Chapter 63: Chapter 61 CZ-6R First Explosion_1

In the New Yuan factory area, an engineering test vehicle was being towed onto a trailer, ready to be transported to Mountain City.

The first set of smart car battery management systems had been officially completed, producing four sets and modifying one test vehicle, which would be sent to the Southern Automobile Base in Mountain City for more detailed testing and fine-tuning.

"For the first generation BMS, we chose 18650 batteries from domestic manufacturers. Each battery pack uses 12 battery groups, and each group contains 600 pieces of 18650 lithium batteries.

We didn’t choose 18650 batteries because they are outstanding, although that is indeed part of it. The performance of ternary lithium batteries, lithium iron phosphate batteries, and 18650 lithium batteries on the market is not much different, but because the 18650 battery has been promoted for many years, its technical standards are very mature, a large number of battery parameters are almost exactly the same, and there are many manufacturers with significant bargaining power, which makes it easier to control risks and costs."

Listening to the engineer introduce the first-generation BMS parameters, Lin Ju expressed his doubts: 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"But after all, there are more than 7,000 batteries; shouldn’t there be a significant divergence in their performance?"

"Boss, you should know that the industry evaluates 18650 batteries this way: if two 18650 batteries are tested and found to have different parameters, then it must be the testing machine that’s broken, they are very mature. In contrast, ternary lithium batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries may have slight advantages, but in reality, quality control isn’t stable."

Lin Ju had no more questions; he chose to trust the judgment of the professionals.

X-BMS 1.0 was called by the System Engineer "the world’s first mature and efficient battery management system." Through its independently designed control circuits, it was able to intelligently maintain the life of the batteries.

The system could independently allocate capacity among the 7,200 small batteries, aiming to save the limited charge cycles of lithium batteries, thus prolonging their life and maintaining performance as much as possible.

It could also regionally arrange battery group usage intensity, control cell temperature, and use a built-in liquid cooling structure for heat dissipation.

Although the chips used came from mature market design solutions, the design and software were far ahead, applying ternary multi-channel parallel processing to reduce computational demands and lower costs.

The most expensive part was a high-performance graphics processor from Nvidia, but the System Engineer believed it could be replaced by ternary chips in the future.

Relying on ternary chips and the corresponding software system, it was estimated that the process for the ternary chips would only need to be 40nm at the lowest, which could be mass-produced in China already, and even for international contract manufacturing, there were no restrictions. High energy consumption didn’t matter much; a bit more was not a concern for automobiles.

The motor used was a permanent magnet synchronous motor from Southern Automobiles, with plans to install two to four in each vehicle in the future.

Xin’an’s planning for future vehicle models mainly included three types: taxis and ride-sharing vehicles aimed at cost-reduction through lower battery specifications, as well as construction site dump trucks, along with luxury models priced from 300,000 to 500,000.

The former was fundamentally a chassis operation, seeking to reduce operating costs for competitive advantage with quick production; the latter required meticulous work, needing to coordinate with the slow development of the smart driving system, and had to wait for the completion of B-level Base, coupled with ternary chips, to gain advantage.

Why did the technological development of smart driving systems advance rapidly after the Chrysanthemum Factory entered the electric car sector in later generations? It was because of their software and hardware foundations. Without these, it was impossible to achieve smart driving.

So this was still a long-term project...

...

April 22, Bingzhou Satellite Launch Center.

A CZ-6 reusable, with the CZ-6R painted white, stood upright at the launch station, surrounded by wisps of white smoke that drifted into the clear blue sky.

Apart from the core stage, the second, third stages, and the fairing were all ballast. Of course, the main testing goal of the CZ-6R was just Core Stage One. The upper stages were easy to handle.

That version of the K120V and the YF100K had already been installed at the bottom of the CZ-R, surrounded by retractable support legs identical to those used in the New Yuan One modification.

The flippant remark from the senior leadership "Why not just copy the New Yuan One Type C" was turned into reality by the Eighth Academy. Except for some differences in the upper stages, Core Stage One was not identical to the New Yuan One modification, but they were strikingly similar.

"Director Tang, you’ve made quite some improvements to your YF100K, shifting directly from the oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle to full-flow? The technology from K120 wasn’t bought in vain, huh!"

"It’s mutual, Mr. He. The look of the Long March CZ-6R and New Yuan One Type C seems to be just a change in paint job. Let’s hope the recovery is also successful on the first try."

Tang Weitian and He Tang, along with their teams from the Sixth and Eighth Academies, hid in the launch control room.

Although everyone was verbally unyielding, in fact, everyone was very tense.

It’s too damn fast, it feels unsettling!

The YF100K had been developed in less than five months, and the CZ-6R was hastily initiated and rapidly produced, launching a full five months ahead of the originally scheduled first flight of the CZ-6 in September this year.

China’s space program always emphasizes stability, and this completely violated the founding principles.

But the arrow was on the string and had to be released. Last year, a pledge was made to the leaders that the CZ-6 reusable configuration and the New Yuan-1 upgrade would be identical, with engines of the same origin. If they couldn’t get it done this year, they might as well quit space flight and go make tractors in Baotou.

"...5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ignition."

"Ignition"

The YF100K emitted a flame identical to its sibling, the K120V, in front of the Bingzhou Satellite Launch Center, reproducing the same scene from November last year, smoothly taking the CZ-6R to lift off.

The true veterans in the team breathed a sigh of relief. For them, having such a hastily constructed rocket not explode on the spot was a victory.

"Core Stage One shutdown, stage separation"

At this point, the CZ-6R officially entered the recovery program, with the grid fins on the top of Core Stage One swaying to adjust the rocket’s attitude.

Ground control was still confident at this time because controllable grid fins were not new technology. In the past, they were often used to control the fall area of rocket debris, so everyone was somewhat confident about this.

The rocket’s altitude dropped bit by bit, and finally, it could be seen hovering over the Bingzhou Satellite Launch Center with the naked eye.

"Mr. He, don’t blow up my launch site with your rocket, if it crashes into our building we’ll all be gloriously sacrificed."

"It won’t veer off course!"

The rocket descended to the predetermined altitude, and the ground issued a start command to the YF100K.

Without any surprise, after the fuel pumped into the combustion chamber, the engine produced thrust at 25% power, and Tang Weitian breathed a huge sigh of relief.

The Sixth Institute’s entire mission ended there. As long as the engine didn’t explode, no further issues could be blamed on them.

Core Stage One decelerated continuously while adjusting its position, slowly aligning with the crosshairs in the infrared camera, the nozzles at the rear swaying to bring the rocket down to less than a hundred meters above the ground at a speed of a few meters per second.

Everything seemed identical to the recovery of the Core Stage One of the New Yuan-1 upgrade... if only it were.

Suddenly, the calm voice of a broadcaster arose in the control room:

"01B altitude sensor signal offline"

01B altitude sensor? Wait, that’s...

The flame at the tail of the CZ-6R drastically diminished at twenty meters above the ground, switching to high-altitude mode operation, and the rocket, losing most of its thrust abruptly, lost control and slanted towards the grass outside the launch site.

The control room saw a cloud of explosion wrapped in thick smoke rise from the ground.

The waiting fire brigade surged forward, racing toward the crash site.

The CZ-6 reusable mission lost control during the recovery phase due to an altitude sensor anomaly, with engine thrust suddenly dropping, and crashed into a lawn 600 meters away from the recovery site.