It's October.

Local time in North America, Tuesday afternoon, October 6.

Elon Musk appeared in New York City, at this time he was in a hall in front of a few real North American bigwigs behind the scenes, Elon Musk said solemnly in front of these consortium bigwigs: "Everyone, I must tell you, and now we have in front of us a 'space enclosure' race has begun, and the pace on the other side of the ocean has been too fast for us, and we could have been far ahead......

As he spoke, Elon Musk turned out the worldVu project that he promoted last year and went bankrupt after only a few months, and between the lines he was complaining, denunciating and regretting, he really held back the fire in his belly, if someone hadn't obstructed it, maybe thousands of satellites would have been sent by now.

This time, with the launch of the "Star Network" project in Greater China, Elon Musk also seized this opportunity to export violently.

A consortium boss sitting with a delicate cane in both hands turned his head and glanced at the man next to him, who was about 45 years old and named Graycias, he suddenly looked at Elon Musk and said, "Space enclosure? You mean orbital resources? But as far as I know, the Earth's satellite orbit resources are theoretically close to infinity, expanding the radius around the Earth, and countless concentric circles can be drawn on different planes. ”

Elon Musk immediately said: "Yes, that's right. Unfortunately, in fact, many orbital resources have little use value, or the cost is too high and the technical requirements are higher, and the orbits in advantageous locations are naturally scarce. Traditionally, the most valuable high-orbit satellites are those in geosynchronous orbit, which are more than 22,000 miles above the ground and have an orbital inclination of 0 degrees, that is, they are located above the Earth's equator. ”

"The direction and period of this type of satellite are synchronized with the rotation of the earth, and from the perspective of the ground, the satellite is a relatively stationary state. The orbital resources of high-orbit satellites are the most scarce and the most competitive field, which can only accommodate a few hundred satellites. ”

Grécias asked, "How many satellites can be held in low orbit?" ”

Hearing this, Elon Musk lowered his head and pondered for a moment before replying: "It's difficult to give an accurate number, but you can make an assumption, for example, cars driving on high speeds, cars are dynamic, we can only calculate the approximate limit value based on how long this highway is and how much safe car distance is left." A rough estimate of the low orbit altitude of 1,240 miles (2,000 km) is likely to accommodate between 100,000 and 110,000 satellites in an effective orbit. ”

"Of course, this is already a relatively crowded state, if there are really so many satellites launched into low orbit, there may be frequent collisions, and once they collide, they may also fall into a vicious circle, that is, satellites collide, produce debris, cause the next collision, and produce more debris, which is similar to a series of rear-end accidents on the highway."

Speaking of which, Elon Musk looked around at the unspoken consortium bosses present: "Qunxing Capital has already begun to lay out, and they have invested in a lot of space orbital junk cleanup research projects in the past few years, and they have obviously rehearsed such results, and targeted implementation, and then orbital cleanup is a big business, and they are ahead again." ”

"Everyone, let me tell you what Fang Hong wants to do. On the surface, the provision of satellite Internet services disclosed by the 'Star Network' project company is only a part of it, but it is just the tip of the iceberg, and under this, his greater intention is to enclose land on a large scale in space, and those scarce orbital resources are to be encircled. ”

"Through the 'star network' to launch tens of thousands of huge satellites to occupy scarce orbital resources, and these satellites will enter the atmosphere at the end of their life and burn themselves, but before they enter the atmosphere and burn out, the Jiutian Star Network will definitely launch new satellites to replenish the network, and it is impossible to give up the orbital resources that have been occupied."

Elon Musk gushed with a serious expression of urgency: "ITU (ITU) rules stipulate the principle of preemptive occupancy of orbital resources, and the satellites launched by the later ones should avoid the orbits of the existing satellites and cannot cause adverse interference to the satellites of the first mover." The 'satellite network' plans to deploy at least 50,000 low-orbit satellites in the next five years, and even more in the future. ”

"Now their 'Blue Arrow-5A' heavy-duty rocket can send more than 100 satellites at a time, and coupled with Fang Hong's strong vision and ambition for space expansion, I am not surprised that even if tens of thousands of satellites are deployed in a year."

Elon Musk looked around at everyone with a solemn face and said: "At that time, the space orbit resources that other people can choose to launch satellites will become more and more narrow, and it will not be long before these non-renewable scarce resources will be swallowed up by the 'star network'." ”

"These cheap satellites that cost only a few hundred thousand dollars occupy scarce resources in low-earth orbit, and the Nine Heavens Star Network can buy and sell these orbital resources in the future, and others who want to launch satellites will have to find the Nine Heavens Star Network to buy or lease the orbital resources they occupy, so they have to spend tens of millions of dollars on a one-time purchase, or lease his orbital resources for a limited time, if it were me, I would definitely choose to lease, and I believe he would do the same."

Speaking of this, Elon Musk's tone strengthened while slowing down: "Ladies and gentlemen, in the future, human activities in the space field will only become more and more frequent, and limited scarce orbital resources will become more and more valuable, according to the valuation of a scarce orbital resource of 20 million US dollars, the value of scarce orbital resources alone is conservatively estimated to be no less than a super-large market of 2 trillion US dollars." ”

When I heard Elon Musk say the astonishing figure of $2 trillion, several consortium bigwigs present couldn't sit still, and their calm expressions were finally moved.

Even if Elon Musk is describing with exaggeration, even if he is drawing a pie, there are no problems and loopholes in the logic of this pie.

Because there is a main line of development of human civilization is incomparably clear and undoubted, that is, towards the sea of stars, the development of the space field will become more and more frequent in the future, whether it is a large country or a small company, the demand for satellites will be greater and greater, especially now that the recycling and reuse of rockets has greatly reduced the launch cost, the incremental market space is gradually opening.

Then in the future, limited scarce orbital resources will be a sought-after commodity, and your satellite will not be able to go to the sky without orbital resources.

At this time, Elon Musk said: "All in all, whoever has scarce orbital resources and who has more scarce orbital resources can only go to him to buy or lease orbital resources to launch their own satellites. ”

"Fang Hong is once again ahead of everyone, and we still know it now, even unconsciously, he has circled an orbital resource is a steady profit, and the cost he pays is only hundreds of thousands of dollars for a satellite."

"Even so, this satellite will become a part of the 'satellite network', bringing him a satellite telecommunications network covering the whole world, a network outside the Internet, as long as the user scale of this platform breaks through the critical value, this network can break even or even make a profit, and the realization of orbital resources is net profit."

Elon Musk at this moment, every word he says is expressing two meanings: this matter has great interests in it, and others have already taken the lead in doing this matter, if we don't follow up, it is not a problem that the daylily is cold, but smelly.

At the end, a person from the Pioneer Pilot Group immediately said: "Mr. Musk, I support your 'Starlink' plan, let's say, how much money do you need, Pioneer Pilot can lead a round of financing." ”

Elon Musk's heart was lifted, but his expression was well managed, he said: "Not only Starlink, but more importantly, SpaceX urgently needs more financing support at the moment." ”

……