Chen Jin set his sights on the space mining industry.
After all, Earth's resources were limited, especially those scarce mineral resources. It would only take a few years for them to be exhausted.
Some elements were only contained in the earth's crust in tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of tons. They were even rarer than gold.
For example, there was a metal called rhenium. The global proven reserves were only 2,500 tons, but it could be used as an industrial catalyst for the manufacture of aircraft engines and rocket engines. Its value was very high.
As for rare earth resources, the global recoverable amount in 20X8 was about 50 million tons. The remaining reserves in the Z country were less than 10 million tons. They could only be mined for another 10 years at most.
Coupled with the rare earth metals stored in the warehouse, it could only be used for 20 years.
In other words, after 20 years, there would be no rare earth metals available in the Z country. They could only rely on imports.
If a new source could not be found, the price of rare earth metals would inevitably rise.
And Chen Jin thought of a very good solution.
That was space mining.
"The first trillion-dollar millionaire in the next thousand years may be born in the space mining industry." This was the prediction given by the M country's Goldman Sachs Group.
"Mining an asteroid with a diameter of 50 meters may yield a profit of 500 billion US dollars." A private company estimated.
The M country's most authoritative agency, NASA, had determined that there were more than 15000 asteroids of different sizes within a radius of 50 million kilometers with the earth as the center. Most of these asteroids were rich in various metal elements such as iron, nickel, copper, gold, silver, and so on. There were even asteroids that contained far more metal elements than the earth.
If these asteroids were to be measured by vulgar money, then almost every asteroid would be worth tens of billions of US dollars.
In addition, the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter had gathered more than 500,000 asteroids.
The moon, which was only 360,000 kilometers away from the earth, could also be regarded as a huge "resource star" with countless minerals.
The problem of resource scarcity that might be encountered on earth was nothing to worry about once they went into space.
Chen Jin planned to enter the space mining industry.
Moreover, he felt that the time was basically ripe. Space mining was beginning to be profitable.
This was because he had two advantages that others did not have.
"Recently, the 'Energy Research Center' has successfully developed the 'High Energy 2' battery. The energy density has increased by 2.6 times on the basis of the High Energy 1, reaching an astonishing 4,000wh/kg, which is one-third of the energy density of gasoline.
"Batteries generally have an energy utilization efficiency of more than 90%. The High Energy 2 battery is actually comparable to gasoline."
"Using High Energy No.2 batteries as the energy source for the mining spacecraft, coupled with solar panels and a Hall engine with high specific impulse … Such a mining spacecraft would have the ability to travel almost indefinitely in space … A small amount of thrust medium would be replenished from asteroids."
"There's another advantage that some people don't have. I know where the valuable asteroids are, and I know the high-value mines on the moon in advance."
"For example, a certain mining site on the moon has more than 50 million tons of open-pit rare earth ores. They are of very high quality and are very easy to mine.
On planet Haierfa, the minerals on the moon had been mined for hundreds of years. Much valuable information on the orbits of asteroids was stored in Nuwa's database.
No organization on Earth was aware of this.
Knowing the exact location of the treasure in advance, wouldn't earning money be as easy as taking something out of one's pocket?
Therefore, it might not be the right time for other companies to enter the space mining industry, but for Xing Hai Technologies, the opportunity had arrived.
However, Chen Jin still planned to cooperate with other countries to jointly plan for space mining.
Even with the current repeatable and cheap launch technology, the cost of a space launch was still more than $20,000 per kilogram.
Assuming that the total weight of the mining equipment was 10,000 tons, the launch cost alone would be more than $200 billion.
The operation of the equipment in the later stages, the construction of the communication system, maintenance services, space smelting, and round-trip transportation would all require costs.
With Xing Hai Technologies' strength alone, it was somewhat difficult to bear the burden. The cost was on the high side.
Looking for a country to cooperate with them and make use of the country's launch/control facilities to share part of the cost and speed up the mining efficiency. Chen Jin estimated that the first batch of space minerals would be transported back to Earth by cargo spacecraft in about three years.
Therefore, Chen Jin arranged for Ling Dong Jun to approach the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and submit an application for cooperation.
"Good! We can cooperate. We can join forces and completely solve the resource problem. "The National Aeronautics and Space Administration quickly gave a positive reply.
However, before a large number of cheap space minerals arrived on Earth, the production cost of Xing Hai Technologies' "Fantasy 1st Gen" virtual helmet was estimated to be still high. It was difficult to promote it on a large scale. Not many users could afford the price of $100,000 per unit.
However, Fantasy 1st Gen was not a product that was marketed to the civilian market.
Chen Jin also did not intend to sell it to the public.
At most, a few hundred units of Fantasy 1st Gen could be produced for the advanced players of "100% Science Lab." This game had been launched for six years. It was much faster than Chen Jin had expected. Globally, 112 top scientists in various fields had been upgraded to SSS-level laboratories. They had discovered the most cutting-edge technology, which resulted in many technical data being unable to be extracted because it was too far ahead of Earth.
There were also a few scientists who had accumulated points that were close to upgrading to the "Supreme Laboratory."
As long as they were upgraded to the Supreme Laboratory, the gameplay would change. The "Fantasy 1st Gen" virtual helmet would be issued to them. The "Supreme Laboratory" set up on the moon base, the ultimate temple of science, would be opened to them. They could then make their contributions to the technological development of planet Haierfa.
Chen Jin was also very much looking forward to players being able to enter that temple.
…
That night.
In the virtual world.
Artificial intelligence Alice reported a situation.
"Master, the player who ranks first in points in '100% Science Lab.' He only needs 2000 points to enter the Supreme Laboratory. He has not been online for two weeks. He used to log in every day."
"You mean the one who created string theory and M-theory, Edward Whedon? Why isn't he online?"
Edward Whedon was the most famous physicist and mathematician of the current era. He was recognized as a top big shot in the scientific community. Stanford University had done the citation statistics for papers. He was the one with the highest H index. Even the famous Hawking was only ranked 24th.
He was also the one who ranked first in points in "100% Science Lab."
Alice said, "I guess it might be because of his health. This player is 88 years old this year. He has been troubled by diabetes and high blood pressure all year round. Could it be that there is something wrong with his body?"
Chen Jin's heart skipped a beat. Such a top big shot was only half a step away from the Supreme Laboratory. If something happened to him …
"Alice, turn on the global surveillance system. Search for Edward's location and see how he is doing."
"Yes, Master …"
Alice suddenly paused and said, "No need, Master. Edward is online."
"Oh, he's online?" Chen Jin breathed a sigh of relief.
"He sent another message to the system, Master."
"What message?"
"He said he's sorry. He can no longer continue to explore the path of truth. All his organs are failing. He has at most seven days left to live."
"Ah!"
Chen Jin was shocked.
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