634 Get Me A Piece Of Land
Back to the ground level.
Lu Zhou was standing next to the elevator.
He took out his phone from his pocket and called Chen Yushan.
When the call connected, he immediately said, “Get me a piece of land.”
The other end of the phone went silent.
“Give you a hand? What do you need help with?”
“You misheard me.”
Lu Zhou coughed and said, “I plan on building a s.p.a.ce shuttle production base in the Jinling high-tech zone, near the Inst.i.tute for Advanced Study. Help me find a suitable place nearby that has good transportation.”
“Wait a second, I don’t follow…” Chen Yushan, who was sitting in her office, was muddled. She pinched her eyebrows and took a deep breath. She then asked, “Why are you building a s.p.a.ce shuttle?”
Lu Zhou thought for a bit and said in an uncertain tone, “Because… I want to do some experiments?”
Honestly, Lu Zhou didn’t really have a good reason.
It was just that with Debris No.3 sitting there, it would be a waste not to use it. Also, considering how well controllable fusion was going, exploration of outer s.p.a.ce would be the focus for the next century.
Not to mention, he had to find something for Xiao Ai to spend its computing power on.
The other end of the phone went silent for a while, and then, Lu Zhou heard a sigh.
“Okay, if you don’t care about profits, I won’t try to talk you out of it… It’s your money anyway, you can waste it however you want.”
China rocket companies did exist, and they even manufactured the “largest in Asia” rocket, which they spent a lot of money on. However, there weren’t any obvious future prospects for profit.
Especially since aeros.p.a.ce-related technologies were monopolized by the two major state-owned enterprises, the China Aeros.p.a.ce Science and Industry Corporation and the China Aeros.p.a.ce Science and Technology Corporation, it would be difficult to compete with these companies in the already small aeros.p.a.ce industry.
The reason why several domestic companies were willing to spend money on aeros.p.a.ce projects was purely because of the tax reduction policy announced at the last aeros.p.a.ce conference.
Chen Yushan was looking at this from a CEO’s perspective. She certainly didn’t want to abandon the juicy battery market and join the s.p.a.ce race. However, since Chairman Lu Zhou gave her orders, she had to follow them.
Not to mention, with Star Sky Technology’s current earnings, they had plenty of money to burn on aeros.p.a.ce projects.
“It’s not totally a waste.” Lu Zhou smiled and said, “I will try to make the budget under US$100 million.”
Chen Yushan couldn’t help but say, “You’re way too naive, even a private jet would cost US$100 million!”
Lu Zhou said, “I will try to get some scientific research projects from the China National s.p.a.ce Administration and some policy support… The fund is definitely enough.”
Even though 100 million wasn’t a lot, it would relieve some of the financial pressure.
Of course, Lu Zhou’s biggest bet was on Xiao Ai.
As long as he had enough computing power and hardware support, he could create an automated production line.
As for things that he didn’t have the capability to produce, he could outsource them to other manufacturing companies.
When Chen Yushan heard how optimistic Lu Zhou was, she asked in a sarcastic tone, “Then may I ask, Mr. Chairman, how much land do you want?”
Lu Zhou noticed the sarcasm and smiled awkwardly. He thought for a bit before replying, “A hundred and fifty acres should be good.”
…
After Lu Zhou told Chen Yushan about the s.p.a.ce shuttle manufacturing site, he turned around and went into the elevator, going back into the underground laboratory.
The second he stepped through the metal alloy door, Xiao Ai’s drone flew over.
It was almost like the drone was looking forward to something. Lu Zhou immediately knew what Xiao Ai was thinking about.
He smiled and said, “Don’t worry, in two months’ time, I’ll give you a big mission.”
The drone began to excitedly fly around Lu Zhou.
“Okay, Master, Xiao Ai can do anything!”
[(๑•̀ᄇ•́)و✧]
Lu Zhou ignored the terminal screen and the displayed emoji. He went into the system s.p.a.ce and took out his scanner gun from his inventory. He walked next to the Debris No.3 and began to work.
However, when he pointed the scanner gun at the debris, he hesitated for a bit.
Speaking of which, other than the Debris No.3, he also had a black cube that he hadn’t done any research on. To this day, he still didn’t know what it was for.
He had to make a choice.
After Lu Zhou hesitated for a bit, he turned on the gun’s aiming laser and pointed it at the Debris No.3. He then pulled the trigger.
A line of text popped up on the scanner gun’s display screen.
[Not enough energy to complete the scan, a forced restart may cause data loss, continue?]
Lu Zhou: “…”
F*ck sake!
It has an energy limit?
The battery that he scanned before was tiny, so he didn’t even notice this restriction.
However, when he thought about it, it did make sense. If the scanner gun didn’t have a limit, he could just put Debris No.3 and Debris No.2 together and scan them at once.
Lu Zhou made a bold guess that the energy consumption of this scanner gun was directly correlated to the amount of information. The larger and more complex the item was, the more energy the scan would require.
He opened his mouth and said, “Xiao Ai, help me with something.”
“Yeah?”
“Help me remove the outer sh.e.l.l of this object.”
“Okay!”
The three robotic arms reached out to Debris No.3. Two of them clamped the outer sh.e.l.l while the other used a cutter to slice along a straight line, making a teeth-clenching sawing sound.
The ceramic-based composite material of the fusion battery cell was already broken from the initial impact. Unfortunately, the components nearby either exploded or were pushed out of the thruster. Lu Zhou had no hope of relying on the scanner gun to reverse engineer the fusion battery, so he threw it aside.
However, he could still find some intact components for the Hall-effect thruster.
Lu Zhou told Xiao Ai to extract the two main components, the ionization chamber and the Hall-effect thruster, and put them side by side on the ground. He then took out the scanner gun and gradually adjusted the scanning area.
When both of the components fit inside the scanning area, the scanning gun was at its upper energy limit.
Lu Zhou didn’t hesitate and immediately pulled the trigger.
He heard a “whoosh” sound and saw a bright blue light flas.h.i.+ng from the gun barrel, showing a grid pattern.
No matter how many times Lu Zhou witnessed the light beam, he couldn’t help but feel astonished.
This technology was way beyond anything that was currently available. It had surpa.s.sed the scope of science and was in the realm of fantasy.
He had no idea how the physics of this scanning gun worked.
He couldn’t even imagine how he would go about building one.
The blue grid light seemed to have magical penetration powers. It pa.s.sed through the hard metal sh.e.l.ls and turned the metal sh.e.l.l into a transparent color. It then scanned every inch of the components.
While Lu Zhou looked at this, a light bulb suddenly went off in his mind.
If I can build a big enough scanning gun and put it on a s.p.a.cecraft, does that mean I can scan the entire planet?
Of course, he was well aware that the only ent.i.ty that could answer his question was the high-tech civilization that built this gun…