Director Bill was looking at an urgent report that had just been reported.
In his office at this time, there were other NASA executives and Elon Musk, chairman of the Space Exploration Company.
Musk, who happened to come over to NASA headquarters today to discuss something, did not expect to encounter such a thing.
He looked at the report in Bill's hand with a surprised look on his face: "Oh, buy it... 100 meters in length? 10 meters in diameter? This thing is really big!"
"In terms of volume, it is about 5 to 6 times the size of the Falcon Heavy." Lent, the head of NASA's Artemite project, was scratching his hair as he spoke.
Bill put down the document in his hand, a look of solemnity appeared on his face: "Is this the purpose of the space base in the north of Motor Island?"
Lant is more professional than the half-hearted director Bill: "I remember that a company in Maple Leaf Country proposed a similar concept, but I didn't expect that the Homo sapiens company could actually realize this idea."
"Judging from the data detected by the radar, when the spacecraft left the pipe, its speed reached the first cosmic speed of 7.8 kilometers per second. It is obvious that the power of this spacecraft is very strong!" Another technical supervisor analyzed
road.
Musk reminded: "Gentlemen! Shouldn't you be worried about Homo sapiens companies seizing orbital resources and landing on the moon and Mars first?"
Suddenly, everyone present, including NASA management, fell silent involuntarily.
Last year, NASA’s scientific research funding increased a bit.
However, the good times did not last long. Since the Homo sapiens company kept causing trouble this year, NASA's funding has dropped again.
The main reason for this situation is that the landlord's family has no surplus food.
America's economy continues to deteriorate. On the one hand, it needs to replace the old-fashioned plastic products inside and invest a lot of money in West Asia; on the other hand, there is a new round of economic crisis that has just broken out.
Coupled with the severe decline in America's global trade, the U.S. dollar's global currency status is not guaranteed.
There is also a more important reason, that is, at this time, America has projects that require more money, which crowds out investment in the aerospace industry.
That is life sciences and biochips, as well as the military industry.
The importance of the aerospace industry, at this stage, is obviously not as important as life sciences, biochips, and military industry.
The gentlemen on the council of the city on the top of the mountain no longer have the ambitions they had when the Apollo moon landed, let alone the strong capital they had back then.
With limited funds, they had to make a choice.
The aerospace industry is one of the parts that has been left behind.
The current order given to NASA by the Council of the City on the Hill is to do more theoretical research, write more PPTs, and at the same time use the money on the aerospace projects that need the most practicality.
For example, new surveillance satellites that can protect against gamma rays are NASA's recent key projects.
As for returning to the moon, a new International Space Station, colonizing Mars, etc., the Board of Governors did not approve funding to NASA, but only encouraged private companies such as space exploration companies to invest in space stations, land on the moon and Mars, and so on.
Without money, major private companies also find it very difficult.
This is why Musk specially came to NASA headquarters to discuss the next cooperation issues. Now Space Exploration Company, relying on its low cost, has almost taken over all NASA's launch missions in the next three years.
NASA, which is facing financial difficulties, also has to be careful about its budget. Similar to scammers like General Electric, Blue Origin, and Boeing, Bill doesn't want to give projects to these companies at all now.
After thinking for a while, Bill asked Joseph Brooks, the head of the Space Development Office:
"Joseph, if we were to build a similar facility, how much would it cost?"
Joseph Brooks calculated silently in his mind for a while and came up with a relatively conservative figure: "At least 200 billion."
"200 billion?" Bill suddenly looked confused about everything.
"..." Musk on the side was also shocked by this number.
Even though Musk has been the world's richest man for several years, that is only based on stock valuation, and he certainly does not have that much cash and fixed assets.
Joseph Brooks explained helplessly: "200 billion is just a conservative estimate. It will cost at least 30 billion to build high towers and underground facilities. The research and development and manufacturing of airships and vacuum hoses will also require about 20 billion..."
"In addition, the research and development and manufacturing of the spacecraft itself, as well as whether there are other facilities within the entire system, are still unknown..."
After listening to Joseph Brooks' analysis, Bill's face became even darker.
Fortunately, they don't know that the Dandelion Project's underground ring pipeline is 300 kilometers long. Otherwise, just this giant vacuum pipeline with a diameter of 30 meters will make NASA completely despair.
Taking the commonly used tunnel with an inner diameter of 5.8 meters in North America as an example, the current minimum cost is US$500 million per kilometer.
Even if the difference in pipe materials is not taken into account, based on the area difference between the two pipe walls, based on America's project estimate, the cost per kilometer will definitely reach more than 5 billion US dollars.
300 kilometers would cost at least 1.5 trillion.
This does not include the calculation of electromagnetic acceleration orbits, power supply systems, etc.
It is estimated that even if NASA's funding is increased a hundred times, it will not be enough.
Obviously Bill has not realized the huge gap between the two sides.
I think that if Homo sapiens can do it, so can I, NASA.
However, Homo Sapien Company has various low-cost production technologies, very cheap raw materials, and an operating system with extremely high internal resource utilization.
These are things that NASA does not have.
Bill still refused to give up. He gritted his teeth and ordered: "Let the company in Maple Leaf Country with similar technology study it and see if they can come up with a low-cost solution."
Joseph Brooks could only nod helplessly: "OK, I will contact that company as soon as possible."
Musk was not optimistic about this project. He suggested somewhat eccentrically: "Bill, 200 billion can launch thousands of Falcon Heavy. Why waste money on this kind of place? The council will not agree to this kind of project."
, you’d better think more about cooperating with Space Exploration Company!”
"Elon, your idea is so wrong. If we can successfully replicate this project, we will be able to enter outer space at low cost in the future." Bill did not listen to Musk's words.
"But NASA has no money!" Musk reminded.
"Uh..." Bill felt a little embarrassed.
Nowadays, NASA's funding is indeed much less. Without money, it is impossible to carry out such a large-scale project.
The shortage of funds is actually a problem that all major space agencies are currently facing.
At this stage, the aerospace industry is a very difficult industry to make a profit. Except for satellite navigation, satellite communications, weather forecasting, and telemetry, which can barely make some money, other projects are basically making money at a loss.
For example, the space station project, manned moon landing, Hubble telescope, Mars exploration, etc. There is no way to make money from these projects in a short period of time.
Therefore, the aerospace industry is actually one of the barometers of a regional economy.
In areas with poor economies, there is definitely no way to engage in various cutting-edge scientific research aerospace projects. Instead, they should consider more practical projects such as navigation, communications, telemetry and monitoring satellites.
NASA is a typical example.
At this time, agencies that are struggling with space funding, including NASA, the Europa Consortium, Lucia and other aerospace departments, are all troubled by this.
Seeing the Homo sapiens company launching a spacecraft of several thousand tons into outer space at once, those space agencies are really envious.
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