Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 359: Shocking First Flight and Manned Drone Program

Nanmen Aerospace Corporation once again carried out a major test launch mission. This news not only caused a huge sensation in the industry, but also attracted considerable attention from space enthusiasts and even ordinary people.

This can be seen from the tourists who flock here from all directions.

More than 200,000 tourists flocked to the city where Nanmen Aerospace Company is located in a short period of time. All local hotels, including some very ordinary small hotels, were fully booked.

The transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment needs of these 200,000 tourists will bring huge tourism revenue.

The space tourism industry brought by Nanmen Aerospace Company has become one of the most important economic pillars in the local area.

Another major economic pillar is Nanmen Aerospace Corporation itself.

Nanmen Aerospace is not a traditional aerospace organization, but a purely commercial aerospace company with considerable business operations. It widely accepts various commercial launch activities around the world, and its annual revenue is close to 3 billion US dollars.

These revenues not only bring cash flow to Nanmen Aerospace, but also maintain its subsequent research and development.

At the same time, it also brought a lot of jobs and tax revenue to the local area.

On one hand, there are jobs and tax revenues brought by direct commercial space travel, and on the other hand, there is space tourism brought about by frequent space launches.

The Nanmen Aerospace Company is a real economic pillar for this small southern island city.

This time, the No. 6 heavy rocket is about to be launched for the first time. A large number of tourists are coming here to visit. The local area has also made various preparations a month in advance to welcome this space tourism craze.

The reason why Nanmen Aerospace’s launch activities have become a tourist project is because its launch density is high enough, with dozens of launch missions a year.

This regular launch activity also makes space tourism possible... This ensures that all year round, when someone wants to travel, they can easily wait for the space launch activity, and then witness hundreds of tons of rockets taking off into the sky, and sometimes they can also see the scene of recovery on land.

Otherwise, if there are only a few launches a year, it will be difficult to become a regular tourist attraction.

However, because Nanmen Aerospace has relatively frequent launch missions, tourists know that they do not need to choose a specific time to watch, so the number of tourists is relatively dispersed, and there are usually only tens of thousands of tourists on weekdays.

There are relatively few with more than 100,000 people.

As for the ones exceeding 200,000… the last time was during the offshore recovery test.

The local city's capacity to accommodate tourists is normally limited to tens of thousands of people. When a launch day involves a hundred thousand people, some emergency measures are often needed.

With today's number of 200,000 tourists, the local response attitude can be described as having entered a wartime state, and everything is being done to serve the tourists!
They even temporarily set up a large number of tents for rent to meet the tourists' overnight accommodation needs. At the same time, the location of these tents is also the best place to watch drone shows at night.

In order to capture this wave of tourists, the local authorities encourage them to stay as long as possible and spend more money.

It has also organized a large number of tourism projects on its own. Through its relationship with Nanmen Aerospace, it has invited a drone performance team that has been very popular recently. This is Feitian, a small startup team under Zhiyun Group. It is the first professional drone flight performance technical team in China and can provide large-scale flight performances with up to one thousand drones.

In addition to drone shows, many local scenic spots also organized a variety of performances.

Even some regular commercial performance companies have joined in, organizing open-air music festivals that last for several days.

It is true that tourists come to watch the rocket launch of Nanmen Aerospace, but that does not prevent them from trying other projects as well.

Just when the outside world attached great importance to the first flight test of the No. 6 heavy rocket, it attracted more than 200,000 tourists.

Nanmen Aerospace is also conducting a technical review meeting for its Type 6 heavy-lift rocket.

The technical team within Nanmen Aerospace is discussing various conditions of the No. 6 heavy-lift rocket and analyzing the results of several inspections so far to ensure there are no safety hazards.

However, Nanmen Aerospace is also a very mature aerospace company. Since the No. 6 heavy rocket has been transported to the launch site and erected on the launch tower, it means that Nanmen Aerospace has completed all necessary technical preparations.

Today's final technical review meeting was more symbolic than practical.

Xu Shenxue did not attend the technical review meeting... The meeting was too professional, and there were more than a dozen top-level aerospace experts attending the meeting, so it would be useless for him to go.

Anyway, the technical team said it can be launched, so let's launch it.

If any problem is found that requires temporary interruption of the launch, then just interrupt the launch.

