Chapter 930: The United States’ little calculation
NASA's high-profile announcement of the launch of the 'Lunar Space Elevator' project shows that the space race at the beginning of the 21st century has entered a fever pitch.
On one side is China, represented by Professor Xu Chuan, which possesses the most advanced new space shuttle technology and has established an outpost scientific research station base on the moon.
Judging from the current performance, China has undoubtedly replaced the United States and become the largest country in the aerospace field.
On the other side, it is led by the United States, an established space power and the former number one space country, and has gathered many Western countries such as the European Union, Tsarist Russia, Sakura Country, and Maple Leaf Country to form a 'group'.
Although in the past two or three years, NASA has been slightly behind in the aerospace field, and it also lost to China in the Artemis program of manned landing and return to the moon.
But it is undeniable that NASA’s background is quite profound.
Coupled with the private American company SpaceX, Blue Origin, Orbital Science and other aerospace companies, the United States is still the country with the strongest aerospace power after China.
Especially now, NASA and the United States have joined forces with the European Union, East Asia, North America and other countries and regions to launch the lunar space elevator project.
This has brought this space race into a climax.
.....
At the same time, on the other side.
In an office in a white room, United States.
In a certain conference room, his staff team, as well as senior officials from NASA, CIA and other relevant departments were convened, and a meeting was being held.
Since they jointly held a cooperation meeting on the lunar space elevator project with the space agencies of the European Union, Tsarist Russia, East Asia and other countries and regions...
What awaits them is not the glory of returning to the aerospace field, but the sanctions imposed by their competitors.
After waiting for everyone to arrive, Mr. T, the general manager, slapped his hands on the table and said with a serious face:
"Everyone, we have received the latest intelligence news that China is preparing to ban or suspend the sale of high-quality graphene, carbon nanotubes, carbon fiber and other materials to the outside world."
After hearing the news, Bill Nelson was stunned before he could speak, and subconsciously asked
"When did it happen?"
In the conference room, CIA Director William Joseph Burns said quickly: "Just about a day ago, the informant passed back the information, but the other party has not officially announced it yet, and it may take some time to wait."
Hearing this, Bill Nelson fell into deep thought.
He was not thinking about doubting whether the CIA's intelligence information was accurate, but thinking about why the other party did what he did.
As the thoughts in his mind flowed, Bill Nelson looked at William Joseph Burns and asked: "If I remember correctly, more than 85% of the world's high-quality carbon nanomaterials are currently
Is it from that company called CATL?"
"Can the CIA help find out why this company suddenly controls mature high-quality carbon nanomaterial preparation technology?"
The preparation of carbon nanomaterials such as graphene and carbon nanotubes is actually not a difficult technology. There are many countries around the world that can produce carbon nanomaterials.
However, the preparation of high-quality graphene and carbon nanotubes has always been a difficult fact to break through.
Those relatively conventional preparation methods, such as arc discharge method, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), laser evaporation method, flame method and other technologies, either produce carbon nanomaterials of varying quality, or the equipment is expensive and not suitable for large-scale production.
large-scale production.
High-quality carbon nanomaterials have always been a scarce commodity in various countries.
But just three or four years ago, Huaguo, or that company that specializes in battery manufacturing, suddenly started exporting carbon nanotube materials.
At the beginning, the number was relatively small, but then it began to increase slowly, like boiling a frog in warm water. By the time countries started to realize that something was wrong, CATL had already occupied the world's leading position in the two types of high-quality carbon nanotubes and graphene.
The share of materials is more than 70%.
The United States is also one of the large-scale purchasers. After all, high-quality graphene and carbon nanotubes have many uses.
Of course, while purchasing, they naturally also investigated why CATL suddenly mastered mature preparation technology.
However, there has not been much progress in this matter. On the one hand, the confidentiality work is very good. On the other hand, CATL itself has researched the preparation technology of carbon nanomaterials. After all, the preparation of batteries requires the use of high-quality carbon.
of nanomaterials.
