Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 297 The Impact of the Second Moon Landing (Seeking Monthly Tickets!)

Qianfan Constellation is a project that Shenhai snatched from Yanjing after Starlink's success and the incubation of Apollo Technology.

After all, the planning alone involves launching 1.4 satellites, and the resulting GDP, employment, industrial cluster effects, and tax revenue are something no city wants to give up.

Even though Yanjing wanted to develop its own Starlink system.

Because Russia is still mired in a quagmire, wrestling with its former brother, getting itself covered in mud and looking incredibly pathetic, so pathetic that it has even considered asking its peninsula brother for help.

If we go back to the beginning, anyone who said Russia was looking for a little brother on the Korean Peninsula is not a prophet, but a master of Soviet Russian jokes.

But the reality was even more bizarre than the Soviet joke.

One of the key reasons why the fighting was so difficult was Starlink. Starlink prevented Russia from destroying the opponent's communication capabilities, which in turn ensured that the opponent's organizational capacity on the battlefield did not fall behind.

China has always been clear about its need to develop low-altitude satellite internet like Starlink. In other words, China will follow America’s strategic direction and ensure that it can catch up as soon as there are any breakthroughs in this area.

In the past, China's technological development model was extremely efficient.

Due to the war, the Chinese version of Starlink, also known as the Qianfan constellation, suddenly accelerated. The war began in February, Yuanxin Satellite was established in March with an initial funding of 1 billion RMB, and in April, it approached Huawei and Apollo Technology to discuss cooperation, confirming a three-way partnership.

After all, the importance of low-altitude satellite internet has been upgraded from a private technology communication technology to an indispensable part of modern military technology.

The first batch of satellites was launched in mid-July to complete the initial network setup, and Huawei's Mate 50 this year also has a satellite internet module pre-installed.

Once Yuanxin Satellite Technology completes its network setup, Huawei will simultaneously push the service to some users.

Therefore, when this surprise was revealed, the audience erupted in exceptionally enthusiastic applause.

"Because no other company's phone currently has this function, we can't easily compare it with our competitors. This made me a little worried before the press conference about how to introduce it."

The only reference point right now is SpaceX, but Starlink isn't a mobile phone manufacturer.

I can only give you a brief introduction. As you all probably know, to use Starlink, you first need to buy or rent a Starlink terminal, then connect your phone to the terminal, and the terminal then connects to Starlink satellites.

Starlink has a small terminal, which means you have to carry the terminal with you wherever you go, which is very inconvenient.

Our Mate50's satellite internet function is embedded in the phone.

The biggest technological breakthrough lies in antenna technology. We have taken the lead in developing hidden satellite antenna technology, which allows mobile phones to connect to the Qianfan constellation satellites, which are about 500 kilometers away from Earth, even without obvious satellites!
This is a global first, a world first, and far ahead of the competition!

Let me elaborate on why Huawei's R&D speed is so fast.

Because next year's Mate 60 series will introduce satellite phone functionality, which allows users to make satellite calls even without an antenna.

Among them, Starlink-type low-altitude internet satellites are at an altitude of about 400 kilometers, which is in low Earth orbit, while satellite phone functions need to connect to the Tiantong-1 satellite at an altitude of 38,000 kilometers, which is about 100 times the altitude of low-altitude satellites.

It is precisely because Huawei has been developing hidden antenna technology that it was able to pull out the corresponding technology at the first opportunity and launch a flagship phone with built-in satellite terminal internet access.

Thanks to the latest satellite internet function, the frustration of using Qualcomm chips was swept away, and the audience erupted in the loudest cheers and applause of the entire press conference.

The barrage comments in all the live streams were unanimously far ahead.

Combined with Apollo's successful moon landing, this year's Mate 50, despite using a Qualcomm chip, has achieved the highest number of pre-orders.

The moon landing commemorative edition, in particular, requires you to rush to the Huawei official website at the designated time to snag one.

The Fox News studios are practically the last bastion of the Elephant Party in the media sphere.

Perhaps after today, I won't be the only one, because here today, a heavyweight guest is about to be interviewed by Fox News.

The studio backdrop featured a giant American flag and the Fox News logo, creating a solemn and patriotic atmosphere.

In the center of the studio, Tucker Carlson wore his signature smile, his eyes revealing a keen understanding of political topics.

This time, the people he's interviewing aren't the easily manipulated politicians who only spout bureaucratic jargon of the past.

Because this time he was going to interview Elon Musk.

At such a sensitive time, with China having just landed on the moon and America's midterm elections just around the corner, Musk's interview with Fox News is itself full of symbolic significance.

