Chapter 1522 He Will Agree (Part 1)

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT for short), also known as the Giant Magellan Telescope, is a ground-based extremely large telescope that is planned to be put into use in 2022. It will be built at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. .

GMT is jointly built by 8 units including the Carnegie Institute of Washington in the United States and the Australian National University. The primary mirror with an equivalent diameter of 21.4 meters is composed of 7 sub-mirrors with a diameter of 8.4 meters, and the budgeted cost is 625 million. The comprehensive resolution is equivalent to a single primary mirror of about 25 meters, the function is 4.5 times that of the current largest optical telescope, and the imaging resolution will reach 10 times that of the Hubble Space Telescope.

The lens diameter of the Large Magellan broke the world record and became the telescope with the largest diameter among single-lens telescopes. The processing accuracy must be lower than 20 nanometers, and the higher the accuracy, the better.

If this plan is successful, not to mention the sharpness of the observation image, but only the manufacturing technology of the lens, it will be completely upgraded to a whole new level.

"The GMT plan has been implemented, and the trial production of lenses has also begun." After introducing the situation, Little Finn said to Guo Tailai: "Seven mirrors, each of which is planned to take four years to polish and polish."

"Maybe about the same, maybe four years is not enough." Guo Tailai nodded. He definitely has the right to speak in terms of processing, and his judgment is good enough.

According to what Guo Tailai knew in the future dream, the plan was to build a mirror every four years, but after the actual manufacturing started, it took ten years for the first mirror. Risking destruction, the production of the second mirror began in January 2012 and was not completed until 2019.

As Guo Tailai said, this is the difficulty of hell.

"It takes six months for the mirror blank to be smelted and rotated into shape. After the mirror is formed, it takes three months for the furnace and the lens to slowly return to room temperature." Little Finn didn't say much about the details. Just remember that it takes three months for the mirror to cool down.

A lens with such a large diameter requires such high precision, and there must be no flaws and bubbles in the lens. It takes nine months to complete the mirror blank alone. But this is normal.

"G, are you interested in joining this project?" Little Finn asked Guo Tailai: "Your polishing technique may become the key to making mirrors."

"I'll think about it." Guo Tailai didn't agree immediately, but said to think about it first.

With a large diameter of 8.4 meters, there is actually no high-precision processing equipment that can process such a large lens at one time. Only high-precision grinding machines can grind and polish bit by bit. LODTM can indeed make optical components, but the size of the processed workpiece is limited. Although the domestic LODTM has been improved by Guo Tailai, it can only process workpieces with a diameter of two meters at most, and it is impossible to process larger ones. What is to be done now is a large-diameter, high-precision lens of 8.4 meters, and LODTM does not even think about it.

Not to mention the processing equipment, even the measurement is probably very troublesome. It is true that it is possible to measure bit by bit directly on the lens, but in the end it is necessary to build a test tower to correct with optical measurement, which is a mess of complexity.

Of course, there is another point. Because of the high difficulty of processing and manufacturing, the cost of each mirror may exceed 20 million US dollars. If the raw materials for making mirrors and the nine-month process of processing lenses are removed, the remaining polishing and polishing costs may be less than half. The remaining half, which is more than 10 million U.S. dollars, is distributed within three to four years of manufacturing, and the annual cost is only two to three million U.S. dollars, which is four million U.S. dollars. For three or four million dollars a year, spending several years of my time, is this worth it?

"G, if you join, you can recommend a partner to join the plan." Of course, Little Finn knew that Guo Tailai would not consider the issue of processing costs, so he directly proposed a condition that would make Guo Tailai more tempted.

"I need to think about it." Guo Tailai said while stretching his fingers as if his hands were itchy.

Little Finn saw this action and kept it in his heart.

Little Finn didn't force Guo Tailai to express his opinion immediately, but just smiled and said: "You think about it slowly, just call me after you think about it."

When the two parted, Guo Tailai seemed to be still thinking about it, but his fingers subconsciously twitched, which also showed that Guo Tailai was indeed a little itchy.

Back at his residence, little Finn called his father immediately, and described the details of the two people's communication today, especially at the end when Guo Tailai moved his fingers while pondering, the description was very detailed.

"He will agree." After listening to little Finn's research, old Finn laughed and gave a conclusion.

"Why?" Little Finn asked puzzled. Today's meeting was arranged by his father, and it was his father who asked him to pay special attention to Guo Tailai's performance. There are many things that Finn doesn't understand.

"You scored the highest score when you played the game, but you can obviously score a better score with a few more efforts. Will you continue?" Old Finn asked with a smile.

"Yes!" Little Finn replied without thinking.

"G is the same." Old Finn explained with a smile: "You can see this from his previous research on the car. From the beginning of the RX7 Ultimate Edition, to the Pagani Zonda T, to the Lamborghini Chiron, to the Ferrari Agnelli is setting new records every time. The same is true for motorcycles, the Terminator, and the Shenxing motorcycle, which are setting new world records every time. In essence, G is a person who likes People who keep hitting and improving.”

"It's the same in processing." Old Finn continued: "You can see that he went from high-precision bearings to high-precision CNC, large-format ultra-high-precision absolute planes, and the peak was the LODTM diamond lathe, but he never stopped. The pursuit of the limit. Speaking of it, I admire his spirit, but this is also something that makes us very worried!"

"What does that have to do with us letting him join this project?" Little Finn asked puzzledly, but immediately reacted after asking: "You mean, let him participate in this project, and then he will process it by hand." In a few years, most of his future time and energy will be involved in the manufacture of high-precision lenses?"

"Yes, it's good for everyone." Mr. Finn said, "We don't want to directly destroy the cooperation between the two parties, and we don't want to destroy the opportunity to get G care. This is the best way. Let him take most of the If he devotes all his time and energy to the manufacture of lenses, then he will not have more time to develop their own manufacturing industry. A few pieces of mirrors add up to ten or twenty years, and by then, his body and energy will not be enough. There will be the current peak state. Although we cannot curb the development of Huaxia's processing and manufacturing industry, we can barely do it by slowing them down."