Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 611 Future Asteroid Project Development Plan

On April 10th, Xu Shenxue left Qiongzhou Island and returned to Shenzhen.

Before leaving, Xu Shenxue also organized a high-level meeting in the aerospace field at Nanmen Aerospace Company on Qiongzhou Island. In addition to several core senior executives of Nanmen Aerospace, the meeting was attended by senior executives in charge of some aerospace cooperation business from subsidiaries such as Zhiyun Group, Weiku Industry, Hailan Auto, and Fairy Mountain Holdings.

The meeting focused on various aspects of the lunar base program, including the rocket program, the spaceport program, the Earth-Moon interplanetary spacecraft program, the lunar transport rocket/lander program, the lunar exploration program, and finally, the lunar base program.

These plans also include many supporting subsystems, such as manned projects within the rocket program, lunar ecology projects, lunar base energy supply/storage projects, deep space unmanned exploration spacecraft programs, and Mars exploration programs.

While Nanmen Aerospace is busy with its lunar base construction plan, it also plans to take some time to cooperate with relevant aerospace agencies to launch several probes to Mars, mainly for preliminary Mars exploration in preparation for the future large-scale development of solar system energy.

Because there is little commercial interest driving this kind of preliminary exploration, the scale is not large and the funding is limited.

The specific plan is that Nanmen Space will use the already commercially available Long March 7 rocket to directly launch two probes: one is a Mars orbiter and communications satellite, and the other is a Mars landing probe.

The project is not expected to be costly or technically difficult. The transportation vehicle is the mature and inexpensive Long March 7 rocket, and as for the probe, the orbital probe is very simple; we can just take an existing lunar orbital probe and modify it.

The lander will need to be redesigned, since the environment on Mars is different from that on the Moon.

The very fact that Mars has an atmosphere while the Moon does not will bring about tremendous changes. For example, when a lunar lander lands, there is no need to worry about the intense heat generated by friction with the air during descent, nor is there any concern that the solar panels deployed by the lander after landing will be covered by dust and lose their power generation capability.

The two differ significantly in temperature, sunlight, and terrain.

Although the Mars lander can borrow some technologies and subsystems from the lunar lander, many of them need to be redesigned. However, even if they have to build new ones, it won't be a big problem.

For Nanmen Aerospace at present, building a probe is a piece of cake. They don't even need to do any technical research. They can just select suitable technologies from the existing technology reserve and apply them.

The Mars exploration program is a collaborative project, not Nanmen Space's own commercial space program. Nanmen Space's own commercial space program is actually an asteroid resource exploration and mining program.

According to the plan, in the future, Nanmen Aerospace will launch probes to some asteroids that are relatively close to Earth to search for asteroids with specific resources, such as water resources or other resources that can be used as fuel, or some rare and precious metals that are scarce on Earth and difficult to mine, or some metal materials needed to build some future spaceports and space bases.

Despite current technological limitations, some scientists believe that future spaceports or other space bases would be easier and cheaper to construct by directly mining and refining resources in microgravity, atmosphere-free regions like asteroids, than by transporting resources directly from Earth into space.

Earth's gravity has always been a major obstacle preventing humanity from venturing into interstellar space and engaging in large-scale interstellar activities.

There's practically no gravity on asteroids!
Of course, with current technology, it is unrealistic to develop asteroids; the technology is not yet at that level.

Therefore, Nanmen Space's asteroid program is currently only at the preliminary exploration stage, serving as a preliminary preparation for future commercial plans.

Once a major technological breakthrough is achieved in the future, enabling the low-cost extraction of certain high-value resources or essential resources needed for space construction, such as fuel, from asteroids, and also identifying asteroids with exploitable potential, then large-scale implementation will begin.

It's still early.

For many years to come, the core of Nanmen Aerospace's aerospace field will revolve around the lunar base... because breakthroughs in controlled nuclear fusion technology will require large-scale use of helium-3 as fuel for controlled nuclear fusion.

The commercial and strategic value hidden here is enormous, amounting to trillions in the short term and potentially tens of trillions in the long term!
And the benefits extend even further to socio-economic development.

In addition, the large-scale application of controlled nuclear fusion can also bring other strategic value.

For example, a significant increase in power supply and a continuous decrease in electricity costs can effectively promote the development of artificial intelligence, intelligent manufacturing, and some energy-intensive industries.

At the same time, the large-scale use of controlled nuclear fusion energy can further reduce dependence on traditional fossil fuels such as coal and oil.

Especially reducing dependence on oil!
It's important to understand that our large economy and massive population result in an enormous demand for fossil fuels.

Coal is fine; we have plenty of coal resources ourselves. Although we import hundreds of millions of tons of coal every year, in reality, we could do without importing.

But there's no way around oil. Although our oil production is not low, it's far from enough to keep the entire social system running, and we need to import massive amounts of oil every year.

Some of these imported oils are used in the industrial sector, including the manufacture of various chemical products and the improvement of industrial energy efficiency. For example, the various plastic products that people are familiar with and that are ubiquitous in daily life are made from petroleum.