But this time Bill Nelson vaguely felt something was wrong.
"No need, this matter has been investigated."
William Joseph Burns said in a deep voice: "We have conducted a detailed investigation on this matter, including the issues you mentioned."
"Judging from the current investigation results, CATL's high-quality carbon nanomaterial preparation technology... is very likely to come from the Chuanhai Materials Research Institute!"
Hearing this name, Bill Nelson's pupils suddenly shrank.
Chuanhai Materials Research Institute is a research institution founded by that person!
Both the initial artificial SEI thin film technology and the subsequent lithium-sulfur batteries, including high-temperature copper-carbon-silver superconducting materials and room-temperature superconducting materials, all came from this laboratory.
To be precise, it should be from Xu Chuan's hand.
At the head of the table, Mr. T took a deep breath, looked at Director Bill Nelson of NASA, and said in a deep voice.
"If the other party really bans the sale of high-quality carbon nanotubes, graphene and other materials, it will have a huge impact on many of our industries."
"As for the main reason for the ban, I believe you should know."
After hearing this, Bill Nelson felt a headache and rubbed his temples.
Naturally, he knew what this person was talking about. In fact, they had 'acquired' the 'Lunar Space Elevator' project that originally belonged to the Xinghai Research Institute, or Professor Xu Chuan's future plan, and made public deployment in advance to seize the opportunity.
Opportunity.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Whether it is the previous cleanup of some internal personnel by Xinghai Research Institute or the ban on external sales of high-quality carbon nanomaterials, they are actually targeted actions.
The former is to clean up the internal troublemakers, while the latter is undoubtedly an attempt to block the most core materials in the lunar space elevator technology.
After all, it can be said that carbon nanocomposites are the only choice that can be used as lunar ladder cable materials.
Blocking channels in this area means directly blocking the neck of the lunar space elevator project.
At least for now, there is no other material that can replace the status of carbon nanotube materials.
After thinking for a while, Bill Nelson took a deep breath, looked at the president, and said, "In my opinion, this may not be entirely a bad thing."
Hearing this, not only the CEO on the stage turned his attention to me, but also other people attending the meeting.
Bill Nelson said in a deep voice: "First of all, we all know that if nothing goes wrong, this incident will most likely be their counterattack against the lunar space elevator project."
"Yesterday, I received a piece of news about Xinghai Research Institute. The other party released the news in advance that the Fuyao space shuttle is about to arrive at Mars."
"According to their official tracking reports, it will take at least a week for the space shuttle to reach Mars' low-Earth orbit."
"This is obviously aimed at the lunar ladder project we previously announced. They are seizing and suppressing the popularity of lunar space elevators."
"The subsequent ban on the sale of carbon nanomaterials has further confirmed the authenticity and feasibility of the lunar space elevator project!"
"Obviously, they are anxious!"
After a pause, Bill Nelson glanced around the conference room, and then said: "The lunar space elevator is a project proposed by Professor Xu, and it is also an important part of their development of the moon."
"And now, their entire deployment has been disrupted by us, and the space elevator project was won by us first, which means that we have greatly frustrated our opponents' actions in the aerospace field."
"Even in the future, we can use this project to block the throat of lunar development!"
"For us, this is obviously a good thing. We can use this project to regain our space glory in the future!"
Hearing this, everyone in the conference room nodded subconsciously.
Indeed, according to Bill Nelson, all of this is traceable.
From the space elevator project to the ban on the export of high-quality carbon nanomaterials, these are all corresponding.
The lunar space elevator technology is very likely to become their project to regain the glory of space, which is very important for the United States.
But equally, high-quality graphene and carbon nanotube materials are also crucial to the current development of the United States.
One is the future and the other is the present. It is indeed difficult for people to choose.
