After leaving the Optical Research Laboratory, Cao Mang came to the Aerospace Research Laboratory. I believe everyone knows about the Aerospace Research Laboratory without further explanation.

This research laboratory is mainly responsible for developing rockets to prepare for the future Starlink project, but Cao Mang guessed that the results of this department were not very good. After all, this thing is unlikely to produce results in the short term.

As soon as Cao Mang entered the laboratory, he heard someone shouting.

"It worked, we succeeded."

After the sound rang out, everyone in the laboratory walked towards the direction of the sound.

Cao Mang followed everyone quietly.

The person who made the sound was a young man in the laboratory. The young man was sitting in front of a computer, and a simulation animation was playing on the monitor.

A rocket takes off one thousand meters and then plummets back to the ground.

When it was about to land on the ground, the rocket sprayed out flames again. Finally, the rocket hovered ten meters above the ground. After hovering for five seconds, the rocket successfully landed.

The entire simulation animation is derived from a large amount of data.

In order to calculate these data, they burned nearly 30 million in electricity bills. This is only the electricity bill consumed by the supercomputer. This does not include the cost of the supercomputer used in the research laboratory.

If all is calculated, they burned more than 100 million in three months.

This is thanks to the fact that the supercomputer is manufactured by Kirin itself. If the supercomputer were purchased from a foreign company, the cost would have to be doubled.

You must know that this is just a simulation of data, and it has not yet reached the actual physical test. The physical test is expected to consume more funds.

"Okay, okay, now that we have this data, we can conduct physical tests." Hou Junfa, head of the aerospace department, said excitedly.

Hou Junfa is 62 years old this year. He comes from the China Aerospace Technology Institute and is the deputy director of the China Aerospace Technology Institute. He once presided over the research and development of Shenzhou 5 and 6.

He has very rich experience in aerospace rockets.

The reason why Hou Junfa appears here is because this project is in cooperation with the China Aerospace Technology Research Institute.

Cao Mang spent a lot of effort to second him here.

Without such talented people in charge of research and development, I don’t know how long it will take for the project to be completed.

"I didn't expect that recyclable technology can really be realized."

"If we realize this technology, the cost of launching rockets in the future will be greatly reduced."

"This is just the beginning. If we can realize the multi-satellite technology with one rocket, the cost of launching satellites will only become cheaper."

"If Mr. Cao hadn't asked us to do this, we would never have thought that we could do this. We have been studying for so many years, and no one would want to recycle this thing."

“We read too much, so it limits our thinking and the framework limits our imagination, just like the electric car that the company is going to build recently.

Have any of you ever thought that you could use electricity to drive a car?"

"I just don't know how the research on electric vehicles is going. When the company's electric vehicle research comes out, I will definitely buy one to support the company."

"When the company's electric vehicles are developed, I will buy one for everyone in my family."

...

"Okay, don't be too happy, everyone. This is just the beginning. The manufacturing department should quickly build the test rocket, and the data department should start the recovery test of the second-stage rocket.

When one day we launch the rockets and successfully recover all the rockets, then we will be truly successful.

There are still many problems waiting for us to overcome.

Recycling rockets is only the first step in reducing launch costs. There are still many problems that we need to overcome later.

Try to use your imagination for research and development.

Just like what my colleague said just now, don’t be limited by frameworks and use your imagination to do research. I didn’t have money before so I couldn’t do research casually.

Now that you have money, please give me the courage to do research.

As long as we succeed, the money invested can be recovered quickly. This is why Europe is ahead of us in technology.

People are willing to invest a lot of money in research and development, so their technology is much ahead of ours. Mr. Cao supports us unconditionally, so we should give back to him with some achievements." Hou Junfa said very seriously.

Although the money Cao Mang invested was not enough to support them in developing aerospace engines or something like that.

But Cao Mang opened up a new path for them.

This road can be said to be a new road or a shortcut.

But as long as this road is open, China's aerospace industry will definitely lead the world. Of course, it will only lead in a certain technology. It is impossible to lead in all aspects.

It's not that Cao Mang doesn't want to invest in their research and development of aerospace engines, it's because the investment in this thing is too huge, and it can't be done without 100 billion a year.

Cao Mang can't make money fast enough, but he can't burn it fast enough.

So Cao Mang chose to follow the path that Max took, first studying how to recover the rocket, then studying the rocket's main control system, and finally studying how to reduce launch costs.

In the future, rockets will be assembled through external procurement.

You heard it right, it’s assembly.

Whether it is Max's rocket or future private rocket companies, they all use assembly methods to make rockets. Rockets can be assembled like building blocks.

This inspiration comes from Lego bricks.

This is the core secret for Tesla and SpaceX to reduce costs.

After Hou Junfa finished his speech, everyone returned to their respective posts. When they turned back, they saw Cao Mang standing behind them.

"Mr. Cao, why are you here free?" Hou Jun asked with a smile.

"Come here to see how your research and development is going. I didn't expect you to have already taken the first step." Cao Mang replied with a smile.

"Although it is only a statistical success, it can be regarded as a first step, but there is still a long way to go." Hou Junfa replied.

"I received a top-secret message from the Lighthouse State yesterday. This message is about aerospace fuel. They are developing aerospace fuel using coal-based fuel, and they have achieved certain results.

We can study in this direction." Cao Mang said.

In fact, this thing was only proposed in 2009. It took foreign countries three years to research this thing. China only developed coal-based aerospace fuel in 2015.

The reason why Cao Mang told Hou Junfa was because he didn't want them to waste their money.

Research centers in the right direction can save a lot of money.

"Using coal to refine aerospace fuel?" Hou Junfa asked in surprise.

The cost of coal is only half of that of oil, and it can also significantly reduce dependence on oil. Once coal-based spaceflight is developed, launch costs can be reduced by at least 40%.

Of course, this is just an estimate, and the actual cost will not be known until it is done.

But the only thing that is certain is that coal-based aerospace kerosene is cheaper than refining aviation fuel from petroleum.

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