Chapter 357: s.p.a.ce Mining Industry
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Chen Jin had his eyes set on the s.p.a.ce mining industry.
The earth’s resources were limited, especially those scarce mineral resources. It would only take a few years of mining and they would be at the brink of exhaustion. The content of some elements in the earth’s crust was only some ten or hundred thousand tons, which would make them even rarer than gold. For instance, the proven global reserves of a metal called Rhenium was only 2500 tons, but it yielded very high value when used as an industrial catalyst for the manufacture of aircraft engines and rocket engines.
As for rare earth resources, their global exploitable amount in 20X8 was about 50 million tons. The remaining reserves of Z nation were less than ten million tons and could at most be mined for another ten years. Together with the rare earth metals stored in warehouses, there was only enough for another 20 years of usage. That implied that in 20 years, there would be no rare earth metals available in the Z nation. They would have to rely 100% on imports.
If no new source was found, the price of rare earth elements would inevitably rise.
But Chen Jin thought of a marvelous solution— s.p.a.ce mining.
“The first trillion-dollar tyc.o.o.n of the next millennium might be born from the s.p.a.ce mining industry.” This was the prediction made by the M nation’s Goldman Sachs Group.
“Mining an asteroid with a diameter of 50 meters could yield 500 billion M-dollars of revenue.” A private company estimated.
The most authoritative organization in the M nation, NASA, had confirmed that there were more than 15,000 asteroids of different sizes within a 50,000,000 kilometer radius of the Earth. Most of these asteroids were rich in iron, nickel, copper, gold, silver and other metal elements. There were even asteroids that had metal contents greatly exceeding that of Earth.
If these asteroids were all measured by the vulgar unit of money, almost every asteroid would be worth a billion M-dollars.
In addition, the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter’s...o...b..t included more than 500,000 asteroids. The moon, which was only 360 thousand kilometers away from earth, could also be regarded as a huge “resource planet” that harbored an insurmountable amount of minerals.
The resource issue that might be an increasing problem on Earth would vanish at once when the minerals available in s.p.a.ce began to be used.
Chen Jin intended to enter the s.p.a.ce mining industry. He felt that the time was ripe and s.p.a.ce mining had begun to become profitable.
He had two advantages that others did not possess.
“Recently, the New Energy Research Center has successfully developed the ‘High Energy 2′ battery. Its energy density is 2.6 times greater than the High Energy 1 battery, attaining an astonis.h.i.+ng 4000-watt hours per kilogram, which is equivalent to a third of the energy density of gasoline.”
“What’s more, batteries generally have more than 90% energy utilization efficiency. On this account, the High Energy 2 battery is actually equivalent to gasoline.”
“By using High Energy 2 batteries as the energy source for mining s.p.a.cecraft and further equipping them with solar arrays and high-thrust Hall engines, a mining s.p.a.cecraft will have almost unlimited navigation capability in s.p.a.ce. The small amount of thrust medium, on the other hand, can be replenished when the vehicle is on the asteroids.”
“I have another advantage that no one else has. I know where the valuable asteroids are and have learned about the location of the high-value rich mines on the moon in advance. For instance, I know of a mine site on the moon that has more than 50,000,000 tons of open-pit rare-earth elements that are of a high grade and are very easy to mine.”
On planet Haierfa, the minerals on the moon had been mined for hundreds of years and a great deal of valuable information about the asteroid orbits was kept in Nuwa’s database. There was no inst.i.tution on Earth that knew about this information.
Knowing the specific location of the treasure in advance meant making money was as simple as taking something out of a bag.
Other companies were not yet ready to enter the s.p.a.ce mining industry, but for Xing Hai Technologies the opportunity had arrived.
However, Chen Jin still planned to cooperate with the state for a joint plan regarding s.p.a.ce minerals. Even with the current repeatable low-cost launching technology, the cost of launching a s.p.a.cecraft was still above 20,000 dollars per kilogram. a.s.suming that a mining facility with a total weight of ten thousand tons was to be launched into s.p.a.ce, launching alone would cost more than two hundred billion dollars. In later phases, the transportation of further addons, construction of the communication system, maintenance services, s.p.a.ce smelting, round trips… everything would require a cost. It was somewhat unbearable that even with Xing Hai Technologies’ strength, the cost was rather high.
Co-operating with the state would allow them to use the national launching system and the measurement and control system for the purpose of serving themselves. It would mean they were sharing a portion of the cost and speeding up mining efficiency. Chen Jin estimated that in approximately three years, the first batch of s.p.a.ce minerals would be transported back to Earth on cargo s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps.
Therefore, Chen Jin set the wheels in motion. He let Ling Jundong file a cooperation application with the National Aeronautics and s.p.a.ce Administration of Z.
“Alright! We agree to co-operate. Both of us powerhouses shall work together to solve the issue of resources completely.” The s.p.a.ce agency gave a quick, positive response.
However, before the cheap s.p.a.ce minerals could arrive on the Earth, the production cost of Xing Hai Technologies’s “Fantasy 1st Gen” virtual helmet would need to remain high. It would still be difficult to widely promote the product. At ten thousand dollars per unit, there were not many users that could afford it. However, the Fantasy 1st Gen was not a product that would be pushed to the civilian market. Neither did Chen Jin intend to sell it publicly.
There would only be a maximum of a few hundred units of “Fantasy 1st Gen” virtual helmets made solely for the advanced players of the 100% Science Lab. It had been six years since the game was released and it had caught on faster than Chen Jin had expected. There were already 112 players, consisting of top scientists in various fields across the world that had upgraded to the SSS-tier laboratory. They had probed into the most cutting-edge technology which prevented them to withdraw their technical data because their findings were too advanced compared to those available on earth.
There were also a few scientists whose credits were close to obtaining the “Supreme Laboratory”.
When players attained the supreme level, the gameplay would change. The “Fantasy 1st Gen” virtual helmet would be distributed to them, and the “Supreme Laboratory”, the ultimate pantheon of science established in the lunar base, would be open to them. By then, those players could start making contributions to the technological development of Planet Haierfa.
Chen Jin was also very much looking forward to seeing players entering the pantheon.
…
That night, in the virtual world.
Artificial intelligence Alice reported a situation. “Master, the player that has the most credits in ‘100% Science Lab’ and is only 2000 credits away from gaining access to the Supreme Laboratory has been online for two consecutive weeks. Previously, he would log in to the game every single day.”
“Are you talking about Edward Vuitton who had come out with the String theory and the M theory? Why hasn’t he been online?”
Edward Vuitton was the most famous physicist and mathematician of the generation. He was recognized as the cream of the crop in the scientific community. In the citation statistics that Stanford University published, he was the one with the highest H index. Even the renowned Hawking was only ranked 24th. He was the person with the highest number of credits in “100% Science Lab.”
“Perhaps it is because of health issues? He is already 88 years old and is suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure. Could something have happened to him?” said Alice.
Chen Jin’s heart thumped. He was such a notable figure that was only half a step away from the Supreme Laboratory. If something were to happen to him…
“Alice, boot up the global surveillance system. Try and locate Edward and have a look at how he is doing.”
“Sure, ma…” Alice stopped abruptly and said, “That will no longer be necessary, master. Edward has come online.”
“Oh, he’s online?” Chen Jin sighed out of relief.
“He sent a message to the system wizard, master.”
“What did he say?”
“He said he is sorry but he will no longer be able to continue his explorations on the path of truth. He has systemic organ failure and has at most seven more days to live.”
Chen Jin was shocked.