Rotating Detonation Engine! Tracking Normal, Remote Sensing Signal Normal!

"Wait!"

Jinling University.

Since Jinling was not within the flight path, Shao Kaiwang hadn't prepared a space telescope this time. Instead, he gathered with Wu Ande, Lin Qian, and a few others to watch the livestream.

When he saw Chen Yi initiate full acceleration and the tail flame of the lunar landing drone surge and lengthen several times, Shao Kaiwang subconsciously checked the speed and atmospheric pressure altitude displayed on the avionics interface.

This glance was significant.

Upon seeing the rapidly soaring speed values, Shao Kaiwang immediately noticed something was wrong.

"The number of Mach rings in the tail flame doesn't match the speed!" Shao Kaiwang exclaimed.

"It really doesn't. There are too many Mach rings," Lin Qian agreed.

Lin Qian roughly counted the number of Mach rings and compared it to the drone's speed and altitude, confirming Shao Kaiwang's observation.

Mach rings are bright, dazzling halos formed in the exhaust of jet engines, rocket engines, ramjet engines, and other atmospheric-working engines.

To describe it professionally:

Mach rings are a standing wave phenomenon formed by the interference of compression and expansion waves within the supersonic exhaust of an engine.

Air inside a supersonic engine, after doing work, forms low-pressure, high-speed exhaust, or tail flame, which is expelled from the engine nozzle.

Because the pressure of the exhaust is lower than the external atmospheric pressure, it is compressed by the surrounding air after leaving the nozzle.

When compressed to a certain extent, the exhaust expands again. After expanding, it is compressed by the environmental air once more.

In this process of repeated expansion and compression, the supersonic exhaust generates a series of complex shock waves.

Examples include Prandtl-Meyer expansion waves, Prandtl-Meyer compression waves, oblique shocks, and normal shocks.

These complex shock waves cause a sharp increase in temperature at the boundary between the expansion and compression of the exhaust, igniting residual fuel in the exhaust and forming distinct rings of light.

These rings of light are the Mach rings that are commonly seen in engine tail flames.

Based on the formation principle of Mach rings, it's not difficult to deduce that:

The number of Mach rings is related to the speed of the aircraft, as well as the ratio of jet pressure to the surrounding atmospheric pressure.

For professionals, by observing the aircraft's atmospheric pressure altitude, speed, and the number of Mach rings in the tail flame, they can roughly estimate the engine's efficiency and specific impulse.

Currently, the number of Mach rings in the tail flame of the lunar landing drone is clearly inconsistent with the drone's current speed and altitude.

If one were to reverse-calculate based on this number of Mach rings:

The efficiency and specific impulse of this lunar landing drone's engine would surpass any current jet engine.

It would even exceed the theoretical efficiency limits of current ramjet and rocket engines.

"There's something wrong with this lunar landing drone's engine."

Shao Kaiwang pressed the screenshot button, enlarged the image of the drone's engine nozzle, and then found the footage from before Chen Yi's full acceleration, before the tail flame surged.

After careful comparison, Shao Kaiwang was certain.

The engine used by the lunar landing drone was not right.

It was not any of the common turbofan, ramjet, or rocket engines currently in use.

A section of a black cone clearly protruded from the lunar landing drone's engine nozzle.

"This..."

At this moment, Lin Weijie seemed to recall something and pointed to the small protruding cone at the engine nozzle of the lunar landing drone: "It should be a rotating detonation engine, right?"

Rotating detonation engine?

Everyone's expression froze, and then they immediately understood.

This engine structure with a protruding cone was indeed the nozzle structure of a rotating detonation engine.

"It is indeed the nozzle structure of a rotating detonation engine, but aren't these engines still in the laboratory stage?"

Wu Ande swallowed: "How did Yifei produce a mass-produced product and even build a drone?"

"Wangwang, where did you find such a divine content creator?"

Lin Qian watched the livestream and listened to Chen Yi's voice as he operated the drone and explained, saying with admiration and disbelief, "No wonder he dared to claim to go to the moon with just one drone."

"I don't know either. I've watched all his previous videos, and I couldn't tell he was this amazing."

"We still can't confirm if this is truly a rotating detonation engine. More speculation is useless."

Shao Kaiwang was also puzzled.

As he spoke, he opened WeChat, took a screenshot of a segment of the lunar landing drone's takeoff video, and along with the recent screenshots and their speculations, sent it to his advisor, a National Scholar Unparalleled academician professor.

"Teacher, I found a video of an aircraft test flight, and the engine used is suspected to be a rotating detonation engine. Could you take a look and see if it's correct?"

Less than ten seconds after sending the message, a call came through from an unidentified, clearly confidential number.

Seeing this call, Shao Kaiwang suddenly felt a prickle of unease and reached out to answer.

"Hello."

"Which lab did this confidential video leak from?"

"Where are you now? Don't show this video to anyone else, I'll be right there!"

A series of urgent yet familiar questions came from the other end of the phone.

Hearing this voice, Shao Kaiwang immediately relaxed and hurriedly replied, "Teacher, it's not from any lab, it's a live stream. This is a video from the live stream, the one from Yifei, the content creator I showed you a few days ago!"

"Live stream?" The professor was taken aback for a moment.

