Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 592 Extraterrestrial Creations?

For decades, humanity has embarked on large-scale explorations of space, especially during the Cold War, when various probes were launched into space, greatly enhancing our understanding of space.

However, with the decline of the Soviet Union and the end of the US-Soviet space race, the United States did not significantly reduce its spending on space exploration, and other countries did not follow suit. This led to a relatively stable period of development in human space exploration.

It continues to develop, but due to limited resource input, the results are limited.

However, this situation has changed in recent years... With the continuous advancement of technology, people's demand for various satellites has increased significantly. Satellites are no longer limited to military uses and a few communication and remote sensing applications, but have begun to be widely used in civilian applications.

The most typical example is the Zhiyun Satellite Network developed by Xu Shenxue. This network can provide low-orbit satellite internet services to all parts of the world, and can also provide satellite signals for mobile phones. This is the satellite communication service carried by the S20 series mobile phones.

This satellite network also provides ultra-high precision positioning services worldwide!

This system, which currently comprises over 10,000 satellites, not only provides satellite internet services to customers worldwide but also supplies signals to Zhiyun S-series mobile phones and data signals to Xiaojiang Technology's drones, such as the somewhat unconventional X14 low-altitude drone...

In addition, this satellite system also provides signal services for the X1 project and other domestic military projects!

Moreover, Nanmen Aerospace's space activities, especially the lunar base plan, also rely on this satellite system to provide signal services... For this reason, Zhiyun Satellite even specially developed several Earth-Moon relay satellites and a lunar orbit satellite network.

The need to launch so many satellites has also driven the real development of commercial spaceflight... Nanmen Aerospace's high-frequency launch activities are mostly for launching various satellites for Zhiyun Satellite.

Meanwhile, Nanmen Aerospace also developed a Centaur commercial space station.

Driven by Xu Shenxue, commercial spaceflight has developed extremely rapidly in the past seven or eight years!
This situation has directly spurred humanity to further and continuously explore space.

For its future exploration plans within the solar system, Nanmen Space has launched a state-of-the-art space telescope: Nanwang-1.

The overall technology of this telescope is far superior to that of the Hubble Space Telescope, which previously provided humanity with a wealth of space observation data. After all, the Hubble Telescope was built more than 30 years ago... In the past 30 years, human technological progress has been extremely rapid.

The Nanwang-1 space telescope, launched by Nanmen Aerospace, has a total launch mass of 25 tons. It was launched by the Long March 6 heavy rocket using a reuse mode and carries a rather extravagant telescope with a diameter of 6 meters, much larger than the Hubble Space Telescope.

Not only is the technology more advanced, but it is also larger in size... Its overall performance, such as the accuracy of observation and the field of view, far exceeds that of the Hubble Telescope.

Furthermore, the telescope carries other types of auxiliary detectors, enabling it to perform more types of observations and obtain more data.

This is why, when Nanmen Space discovered its third extraterrestrial object, other space agencies didn't react much... because this object is small in size, doesn't emit obvious gas, has comet-like characteristics, and is currently quite far away, making observation difficult.

Other space agencies' space telescopes aren't very good... Even the Hubble Telescope, which is over 30 years old, is still a mainstay telescope!

In the field of space observation, Nanmen Space has already taken the lead in the world. Relying solely on the Nanwang-1 space telescope, it has obtained a large number of celestial objects that were not discovered by the Hubble Telescope and other detectors in the past.

However, as a commercial space company, Nanmen Aerospace is not particularly interested in simply finding ordinary celestial bodies, and it will not make a big fuss about discovering them!
For Nanmen Space, Nanwang-1 was specifically designed to observe various planets and asteroids within the solar system, collect data, and accumulate information for future space mining and other missions.

The discovery of the third extraterrestrial object was also quite serendipitous. Space is so vast, while the field of view of a space telescope is actually very small, and its observation range only occupies a very small part of the night sky... but it just so happened to be observed.

Then, when the staff looked at the trajectory, they immediately noticed something was wrong... its trajectory was a hyperbola, and its speed exceeded the escape velocity of the solar system.

This means it comes from outside the solar system!

After discovering this, the staff began to continuously track and observe it, and temporarily named this interstellar object 3I/cloud.

This temporary name also follows a pattern: the capital I signifies an interstellar object; and the 3 signifies the third interstellar object that humans have discovered.

