In Elon Musk's words, most technologies were stacked on top of one another, and the relationship between technologies was like making permutations and combinations. The more technologies you had in your hands, the more tricks you could play with them.
Elon Musk had been pursuing the next dimension, such as alternative energy vehicles, self-driving cars, recyclable rockets, and even sending humans to Mars.
They were in Beijing to discuss Tesla's move to Hua Xia, as well as the cooperation between Tesla and Li Mu's other car brands. After eating dinner with Li Mu, Elon Musk dragged Li Mu to his hotel room for a long time.
He first told Li Mu about the importance of stacking technologies, and the topic was still cars.
He said to Li Mu, "Li Zong, actually, technology is really interesting. You see, if we install adaptive cruise control on a car, we can use the adaptive cruise control radar to develop a collision avoidance system."
Li Mu said, "You don't want me to go home at night just to teach me about car technology?"
Musk smiled and said, "You see, I want to start with car technology."
Li Mu said, "I know what you're trying to say. Today, we'll make a light bulb, tomorrow, we'll make a battery, and together, we'll make a flashlight. Two days later, we'll build a motor, get more batteries, and we'll make an electric scooter. That's what you mean, right?"
Musk nodded and said, "More or less …"
Li Mu smiled and said, "I may not be able to figure out how a battery can store electricity, but I know how to use a battery. What do you want to say by pulling me and acting suspiciously? Just say it."
Musk realized that Li Mu saw through him, so he smiled awkwardly and said, "Li Zong, actually, I want to talk to you about space exploration."
"Space exploration?" Li Mu asked curiously, "Where?"
Musk quickly said, "Other celestial bodies, like Mars."
Li Mu said, "Isn't NASA already doing this? They even sent a Mars rover, what are you going to do? "
Musk said seriously, "NASA only sent a rover to Mars, but not a person. My goal is to send people to Mars first, then try to migrate to Mars."
Li Mu was stunned. "I've heard of your immigration plan to Mars in my previous life, but until my rebirth, I have never seen you send people to Mars …"
So, Li Mu asked him, "How do you plan on doing this?"
Musk said, "Of course we're relying on SpaceX. Our current research direction is mainly on reusable launch vehicles, and the carrying capacity of our rockets will continue to increase in the future. We'll be on par with NASA's Saturn V, or even surpass it."
"Once we achieve heavy-duty recyclable rockets, our cost per kilogram may be reduced to one-tenth of the current mainstream launch costs.
"This way, we will have the foundation to go to Mars.
"For example, we can build a spacecraft that can land on Mars. Then, we can use our reusable launch vehicle to continuously launch space station components into space and build a large space station in orbit. This process is like driving a truck to transport building materials from Jinshi's port to Beijing. Building a house might require a few hundred tons of building materials, and your truck might only be able to carry five tons at a time. Therefore, you will need to make at least 50 to 60 trips between Jinshi and Beijing."
"Before there are reusable rockets, all of your trucks are disposable, which means that for every five tons of building materials you transport, you will need to use a pickup truck. This cost is extremely high, even much higher than the house you want to build. However, in the future, we can turn these disposable trucks into reusable ones, which means that every time you go back and forth between Tianjin and Beijing, you only need to refuel the truck and do daily maintenance. This will reduce the cost by a lot."
Li Mu nodded and asked, "Then what?"
Musk said, "Then it's simple. We will build a space station in space as a supply base. Then, we will transport a large amount of fuel and even booster rockets to the space station, turning it into a large supply station. Then, we will launch our heavy-duty spacecraft.
"You know, in the exploration of the universe, the largest consumption of fuel is the process of getting rid of Earth's gravity from the ground to space. If a traditional spacecraft goes directly to Mars, then most of its load is actually fuel. For example, a rover only has a few hundred kilograms, but the total launch weight may exceed a thousand tons."
"If we build a space station in space, then our heavy-duty spacecraft doesn't need to worry about storing enough fuel to fly to Mars and return. We only need to store enough fuel to reach the space station. This way, we can increase the load of the spacecraft off the ground, then we can refuel at the space station and head to Mars.
"We can even launch some of the equipment and living materials that we will need after landing on Mars to the space station in advance. When the spacecraft reaches space, we can bring these equipment and head to Mars together."
Li Mu scratched his head and said, "I'm afraid 50 billion USD won't even be enough for this project."
