Chapter 742 - 715: The Port

Capital, State Guesthouse.

"Celebratory Banquet for the Successful Detonation Mission of Skylight No. 4"

To celebrate the success of the Skylight project and to entertain other foreign aerospace cooperative organizations in Beijing, the Aerospace Development Committee had reserved an entire building here for the banquet.

However, the attendees were not limited to these groups; several private aerospace enterprises were also invited, making the venue extraordinarily lively.

Lin Ju had just finished entertaining a group of guests with toasts when he saw an old acquaintance, Prince Swetan, standing nearby in a crowd, conversing with Zhong Cheng. Noticing his gaze, the prince raised his glass from afar as a gesture.

Lin Ju responded immediately. Since the mission to the Moon, Abe had been somewhat unable to keep up, but he was still an important partner of the Aerospace Development Committee.

Afterward, Lin Ju finally had a moment to relax and began chatting with Long Jiacheng, who was sitting at the same table.

Last year, Long Jiacheng’s Lingxi Space Communication secured significant investment from New Yuan to start constructing the Lingxi Satellite IoT, which has already achieved considerable success to date.

"Mr. Lin, up to now we have launched 2,300 satellites in 80 launch missions, and we plan to double this pace. By 2020, we aim to reach the goal of a network of 10,000 satellites!"

Although Lingxi IoT was positioned to compete with Star Chain for low Earth orbit resources, it didn’t opt for the crude production style of the first-generation Star Chain. Each satellite weighed between 300 and 500 kilograms, and over the past year, they had launched approximately 1,100 metric tons of payload.

This directly propelled Lingxi Company to become a titan in space communication, having begun integrating with the Meridian satellite network and gradually rolling out applications.

The addition of the "Lingxi Net" has made New Yuan’s satellite internet services more convenient, more stable, and faster. New Yuan has already begun to see returns.

Long Jiacheng never missed an opportunity to cling to a strong supporter, continuously reporting to Lin Ju on Lingxi Company’s latest achievements and future plans, prompting the latter to nod frequently.

"The Lingxi Net is doing very well in its current state. Have the prices of medium and small rockets come down?"

"They have dropped as much as they can. We now have four launch contractors and the lowest price for medium rockets has already fallen to 18,000 yuan per kilogram."

The medium rockets Long Jiacheng referred to have a payload capacity between 20 to 30 metric tons. Domestically, the standard for heavy-lift rockets has now been raised to around 50 metric tons.

There was no choice; with New Yuan’s mature technology exportation, the barrier to rocket building had become about the same as car manufacturing, or perhaps even easier. If the Aerospace Development Committee didn’t strictly limit the bottomless price war, some enterprises would already have dared to approach 10,000 yuan per kilogram quotes.

Of course, 10,000 yuan per kilogram would not yield much profit, but times have changed. The demand for commercial aerospace launches in the country has been skyrocketing, reaching a point where profits can be made by playing the volume game.

However, the industry is actually not satisfied because the New Yuan Aero-Space Plane is being commissioned one after the other. Even if they don’t participate in commercial operations now, what about in the future?

According to insider information, the cost per kilogram for pure materials for Cloud Ascend is only 100 yuan!

Although it’s not confirmed, Long Jiacheng absolutely believes in the disruptive capability of the Aero-Space Plane and has dismissed the idea of participating in the rocket market, focusing solely on satellites.

With the Lingxi Net, Lingxi Company has now become the largest satellite manufacturer in the country, and even in the world...

Lin was quite satisfied with this situation. New Yuan exported technology while nurturing the market. Lingxi’s existence proved that the development of private capital was indeed rapid, which further solidified some of his ideas.

"Does Lingxi have any plans to expand its business further?"

Expand? The current satellite network was already overwhelming.

A definitive negative answer immediately rose in Long Jiacheng’s mind, yet when he spoke, it changed to:

"Of course, it’s just that we haven’t identified the right direction yet."

"What’s your opinion on spaceports, I mean the kind that can perform extensive repairs and modifications on large spacecraft and even possess certain on-orbit manufacturing capabilities?"

"Spaceport?!"

Long Jiacheng held his breath, and the moment large spacecraft were mentioned, his thoughts immediately turned to the March, that colossal two-thousand-ton behemoth. By conventional thinking, such large structures could only be serviced and modified by themselves.

If a spaceport were to accommodate it, how many tons would that be, 10,000 tons perhaps? How many resources would it require?

"Yes, a spaceport. I envision it more like a small but comprehensive industrial consortium, ideally with a farming section as well, to be as independent from Earth as possible. But that’s not the most pressing issue."

What Lin Ju described was essentially the future geostationary space station as an end terminal for the space elevator. According to experts from the Academy of Sciences, under the premise of not overstraining national strength, a functional space elevator could be built by around 2030.

By then, most consumables could be transported cheaply from Earth, and only certain high-precision components that rely on microgravity would need to be manufactured in space. But the most important consideration is the assembly of spacecraft.

The year that nuclear fusion propulsion becomes practical coincides with this timeframe. Spacecraft designed for combat objectives naturally could not have the loose configuration of the March; such an assembly method lacks the required maneuverability and orbit-changing capability.

On-orbit assembly, and tightly interconnecting it as a whole by methods such as welding, is the most feasible plan to date. This means that space would require a super shipyard for assembly, rather than the current simple docking approach.

But before that, a smaller experimental spaceport must be built, which would also be suitable for the development of lunar resources and wouldn’t be wasted, providing a training ground for the future super spaceport.

Like the lunar development project, Lin Ju planned to draw the entire industry into the future construction of spaceports and spacecraft, even spreading the supply chain nationwide.

"Apart from building an industrial consortium around the lunar smelting base, the committee might also construct a port-style production/scientific research center in low Earth orbit. My idea is... like a city, you know?"

"I’ve got it. Maybe like a big ring that rotates on itself or a large cylinder, with people living on the walls and the production or research zones in the center without gravity... Mr. Lin, this is monumental. To meet your objectives, we would need to accommodate several hundred or even a thousand people, going by 20 to 30 metric tons of mass quota per person, that’s over 20,000 tons for this megastructure!"

As Long Jiacheng spoke, he shook his head, even thinking he might have misunderstood. Even with abundant resources on the Moon, it shouldn’t be worth expending such effort to construct a colossal spaceport.

"Twenty to thirty thousand tons... actually isn’t that much, is it?"

Lin Ju stated something that left Long Jiacheng dumbstruck and then mused to himself:

"Launching New Yuan No. 4 twenty or thirty times, Starship a hundred times... it really isn’t that much."

In the past, spaceport construction plans were hard to get approved, but now they were necessary. He believed NACA must be thinking the same.

"In October, possibly a little earlier or later, there will likely be an important announcement or an important meeting in the domestic aerospace industry. You can start discussing this idea with others in advance."