So 3I is its official code, but usually a nickname is added when naming it.

Therefore, the nickname 'cloud' was added after it. This was the nickname given by the first researcher at Nanmen Aerospace who discovered this interstellar object, derived from the name of one of his cats...

3I/cloud exhibits rather unusual characteristics, lacking typical comet features and possessing an extremely strange shape—an elongated oval with a convex center—which piqued the curiosity of Southern Space Observers.

The more researchers observed, the stranger it seemed... This 3I/cloud was abnormal in every way!
Ultimately, the news reached Xu Shenxue!
Xu Shenxue was also quite curious about this... He had always been very curious about the starry sky, and naturally, he was also very interested in 3I/cloud, a clearly abnormal extraterrestrial visitor.

Just a few days later, Nanmen Aerospace was going to conduct the first cantilever recovery test flight of the Long March 7 rocket, and Xu Shenxue had originally planned to go and watch.

That's perfect. We can check out the 3I/cloud news together and watch the maiden flight test of the Long March 7 rocket.

Thinking of this, Xu Shenxue called Xi Wanqing and told her that he was going to Qiongzhou Island the day after tomorrow and planned to take her with him.

At this time, Xi Wanqing was still playing elsewhere, but Xu Shenxue called and immediately said that he would be back tomorrow and they could set off together the day after tomorrow.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Two days later, Xu Shenxue took Xi Wanqing on a private plane to Qiongzhou Island.

This wasn't the first time Xi Wanqing had ridden on Xu Shenxue's private jet, but it was the first time she had sat next to him... In the past, she had only been an accompanying staff member, sitting in a corner seat with others.

Now, she's sitting right next to Xu Shenxue!

After the private jet took off, Xi Wanqing was busy taking selfies and then repeatedly editing them. Even though Xi Wanqing is highly educated, she is no exception to the common woman's habit of taking selfies and editing photos.

Although Xu Shenxue thought she was already very beautiful, she didn't need to find a special angle when taking photos. The photos she took casually were all very photogenic and pleasing to the eye.

But Xi Wanqing doesn't think so... She always feels that some photos are not good-looking, the angle is not good, the lighting is not good, this one makes her face look big, that one makes her arms look thick, and so on.

While Xi Wanqing was busy working on the photos, Xu Shenxue took advantage of the flight time to handle some work.

He was using his tablet to look through the recent sales reports that Hailan Automotive Group had submitted yesterday.

The overall sales figures are very impressive!
Thanks to the large-scale application of solid-state batteries, the sales of Hailan brand, a high-end brand under Hailan Automotive Group, have continued to grow rapidly, and the average selling price has also continued to rise... mainly because a large number of car buyers prefer to purchase high-end models equipped with solid-state batteries.

For example, the high-end model of the 2020 Hailan SLMC, equipped with a solid-state battery, has a range of over 700 kilometers, and comes standard with L4 autonomous driving. Its domestic price of 580,000 yuan has even surpassed the sales of the mid-range model, which costs over 400,000 yuan, and is only slightly lower than the entry-level model, which costs over 300,000 yuan.

In addition, the Hailan MEV, also equipped with a solid-state battery, has a range of over 700 kilometers, comes standard with L4 assisted driving, and is priced at 630,000 yuan. This mid-size SUV has even higher sales, directly dominating the luxury SUV model lists in China and even in many overseas countries.

Solid-state batteries and Level 4 autonomous driving make the high-end models of these two cars irresistible to many high-income groups!
Comparatively speaking, the entry-level models of these two cars, priced between 300,000 and 400,000 yuan and using semi-solid materials, have actually seen relatively average sales. In fact, their sales have not only failed to increase but have actually decreased significantly!
This shows that a large number of high-income groups directly gave up the entry-level models costing 300,000 to 400,000 yuan and instead gritted their teeth and chose the high-end models costing 500,000 to 600,000 yuan, just for solid-state batteries and L4-level autonomous driving!

Of course, the flagship versions of these two cars have an incredible range of over 1,300 kilometers, but because they are more expensive, costing 700,000 to 800,000 yuan, their sales are much lower!
After all, while a solid-state battery range of over 1,300 kilometers sounds impressive, it costs nearly 200,000 yuan more. Apart from the range, the other features, especially the autonomous driving features, are not better than the 580,000 yuan high-end version. Therefore, people tend to save around 200,000 yuan and get the high-end version with a range of 700 kilometers, which is sufficient.

