Li Mu knew very little about the military. He was not like some guys who liked the military, who could understand the main fighter jets, battleships, tanks, and even individual weapons of all the countries in the world. Li Mu's understanding of the military and the development of the military was passive. He only knew about the existence of the F-10 fighter jet when it was reported on the television. He only knew about the F-22 when it was reported on the news.
So, when Elon Musk mentioned the drone, the first thing that came to Li Mu's mind was not the Predator, but Dajiang.
When he thought of Dajiang, Li Mu remembered the Dajiang Elf 4 that he had spent a lot of money to buy. It had not even been fresh for two weeks before it could be found again because of Xi.
The process of Xi was very much in line with Li Mu's aura of a male science and engineering student.
Male students who majored in science and engineering were quick to grasp these high-tech gadgets, and those who majored in science and engineering were always "unconvinced" when it came to these kinds of gadgets. For example, the DJI drone had a battery management system and an intelligent return system. When the aircraft flew a certain distance away and its battery kept decreasing, the DJI system could determine a safe return point for the aircraft. In other words, the DJI believed that with the current distance and battery, the aircraft had already reached a safe return point. If it did not return, it was very likely that the aircraft would explode midway due to insufficient battery.
At first, Li Mu did not dare to show off in front of the system. However, after playing with it a few times and thinking that he was familiar with it, he felt that this thing was just so-so. He started to feel that he understood the limits of the drone better than the system. So, when he decided to challenge the system, the drone ran out of battery on the way back and fell into the river.
Thinking of that drone, Li Mu still felt that it was a pity.
Elon Musk saw that Li Mu seemed to be absent-minded and did not seem to be listening to him. He could not help but say with some disappointment, "Boss, if you are not interested in this, then let's talk about something else."
Only then did Li Mu snap out of his reverie. He hurriedly waved his hand and said, "No, I'm quite interested. I was just thinking about how to play this thing. Why don't you give me a more detailed introduction?"
Elon Musk was overjoyed. He leaned forward and sat closer to Li Mu. He said seriously, "This is what I think. In our internet industry, the technology is not the barrier, but the product. Everyone uses the same environment and language to develop. Some people can develop a complete operating system, some people can develop a small plug-in and it is full of bugs. You can develop a super product like YY, but Microsoft can only develop a messy MSN."
"However, in the field of aerospace, it is not only the product that is important, but also the related core technology and the technical chain. For example, the launch vehicle is not a specific model of the launch vehicle, but the technical chain behind it. Multi-stage rocket technology, solid and liquid rocket propulsion technology, flight control technology, and even the recovery technology of the first stage rocket. Once these technical chains are completed, there will be a lot of potential in the future."
Li Mu did not fully understand. He did not know much about Space-X, so he could only humbly ask, "Is this technology widely used for civil use?"
Elon Musk thought for a moment and said, "If someone else asked me, I'd definitely say it's huge, but since you're asking me, Boss, I don't dare to bullshit with you. I can only say that the scope and scope of commercialization of aerospace technology is still uncertain, but the commercial aerospace market itself is still very promising."
Li Mu nodded and said, "Tell me more."
Elon Musk said seriously, "Whether it is NASA, Hua Xia's aerospace department, or the European space agency, although their technology and products are different, they all have one thing in common."
"What is it?"
"Spending the government's money!"
Elon Musk said, "When these government agencies research and develop aerospace technology, the last thing they care about is the cost. NASA is the world's most advanced aerospace technology, but their technology was developed by the US government during the Cold War with hundreds of billions of dollars. Hua Xia's launch vehicle has been developing rapidly in recent years, but it is also inseparable from the support of the government. With the support of the government, the launch vehicles developed by these agencies all have a common problem, and that is, the price-to-performance ratio is too low!"
At this point, Elon Musk became spirited and continued, "Look, Boss, for example, if the US government wants to create a military satellite positioning system and hand over the launch of a dozen or so satellites to NASA, the military wouldn't mind adding a few hundred million to the launch cost. I'm sure the Chinese government is the same. However, in the future, commercial satellites will be funded by corporations and not the country. If the cost of launching rockets is too high, the development of commercial satellites will be greatly affected. Yet, a big government like NASA doesn't even bother researching how to reduce the cost, which is why the commercial rocket launch market has stagnated due to the high cost. If a private company were to appear at this time and put all their effort into researching how to reduce the cost of launching commercial satellites, what kind of situation would that be?"
