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

The answer is obvious, Xinyuan needs money, a lot of money.

When Lin Ju convened engineers to discuss which technology patents should be opened, everyone gave surprisingly unanimous answers.

The system's greatest capabilities are twofold: one is to provide above-average treatment to the institute engineers recognized by the system and ensure their loyalty and not to leak secrets; the other is to promote the development of various new technologies as long as they are given money.

As long as it is a technology that humans can think of, a progress bar will appear in the research institute, and all kinds of outrageous ideas are possible. Except for "developing a perpetual motion machine", it at least proves that the law of conservation of energy is correct from the side. At least the human theory has not failed completely. .

In 2016, the settlement system awarded 10 billion yuan in special research funds, but this amount of money is not too much, because the technology that Xinyuan needs to be promoted by the research institute is not simple.

There are also skills in using the research institute. It is the most economical way to sort out the most critical subdivision technologies for each project and then conduct research. Directly and arbitrarily promoting a large project has a great risk of duplication of construction.

Research institutes can be used for technical research, but physical manufacturing is different. It consumes real money and time, such as NAPE and A100. These things require finding ways to meet the manufacturing conditions in the real world.

Why did the NAPE project consume so much money? Because this is future technology, the base needs to first possess the manufacturing capabilities of the era of NAPE design, and break through the technology that will be developed in the next 30 years...

Of course it's not all, otherwise it wouldn't be enough to spend tens of billions of dollars to fill the gaps between teeth, but it would be difficult enough.

The expansion of the base has also gradually stopped. The three bases have a total of more than 9,000 employees and nearly 10,000 employees, which does not include basic workers who drive screws.

In the two and a half years of development, the base's ultra-high level of automation and the regular use of skill cards have made the base's workers, except for service personnel, all at least level D, which is the first grade of engineers.

Simple repetitive tasks such as screwing are all completed by automated equipment, otherwise at least 20,000 people would be needed.

More than 10,000 people? For aerospace, there are actually quite a lot of people. There are only more than 30,000 people directly involved in the Apollo project. Ten thousand of them are professional and technical personnel, which is already scary.

But it is not enough for future development. If the aerospace market can only support Xinyuan's 10,000 people, it will not be enough to support their continued exploration.

The market for space tourism and satellite launch services is limited, and commercial orders can only support limited companies.

If we want to compete for these limited markets, Xinyuan can indeed use its technological advantages to defeat all other aerospace companies and institutions and form a monopoly advantage, but then what?

A large number of private aerospace companies continue to close down, and the market begins to shrink. In order to protect their own companies, countries have restricted commercial launch orders and gradually closed the market. Even if they monopolize, they can no longer make money.

In addition to commercial needs, military needs connected with rockets and honorary needs to demonstrate national strength are the main driving forces for aerospace development and progress.

Xinyuan needs power, needs the market, needs the needs of the world, and needs people to spare no effort to invest in aerospace.

In fact, NACA has already experienced such a dilemma, so they have also cooperated with the military-industrial complex to promote the Apollo project, Star Wars, space shuttles, return to the moon, etc., but they are not as strong as Xinyuan.

The purpose of promoting the race to the moon and the race to Mars is to support its own existence and expansion efforts. Of course, Xinyuan is also trying to use chips, cars, etc. to make money to subsidize the space program through diversified development, but in the end it is not as fast as the competition environment.

The engineers' words clearly revealed to Lin Ju the essence of Xinyuan Company's arduous progress under the surface of vigorous vitality and competition, which diluted the latter's original great joy because of the breakthrough in the laser laboratory. .

Finally, Serev concluded:

"The main thing is money. Although compared to normal companies, our debt ratio is almost 0, and our cash flow reserves are tens of billions, but our ability to make money is too poor, and I am still planning to continue to implement big projects.

The launch site renovation project in Qiongzhou was jointly done by XCMG and China State Construction Engineering Corporation. This kind of infrastructure investment was difficult and had almost no return. As a result, it was not easy to use. "

"Storm, the storm has too many impacts."

Ye Changsi took over the conversation and turned the notebook in front of him towards Lin Ju:

“The Meteorological Bureau conducted calculations in three calculation centers based on the satellite weather maps we provided. This year’s No. 1 typhoon ‘Meihua’ is about to take shape and will land in Qiongzhou in July.

We have too many launch missions this year. It is only theoretically feasible to squeeze together and launch together. In fact, it is very difficult to support personnel and prepare materials, and the recycling site is also a big problem.

Sergey and I discussed two plans. The first is to establish an overseas land launch site. "

Ye Changsi simply walked to the blackboard opposite Lin Ju, turned over the whiteboard and fixed the map with magnetic nails.

“Laos and Annam in Southeast Asia can build launch sites at a lower latitude than Qiongzhou. In addition, Brunei, Indonesia, Malay and other countries in the south close to the equator, and even several ports in Africa are ideal overseas launch sites. land."

As soon as he finished speaking, most people at the table, including Lin Ju, shook their heads.

Without it, the first problem with this plan is that it is difficult to guarantee safety. The second problem is that it is very difficult to build infrastructure in underdeveloped areas and maintain the operation of the launch site. Especially there is a 99% probability of seeing the Nimitz class rotating around the coastline. Directly reject it.

"It seems that everyone also has great doubts about this plan, which is the second plan: mobile sea launch platform."

The projector curtain was pulled down, revealing a very large structure that resembled an offshore oil drilling platform.

“The 40,000-ton offshore mobile launch platform integrates rocket fueling, hoisting and preparation, temporary modification and other capabilities. It can be carried by a semi-submersible barge to calm seas for launch, and the offshore recovery platform can also be used during recovery.

Such a sea launch platform can launch almost all of our rockets, is not affected by weather, and can move to very low latitudes near the equator. "

After Ye Changsi finished speaking, he stepped aside and showed the images and parameters on the curtain to everyone. Everyone was thinking seriously.

This was a solution he discussed with Serev and Androv. It cost almost 500 million yuan, but due to the short construction period, a lot of energy was required.

But the response to this plan didn't seem to be very good.

Chen Xuan, the person in charge of the automation and control system who has always had a relatively low sense of presence, first raised objections:

"It's too troublesome. Not to mention the energy invested in building this kind of platform. First of all, this kind of platform can only launch one rocket at a time, which is very inefficient. The transfer rocket is also very troublesome. It is better to gather more people and launch it concentratedly."

Ye Changsi: "Then build two ships."

"Two ships won't work. There is no time limit for maritime transportation. We lack time."