The first year of the galaxy, July 15.

Europa.

City of Munich.

As the host, the director of the Europa Space Development Agency, Comte? Feng? Marcus, who is receiving Bill, the head of the Space Agency of the Commonwealth of Freedom.

In addition to Bill, there are also members of the Free Commonwealth, and many people related to the aerospace industry have also been dispatched, as well as many entrepreneurs.

This kind of thing is naturally indispensable to the main force of the space industry in the free association - Space Exploration Company, and Musk even went to Munich in person.

Musk glanced at Blue Origin President Kim? Duke: "Dude, you don't think this cooperation negotiation will be successful, do you?" ”

"Mr. Musk really likes to joke." Gold? Duke replied with a smile, apparently he didn't want to get back to the topic.

Musk showed a hint of cynical mockery: "The group photo is full of smiles, but it's a pity that Bill's idea is too naïve." ”

At this time, the heads of the Europa Space Agency, the Free Commonwealth Space Agency, and the Lucia Space Department were smiling and holding hands under the media spotlight, as if we were all a family.

I don't know, I thought they were close partners.

However, in the past few years, they were still in a state of flux.

It can only be said that the pressure brought by the Homo sapiens company has forced these guys to let go of some of the previous unpleasantness and set their sights on the future.

The four people on the stage, Bill and Comte, dealt with the questions of the news media reporters in a formulaic manner.

And Musk in the audience has already looked impatient.

He also set his sights on Koichi Sato, president of Fuji Heavy Industries in Toei: "Fuji Heavy Industries also has an aerospace industry? ”

Facing the son of the wild father's family, Koichi Zuoto was very respectful and nodded slightly: "Mr. Musk, our company has recently acquired a part of the aerospace industry. ”

"What's worth buying with all that garbage? You might as well invest in my space exploration company. Musk half-joking.

"Huh...... We also just look at the cheap, and those companies have some unique technologies, such as the super high-rise construction technology of the Dalin Group......"

Musk raised his eyebrows: "Dalin Group? Is that the company that plans to build a space elevator? ”

Koichi Zuoto showed a hint of an embarrassed smile: "Yes, but this project is too difficult, and our company has no money to continue investing." ”

"Now that the length of carbon nanotubes is only half a meter, there is really no need for you to continue to invest." Musk looked disgusted.

】

Koichi Sato smiled bitterly.

At this stage, the space elevator is indeed difficult to achieve, otherwise Homo sapiens will not give up making a big fuss about the space elevator project, although Homo sapiens still has three research institutes doing related research work, but there is no plan to invest in the construction of space elevators at this stage.

In this regard, Koichi Sato, who acquired the Obayashi-gumi Co., Ltd., had the most say, and after inspecting the Obayashi-gumi space elevator project, he immediately cut down the pure money-losing goods.

The reason why it is said that the space elevator is a money-losing goods is mainly because of three aspects.

The first problem is the huge amount of work, not to mention the dry life of Dongying, even the rotten ship America with a few pounds of nails can't bear the huge amount of work of the space elevator.

The second problem, the cable material, is the only material suitable for space elevator cables, which is carbon nanotubes.

Theoretically, the strength of the space elevator cable is required to be 90p, while the carbon nanotubes can reach 200~800p.

However, the ideal is very plump, and the reality is very skinny.

At present, among the major forces, the one with the strongest carbon nanotube processing technology can only process carbon nanotubes with a length of half a meter.

The length of carbon nanotubes in the space elevator needs to be more than 36,000 kilometers.

0.5 m: 36,000 km.

This cannot be said to be hopeless, only that the probability is close to zero.

Even Homo sapiens, which has biosynthesis technology, can only synthesize carbon nanotubes with a length of 120~150 meters, a distance of 36,000 kilometers, and four orders of magnitude.

The third problem is corrosion aging.

This problem further raises the difficulty of space elevator construction to another level.

Koichi Sato previously flipped through the relevant test reports of the Obayashi group and found this fatal problem, that is, the service life of carbon nanotubes in outer space is less than two years.

The Dalin team took advantage of the opportunity of Dongying's part of the experiment on the International Space Station to send some carbon nanotubes to the International Space Station for a two-year exposure experiment.

The results were very unsatisfactory, and after two years of exposure experiments in low earth orbit, the carbon chains in them were corroded by oxygen atoms, and their strength dropped to worse than that of ordinary nylon ropes.

This is also a problem encountered by the relevant laboratories of Homo sapiens in the synthesis of carbon nanotubes and graphene films, the affinity of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen leads to the carbon chain being easily destroyed.

Don't look at the emptiness of low-earth orbit, in fact, it still belongs to the epitaxy of the atmosphere-thermosphere, in which a large number of oxygen and hydrogen atoms are floating.

Carbon nanotubes are easy to bind to oxygen atoms, and there is almost no solution to this problem.

What's more, there are all kinds of cosmic rays, high-energy neutrons, solar storms and the like in outer space, which are too serious for the destruction of the carbon chain.

Unless the cable of the space elevator can be replaced once a year, or find a way to resist aging.

After discussing with a group of engineers and researchers, Koichi Zuoto decisively gave up, this project is okay to engage in PPT fraud investment, if it is really done as planned, 10,000 Fuji Heavy Industries can't bear it.

……

After coping with the news media.

This time, the cooperation negotiations finally entered the stage of closed-door meetings.

There were a total of 362 participants from 4 major core space agencies, plus 27 affiliated space agencies, and 53 important space-related companies.

Bill spoke first: "Everyone, Homo sapiens has recently deployed a large number of satellites in outer space and built a space city, if we don't work together, the solar system may not have our share in the future." ”

"Cooperation can be considered, but how exactly is it distributed? If it's the same as before, you'd better play it yourself! "Alexander, the head of Lucia's space department? Pyankovsky asked rhetorically unceremoniously.

Comte hurriedly came out to play a round: "We should indeed discuss the specific distribution, but it is better to cooperate than to develop alone." ”

Bill said of his allocation: "My plan is 4:3:2:1. Free Commonwealth 4, Europa Commonwealth 2, Lucia 1, the remaining 3 give ......"

"Hehe, why don't you eat it all? And then why don't you just play it yourself? "Alexander? Piyankovski's stare at Bill was an output.

Musk shrugged his shoulders and turned his head to joke to the heads of other companies: "Look, that's it? Still cooperating? ”

The others were silent, apparently their company was not as important as SpaceX, and it was easy to get into trouble by talking nonsense.

There are gods fighting on the stage, and they just watch the play below.

The Quartet battled for more than two hours, but still did not reach an agreement, and it was clear that the bad track record of Amerika in the past had made the other three parties have serious doubts about this cooperation.

The scope of cooperation, the investment of financial resources and manpower, the location of the construction of the space base, the distribution of results, how to manage it, etc.

There are huge differences on these issues.

A rabble is a rabble.