Another portion of the oil is used in the transportation sector, and this accounts for a very large proportion, consuming approximately 300 million tons annually.

This is also one of the core reasons why China is vigorously promoting electric vehicles... After the large-scale use of electric vehicles, we will no longer need to import so much oil, which can effectively reduce our dependence on imported oil, and this involves the issue of energy strategic security.

In order to use electric vehicles on a large scale, in addition to the high requirements for charging infrastructure, a huge amount of power generation is also needed... You can only charge them if you have electricity.

In addition, a sufficient and cheap supply of electricity can also be used to develop more seemingly energy-intensive industries, such as metal industries and greenhouse cultivation.

Finally, it is also closely related to people's lives... If there is a large supply of controlled nuclear fusion and the price of electricity continues to drop, then electricity bills will be lower, and you won't have to feel so bad about using air conditioning in the summer.

Energy is an essential element for the operation of modern society!
Controlled nuclear fusion technology is the core solution to energy supply problems now and in the foreseeable future.

In the future, controlled nuclear fusion technology, combined with clean and pollution-free energy sources such as hydropower, wind power, solar power, and tidal power, may usher in a new era of abundant, inexpensive, and pollution-free new energy.

Not to mention the uniqueness and necessity of controlled nuclear fusion technology in the aerospace field... Nanmen Aerospace is also hoping to use fusion as the power source for interstellar spacecraft and as an energy supply for space bases and extraterrestrial bases in the future.

All of this signifies the enormous strategic importance of controlled nuclear fusion technology!

Helium-3 is currently the most suitable fuel for controlled nuclear fusion technology!
This provides a huge market for the lunar base project led by Nanmen Space: by mining, refining, and selling helium-3, Nanmen Space can generate huge commercial revenue.

These potential huge commercial benefits have prompted Nanmen Space to spend a lot of money on its lunar base project.

The lunar base project is not a simple scientific research exploration project, nor is it Xu Shenxue's personal hobby. Rather, it is a very typical ultra-large-scale project driven by direct corporate commercial interests and indirect socio-economic benefits. Its nature is actually similar to building a super-large hydroelectric power station, except that the technical difficulty is much higher.

At present, apart from Nanmen Aerospace, there is no other company or organization capable of promoting such an extremely difficult technical project... Simply having money is useless without the technology.

Regarding the ongoing lunar base plan, and the potential future Mars base and asteroid projects, under Xu Shenxue's leadership, Nanmen Aerospace will continue to collaborate with various companies within the Xu conglomerate, including Zhiyun Group, Weiku Industry, Hailan Auto, and Fairy Mountain Holdings, as well as other advanced technology companies in aerospace, intelligent manufacturing, and other fields, to promote technological development, further reduce costs in the aerospace sector, and expand commercial applications. During the meeting, Xu Shenxue did not set specific requirements or goals for any particular project or technology, but rather raised macro-level requirements from a broader perspective.

After concluding this high-level corporate meeting in the aerospace field, Xu Shenxue returned to Shenzhen... Although the aerospace field is important, and the lunar base is even more important, Xu Shenxue's business is not limited to the aerospace field.

Many more major projects are being implemented.

On April 13, three days after returning to Shenzhen, Xu Shenxue once again visited Zhiyun Microelectronics' Shenzhen production base to inspect the production of the equivalent 5-nanometer process and the advanced 3D packaging process.

Two days later, Xu Shenxue went to inspect the solid-state battery factory of Hailan Auto in Dongguan City... Hailan Auto has a large demand for solid-state battery production capacity, but its production capacity has always been insufficient. Therefore, in the past two years and even in the next few years, continuously expanding solid-state battery production capacity has become an important task for Hailan Auto.

Hailan Battery's Dongguan factory, under the Hailan Automotive Group, is one of the three major manufacturing bases for solid-state batteries, with a very large production capacity... not only is the existing capacity large, but the planned capacity is even larger.

Hailan Battery plans to make significant investments in Dongguan City and the neighboring Huicheng to build multiple supporting factories for solid-state batteries, thereby greatly increasing the overall production capacity of solid-state batteries.

Combined with Hailan Battery's Guangcheng and Ancheng battery factories, and the Chuancheng and Dongcheng battery factories that are currently under planning and construction.

Hailan Battery will have five ultra-large-scale solid-state battery integrated production bases in the future... Of course, this integrated base is just a name, not a single factory. In fact, supporting supply chain factories will be built simultaneously in surrounding cities around these large-scale integrated production bases.

According to the current investment plan, the production capacity of these five solid-state battery integrated production bases is expected to reach the designed capacity in three years.

This massive production capacity is expected to provide Hylan Automotive Group with the power batteries needed for approximately five million electric vehicles, plus eight million smart robots.

It simultaneously meets the needs of various portable solid-state batteries for smart terminals, equivalent to two billion smartphones, for use in smartphones, laptops, tablets, and other small and medium-sized portable devices.

