Lease a port
Jiang Chen was slightly surprised by Musk's suggestion.
In the internal discussion of the space elevator profit plan within Star Circle Trading, there is indeed a pre-selected plan for the lease of ports and berths in Star Circle City.
After all, the size of one person's market is limited. Rather than having a piece of cake to yourself, it would be better to unite everyone to make the cake bigger and then be the master of cutting the cake. Only when everyone joins this huge market can the benefits of Star Ring trade be maximized. At the same time, many unnecessary disputes can also be avoided.
Imagine that the entire world's development of outer space resources has to go through the space elevator located in the new country. Cargo ships from all countries will travel to and from the sea base station under the space elevator. All resources from outer space have to be transported to markets around the world through the ports of the new country. What does this mean for the economy, currency, and international status of the new country
compete? Of course there will be.
But if it can’t compete with the likes of SpaceX, Planetary Resources, and Deep Space Industries with its technology that’s a century ahead, all employees of Starlink Trading might as well be killed by a piece of tofu!
But what surprised Jiang Chen was that, let alone the ports and berths, the space elevator had just been completed, and even the Star Ring City was just a prototype. Before the United Nations Outer Space Development Summit was held, Musk had already considered going to such a distant place, which really surprised Jiang Chen.
"How's it going? Are you interested?" Musk asked in a serious tone.
"Very interested... I would rather say I'm surprised." Jiang Chen said with a strange expression.
"Oh? I don't know where I offended—"
"No, you misunderstood." Jiang Chen shook his head, moved the holographic communication window from the left to the right with his fingers, and then said, "We do have the intention to lease the port, but the relevant plans are still at this stage. Written documents. We can’t give you an answer yet, but since you raised it, we will contact you as soon as possible after the United Nations Outer Space Summit is over and we have worked out a reasonable cooperation plan.”
With a happy face on his face, Musk said with joy.
"Then it's up to you!"
"Is there anything else?" Jiang Chen asked.
"Of course, there is one more thing," Musk said with a smile. "We were originally scheduled to launch the Falcon 9 rocket in early February, carrying 450 kilograms of supplies to the International Space Station to complete the supplies. But now it seems that we did not waste 60 million Dollars necessary?”
"Are you planning to outsource NASA projects to us?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows and asked with interest.
The other end of the phone snapped his fingers and Musk answered.
"exactly."
…
There is a difference in the cost of upward transportation and downward transportation. Depending on the type of goods, there will be certain differences in the carriages and acceleration plans used, and the quotations will naturally be different. But in any case, the transportation cost of a space elevator is definitely lower than that of a rocket.
The standard quote for Falcon 9 is US$60 million. Even if the successful recovery of the first-stage rocket can save 80% of the launch cost (the probability of success is not high), it is still as much as US$12 million. Compared with 450 kilograms of goods, the transportation cost of each kilogram of materials is also as high as 26,000 US dollars.
The Starlink Trading offer is to charge only S$2 million in total, including the Dragon spacecraft and the 450 kilograms of supplies it carries, to be sent to synchronous orbit. Converted into U.S. dollars based on the current exchange rate, it is just over 2.15 million U.S. dollars.
According to the U.S. subsidy policy for the aerospace industry, the fee paid by eX is approximately US$61 million. If it is outsourced to Star Ring Trading, the profit will be almost sixty times!
And there’s no need to bet on the probability of recovering the first-stage rocket!
Such terrifying profits are enough to drive any capitalist crazy.
Musk made the decision even though outsourcing subsidized projects abroad might incur dissatisfaction from the federal government. As for how to appease NASA's anger, he has already thought of enough words.
In addition, Jiang Chen also made a very tempting proposal. If the entire supply work is outsourced to Star Ring Trading, eliminating the need to launch the Dragon spacecraft weighing about 8 tons, Star Ring Trading's quotation will be reduced to hundreds of thousands of Singapore dollars. However, Musk did not completely lose his mind and declined Jiang Chen's "kindness".
After hanging up the phone, Musk immediately looked at his assistant.
"The February launch plan was immediately cancelled, and Falcon rocket-related technologies were packaged and sold as soon as possible before this week's United Nations Outer Space Summit. I have to go to the launch center in person in a while, and I have to cancel all my afternoon arrangements. "
A surprised expression appeared on the assistant's face.
"But... this is an order from NASA, and our Falcon rocket engine has been produced."
"Except for the rocket engine, have other components started to be produced?" Musk stopped walking towards the door, turned his head and asked seriously.
"Wait a minute..." The assistant reached for the pile of documents on his desk, dug out the one he was looking for, and quickly flipped to the item about the production progress report, "It hasn't started yet—"
"Cancel it immediately. By the way, package and sell the rocket engine that has been produced. I will also terminate the research and development of the Falcon 10 rocket immediately and allocate the extra budget to the third-generation Dragon spacecraft."
"But why?" the assistant couldn't help but ask.
Regarding the Falcon 10 rocket, he thinks that he may be the person other than Musk who knows best how much effort the chairman has put into it. He really couldn't believe that just after this phone call, Musk, who single-handedly promoted the Falcon 10 rocket development project, ended this great project so lightly.
"Because it's obsolete," Musk said without hesitation.
He was also filled with unwillingness to make such a decision, but he knew very well that even half a minute ago, he had made the calmest and wisest choice in his life.
The birth of the space elevator marked the complete decline of traditional rocket spaceflight, just as tanks will eventually eliminate cavalry. Even if we continue to spend a lot of money to build the Falcon 10 rocket, it will be nothing more than a death struggle before dusk. The high cost makes it completely uncompetitive in the face of space elevators!
Rely on subsidies
God, the United States is a capitalist country!
You can’t live on subsidies alone for a lifetime! There comes a time when Congress's budget committees will lose their patience.
Seeing the struggling expression on the face of this assistant who had worked for him for many years, Musk took a deep breath and spoke slowly.
"My dear Mr. Bessmore, my friend. You should be able to understand me. Understand that at this moment, I am definitely not as relaxed as I appear on the surface. Giving up the Falcon series rockets does not mean giving up everything and doing Making such a choice... I should be the most uncomfortable person in the entire company. But my reason tells me that I must do this."
"It is only a matter of time before the rockets that go from the atmosphere to outer space are eliminated. The Falcon series has completed its historical mission, and we will learn from it, as well as the technology, and then solemnly close the coffin for it. I know this is very important. It’s not easy… but if we don’t want this series to be our swan song, then we have to move forward with the flow of history.”
"Stronger, bigger, faster spacecraft that can move freely in the universe, that is our future!" (.)