Chapter 967: Space Industry

"What is that?"

When the live broadcast camera turned toward a rocket.

Everyone was shocked.

Big, too big.

Enormously huge.

Not only were the people in the live broadcast room shocked, but even Yang Zhuhai and Yang Nuomi, who had been prepared, were shocked speechless.

"This is too big."

Yang Zhuhai looked at the accompanying Tianzhou person.

The other party showed a professional smile.

"This is the giant rocket we are currently testing."

"It is intended to serve lunar landings."

"This is an experimental rocket."

Diameter 10.6 meters, height 80 meters.

So far, the experiments have failed eight times and succeeded once.

We are still far from finalizing the design.

Moreover, the matching cargo spacecraft, manned spacecraft, and integrated spacecraft have not yet been successfully developed.

Moreover, we intend to develop a matching reusable space shuttle-type spacecraft.

Used to transport cargo, transport fuel, and even, once the technology matures, to transport people.

Therefore, just for the matching systems, we may need to research six types of spacecraft.

This is a relatively long-term goal.

The rocket is merely a beginning.

The difficulty of manned spacecraft is very great.

And the larger it is, the more difficult.

The larger it is, the more problems need to be solved.

For example, the larger it is, the greater the kinetic energy upon atmospheric reentry; relying solely on a deceleration parachute already makes effective deceleration difficult.

This requires designing a more complex deceleration function.

This is one of the original intentions in designing the space shuttle: it can effectively accomplish deceleration and recovery.

The research on these matching systems will be a relatively lengthy process.

Initially, this huge thing can only be used for cargo transport.

When it can truly be used to transport people, who knows how long we'll have to wait—until the distant future.

But Yang Zhuhai and Yang Nuomi don't know that.

They only think this rocket is also too big.

How much can it carry?

"Using this rocket, couldn't we lift an entire space station in one go?"

"If it were to transport a hotel, that would be a hotel ten meters in diameter—how many people could it accommodate?"

"This is meant for lunar migration, right?"

"Current space activities have no use for it."

"When it can finally be used at full power, who knows how many years later that will be."

Yang Nuomi is daydreaming.

"This rocket wouldn't be used to build that kind of large space station that can rotate to generate artificial gravity, would it?"

"With artificial gravity, wouldn't astronauts be able to stay in space for long periods?"

"If I used it for a Mars landing, wouldn't that be better?"

Don't say that; her idea is not without reason—on the contrary, it makes a lot of sense.

The Tianzhou person was surprised for a moment, then thought about it.

"I'll note your idea and tell our colleagues about it when I get back."

"Perhaps after the giant rocket research succeeds, we will have more things to do."

"If such a long-distance migration spacecraft were truly practical, future exploration of Mars, Venus, and Mercury could be much more comfortable."

"If humans live long-term in weightlessness, it will cause space sickness."

"When returning to the ground, it will be very dangerous."

"If a rotating artificial gravity system could be realized, it could well solve this problem."

"This is important for us to undertake long-term space stays."

"This will become an important support for building our space factory."

The people in the live broadcast room.

"It's getting more and more outrageous; he actually seriously thought about it."

"No way; could the space age really be coming?"

"The space factory is already being set up; the more we talk, the more absurd it sounds."

"I feel the most suitable place to build a factory would be on the Yueqiu; Earth is not suitable."

"The space factory should mainly serve space exploration; for example, moving the factory that manufactures spacecraft to the Yueqiu would allow us to mass-produce spacecraft, which would be much cheaper than transporting them from Lanxing."

"Only when the space elevator is built will a space factory in orbit above Lanxing make sense."

"The key is, without transporting goods back, how can we generate profit? Without profit, where is the drive for a new age of sail? How can we support its continued development?"

Everyone, don't forget, the fundamental cause of the Age of Discovery is profit; without profit, who would invest so much?

Speaking of profit, I feel that fusion fuel helium-3 will be an important profit point.

As long as fusion technology achieves a breakthrough, humanity's demand for fusion fuel will explode; especially with the arrival of artificial intelligence, our demand for electricity will keep growing, and helium-3 will be an important future support.

Moreover, the low temperature on the Yueqiu's far side is the perfect application scenario for superconductors; if a superconducting computing center is built, its importance for scientific exploration will be enormously huge.

Moreover, the Yueqiu also has inexhaustible solar energy, perfect for powering the computing center.

Furthermore, deploying robot technology on the Yueqiu, with mutual empowerment, can bring earth-shaking changes to lunar development.

Although bringing it back is costly, we humans can go out.

When we leave Earth, each spacecraft is an astronomical amount of wealth.

Yes, if humanity leaves Lanxing, everything created beyond Lanxing will be immeasurable wealth.

Especially under space competition, the profits from extraterrestrial creations will be astonishing.

The premise of all this is the establishment of a lunar factory.

I don't think Tianzhou can possibly do it.

Isn't it foolish? Tianzhou is still doing space tourism; that's a small, steady stream of business.

I'm saying, if fusion really succeeds, how much would it be worth if Tianzhou transported ten tons of helium-3 from the Yueqiu each year?

It should be worth about 60 billion US dollars.

Is this money enough for Tianzhou to continue investing?

It should be enough.

But the initial investment is too large; building a factory on the Yueqiu could cost over trillions of US dollars.

It's completely not worth it.

Foolish, once occupying the region richest in helium-3, it can be developed for several hundred years; the initial investment is large, but later profits are even greater.

I'll interject, your estimated cost is based on today's costs.

Tianzhou landing on the Yueqiu and then starting construction is already something that will happen ten or even twenty years in the future.

In the future we might have Red Alert Base Vehicles built; just launch the base vehicle over, and we don't need to manage it; they can develop on their own.

What you consider impossible might be a very simple technology in the future.

Look at how powerful current 3D printing technology is; in ten years, maybe everything can be printed.

Also bring a robot, and it can assemble itself.

If such a thing can truly be realized, that would be a multiplicative effect.

What problem can't be solved? The cost could be much lower than we imagine.