It didn't have much impact on Xu Shenxue.

In the last few hours before the launch, Xu Shenxue held a simple meeting with several other aerospace companies or institutions.

The main focus was on discussing matters related to commercial space cooperation, especially cooperation in the space station field.

Why is the Type 6 heavy rocket so important and why has it attracted great attention and strong support from the domestic aerospace industry? It is because this thing is the main rocket used to launch the space station!
Whether the large space station under development can be launched into space depends on the reliability of the Type 6 heavy-lift rocket.

According to the plan, the official space station is composed of a multi-functional core module, two test modules, a multi-functional service module, and three core modules for different purposes. These three modules are all large ones weighing 60 tons.

The modular cargo spacecraft and manned spacecraft also constitute the space station.

The planning scale is relatively large, with the maximum take-off weight of the three core cabins alone reaching 180 tons.

Although it is smaller than the International Space Station, its actual technological content is even higher because its cabin is larger, more advanced and modern.

Although the International Space Station weighs more than 500 tons, it is an old machine. Many of its cabins are products of technology from the 1990s and have long fallen behind mainstream technology.

For this national-level space laboratory project, the three core modules need to be launched into space using the Type 6 heavy rocket in a disposable mode.

In addition, the cargo spacecraft module will also be carried by Nanmen Aerospace's No. 5 rocket in reuse mode, carrying the 12-ton Qinglong cargo spacecraft to perform missions. There is no way around it; the transportation price revealed by Nanmen Aerospace is too cheap. Using Nanmen Aerospace's Qinglong cargo spacecraft to transport supplies can save more than 70 percent of the overall freight cost.

This will have a relatively large impact on the subsequent operating costs of the space station.

However, the space agency also has a backup cargo spacecraft plan, but it is still in the early stages of research and development and is not very mature... or the cost control is not very good yet, so it can only be used as a backup, just in case.

The manned spacecraft module is more important. The space agency uses its own traditional rockets plus the Shenzhou spacecraft to carry out the mission.

The other party did not want to let the astronauts fly up on Nanmen Aerospace's No. 5 rocket and Black Dragon spacecraft just to save some costs... They felt that it was too dangerous, and if something went wrong, they would be doomed.

It would be fine if something happened while transporting goods, but if something happened while transporting passengers, the negative impact would be too great.

However, the Black Dragon spacecraft is still used as a backup plan for manned spacecraft.

Whether it is cargo or passenger transportation, the two modules are backed up by each other. No matter which side has a problem, there is a backup that can be used in an emergency to avoid irreversible adverse negative impacts to the greatest extent.

Even Nanmen Aerospace and Zhiyun Satellite, which are preparing to build their own commercial space station, will use the other space agency's spacecraft as backup in addition to their own spacecraft.

Therefore, the interfaces of these two space stations and spacecraft are the same!

Even when necessary, each cabin in the two space stations can detach from the space station, use its own power to change orbit, and then dock with another space station... Both space stations have retained additional interfaces to dock with more cabins.

The interfaces of the cabins of the two space stations are the same, so the cabins of the two space stations can be interchanged!

This is the benefit of unified standards.

These two space station plans were the main topics of discussion between Xu Shenxue and the other party. The atmosphere of the discussion was very harmonious and the two sides quickly reached an agreement. It would not be long before the two sides would officially announce the news of this strategic cooperation.

After the meeting, it was almost time, so Xu Shenxue and a group of people came to the launch command center and went to the balcony to look at the launch site in the distance.

Although the field of vision was good, due to the far distance, Xu Shenxue still had to use a telescope to see some details.

This Heavy Rocket VI is different from many of the current rockets with bundled boosters because its two boosters are so large.

Nanmen Aerospace's No. 6 heavy-lift rocket is simply and crudely made by bundling three No. 5 rockets together, rather than tying two or four small main thrust rockets to the No. 5 rocket.

Because rocket number six looks a little strange.

The most important thing is that the three first-stage rockets of the No. 6 heavy rocket are all recoverable!
The No. 6 heavy rocket is a reusable rocket, and its launch cost is actually very low...

This alone greatly increases the strategic value of the modified rocket!

Otherwise, a traditional disposable heavy rocket of 1,600 tons would not have attracted so much attention.

