Reborn in 2010, the AI ​​in my mind is too powerful.

In Hawthorne, Chen Yiran once again visited the SpaceX headquarters.

This was a formal signing. The agreement had already been reviewed countless times by both parties' legal teams. Anyway, there was no media or ceremony, and Chen Yiran and Musk didn't bother to look at it. They just picked up the pen and signed it.

Aurora Group invested $500 million to acquire 15% of SpaceX's shares. An additional agreement stipulated that a unanimous board vote was required for major decisions, necessitating Chen Yiran's approval.

This price is actually a bit too high. If it weren't for the fact that Chen Yiran of Aurora Group has absolute authority and the shareholders wouldn't question it, this price wouldn't have been able to be implemented.

Currently, SpaceX's generally accepted valuation is only around $1.5 billion, and even if the Dragon spacecraft is successful, it will at most reach $3 billion.

Not to mention that Aurora Group will also provide technical assistance to SpaceX, helping them solve some video recognition problems, which can actually be converted into money.

However, more investment means that SpaceX can develop faster, and Starlink can also develop faster, so Chen Yiran became the top sponsor for a while.

After signing the contract, Musk called Chen Yiran to his office and began to explain the company's current situation in detail.

Last time, since they weren't truly on his side, Musk's introduction didn't touch on the key points. Now that the contract has been signed, Musk has told Chen Yiran all the plans for the future.

First, there's the Falcon 9 v1.0, with a low Earth orbit payload capacity of 10.4 tons and a geostationary transfer orbit payload capacity of 4.5 tons. The first stage is equipped with nine Merlin 1C engines, each with a sea-level thrust of 560 kN and a specific impulse of 265 seconds.

The Falcon 9 v1.1 version, which uses Merlin 1D, is expected to be launched in 2013, with a low Earth orbit carrying capacity of 13.1 tons and a geostationary transfer orbit carrying capacity of 4.8 tons.

SpaceX's strategy is clear: it doesn't pursue ultimate performance, but rather ultimate cost-effectiveness.

The current commercial launch price for a Falcon 9 is $54 million. The launch price for a low Earth orbit satellite in the international commercial launch market is between $100 million and $150 million. The main players are Europe's Ariane 5 and Russia's Proton. SpaceX's price has been cut in half.

But the truly profitable strategy is definitely one that recoups assets.

The Falcon 9's first stage recovery plan is powered vertical landing. Four landing legs are added to the bottom of the rocket body, the engine is ignited twice to slow down, and finally it lands vertically on a barge or land landing site.

The software algorithm has been successfully tested in simulations, but actual flight recovery has not yet been attempted.

The latest plan is to build a low-altitude vertical takeoff and landing test aircraft, named the Grasshopper Rocket, which is expected to make its first jump in the second half of this year.

The first stage of the Falcon 9 accounts for approximately 70% of the total cost of the rocket. If it can be recovered and reused, the cost per launch could be reduced from $60 million to below $20 million.

In addition to the Falcon 9, SpaceX is also working on the Falcon Heavy. Three Falcon 9 rockets will have their first stages connected in parallel, with two boosters and a core stage, and a designed low Earth orbit payload capacity of 53 tons.

The biggest technical challenges currently lie in strengthening the core stage structure and controlling the separation timing of the three rockets in parallel. The simultaneous ignition of twenty-seven Merlin engines presents extremely complex issues related to vibration and thrust vector coupling. The maiden flight is expected next year.

The next generation, further down the line, is the Raptor engine, which uses liquid oxygen and methane fuel and has a thrust an order of magnitude greater than the Merlin engine. It is currently still in the pre-research stage.

The advantages of methane are that it produces less carbon residue when burned, making it suitable for reuse. Moreover, methane can be synthesized on Mars using the Sabatil reaction. Therefore, the Raptor was designed as a Mars rocket from the very beginning.

All of the above are things that need to be developed gradually; at this stage, SpaceX doesn't actually have many missions.

The main issue is the commercial resupply service contract signed between SpaceX and NASA. The cargo version of the Dragon spacecraft has already flown through orbit once, during a demonstration mission at the end of 2010, which only entered orbit but did not dock with the space station.

The first docking will take place during the combined Demo 2 and 3 mission of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Service at the end of May. The Dragon spacecraft will fly to the International Space Station to complete the rendezvous and docking. A crewed version is also under development.

The company has six launch missions this year, and that number will double next year. NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract also includes four cargo spacecraft launches, each worth $160 million. Orders for commercial satellite launches are already booked until the year after next.

The company is not currently profitable, but its cash flow has begun to improve. At the current pace, it may achieve annual break-even in 2014.

Chen Yiran knew that the plan above was flawed, or rather, too idealistic, but he didn't say anything. After promising Musk that he would come to watch the Dragon spacecraft launch in May and confirming that he would send people to help optimize the technology, Chen Yiran left.

In the car, Jasmine started mocking Musk.

【╮(╯▽╰)╭ He's so arrogant! They launched the Falcon Heavy in 2013, but it wasn't actually launched until 2018, and you were happily watching the video on Bilibili.】

"That's understandable. We're now the largest shareholder of his company, and possibly the biggest financial backer for many years to come. He'd better try to fool us a bit."

【(๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧ They actually tricked us! Let's get revenge!】

"Revenge my ass! We're counting on him to get the recycling sorted out quickly; we really need Starlink."

Okay, so what about now? Like I said before, can we apply our talents to biology?

"No need. It's too early to work on brain-computer interfaces. Let's get the mechanical aspects right first. How can we dare to release world-changing technology without even having some T800s on hand?"

【⊙▽⊙Okay, so what should we do now?】

"Let's get those two companies sorted out first."

The two companies Chen Yiran mentioned are the third and fourth largest players in the current robot market: Yaskawa Electric of Japan and KUKA of Germany.

The deep-pocketed Aurora Group quickly responded to the two companies' requests to sell themselves. Neither company wanted money; they wanted some Aurora Group stock instead.

Chen Yiran agreed and allocated a small portion of the previously reserved stock pool to them.

The technology of these two companies is still very important. Although they could develop it on their own, the successful acquisition will save at least a year.

Chen Yiran and Jasmine discussed it carefully again and gave some parameters to their various subsidiaries so that they could customize the parts.

He plans to become a master Lego player and build a robot to play with.