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

Chapter 75 Million Taxes

In the evening, Lin Yu, whose sleep schedule was upside down, appeared in the cafeteria. Li Ran, having received the news, rushed over.

Sitting across from him, Lin Yu noticed that Li Ran's expression was too serious. He then realized that there was a big problem, so he put down his chopsticks and waited quietly for Li Ran to speak.

"A bad news, a not-so-bad news, which do you want to hear first?"

"It's bad, isn't it? Let's perk ourselves up."

"OK."

Li Ran tapped his index finger rhythmically on the table, remaining silent for four or five seconds, seemingly gathering his emotions.

"The bad news is that SpaceX successfully recovered the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket today using vertical recovery technology."

It was decided that the recovered first-stage rocket would be used for a second launch mission a week later.

"oh."

Seeing Lin Yu's nonchalant expression, Li Ran became a little anxious.

After all, in his memory, the first time the Falcon 12 achieved vertical recovery of the first stage rocket was on December 22, 2015!

It's almost nine months earlier now!

But I can't tell Lin Yuming about this.

"Don't you think SpaceX is going too fast?"

Lin Yu stared at Li Ran silently, his expression saying, "How dare you say someone else is fast?"

猎鹰九号自从2013年9月29日开始尝试火箭受控再入，到2014年11月，前后进行了8次发射。

Starting in November, spurred by the successful recovery of Joint One, the launch schedule was changed to one satellite per month.

So far, six missiles have been launched in six months.

To achieve reusability, a total of 14 tests were conducted, resulting in the destruction of 13 rockets.

Is it surprising that such high-frequency transmissions enable rapid technological iteration and success?

The silence was broken by the rumbling sound of Lin Yu's stomach.

To comfort Li Ran, Lin Yu took a sip of soup and said, "Since we started recovering last November, five months have passed, and our first recoverable rocket has been successfully recovered 11 times. We are about to reach the theoretical limit."

Do you think their rocket body can be recovered and reused a few times? Besides, this kind of low-thrust rocket is not the future, not even the Joint 2 rocket I'm working on now.

Let's maintain our own rhythm, let him play his game, and I'll play mine, without getting affected.

Instead of wasting your time, you should prepare to acquire a natural gas deposit.

"This brings us to the not-so-bad news."

Li Ran paused for a moment, then continued, "Today, Wang Bing took me to the northeast corner of the base. Do you know there's an LNG storage tank there?"

Lin Yu nodded: "I know, our rocket propellant is stored and transferred there."

It has a good storage capacity; when fully loaded, it holds approximately 30 cubic meters, which is about 13.5 tons.

"What if I said that the LNG storage tank is only one part of the whole system?"

"A portion?"

Lin Yu subconsciously tapped the table, beginning to recall that when Wang Bing told him that a huge LNG storage tank had been discovered in that place, which could be used as a transfer station for rocket propellants, he immediately arranged for engineers to go there.

However, he was completely distracted by the high frequency of rocket launches.

I've only ever looked out over the northeast corner of the base from my rooftop office; I've never actually investigated it in person!

Could there be something else going on?

Li Ran pronounced the three letters one by one:

"S! N! G!"

Lin Yu paused in his tapping of the table, looked at Li Ran with disbelief.

If he heard correctly, Li Ran just said SNG?

Synthetic natural gas technology?

No wonder there's such a huge LNG storage tank.

30 cubic meters, which is more than a super-large LNG carrier.

The natural gas used by ordinary people in their homes is a product of LNG regasification. 1 cubic meter of LNG regasifies to produce approximately 625 cubic meters of natural gas.

30 cubic meters of LNG is enough to power 1210 million households for a month.

At the time, Lin Yu was still racking his brains. Without a large LNG terminal, how could such a large LNG storage tank be stored using only tank trucks?

Container shipping, I don't know how long it will take.

What's even more unsettling is that during the frequent receiving and storage process, if an accident occurs, the entire area within a 50-mile radius could be blown to smithereens.

Now that it's SG technology, having such a large storage tank makes sense, and the overall security is also much higher.

Noticing Lin Yu's surprised expression, Li Ran suddenly found it interesting and spoke again: "Unlike the current mainstream technology route of coal to SG, Wang Bing said that the equipment can achieve CO02 methanation, and the purity of the produced methane is over 99.7%."

