Chapter 1088 Careless Passenger

What?

Shouldn't adequate preparation be technical?

If it is just flying in low-Earth orbit, if there is a technical problem, it can still be rescued. For example, there are spare spacecraft on the space station, and there will be a spacecraft on the ground ready at any time. Once needed, it will take off and pick up the people in space. However, it is only a few hundred kilometers above the ground.

What about the moon?

The moon is 380,000 kilometers away from the earth! Such a long distance, there is no time to react at all. The fastest time for a spacecraft to be launched is one or two days. Astronauts who encounter danger may not be able to wait that long, so the technology must be mature enough.

To give a simple example, if the orbit is wrong, it may not fly to the moon, but directly into the solar system. If there is a slight deviation during the flight, it does not fly to the Lagrange point of the Earth-Moon system, that is, the gravitational equilibrium point, then it will not be able to borrow the gravity of the moon to fly to the moon, and it will have to consume more fuel. Maybe it will not be enough when it comes back.

This first expedition to the moon is equipped with people, which is absolutely bold enough. The full preparation is actually insurance!

Qin Tao was speechless.

"Exploring space is a dangerous and glorious mission." Max didn't think he was joking: "Everyone who goes to space is a warrior and will risk their lives. Whether in low-Earth orbit or heading to the moon, the danger is the same. Choosing to be an astronaut means choosing to face death at any time. What we can do is to give them more insurance."

"What about the passengers?" Qin Tao said: "Do you say that to the passengers?"

Max's face showed a trace of embarrassment.

Of course not!

They have to tell the passengers that our moon landing plan is very thorough, our moon landing spacecraft is very advanced, and this will be an unforgettable journey!

Those who can buy spaceship tickets are all rich people. Even if some of them pursue excitement, they have to do it under the premise of safety. It is absolutely not worth it to risk their lives just to go sightseeing on the moon. What's the use of insurance? Even if they are compensated with 100 million, it is just a drizzle for the rich people with billions and hundreds of billions.

"Boss Qin, it costs a lot of money to go to the moon. Even if we just launch a rocket to go around the moon and come back, it will cost $100 million. Although the group said it would give us strong support, we can't always rely on the group's funds to maintain it. Our Starship Company wants to tell the entire industry that the aerospace industry is not only high-investment, but also high-return."

Aerospace is burning money. The Saturn V used in the Apollo moon landing program of the Americans cost about $6.2 billion in research and development, which is now $51.8 billion, and the launch cost is $3.6 billion. Later, when the United States restarted the moon landing program, the SLS rocket developed also cost $23 billion, and it costs $4.1 billion to launch once. Even the cheap Delta rocket costs as much as $350 million.

Oriental is said to have a cost advantage. The Long March 3B that performs high-orbit launch missions also costs $40 million. As for the Fat Five, each launch costs $100 million. It can be seen how much money is burned in aerospace. Aerospace requires high investment, and few countries can support it.

Now, just to go around the moon and come back, the entire plan costs, including rockets, Dragon spacecraft, aerospace measurement and control team, etc., and it will cost 100 million US dollars. Only the world's most famous Starship company can fool passengers and solve the problem by selling a ticket.

Qin Tao nodded: "As long as the passenger is willing, then of course we will applaud and welcome him. By the way, who is the careless guy?"

"Qiao Busi." Max said: "I just accompanied him on a tour and experienced the swimming pool for astronaut training, so I came late."

"Qiao Busi? Is he the genius who invented Apple Computer?" Qin Tao said in surprise.

"Yes, it's him. If he knew you were here, he would be very willing to meet you. Just now when I was accompanying him, he also..."

When he said this, a voice came from outside.

"I'm sorry, this is the most confidential place in the company, and outsiders are not allowed to enter without permission."

"I'm not an outsider, I'm your most distinguished guest, I want to see Max."

Max stepped back awkwardly, turned his head and looked out, looking at the man who appeared at the end of the corridor in the distance and was stopped by two bodyguards.

"Since it's an accidental encounter, let him in." Qin Tao said, stood up from his seat and walked out.

Qiao Busi is the most distinguished guest. He spent $100 million to buy a ticket to fly around the moon. He will be the first ordinary person closest to the moon! Even if it's just to fly around the moon, it's already very good. For a rich man like him, $100 million is nothing.

At this time, he just wanted to find Max for something else, but he didn't expect to see that the other people who came out of the conference room were so familiar. He often read the reports of this young man and watched the miracles created by this young man.

"Mr. Qin?"

"Yes, I came here today to see Max. Max came to report to me. I didn't expect you to chase me." Qin Tao smiled and stretched out his hand: "Mr. Qiao Busi, welcome to the East, welcome to take our spacecraft to visit the moon."

"Yes, I am honored. I have always been interested in the moon. This time I finally have the opportunity to see the moon up close. I am already old. I don't know if I will have the opportunity to go up there in the future. I can only go there first. Seize this opportunity," Qiao Busi said.

