Chapter 468 - 459 On-site Inspection_1

"Restore manufacturing?"

Although there wasn’t an official announcement yet, news had already started leaking from America, and it was almost certain to be a done deal.

But Lin Ju’s brow remained furrowed. Considering America’s decades of decentralization, did they really believe they could restore their manufacturing capacity to that of an export industrial nation?

Let alone now when industrial foundations had severely eroded, they couldn’t even prevent the decline of the Great Lakes Industrial Zone in the seventies and eighties, and with their manufacturing capabilities, could they truly compete domestically?

Academician She sighed. He didn’t quite believe it either, but Tesla’s withdrawal from Modu City was basically a fact, and unlikely to be wrong.

"These days, the Rand Think Tank has also been quite active. They summarized the reasons for the failure of Artemis II, believing that, fundamentally, it was the decentralization and subcontracting layers that led to unreliability.

Their report suggests that to compete with us, America needs to restore its own manufacturing and integrate with Europe. I suspect they have already convinced Congress; the recent frequent personnel changes are in preparation for this.

The reason for Tesla’s withdrawal is that John is preparing to mimic our subsidy policy for the automotive industry, only we focus on supporting new energy, and they’re planning to expand to the entire manufacturing sector."

Lin Ju: Black person in shock.JPG

Although it sounded preposterous, on second thought, it seemed quite possible. The funds for subsidies might be massive, but the printing presses surely had enough capacity.

These measures would inevitably consume vast sums of money, far beyond normal fiscal outlays, leaving no choice but to fire up the printing presses.

After all, the Federal Reserve in the original timeline had a history of aggressive money printing, so another two trillion US Dollars was not beyond the realm of possibility.

This would also trigger a series of chain reactions, the most obvious being that the corresponding RMB would also inevitably depreciate, otherwise, the currency would be forced to appreciate.

For the domestic public, this would manifest as rising prices, the devaluation of money, a drop in living standards, and we still haven’t decoupled from the global economy; these impacts are unavoidable!

Wait, the timeline seemed to be converging again!

"If they are going to strengthen trade protection, doesn’t that mean our exports are going to be blocked?"

Lin Ju asked with a headache. This point in time was precisely when exports were at their peak, and they were about to face a direct hit.

Academician She: "Not necessarily... But our domestic demand is also very strong, it shouldn’t be too bad."

"Sir She, I think this matter still needs to be taken very seriously by those above."

...

B-level Base.

"Teacher, is that a space shuttle?"

Zhu Bingguang slightly leaned out from the co-pilot seat to follow the direction and saw the space shuttle, just maintained and covered with a waterproof tarp, being pushed out of the assembly workshop.

The H2’s massive body was even larger than the passenger plane they had flown in on, and the thought that such a huge object could be sent into space was truly staggering.

Before he could enjoy the view for a few more seconds, the car stopped. The base security approached, took the four individuals’ IDs and confidentiality paperwork from the driver, carefully checked them against their faces for verification, and then waved them through with a gesture.

"Heh, this private enterprise is stricter than the military factories we’ve visited. The Shenyang Aviation manufacturing base doesn’t even put on this much of a show."

The student who first spotted the space shuttle complained, only to be immediately rebutted by Zhu Bingguang:

"This is the nation’s most advanced and largest aerospace technology manufacturing base, and it’s a private enterprise with nuclear qualifications. Think carefully about the confidentiality agreement – whatever you see here, you’re not allowed to talk about outside, got it?"

After giving his instructions to the two students, Zhu Bingguang began to ponder how he could sell his proposal.

When the Dawn Plan Scientific Expeditions Station was being built, proposals were solicited nationwide. In the end, the quickest and most conservative integrated cabin type was selected, which involved modifying the current Moon Landers into various living and functional modules that could be connected upon landing to form a rather spacious habitat.

The advantage was that it carried less risk and was technologically proven, and although it wasted some space, it was unprecedented and sufficient for the early stages of work.

However, the 3D printing building solution for Moon Soil led by Harbin Tech under his guidance was unfortunately not chosen. Even though the Aerospace Development Committee still allocated funds for continued research for future use, the progress without a supporting project was just too slow.

But the new moon mining plan from Xinyuan Company rekindled his hope. Xinyuan Company directly solicited solutions from all of society, and any group or enterprise could come to pitch their ideas. If favored, they would not only receive financial support but also technical assistance, so he flew over overnight with his most elite disciples.

His target was the newly proposed Moon highway construction plan. Though the construction of the mining base was a larger project, it lacked concrete details making it difficult to address, but the Moon highway was a defined major project and a sure win if secured.

Gaining entry into the Xinyuan base was not easy; one had to pass a vetting process and sign a non-disclosure agreement, and bringing two disciples was already the limit.

The driver was a base employee who quickly took them straight to the office building, where they waited in a lounge to be called.

They didn’t have to wait long, roughly half an hour later, a stunningly beautiful female assistant called them over, causing the two single doctoral students to briefly exchange glances before lowering their gaze in embarrassment, completely overwhelmed.

Zhu Bingguang wasn’t much better off, though; he just thought it befitting of a super enterprise, where even a secretary had the height of almost 175 centimeters, a face as delicate as a supermodel’s, and a body to match. The senior leadership really knew how to indulge.

It was just that her voice sounded a bit strange, although pleasant to listen to, it felt somewhat off.

The three, dominated by the presence of robot number two, were brought into Ye Changsi’s office, where they found two more people already seated on the guest sofa.

"Old Zhu?"

"Yang Xinjun!"

Sparks flew between the two men immediately, as Yang Xinjun had also participated in the previous competition for the scientific expedition station proposal—a colleague, indeed!

"Sit down, everyone, sit down."

Ye Changsi effortlessly subdued both parties and then got straight to the point.

"Since Professor Yang arrived first, let’s start with your team’s proposal."

Yang Xinjun immediately stood up and began explaining with the help of the office’s projector.

"The solution we’ve brought is a new type of space cement technology based on organic adhesive and Moon Soil and Moon Rock. Its biggest advantage is that all materials can be readily produced on the Moon, with excellent properties and fast setting times.

The organic adhesive can be synthesized using water, carbon dioxide, and some elements abundant in Moon Soil...

...Moreover, we have studied the Moon Soil samples from the Dawn 2 mission, conducting...

...If our solution is adopted, ideally, a 300-kilometer length can be completed within a span of 6 to 8 months."

Ye Changsi simply nodded after listening, then glanced at Zhu Bingguang, signaling him to proceed.

The latter was mentally comparing the strengths and weaknesses of his proposal against Yang Xinjun’s, coming up with some key points while preparing:

"Our team presents a new type of 3D printing technology for road surfaces. Compared to traditional cement solutions, it uses less material and is faster, while also meeting the necessary strength requirements.

We have solved..."

After he also finished, Ye Changsi began asking questions one by one, mainly about some of the issues discovered during multiple lunar missions by the base. Overall, both teams answered well.