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Chapter 2641 The Forefront of the World (Third Update, Please Subscribe)

Leading the world.

This wasn't actually SpaceX's original intention. It was simply a comparison with the space race between NASA and the Soviet space agency.

SpaceX prioritizes the development of practical technologies, which is why it possesses technologies that neither the Americans nor the Russians have mastered.

After all, their pursuits are different.

This difference is also reflected in the current equipment.

A silver-gray rectangular device stood quietly there. It was about the size of a household refrigerator, and its outer shell was covered with precision interfaces and heat dissipation ports. It was the crystal furnace that was to be installed.

Li Guodong was squatting on the ground inspecting the mounting base, while Xiao Lin was holding a data board and debugging the circuit. When they saw the two of them come in, they immediately stood up and nodded in greeting.

While tightening the bolts with a torque wrench, Li Guodong couldn't help but speak up:
"It was already very difficult for us to transport mineral processing equipment to the moon. The current smelting and crystal pulling equipment weighs several tons. Not to mention the weight, its energy consumption is also very high. Is it really necessary?"

On the moon, energy is even more important than water. After all, water ice exists deep within lava tubes, and the lunar south pole itself is rich in water ice. Although it is not enough for all of humanity, it is more than enough for exploration, survival, and appropriate industrial production in space.

However, energy is a very scarce commodity on the moon, since even the production of water requires energy.

Currently, the vast majority of energy on the moon is provided by solar panels, which come from Earth, 360000 km away.

Therefore, conserving energy on the moon becomes the top priority.

The factory that is now being built, or rather, the furnace for producing and pulling crystal rods, will consume a large amount of energy.

For a lunar base, this is beyond luxurious.

"This is precisely the significance of our coming to the moon."

Pang Guoxi, who was checking the furnace data, explained upon hearing this:

"If we can't produce on the moon, then the lunar base will become a place that drains resources. Because we've discovered new types of crystals here."

Therefore, lunar exploration has yielded rewards, which is the fundamental reason why humanity's space program has been able to continue to this day.

Although he was just an engineer, Pang Guoxi was very clear about the rules of economic operation. After all, he came from a large family and knew very well what position money occupied in all things.
"The lunar base has always been profitable."

Li Guodong stated bluntly:

"Just like you said, it's because we discovered a new type of crystal. It changed our electronics technology, allowing us to obtain chips with much higher performance, which in turn supported our space program, but... we've already made a profit, and that's undeniable."

Unlike NASA in the United States and the Soviet space agency, which relied on government funding to sustain space exploration, SpaceX has always pursued profitability.

Making a profit in space is extremely difficult; let alone making a profit, simply breaking even would be a remarkable achievement.

This is the fundamental reason why there are people on Earth who oppose space exploration, especially some so-called "philanthropists" who accuse space exploration of wasting huge amounts of money and call for those funds to be used for aid to underdeveloped regions such as Africa.

When we can't even solve Earth's problems, why should humanity turn its attention to space?

This statement seems to make some sense.

After all, in Africa and many other parts of the world, people are still starving and living near-primitive lifestyles.

Meanwhile, developed countries spend trillions of dollars of their wealth every year on space, which seems to offer no return. Isn't this a crime against all of humanity?

Therefore, for the well-being of all humanity, these developed countries should cease their space exploration and instead donate that money to Africa and the vast impoverished people of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, enabling them to have enough to eat and live a modern, civilized life.

This is the responsibility of developed countries, and this is what developed countries should do.

Space is too far away, let's focus on Earth for now.

Of course, in the context of the space race, no one cares about such remarks.

However, precisely because of this, after obtaining extremely high returns from mining new lunar crystals and achieving profitability to a certain extent, SpaceX immediately announced this good news to the world.

This led to SpaceX's market valuation inflating several times over – and yes, even now, despite SpaceX's leading position in lunar development, it is still not publicly listed.

However, this does not prevent the financial investment community from valuing the company.

It is through these repeated successes that the company's valuation has increased many times over the past few years.

That's why people know that SpaceX is a profitable company.

Well—it's the first company in all of humanity to make money from space exploration, and that alone is impressive enough.

After all, both NASA in the United States and the Soviet space agency are now heavily reliant on funding from their respective governments.

After a slight pause, Kobayashi continued.

