"I ask again, are you really sure? Whether SpaceX can do it is still an unknown, and this unknown may even last for five years, ten years, or more, are you sure you want to join?"

Zhang Chen and Musk each held a cup of coffee, leaning against the door of Stanford's MERL (Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory), no one could have imagined that two young people who looked so relaxed were talking about a topic that could change the human world.

Just as no one could have imagined that a ripe apple would fall on the head of a young man named Newton under the apple tree at Woolsthorpe Manor, thus changing the way humans perceive the world.

Elon Musk took a sip of coffee, did not directly answer Zhang Chen's question, and pointed in the direction of the setting sun: "Do you know what is over there?"

Zhang Chen just smiled, he knew that Elon Musk didn't really need his own answer.

Sure enough, Elon Musk continued: "Three miles away, construction began in the early sixties, and in '83, construction began on the world's first two-mile-long linear collider, which is now one of the most advanced acceleration laboratories in the world. I studied physics, and it used to be my dream. But did you know that there was a gap of 30 years between the approval of this project in '59 and the successful collision of the Linear Collider in '89? ”

Zhang Chen was still just drinking coffee, and Elon Musk's eyes became brighter and brighter: "After 30 years of investment and a total of more than 10 billion US dollars, I saw the hope of success, compared with SLAC, what can five or ten years of time be counted?

Zhang Chen smiled and threw the paper cup in his hand into the trash, "The ultimate goal of any commercial company is to make a profit, no commercial company will invest regardless of cost, and of course I won't." ”

Elon Musk's eyebrows moved slightly, obviously a little disappointed by what Zhang Chen said.

Zhang Chen looked at Musk and said slowly: "However, even if it is a commercial company, of course the tolerance for the upfront loss of different types of projects is different. For SpaceX, my loss tolerance is 1/3 of my personal wealth. ”

One-third of personal wealth? Elon Musk touched his chin, one-third?

"Why a third, and how much is a third?" Elon Musk was curious, eager to know what this third represented.

"Because I have three goals, and this is the third of them and the easiest one to achieve. Zhang Chen said casually.

"One of your goals is to build a space company?" Elon Musk is very interested, in fact, there are few people in Silicon Valley who are not interested in Zhang Chen, and countless people are digging out their minds to study everything about Zhang Chen, and analyzing Zhang Chen's limited appearances in the public again and again, hoping to better understand the biggest legend made in Silicon Valley in recent years.

can hear Zhang Chen say his goals or ideals with his own ears, not everyone has the opportunity.

The corners of Zhang Chen's mouth curled slightly, and he shook his head: "Of course it won't be so simple, I hope that in my lifetime, I can find another earth and set foot on the land there in person." ”

Elon Musk's hand holding the paper cup suddenly stopped, and after a few seconds, Musk's eyes became firm: "Take me on a tour of your SpaceX, oh, by the way, what is my position? What part of the work do you do? Where is our office located? How many people are there in SpaceX now?"

Zhang Chen smiled and pointed at Musk and himself, "So far, there are only two, me and you, and your employee number is No. 2." ”

Elon Musk's face immediately fell, and he felt like he was on a thief ship, "You mean, it's just the two of us?"

Zhang Chen nodded as a matter of course: "Yes, I said it a long time ago, this is a newly established company, registered in Delaware, and you are the first employee I recruited." ”

Musk took a deep breath and forced himself to suppress the urge to regret, "Okay, since our first step plan is to build a low-cost launch vehicle, do you have any specific plan? Which direction should we start from? Now that Rakshasa domestic economy seems to have collapsed, do you have anything to do with Rakshasa ? If we can find two Topol ICBMs from Rakshasa and make them cheaper, with a little modification, we should be able to meet the launch requirements of low-earth orbit, and the cost will not be too high." ”

Launch vehicles and intercontinental missiles are essentially the same thing, basically replacing a nuclear warhead with a cargo compartment, so as long as a country has the ability to manufacture intercontinental missiles, it also has the ability to launch satellites.

Then, if you want to quickly raise your glass to launch capability and give confidence to the capital market, it is the most realistic choice to buy cheap warheadless ICBMs and transform them into launch vehicles.

Among the countries that have the technology to manufacture intercontinental missiles, who is more suitable than the Rakshasa in the midst of storms?

Therefore, Musk immediately thought of going to Rakshasa to buy intercontinental missiles.

Zhang Chen shook his head slightly: "It's right that SpaceX is going to Rakshasa , but it's not for the sake of buying intercontinental missiles, but for the talents of Rakshasa , in the long run, we still have to have our own R&D and manufacturing capabilities, do you know who Shakhnov Anatolyevich is?"

Musk had never heard of this name, Zhang Chen pointed to a big fat man in his fifties who was pushing a weeder not far away, "That's him, he's a cleaner in the teachers' club, guess what he used to do in Rakshasa?"

He used to be a director-level researcher at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and had published many important papers in authoritative journals in the Soviet Union, and his ability was stronger than many American researchers of the same level. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he came to the United States with his family in '92, but no research institute was willing to hire him. As a result, he could only work as a cleaner at Stanford. ”

Musk looked at Uncle Rakshasa in surprise who was staggering and struggling to move his fat body, this person looked like a long-term overalcoholic, how could he never have imagined that such a person was one of the world's top scientific researchers a few years ago.

"It's not just him, not only in the United States, but also in the Soviet Union, where the living environment of senior scientific and technological talents is not very good, I hope you go to Rakshasa and recruit more talents in related fields. Of course, these Rakshasa people alone are not enough, we have to dig up more people, NASA has been cut by the Democratic administration, and many researchers who do related research are also our targets. I hope that within a year, we will be able to build at least a R&D team of more than 150 people. Only then will we be able to complete the development of a recyclable rocket and conduct a test launch within three years. ”

"Recyclable rockets?" Musk heard a new term, as we all know, rockets are disposable products, each rocket can only be launched once, and the one that can be launched repeatedly is the space shuttle.

Zhang Chen nodded: "Yes, recyclable rockets, if we want to reduce the launch cost to one-third of the current level or even lower, our rockets must be able to be relaunched, within five years, at least the first stage rocket can be recycled, and within seven years, the second stage rocket can be recycled and relaunched." Although the material cost of the rocket is not high, the cost of design, development and manufacturing is very high, if the first and second stage rockets can be recycled, we will not only save 70 percent of the cost, but even 80 percent or 90 percent!"

(End of chapter)