He was born in 1955 and is now fifty years old. If astronauts are selected, there is no doubt that he will be eliminated. This time he can fly into space. It is probably the first and last time. He will not actually land on the moon in a few years. , he may not be able to catch up.

"There must be a chance." Qin Tao said: "Your body looks very good, and you will definitely be able to participate in the real moon landing. Even if there is no chance, don't be discouraged. We will bring back the lunar soil after landing on the moon. Give you a few grams."

That's right, it's just a few grams. This thing is more expensive than gold, so a few grams is a lot.

"Really? That's great!" Qiao Busi was very excited.

While talking, several people walked to the conference room and sat down. Qiao Busi's eyes were still full of energy.

"Mr. Qin, you guys, Mingzhou Group, has developed so fast, it's really enviable!" Qiao Busi said, "We are unrivaled in the chip field, even we can't compare."

"You can leave it to us for OEM production, just like AMD." Qin Tao said: "Apple is still very popular in the West. You have always used your own processors, which has greatly hindered your development. I think it’s best to use our Loongson processors. You can just design the appearance and system. Technology has no borders. It’s already a global industry chain, so why require all products to be produced in-house.”

In the battle for chips, Apple seems to have been ignored. This is also because during the period of the rise of Loongson, Apple was indeed not doing well.

In the mid-1980s, Joseph Sculley was squeezed out of Apple's core for various reasons. Sculley began to reorganize Apple's business and established an "Advanced Technology Group (ATG)" to explore revolutionary innovations. high-tech. This group is responsible for developing chips. After all, the Motorola 68000 series processors used in their Apple computers are too unreliable.

In this era, the RISC craze also emerged in Silicon Valley, and Stanley also provided a large amount of funds to the new ARM company, occupying 30% of the shares.

Later, because the wintel alliance was too powerful, Apple, Motorola and IBM joined forces to form the AIM Alliance. IBM came up with POWER, a high-end chip architecture based on RISC. The new chip jointly developed by the alliance was named "PowerPC". The first chip was the PowerPC 601. It inherited the powerful computing performance of IBM's high-end servers and workstations, and also incorporated Motorola's top chip technology reserves. After being launched in 1992, it became a strong competitor to Intel.

However, Apple continued to lose money, so Qiao Busi returned again and came up with the epoch-making iMac G3. Like previous Apple computers, this appearance is very beautiful, and the unique "jelly" shell makes it a work of art. Well received.

Apple continued its efforts and released the Power Mac G5 just last year, which was equipped with the PowerPC G5 processor.

It is not easy for Apple to still innovate under the attack of Loongson. At the same time, in order to compete with Dongfang's chips, this processor also uses a lot of advanced technologies. As a result, its heat generation is quite high. horrible!

How terrible is it? Apple's technicians racked their brains and installed a huge water-cooling radiator on this processor. This water-cooling radiator occupies half of the chassis volume, which is exaggerated to a terrifying degree!

Qiao Busi's mind began to think rapidly.

The main reason for the high heat generation of their processors is that the manufacturing process is not advanced enough. If the advanced production technology of the East is used, the heat generation can be reduced to one-tenth of the original, and a fan can suppress it, not to mention desktop computers. , even a notebook can be used!

However, if the chip is to be handed over to the Oriental OEM, it means that the Oriental will fully control its own chips. The architecture of the Power chip is different from that of the X86. This is to serve as a teacher for the Oriental people and let the Oriental people know their business secrets.

He still doesn't want to hand over such an advanced architecture to Dongfang, so there is another way left: purchasing chips from Dongfang!

Loongson's chip technology is indeed the best in the world. Every brand-new chip can be three to five years ahead of its competitors. When competitors spend huge sums of money to develop chips that can catch up with Loongson, Loongson will market chips with the same performance. Cut prices drastically, distribute a large amount of products, and then introduce new chips as high-end products. Under such pressure, no opponent can afford it. If Intel did not have a capital injection from the state, it would have gone bankrupt after several rounds of tossing.

However, Loongson's advanced chips are first for personal use and rarely exported. Now that Mr. Qin has extended an invitation, he might as well put forward some new requirements.

"Mr. Qin, we require the right to launch Loongson in the West. When you develop a brand-new chip, you must send it to us for testing as soon as possible. Then you cannot limit production capacity. You will supply us with as much as we need."

Max jumped. Hey, man, wake up and stop dreaming. You just spent 100 million dollars to buy a ticket and go for a walk around the moon. Don’t even think about making some rude requests. These requests of yours, Mr. Qin obviously won’t agree!

Qin Tao smiled: "I don't care about this. You have to talk to Loongson Company in person."

What's so difficult about this? Just kick the ball! Although I am the boss of the group, I am also the boss. I don’t have any say in the affairs of my subordinates. You can talk to them.

Qiao Busi was stunned for a moment: "Did you say that? You are the boss of the group. All you have to do is make a phone call."

