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

On September 11, Musk arrived in Shanghai to once again negotiate for Tesla to build a factory.

The first few times, some results finally came to fruition, but due to several bills introduced by John, Tesla had to abandon this plan and implement the idea of ​​the Magic City Super Factory in Aramco.

However, this transformation did not go smoothly at all. John's federal finance could afford subsidies, but it could not give Musk extremely high construction efficiency. After so long, the progress was still slow.

After hearing the "gossip", Musk took action directly, hoping to confirm this "gossip" from the attitude of the Chinese people.

On the 11th, 12th, and 13th, Musk walked around the city three times and got the answer he wanted.

…

"Musk wants to see me?"

Lin Ju looked at the diplomatic staff who came to inform him with some surprise, but after thinking about it he replied:

"Okay, but I'm only free tomorrow and the next two days. I'll be going back to Xinyuan soon."

The staff member who came to inform him nodded, and then reminded him in a friendly way:

"Mr. Elon said he sent a private message to your Twitter, but you didn't reply to him."

"..."

Of course Lin Ju didn't know about this. He usually didn't look at the background of social software now. When he opened it, he was bombarded with endless information.

"Elon doesn't have much time. He will fly back to Amei tomorrow night and fly to Beijing tonight, so he should come here tomorrow morning."

"No problem...can I ask about Tesla?"

"Of course, it's not a secret. We have negotiated in Shanghai and the Tesla Gigafactory will be put into production in 2019. I estimate that Tesla's stock has started to rise, but I don't know how much."

The staff's attitude was very pertinent, but Lin Ju's heart was already touched.

What was supposed to come finally came, and the secret agreement between the two countries allowed the Magic City Super Factory to be successfully launched. The original world line relied on this incident, and Tesla's stock price soared, putting Lao Ma on the throne of the world's richest man.

However, it is unlikely this time. In addition to Xin'an's advance in intensifying the domestic new energy revolution, there is also a huge obstacle for Musk to become the richest man: Bezos, the current richest man.

Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and Amazon.com, formerly known as World Line, became the world's richest man in 2018. After divorcing his wife in 2019 and dividing a large amount of property, he still maintained the position until he was overtaken by Lao Ma.

Today’s Bezos is different. Blue Origin relies on the Artemis program to make a splash in the lunar program. Blue Origin, which was originally unreliable, has successfully become regularized through the lander project. In addition to Boeing and SpecaX The third largest aerospace company outside China.

Their BE-4 engine has also begun to stabilize, and the "New Glenn" rocket is ready for launch next year and will become a large reusable rocket second only to Starship.

But Musk is not bad either. SpecaX is also growing rapidly because of NACA's support, and it might still acquire Twitter in the end.

Lin Ju: "Did he say what he wanted to do with me?"

"It seems to be about space and smart cars."

The staff said nonsense.

…

"Forest!"

Musk held Lin Ju's hand tightly, obviously very happy to see the latter at the airport.

The two hugged each other like friends, but Musk is actually 21 years older than Lin Ju, but there was no sense of incompatibility between the two walking together, as if they were of the same generation.

Musk was a little touched that Lin Ju personally picked him up at the airport, and he immediately expressed his intention to ride in the same car with Lin Ju.

However, the other party's answer surprised him:

"No, we don't take the car, we take that."

Musk looked in the direction of his finger and saw a C810 ready to take off.

"It only takes 30 minutes to get to Xinyuan from here, which is faster than going to the guest house in Beijing."

Lin Ju's intention was already obvious and he was willing to take him to visit the Xinyuan Base. Musk was just stunned for a moment and immediately became excited. Then he immediately noticed the expressionless face of the accompanying diplomats and asked in a low voice:

"They don't look like they want to do that very much."

"This is already the result of my concession. I originally wanted to take you on a space plane. The Tiangong Space Station has a large section that can be used for business receptions."

