Chapter 1221 The Big Plot Behind the Dream of Spaceflight

Li Mu doesn't know much about the military. Unlike some boys who like the military, he can understand the main fighter planes, warships, tanks, and even individual weapons from all over the world. Li Mu's understanding of the military and the development of the military industry is passive. Yes, only when TV reported the J-10 fighter plane did he know there was such a thing as the J-10; when the news said that the United States sent the F22 to the Korean peninsula, he learned that there is a kind of aircraft called the F22.

So, when Elon Musk talks about drones, the first thing Li Mu thinks of is not predators, but DJI.

When he thought of DJI, Li Mu remembered that he had spent a lot of money on the DJI Phantom 4, but it was not fresh for two weeks, because the bomber could no longer be found.

The process of frying the machine is very in line with Li Mu's science and engineering masculinity.

Science and engineering boys are very quick to get started with such high-tech gadgets, and science and engineering students will always have a "dissatisfaction" with this kind of thing. For example, DJI drones have a power management system and an intelligent return-to-home system. , when the plane flies beyond a certain distance and the power continues to decline, DJI's system can determine a point where the plane can return safely, that is to say, DJI believes that under the current distance and power, the plane has When the decision point for a safe return is reached, if the aircraft does not return, it is very likely that the aircraft will explode midway due to insufficient power.

Li Mu didn't dare to pretend to the system at first, but after playing for a few times and thinking he was proficient, he thought that this thing was no good. He began to feel that he knew the limits of this drone better than this system. , so when he decided to challenge the system, the plane ran out of power on the way back and fell into the river.

Thinking of that drone, Li Mu still feels a pity.

Seeing that Li Mu seemed to be absent-minded and didn't listen to what he said, Elon Musk couldn't help but said disappointedly: "Boss, if you are not interested in this aspect, then let's talk about something else."

Li Mu finally recovered from the memory of the bombing machine, and waved his hand hurriedly: "No, I'm very interested. I was just thinking about how to play this thing. Would you like to give me a detailed introduction?"

Elon Musk was overjoyed, leaned forward, sat closer to Li Mu, and said seriously: "I think so in this regard, in our Internet industry, technology is not a barrier in most cases, a product That's right, everyone uses the same environment and the same language for development. Some people can come up with a complete operating system, and some people can produce a small plug-in and it's all bugs. You can produce a super product like YY, but Microsoft does not. Can only make a mess of MSN."

"However, in the aerospace field, what is important is not just products, but also related core technologies and technology chains, such as launch vehicles. It is not a certain type of launch vehicle that is valuable, but the technology chain behind it, multi-stage rocket technology. , solid and liquid rocket propulsion technology, flight control technology, and even first-stage rocket recovery technology, once these technology chains are completed, there will be great prospects in many fields in the future.”

Li Mu didn't know anything about Space-X, so he could only ask humbly: "Is this kind of technology widely used for civilian use?"

Elon Musk thought for a while and said, "If someone asked me, I would have said a lot, but if you ask me, boss, I don't dare to talk nonsense with you, I can only say that the scope of aerospace technology to civilian use and The space is still uncertain, but the market space for commercial aerospace itself is still very potential."

Li Mu nodded and said, "Tell me in detail."

Elon Musk said seriously: "Whether it's NASA, or China's aerospace department, or the European space agency, although their technologies and products are different, they all have one and the same fundamentally. common ground."

"What is it?"

"Spend government money!"

Elon Musk said eloquently: "The most important thing these government agencies do when developing aerospace technology is the cost. NASA's technology accumulation in the aerospace field ranks first in the world.

But their technologies were all smashed by the U.S. government during the Cold War with hundreds of billions of dollars. Huaxia's launch vehicles have developed rapidly in recent years, but they are also inseparable from the government's full support. With the government as support, these The launch vehicles developed by institutions have a common problem, that is, their cost performance is too low! "

Speaking of this, Elon Musk came to the spirit and said with spittle: "Look, boss, for example, the U.S. government wants to develop a military satellite positioning system and hand over all the launch tasks of more than a dozen satellites. NASA, for the military, they don't care about the hundreds of millions of dollars in the launch cost in a structure that costs hundreds of billions of dollars. The Chinese government must be the same, but in the future, the financial masters behind commercial satellites will be enterprises. It's not a country. If the cost of rocket launch is too high, the development of the entire commercial satellite will be greatly affected, but the yamen like NASA do not study how to reduce the cost at all, so the commercial rocket launch market is only because of the high cost. If there is a private company at this time, and it is fully researching how to reduce the launch cost of commercial satellites, what kind of situation will it be?"