This symbolizes that this South African immigrant will officially change his allegiance after today's program airs.

Despite the fact that previous accusations against the LGBT community were already considered iconic by outsiders.

But tweeting and giving an interview are two different things.

Carlsen believes the Elephant Party will gain another key player.

The world's richest person has a much longer lifespan than a politician, especially one who controls Twitter.

Elon Musk sat opposite him, wearing a black T-shirt with the SpaceX logo, paired with jeans and sneakers, a stark contrast to the formal studio setting.

His relaxed posture, with his head held high as if he were daydreaming, conveyed a sense of confidence and impatience directly to the viewers in front of the television.

Carlson leaned forward slightly and smiled as he said, "Good evening, and welcome to The Tonight Show with Tucker Carlson."

Tonight's guest is Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and one of the most influential figures in the technology and business world today.

Elon, thank you for joining our show.

Musk nodded and said, "Thank you for the invitation, Tucker. It's a pleasure to be here for an interview with Fox News. Fox News is one of the few media outlets that doesn't fabricate facts. I'm very pleased to see that Fox News still maintains this commitment even under the Democratic-dominated White House!"

Is Musk telling the truth? Obviously not. When it comes to fabricating facts, Fox News and CNN are two peas in a pod, the only difference being which side they're on.

But Musk needs to convince his audience, especially the highly educated people he can influence.

Carlson's tone turned serious: "Elon, we can all see that China's space program has made rapid progress in the last two years. In the past, we could criticize them for using Apollo technology to replicate the moon landing we achieved in the 60s."

But today, as China once again sets foot on lunar soil, they are heading to the lunar south pole, a region that has never been reached before, not even by unmanned probes.

They used a technological solution that had never appeared in science fiction novels before—bold and crazy—but they succeeded.

The Sputnik moment of 1959 has returned, but this time China's lead seems even more exaggerated than that of the Soviet Union during the Sputnik moment.

After all, Soviet Russia did not have a manufacturing industry as large as China's.

So, Elon, after seeing China's moon landing, what are your thoughts? As the undisputed leader in the space field and a representative of American Aerospace Technology, what are your opinions on why China's space program has developed so rapidly in the past two years?

Musk would naturally not offend China, as his opponent is not China. On the contrary, Tesla, his greatest source of wealth, was revived thanks to the Shanghai Gigafactory and the Chinese market.

He knew all too well the purpose of this interview: to focus his criticism on the White House, a ready-made target right there in front of him.
"China's achievements are truly remarkable. I want to congratulate them on once again setting foot on the lunar surface and finding water in Shackleton Crater, which is a huge step towards a long-term human presence on the moon."

This is built on the foundation of China's long-term investment in the aerospace industry, on China's strong manufacturing base, and on the continuous emergence of a large group of scientists. This is an achievement they deserve.” Carlson keenly sensed something: “Don't you think it's Randolph Lin's doing?”

Musk shook his head: "Although I have a friend in Yanjing who told me that it was Randolph's credit, that Randolph single-handedly created the Apollo miracle, I don't believe it. It's something a human could do. Randolph was too young. Maybe he was a top mathematician, but in the aerospace field, at his age he was just a beginner. I founded SpaceX after many failures before I had the Falcon 9."

Carlson gestured for Musk to continue.

Musk continued, "After watching it, I just felt that we missed far too much time. NASA wasted Congress's budget, but that's not the worst thing. The worst thing is that they let America's manufacturing workers, the best of the best, slip away."

Without the legacy, without the workers, we have nothing left, to the point that China can replicate the Saturn V while we ourselves cannot, creating such a huge joke.

If they had saved even a little of the wasted funds and used it to support the workforce, our situation would be much better now.

NASA is too greedy, the establishment officials are too greedy, we don't have much time left, we're already behind, but the good news is we're not far behind.

The bad news is, we might not be as lucky as China.

Carlson asked, "Luck? You mean?"

Musk said, "China was able to find water directly in Shackleton Crater, but we may not be able to find water directly in other craters at the lunar south pole in one go."

This requires luck. If we can't find it on the first try, and if we're unlucky, it might take many years, maybe five or ten years, to find a place with water to serve as our lunar base.

The most infuriating part of this is that we were the ones who found Shackleton Crater first.

Musk is a master of interviewing; when it comes to finding achievements like Shackleton, he would never say NASA, but rather "we."

If anyone's talking about wasting money, it's definitely NASA, not us.

"So, although it seems like we're two years behind now, we might actually be more than ten years behind?"

“Yes,” Musk nodded.

“Elon, I’d like to ask you, didn’t you always think we should go straight to Mars and not waste time on the moon?” Carlson asked.