Both of them communicate in English. In actual communication, foreigners like to use abbreviations and simple vocabulary expressions. Almost no sentence is grammatical. As long as no professional vocabulary is involved, communication is quite easy.

When Musk heard "Space plane" and "Tiangong", he didn't even react. It took him a long time to realize what he was talking about and asked:

“Is it easy to go to space with a space plane?”

Three of the Tengyun series aerospace aircraft have been put into service so far, and the remaining three are also progressing rapidly, but the outside world does not actually know much about the specific content.

NACA and the Arab Air Force did not believe in the propaganda. Not only was there little information, but the narrative was vague. It was completely an outsider’s report, and information such as maintenance costs and time were unclear.

In Musk's mind, the newly emerged aerospace plane should also be extremely expensive and sophisticated, more delicate than the space shuttle. It can only show high efficiency due to the crazy budget burning of China's aerospace industry.

But looking at Lin Ju's performance, it seems that this is not the case.

"Hahaha... Elon, if I want to go to space now, it will only take three hours from the ground staff to prepare it to fly into the sky. Half of the time is due to fuel refueling. Overall, the workload and maintenance are the same. About the same as a Boeing 747.

I was serious just now. Xinyuan is not only moving its industry and R\u0026D centers to space, but also has the idea of ​​moving its management center. This is a very grand plan. "

Lin Ju kept his calm expression and gave Musk a little shock.

The result was as he expected. Musk believed that Lin Ju was not bragging and carefully thought about how long it would take to prepare a Dragon spacecraft before finally giving his thumbs up.

"Okay, Lin, I want to see what kind of factory creates such a miracle."

…

The feeling of riding a passenger plane at nearly three times the speed of sound is indeed extraordinary. At this speed, the ground below is moving at an extremely obvious speed, and you can feel obvious changes in the G value from time to time.

Lin Ju, who is a pilot, has long been used to it, but Ma, who is almost fifty years old, obviously still needs to adapt.

But his first words after getting off the plane were still "You must get one for me."

This was his first time coming to Xinyuan's manufacturing base. He immediately took the opportunity to look around, but there was nothing special around the runway.

Lin Juze and Ye Changsi in the welcoming team looked at each other to confirm that confidentiality measures were in place.

The security robots in the base have been temporarily removed, and the "Black Stone" has been transferred to the Halo Research Center for processing. There is no special risk.

There is a certain element of excitement in bringing Lao Ma here, but it also has a purpose.

The first stop we took him to visit was, of course, the fully automated and unmanned factory that Xinyuan is most proud of.

Factory buildings filled with various large-scale mechanical processing equipment are extremely noisy, even if sound insulation facilities are installed, workers generally need earplugs to work properly.

Before Musk went in, he heard the sound of various types of machinery operating, and pictures of a large number of workers working in an orderly manner emerged, but the actual situation opened his eyes:

This is a processing plant for rocket casings, and the parts being manufactured are quite terrifying in size. Musk visually estimated that only Xinyuan 4 can match it.

The oversized shell with a diameter of 18 meters cannot be formed in one piece, but even if it is disassembled, it occupies almost the entire height of the factory. When the gantry crane grasps them, it is only a few meters above the ground.

Different from ordinary assembly lines, rockets and airplanes are difficult to produce due to the volume of parts, and the output is unstable and the demand is small, so the work stations are relatively concentrated. Most of the time, the processing equipment rotates around the parts, and the production speed can be flexibly adjusted. There are many manual participation links.

But in this rocket casing processing workshop, Musk looked around and saw no human beings walking around, not even an engineer. Even the visiting group could only walk around in the glass corridor, separated from the processing area.

There are a large number of manipulators mixed in various types of machinery at work, completing each process in an orderly manner.

"Why do you want to set this up? The rocket shell does not need such strict protective measures."

Musk pointed to the glass above his head and asked his first question.

Ye Changsi: "In order to maintain stable quality, unmanned chemical factories need to eliminate all interfering factors. Tiny floating dust can also have an impact. This factory adopts purity standards for precision electronic device processing."