Elon Musk said, "If we just look at the investment alone, it does require a huge amount of money, but this project itself can still make money."
Li Mu asked, "Make money by launching rockets? How many launches would it take to support this project? "
Elon Musk said, "Not only can we make money from commercial launches, but we can also make money from equipment rentals and space services. If we can build a space station in space, maybe in the future, Hua Xia, the United States, Russia, and the European Union will need our help in space exploration. This is also money. You can think of it as turning the space station into a hotel, and the most expensive hotel."
"Oh right." Elon Musk said, "Actually, the most profitable business is the commercial manned spaceflight business. For example, sitting in our spacecraft for a three-day trip in space, 50 million USD per person. That's not too much, right? When the time comes, we just need to design a manned capsule and bring it on the launch mission, and we'll be able to make a lot of money. "
Li Mu laughed and said, "You're talking about space hitchhiking, right?"
"Something like that." Elon Musk saw that Li Mu was laughing and hurriedly explained, "Li Zong, don't think that this is a joke. It's not! Let me tell you, there are many billionaires who are eager to go to space. They have so much money that they can't spend it all. There is no commercial service on Earth that they can't afford or enjoy. At this time, if we open up commercial manned spaceflight, they will definitely be very interested. When the time comes, just this business alone will make a lot of money. "
Li Mu looked at Elon Musk and said seriously, "I think you're just fooling me. Just based on the commercial space travel business you described, I think you won't be able to get it even if you give me another 15 years."
In fact, until his rebirth, Li Mu had never heard of Elon Musk actually sending anyone to space.
Elon Musk said very sincerely, "Li Zong, according to the current pace, it will indeed take me a long time. I need to wait for Tesla to succeed and PayPal to cash out. Only after I have a large amount of cash can I use to support SpaceX. This also means that SpaceX may be in a state of idling for as long as ten years."
After that, Elon Musk looked eagerly at Li Mu and said seriously, "But, Li Zong, if you are willing to invest in this project, then I believe that it will definitely develop rapidly. It might even be realized in the next ten years. Even if we can't migrate to Mars in ten years, at least we can send people to Mars and then bring them back."
Li Mu suddenly remembered the movie Mars Rescue that he had watched before. Not to mention colonizing Mars, it would probably cost hundreds of billions of dollars to build the Mars base shown in the movie. How the f * ck could ordinary people afford to play with that?
If this project could really speed up, then maybe in a few years, SpaceX could indeed build a space station, and even send people to Mars.
But what was the point of this? This project couldn't make money at all. The success or failure of commercialization was nothing more than a matter of how much the investors lost.
Also, a private company registered in the United States building a space station and space exploration wouldn't be subsidized by the US government.
Not only that, but the US government didn't even support NASA in recent years. Apparently, the budget was pathetically low, and it would take at least two years for them to land on the Moon again.
Instead of wasting time on space and Mars, it was better to figure out what was going on on Earth first.
However, before Li Mu rejected Musk, he suddenly thought of a very serious problem.
The problem was, what was the point of making money?
There was a limit to the material life of human society. If a person's assets exceeded a few billion USD, they could basically spend as much as they wanted on Earth. They could buy a large number of villas, islands, private jets, private yachts, and even cruises. Then, they could use a few hundred million USD to set up a trust fund. Even if they didn't do any business, just the interest alone would be enough for them to live for a lifetime.
After they died, they could also put all of their inheritance into the trust fund. If they left a billion USD for their descendants, they could let each of them take a million USD from the trust fund every month. Even so, each descendant would only get 12 million USD a year.
The key was that with a billion USD in the capital market, it wouldn't be a problem to achieve a 10% annual yield. In other words, the annual profit alone would be 100 million USD, enough for nine descendants to win for the rest of their lives.
If one's assets reached tens of billions of USD, it was basically impossible to spend all of it.
As for Lu Zhou himself, Makino Technology and Taobao Technology went public, plus a bunch of other businesses that he invested in, his future net worth could exceed one or two trillion USD. How could he spend all of that money?
He might as well take out some of it and do something that other rich people wouldn't be able to do.
The plan to go to Mars might require a lot of money, but even so, it would at most make the second richest person in the world closer to him.
Since that's the case, why not burn some money and give it a try? I'll just treat it as a game …
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