When Xu Shenxue arrived at the balcony of the launch center, someone from Nanmen Aerospace was beside him and said, "Although this is an experimental flight, the experiment is very expensive. In order not to waste costs, we also carried a payload on the second-stage rocket. It carried a geosynchronous orbit communications satellite from Zhiyun Satellite Company."

"Because the payload is small, and for the purpose of testing and cost control, we expect all three first-stage rockets to be recovered during our test flight, two of which will be recovered on land, and one will be recovered at sea!"

"If everything goes well, we will be able to see the two first-stage rockets return from space on site, but the other one will be recovered at sea at a relatively long distance, so we can only watch it through image broadcast!"

Xu Shenxue said: "I am looking forward to it, come on!"

Next, there is the short but seemingly long final technical preparation and the final round of inspection time.

At 2:45 p.m., the technical review committee composed of a team of experts from Nanmen Aerospace passed the final safety check and granted flight permission.

This news will also be spread quickly. After receiving the news, the host of the TV station that was broadcasting live immediately broadcast the news to the audience in front of the TV: "Just now, Nanmen Aerospace announced that the launch of the No. 6 heavy rocket will proceed as expected, that is, it will be ignited in half an hour!"

Many online platforms also broadcast this live, and a large group of netizens watched the No. 6 heavy rocket on the screen while discussing and waiting.

At 3:10, the last five minutes before the launch, the launch command center of the Nanmen Space Launch Center once again confirmed the situation, including various observation points, and two space observation ships sailing in the deep ocean reported that everything was normal.

At the launch site, the official live broadcast photography equipment has been prepared.

Even outside the launch site, tourists from surrounding areas who were waiting for the rocket to be launched were already staring at the launch site, ready to watch the rocket ignite and take off.

At the last minute, the countdown had begun in the command center, various systems in the launch tower had started working, and the robotic arm that secured the rocket on the launch tower had begun to loosen.

When it comes to the last ten seconds, the launch procedure has actually officially begun. You can see flames coming out of the bottom of the rocket and water mist rising from the high temperature.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1!

ignition!

As the symbolic command was issued, a large ball of fire emerged from the bottom of the No. 6 heavy rocket, and rose into the sky accompanied by thick steam.

After the twenty-one engines were ignited, the high-temperature, high-speed airflow ejected directly caused the cooling water used for cooling at the bottom of the launch tower to burn out a large amount of water vapor.

Amidst the huge flames, the rocket also gained a huge thrust, and began to push the 1,600-ton rocket slowly into the air.

At this moment, countless photographic equipment around the launch site, whether professional cameras of professional media reporters or enthusiasts, or mobile phones in the hands of ordinary tourists, were pressing the shutter to record this historic moment.

What people saw was a huge rocket, which began to gradually accelerate and then get faster and faster, driven by the huge flame jet at the tail.

From one hundred meters, five hundred meters, one thousand meters...it wasn't long before people could only see a thin tail flame in the sky.

The entire rocket rushed into the sky like an arrow piercing the clouds, and quickly climbed towards the unobstructed sky.

Soon, it became difficult for people on the ground to see the Heavy Rocket No. 6 with the naked eye.

At this time, people began to look at the many large screens on the ground. On one side of the screen was the image captured by Nanmen Aerospace's professional rocket launch tracking camera... The image was rather blurry, and one could only simply see that the rocket was flying, and most of what could be seen was just a cluster of light.

On the other side is the real-time image transmitted back by the surveillance camera on board the rocket.

The picture was slightly shaky, but you could still clearly see most of the rocket's hull and the tail flame at the rear of the hull.

And there’s the sight of the vast blue Earth below!
In the launch command center, monitoring personnel are looking at various data and information sent back from many observation stations, including ocean-going space measurement ships.

However, the scene was not overly tense or serious... The more than 20 Nanmen Aerospace employees in the command center observed the data, and after confirming that there were no problems, they all looked very relaxed and even found time to talk to their colleagues from time to time.

After all, they are all veterans... They command dozens of commercial launches a year. If you count some messy test flight launches, the number will be even higher.

I have watched the explosions countless times!
The time for tension has long passed.

Even if Rocket No. 6 explodes in the air right now, they can remain calm!
After the No. 6 heavy rocket flew for a while, someone soon said, "The booster rockets are starting to shut down."

"Booster rocket separation!"