Musk: "But this is machining, and there are scraps, metal shavings, and coolant residue everywhere."

Ye Changsi: "If you pay more attention, you can see that professional cleaning equipment is handling every aspect."

Musk looked over and found several rapidly moving small square boxes on the floor, cleaning the floor where the workpiece had been moved like a sweeping robot.

There are also a large number of unknown auxiliary equipment. It is these seemingly simple, but actually systematic and large-scale small machines that solve the last necessity of human labor and always keep the production environment in the best condition.

Ye Changsi: "The machinery and equipment are not very important. I would rather show our OGAS system. What is being produced is the casing of the Long March 18. The order to produce it was issued from the central computer a week ago, and then the computer issued the purchase order. Supervise the logistics in place and start arranging all parts of the production work.

From the aluminum to the finished casing being placed in our warehouse, no human involvement is required as long as it goes into Xinyuan. "

“What if the process needs to be modified?”

"Then we adjust the equipment through computers. What humans can do, machines can do too."

Musk: “How long will it take to produce this rocket?”

Ye Changsi: "The second Long March 18 is expected to be launched on November 15, sending 200 tons of supplies to Mars, half of which is liquid hydrogen fuel."

It takes at least 25 days from shipment to launch of Xinyuan, that is, starting from scratch, it only takes 50 days to produce a super giant rocket.

The delivery speed of starships is lower than this, but that is the result of multiple production lines working at the same time. For example, the total working hours of a T34 tank is 10,000 hours, but it does not mean that it takes 416 days to actually deliver one.

A giant object like the Long March 18 must be produced one piece at a time, and most of the parts are made from scratch. This means that the working hours of the Long March 18 are horribly low, or the production efficiency is astonishingly high.

As long as there are no faults, the unmanned factory can continue to operate around the clock. Coupled with the high mechanical efficiency, this has created the miracle of Xinyuan's ability to create huge output in a short period of time.

While Musk was stunned and calculating rapidly, Lin Ju seized the opportunity and continued:

"The OGAS system has achieved complete success in Xinyuan. I am asking Xinan to build a similarly unmanned automobile factory. After that, we will let AI gradually replace industries with an excessive proportion of manual labor and continue to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Cars produced through fully automated factories may roll off the assembly line next year.”

Musk, who witnessed Xinyuan's production model, continued to accept the impact. He suddenly realized that AI was developing rapidly on the land under his feet, and it had far surpassed the world.

He also recalled the news last month that Xin'an obtained autonomous driving qualifications. Tesla currently does not have similar technology.

The keyword AI was deeply imprinted on his mind, stronger than ever before.

"Lin, you grabbed the future first."

Numerous thoughts suddenly came to Musk's mind. He pulled Lin Ju excitedly and started talking, completely unaware of Ye Changsi's silent smile.

He speculated that Musk's original purpose may have been to test the rumored market opening plan between the two countries, but Lin Ju did not intend to answer this question, so he grabbed the topic first.

AI is attractive enough and is what Xinyuan wants to promote most. It is quite appropriate to use Musk, a hugely influential figure, as the entry point.

…

Beijing, Aviation Development Commission.

While Lin Ju was working hard to fool Musk, the Aviation Development Commission headquarters was also quite lively.

Zhong Cheng not only summoned almost all the private aerospace companies that ranked high on the list, but also brought over many leading companies that cooperated with United Mining and all the leading companies in various industries.

Even though the requirements were very strict, there were still about 300 people present, spanning various industrial fields, and together they could almost represent China's industry.

This lineup has far exceeded the scope of the Aviation Development Committee's functions, but now the upper management has returned to the state of special handling. As long as the report is passed, it will have temporary power.

But this situation will not last long, and adjustments are being made to address changes in future work focus.

Nowadays, many problems have arisen in the work of the Space Force, the Space Administration, and the Aerospace Development Commission. The upper-level management does not have clear rules and regulations, and they all rely on a few heads to communicate with each other. This is not only tiring but also has many consequences.