The rhythmic tapping sound rang out again.

It took Lin Yu a while to recover, and he asked in confusion, "This should be good news, right?"

Li Ran shook his head: "We're short-staffed. The entire set of equipment requires a high level of expertise from the personnel, generally—"

"Tick-tock tick-tock—buzz—buzz—"

The sudden ringing of a cell phone interrupted Li Ran's words.

Originally intending to hang up the phone directly, Li Ran raised his hand to signal Lin Yu to be quiet when he saw that the caller was Director Qi Kaifeng.

"Hello, Director Qi."

How did you know?

Academician Lu is with you, no wonder.

Really? I'm so grateful to the country! I feel unworthy of such kindness!

Yes, it's in the preliminary research stage. Lin Yu is right here. Would you like to talk to him?

Li Ran handed the phone to Lin Yu.

"Director Qi, this is Lin Yu."

The project has just started, and there are difficulties at every turn. If you asked me to speak, I wouldn't even know where to begin.

Yes, Mr. Li just told me.

No problem, but I haven't watched the video yet. After I finish watching the Falcon 9's return recording, I'll write an analysis report and send it over tomorrow afternoon.

Although the R8X control system supports rockets with a diameter of 5 meters or less, we have only tested it on the Joint 1 rocket with a diameter of 3.5 meters. If you want to directly transplant it to the Long March 6, you have to be prepared to have two or three rockets explode.

Price? That's hard to calculate; we'll have to discuss it internally.

So many?! Okay, goodbye.

Li Ran put the phone Lin Yu handed him back into his pocket and smiled, "Now the good news is here."

CNSA has partnered with several top universities in China to allow us to conduct a targeted talent recruitment program specifically for these universities.

There is also a support fund of 30 billion yuan per year for five consecutive years. Whether the support will continue after the expiration date depends on whether our development can satisfy the country.

Since that's the case, we can't be stingy. Let's halve the licensing fee for the R8X control system based on the total cost of 13 Falcon 9 rockets, and then split the money equally among you, Su Qing, Song Xuewu, and the rest of the team.

Remember to pay your taxes.

"A prize of 20 million per person? Wouldn't that mean paying 888 million in taxes?"

Lin Yu felt that the food in his hand no longer tasted good.

Looking helplessly at Lin Yu, Li Ran took out his phone and sent a message to Zhou Jie, the finance manager, describing the situation Lin Yu was currently facing.

A moment later, Zhou Jie called, and Li Ran answered and put it on speakerphone.

"Lin Yu, the situation you described can definitely be resolved through technology transfer, requiring only a payment of 481 million yuan."

""

Late at night, the base was brightly lit.

The lights in Lin Yu's experimental building are not particularly noticeable among the many light sources.

Inside the office, Lin Yu repeatedly replayed the video, then pressed the space bar, pausing the image at the moment Falcon 9 landed.

The manuscript paper beside him was covered with calculations that Lin Yu had casually scribbled down.

On another screen, a document that had already been opened was filled with Lin Yu's own analysis of the Falcon 9's return technology.

With a deep sigh, Lin Yu locked the screen, got up, and went to the bathroom to wash up quickly, trying to clear his head.

Returning to his seat, unlocking the keyboard, and placing his hands on it, Lin Yu solemnly typed out the conclusion: "The Falcon 9 launch vehicle uses a combination of liquid oxygen and kerosene propellants. Although its theoretical vacuum specific impulse is slightly lower than that of the liquid oxygen and methane scheme, it can achieve a greater total mass impulse under the same propellant tank volume constraints due to the higher density of kerosene fuel, and it also has certain engineering advantages in terms of the compactness of the rocket body structure."

In terms of recovery control strategy, this model exhibits a relatively aggressive technical orientation. Its engineering iteration logic is characterized by continuously approaching the system boundary, and multiple flight tests have all pointed to extreme operating conditions.

By reviewing recently recovered telemetry images, it was noted that after re-entering the atmosphere, during a high-altitude retro-rockets braking phase, the rocket apparently achieved better propellant management by making new adjustments to the landing ignition or throttling timing.

It is estimated that this adjustment may have reduced the consumption of return propellant by several hundred kilograms.

From the perspective of catching up in technology, the competitor's iteration speed is significant. If we fail to maintain the same pace on comparable technology paths, our performance and cost advantages may be overtaken within three years.

",