After all, nobody drives long distances every day. For daily use, a range of 700 kilometers is more than enough. Moreover, this car is equipped with third-generation fast charging technology, which can add about 500 kilometers of range in just ten minutes.

Hailan Auto and other charging station operators have built a large number of charging stations that can provide third-generation or second-generation standards in highway service areas across the country, making it relatively convenient to charge on long-distance trips.

After considering their overall needs and budget, many high-income earners opted for the high-end version costing 500,000 to 600,000 yuan instead of the flagship version which costs around 200,000 yuan more.

Besides the high sales of the luxury models Hailan SLMC and Hailan MEV, the entry-level models Hailan YEV and Hailan HEV are even better sellers.

Since its release two years ago, the Hailan YEV has quickly become Hailan Auto's flagship product and its best-selling model.

The high-end version of the Ocean Blue YEV released this year is equipped with a solid-state battery, providing a range of 700 kilometers. It comes standard with many advanced technologies such as L3 assisted driving, four-wheel drive, and intelligent chassis technology, and the price is only 'a mere 400,000 yuan'...

For just 400,000, you can enjoy the most advanced battery technology currently available to mankind, ultimate safety, a range of 700 kilometers, and many top-of-the-line features that can only be seen on the Aqua SLMC model, such as intelligent chassis technology.

In November, in order to boost sales, they also offered a small price reduction by providing interest-free loans and free after-sales service. After the discount, you could get one for only 380,000 yuan!
This car offers great value for money and is very popular, resulting in extremely high sales volume!
Of course, no matter how many units this car sells, it can't compare to the entry-level model of the Ocean Blue YEV!

The entry-level model of the Hailan YEV has a range of over 500 kilometers, uses a semi-solid battery, and is equipped with L3 assisted driving... Currently, the price in China after subsidies is only 260,000 yuan, which is so cheap that it makes people doubt reality!
Although it lacks many cutting-edge technologies such as intelligent chassis technology, you can still buy a Hailan car for 260,000 yuan. What's there to hesitate about? Just the Hailan logo alone is worth 100,000 yuan!

Besides its flagship product, the Hailan YEV, the newly released Hailan HEV, an entry-level mid-size SUV, has also achieved remarkable sales figures this year… In the domestic market, this model sells even better than the Hailan YEV.
Compared to sedans, Chinese consumers prefer SUVs!

While the Ocean Blue YEV sedan sells well in China, it is even more popular overseas, especially in Europe, the Americas, and the ASEAN region.

However, in China, the newly released Hailan HEV has already outsold the Hailan YEV in sales within just a few months of its release.

However, there has been some delay in overseas markets... mainly because there is a time delay in the launch of new models overseas.

Despite the delay, sales momentum remains very strong.

Although the Hailan HEV was only released and launched in May, and many overseas countries will have to wait several more months before deliveries begin, it is now late November, only about half a year later, but the global delivery volume has already exceeded 500,000 vehicles.

What's even more astonishing is that this car has accumulated over a million orders... domestic orders alone have exceeded 700,000... This shows how much the Chinese people love this car.

The 280,000 RMB blue SUV was snapped up by a large number of middle-class families in China!

The continued growth of Hailan Auto's four main models—Hailan SLMC, Hailan MEV, Hailan YEV, and Hailan MEV—has driven the overall sales increase of the Hailan Auto Group.

In addition to other sports cars, large SUVs, large luxury sedans, pickup trucks specifically for the Americas market, and tropical variants specifically for Southeast Asia, the total sales of the Hailan brand vehicles this year have exceeded 2.5 million units!
In addition, the 'MITE' brand of cars, independently operated by MITT Automotive Ltd., a Mexican subsidiary of Hylan Automotive Group, is expected to sell 250,000 vehicles. This brand is very popular in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Because the cars are made in Mexico, they will not be subject to too many restrictions when entering the US market, so they can enter the US market smoothly.

Of course, the tariff-free treatment is gone, because to be exempt from tariffs, most of the parts and components must be of American origin. However, the core parts and components of the Mitt brand cars are imported from China and assembled in Mexico, which does not meet this standard, so tariffs still need to be paid.

However, the tariffs on products from Mexico entering the US market are much lower than those from domestic products entering the US market.