The investment in space resources involves a national issue, and it would be more dangerous to simply hand it over to a certain department, so the committee is still preparing.

Just like what Zhong Cheng is seeing now, future space development will basically cover all industries. The new organizational structure will have the ability to influence the whole country, but the main focus of work is still space, and the space force, aerospace force, and aerospace industry must be allocated. different areas of work of the bureau.

At the same time, the biggest purpose of this new organization is to establish a solar system defense system to block possible invasion by alien civilizations, so it is actually being pursued by both the military and civilians.

If Zhong Cheng's guess is followed, the new organization may have some characteristics of a planning committee. Even if it enters full preparations for war in the future, it is not impossible to become a planning committee again.

On this basis, it also coordinates the military, and its influence is absolutely unprecedented.

But separation is even more unreasonable. The two are inseparable in the space field. Separation will lead to serious waste of resources. This is the only way to do it.

That's why the higher-ups haven't finalized the decision yet. Even Zhong Cheng didn't dare to inquire too much and just focused on his own work.

What is happening now is a private meeting, and the procedures are much simplified. The venue decoration is very rough, but everyone present is cheering up and not slacking off at all.

The "Nantianmen" plan is indeed outrageous, but the fact that the gossip has spread for so long without any opposition speaks volumes.

Looking at the luxurious lineup present, many people have already guessed the truth.

Long Jiacheng, who was the first to receive the "official leak", was even more excited. Although Lingxi Technology Company focuses on satellite manufacturing, if there is such a grand plan as a spaceport, part-time manufacturing of cabin sections and various equipment is also quite promising. !

"Everyone, welcome to the first comprehensive space seminar organized by the Aerospace Development Commission. We may continue to hold similar meetings in the future."

Zhong Cheng had almost no nonsense and went straight to the topic when everyone gathered:

“In order to better adapt to future space resource development and homeland defense, with the approval of the central government, the Aerospace Development Commission plans to build a large-scale space building cluster integrating scientific research, production and living.

This cluster also needs to undertake the task of developing and utilizing extraterrestrial planets and celestial materials, or conducting transit with the earth. We call it a space port.

The space agency and Xinyuan Company have determined the basic data of the space port and are preparing for transportation capacity support. It is expected to build a space port with an empty load mass of not less than 42,000 tons and an operating mass of more than 70,000 tons by 2025. .

This spaceport is part of the "Southern Gate" plan, and we have decided to invite various industries to join in and contribute together. "

Perhaps due to overwork and fatigue, Zhong Cheng's voice was not loud, and Ambitol could not provide a long period of excitement, so he was not in good spirits.

But every word he said caused huge waves in everyone's hearts and immediately made the atmosphere extremely heated.

Zhong Cheng did not organize the hundreds of people below to form a noisy group. Instead, he took this opportunity to start putting imaginary drawings and preliminary structural sketches of the spaceport on the whiteboard.

The space agency and Xinyuan engineers spent several months and came up with three configuration plans:

The first is the module cluster type, which manufactures different areas for scientific research, living, and production into different cabin modules, and then launches and assembles them bit by bit. Only the living area of ​​the spaceport provides rotational gravity, just like the Advance;

The second type is the overall manufacturing type, which imitates the construction form of future spaceships. Only parts are launched from the ground, and then welded and assembled in space to create giant integral functional modules that cannot be launched. Again, only the living area provides gravity through additional rotating components;

The third type is a spoke-shaped overall rotating space station, which looks like a trumpet-shaped tube. It can create different gravity from zero to more than 1G, adapt to different working environments, and requires the use of space manufacturing methods.

There are three configurations, from the simplest to the most complex, each of which can meet the minimum indicators, but the investment also increases linearly.

Due to the collaboration of hundreds of industries involved in the design, Xinyuan and the space agency are no longer able to accurately judge the difficulty of project implementation and can only pool their efforts.