Chapter 137 Firewood Space Hub
Xinghai Space Hub Headquarters.
Although Xinghai is still a private enterprise in Daxia today, its importance to Daxia is far beyond the reach of ordinary enterprises.
Although there is no explicit notice about Fan Ren's current specific position, it can be seen from the fact that he can enter and exit the offices of a group of leaders at any time and anywhere that Xinghai has a prominent status.
But even so, although there have been many criticisms about the company's general manager being a foreigner.
Fanren still hasn't replaced Jin Qiaoying's position as general manager of Xinghai.
It can be said that, as of now, Jin Qiaoying's authority in Xinghai is much higher than Fan Ren's.
The ownership of the space hub lies in Xinghai's hands, as does the space elevator that travels to and from the ground.
The benefits generated from this are too huge.
Countless high-tech companies are trying to catch up with this wave of space development, but the first step they face is to obtain approval from Star Ocean before they are qualified to use the space elevator to transport cargo.
It has nothing to do with money!
Currently it is only related to the development needs of space hubs.
Jin Qiaoying finished her busy work and came to the company laboratory and Fan Ren's office accompanied by Shan Qin.
She still wanted to persuade Fan Ren about the huge plan that he had discussed with her before.
Once the Mars project begins, more than 90% of the tri-titanium alloy produced by the entire space hub and the lunar base will be occupied by that grand plan.
With the overall industrial development of Daxia today, the demand for tri-titanium alloy is becoming more and more urgent.
Currently, Daxia's entire industrial system relies on this new type of material and is undergoing a new round of purely technological industrial upgrades.
Once the Utopia Plan is launched, the progress of these industrial reforms will directly come to a standstill, and I don’t know how many companies will be affected.
The result is that the development of Xinghai will also enter a long-term stagnation phase, which is unacceptable to her as the executive general manager of Xinghai.
At the office door, Jin Qiaoying knocked gently, and after hearing "come in", she pushed the door open.
"Boss Jin, you're here just in time."
Fan Ren shouted in surprise, but then he noticed that there was something wrong with Jin Qiaoying's expression.
"Mr. Fan, I hope you can carefully consider my opinion. I know you are worried about the future development of artificial intelligence, but..."
"Listen to me, I know your concerns. Don't worry, I have arrangements. The development here will not be greatly affected by it. Come over here."
Fan Ren waved his hand. He was very satisfied with Jin Qiaoying's extremely responsible attitude towards Xinghai.
Otherwise, it would be quite easy to get a high salary and be a puppet.
But she didn't.
The Mars project was mentioned to her before, but apparently because the plan was not explained in detail, the other party misunderstood it.
Upon hearing this, Jin Qiaoying immediately walked forward in confusion.
In her opinion, Spieth's company, the . government, and Daxia have all taken relevant actions in this regard.
This is definitely the prelude to the vigorous development of the Mars plan. Once it is launched, the tri-titanium alloy produced on the moon will inevitably be tilted towards Mars, and there is no benefit there.
"check it out."
Fanren pointed at the flat-screen display and smiled.
"This is?"
On the flat-panel display, the image of a simple-looking spaceship quietly floats against a space background.
At the front of the spacecraft, there are huge telescopic robotic arms at both ends, and an extra-large closing door in the middle.
At the tail, a single nuclear fusion engine nozzle is responsible for providing power.
Fan Ren said with a trace of fatigue in his eyes: "This is a small mining spacecraft that I and the designers from the Ministry of Industry have developed. It has the ability to land and take off on ultra-low gravity asteroids and has the ability to conduct open-pit mining."
There was still a puzzled expression on Jin Qiaoying's fair face. She didn't understand what the point of this was.
"Mars and the Blue Planet are similar in that they both have their own satellites. However, these satellites are also very different. Phobos is kilometers long, kilometers wide, and kilometers high. Its gravity is 1/1600 of that of the Blue Planet, which is basically negligible.
But at the same time, because it has no atmosphere like the moon, there are petrified stones on it. It is even exaggerated to say that the main component of this satellite is an extremely large petrified ore.
Do you understand now?"
After his explanation, Jin Qiaoying finally understood, but then became confused again.
"But the distance between Earth and Mars is 2 million kilometers. Isn't it too inconvenient for transportation?"
Hearing this, Fan Ren shook his head. He looked out the window, pointed at the two huge space factories in the distance, and said in a firm tone:
"We will build a factory in the geostationary orbit between Mars and Jupiter!
Although there is a space elevator at the lunar base, its transportation capacity is limited after all, which is why our current tri-titanium alloy production has been stagnant.
Now that we have passed the initial stage of development and are in the space age, we need to take a long-term view.
