Chapter 743 - Countdown

Whether it is NASA or the National Astronomical Observatory, the drawings provided by the two organizations involved in outer space are almost identical and provide a trajectory map of space and the earth. The actual trajectory and the predicted trajectory are surprisingly consistent, and the calculation accuracy of the two sides is very different. Not much.

Americans will not make April Fools' Day jokes on Chinese people on this kind of thing.

Regarding threats from outer space, any country on earth will share some information with all countries in the world in advance, even if it has an inextricable feud with other countries. After all, the earth belongs to everyone. If there is any emergency, No one can escape.

They must take the trajectory marked with a special color seriously.

Moreover, according to additional markings by the space center's technical department and the military, although the destination is within Chinese territory, fortunately it is not a densely populated urban area.

Forget it if it is an ordinary small village. The government spends some money to relocate all the villagers and then rebuild the village for them. Even if every family builds a small western-style house, it is just like drizzle. This small amount of money is not worth it to the government and the military. What a problem.

But there happens to be a large-scale military base there. If something unexpected happens, it will be great fun.

It is not easy to relocate a military base. Not only is it difficult to find a temporary replacement location, but the construction cost of the original facilities is not much lower than the assets of a town. In particular, its location has been carefully considered by the local people. Once it is moved, , all aspects involved are extremely complicated, and even completely exposed the strength of this force.

When NASA provided this news, it was not entirely at ease. This will become one of the rare celestial disasters in the world.

"What should we do? Can the Second Artillery Group help us solve it?"

Lieutenant General Chen Shaoyu naturally understood that the two documents handed to him meant that the superiors were likely to push this issue to the space center for resolution.

"Them?! We can't count on them. General Zheng from the Second Artillery Group has already told me that they only care about the business within the atmosphere. They are not very prepared for the extra-atmospheric market."

for this answer. Director Deng had already expected it. After all, strategic weapons such as intercontinental missiles are not specifically designed to attack small celestial bodies in space. They are really too big across industries.

The range of strategic intercontinental missiles using large launch vehicles is far enough. But that is aimed at ground targets. If you want to deal with threats from outer space, you can't use a nuclear warhead with multiple bombs loaded with one rocket and bombard it near low-Earth orbit. Otherwise, you won’t be able to work hard at all.

But using nuclear weapons near the atmosphere is something only a lunatic would do. It would destroy countless space satellites, including China's, and even the International Orbiting Space Station would be affected.

Moreover, with the gravity of the earth, a large amount of nuclear radiation and dust will enter the atmosphere and pollute the entire atmosphere, which will be a disaster.

Fortunately, it will be some time before the "Buzhoushan" spaceport officially enters the stage of launching the main part of the first launch, otherwise even the spaceport will be threatened.

"The situation looks bad. Is there any way we can kill it outside the atmosphere? The space shuttle at the Fifth Training Center is almost completed. With a few suitable astronauts, we can use the space shuttle to carry nuclear warheads to destroy asteroid fragments."

Touching his chin, Lieutenant General Chen pointed to the asteroid fragment marked on the trajectory line and continued to ask. Although it's not very big. But the atmosphere cannot burn it away due to friction.

Calculated knot once dropped to the ground. The power is equivalent to the detonation effect of 10 tons of TNT, which is equivalent to a small-yield nuclear bomb. If it hits that military base, there is an 80% chance that the base and the people there will be wiped cleanly from the earth in the first time.

"Aerial Sky Shuttle?" Director Deng was startled, then immediately shook his head with a wry smile and said: "Aerial Sky Shuttle has not been completed at all, and it has not done any take-off tests. Even if we can find a driver who can control it, we have not yet How to send it into space."

Although it is not impossible to use large launch vehicles to launch nuclear warheads further into low-Earth orbit, although the launch vehicle is the flagship product of the Ministry of Aerospace, it is not a second-guessing thing.

Not only is the cost extremely expensive, but the production speed is extremely slow. Making one in a year is considered a rapid progress. Under normal circumstances, the three major aerospace centers have no inventory at all.

The second artillery weapon is in stock, but unfortunately they are all products in the atmospheric range and cannot shoot very far.

Using a nuclear warhead to hit a small celestial body in outer space is just a theory. Whether it can neutralize it and whether it can explode it is still unclear. After all, no one has actually tried it. When this nuclear warhead is launched into the sky, there is no telling how many of them there will be. The country is worried about this.

And not to mention the automatic tracking warhead that can automatically find targets in space, there is not even a real thing.

In fact, when China first established the Ministry of Aerospace, it had already anticipated the possibility of celestial disasters in the future, and had already begun to make relevant active preparations. However, their progress was far from keeping up with the sudden change in reality.

