Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 569 South Gate Lunar Base Exposed
Qiongzhou Island, the launch command center of Nanmen Aerospace.

Xu Shenxue couldn't help but get excited as he watched the high-definition images of multiple space stations and the Yutu interstellar spacecraft transmitted back on the big screen.

The Yutu interplanetary spacecraft's voyage is of great historical and practical significance.

This is a crucial part of the future lunar base plan!
Professor Deng Feiyue, chief scientist of Nanmen Aerospace, was introducing Xu Shenxue, Bao Yongyan, and other guests from aerospace institutions to them:

"The Yutu interplanetary spacecraft is an important part of our entire lunar base plan. The core concept of this interplanetary spacecraft is reuse!"

"After all, if we want to achieve regular transportation between Earth and the Moon, we can't launch a huge rocket from Earth every time, carry a spacecraft back and forth, and then discard it after use!"

"This would be far too costly. The cost of large rockets, spacecraft, lunar landers, and ascent vehicles would be extremely high!"

"Therefore, when considering the lunar base plan, an important point is to adopt a reusable model as much as possible. Whether it is rockets, spacecraft, lunar landers, or ascent vehicles, they should all be reusable!"

"In order to reduce technical difficulty and costs, we broke down this long transportation process."

"The complete journey is divided into: the Earth segment from the ground to the Earth space station, the Earth-Moon interplanetary segment from the Earth space station to the lunar space station, and the lunar segment from the lunar space station to the lunar surface."

"There are no problems with the Earth-to-space segment between Earth and the space station. Our Long March 5 and Long March 6 rockets can meet the requirements, and the future Long March 7 and Long March 8 rockets are also based on reusability!"

"Using reusable rockets and space shuttles, we can easily and cost-effectively deliver large quantities of various equipment, supplies, and fuel to the Centaurus space station in space!"

"At the same time, it can also be used to retrieve personnel or other future supplies from the space station by spacecraft or space shuttles!"

"The cost of the entire process can be effectively controlled!"

"In the interplanetary segment between the Earth space station and the lunar space station, we need a reusable interplanetary spacecraft for routine, low-cost transportation missions between the two space stations, and that is the core function of our Yutu interplanetary spacecraft!"

"This is an interstellar spacecraft that can be refueled directly from a space station and travel through interstellar space for extended periods!"

"In addition, we also need a reusable transportation vehicle for the lunar segment between the lunar space station and the lunar surface. This is the lunar transport project, codenamed 'Queqiao'."

"The Queqiao spacecraft is a type of spacecraft that can be refueled directly from the space station and used for round-trip missions to the moon. We have combined the lander and ascender from traditional lunar landing equipment and made it reusable."

"Because of the high technical difficulty, and in order to reduce technical and safety risks, the Queqiao spacecraft we developed in the first phase was relatively small, with an uplink payload of 50 kilograms at present."

Xu Shenxue nodded slightly after listening to Deng Feiyue's words.

The purpose of this series of plans is actually very simple: to save money!

From the Earth's surface to the Moon's surface, Nanmen Aerospace's core strategy for this transportation route is to use reusable transportation vehicles as much as possible.

Reusability can significantly reduce the high cost of the entire lunar base project!

After all, the biggest cost in this process is actually the cost of these transportation vehicles... namely, the cost of rockets and interplanetary spacecraft. As for the proportion of fuel cost, that is very low... although the cost of transporting fuel into space is not low, but there is no way around it. Current human technology cannot directly obtain chemical fuel from space or the moon.

Nanmen Space is exploring technologies to directly produce chemical fuels, namely oxygen and hydrogen, from the moon, but this is no easy task.

At present, the only option is to transport fuel from Earth to replenish it!
To change the current complex and cumbersome fuel replenishment situation, it may only be possible when controlled nuclear fusion technology achieves a breakthrough and can be miniaturized and carried on spacecraft.

As for controlled nuclear fusion technology, Xinghai Energy Technology, a subsidiary of Fairy Mountain Holdings, already has the underlying theoretical and material support and has begun the preliminary technical preparation stage. Although it will take time to develop it, at least we have seen hope!
In truth, the 'Lunar Base Project' was actually a supporting project prepared for the 'Controlled Nuclear Fusion Project'...

If it weren't for the need to extract helium-3 fuel for controlled nuclear fusion from the moon, Nanmen Aerospace and domestic space agencies wouldn't be rushing into this lunar base project.

The lunar base project is extremely expensive and requires a huge amount of scientific and social resources... It wouldn't be done without sufficient returns.

There is a huge difference between research projects and commercial projects!

It was precisely because the controlled nuclear fusion program saw hope for success and that a large amount of helium-3 would be needed in the future that the large-scale development of the lunar base program was promoted!

