the company headquarters will regularly allocate funds to the research institute, it depends on the progress of your research. They can't always rest on their laurels. In order to research this satellite rocket, they have burned millions of dollars.
Although the rocket developed last time was sold at a good price, it had little to do with the funding of their laboratory. Apart from regular capital investment, the institute had long been poor and could not make ends meet.
"We launch satellite rockets based on the actual needs of our customers. We need to determine the satellite's orbit and mission objectives, including communications, meteorological observation, earth resource exploration, etc. These objectives will determine the satellite's shape, size, power and payload, etc. Did you bring your private satellite?" Martin asked.
Sig immediately took out the private satellite. Martin took a look and was somewhat surprised at its freshness, as if it was newly bought.
"Oh, we have also come across this satellite. It is a product jointly produced by Mayweather Company. They have also cooperated with us before."
Martin immediately called people over to inspect the appearance of the satellite, and conducted electrical performance tests, propulsion system tests, fairing opening tests, etc.
Finally, I found that the data was normal and there were no problems.
"We can now load and install the satellite onto the launcher. You can sit in the lounge area while we complete the pre-launch preparations."
After Martin finished speaking, he asked someone to take Zhang Allen and others to the lounge, and he led the staff to start disassembling the parts of the vehicle-mounted rocket launcher, placing the satellite in the appropriate payload adapter, and connecting and fixing it to the carrier rocket.
Launch vehicles also need to be assembled and loaded, which involves putting together the components of the various stages of the rocket, loading it with fuel or propellant, and conducting detailed inspections and tests of the rocket and satellite.
Including system functionality test, structural integrity check, power and communication check, etc. Ensure that all equipment and systems can work properly.
It took more than an hour before they finished working out the details of the process.
The staff also drove the vehicle-mounted rocket out of the laboratory and called the chief leader and several others to go to the control observation tower on the second floor for observation.
During the launch window, Zhang Ailun also saw the laboratory staff busy transporting the loaded satellites and carrier rockets to the launch pad and getting everything ready.
But the basic launch warm-up preparations have been completed, but the control center's task is not over yet.
"Now is not the best time to launch. According to the launch time and weather conditions we predicted in advance, the satellite rocket can be launched stably and normally in this period of time about 16 minutes and 50 seconds."
The staff at the control center also carried out a number of preparatory tasks, including pre-calculating orbital parameters, checking weather conditions, and confirming the launch.
Once it is confirmed that the conditions meet the requirements, the ignition system can start ignition and the rocket will start to take off.
Sixteen minutes passed quickly, and the weather conditions were normal. After the control center staff confirmed that everything was fine, they issued the launch command. "10, 9, 8, 7..."
“3, 2, 1, ignite!!”
As the countdown ended, the staff pressed the ignition controller. Zhang Ailun and others on the second floor watched the staff evacuate. Through the observation deck, they also saw flames spewing out from the bottom of the rocket. Accompanied by billowing white smoke, the satellite rocket broke away from the launch pad and flew into the sky.
The staff keeps an eye on the data on the instruments. The rocket provides thrust in different stages to send the satellite into the predetermined orbit. After each stage is completed, they will separate and be discarded until the satellite finally reaches the target orbit.
After a wait that seemed a bit long, the ignition, take-off, vertical ascent, turn, and fairing jettisoning were all carried out in an orderly manner, and no unexpected situations occurred during the process, which shows that there is no problem with their rocket technology and it is still very solid.
The rocket successfully broke through the atmosphere and transported the satellite to the predetermined orbit. The orbit was changed once according to the satellite's needs. Dozens of microsatellites were sprayed out like seeds and fell to the pre-estimated orbital position due to gravity.
"Success!" the staff were delighted.
The instrument showed that the rocket was launching the satellite into space as planned. The satellite's solar panels were unfolded, its ability to absorb light was activated, and it transmitted back relevant data and conditions. The data also showed that everything was normal!
Blitz also took out his laptop and, with the cooperation of the staff at the control center, entered the satellite's background password and successfully entered the link.
Through the signals and monitoring images transmitted by satellite WeChat, we can also see the cosmic scenery outside the earth, as well as some images of the earth itself. Dazzling scenery and colors.
Wonderful.
"This is where we are." Blitz used the satellite monitoring function to locate the information, zoomed in on the somewhat blurry imaging map, and marked the area. The captured images also became clear from mosaics as the network signal was loaded.
There is definitely a delay in the real-time satellite images, but there is almost no delay in taking photos and sending them over. Not only the Rocket Research Institute, but even the Bentley car on the side of the road is displayed, but it is impossible to see the faces and license plate numbers clearly.
After all, this micro-satellite has not yet reached the function of clearly photographing faces from hundreds of kilometers away. But it is basically enough.
Although the photos sent back by the satellite in the first time cannot reach HD or 4K quality, through the computing power of ground software programs and AI software, and after later processing by Blitz, the transmitted imaging data can also be analyzed through big data to make the blurred portraits clear, and achieve the simulation and perfection function in a way similar to PS, so that the portraits in the photos have 4K quality, which is infinitely close to the real thing, which is beyond doubt.
Sig was surprised. He ran from the observation tower to the road, stood next to the Bentley, and waved to the sky. The satellite immediately sent back photos, which looked blurry, but after being automatically scanned by Blitz's software, the first half quickly became clear, just like a photo editing, and then the whole picture became clear, as if there was a drone shooting overhead.
Even Sig's teeth and the license plate number of the Bentley next to it were clearly visible.
Zhang Ailun also took a look at the images sent back by the satellite and nodded with satisfaction.
Then he readily transferred the money to GBT through the Hamberg Foundation.
"Pleasant to work with."
Martin from the laboratory was also very happy. The success of this joint test showed that their test rocket could complete satellite launches, be listed and traded normally, and make money again.
(End of this chapter)
