The next day, early in the morning.

In the auditorium of Beihang University, the bidding meeting for the manned spaceflight and lunar exploration project officially began.

This time, the bidding conference was divided into two sessions.

The first half of the session is aimed at domestic enterprises that are willing to develop in the aerospace industry, whether it is a traditional aerospace group, or those Internet companies or other enterprises attracted by tax exemption and other policies, giving them a stage to show, as well as bidding for some less sensitive projects.

For example, meteorological satellites, communication satellites, various aerospace parts and so on.

This can be regarded as the state encouraging civil aviation enterprises to invest in aerospace technology, and opening up part of the cake in the aerospace field to private aerospace enterprises.

The second half of the tender meeting was purely an 'internal' meeting.

The companies that were able to participate in the second half of the meeting were all screened in advance by the space agency.

The funds and projects of the aerospace core, including manned space missions and lunar exploration projects, will be selected from these internal enterprises.

This is normal, after all, manned spaceflight and lunar exploration projects are both major national events, and it is necessary to pre-screen the qualifications of enterprises.

If, in the event that someone messes with the project and provides poor quality spare parts, or something wrong, the consequences can be devastating.

Moreover, whether it is manned spaceflight or lunar exploration projects, in fact, they involve a lot of cutting-edge and military technologies, and they are quite sensitive.

Compared with the second half of the bidding conference, which is more important than others, Xu Chuan is more interested in the first half of the bidding conference.

On the one hand, in the first half, some 'foreign companies' in the aerospace field participated, and there was an opportunity to pull some aerospace projects and funds for the Xinghai Research Institute, such as sending satellites to some Internet companies.

On the other hand, it can be said that this is a bidding meeting that gathers most of China's aerospace companies, and he also wants to find something he is interested in at this bidding conference.

For example, the preparation of satellites, the manufacture of space telescopes, and so on.

If it weren't for the fact that he was a little too busy with the things at hand now, Xu Chuan would even be ready to start another project - 'building a high-precision space telescope' for scientific research activities.

The idea came to me the other day after seeing a press conference from NASA.

The Webb telescope's probing and the photographs he sent back sparked his interest in the vast universe.

Or that this interest was already in his heart, but he was suppressed by a series of things before, and now it is stimulated.

And in addition to the vast universe, there is Betelgeuse, which may go to a supernova explosion at any time, which is also one of the reasons why he wants to invest in a space telescope.

After all, this is a once-in-a-century supernova explosion, and it is still 600 light-years away.

It can be said that if you can see a brilliant fireworks of the universe up close, it is undoubtedly one of the luckiest things in a physicist in this life.

At the end of the first half of the bidding meeting, after harvesting a bunch of business cards and various contact information, Xu Chuan followed the staff to the lecture hall in the second half.

Compared with the previous conference, which can be said to be completely public, the security check of the bidding conference in the second half is much stricter.

Not only do you have to show a special invitation, but you also need to put on the shelves and be inspected to prevent anyone from bringing in the recording and filming equipment.

After all, at this bidding conference, in addition to the traditional corresponding bidding and bidding processes, there are also some aerospace planning and technical exchanges that are currently in a confidential state.

For example, "Solicitation of Plans for Earth-Moon Cargo Transportation for Lunar Exploration Projects", "Solicitation of Plans for the Construction of Temporary/Permanent Bases on the Surface of the Moon" and so on.

These projects are not part of the bidding process, but will require on-site proposals and technology demonstrations from companies participating in the second half of the bidding session, which will then be considered by the space agency.

That is to say, after the start of the bidding conference, if you want to participate in a targeted manner, you need to have some technical disclosure by technical experts or engineers to explain some technical details, work processes, and usage methods of the project.

In other words, instead of treating the bidding conference in the second half as a traditional bidding meeting, it should be regarded as a technical exchange between domestic enterprises qualified to participate in the aerospace industry, which has the meaning of promoting the development of the domestic aerospace field.

After all, with the beginning of the space race, relying only on the strength of the country's aerospace to PK with opponents, not to mention the question of whether it is enough, this route alone is a bit deformed.

Therefore, since the development of the aerospace industry, opening up and purchasing space services to private enterprises has also been arranged by the Space Administration and the Science and Technology Agency.

On the one hand, it is to reduce the cost of space transportation, and on the other hand, it is to encourage the development of commercial spaceflight.

It is hoped that a group of Musk-like figures will emerge in China and support a group of powerful space companies like spaceX.

In fact, this method can be regarded as crossing the river by feeling the stones of the rice country.

Because as early as 2006, NASA started the space service procurement model.

The way is also very simple, that is, to set up a space project, open bidding, bidders with plans to bid, and after winning the bid, obtain government funds to start implementation.

Although the method seems simple, the process is rigorous.