Therefore, Nanmen Aerospace's lunar base plan is not only their own involvement; in fact, Xinghai Energy Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Fairy Mountain Holdings, is also a major investor.

While Xu Shenxue, Deng Feiyue, and others were talking, the Yutu interstellar spacecraft on the large screen in the command center had its main engine activated. After orbital changes and attitude adjustments, it began to fly towards the moon.

This process, viewed from the big screen, is actually quite boring.

If it weren't for the people in the command center occasionally reporting data and information, the whole process would seem lonely and boring.

However, this seemingly mundane process, once observed by numerous telescopes and other observation devices on Earth, sparked a great deal of discussion.

Before Nanmen Aerospace even made any public announcement, foreign space agencies had already reported that they had observed Nanmen Aerospace's Yutu rover spacecraft heading towards the moon.
Nanmen Aerospace didn't keep people waiting long, and soon released news about the Yutu rover's interplanetary mission to the moon.

"This is an important experiment for testing interstellar spacecraft, aimed at verifying its long-term flight capabilities!"

"According to the planned schedule, the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft will arrive in lunar orbit in three days and conduct a docking test with the Sirius lunar unmanned space station!"

"After completing the test, the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft will set off again to return to the Centaurus space station according to the predetermined plan!"

Nanmen Aerospace has not released much information to the public; it has only made routine announcements.

The specific experimental content and the type of cargo carried on the Yutu interstellar spacecraft have not been disclosed.

It's not that we want to deliberately hide anything or conceal any technology; it's just that the nature of the mission makes it impossible to talk about it... Like I said, we can't exactly announce to the outside world that we're going to the moon to mine helium-3.

If the experimental details and payloads are published in detail, industry professionals can easily glean some clues from the experimental content and payload types...

Regular lunar exploration is understandable, but why is Nanmen Aerospace sending a bunch of satellites into low lunar orbit? And what's the purpose of sending a batch of ground equipment onto the lunar surface?
Did they discover aliens on the moon?

You're not really planning to build some kind of lunar base, are you?

Nanmen Space's lunar base plan is too ambitious and has exceeded the needs of conventional scientific research and exploration.

Do you have too much money and nowhere to spend it?

Of course, outsiders have overestimated the cost of Nanmen Space's series of lunar base projects... They estimated the costs based on their own technological capabilities and operating models.

But Nanmen Aerospace is different; it's a commercial aerospace company... so its costs are actually very low.

It is a commercial space company that has reduced the cost of low Earth orbit launches from more than $10,000 per kilogram in traditional space launches to just over $1,000 per kilogram, and is now even aiming for a cost of several hundred dollars per kilogram.

Rockets and various aerospace equipment even utilize conventionally manufactured components on a large scale...

Customized spare parts for other companies' rockets, satellites, spacecraft, and space stations can easily cost tens of thousands of US dollars each, or even hundreds of thousands of US dollars each.

However, Nanmen Aerospace's component costs are lower because its production volume is large, which allows it to spread out more costs.

This is particularly evident in the field of aerospace chips.

Many aerospace agencies use chips that cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan per chip... Where does this cost come from?

It's not because the aerospace industry's chip technology is particularly advanced or the processes are extremely demanding that leads to high costs; it's actually purely due to low production volume, resulting in high average costs...

For a simple example, Zhiyun Microelectronics' outsourcing quotes for 12nm process nodes are around 50 million yuan per tape-out.

The subsequent production costs are actually not much; the contract manufacturing fee for each piece is about 35,000 yuan...

Even if this silicon wafer is used to produce the GPU core of APO4600, about seventy wafers can be produced, and the manufacturing cost of each GPU is about five or six hundred yuan.

This means that if you design a special aerospace-grade chip and only produce one hundred units, the production cost is negligible. The wafer foundry can simply send you two 12-inch silicon wafers, and the chip fabrication will be completed in the tape-out stage... In the end, you will only be charged 50 million for tape-out fees!
The cost of chip fabrication is 50 million. Dividing that by the production volume of 100 chips, the final cost per chip is 500,000.

If its final production volume is only one chip, the manufacturing cost of a single chip will be fifty million!

This is the core reason why so-called specialized chips in some special fields are extremely expensive. It's not because their technology is so advanced, but because their production volume is too low!
Nanmen Aerospace's approach is to directly replace some chips with readily available industrial-grade chips... at most, they will add some special packaging or take a protective layer on the outer layer when using it.

Some chips are not readily available elsewhere, so they also need to be specially designed and manufactured.

For example, the main chips on a large number of low-orbit satellites are specially designed and manufactured. However, because the production volume of these chips is large enough, the cost is spread out very well, and the price is also very cheap.

At the same time, Nanmen Aerospace also focuses on standardization and the universalization of spare parts.

