I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

"By the way, Lin Ju, does Xinyuan Company have any plans for the development of the lunar surface?"

"Hmm...which aspect are you referring to?"

Academician She thought for a moment and pointed to his feet:

"Resources, I think the basic configuration of Xinyuan 3 is three-level. It must be designed for landing on the moon and Mars. With such a large transportation capacity, in addition to sending more people up, we must also find ways to move things from Bring it back to the moon?"

Lin Ju: "Resource development? I do have some ideas. After all, it may be a bit difficult to make money from lunar tourism, but I haven't found a valuable target yet."

When it comes to lunar mining, we have to mention the hard-working Explorer 1.

This giant spider has traveled a total of 17 kilometers on the lunar surface and explored an area of ​​nearly 10 square kilometers, but failed to find any valuable mineral deposits.

At least at its drilling depth, there were no rich ores at all, and the Explorer project's surface team was going crazy.

The only valuable thing is helium-3, but this thing can't be used now!

So now the team is planning to continue launching explorers. It is best to use Xinyuan 2 to launch three landers weighing 5.8 tons, each carrying two explorer robots, and conduct detection at three locations. It is best to launch them in November.

However, this plan has been postponed again, because Cheng Nankai is actively promoting 280W large nuclear batteries. Some of the nuclear bases have already entered practical production and are expected to be produced within November. It is planned to carry out the follow-up mission of the Explorer in December.

The new Explorer will be equipped with four 280W nuclear batteries, which can continuously output 1120W of power without relying on solar panels, which is enough to maintain activities in energy-saving mode, and can also reduce weight by 40 kilograms.

But the mass of the new Explorer will increase to 450 kilograms, the robot structure will be reduced to 115 kilograms, and the scientific research load it can carry will increase to 135 kilograms. Explorer One only has 50 kilograms of equipment.

Such a new explorer can work continuously on the lunar surface, unlike Explorer 1... which has cleaned Yutu 2 four times.

Explorer 1 has almost become a full-time nanny because it cleans Yutu 2, extending the latter's effective working time by 20%.

The Fifth Institute is simply envious of the Explorer's flexible robot hand. Unfortunately, the difficulty is not manufacturing but AI control, and they are unable to achieve such flexible control.

The Explorer team plans to launch the third and fourth batches of up to 30 Explorer 2 robots after the second batch of Explorers failed to find mineral deposits two months later. I don’t believe that there will be no large-scale exploration in the Aitken Basin. mine.

When Lin Ju revealed the Explorer's follow-up plans, Academician She fell silent.

"How much are you going to spend on this?"

Lin Ju thought for a while: "Well, Explorer 2 is more expensive than Explorer 1, but we plan to mass-produce 12 of them. The cost of each one is more than 10 million. With the lander, we can take two Explorers with us. The price is almost 40,000?"

Forty million? If you didn’t tell me, I would have thought it was 400 million!

Academician She wanted to complain, but then he thought about how mass production can indeed reduce costs. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has also tried it. The Sixth Academy established an industrial assembly line through mass production of YF130, and the cost dropped by 72%. It has become an internal learning model.

In the face of large-scale planning, industrial mass production is indeed much cheaper.

Lin Ju has not yet said the launch cost of Xinyuan 2. This has to be kept secret. The total cost of sending 6 big spiders at one time is only 200 million, which is very cheap.

Academician She originally planned to say something else, but now he asked instead:

"How about selling two of these explorers to the space agency? We don't need equipment, we just need the basic framework, and the equipment can be installed by ourselves. By the way, do you really have a 280w, 50kg RTG? This is much ahead of Curiosity."

"Hey, Professor Cheng is still very powerful. He has been hiding his strength abroad for fear of not coming back, but now he can finally fully display it.

But for external sales... 40 million each? If you buy two, I will give you a lander. Do you think 80 million is okay? Launch is calculated separately. So if you pay 200 million, four of ours and two of ours will be launched together for the Explorer 2 mission in December? "

Lin Ju's quotation this time is really not high. The launch cost of Xinyuan 2 and the remaining explorer robots and landers are only 200 million. The space agency bought two and sent them together, which is equivalent to buying four for nothing. Isn’t it beautiful to be an explorer?

Academician She was a little speechless about Lin Ju's sudden increase in price, but he rarely made a counteroffer and just nodded.

The 200 million package launch to launch two explorers with nuclear batteries is too profitable. Of course, this is also because it is a bargain with Xinyuan for launch in a group, so don’t worry so much. Private companies have to make a living.

"By the way, how is the progress of your Advance space station?"

Since the H2 aerodynamic test prototype was delivered to Ulan Hashan in July, people on the prairie can often see it.

H2 is much larger than H1. Although there is the SC09 artifact, astronauts still need to practice manual control. Now they are constantly flying and gliding, testing various extreme conditions to provide data to the simulator.

The first H2M "Pioneer" will make its first flight on November 20, and the first batch of seven pilots are being actively trained. These are real big guys, and they need to be operated much more cautiously than the H1.

The imminent advent of H2 also means that the construction of the Advance space station will usher in a peak period of operation. The truss structure is about to be reborn, and the space agency is paying close attention.

Lin Ju: "This year we mainly launch the three axial cabin sections for docking, and launch and install the centrifugal section next year. This requires the use of H2M, as you know."

Academician She: "It would be great if H2M can make its first flight next year. We are building a 'sky survey' space telescope. If H2M is as big as H2M, I think we can expand the survey lens size to 4.2 meters and launch it with H2M."

Lin Ju: "Of course, Hubble's situation will not happen to Sky Survey."

The Hubble Telescope was launched using a low-gravity space shuttle because it was very precise. It ran into quite a few problems in space for several years, but they were all fixed with Discovery missions one after another, making this 10 billion-dollar observational telescope The magic continues to work.

Of course, the same goes for sky surveys. With the help of H2M, there is no need to consider too much overload issues during rocket launch when designing.

"Hmm... Then I wonder if the Qianjin space station has any plans for foreign cooperation?"

"You mean?"

Academician She nodded: "I think your engineers also know that the Advance has the potential to be used as an interstellar spacecraft. With it, manned exploration of Mars will be very convenient."

Not only does it have potential, because it adopts a truss structure and rotates as a whole, the strength of the Advance is much higher, and the acceleration of a little push is simply effortless.

"If the Advance space station can be open to cooperation, the space agency can provide a sum of money."

Academician She raised two fingers.