This situation may change in the future as Chinese and American conglomerates continue to compete, but at least for now, the MITE brand is selling quite well in the US market... Local consumers can't afford the genuine Hyland cars with 100% tariffs, so buying a rebadged MITE car is fine too!

Besides the MITEK sub-brand, Hailan Automotive Group also has the ELA sub-brand, which focuses on the mid-to-low-end market. This brand was first launched in the ASEAN market and was immediately regarded as a domestic car by the Thai people.

Then, Hailan Automotive Group introduced the brand to China and also launched it in South America, West Asia and other markets.

After the Ella brand was introduced to the domestic market, its sales were quite good, and it sold nearly 500,000 vehicles this year.

The entire Hailan Auto Group, with its three major brands, is expected to achieve sales of 3.2 million vehicles this year!
Moreover, it is worth noting that not only did sales increase for the Hailan car brand, but the average selling price also increased, thanks to the large-scale application of solid-state batteries... Consumers are more inclined to buy higher-priced, higher-spec models equipped with solid-state batteries.

The emergence of solid-state batteries has loosened consumers' wallets, and has had a similar effect on increasing the overall price of automobiles as it has on autonomous driving technology.

The development speed of Hailan Auto this year has met Xu Shenxue's expectations... Now we are looking ahead to next year!
Next year, Hailan Auto's three solid-state battery factories will gradually increase their production capacity. According to Hailan Battery's plan, the power battery production capacity of solid-state batteries is expected to meet the needs of two million vehicles next year.

This means that by next year, many mid-to-low-end models in the Hailan brand will also be able to be equipped with solid-state batteries... Although the battery capacity will not be increased in order to control costs, solid-state batteries have a huge advantage in battery safety compared to semi-solid-state batteries.

At the same time, solid-state batteries are smaller and lighter for the same battery capacity... This means that the overall weight of the car will also be reduced, and the lighter car can in turn increase the range significantly.

In this way, for the same range, such as 700 kilometers, the cost of the Hailan car using solid-state batteries is actually slightly lower than that of the car using semi-solid-state batteries.

When a large number of low-end models with a range of 500 to 600 kilometers can also use solid-state batteries, it will inevitably continue to stimulate the market and increase the sales of the Hailan car brand!
Perhaps by next year, the sales volume of Hailan, a high-end intelligent electric vehicle brand, is expected to exceed three million units!

With the continued rapid growth of the mid-to-low-end brand Ella, and the rebadged and rebranded MITE brand specifically for the North American market, it is highly likely that the total sales volume of Hailan Automotive Group will exceed four million vehicles next year.

As Xu Shenxue reviewed the report from Hailan Auto, he was in a good mood. Hailan Auto Group's sales had met his expectations, and its growth potential was also quite good.

Meanwhile, the other businesses of Hailan Auto are also progressing reasonably well... In addition to selling cars directly, Hailan Auto Group also has auto parts business and battery-related business.

Automotive parts are mainly based on LiDAR... The LiDAR products under the Hailan Automotive Group almost cover the entire market share. Many domestic cars and even electric vehicles of foreign brands are equipped with LiDAR products from Hailan Laser...

Not only does it have a significant cost-performance advantage, but also because when Zhiyun Group's EYEQ system solution is sold as a package, it comes bundled with Hailan Laser's LiDAR.

The EYEQ driver assistance system is a global bestseller!
Another major business is batteries. Currently, Hailan Battery provides Zhiyun Group with a full range of robot power batteries and S-series mobile phone batteries. By spring, Zhiyun Group will also fully switch to solid-state batteries in its laptops, tablets, A-series mobile phones, new cloud phones, and other smart terminal products.

We are fully entering the era of solid-state batteries to gain a huge advantage in battery life!

At that time, the Yun Book 13, a laptop under the Zhiyun Group that focuses on portability and long battery life, is expected to have a battery life of up to 30 hours... For normal light office use, charging once or twice a week will be enough.

In addition, Hailan Battery is also reaching cooperation agreements with other smart terminal manufacturers. If all goes well, starting next spring, a large number of high-end mobile phones and other products will also start using solid-state batteries.

Even foreign manufacturers like Samsung and Apple are no exception. They have successively reached strategic cooperation agreements with Hailan Battery to adopt Hailan Battery's mobile phone-specific solid-state batteries. Next year's new high-end models of Samsung and Apple phones will also use solid-state batteries.