"No, no, you misunderstood." Qin Tao shook his head: "I agreed with them that they would come to me when investing and share the profits with me, but I cannot interfere with their production and operation. Although Loongson Company is A company under the group, but this is more like a dry stock. Do you know that a dry stock only takes dividends and does not interfere with production and operations? "

Qiao Busi was stunned by Qin Tao's remarks. There was a blank in his brain for more than ten seconds, and then he recovered: "Okay, in this case, wait until a week later, come down from the sky, and I will go to Godson in person." According to the company, Apple is the most promising computer company. If we cooperate, it will be a win-win situation.”

A week later? This time it was Qin Tao's turn to be surprised: "When will our rocket be launched?"

"Between tomorrow night and the early morning of the day after tomorrow."

So fast?

Qin Tao almost missed it! This cannot be blamed on his secretary. He has too many companies and many projects, and it is impossible to pay attention to every one of them. Xu Zhengyang also introduced based on Qin Tao's interests. This time he mentioned Ah San and the moon landing. Plan, Xu Zhengyang mentioned the moon landing rocket here.

However, Xu Zhengyang did not know the specific launch date. After all, this was a decision made by Starship Company only today.

"Who's going up?" Qin Tao asked.

The aerospace heroes who work part-time as astronauts in the Starship Company are lucky. Launches once or twice a year give each of them the opportunity to fly to space, and now they even have the opportunity to fly to the moon!

"Zhao Dong and Deng Ming."

"Is it because they are the most skilled in training?" Qin Tao asked.

In fact, Dongfang's astronauts are all well trained. The actual choice of who will go up is just a few tenths of a point difference. In fact, everyone is qualified, but because there are few space missions, it is different now.

"It came out by lottery," Max said.

Lottery!

You can buy a car by lottery, you can buy a house by lottery, you can go to college by lottery, you can go to space by lottery!

"We have many space missions, and we plan to recruit a second batch of astronauts. These astronauts will not be restricted by nationality, and it will all depend on their personal qualities. Mr. Qin, what do you think?" Max said about the next plan.

"Of course. This belongs to our company after all. By the way, where is the rocket? I didn't see it when I came here."

"A special building has been built near the launch pad. The rocket will only come out of the building and transfer to the launch pad the day before launch." Max said: "Mr. Qin, if you want to go and see it, I will I can take you there.”

Qiao Busi on the side also interrupted: "I'll go too!"

"good."

Starship Company is independent, but the launch site is still the Wenchang Launch Site. This launch site not only launches Starship, but also launches other Dongfang rockets, so it is large-scale. There are two launch pads in the first phase of the project, namely 101 and 201, of which 101 is almost a dedicated launch pad for starships.

Next to the launch pad, a few hundred meters away, a building was built. The rockets built by Starship Company were first moved to this building for various tests, and then moved along the track before launch.

Qin Tao has seen Starship MK1 more than once. When he comes to see it again this time, compared with the previous times, the biggest feature is that the height is larger.

In the past, it was enough to mount the Dragon spacecraft directly on the top. Even if a few engines stalled, we were not afraid. But this time it is not possible. In order to fly to the moon, we need to add another level below the Dragon spacecraft. This level is responsible for The Dragon spacecraft is pushed to the lunar orbit, and then the Dragon spacecraft is brought back.

Looking at the high rocket, Qiao Busi's face was full of longing. As a rich man, he has to have no worries about food and clothing in his life, so he must have some special ideals.

Just as he was watching, two people came down from above, wearing full space suits, looking heroic.

"Mr. Qin?"

"Reporting to Mr. Qin, the manned lunar operation team is conducting simulation training, please give instructions!" Zhao Dong raised his right hand.

In fact, they have separated from the Eastern Astronaut Group and completely belong to the Starship Company, but they still have a military style in every gesture.

Since he is an employee of Starship Company, of course he has to report to his superior, the boss of Mingzhou Group.

"Well, how are you preparing?" Qin Tao said: "It will take four or five days to go up this time, right? Can you still adapt to space life?"

"Of course there is no problem. The last time we went up, we stayed in space for more than a week, and we have already gotten used to it. If we can go to the space station in the future, we will have to stay for half a year, but going to the space station is not as interesting as landing on the moon." Deng Ming said: "We are already looking forward to the feeling of stepping on the moon!"

Landing on the moon was something that was unthinkable before, but now, it is coming step by step!

"By the way, you need to take Qiao Busi up with you. During these few days in space, you must take good care of our passengers."

"Yes, we have been cooperating with Mr. Qiao Busi these days. In fact, as long as you can use our space toilet and eat, there will be no big problem."

It is no problem for ordinary passengers to go to space. The physical fitness requirements are not too high. They just need to train two things: eating and going to the toilet. If they are not done well, the entire spacecraft will be dirty.

"I look forward to your triumphant return. After you come back, the group will give each of you a big red envelope!"

"No, Mr. Qin, our treatment is already high enough, and material rewards are no longer needed."

"What do you want?"

"No, we just want to be able to step on the moon as soon as possible!"