We are all reborn, who wants to be the richest man?

Aerospace Research and Development Center, this is the newest scientific research department established by Bell Labs.

The employees here are not mainly the original staff of Bell Labs, but mainly the staff of Damao, but they have been assigned to the management of Bell Labs by Luo Nianzhong.

In the field of aerospace, I have to say that the United States is just a younger brother, and the polar bear is the master.

Not to mention now, even in thirty years, the American people have not escaped the fate of being strangled by Russia.

Of course, this statement is a bit extreme.

This story begins in the period of hegemony, when the polar bear was the first to launch a satellite and the first to send a person into space, making the United States lose face.

This forced the United States to invest regardless of cost, and huge amounts of resources and funds began to be poured into the aerospace field. After all, a group of younger brothers were watching.

As for the final result, we can only say that there is nothing that cannot be done if you have money. They created two powerful weapons, the moon landing and the space shuttle, which overwhelmed the polar bear in terms of face.

So many people say that the reason why the United States later became the world's largest space power is thanks to the polar bears, which was entirely due to the squeeze of the other side.

But with the polar bears gone, the most important political value in the aerospace industry no longer exists.

The beautiful country lowered its head and took a look, and found the situation very embarrassing.

Now the functions of aerospace are limited to meeting the needs of geology, scientific research, military, intelligence and weather. These needs are simply not enough to support the huge domestic aerospace industry.

Especially the main uses of overnight monitoring and positioning, which currently have no commercial value at all and are too expensive.

What is Russia like now? It is so poor that it can't even sell its underpants, let alone other countries, whose aerospace industries are so backward that they can't even see their tail.

It is no longer needed in scientific research, let alone in the military. If there is no threat, what is the point of investing money in aviation development?

Therefore, the United States' aerospace industry clearly has too many people and too little resources, and the launch missions are simply not enough to cover the costs.

Overseas expansion? Forget it. Russia's satellite launch business is already in tatters, and Europe would rather receive massive subsidies than develop its own technology.

Other countries? Who can play it?

This has led to the shrinkage of the United States' aerospace-related industry cluster, from 12 companies in the s to today in less than a decade.

That’s not all. The United States’ space development is impressive, but there is a problem: the cost is too high.

Therefore, these aerospace companies can no longer receive orders and just sit back and do nothing. They don’t even develop engines and just buy Russian ones because they are cheaper.

"Do we have the technology for the RD-170 engine?"

After meeting the staff of the newly established aerospace research and development center, Luo Nianzhong first asked about the situation of the engine.

“Yes, the rocket engines of the big Russia are basically inherited from the Southern Design Bureau and Southern Machinery Manufacturing Plant of the Polar Bear, both of which are in Ermao.

For us, building various aerospace engines is not a problem, as we have plenty of both technology and talent."

After looking at Luo Nianzhong, Oliver, who is now the part-time director of the aerospace research and development center and also the top leader, asked a question.

"Is our rocket research and development mainly based on Russia or the United States?"

"Of course we will be the main ones." Before Luo Nianzhong could say anything, an old Russian got angry.

"Compared with us, the United States' Saturn V is just garbage. It is industrial garbage built with US dollars."

"What did you say? Clean your mouth."

"What, do you want to fight?"

They are indeed a fighting nation. Their scientists are so different. Compared with the people of the United States, they are like a wild man and a shy woman.

"Enough," Oliver, the leader, said, and these people finally calmed down.

Luo Nianzhong looked at Oliver, who had a headache on his face. This was why he let Oliver take on the role of the head of the aerospace research and development center. After all, he was Australian.

However, Luo Nianzhong felt that the Russians were right about one thing: the United States' Saturn V was no match for the Polar Bear.

The Saturn V's F1 engine is the world's most powerful single-thrust chamber rocket engine. It is the most powerful among all the rocket engines in the world.

But the one with the greatest thrust is not necessarily good. Many people have made it a deity, but in fact it has a lot of shortcomings.

The F1 engine is the most primitive open cycle engine. Although it has great thrust, it also consumes more fuel.

What to do if you want to consume more oil? Then you need to add more oil.

The result is that it is heavier, and heavier means greater thrust, which requires more fuel.

This is a process of adding flour if there is too much water, and adding water if there is too much flour. It is impossible to get the dough just right the first time, so it ends up becoming a giant.

A bigger rocket is not necessarily better. You might think the United States doesn't want to make it smaller to save costs, but it can't.

Even so, it was actually boasted by many foreign-fawning people later, saying that the U.S. rockets were invincible and that other countries would not be able to make such a big one even half a century later.

I wonder if people in the United States would blush and shoot him if they heard these words.

The RD-170 is different. It is the world's most powerful liquid rocket engine.

It has four injectors, sharing a turbo pump and a fuel system, so it can be seen as one engine.

它的推力比土星五号的F1还大，F1是680多吨，而这个RD-170是700多吨。

The key is that the RD-170 uses a high-pressure regenerative cycle, which is the best technology available today, with higher fuel efficiency and greater specific impulse.

The most important thing is that there is no need to land on the moon now, and there is no need for such a large thrust at all.

Your single-thrust engine is not good, but the RD-170 is. High thrust? I'll cut two guns for you.

Still big? I'll give you the SE version, which is economical, good quality and low price, giving you the best cost performance.

What was the result? Boeing and Lockheed Martin of the United States saw the opportunity and jointly established ULA.

The company directly purchased 120 of these RD-170 modified, reduced-thrust RD-180 rocket engines for $ million each.

Then it was used intact on the United States' famous Atlas series of launch vehicles, which have performed many important missions.

Of course, this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that it is cheap.

The RD-180 has a thrust of less than 400 tons and costs million US dollars.

But what about the American Aerospace Engine Company? A space shuttle engine with less than half the thrust of the RD-180 costs $4000 million.

Now ULA buys goods for $5000 million and then sells them to NASA for $ million.

Don’t think that they are heartless. In fact, ULA is so heartbroken that it almost vomits blood.

There is only one reason why they are "selling at a low price", and that is to kill their competitors.

ULA was successful and someone got enough rewards.

How much did ULA sell an engine to NASA after it took over the market in 2000? $ million was considered cheap.

What about NASA? They can only accept it with a pinch of their nose.

Why don't you buy it yourself? You can try and see if they allow it.

Those are Lockheed Martin and Boeing. If you dare to let NASA purchase equipment from abroad, I will raise the prices of other equipment for you later.

Domestic procurement? More expensive.

Small manufacturers cannot be the middlemen, they don’t have the strength. If big capital wants to have a piece of the pie, well, I can just acquire it for you, right?

What are we fighting about? What we are most afraid of is that the taxpayers' money will be taken advantage of, which is not worth sympathy.

This is why Musk’s SpaceX came into being. It’s not because of his great technology, but because NASA couldn’t bear the price of ULA, so they decided to support it.

Musk was taking advantage of the situation because the technology he used was backward in the United States, so ULA did not respect him and let him steal the company.

But no matter what, Luo Nianzhong must base his work on Damao's technology, at least at this stage.