MTL - Rebirth in a Perfect Era

In Elon Musk's words, technology is mostly stacked, and technology and technology are like permutations and combinations. The more technologies you have in your hands, the more tricks you can play. .

Elon Musk has been pursuing the next dimension, such as new energy vehicles, autonomous driving, recyclable rockets, and even sending humans to Mars.

Taking advantage of this visit to Yanjing to discuss the next move of Tesla to Huaxia, and the cooperation between Tesla and Li Mu's other car brands, Elon Musk, after having dinner with Li Mu, just pulled Li Mu, He talked for a long time in his hotel room.

He first discussed the importance of technology stacking with Li Mu and popularized the topic, starting with cars.

He said to Li Mu: "In fact, the technology is really interesting. President, if we install adaptive cruise on a car, we will be able to develop pre-collision based on the adaptive cruise radar hardware. system."

Li Mu said, "You don't let me go home at night, just to popularize car technology for me?"

Musk laughed: "Look, I'm going to start with automotive technology first."

Li Mu said, "I understand what you mean. You can make a light bulb today and a battery tomorrow. The combination will become a flashlight. After two days, you will build a motor. Add more battery strings together. This is an electric car. You mean that, don't you? "

Musk nodded: "Almost ..."

Li Mu smiled: "I may not be able to figure out exactly how the battery stores power, but how the battery should be used, I know what you want to say, you just hold me secretly."

Musk found himself spotted by Li Mu and smiled awkwardly, saying, "General Li, I actually want to talk to you about space exploration."

"Space exploration?" Li Mu asked curiously. "Where to go?"

Musk busily: "Explore other stars, such as Mars."

Li Mu said, "Isn't NASA doing this? It also sent a Mars rover, what are you going to explore?"

Musk seriously said: "NASA just sent the Mars rover to Mars, but did not send people to Mars. My goal is to send people to Mars before trying to migrate to Mars."

Li Mu was embarrassed. I heard about your immigration to Mars in my last life, but until I was born again, I did n’t see you sending people to Mars ...

So Li Mu asked him, "How are you going to do this?"

Musk said: "Of course, relying on SpaceX, our current research direction is mainly recyclable launch vehicles, and our rocket's future carrying capacity will continue to increase, aligning with NASA's Saturn V, or even surpassing Saturn 5. "

"Once we achieve heavy recyclable rockets, our cost per kilogram may be reduced to one-tenth or even lower than the current mainstream launch cost."

"In this way, we have the basis for going to Mars."

"For example, we build a spaceship that can land on Mars, and then use our launch vehicle that can be recycled to continuously launch space station components into space to build a large space station in space orbit. The process is like you drive a car. Trucks will successively transport the building materials that can build a house from the port of Tianjin to Yanjing. Building a house may require hundreds of tons of building materials. Your truck may only carry five tons at a time, so you need to be in Tianjin. The city and Yanjing travel at least fifty or sixty times. "

"Before there were recyclable rockets, all your trucks were disposable, that is to say, for every five tons of building materials you transport, you need to spend a pickup truck. This cost is extremely high, even higher than what you want to build. There are many, many houses, but we can turn this kind of disposable truck into a reusable one in the future, that is, you only need to refuel the car and perform routine maintenance on the car each time you travel to and from Tianjin and Yanjing That's enough, this cost reduction is not a little bit. "

Li Mu nodded and asked, "What then?"

Musk said: "Then it will be simple. We now build a space station in space as a base for replenishment, and then transport a large amount of fuel and even boost the rocket to the space station several times, turning it into a large supply station, and then We launch our heavy spaceship. "

"You know, exploring the universe, the biggest fuel consumption is the process of getting rid of the earth ’s gravity from the ground to entering space. If a traditional spacecraft goes directly to Mars, most of its load is actually fuel, such as the Mars The total weight is only a few hundred kilograms, but the total launch weight may exceed one thousand tons. "

"If we set up a space station in space, then our heavy spaceships do n’t need to consider storing enough fuel to fly to Mars and then return, and only need to store enough fuel to reach the space station. Load, then refuel at the space station and head to Mars. "

"Even we can launch some of the equipment and supplies needed after Mars landed in advance to the space station. After the spacecraft reaches space, we can bring these equipments together and go to Mars."

