Chapter 381 - 373 Part 3_1

Granting oneself a flight permit was of course fake; every manned launch required the approval of the Aerospace Development Committee’s standing committee meeting, and it wasn’t a decision one person could make alone.

Especially for such a large-scale personnel transport, Lin Ju knew without thinking that it would definitely involve a lot of disputes over many days.

However, the discussion period could last about half a year, and he felt it was still possible to find a way through, as long as each flight mission went off without a hitch.

...

B-level Base.

Yang Wei, dressed in a leather jacket, entered the canteen with researchers from the 601 Institute.

Although it was not his first time at the base, the appeal of the base canteen had not diminished for Yang Wei.

To maintain the lives of nearly ten thousand people at the base, there was one main canteen and two branch canteens, which consumed a huge amount of supplies daily and provided a rich variety of meals.

Since Lin Ju usually dined generously at various windows, the chefs’ skills in the canteen were quite high, with even two state banquet chefs on site, offering special dishes from all over China, Western meals, Chinese meals, Indian meals, etc. — of course, the last chef was not Indian.

The reason for Yang Wei’s visit to the base was a minor divergence in the design of the mechanical part of the Cloud Ascend project. Although Xie Liaofu was the chief designer, since it wasn’t a project by the base itself, it had to consider national industrial support, requiring some compromises.

For the base, the Cloud Ascend project meant that all main body parts could be manufactured in-house, but for the domestic industry, it posed a whole new challenge, with design offices from across the country participating in the project.

As Yang Wei ate his bun, he was also discussing issues with the researcher from the 601 Institute when his eyes suddenly slanted, and he furrowed his brow.

"What’s wrong, Mr. Yang?"

The researcher opposite him also followed his gaze and saw that not far away, a group of people had surrounded a "woman" with a good figure, pointing and jabbing at her body, even touching her chest and buttocks!

However, the bystanders seemed indifferent, and Yang Wei immediately stood up.

"What are you doing!"

Yang Wei yelled and was about to rush over but was tightly held back by the researcher from the 601 Institute, who forcefully made him sit down.

"Calm down, Mr. Yang, that’s not a person, it’s a robot.

You haven’t been to the base in a while, right? It’s normal not to have seen it; that’s the bionic robot they developed, not a real person."

After a series of explanations, seeing that Yang Wei was still incredulous and confused, he had no choice but to walk over with him.

The voices of the group were not quiet, and Yang Wei could hear them even before he approached.

"... Minister Chen, let us represent, our market distribution capability is absolutely top-notch!"

The speaker was a somewhat lean middle-aged man who seemed to be quite old, currently gesticulating wildly and incessantly holding the "beauty’s" hand:

"Shang Ai has been rooted at the grassroots since its establishment in ’92, step by step reaching today with hundreds of thousands of stores nationwide, countless franchisees, and our technical strength is also world-class. Look at this bionic skin, it’s virtually identical to that of a real person..."

In front of him, Chen Xuan bowed her head, grabbing her hair, her toes nearly poking through the soles of her shoes.

"Well... Mr. Wang, we don’t have a commercial plan for this yet, as it’s still far from commercial application."

"Not at all, not at all! This Xinxin is already very mature. There is no difference between her and a real person. She is a revolutionary product that will overturn history!"

Wang Guanming’s expression was extremely exaggerated, making Chen Xuan feel even more embarrassed, thinking that the decision to bring him to the base was a mistake.

The Shang Ai Group is a long-established... adult products company, but indeed the foremost in the country. In recent years, it has also led the world in developing highly realistic skin materials that could be confused with human skin, which the base had commissioned them to tailor-make.

Thanks to the ample budget for the number two robot project, the bio-inspired skin used looked indistinguishable from the real thing at a glance, even the face was hard to differentiate from a distance, and there was barely any odor. The tactile sensation was also remarkably similar to that of a human.

The number two project—that is, the lifestyle butler—had reached a fairly mature stage. After installing the base’s 600wh power battery, the overall weight was kept under 90 kilograms with a height of just 1.75 meters.

The weight was unavoidable; the alloy frame and the motors and hydraulic apparatus themselves were not light, with the battery weighing up to 35 kilograms. Consequently, although the number two robot had a slender form, carrying it was going to be rather difficult.

To save on costs and increase battery life, the strength of the number two robot was only on par with that of an average woman. However, they successfully extended the operational time to four hours. If put into mass production, the cost could be roughly controlled at around 1.5 million yuan.

But the base did not currently plan on mass production; they only intended to continue refining the project. They’d invited the Shang Ai Group for a collaborative design on the body, and unexpectedly, the company’s boss himself came over and discovered one of the number two robots that was learning from big data in the cafeteria.

There were already 10 number two robots in the base progressively being used, continuously learning and integrating into human life. This one was named "Xinxin," and then it was spotted by Wang Guanming, who couldn’t take his eyes off it, insisting he had to obtain its distribution rights.

Yang Wei, who slowly learned the truth from them and the researchers at the 601 Institute, looked at the standing Xinxin, who obediently remained in place, blinking occasionally, moving her eyeballs, or slightly altering her stance. If one did not look carefully, how could one tell she was a machine!

Don’t understand, but greatly shocked. JPG

What on earth doesn’t New Yuan make!

...

Elon Musk crawled into the Manned Dragon Spacecraft, lying on the seat and pressing down vigorously, then checked underneath it.

"You must check the seat’s fixation thoroughly; we cannot afford to make simple mistakes!"

The group of workers around nodded solemnly; the safety of the seat was no trivial matter.

A month had passed since the Dragon Spacecraft’s inaugural manned flight, and on the second flight mission, there was a special passenger: Ma himself.

The world’s three leading private space agencies, with SpaceX ranking second in strength, and its founder was the last one to go to space. However, most SpaceX fans don’t consider Jeff Bezos’s suborbital rocket to count as a true spacecraft.

But after an issue with the seat fixation in the New Shepard caused Jeff to fracture his tailbone, Ma specially requested the addition of a new fixation mechanism for his second flight mission, to ensure he could be securely fastened.

After personally inspecting the spacecraft, Ma picked up his phone, stood in front of the hatch, took a photo, and tweeted it with the caption:

"10 hours, everything is ready."

Having done all this, he said with a smile to his assistant nearby:

"This flight mission will also have only four people, but next time we’ll send six. Then, you—and all of you—will get a chance to go.

Moreover, we’ll visit the International Space Station. Honestly, I wanted to check it out this time, but their docking ports were all occupied, which is really a pity."