NASA has set a strict time node for the project progress, no matter what technical obstacles or financial problems you encounter, NASA will accept and pay according to the node, and if a node is delayed, you don't have to do the rest of the work, and you will change companies immediately.

After years of development, a large number of excellent aerospace enterprises have also emerged in the United States.

For example, spaceX, orbital science, blue origin, ABL Space Systems, etc., these commercial space companies have projects involving commercial rocket launches, satellite manufacturing, private space stations, space tourism, space planes, and many other fields.

It is not wrong to say that the United States is a space power.

After all, these companies, no matter which one comes out, can be said to be stronger than the aerospace strength of most countries on the earth.

And now, they are probably ready to replicate this model, which can be regarded as crossing the river by touching the old rival.

It's just that no one knows what the future effect will be for the time being.

For Xu Chuan, he participated in this afternoon's bidding meeting, mainly to take a look at the strength of major enterprises in the domestic aerospace field.

It is undeniable that the high-power electric propulsion system is a dimensionality reduction blow to the traditional fossil fuel launch vehicle, but this does not mean that the traditional fossil fuel propulsion system has its own advantages.

For example, carrying loads.

The thrust of 500KN can be said to be an extremely exaggerated figure in the electric propulsion system, but when it comes to traditional fossil fuel rockets, this figure can only be said to be a fraction of the fraction of those heavy launch vehicles.

For example, the BFR heavy launch vehicle of SpaceX announced at a press conference a few months ago has a take-off weight of up to 7,400 tons.

Although there is no direct conversion between take-off weight and thrust, there is no doubt that conventional heavy-lift launch vehicles far exceed current electric propulsion systems in terms of payload.

Therefore, even if high-power electric propulsion comes out, it is unlikely that the traditional launch vehicle will be replaced immediately.

In terms of large-mass material transportation, traditional heavy-duty launch vehicles still have unique advantages.

And on conventional launch vehicles, there is a more important role.

That's the field of defense!

No matter what kind of missile it is, no matter how far it strikes, there is basically no difference between its propulsion method and the current conventional launch vehicle.

Both of these are flying to a certain position to deliver objects, launch vehicles generally deliver satellites and so on, while intercontinental missiles deliver warheads.

Therefore, the two are mutual, and as long as it is a country with developed aerospace technology, it must not be weak in the preparation of missiles.

At this point, electric propulsion is no substitute for a conventional launch vehicle.

Although air-space engines and air-space bombers can form a great strategic deterrent, it is impossible to replace the status of such things as intercontinental missiles and long-range weapons.

After all, you can't put an aerospace engine, a small controllable nuclear fusion reactor, or a ferrofluid generator set on a missile.

Those who can do this kind of thing can only be done by those authors or directors who write science fiction or make science fiction movies, and they have to be in the water in their brains.

After some preliminary confidential work, after the completion of the matter, the second half of the bidding meeting also began.

After the major aerospace groups and companies submitted their respective bids to the space agency, the time for the discussion of confidential projects such as "Solicitation of Lunar Exploration Project Earth-Moon Cargo Transportation Scheme" and "Solicitation of Temporary/Permanent Base Construction Scheme on the Lunar Surface", as well as the technical demonstration and exchange of major aerospace enterprises, has arrived.

The first to play are naturally the two domestic aerospace powerhouses, aerospace science and technology and aerospace science and industry.

The first thing that the Aerospace Science and Technology Group showed was naturally the 'Long March 9' heavy-lift launch vehicle.

The first stage, including the launcher, will use four twin nozzle YF-130/500-ton thrust engines, while the assembly of the first YF-130 kerosene-liquid oxygen engine has already been completed, according to the AC technician's demonstration.

Although from the design point of view, the carrying load of the Chang-9 cannot catch up with SpaceX's heavy Falcon rocket for the time being. But in the world, it can also be called the top.

In addition to the 'Long March 9', what interests Xu Chuan the most is another technology displayed by aerospace science and industry - 'satellite capture' grasping technology.

To put it simply, this technology can accurately capture those failed satellites or other space junk in outer space orbit, and then tow them to the designated place.

Xu Chuan is quite interested in this technology and is ready to chat with the researchers of aerospace science and industry after the bidding conference.

Of course, he is not the only one who is interested in this technology, there are also the leaders of the space agency sitting in the audience.

Whether it is from cleaning up the current growing amount of space junk, or some military uses, such as the control or destruction of enemy countries' communications and reconnaissance satellites in times of conflict, the technology is promising.

After waiting for aerospace science and technology and aerospace science and industry to complete their own exhibitions, the third company to show on stage to do technical exchanges was undoubtedly arranged by the Space Administration to the Xinghai Research Institute.

As for the technology on display, after being approved by the Space Agency, there is no doubt that it will be the latest electric propulsion system developed by the Xinghai Research Institute!

PS: Make up for yesterday's second chapter and ask for a monthly pass.