Chapter 535 - 524 Third Cycle_1

Wu Yunfeng’s feelings were something Ye Changsi could very well understand; in fact, most researchers were like this, sometimes constrained only by their era.

TEPA had resolved Wu Yunfeng’s greatest inner conflict, and he turned to face the setting sun, spreading his arms wide:

"Long live high-energy physics!"

Shouting this out made him feel exhilarated. He closed his eyes to bask in the last warmth of the sun, which was surprisingly comforting.

Ye Changsi had stood behind him for quite a while until the sun was about to set completely before he came alongside him and asked softly,

"The challenge with TEPA isn’t technological. There isn’t a significant technical barrier between ten trillion and a hundred trillion electron volts. The Institute of High Energy wouldn’t possibly waste your valuable intellectual efforts on manufacturing experimental machinery."

Wu Yunfeng’s face stiffened, just having calmed his emotions—of course, this was true.

Building an accelerator wasn’t really something the Institute of High Energy needed to be hands-on with; therefore, before the completion of TEPA, they could only wait, no different from the present.

At The World Things Association, scientists planned a ten-year construction period for TEPA, to be completed by 2028, followed by 2 to 5 years of tuning, aiming to be operational before 2033.

During these ten or so years, the High Energy Physics Institute and scientists worldwide hoping to use TEPA could only wait, or try to unearth something more with the LHC, nothing more.

"Perhaps... this is the regret of people like us."

Wu Yunfeng eventually uttered only this before he turned to Ye Changsi with a wry smile,

"You’re different from us. New Yuan has so many tasks at hand, the Moon, Mars. By 2030, will you have already launched a Jupiter spacecraft? I truly envy you all."

"That may be the case, but there are many difficulties involved. Do you know what the biggest problem in space is for us?"

Wu Yunfeng furrowed his brow and thought for a while. After dismissing several answers in his mind, he ventured a guess:

"Distance, or rather, time."

Ye Changsi nodded seriously and then, looking straight ahead, spoke in a subdued, hurried tone,

"Quantum communication, not through quantum encryption, but through quantum entanglement synchronized communication.

We’ve made some preliminary preparations, as you understand."

Due to his position, Wu Yunfeng couldn’t use the base-issued mobile phones. It took him a few seconds to comprehend what Ye Changsi was suggesting.

In an instant, both loss and excitement were evident on his face: he was thrilled that the mystery of quantum synchronized communication was being unraveled, but he felt even more wistful about their dependency on TEPA—if only the system had directly given them the grand unified theory, it certainly must exist!

"Are you suggesting... you want me, no, the entire High Energy Physics Institute, to get involved in quantum communication?"

"Exactly. Although we have grasped only a little so far, it’s enough to serve as a starting point. Ten years, with the inclusion of the entire Institute of High Energy, we will definitely master this technology. Its significance is no less than that of TEPA, perhaps even greater."

"Moreover, the Institute will also see practical applications and outcomes, no longer being a place that just burns through money."

Wu Yunfeng murmured this to himself. Practical applications and outcomes were an enduring ache for the Institute. If there were definite results to be had, it was imperative to seize the opportunity.

"What are they planning to do?"

Ye Changsi said, "I’ll seize an opportunity to publish an internal reference paper. Then you can take your team and, under the guise of our TEPA collaboration, do some private work. I estimate that in at most a year or two we’ll be able to carry out a feasible proof-of-concept experiment. By then, we can immediately switch to a collaborative project and finish it off together."

Wu Yunfeng replied, "Send it to me on paper when you get back tonight. I’m very interested in it."

...

Florida.

It has been over two months since Starship’s second failure, and SpaceX, faced with immense pressure, worked overtime to finalize the improvements of the B10 booster and SN20.

But the main focus was still on the B10 booster. The second-stage Starship Spacecraft was a reusable payload transportation vehicle that would eventually carry people, complicating the design work, and it had yet to undergo an orbital test.

The first-stage booster was a different story altogether. As long as it was successful, any upper stage could be installed on it with ease, such as the "Centaur VI" currently under development by General Dynamics, equipped with three RL-10C high-performance hydrolox engines that, in combination with a super heavy booster, could send a 180-ton payload into low Earth orbit.

When combined, they formed a colossal rocket with a takeoff mass of over 4,500 tons and a thrust of more than 6,000 tons. Moreover, the first stage could be recovered—or if not, it was still very cheap.

NACA was now urgently in need of a viable super heavy-lift launch vehicle and had assured that as long as the first-stage booster completed all its objectives and separated successfully, regardless of the performance of the Starship, NACA would immediately place a one-time order for five units.

At this point, Musk’s Starship Factory had three units in stock, each priced at only 250 million US dollars, and five units cost just 1.25 billion dollars!

Even when adding the extremely expensive "Centaur VI" upper stage, valued at 170 million, a full rocket cost only 420 million dollars, which met the initial target for SLS—this was the real SLS!

And NACA was well aware that the mass production costs of the "Raptor V1" engines were capped at 2 million US dollars each, so thirty-three engines represented an expense of just over 60 million dollars, making it possible for SpaceX to reap substantial profits.

By way of comparison, the cost calculated for Boeing’s third SLS was 2.5 billion US dollars, which was an exorbitant price to pay.

Especially since the production of Starship boosters was especially fast, delivering one rigorously inspected, problem-free first-stage unit per month was no issue.

With these boosters, NACA could engage in a robust competition with their overseas counterparts, affording to launch a rocket costing less than 500 million US dollars every month!

Now, the Starship combination, brimming with high hopes and dubbed "Gen 3," stood tall on the launch pad, with all preparations complete, waiting just for a launch command.

However, Ma was not present in control this time around. He was still in Washington.

Starship functioned the same, with or without him. Still, the discussions happening in Washington were about an extremely important project—the Aero-Space Plane.

After Cloud Ascend’s maiden flight, members of Congress were the first to flare up in anger, including a few who were especially incensed enough to roar their frustration, as they had invested in Virgin Galactic Company, which specialized in suborbital tourism with "Aero-Space Planes."

Virgin Galactic initially targeted the low-end market with tickets priced at only 250,000 US dollars. However, with the advent of a true Aero-Space Plane, the company was utterly outmaneuvered, with no direction left for business growth.

Blue Origin, which also targeted suborbital operations, was faring relatively well. Bezos had deep pockets and a diversified business to sustain the company; it was the smaller firms that suffered immensely.

Furthermore, following the appearance of Cloud Ascend, those earlier projects claiming to be "Aero-Space Planes" no longer dared to flaunt that title. Cloud Ascend had firmly established the standard that "Aero-Space Planes must be single-stage-to-orbit," and newcomers couldn’t boast carelessly anymore.

This time, Congress proactively proposed the immediate development of an Aero-Space Plane better-suited to the Yankee constitution. It had to possess that sci-fi allure, and they shamelessly named the project "SSTO."

While SpaceX lacked a reserve of aviation technology, it was indisputably America’s leading space company and was naturally among those invited to the bidding process.