This means that Hailan Battery, a subsidiary of Hailan Automotive Group, will become a leading global supplier of high-end batteries for smart terminals, with its market share soaring to an astonishing level.

There's no other way; Hailan Battery has already developed solid-state batteries, and Zhiyun Group has already started using them. Other manufacturers have no choice but to follow suit!
Otherwise, the Zhiyun Yun Book 13 boasts a battery life of up to 30 hours... while other manufacturers' high-end business ultrabooks only offer around 10 hours of battery life. How are we supposed to use them?

The same applies to the mobile phone industry. The Zhiyun S20 phone can last for two or three days even with heavy use... while other high-end flagship phones need to be charged once a day, or even several times a day... The contrast is too obvious.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Hailan Battery has been ruthlessly exploiting consumers, selling solid-state batteries at exorbitant prices... and they don't even accept payment terms, demanding cash on delivery and waiting in line for production capacity!
Although Hailan Battery is a supplier in the supply chain, it is more powerful than most suppliers!
Therefore, the relative status of Party A and Party B is not determined by who pays the money, but by who needs whom!

Hailan Battery is now playing the role of the powerful supplier that all suppliers dream of!
With its intelligent electric vehicle business, auto parts business, and battery business, Hailan Automotive Group has continued its rapid growth this year, and its growth rate will be even more impressive next year...

In addition, they have another potential business. They are also using the underlying artificial intelligence algorithms of their own automation technology to develop robots. Although they haven't developed them yet, it is estimated that they will be ready in two years. At that time, Hailan Automotive Group will become the second manufacturer to launch intelligent robots after Zhiyun Group, which will inevitably ignite the market and stimulate a significant increase in stock price.

Xu Shenxue was satisfied with the development of Hailan Auto, and Xi Wanqing, who was standing next to him, could clearly feel it... Xu Shenxue even had a smile on his face when he was reading the report.

After flying for some time, Xu Shenxue's private plane arrived at Qiongzhou Island at around 11 a.m. that day.

Xu Shenxue and Xi Wanqing got off the plane and took a car directly to the seaside resort near the South Gate Aerospace Department of the Logistics Department.

In recent years, Xu Shenxue has stayed here every time he comes to Qiongzhou Island. The resort staff had closed the resort in advance, ostensibly for equipment repairs, to welcome Xu Shenxue, Xi Wanqing, and a group of staff members.

On the day they arrived at Qiongzhou Island, Xu Shenxue didn't rush to work. Instead, he spent the day with Xi Wanqing at the resort, walking on the beach, looking at the sea, and feeling the sea breeze. However, they didn't stay outdoors for too long. In the evening, the two returned to the hotel in the resort and didn't go out again.

The following morning, Xi Wanqing accompanied Xu Shenxue to the South Gate Aerospace Headquarters. However, this time she did not go as a staff member, but as Xu Shenxue's woman, to see the big rocket and such.

After all, there are quite a few large rockets, space shuttles, and satellites to see at Nanmen Aerospace. When they hold media open days, a huge number of media outlets are eager to come.

Xi Wanqing also wanted to see those high-tech products in the aerospace field... She herself wasn't very interested in these things, but Xu Shenxue was. She had heard Xu Shenxue say that he even wanted to die in space in the future.

Therefore, Xi Wanqing was inevitably affected to some extent, paying attention to what was so attractive about these things in the aerospace field that drew Xu Shenxue's attention and led him to invest a large sum of money in various research and development projects every year.

Upon arriving at Nanmen Aerospace, before even seeing the rocket, Xi Wanqing followed Xu Shenxue to an office building, where she saw a group of people reporting to Xu Shenxue about some interstellar objects!
After listening for a few minutes, Xi Wanqing was shocked. What were these people talking about? They were actually arguing about whether a newly discovered interstellar object was created by aliens.

This is too nonsense.

This is getting to aliens? Aliens created these things?

how can that be!

It's just an interstellar object. It's not like we haven't discovered them before; we've discovered them twice already, and there are many more that we haven't discovered yet... It's highly likely that interstellar objects frequently pass through the solar system; it's just that human technology is limited, so we haven't discovered many more before.

If aliens really did come to the solar system, they would probably have already attacked Earth!
But now, a group of scientists from Nanmen Aerospace are seriously debating whether this cloud is an alien creation!

(End of this chapter)