NASA headquarters.

Administrator Bill was looking at an intensified report that had just been reported.

In his office at this time, there are other NASA executives, and the chairman of SpaceX, Elon? Elon Musk.

Musk, who happened to come to NASA headquarters today to talk about things, did not expect to encounter such a thing.

He looked at the report in Bill's hand with a look of surprise: "Oh, buy karma...... Length 100 meters? 10 meters in diameter? This thing is huge! ”

"In terms of volume, it is about 5~6 times that of a heavy falcon." Rand, NASA's Almite project leader, scratched his hair as he spoke.

Bill put down the papers in his hand, and a look of solemnity appeared on his face: "Is this what that space base in the north of Mada Island is for?" ”

Rand is more professional than Bill, the half-administrator: "I remember that a company in the Maple Leaf Country came up with a similar concept, but I didn't expect Homo sapiens to be able to realize this idea. ”

"Judging from the data detected by the radar, when the spacecraft left the pipeline, the speed reached the first cosmic speed of 7.8 kilometers per second, obviously the power of this spacecraft is very strong!" Another technical lead analyzed.

Musk reminded: "Gentlemen! Shouldn't you worry about Homo sapiens usurping orbital resources to land on the moon and Mars first? ”

Suddenly, all the NASA management present involuntarily fell silent.

It was only last year that NASA increased its research funding a bit.

However, the good times did not last long, and since Homo sapiens kept doing things this year, NASA's funding has fallen back.

The main reason for this situation is that the landlord's family has no surplus food.

Americaka's economy continued to deteriorate, on the one hand, it had to replace the old plastic products inside, and invested a lot of money in West Asia; On the other hand, there is a new round of economic crisis that has just erupted.

Coupled with the severe decline in global trade of America, the global currency status of the US knife is not guaranteed.

There is also a more important reason, that is, at this time, America has more money-hungry projects, crowding out investment in the space industry.

That is life sciences and biochips, as well as the military industry.

The importance of the aerospace industry, at this stage, is obviously not as important as life sciences, biochips, and military industry.

The lords of the Council of the City on the Hill no longer have the ambition of Apollo when he landed on the moon, let alone the abundant capital of the year.

The funds are stretched, so they have to make trade-offs.

The space industry is one of those that has been left behind.

Now the order given to NASA by the Council of the City on the Hill is to do more theoretical research, write more PPTs, and use the money on the most needed and practical space projects.

For example, a new type of surveillance satellite that can protect against Gamma rays is a key project of NASA in the near future.

As for the return to the moon, the new International Space Station, the colonization of Mars, etc., the council did not approve funds for NASA, but only encouraged private companies like SpaceX to invest in space stations, moon landings, Mars, and so on.

Without money, the private sector is also very tricky.

This is also Musk came to NASA headquarters to discuss the next cooperation issues, and now Space Exploration has almost all NASA launch missions in the next three years by virtue of its low cost.

NASA, which is struggling with money, also has to be careful about its budgets, similar to General Electric, Blue Origin, Boeing and the like, and Bill doesn't want to give projects to these companies at all.

After thinking for a while, Bill asked the head of the Space Development Office, Joseph? Brooks asked:

"Joseph, how much would it cost if we were to build a similar device?"

Joseph? Brooks silently calculated in his mind for a while, and said a more conservative number: "At least 200 billion." ”

"200 billion?" Bilton's face was tangled in everything.

Musk on the side of the "......" was also frightened by this number.

Don't look at Musk as the world's richest man for several years, but that is only from the stock valuation, and he certainly doesn't have that much cash and fixed assets.

Joseph? Brooks reluctantly explained: "200 billion is just a conservative estimate, at least about 30 billion is needed to build towers and underground facilities, and about 20 billion ...... are needed for the research and development and manufacturing of airships and vacuum hoses."

"In addition, the development and manufacturing of the spacecraft itself, as well as whether there are other facilities within the entire system, are still unknown......"

】

After listening to Joseph? Brooks' analysis, Bill's face is darker.

Fortunately, they didn't know that the Dandelion project's underground ring pipe was 300 kilometers long, otherwise this giant vacuum pipe with a diameter of 30 meters alone would have made NASA completely desperate.

Taking the 5.8-meter inner diameter tunnel commonly used in North America as an example, the current minimum cost is 500 million US dollars per kilometer.

Even if the difference in pipeline materials is not considered, based on the difference in the area of the two pipe walls, the cost per kilometer of the project will definitely reach more than 5 billion US dollars.

300 kilometers will cost at least 1.5 trillion.

And that's not counting electromagnetic acceleration tracks, power supply systems, and so on.

Another hundredfold increase in NASA funding is estimated to be insufficient.

Apparently Beal has not yet realized the huge gap between the two sides.

I thought that Homo sapiens would work, and so would I, NASA.

However, Homo sapiens has a variety of low-cost production technologies, as well as very cheap raw materials, and an operating system that utilizes internal resources to the extreme.

These are all things that NASA doesn't have.

Bill didn't give up, he gritted his teeth and ordered: "Let the company in the Maple Leaf Country with similar technology study it and see if it can come up with a low-cost plan." ”

Joseph? Brooks could only nod helplessly: "Okay, I'll contact that company as soon as possible." ”

Musk is not optimistic about this project, he proposed in a somewhat weird way: "Bill, 200 billion can launch thousands of heavy falcons, why waste money in this kind of place, the council will not agree to this kind of project, you should think more about cooperating with SpaceX!" ”

"Elon, your idea is so wrong, if we can successfully replicate this project, then it will be possible to enter outer space at a low cost in the future." Bill didn't listen to Musk.

"But NASA doesn't have any money!" Musk reminded.

"Uh......" Bill was a little embarrassed.

Now NASA does have a lot less funding, and without money, it is impossible to play such a large-scale project.

In fact, the problem of shortage of funds is also a difficult problem that the space agencies of the major forces are facing at present.

At this stage, the aerospace industry is a very difficult to make a profit, except for satellite navigation, satellite communications, weather forecasting, and telemetry, you can barely make some money, and other projects are basically losing money and making money.

For example, space station projects, manned moon landings, Hubble telescopes, Mars exploration, etc., these projects have no way to make money in a short period of time.

Therefore, the aerospace industry is actually one of the barometers of a regional economy.

In areas with a bad economy, there is certainly no way to play all kinds of cutting-edge scientific research space projects, but to consider more practical navigation, communication, telemetry, and monitoring satellites and other projects.

NASA is a case in point.

At this time, it is not only NASA that is struggling with space funding, but also the aerospace departments of the Europa Consortium, Lucia and other forces are all suffering from this.

Seeing Homo sapiens launch thousands of tons of spacecraft into outer space at one time, those space agencies are too envious.