Reborn Before the Apocalypse: My Backing is the Nation

Chapter 56 becomes an alternative

Hearing the cold, calm words of the staff member in front of him, Sun Yu felt as if a sledgehammer had smashed into his head, leaving him momentarily bewildered.

Uncle Zhao's company mobilized so many people, regardless of cost or investment.

Despite being over sixty years old, Uncle Zhao endured the ordeal for more than twenty hours.

I didn't have time to rest; I practically floored the accelerator all the way to deliver the cables within the allotted time.

So many of us have worked so hard for so long, responding to the nation's call with passion and without hesitation, and all we've done... is the final outcome just to lie in a scrap yard and be disposed of as garbage?
Seeing Sun Yu's slightly bewildered expression, the staff member smiled, shook his head, and gently patted Sun Yu's shoulder.

"Young man, you should take a rest now."

Sun Yu stiffly raised his head: "Knowing there's a 95% chance it will be discarded, you... are still producing it so desperately?"

Along the way, he saw people hurrying by, heard the roar of machines, and saw workers grabbing a quick bite in the break room before heading back to the production line with bloodshot eyes...

The production atmosphere here is even more serious and solemn than in a wire factory.

The staff member laughed and said, "Why not?"
Does a product become meaningless once it's ultimately discarded?

No."

He pointed to the discarded parts in the scrap yard: "They also have meaning."

Without so many alternative components, how can we possibly select the best-performing and most stable components for subsequent production?

Being selected as one of the initial candidates, giving the higher-level assembly plant more options, is precisely the meaning of our work.

The staff member turned and left, leaving Sun Yu standing there bewildered, as if he understood but also as if he didn't.

……

One after another, suitcase-sized distributors flowed off the production line, undergoing rigorous testing by the workers before being carefully packed into wooden crates and transported by helicopter to the next level of the final assembly plant. After most of them were discarded, they were assembled with other parts from other factories to become sets of hydraulic modules.

These hydraulic modules were transported to the second-stage assembly plant as quickly as possible. After most of them were discarded, they were assembled together with many other highly integrated and complex modular systems to form the heart of the Giant Spirit II heavy launch vehicle: the engine.

When the rocket launches, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen or kerosene and liquid oxygen will burn inside, generating hot, high-temperature, high-pressure gas that is ejected to propel the massive rocket, which has a total mass of over 1000 tons, out of Earth's gravity and into the vast cosmos.

In the past, the production of rocket engines was an extremely complex and meticulous process. During this process, hundreds or even thousands of tests would be conducted on each module, taking hundreds of days.

But at this moment, all of these processes are omitted.

Following the principle of "layer-by-layer checks," people choose to trust the parts sent from upstream factories and assemble them directly into the engine, thus saving a lot of time.

At this moment, the first rocket engine at this second-stage assembly plant has rolled off the production line.

It has a diameter of 3 meters, a height of 3.5 meters, and a huge nozzle at the bottom, with a total weight of about 3 tons.

It is covered with a dense network of pipes, cables and sensors, making it look incredibly complex.

At this point, it will undergo its first overall test since its inception.

Test run workshop.

The white-haired chief engineer stared at the construction team leader in front of him, his lips trembling slightly: "Are we really going to demolish it?"

The person in charge nodded: "This test bench is too small and cannot be used for testing such a large engine. It needs to be expanded temporarily. In that case... the equipment on both sides will have to be removed."

The chief engineer murmured, "This test bench set of facilities took us two years to build and cost over a billion yuan... This modification allowed it to temporarily handle the testing of large engines, but afterwards it became useless..." Temporarily handling the testing of large engines requires a large number of temporary auxiliary facilities, which is extremely costly.

This temporary mission only lasted five days. After five days, even if all the temporary auxiliary facilities were dismantled, the test stand could never be restored to its original state.

It will be completely useless.

"This is an order, and also a necessary price to pay."

The chief engineer turned his head away in anguish, tears streaming down his face.

The construction team leader then gave the final order.

"start!"

When the first large engine arrived, the temporary modifications were already complete.

The fuel line is connected, and the ignition command is issued.

boom--

Amidst a tremendous roar, fierce flames erupted from the jet nozzles, and scorching blasts burned everything nearby.

Amidst this intense jetting, numerous sensors precisely recorded the engine's operating status.

But the spray only lasted for a few seconds. A moment later, for some unknown reason, the flame suddenly disappeared, and at the same time, a large amount of fire-fighting foam was sprayed onto it.

"A fuel leak was detected inside, posing an explosion risk. In accordance with emergency procedure three, I executed an emergency shutdown and fire suppression operation."

The engineer in charge of testing the engine nodded and calmly issued the order: "Test run of Unit 1 has failed. Abandon it."

Unit 2 continues.

That enormous engine, which consumed countless people's efforts and involved an immense investment of manpower and resources, with every component carefully selected from the best, was thus rendered useless.

People don't even try to troubleshoot or fix the problem.

It couldn't even pass the test drive; it's not worth repairing.

The second engine arrived quickly and underwent testing again.

This time it went smoothly.

It was then placed into a vacuum chamber.

It was a huge room with an internal volume of several hundred cubic meters, and all the walls were covered with metal.

The vacuum pump started working, quickly evacuating the interior to a near-space vacuum. Liquid nitrogen hidden in the walls began to flow, rapidly lowering the room's temperature to below -260 degrees Celsius.

In such a low-temperature vacuum environment, the rocket engine began its second test.

Following this, there are several environmental simulations or tests, such as vibration table testing and comprehensive electrical testing.

After everything was completed, it came to the test stand for the second time and was started again to test whether it could still function normally after so many "trials and tribulations".

Amidst the roaring air currents, the test engineers marked the word "qualified" on the Tianji system.

(End of this chapter)