You promised to build cars, so why did you go into the military industry?

With the successful launch of the Biosphere 1 module, subsequent testing work is also underway.

During the Chinese New Year, the keyword "Biosphere 1" inevitably appears in people's daily conversations.

The phrase "building a garden in space" has consistently ranked among the top ten trending searches.

The happy time is always short-lived; the holiday ended after seven days.

During the seven-day Spring Festival holiday, Lu Xiangwen, Zhao Feng, and Qiu Cunming, along with their respective students, took turns on guard duty, closely monitoring the operation of the Biosphere 1 module, which was located 400 kilometers above their heads.

On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, the initial period of close monitoring ended. After summarizing the data and conducting a preliminary assessment, the three concluded that the Biosphere 1 module was operating well and that the system's autonomy and stability were stable.

During the subsequent on-orbit period, non-critical data will be summarized and downloaded every 12 hours, critical data will be monitored in real time, and high-definition images will be downloaded on demand.

Three months later, relevant personnel will reconfirm whether the module is operating smoothly and safely before docking with Tiangong-1 to form a permanent assembly.

Upon hearing the news, Li Ran held a grand celebration banquet for everyone on the top floor of the cafeteria.

The team members finally got a rest and a break.

Before the meeting adjourned, Lu Xiangwen personally gave each student some instructions:

"You've worked hard these past few days. Go home and rest for a week. See you on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month."

"See you there."

On February 20, Guo Shuyan found Li Ran, who was inspecting the factory area.

"The progress report from the project department says that the dock repair work is almost completed, and the dredging and clearing of the waterway is expected to take another 5 days."

Upon hearing the report, Li Ran silently calculated in his mind that the repair work had been going on for nearly 6 months, which was acceptable; the progress was quite satisfactory.

"That's great. After the waterway opens, we'll check with several manufacturers in the upstream and downstream of the industry chain to see if they have any ideas about river transport."

Is the boat easy to rent? Should we buy it, rent it, or build it ourselves?

To be honest, Li Ran would prefer to build the ship himself.

However, the business has expanded too much, and we don't have enough manpower yet.

Blind expansion can easily lead to problems.

There are still over 2,400 mu of land that have been leveled and connected, waiting for Li Ran to allocate funds to start construction.

The company's current cash balance includes 16 billion yuan from photovoltaic projects, revenue from seven power grid renovation projects, and sales of 130,000 vehicles.

Rockets can be described as only sending out and never sending in...

It seems to be only 219 billion yuan?

No, no, there are still several suppliers owed money, and the 40-day payment period is almost up. A large sum of money will have to be spent then...

I don't know if the remaining money will be enough for those 2,400 mu...

"We don't have the qualifications to build ships right now. Before the repairs, I had already placed an order with the shipyard, and it's estimated that they will be launched in June, no more than two ships."

"How much?"

"With a displacement of 3500 tons and a carrying capacity of around 2800 tons, it is a small inland river vessel, and the price is much cheaper than that of seagoing vessels, at 550 million yuan per vessel."

"Is this still too young?"

"This is already quite small. Think about those large ocean-going freighters, which are all over 10,000 tons?"

Ten days later, Li Ran, who had long forgotten about the dock repairs, was joining in the fun next to Lin Yu.

Last year, Lin Yu used the prop [Ramanujan's manuscript (one piece)] to obtain the key logic related to the recovery rocket control system and the approximate solution to the equation of motion of the conservation of momentum of viscous incompressible fluid.

Now that he has the actual launch data of the Joint One satellite, Lin Yu has finally sorted out all his thoughts. After the New Year, he finally began to design the general-purpose recovery control system, which was named R8X.

Although Li Ran couldn't understand Lin Yu's work, she could still provide some descriptions of the scenes in her mind.

These images depict scenes from later generations of successful recovery of the first stage of a rocket.

For Li Ran, an outsider, this kind of scene was just something to watch.

However, Lin Yu gleaned some details from it.

"Are you sure you want the rocket to fall horizontally?"

Li Ran rested her chin on her hand, trying to recall the events, though her memory was somewhat hazy:

"It is confirmed that although it is necessary to strengthen the heat insulation of the rocket body and increase the structural strength, this will increase the overall cost of the rocket."

However, falling horizontally allows for precise speed control by utilizing the atmospheric density gradient.

Lin Yu was skeptical.

Li Ran waved his hand in response:

"But strengthening the arrow's structure is definitely the right thing to do; otherwise, if it can't be quickly reused after being recovered, then there's no point in recovering it."

Furthermore, considering the two explosions that SpaceX conducted during its recovery experiment last year, it seems that both were due to uncontrolled speed…”

Li Ran paused, because a voice suddenly rang in his mind.

"What's wrong?" Lin Yu asked, puzzled as to why Li Ran stopped mid-sentence.

"Good news. I need to see Zhou Jie. I'm leaving now."

Lin Yu was puzzled. Why did he suddenly want to go see the finance manager? The company's cash flow should be quite healthy.

On the way, Li Ran carefully savored the details of the mission he had completed and the rewards he had received.

[Industrial Base (I): Possesses a heavy industrial base covering an area of ​​two square kilometers. It also has the capability to deliver materials into space and a navigable waterway.]

[Side Quest 'Industrial Base (Part 1)' Completed: There's nowhere on this planet that can hold you back. Move on.]

[Task Reward: Planetary-Level Integrated Industrial Base Construction Assistance Contract (Basic Level)]

Li Ran took out the "Planetary-level Integrated Industrial Base Construction Assistance Contract (Primary)" and glanced through it. His previously burning excitement cooled down.

Because signing this contract requires United Industries to contribute 250 billion to 500 billion yuan.

But if Li Ran remembers correctly, the entire United Industries currently only has around 200 billion in cash reserves.

Soon, Li Ran found Zhou Jie, the finance manager, and obtained the specific data from her.

"Two days ago, the payment terms for several suppliers came due; there was also the final payment for the rocket launch tower, with costs skyrocketing due to the construction of the viewing platform; in addition, there were the construction costs for the charging stations at the highway service area; and oh yes, the land leveling fees for those two thousand acres and the subsequent building material costs were also a huge expense..."

Wait! I haven't even factored in the R&D investment... Well... through 'flexible turnover,' United Industries can now mobilize a total of about 82 billion yuan without loss.

If we want to keep half a year's salary for all employees, then we'll need to cut back...

Watching Zhou Jie meticulously plan everything, Li Ran couldn't bear to listen any longer, and his heart sank deeper and deeper.

Just ten days ago, when I was doing the math, there were still over 200 billion yuan!

How come so many have disappeared all of a sudden?

After leaving the finance office, Li Ran leaned against the electric scooter and rubbed his temples.

If we ignore everything and try to accumulate 250 billion yuan, it will take at least a year, and that's assuming the photovoltaic projects in Northwest China are progressing smoothly.

Li Ran had absolutely no intention of relying on selling cars to raise such a huge amount of funds.

Selling 130,000 vehicles in six months only brought in a gross profit of 900 million yuan, which is a drop in the ocean compared to the 10 billion yuan shortfall.

As for choosing the 500 billion yuan upper limit of the contract, Li Ran didn't know how long that would take.

Li Ran flipped through the contract and discovered that it had a time limit, which made her feel even more urgent.

"Two years..."