Reborn in 2011, I am the chief designer of aerospace.

The sun blazed brightly outside the window, and the cicadas chirped incessantly along Fucheng Road. The towering radio and television tower, scorched by the blazing sun, rippled with an ethereal light.

Outside the sweltering Dongyu Building, rows of air conditioner fans were running at full power.

Looking through the sapphire blue floor-to-ceiling windows on the eighth floor, one could see students with tense faces, gripping their manuscripts tightly and practicing their speeches repeatedly.

Only Song Xingye leaned back in his chair, twirling a pen in his hand, waiting listlessly for Instructor Li to finish setting up the equipment.

He didn't put in much effort for this "super space project" concept, and he wouldn't dare claim that it was the best of the night.

But I'm confident I can get 30 or 40 points.

With the huge advantage Song Xingye accumulated in the first nine rounds, as long as he reaches this score in the tenth round, first place will be his for the taking.

Since victory is already assured, why bother with a life-or-death struggle?

He leisurely held his phone, occasionally replying to a few QQ messages.

Xu Zhe, who was diagonally opposite, seemed to have also given up his obsession, adopting a "if I can't compete with the boss, I'll just be the eternal runner-up" attitude.

Cao Que, on the other hand, was sweating profusely, seemingly having just discovered a logical flaw in a passage he had written, and was frantically trying to fix it.

When I looked away, Li Ang on the stage had already finished setting up the equipment for the online meeting.

It's not QQ video that they use. For confidential organizations like Dongyu Group, they usually use ZTE conferencing systems and connect via dedicated internal network lines.

Once the camera, codec, and microphone were all turned on, and the lens was focused, several long-unseen faces appeared on the big screen.

General Manager Liang, Engineer Lei, Engineer Lin, and Engineer Chen greeted the students in the conference hall with smiles.

"Seeing this empty classroom is quite poignant."

Mr. Liang glanced at the camera and sighed, "I remember when the summer camp first opened, the first few rows were packed. In the blink of an eye, the competition has turned, and only a few students remain."

Li Ang laughed and said, "After the great waves have washed away the sand, only the most outstanding individuals remain. Today, it's a good opportunity to hear what imaginative ideas these kids have for the future of aerospace engineering."

"Yes," President Liang nodded, "In a few decades, we old folks will all be gone, and this stage will ultimately belong to them. Let's consider today a preview of the future of Dongguo Aerospace!"

Lei Gong quickly spat a few times: "Alright, Lao Liang, stop being so sentimental. The kids are all waiting to give their speeches on stage. They should finish early and go home. Stop nagging."

President Liang chuckled, "Alright, alright, then let's not waste any more time. Li Ang... arrange for the students to give their speeches on stage."

Li Ang responded, picked up the list, and scanned the room with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"To ensure fairness in the evaluation by the four experts, the order of presentations will not be based on the ranking of grades. We will call on students randomly, so that even the students who are ranked last will have the opportunity to go on stage early."

"I'll just randomly pick people. Wang Yang will be the first to speak, and Li Xinrui will be next to prepare..."

Since the judging panel was unaware of the students' rankings, their scoring was free from preconceived biases, and they listened attentively to Wang Yang's speech.

Wang Yang took a deep breath and stepped onto the stage.

Although I was nervous, at least I didn't show my weakness in front of everyone.

Song Xingye rested his chin on his hand and listened with great interest for a while.

I found it quite interesting.

This guy's envisioned mega-space project is "near-Earth asteroid sample return".

The project is quite feasible, and it was indeed successful in the previous life.

Although taking samples from asteroids is a time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly undertaking, if successful, it would mean that humanity could solve the problem of Earth's resource depletion by plundering resources from asteroids, such as precious metals, platinum group metals, and rare earth elements.

Furthermore, once these resources are commercialized, the initial investment can be largely recovered, making it a win-win situation.

However, while Wang Yang had a great imagination, he seemed somewhat hesitant in explaining the technical approach and feasibility during his presentation.

Faced with Mr. Liang's sharp questions on how to reduce space transportation costs, how to develop automated robotic mining technology, and how to establish a space financial system, he stammered and gave a rather vague answer.