Li Mu suddenly realized.

It was such a market that Elon Musk was eyeing in aerospace.

What he said is indeed reasonable. The government's large investment in aerospace projects is always pursuing high performance rather than cost-effectiveness. Therefore, the development of the entire aerospace field seems to be a deformed official market. If you take the car as an analogy, It’s like every country has a state-owned automobile manufacturer. They are all working hard to develop the fastest cars, the heaviest cars, and the most technologically advanced cars, so the cars they build are either lightning fast or powerful. It is superior, or the technology is extremely powerful, but the only disadvantage is that it is expensive. Ordinary people can't even buy oil and burn it.

However, it is not just every country that has a demand for cars. In addition to countries, there are many individuals and individual groups who have a desire for cars. At this time, if there is a company that focuses on creating the most cost-effective cars, it will definitely be able to do it here. occupy the largest initiative in the block market.

If a communication company wants to put ten satellites into fixed orbits, it may cost three billion dollars to launch from the United States, and two billion dollars to launch from Huaxia, but if there is a company that can do it for one billion dollars, and can give With a profit of 200 million US dollars, there is no doubt that in the future, in the commercial satellite market, its development space will become very large.

Thinking of this, Li Mu smacked his lips, looked at Elon Musk and said, "It sounds a little interesting, but the initial investment in this industry is too big, and you always have technical reserves, right? It's impossible to start from scratch. R&D, so where does your technical reserve come from?”

"NASA!" Elon Musk laughed: "You can understand NASA as a treasure trove that is mostly abandoned. It has a lot of idle talent and technology. As long as we have enough starting capital, I can start from NASA has found a lot of talents who are proficient in a certain technology and can quickly transform a certain technology for its own use, and start development directly from 70% or 80% completion. The start will be very fast, and our research and development direction is different from these institutions. , the risk can be avoided to the greatest extent possible.”

After speaking, Elon Musk explained: "Take a car as an analogy, NASA studies the expensive and top-notch F1, Europe and Japan study V12, double supercharger, supercars with more than 1,000 horsepower at every turn, Huaxia The research is on V8, supercharged, and sports cars with more than 600 horsepower but not so expensive. We use their engine technology, engine transmission tuning technology, chassis tuning technology and other electronic assistance technologies, but we do not build racing cars, We don’t build supercars or sports cars, but build a four-cylinder 2.0 economical model, and if we build this model well, we will be the biggest occupier in this level of market by then.”

"Imagine what it would be like to build a Toyota Prius of tens of thousands of dollars when there were only ten million dollar F1s, million dollar Ferraris, and hundreds of thousands of dollars of Mercedes-Benzes on the market. the situation..."

If it wasn't because of his identity, Li Mu really wanted to applaud Elon Musk and give him a slap at the same time. No wonder this guy is called the Iron Man of Silicon Valley. Not optimistic, but in fact, he has already planned the future development space very clearly. Space-X may not be able to catch up with NASA, the Huaxia Long March series, or the Russian Space Agency in his lifetime, but as long as he can make it more cost-effective than them Will suffice.

When the market is full of cars like Ferrari, the car can only be a toy for the top rich. After all, very few people in society can afford Ferrari, but once a solid and fuel-efficient hybrid model like Prius is available , For ordinary people, the attraction is too great. Consumers who can afford a Prius are at least 10,000 times more than consumers who can afford a Ferrari. This is what Elon Musk is doing in aerospace. ambitions.

Moreover, Li Mu himself was born in Internet technology. He knows that with the rapid development of Internet technology, satellites will play an increasingly important role in the future development of the Internet. In the past life, Facebook, Google, and Apple seemed to have their own satellite launch plans. More than ten years from now will be the era of satellite Internet. By that time, not only Internet products will need their own satellites, but hardware development will also need their own satellites. It is likely that dozens of satellites will be launched in the future just under their own product system. In this way, the world's commercial satellite launch market prospects are indeed very broad.

After straightening these things out, Li Mu suddenly became very interested in Elon Musk's aerospace career, and he said to Elon Musk: "Elon, you have persuaded me, when you want to officially start, you can always Come to me, I'm going to play with you for 100 million dollars."

"That's great!" Elon Musk said seriously: "If that's the case, I'll get a sum of money from PayPal next year, and let's invest in aerospace together!"