Whether it is the development of space hubs, or other types of production plants that will be built in the future, or even space dock construction plants, we cannot just build one or two plants. We can only focus on mining on ultra-low gravity satellites and asteroid belts throughout the solar system.
We use our low-cost mining ships to carry out space mining operations, and refine and process them nearby. Finally, we use the Giant Elephant cargo ship to transport the processed tri-titanium alloys to the designated location one by one.
This is where our future development is headed.”
Jin Qiaoying stood there in a daze. She just wanted to come over and persuade Fanren to temporarily delay the implementation of the Mars plan to give the space hub some time to develop.
Now it seems that the plan has changed again?
I don’t know when it started, but every time Fan Ren proposed a project, he no longer discussed with her whether there was enough money in the company’s account.
This is because compared to the current size of Xinghai and the projects it is carrying out, the amount of money is no longer important.
What they need to consider is whether the productivity is sufficient and how to distribute it reasonably.
It is no exaggeration to say that everything Xinghai does in space construction today is silently supported by Daxia's entire Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Economy and Trade, and even the Military.
This is also why when Fan Ren made the suggestion, the military subsequently withdrew the military management zone set up in the Pacific Ocean to cooperate with Mark's next actions.
Jin Qiaoying felt numb all over for a moment, and subconsciously began to think about Fan Ren's plan, the resources required, and its feasibility.
Fan Ren stood quietly aside, giving her enough time to think.
After a long while, Jin Qiaoying murmured, "So in the next period of time, we will have to manufacture and produce these mining ships in large quantities?"
"Yes, I have discussed this with several leaders during the previous meeting. In order to support our plan, the tri-titanium alloy will take priority over this aspect for a period of time until the factory over there is officially put into operation."
Fan Ren thought of the support Li Jiandong, Zhang Jing and Ye Lao had given him at that time, and felt inexplicably moved.
When Jin Qiaoying left Fanren's office, there was a very strange expression on her face.
The good news is that the Mars mission doesn't start immediately.
The bad news is that the development of the space hub is still entering a period of stagnation.
Fan Ren said it easily, but the geostationary orbit between Mars and Jupiter is 5 million kilometers away from the Blue Planet. Even at the speed of Peregrine, it would take about 20 days to go back and forth.
This is the speed of the Peregrine, which was built with deep space high-speed indicators. If it were a huge spacecraft like the Colossus, the process would take at least 35-40 days.
Jin Qiaoying stood at the door of Fanren's office and pondered for a while, and finally laughed for no apparent reason.
Never mind, he seems to be always right.
In the office, Fan Ren stood up and walked to the window. The space dock construction plant in the distance had been put into operation.
Around it, two tri-titanium processing factories are responsible for cutting and processing tri-titanium alloys required for various constructions.
He looked at the busy space hub and shook his head for a long time.
This speed is far from enough.
Currently, the lunar space elevator can transport 5 million tons of praseodymite per year at its fastest speed.
After refining, these crystal stones can produce about 1 million tons of tri-titanium alloy.
The construction of just one Colossus requires 10 tons of tri-titanium alloy.
That is to say, the practicable crystal stones produced by the lunar base in one year can only be used to manufacture 1000 Elephant heavy cargo ships after refining.
This output is far from enough for the large-scale development of the space industry in the future.
You should know that a residential base that can accommodate 100 million people requires an area of 1 square meters per person, and the total area needs to reach 50 square kilometers.
Of course, it is impossible for the construction of Martian cities to use all tri-titanium alloys, but according to the calculations of Fan Ren and a group of designers, the proportion of tri-titanium alloys used in future Martian cities will still be as high as 20%.
If we rely entirely on the lunar base to provide raw minerals, it will take a long time.
This is why Fanren shifted his focus to Phobos, Deimos and Jupiter's rings based on the Mars plan.
In the foreseeable future, after all the minerals of these two satellites are mined, there will still be the huge Jupiter rings behind them, which can be predicted to contain a large number of mortal crystal stones.
After the mining of these praseodymium stones in space is completed, they can be directly transported to a space refinery at a fixed location via the Colossus parked in a gravity-free environment.
This will directly and completely meet the tri-titanium alloy requirements of the Mars program.
Even in the future, after the construction of Mars City is completed, the three alloys produced by this refinery can be directly processed for use in other required projects.
Moon mining is not a long-term solution.
There are many construction projects, and they will be extremely complex, but Fanren is very confident.
Behind him is not only the Xinghai, but also Daxia who has been silently supporting him.
He is confident that taking Daxia and Xinghai's second step into space steadily will lay a solid foundation for the future.
(End of this chapter)