In the end, the four senior experts only gave him a score of 60.

"The creativity is acceptable, but the vision is too narrow."

As Mr. Liang aptly pointed out, "Asteroid mining is not just a technical issue, but also a diplomatic one. How should resource ownership be allocated? Can it be claimed as our own? If these major issues are not resolved, the technology is just a castle in the air..."

Then, the second, the third...

Song Xingye listened for a while with his arms crossed, but soon lost interest.

Most people's solutions fall into the category of "brilliant ideas, but terrible logic".

Although this round of assessment does not require detailed blueprints, the technical roadmap and feasibility must conform to basic physical rules and foreseeable technological evolution. Many people's solutions lack coherent logic.

The most outrageous one has let his thoughts wander freely beyond the solar system, and has come up with a "galactic colonization" plan!

In short, when humanity's space travel technology advances to a new level in the future, the solar system will just be a small stepping stone. Humanity will stride towards the Milky Way, explore new "seas of stars," and establish a carbon-based galactic empire!

Leaving aside the question of how humanity would depart from the solar system and use a mothership to select a home among 4000 billion stars, the section on how to leave the solar system alone is riddled with errors.

Song Xingye couldn't help but shake his head.

Migrating from the solar system to the Milky Way?

This is taking too big a step; it's easy to tear your balls.

Take Voyager 1, which set off from Earth decades ago, for example. How fast was it?

17 kilometers per second!

However, it wasn't until 2026 that the high-speed probe had traveled a distance of only one light-day, still a full 365 light-days away from the boundary of the solar system and the outer edge of the Oort cloud!

Even if it flies for another half a century, it will still be circling around its own doorstep.

To completely leave the solar system, it would take at least another 18,000 years to fly out.

By then, the human civilization that built this probe may have already vanished.

Unless humanity develops a spacecraft more efficient than chemical rockets, such as a nuclear fusion rocket, or the Trisolarans suddenly kindly throw a bunch of unheard-of physics formulas at us...

In conclusion, chemical rockets, especially those fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, are the most powerful rockets ever built by humankind.

But there is absolutely no way to get humanity out of this solar system.

On a macroscopic scale of the universe, a mere light-year is enough to trap humanity, like a cage.

When Song Xingye returned from his daydream, Cao Que had already finished explaining his "space elevator" project.

Mr. Liang's evaluation was surprisingly good, believing that if a space elevator could be built, it would be a giant leap forward for humanity.

Xu Zhe, who appeared next, shared a similar approach with Cao Que: to find ways to increase the payload capacity to low Earth orbit and address the shortcomings of chemical rockets.

After all, no matter how fantastical a mega-space project may seem, it ultimately has to come down to reality, requiring us to find ways to launch building materials into orbit.

With only the limited carrying capacity of chemical rockets, a weight of several thousand tons would only account for 5% of the effective payload. It would take forever to complete the project.

A space elevator would be much more convenient.

Xu Zhe believes that the most troublesome part of chemical rockets is the takeoff phase. If electromagnetic catapults are used to replace the booster of the first-stage rocket, a large amount of resources can be saved and costs can be reduced, thereby enabling the production of more rockets.

Mr. Liang nodded approvingly, feeling that his plan was more feasible than the space elevator and also had a lower engineering cost.

Both players scored high marks, and the atmosphere in the arena became increasingly heated.

Li Ang looked at the list in his hand, a smile playing on his lips, and read out the next name:

"Next up, Song Xingye!"

Song Xingye calmly walked onto the stage and, facing General Manager Liang, Engineer Lei, Engineer Lin, and Engineer Chen behind the camera, said with a composed expression:

"My envisioned mega-space project is called—'The Solar Dyson Sphere'!"

The moment he finished speaking, the audience erupted in uproar.

The students' eyes shifted from fatigue to astonishment.

This idea is quite novel.

Mr. Liang said with great interest: "The Dyson sphere was originally a concept mentioned by London writer Olaf in a novel. Later, Dyson made a bold scientific hypothesis and formally proposed the concept."

This is the ultimate romance of engineering, and also a peak that's hard to climb!