Rhine and the others hurriedly watched the exploration report of the "Iron Star 1 Asteroid" carefully, and the more they looked at it, the more envious and jealous they became.

At the same time, it is also bright for the resources of outer space, and just an asteroid is rich in resources.

Although the proportion of mineral asteroids in the total asteroids is small, it cannot withstand the large number of asteroids as a whole.

Everything must go up on the base as a whole, and there will be some useful parts in it.

An asteroid is a celestial body in the solar system that orbits the sun like a planet, but is much smaller in size and mass than a planet.

As we all know, 98.5% of the asteroids are distributed in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and there are many asteroids distributed around the L3 and L4 points of Jupiter, which are called Trojan group asteroids.

If you have seen the star map of the solar system, you will know that most of the asteroids are very far away from the blue star, more difficult to reach than Mars, and for these distant asteroids, it makes no sense to develop them in recent years.

That turned its attention to the asteroids that are closer to Blue Star, known as Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs).

Compared with other asteroids, the development of near-Earth asteroids is obviously less difficult, less costly, and technically easier to implement.

Near-Earth asteroids usually refer to asteroids whose orbits intersect with the orbits of blue stars, and their orbital radius is usually between 0.983 AU ~ 1.3 AU.

AU stands for Astronomical Unit (abbreviated AU), which is a unit of length that is approximately equal to the average distance between a blue star and the Sun. It belongs to one of the astronomical constants, the basic unit for measuring distance, especially the distance between celestial bodies in the solar system, and the average distance from the blue star to the sun is one astronomical unit. The astronomical unit is equivalent to approximately 149.6 million kilometers.

The number of known near-Earth asteroids is 12,819, and the rate of discovery is growing.

The number of known near-Earth asteroids with diameters of more than 1 km is 873, but the speed is found to be decreasing, and the number of such near-Earth asteroids is estimated to be around 981.

Near-Earth asteroids can also be divided into the following 3 categories according to their orbital radius:

Ardennes asteroids, which have an average orbital radius of nearly one astronomical unit, and aphelion (0.983 AU), which are larger than the perihelion of the blue star, are often located within the blue star's orbit.

Apollo-type asteroids, which have an average orbital radius outside the orbit of the blue star and perihelion within the orbit of the blue star.

Amor-type asteroids, this type of asteroid orbits between Blue Star and Mars, and the perihelion is located a little outside the orbit of Blue Star (1.017 ~1.3 AU).

The Amore asteroid often crosses the orbit of Mars, but not the orbit of the Blue Star.

The two natural moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, appear to be the Amore asteroid captured by Mars' gravity.

The next step is to pick up the resources on the asteroid, mainly its mineral resources.

Depending on the spectrum of asteroids, they can be roughly divided into the following three categories: Class C asteroids, which account for about 75% of the total number of asteroids; Class S asteroids, which account for about 17 percent of the total number of asteroids; The rest are M-class asteroids (WX asteroids are M-class asteroids).

Class C asteroids have more abundant water resources, and rock and soil resources (such as silica, magnesium oxide, iron oxide, etc.) are also relatively abundant;

Class S asteroids have more geotechnical resources (mainly silica); Class M asteroids have more metal resources (iron, nickel, etc.).

Many people may be more concerned about the content of platinum, but in fact, we have inferred the content of platinum group metals in the asteroid through the statistics of the iridium (Ir) content in the iron meteorite on the blue star.

Platinum group metals are mainly distributed in class M asteroids, and about 50~60% of class M asteroids are more abundant in platinum ore than those on blue stars.

In other words, Class C asteroids, which account for 75% of the total, and Class M asteroids, which account for 8% of the total, are very important for mankind to open up the universe in the future.

If you are lucky and encounter a resource-rich asteroid like the WX asteroid, you can earn at least tens of billions of dollars on one side.

What's more, there is also the important satellite of the moon, which is not only a matter of resources, but also a more important position, who occupies the moon, who will seize the opportunity in the future development of the universe.

"Mr. Fang, we need to think about it, after all, this number is too big." Rhine is obviously a little moved, but such a large investment is really not something he can decide alone.

"I can wait, but Mao Xiong and Tianzhu are also talking, and the property rights of the mass projector determine the share of future launches." Fang Dongliang reminded with a smile.

His implication is that 49% ownership means 49% of the launch share, and if 300,000 tons of cargo can be launched in a year, 49% of the share is 147,000 tons of cargo.

"Mr. Fang, we are very sincere, but please give us a little time." Rhine hurriedly said anxiously.

"I'll give you three days, and you won't wait for the expiration date." Fang Dongliang said directly.

"Okay, we'll make a decision in three days."

After this secret negotiation was over, Rhine hurriedly talked to Layton Holographic in Shanghai.

After Layton listened to Rhine's words, he knew that this was an opportunity and a threat, and once the Western Continent Alliance gave up cooperation, others might take advantage of the opportunity to take the position.

"We will act separately to convince the country as soon as possible, even if it is to reduce social welfare, to come up with money to win this project."

"Their offer is 1.3 trillion Chinese dollars, and we bear 80%, which is 1.04 trillion Chinese dollars, and the current exchange rate of Western dollars for Chinese dollars is 1:7.2, and we need to pay 144.44 billion Chinese dollars." Rhein said.

"We can bear this number, although it is a little difficult, but we can still prepare a way." Layton thought for a moment and said.

Now there are 28 member countries of the Western Continent Union, which have been removed by the-stirring stick John's family, and there are 27 member countries, as the top four in the Western Continent Alliance, namely the Hans, Gaul, Spaghetti Country, and Xiban Duck, whose combined GDP in 2019 is about 5.5 trillion dollars.

This year, the total economic output of the Xizhou Union is about 18 trillion Western dollars, and it is still possible to take out 144.44 billion Western dollars.

What's more, the money is certainly not taken out all at once, and they will inevitably come up with the idea of installment payments in the middle of the negotiations.

After Rhein, Leighton and others sent the situation back to the Western Continent Alliance, the Western Continent Alliance immediately secretly convened an emergency joint meeting.

In order to gain a first-mover advantage, Hans and Gaul joined forces to persuade other member states, even to increase their share of the funds.

Rhein and Leighton didn't know how to fight within the Western Continent Alliance, but this time they were very efficient, and in less than two days, an approval document arrived in Leighton's hands.

"The joint meeting has agreed to the project, but they asked us to get as many conditions as possible." Leighton said to Rhine.

"Great, for other conditions, I will try my best to negotiate with the Dongtang people." Rhine hurriedly said.

"Then please." Layton said solemnly.

Fang Dongliang in Shanmei has already received a request from Rhine to renegotiate, he didn't expect the efficiency of these Xizhou Yankees to be so fast, originally thought that they would not be able to give a result without ten days and half a month, it seems that people's potential is unlimited.

Since they want to negotiate, Fang Dongliang has no reason to refuse, after all, they are here to send money, if they can get this money, the investment in the construction plan will almost return to the cost.