Chapter 93 Win-win cooperation?
"So what? After detailed calculations by our company, the Hunter-9 rocket is fully capable of carrying out the mission of traveling back and forth between Earth and Mars."
Mark's tone became more serious.
Fan Ren narrowed his eyes and glanced at him, then said leisurely, "What then? Can we only wait for the hedging window that comes every two years and manufacture large batches of Hunter 9s regardless of cost to complete the transportation of basic materials between Earth and Mars?"
"You don't need to worry about these!" Mark slammed the table. He was on the verge of going berserk.
"The Xingyun series of rockets use an AI intelligent system based on graphene chip technology, which can currently perform autonomous flight, attitude adjustment, and route planning.
Mark, you know that humans can never be better than computers in terms of precision operations. When the Starship series rockets are flying, they can calculate the best route in advance and accurately control the power system, thus saving a lot of fuel. "
"What do you mean?"
Seeing that Mark was getting angry, Fan Ren quickly put down his hand and signaled Mark not to get too excited.
"I have invited you to come all the way to Daxia just to tell you that we at Xinghai can provide rocket launch services for your Spieth Company. Even to Mars, which is hundreds of millions of kilometers away!"
After he finished speaking, the first thing Mark thought of was that Fan Ren was humiliating him again.
There is no other reason. In the current global launch vehicle service market, Spieth's company occupies an absolute leading market position.
Relying on their original recovery technology, they have reduced the cost of rocket launch to an extremely low level. This is one of the reasons why Spieth and his company have been focusing on this money-making project for a long time.
But now Fan Ren actually said that he would provide rocket launch services for his company.
If this isn't humiliating him, what else does it mean?
"Mark, once the 'Mars Project' begins, you can't stop it just because you want to. Can you keep up with the launch window every two years? Can you imagine that if something unexpected happens on Mars and an emergency launch is needed, and the range of the Hunter-9 is insufficient, something unexpected will happen there? You know, this will have a huge impact on your company's stock price."
Fan Ren glanced at Mark, who had calmed down again, and continued, "If we use our Xingyun series rockets, we can at least guarantee more than half of the free launch time in each Earth-Mars collision cycle.
You can't expect to wait until something happens on Mars and then ask us to help, as described in the movie. If that happens, Spieth's company will become a laughing stock around the world."
He paused here, waiting for Mark, who was already struggling, to respond.
As a company president with a technical background, Mark now completely understood what Fan Ren meant after hearing it.
Promised Xinghai that after the cooperation between the two parties, Xinghai's launch vehicle service will officially become a global leader under the leadership of Spieth's company.
This was something he could not accept.
But at the same time, he also knew that if the Starship series of rockets could serve the "Mars Project", a lot of money could be saved just from the overall cost considerations.
And just as Fan Ren said, the current Hunter-8000 can only be launched within kilometers of Mars' perigee to ensure that there is enough fuel to reach Mars and return.
If we miss this distance, we will have to wait another two years until the next Earth-Mars opposition period before we can continue launching.
If there was any urgent launch mission that needed to be carried out, Spieth and his company would have no way to deal with it.
What if that situation really happened!
Mark couldn't help but think of a scene described in a movie many years ago involving the Martian rescue series.
Spieth & Co.'s stock price is bound to be subject to wild swings.
On one side is the ground-to-air transportation service, and on the other side is the 'Mars Project'.
Mark's life was rarely entangled.
After a long time, he raised his head with a serious look and faced Fan Ren.
"I need to sign a series of high-level agreements to ensure that Xinghai or Daxia will not interfere with the project at some point in the future." "Okay, the Daxia headquarters will draft the agreement, and relevant people will attend our signing ceremony."
Fan Ren stood up, stretched out his hand, and a smile appeared on his face.
Seeing this, Mark stopped struggling. After he made up his mind, he was also a very decisive person. He stretched out his hand and shook hands with Fan Ren.
"To use your Daxia's words, I hope our cooperation can be a win-win situation."
Ten days later, Mark arrived at the Xinghai Space Base again to attend the signing ceremony.
The brand new Xingyun-75, carrying two astronauts and a -ton lunar orbital space station, was successfully launched.
Mark was still shocked by the powerful payload of the Starlink series rockets.
Standing on the No. 2 launch pad, the reassembled and ready-to-go Xingyun-1 began to ignite and take off.
There is only one hour in between.
This launch was also successful without any surprises.
Base command hall.
"Remote sensing report: Xingyun-2 is in normal condition. The first and second stage rockets separated successfully. The spacecraft has entered the planned Earth-Moon orbit."
"Remote sensing report: docking with Asgard was successful. The three astronauts have entered the Nebula 1 spacecraft cabin one after another."
"Spacecraft No. 1 reporting, I am ready to disengage."
This is Li Jian's voice, still so calm and steady.
In the observation room on the second floor, Mark looked solemn, although he had learned that Xinghai would carry out manned flights between the Earth and the Moon in the near future.
But he never imagined that this sacred moment that would go down in history would happen right before his eyes.
Today is the day when Spieth and Star Ocean signed a rocket launch service agreement.
"Ground received, astronauts, please proceed with the next step according to the plan."
"Spacecraft No. 1 received, hatch locked, beginning to leave Asgard."
The conversation in the hall rang in Mark's mind like a bell, leaving him speechless for a long time.
In the deep space, at the external docking port of the huge and spectacular Asgard space station, the Xingyun-50 spacecraft, which was nearly meters long after losing its first and second stage rockets, slowly separated from the docking port like a sea-supporting dragon.
Li Jian sat in the cockpit, staring intently at the blue planet beneath his feet that fascinated him no matter how many times he looked at it.
He didn't move his hands, and the two colleagues beside him were almost as quiet as he was.
"The spacecraft has successfully disengaged. Should we activate the thrusters according to the planned route?"
"determine."
Li Jian uttered two words, and then the emotionless mechanical voice sounded again from inside the spacecraft.
"Route planning completed, thrusters activated, expected to reach lunar synchronous orbit in 74 hours."
As soon as the voice fell, the three astronauts felt as if someone gently pushed them from behind, and then they saw the Asgard Station outside the window rapidly drifting towards the distance.
(End of this chapter)
