Chapter 762 - 732: South Heaven Gate_2

Lin Ju maintained a calm and collected expression, giving Musk a bit of a New Yuan shock.

As he expected, Musk believed that Lin Ju wasn’t bluffing, and after carefully considering how long it would take to prepare a Dragon Spaceship, finally gave him a thumbs up.

"Alright, Lin, I want to see what kind of factory can create such a miracle."

...

The sensation of riding a supersonic jet almost three times the speed of sound was indeed extraordinary; at this velocity, the movement of the ground below was quite noticeable, and from time to time one could feel significant changes in G-forces.

Lin Ju, a pilot himself, was already accustomed to this, but the nearly fifty-year-old Ma obviously still needed to adapt.

However, the first thing he said after getting off the plane was still, "I definitely need to get one of these."

This was his first time at New Yuan’s manufacturing base, and he immediately took the opportunity to look around, although there wasn’t anything special around the runway.

Lin Ju exchanged a look with Ye Changsi from the welcoming team, confirming that the security measures were in place.

The base’s security robots had been temporarily removed, and "Black Stone" was transferred to the Star Ring Research Center for processing; there was no particular risk.

Bringing Ma here was somewhat spontaneous, but it was also purposeful.

The first stop on his tour was, of course, New Yuan’s proudest achievement: the fully automated unstaffed factory.

The workshop filled with various large machining equipment was extremely noisy; even with soundproofing, it was unavoidable, and workers typically needed earplugs to work normally.

Musk had already heard the sound of various machines operating before entering, envisioning a scene with many workers methodically at work, but the reality was eye-opening:

This was a rocket shell manufacturing factory, working on parts of considerable size—Musk estimated that only New Yuan No. 4 could match them.

The 18-meter-diameter giant shells couldn’t be formed in one piece, but even in segments, they nearly filled the entire height of the workshop; the gantry cranes hoisted them mere meters above the ground.

Unlike a regular assembly line, rockets and planes can’t be easily mass-produced due to the size of their parts and unpredictable production volumes, with fewer parts needed, so the workstations are more centralized. Most of the time, it’s the equipment that moves around the parts, and production speed is highly adaptable, with more human intervention required.

But in this rocket shell manufacturing workshop, Musk looked throughout and couldn’t spot a single person moving about, not even an engineer; even the visiting group could only walk within a glass corridor, separated from the machining area.

Amid the working machinery were many robotic arms, methodically completing each step of the process.

"Why put in this, rocket shells don’t require such strict protective measures," Musk said, pointing at the glass above his head.

Ye Changsi: "For stable quality, an unmanned factory needs to eliminate all interfering factors, even tiny dust particles have an impact; this factory adopts the cleanliness standard of precision electronic device manufacturing."

Musk: "But this is mechanical processing, there’s debris everywhere, metal shavings, coolant residue."

Ye Changsi: "If you pay attention, you’ll notice there’s specialized cleaning equipment in place for every aspect."

Musk looked and indeed noticed several quick-moving square boxes on the floor that, much like robotic vacuum cleaners, were cleaning the areas the parts had passed over.

There were also many unfamiliar auxiliary devices; these seemingly simple, yet systematic and large-scale applications of small machines had eliminated the last necessity for human labor, keeping the production environment in optimal condition at all times.

Ye Changsi: "The machinery itself isn’t very important; I’d prefer to show you our OGAS System. We’re currently manufacturing the shell for the CZ-18, and the command for its production was issued from the central computer a week ago, followed by computer-generated procurement orders, supervising the logistics in place and starting to arrange the production of each part.

From aluminum material to the finished shell being placed in our warehouse, once it enters New Yuan, there is no need for human participation."

"What about if there is a need to modify the process?"

"Then we would adjust the equipment through the computer, what humans can do, machines can also do."

Musk: "How long does it take to produce this rocket?"

Ye Changsi: "The second CZ-18 is scheduled to launch on November 15, sending 200 tons of supplies to Mars, half of which is liquid hydrogen fuel."

It takes at least 25 days to transport from New Yuan to launch, meaning starting from scratch, it only takes 50 days to produce a super huge rocket.

The delivery speed of Starships is lower than this, but that’s the result of multiple production lines working at the same time, such as the T34 tank with a total of 10,000 working hours, which doesn’t mean it actually takes 416 days to deliver one.

The CZ-18, such a behemoth, is definitely produced one by one, with most parts being made from scratch. This means that the working hours for the CZ-18 are frighteningly low, or the production efficiency is astonishingly high.

An unstaffed factory can continue running nonstop as long as there are no malfunctions, further combined with the inherently high efficiency of machinery, which enables New Yuan to create massive output in a short time.

As Musk was stunned and rapidly calculating in his mind, Lin Ju seized the opportunity to continue:

"The OGAS System has already achieved complete success at New Yuan, and I am having Xin’an build an equally automated automobile factory. After that, we’ll gradually replace human-intensive industries with AI, continuously reducing costs and increasing efficiency. The cars produced by a fully automated factory may come off the line next year."