Li Mu scratched his head: "I'm afraid that $ 50 billion is not enough for your project. I'm afraid adding a zero is almost the same?"

Elon Musk said: "If you just look at the investment, you really need a lot of money, but the project itself can make money."

Li Mu asked: "Make money by rocket launch? How many launches will it take to support your project?"

Elon Musk said, "Not only is it possible to make money from commercial launches, but also to make money through equipment rental and space services. If we can build a space station in space, we will not need space exploration in China, the United States, Russia, and the EU. We provide a certain amount of help. This is also money. You can think of it as turning the space station into a hotel, and it is the most expensive hotel. "

"That's right," Elon Musk said again. "In fact, the most profitable is the commercial manned space business. For example, take our spaceship for a three-day trip to space. 50 million per person, but not too much. "At that time, as long as we design a manned cabin, we can make a lot of money when we carry the manned cabin during the launch mission."

Li Mu smiled: "Are you a space rider business?"

"Almost that." Elon Musk saw Li Mu laugh out loud and explained quickly: "General Li, don't think this is a joke, in fact it is not! I tell you, there are many billionaires who are eager to get on In space, their money is too much to spend, and there is so much that there is no commercial service on the planet that they cannot afford or enjoy. At this time, if commercial manned space flight is opened, they will definitely feel very much. Interest, and that business alone will make a lot of money. "

Li Mu looked at Elon Musk and said seriously: "I think you are just flickering me. As for the commercial space travel business you described, I don't think you will be able to land for another 15 years."

In fact, Li Mu has been reborn, and he has never heard who Elon Musk really sent to space.

Elon Musk said very sincerely: "General Manager Li, if it is at the current pace, then I really need a long time. I need to wait for Tesla to succeed, PayPal to cash in, and then I can use it to support SpaceX. This also means that SpaceX may have been idling for more than a decade and could not get speeded up. "

After speaking, Elon Musk looked at Li Mu earnestly and said earnestly: "But, President Li, if you are willing to invest in this project, then I believe that it can develop rapidly, even within the next ten years. As long as it is possible, even if it is not possible to emigrate to Mars within ten years, at least we can already send people to Mars and then bring them back. "

Li Mu suddenly remembered the "Mars Rescue" I watched before, let alone colonize Mars, and could set up the Mars base in the movie. It is estimated that hundreds of billions of dollars would have been thrown in. This is a **** ordinary person who can afford it. s things.

If this project can really speed things up, maybe SpaceX will indeed be realized in a few years, or even manned journeys to Mars.

But how significant is this? This project is impossible to make money, and the commercial operation is good or bad. It is nothing more than the investor's compensation.

And a private company registered in the United States to engage in space stations and space exploration, the US government will not give subsidies.

Not only that, the US government has not even been so supportive of NASA these years. It is said that the budget is pitifully small ~ www. ~ It would take at least 20 years to re-land the moon.

Instead of struggling to toss things in space and on Mars, it is better to understand this thing on Earth first.

However, Li Mu suddenly thought of a very serious question before he opened his mouth and declined Musk.

The question is, what is it that makes money in the end?

There is an upper limit to the material life of human society. If a person's assets exceed billions of dollars, he can basically consume it on the planet. He can buy a large number of villas, islands, private jets, and private yachts across the country. Even a cruise ship, using hundreds of millions of dollars to make a trust fund, can earn a lifetime by eating interest alone, even if it doesn't do any business.

After you die, you can put all your inheritance in the trust fund. If you leave billions of dollars for future generations, let each of them get one million dollars from the fund every month. Even so, one generation will be one year. It's only $ 12 million.

The key one billion US dollars in the capital market, 10% annual return is not a problem, that is to say, the annual profit alone is 100 million US dollars, enough for nine generations to lie down for a lifetime.

If the assets reach tens of billions of dollars, it is basically impossible to run out of money.

As for yourself, the listing of Makino Technology, the listing of Taobao Technology, and the investment in a large number of other businesses have continued to develop. The future worth may exceed one or two trillion dollars.

Might as well come up with some big moves that other rich people cannot do.

The plan to travel to Mars may indeed cost a lot of money, but even so, at most it is to make the second richest person in the world close to everything.

That being the case, why not burn some money and try it out? Right to play ...