In the current world, 237 nautical miles east of Anga Island is the territorial sea border of the new country. Further to the southeast is the endless high seas, with not even an island nearby. However, because of the recent application for manganese nodule mining here, Future Mining has towed an offshore platform with an engineering ship.
But strangely enough, after Future Mining left this offshore platform alone on the sea, there was no sign of starting construction. Except for a few soldiers standing guard and a few civilians who looked like staff, there was not even any mining equipment to be seen.
What does the Future People Group want to do
The United States, which has been staring at the Future Man Group since the completion of Penglai City, is undoubtedly the most curious. But being curious, they couldn't ask directly, so the White House used its usual method of leaking the information through an unnamed White House official, and then asked these reporters to find out the information.
However, Futureman Group obviously did not listen to reporters. When asked about the offshore platform deployed by Futureman Mining at sea, the answer was the same sentence - "Legal behavior, no comment."
The "cover-up" of the Future People Group only made the public more curious. For a time, all kinds of rumors were rampant, and keyboard warriors from all walks of life expressed their own opinions to analyze the actions of the Future People Group and dig out the deep-seated reasons. Some people say that Future Heavy Industries is building the second Penglai City, others say that they are building an undersea city, and some even say that they have discovered alien relics under the sea...
Public opinion is easily led to strange places.
What exactly is the Future People Group doing
Everyone is curious about this question...
…
"what is that?"
Boarding the offshore platform, Kerwin, CEO of the Starring Commercial Aerospace Technology Center, glanced directly above the platform. There was a board of about twenty square meters lying across it. From its appearance, it didn't look like a solar panel, and he really couldn't figure out its function.
"Anti-satellite laser array. It's too troublesome to introduce. In short, it allows the spy satellite above our heads to only see a luminous point of more than ten square kilometers, and all the monitored radio signals become a mess of noise. Jiang Chen patted the guardrail of the offshore platform, looked at Kerwin and said with a smile, "This is one of the top secrets of the Future Man Group. Now you still have a chance to regret it."
"But that would make me so curious that I can't sleep." Kerwin shrugged and followed Jiang Chen.
The water droplet stopped right in front of the offshore platform, but it was obviously not this weird submersible that Jiang Chen was going to show him.
After entering the water droplet, Jiang Chen set the route on the holographic screen, and then turned on the panoramic imaging, turning the entire water droplet No. 1 into a veritable water droplet, transparent from the inside out...
"Amazing technology." Kerwin reached out and poked the bulkhead, his finger poking at the steel plate. "This is the first time I have seen such a magical submersible... Is this the top secret thing?"
"Do you think there is anything about it that needs to be kept secret?" Jiang Chen said with a smile.
Kerwin smiled too.
That's right. Compared with the technology that the Futureman Group has come up with, this thing has no highlights worthy of being kept secret. Even in Penglai City, Jiang Chen didn't hide anything from the media when the construction started. He even started auctioning the properties on the artificial island when the project was halfway through.
Obviously, there is something terrible hidden under the sea.
However, what confused Kerwin was why he was approached by something under the sea. His job was in aerospace!
Without waiting for a long time, in just two minutes, Shuidi No. 1 had slowly dived to the bottom of the sea. When the searchlight was turned on, Kerwin's eyes widened as he looked along the beam.
A giant metal cube, viewed from top to bottom, is at least two to three kilometers long and wide. Compared with Penglai City, this cube is not shocking, but for some reason, he can feel a stronger sense of science fiction from this structure...
And his intuition told him that this thing was related to aerospace.
Thinking of what Jiang Chen told him about the space elevator some time ago, a hint of enlightenment suddenly appeared in his mind. Could it be...
"What on earth is this?" Kerwin asked tremblingly.
"I thought you could guess it," Jiang Chen turned around and smiled, pressing on the holographic screen to stop the water droplets in place, "The base of the space elevator is not yet completed."
Yes, this is just a work in progress.
The space elevator base obtained from the Beluga Undersea Research Station was disassembled parts. Jiang Chen mobilized all the amphibious engineering robots he brought to the present world and assembled them for half a month before assembling these parts into what he is now. Like this.
Kerwin was silent for a while, and then sighed.
"I don't know why, but I always have a feeling of regret."
Jiang Chen asked: "Oh? Why?"
"The era of the Rockets is over before we can take what we have learned throughout our lives to its full potential," Kerwin said in a teasing tone.
At the very least, the era of space rockets is over.
If the cost of aerospace can be reduced from tens of millions of dollars to less than a thousand dollars, who else will pay for a space rocket? Even the X-Falcon rocket cannot be this cheap. It is foreseeable that Starlink Trading, which controls the space elevator, will undoubtedly take over all satellite launch projects in the world... at least commercial satellite launch projects.
"It's too early to say this." Jiang Chen smiled and shook his head. After a moment of pause, he continued, "The space elevator has only completed the first phase of the project, which is the base of the space elevator, and the remaining parts , it needs to be completed by the Aerospace Science and Technology Center and Future Heavy Industries."
Unlike all buildings on Earth, this "Tower of Babel" leading to synchronous orbit was built from the top down. The space station in synchronous orbit will be built first, and then the construction of the terminal counterweight and the 36,000-kilometer orbit will be started at the same time.
This means that all construction materials must be launched into outer space via rockets. Putting aside the cost of the material itself, the cost of rocket launch alone is not a small amount. This is why Jiang Chen began to acquire private aerospace companies last year and develop the Halo N series of rockets. Only by lowering the launch cost to a relatively reasonable price can the Future Group have the conditions to build a space elevator.
As early as last year, Jiang Chen had been preparing for this moment.
"All the technical information about the space elevator has been developed. The next thing we have to do is to move it from the drawings. I will not set an upper limit on the budget of the entire project, and your only task is to complete this for me. Tower of Babel."
After a pause, Jiang Chen continued with a smile.
"If it happens, your and my names will be recorded in the annals of history." (.)