"Yes, it's a live stream. This creator said they're going to live stream a drone's moon landing!"

Shao Kaiwang glanced at the live stream footage and quickly explained to the professor, "The drone has already reached the middle layer and is currently in the parabolic acceleration escape phase. I'll send you the live stream link!"

As Shao Kaiwang spoke, he quickly walked over to the computer.

He clicked on the share option in the top right corner, sent the link to the live stream room to his phone, and then to the professor.

While Shao Kaiwang was sending the link to the professor.

In the live stream footage, the moon-landing drone, which had been continuously ascending.

Its body suddenly began to move horizontally, transitioning from the ascent phase to the parabolic escape phase.

"Accelerate, accelerate!"

"Parabolic glide acceleration, using the planet's rotation to accelerate and break free from the planet!"

"This drone is so powerful. Its speed has already surpassed Mach 16, exceeding 5.4 kilometers per second, and it's only used one-third of its fuel."

"The reason it's so powerful this time is that it's strictly following the aerospace launch trajectory. Last time? Last time, the streamer, Xijiba, was just flying randomly, not understanding anything. I've never seen anything just shoot straight up into space. The key to aerospace is speed, not altitude. The optimal solution is to strictly utilize the planet's rotation and the principle of parabolas for acceleration, rather than blindly chasing altitude."

"To the brother who said Xijiba was flying randomly, there's no need to mock like that. If the streamer can pull off a drone moon landing, do you think they understood less than you last time? I can only say that the purposes of the two live stream flights were different. The last one was a sprint into space, emphasizing momentum and moving forward without hesitation. This time it's a moon landing, emphasizing energy efficiency and roundabout acceleration. You're the one who truly doesn't understand if you say the streamer doesn't know."

"I'm not mocking, I'm just regretful. If they had flown according to the aerospace trajectory last time, it wouldn't have failed to reach first cosmic velocity and would have just crashed from high altitude."

As Shao Kaiwang shared the live stream link with the professor.

Netizens in the live stream room, seeing the moon-landing drone enter the parabolic escape phase and accelerating to escape the planet's centripetal force, also posted a flurry of comments. Some netizens, in particular, were arguing because of the previous live stream's space sprint and Chen Yi's random flying with Xijiba.

"Alright, everyone, stop arguing. We're all here to watch the streamer's drone moon landing. What's there to argue about?"

"The drone has now entered the airspace above Fuhai. Where is our Fuhai observation team? Where's the cheer?"

"Cheering here! Fuhai Xia Da Tracking Team, successfully locked onto the target. Drone flight is normal, tracking and filming are normal, remote sensing signals are normal!"

Netizens with Fuhai Xiamen IDs posted a series of tracking and filming images. In the images, the deep blue sky with a hint of purple, dotted with twinkling stars, showed a comet-like light trail moving forward. Upon zooming in, the distinct silhouette of a drone could be seen, trailing flames and bathed in starlight, heading into the distance.

"Where's Wanzhong? Where's the Wanzhong mountaintop team?!"

"Wanzhong mountaintop team, after feeding 180 mountain mosquitoes, successfully locked onto the target. Drone flight is normal, tracking and filming are normal, remote sensing signals are normal!"

The Wanzhong mountaintop team waited for a few minutes and then similarly released a series of tracking and filming images. As the altitude increased, the background of the images changed from deep blue to purple, indicating that the drone had entered the thermosphere.

"Where's Wanbei? What's the situation in Wanbei?"

"Everything is normal in Wanbei. Successfully locked onto the target. Drone flight is normal, tracking and filming are normal, remote sensing signals are normal!"

"Wanbei University, as the final station for civilian tracking and remote sensing of this moon-landing drone, will continue to track the target until it surpasses the first cosmic velocity and enters orbit around the planet!"

"Well done, Wanbei!"

"Compatriots on both sides of the strait are one family! Well done!"

In the live stream room, with continuous normal tracking and remote sensing signals. The group of netizens and university clubs participating in the tracking and remote sensing couldn't help but cheer and celebrate. Having experienced the previous two live streams, they had all been impressed by Yifei's drone technology and Chen Yi's skills. This time, for the drone moon landing, while other netizens were still doubting and shouting, they had already prepared their filming equipment. Within just two hours, they had completed the installation of filming equipment, positioning of shooting angles, calculation of flight paths, and planning of tracking and remote sensing.

"6.85 kilometers per second, acceleration 10.9 meters per second squared, estimated to reach first cosmic velocity in three minutes."

Ignoring the cheers and celebrations from the bullet comments and netizens, Chen Yi's mind was entirely focused on the surveillance footage before him, his attention constantly on the drone's high-speed parameters, velocity parameters, angle parameters, and so on.

"Entering airspace above the Pacific Ocean, the signal from the control antenna is about to be obscured by the Earth's curvature."

After waiting for a moment, Chen Yi looked at the control antenna next to him, which was pointed east and angled at its lowest horizontal position. Without hesitation, he waved to Qin Xiaoyu.

"Drone launch, 800-meter altitude, 60-degree angle, accelerating eastward at supersonic speed."

This chapter is 3000 words, and I'm experiencing some writer's block, so the update is a bit late.