"Although energy is currently scarce on the moon, if production can be carried out there, and the next step is to achieve energy self-sufficiency on the moon, then it will be more than just a factory."

As he spoke, Xiaolin glanced at Pang Guoxi beside him and said:

"Engineer, am I understanding this correctly?" "Yes."

Pang Guoxi nodded, and then said:

"Although I'm not entirely sure what the company's ultimate goal is, I imagine it's something like that. Hmm..."

After thinking for a moment, he added:

"Besides that reason, I think the key lies in the space environment. The microgravity and ultra-high vacuum of the moon are a natural crystal growth chamber. In this environment, the atoms of semiconductors can be arranged more neatly, which can greatly reduce lattice defects, something that the ground environment can never achieve."

After connecting one of the cooling pipes, Kobayashi also came over and asked:

"Besides being weightless, what other advantages does a vacuum environment offer?"

"Secondly, there is the need for dust-free conditions."

Pang Guoxi continued to explain.

“Even the most advanced cleanrooms on Earth cannot avoid micro-dust contamination, which can directly damage the purity of crystals; however, the lunar vacuum chamber is a sealed environment with almost no dust, and with the added benefit of microgravity, the purity of crystals produced under these two conditions far surpasses that of those made on Earth.”

Hearing them say this, Li Guodong, who was initially somewhat confused, seemed to understand the advantages of production on the moon.

"So these crystals will need to be processed on the moon later?"

Li Guodong asked with some curiosity.

"Need not."

Pang Guoxi shook his head and said:
"The moon is only responsible for growing high-purity crystal blanks. The finished products will be transported back to Earth by cargo spacecraft. The subsequent steps, such as cutting, polishing, and packaging, still need to be completed by the ground production line."

He then added specifically:
"This process requires a large amount of ultrapure water. Obviously, there is no such production environment in space, nor is it necessary."

"So, in the future, we might be able to split some industries into two locations: space and Earth, right?"

Xiao Lin's question made Li Guodong frown, and then he said:
"That's unlikely, considering the cost of launching a rocket; it's definitely not cost-effective."

"That's not necessarily true. The cost may drop even lower in the future."

When it comes to this kind of thing, no one can convince the other. So, the three of them chatted and worked, occasionally dreaming about a future lunar base.

In the following period, the group divided the work and cooperated, and their work went relatively smoothly.

When the last signal cable was connected, a steady blue indicator light lit up on the main control panel screen. Xiao Lin excitedly shouted, "Interface normal, self-test passed!"

Pang Guoxi walked to the main control panel, staring intently at the fluctuating parameters, his expression serious and focused.

Although he is a "rookie," he will build the first crystal factory on the moon. In fact, there are already factories on the moon—not only ore processing plants, but also factories that use lunar ice to produce fresh water, oxygen, and hydrogen.

This is also the fundamental reason why lunar transportation costs are decreasing—current lunar bases have achieved local fuel supply.

Unlike in the past, when spacecraft needed to carry tens of tons of fuel for each trip to the moon, modern spacecraft only need to carry fuel for a one-way trip to complete their missions.

This would significantly reduce the cost of traveling from Earth to the Moon, but those factories would not be specialized and would have lower technological requirements.

"All parameters are normal, we can proceed with the experiment!"

Despite this, production did not begin immediately. Over the next few days, Pang Guoxi, as an engineer, continued to meticulously inspect the equipment again and again.

Unlike on Earth, where engineers can quickly fix equipment malfunctions, this is the Moon.

No accident can be tolerated. Equipment must be repeatedly inspected before actual production to ensure that production can proceed normally.

After all, if the equipment malfunctions, it's not just about the equipment—it's about transporting several tons of equipment from Earth to the Moon.

After several days of repeated checks, Pan Guoxi finally breathed a sigh of relief and said:
"There should be no problem."

"Is everything going well?"

In the cafeteria, James saw Pang Guoxi and asked him:
"You've been in the lab these past few days. Is the equipment working properly? Can production proceed as planned?"

"There are basically no problems."

Then Guoxi nodded, and then said:

"Although there are still some minor issues that haven't been resolved, they shouldn't affect normal production. I'll resolve those issues in the next few days and strive to get back to normal production as soon as possible."

Just as Pang Guoxi finished speaking, James asked:

"Since work is going so smoothly, we should relax a bit. How about we go take a look at the New Hope Mine?"

(End of this chapter)