With insufficient industrial foundation, lack of funds, weak technical reserves, and lack of technical personnel, China's aerospace industry, which can represent a country's comprehensive industrial strength, is full of shortcomings. Now it is barely able to send astronauts into low-Earth orbit, which is already a very big thing. Not easy.

The space shuttle under the Fifth Aerospace Training Center has already made people all over the country dig deep.

Even the American space shuttle, which has always been wealthy, is now out of fuel. It can be imagined how difficult it is to build spacecraft such as the space shuttle, and the cost makes the US government feel numb.

Lieutenant General Chen let out a long sigh and said: "The above means that we are going to solve it, but what should we do now? Do we really want to detonate a nuclear bomb in low-Earth orbit in the atmosphere? If we are given another twenty years, we may I have enough ability to solve this trouble, alas!"

The United States, which was the first to start developing space, has more advanced aerospace technology than China. It may have discovered this threat long ago and must be able to deal with this nasty asteroid fragment, but it deliberately delayed reporting it to China until now.

The American NASA is clearly making fun of the Chinese people.

"We can't solve it outside the atmosphere, but we should be able to do it inside the atmosphere."

Director Deng is obviously racking his brains to think of a solution. This hot Shan Yu is really difficult to handle.

"Let the Air Force think of a way to intercept the fragments in sections after they enter the atmosphere." Lieutenant General Chen could only think of a solution that was not a solution.

This idea comes from the inspiration of multi-stage launch of launch vehicles. Since the target cannot be solved in one go, we can simply resolve the difficulty step by step and solve it separately.

Weaknesses in technology can be made up for by quantity, and lack of attack capabilities outside the atmosphere can only be made up by multiple interceptions within the atmosphere.

As long as it is knocked off the orbit or blown into pieces, it will not pose a big threat to the military base on the ground. The military base is located in a sparsely populated area, even if it is four or five kilometers away, the damage caused by the asteroid fragments will Strength will decrease sharply.

"That's fine. Let the ground troops try it out with large laser cannons first. It's best to break them up while in outer space. Then use high-altitude interceptor missiles to hit the target for a second round when it enters the atmosphere. Finally, let the Air Force send multiple The fighter jets conducted segmental interceptions along the budgeted trajectory."

Director Deng also felt that Lieutenant General Chen's idea was the most reliable idea until there was a better way, but the specific implementation of the plan still required detailed planning and arrangements by professionals.

It was just a fragment of an asteroid, and the resources and scale used were comparable to a small fleet attacking aliens. It was considered a very massive operation internationally.

"Can a fighter jet catch up with the speed of the fragments? I'm afraid it would have to be the old American Aurora strategic reconnaissance aircraft, or even worse it would have been a MiG-25 (Foxbat) or SR-71 (Blackbird). ) This type of aircraft can only reach speeds above Mach 3."

The Chinese Air Force has not been equipped with MiG-25. Even if there are several MiG-31s, their speed can only reach Mach 2.8. The speed of other main fighters such as the J-10 will not exceed the thermal barrier (Mach 2.5). , which made Lieutenant General Chen, who was well aware of this situation, couldn't help but frown.

The Aerospace Department is an upgraded version of the Air Force. Although they are not subordinate to each other, they are closely related. Many aerospace personnel are from the Air Force and have some understanding of the current situation of the Chinese Air Force. Lieutenant General Chen's worries are not unreasonable. After the visitor enters the atmosphere, even with the friction resistance of the air, its speed is quite astonishing, and can even reach Mach 58. It is almost impossible to chase it. The only way is to ambush in advance and intercept it, and maybe there is a possibility of re-shooting. It's just a possibility.

Director Deng paced back and forth in Lieutenant General Chen's office and pondered, "This is indeed a trouble, yes, but I seem to have heard that a new ultra-high-speed fighter jet appeared in China recently, and it was almost intercepted as a missile. I'll have to check with the Air Force."

"Is this true? This is great!"

Lieutenant General Chen was stunned. This was really an unexpected surprise. The error between laser cannons and interceptor missiles was very large. Although fighter jets could not guarantee 100% interception, their attack accuracy was much higher than that of the former.

"I heard that the speed can reach Mach 5. I think it should be enough. If we can bring a laser cannon or an electromagnetic rail gun, the hit rate should be very high. Maybe we should give it a try."

Director Deng seemed to have found an opportunity and looked at Lieutenant General Chen. The two nodded to each other and said in unison: "That's right! Let's give it a try!"

"How much time do we have?"

"Calculating, there should still be fourteen hours."

"Act quickly."