At the top of the list, Mr. President thought for a while and said: "The biggest problem now is that carbon nanomaterials may affect not only the future lunar space elevator project, but also many other industries, and many related technologies need to be used."
to a large amount of carbon nanomaterials.”
"If the other party really chooses to ban sales, it will be a huge blow to us, and this problem must be solved."
Hearing this, the business manager frowned and said: "According to the data of 2024, the total amount of high-quality graphene and carbon nanotubes we imported is 130,000 tons. Among them, products from CATL's factory
The volume reached 110,000 tons, accounting for more than 85%."
"These high-quality graphene are used in various industries such as electronic products, aerospace, biomedical, and automobiles."
"If there is a sales ban, although we still don't know how serious the consequences will be, we can imagine that the blow to these industries will be huge."
Hearing this, the new Mr. T couldn't help frowning and narrowing his eyes.
I didn’t say I didn’t know yet, but I was shocked when I said it.
Today, more than 85% of the high-quality graphene and carbon nanotubes in the United States are almost completely controlled by their competitors.
Knocking on the table, he frowned and asked, "Why is this happening? Where is the import security line?"
The businessman said helplessly: "There is no choice. Apart from China, no other country or company can provide a large amount of high-quality and relatively cheap graphene materials."
"If we want to lower it to half the safety line, I have calculated that we need to pay at least 150% more funds."
"And more importantly, other countries cannot provide such large quantities of high-quality graphene and carbon nanotube materials."
"According to statistics, China's high-quality graphene and carbon nanotubes account for more than 75% of the world's total."
Hearing this, everyone in the conference room fell silent.
At present, the scale of their imported high-quality graphene and carbon nanotube materials has reached more than one billion meters. If they pay 150% more money, this is quite scary.
Of course, more than 85% of high-quality graphene and carbon nanotubes are imported, posing a huge potential threat to the U.S. economy and national security.
Especially when these materials involve many industries and fields, it is scary.
Just like now, once the other party blocks the export of high-quality carbon nanomaterials, they have to hold an emergency meeting to discuss solutions.
"I suggest opening the lunar space elevator project to China..."
In the conference room, someone raised his hand and spoke, but before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Bill Nelson.
"This is impossible!"
"The lunar space elevator project is our hope to regain our aerospace dominance. If we let them join in, how will we explain this to our allies?"
This chapter is not finished yet, please click the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Especially regarding the future mineral mining and right to speak on the moon, China has already deployed mining equipment on the moon. And we haven't even built a base. If
Losing these will have a huge impact on our future development in space."
"If we lose this ticket for the future, the future may be closed to us forever!"
Bill Nelson was so excited that he could not agree to open the lunar space elevator project.
This is not only an opportunity for the United States to regain its space glory, but also his only chance to continue to be re-elected.
As long as he can help the EU, Tsarist Russia, Sakura Country and other regions and countries unite to fight against the red power in the aerospace field, he will be confident that he will continue to serve as the director of NASA for another term.
Hearing this, Mr. T, the first person in charge, looked over and said solemnly: "So about high-quality carbon nanomaterials, do you have a solution?"
It is undeniable that the lunar space elevator project is indeed very important to the aerospace development of the United States.
But now it is more important to solve the problem at hand.
Upon hearing this question, Bill Nelson fell silent immediately.
Indeed, he could not come up with any good solutions. High-quality graphene, carbon nanotubes and other materials are scarce materials in all countries.
In the conference room, a representative of the National Academy of Sciences raised his hand and said: "If the resources of the lunar space elevator project cannot be allocated in exchange for resources, all we can do is to find supplements from other places.
"
"Such as chips, photolithography machines, semiconductors, etc."
"Perhaps we can choose to take some actions in this regard to reach a deal with them."
"If these actions do not achieve the desired results, we can negotiate and trade with China through the lunar space elevator project."
"Director Bill is right. At least we should not give away the share of the lunar space elevator so easily. It will be an important strategic facility for the development of the moon."