"Booster rocket No. 1 separated successfully, starting the return procedure!"

"The No. 2 booster rocket separated successfully, and the return procedure was started!" At this time, it could be seen on the big screen that the surveillance camera carried on the rocket had captured the two boosters separating from the rocket body one after another, but they soon disappeared.

In a place that the camera cannot see, the two No. 5 first-stage rockets used as boosters have begun to start the return procedure...first, they use the small nozzles on the rocket to turn around, and then start the engine to let the rocket return to the earth in the direction it came from.

Immediately afterwards, the first-stage rocket of the rocket body began to separate from the second-stage rocket and also entered the return program. However, because this first-stage rocket flew higher, it would not be recovered on land, but would be recovered in the deep Pacific Ocean.

Deep in the Pacific Ocean, a recovery fleet owned by South Gate Aerospace Corporation is waiting, including recovery ships and technical support ships.

This recovery fleet will recover this valuable first-stage rocket, and then transport it back to the country for inspection and maintenance by a special transport ship, waiting for the next launch mission.

As for the recovery ships and technical support ships, they are deployed in local waters for a long time and rely on a nearby island country for logistical supplies.

Because the distance is too far, tourists at the launch site cannot see the scene of sea recovery. At most, they can only see some video broadcasts sent back by the recovery fleet.

But near the launch site, people can see an even more shocking scene!
After the two No. 5 first-stage rockets used as boosters started the return program, they quickly returned to the sky above the launch site!
As a result, people saw a very amazing and shocking scene.

It was as if the two rockets emerged from deep space almost at the same time, and then descended rapidly at an incredibly fast speed... It looked like someone had launched a two missile attack from outer space.

The speed was so fast that some people couldn't help but feel nervous... If these two rockets couldn't be stopped, they would hit their heads.

However, their worries were obviously unnecessary. Nanmen Aerospace has carried out more than one hundred recoveries. Except for frequent failures in early tests, there have been very few recoveries since it entered the mature stage of commercial flight.

The last time recycling failed was the last time!
To people's astonishment, the two first-stage rockets descended almost simultaneously, then turned again in the air so that the tail of the rocket faced the ground.

Then, people saw the two rockets start their engines almost at the same time!
The first-stage rocket descends at high speed and quickly reduces its descent speed under the huge thrust of the engine. During the deceleration process, a part of the tail flame emitted by the rocket engine will cover the hull, so that the entire rocket looks as if it is on fire, which maximizes the visual effect.

By the time the rocket descended to a height of two or three hundred meters, its speed had become relatively low. At this time, the two rockets began to make fine adjustments one after another and opened the support frame for auxiliary landing.

While people were still marveling at the sight and many tourists were so shocked that they had no time to take pictures, they saw a rocket that had descended first had already landed, followed by a rocket that was about one or two hundred meters behind and also successfully landed.

At the moment when the two rockets landed one after another, there was a moment of silence at the scene, and then there was a huge cheer!

There were more than 200,000 tourists around who saw this scene. Some were applauding, some were cheering, and some were shouting.

There was also a seven or eight-year-old boy who was held up by his father and said to his father, "Dad, I want to build a big rocket too!"

Even though Nanmen Aerospace's rocket recovery is performed here once in a while, it still gives these tourists an extremely shocking scene.

After all, it was the first time for most people to see the rocket launch and recovery scene.

This shocking scene is likely to be remembered by them for a lifetime.

For some teenagers, it is likely to become an important memory of their youth and even change their thoughts and lives.

This is the slogan used by many travel agencies: "One thing you must do in life is to go to Qiongzhou Island to watch a rocket launch. It will shock your soul!"

“The best educational trip for teenagers: go see the rocket launch of Nanmen Aerospace!”

In fact, the scene of the launch of a large rocket and its subsequent recovery is so shocking that it makes people feel a sense of pride for no reason.

It is not only a sense of pride in the country and nation's scientific and technological strength, but also a sense of pride in the overall development of human science and technology, and a yearning for the starry sky!

Therefore, there were not only many Chinese people who came to watch the launch, but also many foreign tourists.

There are even more foreigners watching the live broadcast on the Internet or various launch videos afterwards.

Under normal circumstances, most of these foreigners recognize the many achievements made by Nanmen Aerospace. Except for some narrow-minded people, most of them still recognize the many achievements made by Xu Shenxue and Nanmen Aerospace in the aerospace field.

