Chapter 715 Port
Beijing, State Guesthouse.
"Dinner to celebrate the successful completion of the Tianmu 4 blasting mission"
In order to celebrate the success of the Tianmu project and entertain other foreign aerospace cooperation agencies in Beijing, the Aerospace Development Commission booked a building here for a dinner.
But there were more people present, and many private aerospace companies were also invited, making the entire venue lively.
Lin Ju had just finished entertaining a round of toasts when he saw his old acquaintance Prince Sweetan standing in a crowd not far away and communicating with Zhong Cheng. Seeing his eyes, he raised his glass and gestured from a distance.
Lin Ju also responded immediately. When it came to the lunar mission, Abo was a little behind, but he was still an important partner of the Aerospace Development Commission.
After that, he was barely free and chatted with Long Jiacheng, who was sitting at the same table.
Last year, Long Jiacheng's Lingxi Space Communications won a lot of investment from Xinyuan and began to build the Lingxi Satellite Internet of Things, which has been quite effective so far.
"Mr. Lin, we have launched 2,300 satellites so far and have carried out 80 launches. Next, we plan to double this speed and reach the goal of networking 10,000 satellites in 2020!"
Although Lingxi IoT is positioned to compete with Starlink for low-orbit resources, it did not choose the shoddy production of the first generation of Starlink. The mass of each satellite is about 300 to 500 kilograms. In the past year or so, a total of about 1,100 tons of payload have been launched.
This directly made Lingxi Company a giant in space communications. It has begun to connect with the "Jingwei" satellite network and gradually enter the application.
The addition of "Lingxi Network" makes Xinyuan's original satellite Internet service more convenient, more stable and faster, and Xinyuan has begun to reap the rewards.
Long Jiacheng did not miss any opportunity to hold his thigh tightly, and constantly reported to Lin Ju on Lingxi Company's latest achievements and future plans, and the latter nodded frequently.
"Lingxi.com is doing very well as it is now. Have the prices of small and medium-sized rockets come down?"
"It has come down to the point where it can't go any lower. We now have four launch contractors, and the lowest price for medium-sized rockets has come down to 18,000 yuan per kilogram."
The medium-sized rockets Long Jiacheng refers to are between 20 and 30 tons in capacity. Now China has already subtly raised the capacity standard for heavy-duty rockets to around 50 tons.
There is no way. With the mature technology output of Xinyuan, the threshold for assembling rockets is almost the same as that for making cars, and it may even be easier. If it weren't for the strict restrictions of the Aerospace Development Commission on price wars without a bottom line, I'm afraid some companies would have dared to offer 10,000 yuan.
Of course, you can't make much money with 10,000 yuan per kilogram, but now is different from the past. The demand for commercial space launches in China has been soaring, and it has reached the point where you can make profits by selling in large quantities.
However, the industry is still not satisfied, because Xinyuan's space planes are serving one after another. Even if they are not involved in commercial operations now, what about in the future?
According to gossip, Tengyun's pure material cost per kilogram is only 100 yuan!
Although it cannot be confirmed, Long Jiacheng absolutely believes in the subversive power of the aerospace plane, and has given up the idea of participating in the rocket market, and is focused on satellites.
Relying on Lingxi.com, Lingxi Company is now the largest satellite manufacturing company in China and even in the world...
Lin Ju is quite satisfied with this situation. Xinyuan exports technology and cultivates the market. The existence of Lingxi proves that the development of private capital is still quite rapid, which further confirms some of his ideas.
"Does Lingxi have plans to continue to expand its business?"
Expansion? The current satellite network is already full.
Long Jiacheng immediately had a negative answer in his mind, but when the words came to his lips, they became:
"Of course, we just can't find a definite direction yet."
"What do you think of the space port? I mean the kind of space building that can carry out deep maintenance and transformation of large spacecraft, and even has a certain on-orbit manufacturing capability."
"Spaceport?!"
Long Jiacheng held his breath. When he mentioned large spacecraft, he immediately thought of the Fram, the 2,000-ton behemoth. According to conventional thinking, this large assembly can basically only be repaired and transformed by itself.
If we want a spaceport that can accommodate it, how many tons should it have? Is 10,000 tons enough? How many resources will be needed?
"Yes, I think the spaceport is more like a small and comprehensive industrial complex. It is better to add a planting part to get rid of the constraints of the ground as much as possible, but this is not the most important thing."
What Lin Ju described is actually the synchronous orbit space station that will serve as the terminal of the space elevator in the future. According to the judgment of experts from the Academy of Sciences, it is believed that a practical space elevator can be built around 2030 without hurting the national strength.
By then, most consumables can be transported cheaply by the ground, and only some high-precision devices that rely on microgravity need to be manufactured in space, but the most important thing is to assemble the spacecraft.
The practical age of nuclear fusion propulsion is about the same as this time point. The spacecraft designed for combat targets naturally cannot be a loose configuration like the Progress. Such an assembly method lacks the required maneuvering and changing orbit capabilities.
In-orbit assembly and tight connection into a whole through welding and other methods is currently the most feasible solution, which means that a super shipyard is needed in space for assembly, rather than the current simple docking solution.
But before that, a small experimental spaceport must be built first, which can also be used for the development of lunar resources to avoid waste and serve as a training ground for the future super spaceport.
Like the development of the moon, Lin Ju also plans to bring in the entire industry for the construction of future spaceports and spacecraft, and even spread the supply chain to the whole country.
"In addition to building an industrial complex around the lunar smelting base, the committee may also build a port-style production/research center in the near-Earth orbit. My idea is... like a city, do you understand?"
"I thought about it, maybe it rotates like a big ring, or a big cylinder, with people living on the cylinder wall, and the production area or research area is placed in the center without gravity...
Mr. Lin, this is too big. If you want to meet your goal, you must accommodate at least hundreds or even thousands of people. According to the quota mass of 20 to 30 tons per person, it is also a super creation of more than 20,000 tons!"
Long Jiacheng shook his head as he spoke. He even thought that he had misunderstood. Even if the moon has a lot of resources, it is not worth spending a lot of effort to build such a super spaceport.
"Two to thirty thousand tons... It's not much, is it?"
Lin Ju said something that made Long Jiacheng dumbfounded, and then analyzed it by himself:
"Xinyuan 4 launched twenty or thirty times, and Starship launched a hundred times, which is really not much."
In the past, the spaceport construction plan was of course difficult to pass, but now it must be approved. He believes that NACA is similar.
"In October, maybe earlier or later, there may be important notices or important meetings in the domestic aerospace industry. You can discuss this idea with others in advance."