Even though Systems Director Zhang wasn’t convinced Lu Zhou could really solve this problem, but because of Lu Zhou’s background, Systems Director Zhang couldn’t help but have a little bit of hope.
He had no other choice, they were the ones who failed to do their jobs. If the loop heat pipe problem wasn’t fixed, the launch could be delayed by a year.
Their investment in this project was too big to fail now. Forget about punishing the people responsible for this failure… He had to do everything he could to remedy this situation!
Therefore, after Systems Director Zhang heard that Lu Zhou had a potential solution, he immediately called Academician Yuan Huanmin, the chief engineer of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation. He then told his assistant to quickly arrange accommodation for these two gentlemen.
Systems Director Zhang was sitting in the passenger seat. Before they began driving toward the hotel, Systems Director Zhang looked back at Lu Zhou and said, “Professor Lu, what are you thinking? Can you tell me anything? I’ll discuss with some experts and see if it’s feasible…”
Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “I can’t tell you the specifics now as it involves a new material that we are still researching and developing… Also, it’s hard to say if it will work. We’ll only know after testing it. Don’t get your hopes up, I’m just trying my best.”
When Systems Director Zhang heard that Lu Zhou planned on using a new material, he was both moved and worried.
He was thankful for Lu Zhou’s generosity. As for why he was worried…
Of course he was worried.
Lu Zhou was taking materials out of the laboratory and directly applying it to an aerospace module. Anyone else would also be worried.
Systems Director Zhang stared at Lu Zhou with a painful look on his face.
“… Is this material reliable?”
Yang Xu, who was also sitting in the backseat, said, “Just don’t ask any questions. We don’t know if it’s reliable or not yet.”
Seeing how Lu Zhou had no intention of telling him anything, Systems Director Zhang decided to shut his mouth.
Lu Zhou closed his eyes and perfected his plan in his mind.
In fact, the plan he came up with wasn’t complicated. However, the preparation of the materials would take some time.
After Lu Zhou arrived at the hotel, he went straight to his hotel room. He called the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study and asked Brother Qian to prepare the materials that he needed.
Fortunately, the Institute of Computational Materials solved the preparation problem for the N-1 material!
In addition to having good mechanical properties such as high tensile and compressive strength, the N-1 carbon nanotube material also showed potential for thermal conductivity.
Lu Zhou used the Debris No.3 as a reference.
When he first dismantled the thruster, layers of damaged graphite were smeared on the messy pipes inside.
Some of the graphite came from the carbon-based computer chips. Lu Zhou was certain of this.
As for the other graphite, he thought that it was probably a layer of thermal coating.
The thermal conductivity of N-1 was tested to be as high as 200W/mK! It was an entire magnitude higher than that of copper and aluminum alloys!
If they used this material to connect the loop heat pipe to various overheating components, there was a chance it could solve the insufficient thermal conductivity problem.
Of course, they had to make some modifications.
For example, using the N-1 carbon nanotubes by itself wasn’t possible. They had to perfectly combine the N-1 material and aluminum-copper alloy. They needed to plate a layer of copper on the outside of the N-1 material.
The process was actually very simple. They had to use chemical plating, which was commonly used for carbon based powders.
The surface of the plate had to first be sensitized with stannous chloride, then activated with palladium chloride, and finally, it had to be chemically plated with a soluble copper salt by using formaldehyde as a reducing agent. There were many research articles that laid out this method.
Those at China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation were ecstatic.
They thought, Chief Designer Professor Lu came all the way to Tianjin to save the core module!
There is still hope!
After the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation heard about Lu Zhou’s potential solution, they started to treat Lu Zhou and Yang Xu like gods.
Yang Xu was a little embarrassed at how nice they were treating him, and during dinner, he pulled Lu Zhou aside and talked to him privately.
“That method you talked about… Will it work?”
Lu Zhou thought for a bit and nodded.
“Probably.”
Yang Xu: “Probably?”
Lu Zhou glanced at him.
“No sh*t, I haven’t tried it before, how would I know?”
Yang Xu couldn’t help but say, “This is the space station…”
Lu Zhou: “I know.”
Yang Xu: “It costs at least a couple hundred million yuan, right?”
Lu Zhou: “Try adding a zero.”
“What if we screw up?”
Lu Zhou looked at Yang Xu in the eyes.
“We won’t.”
Seeing how Lu Zhou was determined, Yang Xu knew he couldn’t persuade Lu Zhou otherwise. He shook his head and decided to continue eating dinner.
He thought about it again, and when he remembered Lu Zhou was the chief designer of the Lunar Orbit Committee, he suddenly realized that his worries might have been unnecessary.
After dinner, Lu Zhou wanted to take a walk outside.
However, the people from the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation came to the hotel.
Academician Yuan and Vice President Zheng were there. Lu Zhou met them before in Beijing.
Lu Zhou waved and was about to talk to them, but Academician Yuan spoke first.
“You really found a way?!”
Lu Zhou was stunned by the old man’s excitement. He paused for a second and said, “I’m not a hundred percent certain, but I can do my best.”
When Zheng Xiangdong heard that Lu Zhou wasn’t totally certain, he immediately became nervous. He said, “Don’t mess around! We can still fix this thing. What if the module becomes beyond repair? Who’s going to bear this responsibility?”
Lu Zhou smiled at Vice President Zheng’s aggressive tone. He then joked, “I don’t know, who do you think is appropriate?”
Zheng Xiangdong was about to say something, but he swallowed his words. He then said, “Um, the blame won’t be on you. Our company will find the person responsible for this.”
He suddenly remembered that Lu Zhou wasn’t some chief consultant anymore; he was the chief engineer of the Lunar Orbit Committee!
That title came with a certain amount of power.
If anything, he was the one responsible…
Suddenly, he began to sweat.
Lu Zhou knew what Vice President Zheng was thinking, and he smiled as he replied, “The launch plan was approved a month ago. I don’t want to postpone. My solution might seem hasty, but it’s the only solution that can solve Moon Palace’s cooling problem.
“If you really think I’m going to screw this thing up, I promise to pay back any damages.”