The achievements in commercial aerospace are also one of the reasons why Xu Shenxue has gained great reputation in the global field.

Xu Shenxue not only has great achievements in smart terminals, but also makes many foreigners look up to him.

He is also highly regarded by many foreigners in the fields of electric vehicles, drones and more importantly, aerospace.

Even the haters can only find fault from other angles in a sour way.

However, it is still undeniable that Xu Shenxue has made contributions in these high-tech fields.

Some people even go so far as to think that it is not certain whether mankind can achieve a major technological breakthrough in this century and enter into the sci-fi life depicted in science fiction novels.

Even whether one can truly reach the starry sky depends largely on whether Xu Shenxue is powerful enough!

To many people, even foreigners, Xu Shenxue has never been an ordinary entrepreneur, let alone a capitalist in the traditional sense.

Rather, it is a role that leans towards a high-tech leader.

So much so that many people say that Xu Shenxue is the real-life Iron Man!

And what Xu Shenxue did, in essence, was not much different from what Iron Man did...

After the two booster rockets of the No. 6 Heavy Rocket were successfully recovered on land, it didn’t take long for the third first-stage rocket to be successfully recovered at sea.

This means that the test flight of the No. 6 Heavy Rocket has been 90% successful!

As for the remaining 10%, it is up to the subsequent second-stage rocket to send the satellite into the predetermined orbit.

But it is not a big problem, because this second-stage rocket is the second-stage rocket on the No. 5 rocket, which is a very mature technology.

Sure enough, news came soon afterwards that the second-stage rocket had successfully sent the communications satellite of Zhiyun Satellite Co., Ltd. into the predetermined orbit. The second-stage rocket then successfully re-entered the atmosphere and burned, and a small amount of debris fell into the South Pacific.

The entire test flight of the No. 6 heavy rocket was completed and achieved complete success.

This is a huge achievement for Nanmen Aerospace, for China's aerospace industry, and even for the global aerospace industry.

That evening, many television stations and online media focused on reporting the successful maiden flight of Nanmen Aerospace Corporation's Heavy-Lift Rocket No. 6.

This is not only true in China, but also abroad.

On a large foreign video website, the launch and recovery video of the No. 6 heavy rocket directly topped the playback volume list and was directly posted on the homepage.

Countless people around the world saw this extremely shocking scene!
The very next day, Nanmen Aerospace Company officially announced that the No. 6 rocket had commercial capabilities and was officially accepting various commercial launch orders from around the world.

At the same time, the commercial space station plan was announced. The commercial space station jointly built by Nanmen Aerospace and Zhiyun Satellite will start the first phase next year and officially accept various cooperation orders for the commercial space station, including commissioned space experiments, leasing space test cabins, space travel and other projects.

As for the plan for the national space laboratory, this has been announced a long time ago, but theirs is more rigorous and is still undergoing many testing stages.

There is a space station for experiments and tests floating in the sky today.

In fact, Nanmen Aerospace is also involved in this and is preparing to launch the Black Dragon spacecraft at the end of the year to send its own astronauts to this experimental space station to allow the astronauts to experience it and verify some technologies.

For this, Nanmen Aerospace also needs to pay money... Nanmen Aerospace cannot use the experimental space station of other aerospace agencies whenever it wants, it has to pay to rent it.

If we don’t rent it, we will have to launch another experimental space station to conduct various tests. This is a duplicate construction, has no practical significance, and is a waste of money.

As for the aerospace agency, by providing Nanmen Aerospace with the lease of an experimental space station, it can also recover some of the costs, which is a win-win situation for both parties.

Of course, only Nanmen Aerospace, the godson, can enjoy this treatment. Space agencies or aerospace companies in other countries can forget about it.

After all, although Nanmen Aerospace is controlled by Xu Shenxue, about 40% of its shares still belong to the aerospace agency, and a large amount of technology is also provided by the aerospace agency.

Therefore, in the eyes of many people, Nanmen Aerospace is actually an important part of China's aerospace organization, and they are even indistinguishable from each other.

Of course, in reality the difference is quite big.

After all, no matter what, Nanmen Aerospace is a commercial aerospace company. From the R&D process to the company's operations, everything is carried out strictly in accordance with the business model. This is a huge difference.