Musk explained, "If no one has a base on the moon, then we should just go to Mars. But now that someone has a base on the moon, it's like you need a military base to protect your flight path."

Similarly, we need a base on the moon to protect our future air routes from Earth to Mars.

Musk maintained one consistent viewpoint throughout: I am not wrong, and I can always find a suitable reason to explain the inconsistency between my previous and current views.

“Okay, Elon, we can see that you’ve been quite critical of the Democratic-led White House lately. But NASA has seen countless shifts between Democrats and Republicans since the 70s. Can you tell us exactly what you’re unhappy about?”

Musk frowned and said, "Well, of course, my interests are certainly affected, but it's not just about my personal interests."

First, there's the electric vehicle industry. The White House seems to be strongly supporting traditional automakers like GM and Ford, while completely ignoring Tesla.

We are a leader in the electric vehicle industry, producing hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles every year at our Fremont factory, but the president has never visited our factory.

He test-drove Ford's electric truck but didn't mention Tesla at all, which is outrageous.

However, this is purely for political reasons. Tesla does not have a union, while the White House strongly supports unions. They want to support companies with unions, even if these companies are far behind in electric vehicle technology. This is not for the sake of the environment or innovation; it is purely for politics.

In the electric vehicle industry, we are wasting opportunities. Tesla has driven the development of the entire electric vehicle industry, but the government is holding it back.

If we want to stay ahead in global competition, we need to support genuine innovators, rather than being led by the nose by political interests.

Secondly, there is bureaucracy. The bureaucracy that exists at NASA and in the White House is a stumbling block to innovation.

This has always been the case. SpaceX's goal is to send humans to Mars, but every rocket launch faces countless permits and approvals.

The Federal Aviation Administration's requirements are designed entirely for traditional launches a few times a year and are simply not suitable for a company like ours.

This not only slowed down SpaceX's progress but also hindered the development of the entire aerospace industry.

Meanwhile, our competitor in China, Apollo Technologies, after demonstrating its full potential, obtained a large number of launch licenses from China, almost unlimited.

Our only advantage lies in reusable rockets. After all, the Falcon 9's carrying capacity is far superior to the Burning One, but we can only achieve less than a third of the number of launches that Apollo technology can achieve.

After the White House was replaced by the Democratic Party, they not only failed to streamline the process, but instead added more obstacles.

China's space program is progressing rapidly, with the government providing full support, while we are wasting time on a piece of paper. This is not the way to lead the world!
Besides that, what bothers me the most is inflation, which has reached its highest point in 40 years, and many ordinary Americans are struggling.

Their policies are completely misguided; the massive spending bills are driving up inflation.

They have no plan to control the deficit, nor have they addressed the supply chain issues.

This is disastrous for ordinary Americans. What we need is fiscal discipline and wise economic policies, not more debt.

With the midterm elections approaching, voters should choose leaders who support innovation, reduce unnecessary regulation, and effectively manage the economy.

We need a direction that will allow America to regain its lead, not continue with our current flawed policies!

Musk vented his frustrations in one breath without pausing.

Carlson smiled and pressed further, "You mean you support the Elephant Party candidate?"

Musk: "No, I remain neutral. I don't explicitly endorse either side. I just want to see leaders who can bring about positive change. Voters need to judge for themselves who can do that."

Although Musk never explicitly stated his support for the Elephant Party throughout the entire process, that was the implication.

Musk's interview sparked widespread discussion among voters, especially in the fields of technology and the economy.

The Elephant Party used this for propaganda, emphasizing the Donald Party's failures over the past two years, especially in the aerospace field, where it was a complete failure.

Democratic Party supporters countered by pointing to the White House's efforts on climate change and infrastructure.

Musk maintains a facade of neutrality to make his criticisms more persuasive and appealing to the middle class.

This group has historically been a significant source of votes for the Democratic Party.

Musk's defection has made the whole situation unfavorable, with his approval ratings declining across the United States and a golden cross already appearing.

Apollo Technologies' amazing performance in remotely attacking the White House continues.

Meanwhile, Valentin also appeared in Shenhai without anyone noticing, at the headquarters of Apollo Technology. This trip was extremely secretive.

“Professor, we are honored to have reached a cooperation agreement with your company. Moscow has accepted your offer unconditionally, and Shenhai’s Far East Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd. will be responsible for the subsequent business coordination,” Valentin said, looking travel-worn.

Lin Ran was not surprised at all. Russia should pay the price. He said, "Let's celebrate our cooperation, and at the same time I want to get something from you."

(End of this chapter)