I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

After the dinner, Lin Ju and Zhong Chengcai reunited after spending the night apart.

"Did the news get out?"

"Absolutely, building a spaceport is too troublesome. If you want to control investment, you must expand the scope of the supply chain as much as possible. If the time is relaxed a little, the spaceport should be delayed until after 2030 instead of before 2030."

Lin Ju kept frowning as he spoke. The space port—or space city, space dock—is really not Xinyuan's idea, but the military's first request.

Again, a space dock is necessary to build a large spaceship. It is too risky to do it in one step, so it is necessary to build a transitional experimental spaceport.

The time span from this experimental spaceport to a formal giant spaceport will take about 10 years, which not only allows time to discover problems but also accumulates experience.

If we take the most robust and cost-effective solution, we would first build a small space elevator. After it runs stably, we can then start building an experimental space port through it, and then build a giant space port.

The time points for doing this should be around 2030, 2035, and 2045, which means that the ability to manufacture combat spacecraft will begin almost from the middle of the 21st century.

But the authorities cannot wait so long. The safety time limit they have set is only 10 years, and they hope to start building spacecraft in 2030, which is at most 12 years from now.

The space elevator requires a lot of basic research. If it is completed in 2030, it will no longer be possible to speed it up. Then we can only speed up other places and build a spaceport without relying on the space elevator.

The time is running out. The experimental space port is required to be completed in 2025, leaving at least five years for familiarity. The formal giant space port will be built in 2030.

The space port will take the lead in building the dock part, and when the dock function is initially ready, the ship will be built at the same time. This will advance the time node to 2035, saving more than 10 years.

If this progress is to be achieved, the spaceport will have to start construction by 2021 at the latest, leaving the spaceport two years to complete the overall design.

Even if it is an experimental spaceport, it has to integrate comprehensive functions such as scientific research, production, planting, living, and electricity. Its complexity is that of a small city. If you have to compare it, it is like an aircraft carrier. The design project is extremely arduous and involves hundreds of people. This industry is simply not something that a talented designer can handle.

The design team must reasonably divide the functional areas, maximize the efficiency of each part, accommodate as many people as possible, and reduce the overall quality as much as possible. What is needed is time.

The space agency and Xinyuan each conducted calculations and found that if it is designed to accommodate 1,000 people according to the standard, the overall weight needs to be no less than 40,000 tons.

As for the giant port for building spaceships in the future, depending on the direction of specialization, its total mass needs to be between 150,000 and 400,000 tons in order to build spacecraft of more than 10,000 tons.

There is no doubt that giant ports can only rely on space elevators, while experimental "small" space ports are stuck at the upper limit of traditional aerospace technology.

Based on Xinyuan 4/Long March 18's single transport capacity of 500 tons, that is a total of 80 times. It would take four years to launch 20 times a year, so we will not choose to launch them all from the earth.

At least a quarter of the mass of the space port is the support frame, which will be produced by the steel complex on the moon in the future, and it will be much easier to transport it from the moon.

But these are still the roughest ideas. In order to build this spaceport, the Aerospace Development Commission first established a design preparatory committee. This temporary committee first organized a large design team, and then the design and assignment of tasks could begin.

However, the design team still cannot cover everything. It will be divided into numerous sub-projects and packaged in categories. The responsible designer will select the contracting unit/enterprise and then carry out detailed design.

Zhong Cheng was already exhausted. In his words, he was "too busy to keep his feet on the ground."

As the agency that coordinates all aerospace forces in the country, the Aerospace Development Commission has gained tremendous power but also faced unprecedented heavy pressure.

"That's good... It's said to be two years, but the preparation alone takes three months. The time left for us is only about 18 months. It takes 18 months to design a space city. In the past, it was just to design a destroyer. time.

Whenever there is a mistake, it will cause heavy losses to the country! "

"But it can't be avoided."

Lin Ju could only sigh. He would definitely encounter a lot of problems if he got on the horse in such a hurry, but there was not much time left for humans at the critical moment, so he could only start running first.

After sighing for a while together, he finally couldn't suppress the doubts in his heart and asked Zhong Cheng:

"Is there any hope for Ami? It's an experiment anyway, and the starship has succeeded. If we can get them on board..."

"It's hard to say, but it's not completely hopeless. The key depends on how sincere Ami can be."

As soon as the spaceport plan was proposed, someone proposed that it be used as an international project to share the pressure, and the only "international partner" that the country could look at was NACA.

But everyone has doubts about NACA's ability, and Lin Ju is not sure now. After all, the current NACA is also very different from the original world line. Not only has it developed a nuclear engine, but it has actually built a giant rocket in two months.

Now SL-X has been called a "monthly rocket" by the Aramco media. In fact, it is not impossible for SpecaX and other military-industrial complex to work hard to launch one rocket every month.

This force can bear at least one-third of the space port's project load, which can greatly alleviate domestic pressure.

Zhong Cheng hesitated for a moment, then continued:

"If I really have this plan, I may need to take a delegation to Aramco to inspect it, see what their current condition is, and conduct an in-depth assessment of their rocket and spacecraft factories."

Lin Ju nodded. Although "Shan Hai" can also do this, the specific evaluation is more reliable by people. Sometimes what is important is not only technology and equipment, but also the human heart is a key factor.

"Then Xinyuan can also go over with a few people, just in the name of exchanging and cooperating with the Tianmu Project. There will be many more actions later."

It has now been eight or nine hours since the second nuclear explosion. If nothing else, Li Wei and Liu Ming have arrived at the explosion area and are collecting data to package and upload.

This explosion caused radio chaos for a full hour, and the entire moon was surrounded by frantic electromagnetic pulses. Some satellites are now out of contact, and the communication system of the "Black Rabbit" space station has also been damaged.

But the results are also eye-catching. According to rough calculations by the space station, the diameter of the explosion crater produced by this explosion is more than 4,400 meters, and the depth is initially estimated to be around 500 meters!

This depth has completely touched the iron ore-based vein layer above the rare earth mineral layer, and the space station has been able to see the exposed mineral deposits through the reflection map!