Once these five massive solid-state battery production bases reach their designed capacity, solid-state batteries will not only meet the internal needs of Hailan Auto, but will also be able to be sold on a large scale. At that time, the export business of solid-state batteries will become an important source of revenue and profit for Hailan Auto.

After the inspection, Xu Shenxue did not return to Ancheng, but continued his inspection tour, visiting several important R&D or manufacturing bases of his various subsidiaries.

The research and development and manufacturing of new semiconductor technologies and new product technologies were the focus of Xu Shenxue's inspection this time.

It mainly revolves around the fields of intelligent electric vehicles, virtual devices, intelligent robots, solid-state batteries, and advanced semiconductors.

Overall, Xu Shenxue was quite satisfied with the trip. Business progress in all aspects was going well, such as the production capacity of virtual equipment, which was quite good.

Last month, Zhiyun Group released its new generation of virtual equipment, which has received continuous attention from markets around the world. This new generation of virtual equipment was first launched in China, Japan and several major European countries. These first-launch countries or regions are also Zhiyun Group's traditional core markets, and their priority is relatively high. Basically, any good new products will be launched in these countries with limited availability, and the supply after launch will also be prioritized.

Subsequently, the company was listed in Singapore, Malaysia and other ASEAN countries, India, Russia, Brazil, Australia, Canada, the United States and some European countries. These second batch of listed countries or regions are secondary markets for the Zhuyun Group, which are neither major nor minor players. The listing work in these regions was completed in late March and early April.

Consumers in these regions are now able to purchase the new generation of Zhiyun virtual devices.

There will be a third batch of listing regions later, which are mainly some less important emerging markets... to put it bluntly, poor places.

Zhiyun Group's global marketing is also the kind that looks down on others... They fawn over markets with high sales and good economies, such as the European market, where Zhiyun executives are frequently sent there to talk about Zhiyun's European strategy and tout Europe in every way...

However, in some economically underdeveloped areas with low sales, Zhiyun's executives are indifferent and do not even send senior management there. New product launches are postponed, and no product optimizations are made specifically for users in economically underdeveloped areas.

For example, in the African market, Zhuyun Group never optimizes its products for the African market... there's no need.

All of Zhiyun Group's consumer products are high-end and relatively expensive. In that remote place in Africa, even the S series phones can't sell many units, so there's naturally little incentive to do any special optimization.

There are reasons why Zhiyun Group doesn't prioritize the African market. Zhiyun phones (excluding the new Zhiyun brand) only sell a few million units annually across the continent, representing just a few percentage points of the local smartphone market. Their main sales are primarily the older SX/SXL models. If we look at Zhiyun Group's core flagship models, the new S series phones, sales are dismal, barely reaching a million units a year, mainly concentrated in a few relatively well-off African countries.

With such a small market size, Zhuyun Group is too lazy to make targeted optimizations and improvements for the African market... Anyway, the product is what it is, take it or leave it.

However... even so, Zhiyun Group still earned more than 50% of the profits in the African smartphone market!

Transsion, which rose to prominence in China by relying on emerging markets such as Africa, sells tens of millions of smartphones a year in Africa. In terms of sales volume and market share, it is the absolute leader in the African market. However, its profits are not as high as those of Zhiyun Group, which sells a few million unsold smartphones in Africa.

Developing different levels of marketing strategies based on the economic level and other factors in markets around the world is a common practice for most multinational companies, and Zhiyun Group is no exception.

Therefore, the release and launch times of the new generation of virtual reality devices vary from country to country... and this difference is also reflected in the supply.

The current generation of virtual reality devices is in short supply, with shortages all over the world... This is the norm after a new product is launched.

In the event of a shortage, limited production capacity will be allocated to core markets such as the domestic market, the European market, and the Japanese market, while other countries or regions will be given lower priority.

The supply shortage of virtual devices and the differentiated treatment for different countries or regions also demonstrate the popularity of the new generation of virtual devices.

In particular, the core flagship model Yun VW L2 uses dual APO5000M/64GB processors and is equipped with ZY38 computing power. Its overall hardware performance is much stronger than the previous generation L1, and it can provide better computing power support for virtual content, especially the current core virtual content, virtual games.

Its price is not expensive. The domestic price is around 280,000 yuan, while the overseas price ranges from 300,000 to 500,000 yuan depending on local tariffs or other cost differences.

For this price and hardware level, the overall cost-effectiveness is still very high.

This flagship model has been highly sought after both domestically and internationally, with cumulative orders exceeding two million units... However, these are just orders; the actual sales volume will depend on production capacity.

Products can only be delivered after they are manufactured, and sales volume is only counted when there are deliveries.

When Xu Shenxue inspected Tongcheng, he paid close attention to the production capacity of the core components required for virtual equipment, namely the two main graphics cards, APO5000S and APO5000M.

Zhiyun Microelectronics also attaches great importance to the OEM production of these two graphics cards, and has mobilized a lot of logic chip production capacity, memory chip production capacity and packaging process capacity to produce these two graphics cards.

Then he assured Xu Shenxue with great confidence that he could absolutely guarantee the mass production of the new generation of virtual equipment!

(End of this chapter)