This is also true in the chip industry. There's a preference for general-purpose chips that can be used in multiple fields, thereby increasing usage and reducing the cost per unit. For most industrial products, large-scale mass production is the best way to amortize costs!
Whether it's procuring from abroad or developing and producing in-house, Nanmen Aerospace is aiming for large-scale mass production... Even rockets are all about mass production.

Other space agencies launch only a few rockets a year, while Southgate Space launches hundreds of rockets a year. The cost difference is enormous.

Therefore, the cost of many of Nanmen Space's launch missions and space activities far exceeds external expectations.

The same applies to the lunar base plan!
Of course, this cost reduction is also limited, mainly in the fields of rockets, probes, and satellites.

As for the Yutu interstellar spacecraft, it is actually quite expensive... after all, there is only one, so it can't be considered mass-produced.

The expensive Yutu interstellar spacecraft, propelled by its engines, completed its orbital maneuver and accelerated, breaking free from Earth's gravitational pull and finally heading towards the moon.

One day later, the Yutu interstellar spacecraft, having traveled a long distance, began to start its engines to slow down!
After successfully decelerating, it orbited the moon, then began continuous orbital maneuvers and attitude adjustments to initiate docking with the Sirius unmanned space station.

Nanmen Aerospace has mastered this unmanned docking technology very well, so the docking was smooth and fast, and the first attempt was successful.

After successful docking, the robotic arm system inside the Sirius unmanned space station and the robotic arm on the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft began to work together to transfer cargo.

The entire cargo transfer process is controlled automatically by an intelligent system based on artificial intelligence technology, without any human intervention and without any possibility of human intervention!

The entire cargo transfer was continuously transmitted via communication satellite to the control center on Earth, allowing Xu Shenxue and his team to see it.

The rapid and high-quality transmission of signals from the moon back to Earth is made possible by the support of Zhiyun Satellite's satellite communication network!
Zhiyun Satellite has not only a large number of ground orbit communication satellites, but also a large number of high orbit communication satellites.

In order to provide communication support for the lunar base project, Zhiyun Satellite had already launched a high-orbit heavy communication relay satellite ahead of schedule, and also launched a heavy communication relay satellite into lunar orbit.

This led to the formation of a dual Earth-Moon relay satellite system.

In addition, Zhiyun Satellite launched two more batches of satellites, totaling more than ten satellites of various sizes, to the moon at the end of last year.

Therefore, Zhiyun Satellite already has a basic satellite network on the moon consisting of multiple large satellites and more than a dozen small satellites.

This lunar satellite network not only assists in providing Earth-Moon communication, but also provides comprehensive positioning and communication signals for various activities such as landing and exploration on the Moon. At the same time, these satellites also have basic exploration capabilities, enabling them to conduct various explorations on the lunar surface to collect more information.

Simply put, Zhiyun Satellite has taken a simplified version of its satellite system on Earth and moved it to the moon... and then used a dual relay satellite system to connect the satellite network on Earth with the satellite network on the moon.

This is also an important reason why Nanmen Aerospace's early lunar base plan went very smoothly and was able to carry out a large number of unmanned automated exploration activities.

Without the communication, positioning, and detection support of this Earth-Moon satellite network, even if the Queqiao spacecraft on the Moon has excellent performance, it will not be able to achieve precise landing and launch.

As the saying goes, if you want to get rich, build roads first. If you want to explore the moon and establish a lunar base, the first step is to build a comprehensive satellite network.

In this respect, Zhiyun Satellite has done a very good job... after all, Zhiyun Satellite itself operates the largest satellite network on Earth.

Currently, Zhiyun Satellite operates more than 6,000 satellites in Earth's space... far exceeding the total number of satellites of all other countries combined.

Although most satellites are tiny microsatellites, they are still satellites!
These smart cloud satellites have been widely used to provide satellite internet access services to enterprise and individual customers around the world.

The Zhiyun S20 phone, which is also scheduled to be released in August this year, will also provide satellite communication services... including free emergency communication services and paid satellite communication services.

Of course, the data volume of such satellite communication services is very small; it can only send text messages. It's impossible to actually connect to a communication satellite and watch a short video online, or even make a satellite call...

However, it is worth noting that because it uses Zhiyun Satellite's low-orbit satellite network, it supports two-way satellite communication!
In other words, you can not only send messages, but also receive messages!

Of course, due to the low signal power of mobile phones, they must be used in open and unobstructed environments, otherwise the signal is easily lost and the signal transmission speed is relatively slow.

To truly achieve high-speed satellite internet access, a dedicated antenna from Zhiyun Satellite is required…

Over the past few years, Zhiyun Satellite has relied on Nanmen Aerospace's inexpensive reusable rockets to launch all sorts of random satellites into the sky, forming an Earth satellite communication network that combines medium- and high-orbit communication satellites with low-orbit communication satellites.

