Chapter 459: Differences that are difficult to bridge
July 15th, the first year of Xinghe.
Europa.
The city of Munich.
The host, Kund von Marcus, director of the Europa Space Development Agency, is receiving Bill, head of the Free Commonwealth's space agency.
In addition to Bill, there were also a number of members of the Free Union, many people related to the aerospace industry, and many entrepreneurs also arrived.
This kind of thing naturally involves the main force of the aerospace industry in the free association, Space Exploration Company, and Musk even went to Munich in person.
Musk glanced at Kim Duke, the president of Blue Origin, who was sitting next to him and said, "Dude, you don't think this cooperation negotiation will be successful, do you?"
"Mr. Musk really likes to joke." Kim Duke replied with a wry smile, obviously he didn't want to return to this topic.
Musk showed a hint of cynicism and mocked: "He was smiling in the photo, but it's a pity that Bill's idea is too naive."
At this time, on the stage, the heads of the European Space Agency, the Commonwealth Space Agency, the Lucia Space Ministry and other four parties were smiling and holding hands under the media spotlight, looking like we are all one family.
If you don’t know, you might think they are close partners.
However, in the past few years, they were in a state of hostility.
It can only be said that the pressure brought by the Sapiens company forced these guys to put aside some of their previous unpleasantness and focus on the future.
Bill, Conde and the other three on the stage responded to questions from media reporters in a formal manner.
But Musk in the audience already looked impatient.
He also set his sights on Sato Koichi, the president of Japan's Fuji Heavy Industries: "Fuji Heavy Industries also has an aerospace industry?"
Facing the biological son of Yedie, Sato Koichi was very respectful and nodded slightly: "Mr. Musk, our company recently acquired a part of the aerospace industry."
"What's so great about buying that junk? You might as well invest in my space exploration company," Musk said half-jokingly.
"Haha...we just look at the price, and those companies have some unique technologies, such as the super-high-rise construction technology of the Dalin Group..."
Musk raised his eyebrows. "Obayashi Group? Is that the company that plans to build a space elevator?"
Sato Takaichi smiled awkwardly: "Yes, but this project is too difficult, and our company has no money to continue investing."
"The carbon nanotubes are only half a meter long now. There is really no need for you to continue investing." Musk said with a look of disgust.
Sato Koichi smiled bitterly.
It is indeed difficult to realize a space elevator at this stage, otherwise Sapiens would not have given up on the space elevator project. Although Sapiens still has three research institutes doing related research, there is no plan to invest in the construction of a space elevator at this stage.
In this regard, Sato Koichi, who acquired Obayashi Corporation, has the most say. After inspecting Obayashi Corporation's space elevator project, he immediately cut off this pure money-losing project.
The reason why the space elevator is considered a money-losing project is mainly due to three aspects.
The first difficulty is the huge workload. Not to mention Japan, which is living a hard life now, even the rotten ship America with a few pounds of nails still on it cannot withstand the huge workload of a space elevator.
The second problem is the cable material. Currently, the only material suitable for space elevator cables is carbon nanotubes.
Theoretically, the strength requirement for a space elevator cable is 90P, while carbon nanotubes can reach 200 to 800P.
However, ideals are full and reality is skinny.
Among all the major forces, the one with the most powerful carbon nanotube processing technology can only process carbon nanotubes with a length of half a meter.
The carbon nanotubes for a space elevator need to be more than 36,000 kilometers long.
0.5 meter: 36,000 kilometers.
This does not mean there is no hope, but the possibility is almost zero.
Even for the Sapiens company that has biosynthesis technology, its carbon nanotube laboratory can only synthesize carbon nanotubes with a length of 120 to 150 meters, which is four orders of magnitude less than the distance of 36,000 kilometers.
The third problem is corrosion and aging.
This problem further increases the difficulty of building a space elevator to a higher level.
Sato Koichi had previously read the relevant test report of the Obayashi Group and discovered this fatal problem, that is, the service life of carbon nanotubes in outer space is less than two years.
The Obayashi Group took advantage of Japan's experimental opportunity on the International Space Station to send some carbon nanotubes to the International Space Station for a two-year exposure experiment.
The results were very unsatisfactory. After two years of exposure experiments in low-Earth orbit, the carbon chains in the carbon nanotubes were corroded by oxygen atoms and their strength dropped to a level lower than that of ordinary nylon ropes.
This is also the problem encountered by the relevant laboratories of Sapiens when synthesizing carbon nanotubes and graphene films. The affinity of carbon with oxygen and hydrogen causes the carbon chain to be easily destroyed.
Although the low-Earth orbit appears empty, it is actually still part of the atmosphere - the extension of the thermosphere, where a large number of oxygen and hydrogen atoms are floating.
However, carbon nanotubes easily combine with oxygen atoms, making this problem almost unsolvable.
What's more, there are various cosmic rays, high-energy neutrons, solar storms and the like in outer space, which can cause severe damage to the carbon chain.
Unless the cables of the space elevator can be replaced once a year, or a method is found to resist aging.
After discussing with a group of engineers and researchers, Sato Koichi decided to give up. It might be okay to make a PPT to defraud investment for this project, but if it really had to be carried out as planned, even ten thousand Fuji Heavy Industries would not be able to withstand it.
…
After dealing with the news media.
This time the cooperation negotiations finally entered the closed-door meeting stage.
The core aerospace agencies of the four major powers, plus 27 affiliated aerospace agencies and 53 important aerospace-related companies, totaled 362 participants.
Bill spoke first: "Everyone, Sapiens has recently deployed a large number of satellites in outer space and built a space city. If we don't work together, we may not have a share in the solar system in the future."
"We can consider cooperation, but how will it be distributed specifically? If it's still the same as before, you can just play by yourselves!" Alexander Piyankovsky, head of the Lucia Space Department, asked bluntly.
Kong De quickly came out to smooth things over: "We should indeed discuss the specific distribution, but cooperation is always better than developing alone."
Bill stated his distribution plan: "My plan is 4:3:2:1. 4 to the Free Union, 2 to the Europa Union, 1 to Lucia, and the remaining 3 to..."
"Haha, why don't you just eat it all? And then have fun by yourselves?" Alexander Piyankovsky stared at Bill and started talking.
Musk shrugged and turned to other company leaders, jokingly saying, "Look, that's it? Still working together?"
The others remained silent. It was obvious that their companies were not as important as the space exploration company, and speaking carelessly would easily get them into trouble.
There is a fight between gods on the stage and they just need to watch the show below.
The four parties argued for more than two hours but still failed to reach an agreement. Apparently, America's past bad record had caused the other three parties to have serious doubts about this cooperation.
The scope of cooperation, the investment of funds, resources and manpower, the location of the space base, the distribution of results, how to manage, etc.
There are huge differences among the parties on these issues.
A mob is a mob.
