950 You“re a Respectable Opponen
A silver-white egg-shaped capsule was sitting at a booth in the exhibition hall.
This was the X-2 life support system from s.p.a.ce-X, built and improved on the foundation of the original life support system.
After the failure of the Ares program, the cooperation between s.p.a.ce-X and Blue Origin ended. After Amazon threw a bunch of resources into Blue Origin, Musk found a j.a.panese aeros.p.a.ce technology company based in Tanegas.h.i.+ma as a new partner. Thus, the X-2 machine designed for lunar missions was born.
There was no doubt that this was a wise decision.
Because of the failure of the Ares program, it was impossible to initiate a new colonizing mission on Mars in the near future.
Even if the United States Congress agreed, the “New Virginia” incident investigation committee members would protest and cause them trouble.
Therefore, China was the only customer that would pay for technology from s.p.a.ce-X, because China was the only country that wanted to send people to the Moon.
The High-tech Innovation and Investment Summit did not exclude American companies. After receiving an exhibition permit, Musk told his people from s.p.a.ce-X to bring this silver “egg” over, and he even gave it a cute name—Rice Ball—in hopes of winning over the Chinese.
The demonstration unit of the X-2 life support system had limited functionality and was 50% smaller than its true size. However, it was more than enough to use as a display item. People could even open the hatch and climb in to experience what it would be like to sleep on an astronaut’s bed.
Unfortunately, this silver egg didn’t attract a lot of attention. No one seemed to be interested, no one was climbing inside the egg.
After all, the failure of the Ares program only occurred last year, in which the Chinese had to rescue the colonists and the world even faced a possible bacteria pandemic. s.p.a.ce-X undoubtedly had advanced technology…
But people felt like it was lacking in safety.
That was people’s impression of s.p.a.ce-X.
People subconsciously looked down on companies that had past failures.
Elon stood next to his booth, casually talking to some reporters that were interviewing him. Elon looked at the unamused investors walking past his booth. He then casually spoke to the white guy standing next to him.
“You know what? Bobby, my biggest regret in life is not trying harder to convince Professor Lu to stay in Los Angeles when he was at the Los Angeles materials science conference a few years ago…”
Bobby was one of the senior executives at Tesla.
Even though he had nothing to do with s.p.a.ce-X, Musk appointed him as the General Manager of the China region. He was responsible for the Tesla factory in Shanghai, as well as any other Chinese related s.p.a.ce-X projects.
Bobby listened to his boss and glanced at him.
“Was Professor Lu already… researching aeros.p.a.ce back then?”
Elon shook his head and said, “Not yet, he was researching lithium positive electrode materials made of nanospheres. Which was exactly what Tesla needed… or what the entire world needed. That’s why I approached him and gave him an offer.”
Bobby said, “What was the offered salary?”
Elon smiled and shook his head. “His value can’t be measured by salary alone. I could tell something was special about him. I invited him to be my partner, to conquer the automotive industry together… Unfortunately, he rejected my offer.”
Bobby knew what Elon meant.
After all, Professor Lu had become the poster child of the electric vehicle industry. Professor Lu obviously didn’t want to give up his control and have to work with a partner…
After all, Professor Lu had all of the patents.
Bobby looked at his boss and said, “There’s not much we can do. He knows his worth; he’s not like those geeky nerds.”
“But I think anything is possible.” Elon shrugged and said, “Back then, he was just a Princeton professor, maybe he knew the value of his patents, but I don’t think he had that kind of insight. If only I offered more Tesla or s.p.a.ce-X shares to him… We could’ve been the ones having companies begging to work with us.”
“I don’t like the word beg, we’re not begging here… We’re just doing normal business operations,” Bobby said. “Working with China is beneficial for both sides.”
Musk said, “I know, but sometimes, I think what if I could travel back to ten years ago—”
Before he could finish, a familiar voice interrupted him.
“Interesting idea, but you should step out of fantasy land. Even if you give me all of the s.p.a.ce-X shares, I would still refuse.”
Elon turned around and squinted his eyes.
“Lu Zhou?”
The person standing next to Lu Zhou was President Gong, which Elon also recognized.
“Hi, Mr. Musk, we meet again…” Lu Zhou smiled and reached out his right hand.
Elon smiled and shook Lu Zhou’s hand.
“Yeah, it’s been a while. I’ve always wanted to visit you and tell you that you’re a respectable opponent.”
“Same here.” Lu Zhou looked at the white egg behind Elon and said, “To be honest, your impulsive plans to colonize Mars was quite shocking. We never would have antic.i.p.ated having to send our astronauts millions of kilometers away on a rescue mission.”
Elon had an awkward expression on his face.
“Did you come here just to say that?”
Lu Zhou: “No, I was just pa.s.sing by.”
Elon: “…”
Lu Zhou didn’t look like he was joking.
Like he said, he was just pa.s.sing by.
Being disrespected like this annoyed Elon.
Did he really come all the way here…
Just to insult me?
What a weird kid.