Li Mu suddenly understood.
So this was the market Elon Musk had his eyes on in the aerospace industry.
What he said did make sense. The government's large investment in aerospace projects was always in pursuit of high performance, not price-to-performance ratio. Therefore, the development of the entire aerospace industry was like a deformed official market. If one were to use automobiles as an analogy, it would be like every country had a state-owned automobile manufacturer. They were all desperately developing the fastest cars, the heaviest cars, and the most technologically advanced cars. Therefore, the cars they created were either as fast as lightning, or had superior power, or were extremely technologically advanced. The only drawback was that they were extremely expensive. Ordinary people couldn't even afford to buy them, let alone drive them.
However, it wasn't just every country that had a demand for cars. In addition to countries, there were also many individuals and groups that had a desire for cars. At this time, if there was a company that focused on building the most cost-effective car, it would definitely be able to take the initiative in this market.
If a telecommunications company wanted to put ten satellites into a fixed orbit, it might cost three billion US dollars to launch it from the US, and two billion US dollars to launch it from Hua Xia. However, if there was a company that could do it for just one billion US dollars, and they could also keep a profit of 200 million US dollars, there was no doubt that the company would have a lot of room for development in the commercial satellite market in the future.
Thinking of this, Li Mu smacked his lips and looked at Elon Musk. He said, "It sounds interesting, but the initial investment in this industry is too large. Also, you have to have technical reserves, right? It's impossible to develop from scratch, so where will your technical reserves come from? "
“NASA！” Elon Musk smiled and said, "You can think of NASA as a treasure trove that has mostly been abandoned. There is a lot of idle talent and technology in it. As long as we have enough initial funding, I can find a lot of people from NASA who are proficient in a certain technology and can quickly adapt it to our own use. We can start directly from 70% to 80% completion rate, and we can start very quickly. Also, our research direction is different from those organizations, so we can minimize risks."
After that, Elon Musk explained, "Let's use cars as an example. NASA's research is expensive, top-notch F1, Europe and Japan's research is on V12, twin-turbocharged supercars with more than 1,000 horsepower. Hua Xia's research is on V8, twin-turbocharged supercars with more than 600 horsepower, but it's not as expensive. We'll use their engine technology, engine gearbox tuning technology, chassis tuning technology, and other electronic auxiliary technology. However, we won't build racing cars, supercars, or sports cars. We'll build a four-cylinder 2.0 economy model. If we build this model well, we'll be the biggest player in this class of market.
"Think about it, when there are only tens of millions of dollars worth of F1, millions of dollars worth of Ferraris, and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Mercedes Benz on the market, we'll build a Toyota Prius that's tens of thousands of dollars worth of USD …"
If it weren't for his identity, Li Mu would've applauded Elon Musk and complimented him on how awesome he was. No wonder this guy was called the Iron Man of Silicon Valley. It seemed like he was in an unimaginable industry, and the prospects weren't optimistic at all. In fact, he already had a clear plan for his future development. Space-X might never catch up to NASA, the Chinese Long March series, or the Russian Space Agency, but as long as he could achieve a better price-to-performance ratio than them, that was enough.
When the market was filled with cars like Ferraris, cars would only be toys for the rich. After all, very few people could afford a Ferrari. However, once the Prius, which was sturdy and fuel-efficient, was introduced, it would be extremely attractive to the general public. The number of consumers who could afford a Prius was at least 10,000 times more than a Ferrari. This was Elon Musk's ambition in the aerospace industry.
Moreover, Li Mu himself was in the field of Internet technology. He knew that with the rapid development of Internet technology, satellites would become more and more important in the future. In his previous life, Facebook, Google, and Apple all had their own satellite launch plans. Maybe in a decade or so, it would be the era of satellite Internet. By that time, not only would Internet products need their own satellites, but hardware development would also need their own satellites. It was very likely that in the future, Elon Musk's product system alone would require dozens of satellites to launch. It seemed that the global commercial satellite launch market was indeed very promising.
After thinking about all this, Li Mu suddenly became particularly interested in Elon Musk's aerospace industry. He said to Elon Musk, "Elon, you've convinced me. Whenever you want to officially start, you can come find me. I'm prepared to play with you for 100 million dollars."
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