Nanmen Aerospace has once again sparked widespread discussion because of the successful maiden flight of its No. 6 heavy-lift rocket. Ordinary people may be shocked, but industry insiders and space enthusiasts know the high technical content and great significance of the No. 6 rocket.

This is the world's first reusable rocket with a maximum take-off weight of 1,600 tons, which will greatly reduce the launch cost of large mass payloads into space.

This is of great significance to the development of the entire aerospace industry.

The previous No. 5 rocket, as well as the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that has now successfully flown, both have land recovery modes with a low-Earth orbit payload of twelve tons. There are differences, but they are not large.

If it is in geosynchronous orbit, it will be even lower, only a few tons.

However, if you want to launch larger satellites or other payloads into low-Earth orbit, you cannot use the land recovery mode.

But now, Nanmen Aerospace's No. 6 rocket has directly raised this data to the level of 32 tons, and the geosynchronous orbit has reached the level of 9 tons, greatly enhancing the scope of application of low-cost reusable launches.

This means that when launching large satellites in high orbits in the future, or launching payloads such as lunar exploration and Mars exploration, it will also be possible to use a reusable mode, greatly reducing costs.

This will significantly reduce the cost of high-orbit satellites and lunar and Mars exploration, thereby promoting the development of the entire space industry.

This is the great significance of the No. 6 heavy-lift rocket.

While people were discussing this, Xu Shenxue also left Nanmen Aerospace after staying for one day.

Although the No. 6 heavy-lift rocket was very important and its launch was successful, it still could not bring much excitement to Xu Shenxue... He no longer had the excitement he had when he saw the successful recovery of the No. 5 rocket.

Rocket No. 6 is just an extension of the Rocket No. 5 project, a larger Rocket No. 5. In essence, there is actually no major technological breakthrough.

What Xu Shenxue is more looking forward to is the emergence of subsequent commercial rockets with lower costs, or even some epoch-making aerospace technologies.

Now it’s still a little bit short!

After leaving Nanmen Aerospace, Xu Shenxue's private plane returned to Shenzhen, where he handled daily affairs for a few days.

Then he ran to Xiaojiang Technology, which was not far away next door.

Today, Xiaojiang Technology is going to conduct a different kind of test on a new model.

A flight test of a large multi-rotor drone with a payload capacity of 300 kilograms.

“This is a subsystem unmanned cargo version of our ‘eVTOL’ project!”

eVTOL, which is the abbreviation of electric vertical take-off and landing manned drone, has also been a key research and development project of Xiaojiang Technology in recent years.

Xu Shenxue had proposed to develop manned electric drones a long time ago, and the company responsible for the research and development of this project was Xiaojiang Technology. In order to promote the development of manned drones, Xu Shenxue also proposed a series of concepts such as low-altitude economy and intelligent urban transportation.

However, there are still many technical difficulties and legal and regulatory issues with manned drones, so the project is actually carried out with vertical take-off and landing cargo drones.

Anyway, they are all large vertical take-off and landing electric drones. As long as their performance is good and they can transport cargo, they can naturally be converted into drones that transport people.

In the past two years, Xiaojiang Technology has gradually expanded from small drones to medium-sized industrial drones and then to agricultural drones.

The agricultural drones it produces, which are mainly used for spraying pesticides, have entered the market and are sold all over the world. Of course, because they are new products, the sales volume is still a bit low.

However, this still allowed Xiaojiang Technology to accumulate a lot of technical experience. At the same time, with the support of AI technology under the Intelligent Research Institute of Zhiyun Group, Xiaojiang Technology has accumulated a lot of technology and experience in areas such as automatic flight of drones.

All of these were finally transformed into the large multi-rotor electric cargo drone in front of us.

A big guy that can carry up to 300 kilograms!
In theory, it would be possible to simply convert the 300-kilogram load into equipment for people and to maintain personnel safety.

However, the risk is too great, so we dare not try it with manned aircraft yet.

After Xu Shenxue arrived at Xiaojiang Technology, he soon saw this large drone that looked somewhat special.

It has eight propellers, all with independent motors.

In addition, it also has relatively large wings, which can achieve relatively long flight endurance and level flight speed.

This thing looks like it might be a good idea!
(End of this chapter)