This network of Earth satellites, along with dual-orbit relay satellites, finally enabled the lunar communication satellite network to achieve high-speed signal transmission, allowing Xu Shenxue to see high-definition images from the ground.

Although the image is slightly delayed... the Earth and the Moon are too far apart, even if electromagnetic signals travel at the speed of light, there will still be a communication delay of two or three seconds.

Through footage with a two- or three-second delay, Xu Shenxue and others witnessed the process of the robotic arm moving supplies, as well as the subsequent transfer of the space robot.

In addition to carrying fuel and scientific research equipment, the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft also brought two space repair robots to the Sirius unmanned space station.

This space robot was jointly developed by Nanmen Aerospace and Zhiyun Group. It is a device specifically designed to maintain space stations, spacecraft and other space vehicles in space. It can effectively replace human astronauts in completing the daily maintenance tasks of various spacecraft, and can also be used for automated emergency fault repair when necessary.

It can also assist in other spacewalking missions.

Basically, anything human astronauts can do, they can do too, and even do it better and more precisely!

It can run automatically in daily operations, and can also be operated in remote control mode when necessary.

Nanmen Aerospace has extensively used this type of space robot on its own Centaur space station and Sirius unmanned space station for various space operations, with excellent results.

After the space robots were transferred, all the cargo carried on the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft was also transferred.

Next, the automated system transferred over one million kilograms of lunar soil and mineral samples stored on the Sirius unmanned space station to the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft.

At this point, the Yutu interstellar spacecraft's mission had entered its second half.

One day later, the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft successfully separated from the Sirius unmanned space station, then restarted its engines to return to Earth, and successfully reached Earth orbit a day later, where it docked with the Centaurus space station.

After successful docking, lunar soil and mineral samples were transferred.

With this, the first Earth-Moon flight test of the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft has been a complete success!

The news was officially announced to the public at 7:30 p.m. that evening!

Furthermore, it was revealed for the first time that the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft brought back more than 100 kilograms of lunar soil and mineral samples from the moon.

This news shocked everyone who follows the aerospace industry…

Lunar soil samples that were once measured in grams, you brought back over 100 kilograms from Nanmen Aerospace?

Many foreigners, and even some people in China, were confused after seeing this. Isn't Nanmen Aerospace supposed to be about rockets? How did their technology become so advanced that they were so successful in landing on the moon?
Then some people started collecting publicly available information about Nanmen Space's series of launch missions... In fact, Nanmen Space didn't try to hide much from its lunar base plan, nor could it hide it: rockets, spacecraft, space stations, lunar satellites, and other such things are all in space. Not to mention professional aerospace observation equipment, even ordinary people with a decent space telescope can see them.

If someone is interested and carefully collects relevant information, they can actually find quite a bit about Nanmen Aerospace's lunar landing activities.

Then, when I did the statistics, I was stunned: this is quite a large scale!
Besides the highly anticipated Yutu interplanetary spacecraft, Nanmen Aerospace has quietly carried out more than ten launches of its Long March 6 heavy rocket over the past year in line with the lunar landing program.

They sent over a Sirius unmanned space station, a large lunar orbit relay satellite, a large Earth communication relay satellite, more than ten small and medium-sized lunar satellites, a Queqiao spacecraft, and more than ten kinds of unmanned lunar surface equipment, including various construction robots specifically designed for the lunar surface and an automated lunar exploration rover.

At this time, outsiders were unaware that Nanmen Aerospace had used these previously delivered unmanned lunar equipment to temporarily establish a small unmanned base on the lunar surface.

After the Yutu rover successfully returned to Earth, industry insiders initially just thought the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft was pretty impressive, while netizens joined in the fun to see some so-called experts or industry insiders bragging.

However... some experts have analyzed and demonstrated that Nanmen Aerospace's lunar launch activities are a bit too frequent, and judging from the powerful carrying capacity of the Long March 6 rocket, the payload should be more than what is shown on the surface, and should be at least a dozen tons!
Where did the remaining ten-plus tons of load go?

Some suspect that Nanmen Space may have deployed these payloads to the lunar surface, conducting a large-scale unmanned lunar exploration mission.

At this time, space agencies from other countries were also bored out of their minds... and actually mobilized space telescopes to search the surface of the moon.

Their careful search with the space telescope actually led them to discover a small, automated base for Nanmen Space on the lunar surface.

The discovery caused an uproar in global public opinion!

Damn, Xu Shenxue, you're actually building a lunar base?

Are you serious?

But why do you want to build a lunar base now?
With current technology so limited and costs so high, building a lunar base is something even someone as wealthy as Xu Shenxue shouldn't do.

Could it be that you, Xu Shenxue, discovered aliens on the moon?
(End of this chapter)