915 Full of Loopholes
Attending an international conference like this was often exhausting.
The first day was exciting and thrilling, but the second day was full of boring, endless meetings.
The funding part was already agreed upon. The China Ministry of Foreign Affairs already negotiated with various countries prior to the meeting. China was going to invest 10 billion, the US was investing 5, EU investing 2, Russia investing 1, the j.a.panese investing 800 million… Totalling US$20 billion.
The only problem was setting up a budget committee for the project.
For some reason, the American representatives’ att.i.tudes totally changed on the second day. They were curt and aggressive.
Especially Director Carson; whenever he talked about setting up a budget committee, his smile quickly disappeared.
However, this was somewhat understandable.
After all, the budget committee had financial power over the Lunar Hadron Collider project. In theory, it had control over what and where the money was spent on… Everything related to the funding required a signature from the project budget committee.
It was unrealistic for the Americans to gain total control of the project spending; they could only hope to have a voice in the matter.
In order to balance China’s power over the project, even Russia, who was originally on China’s side, was inclined to support the US’ demands.
Of course, Lu Zhou didn’t have to worry about these kinds of things. There were other people to help him.
For example, Director Li from the State Administration for National Defense, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the high-level officials from the Lunar Orbit Committee…
What Lu Zhou was worried about was the academic side.
Last year, on behalf of the Jinling Inst.i.tute for Advanced Study, Luo Wenxuan contacted the Chinese Academy of Science, CERN, and other large research inst.i.tutes. He brought together some of the top minds in the fields of theoretical physics, mechanical engineering, materials science, and aeros.p.a.ce engineering. With the help of these people, they completed the entire design plan of the Lunar Hadron Collider. But now that the “team” had expanded, with physicist and engineers from all over the world partic.i.p.ating, there was bound to be some problems. Many people proposed changes to the design scheme.
After all, this was a great opportunity for people to show off on the international stage.
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Companies like s.p.a.ce-X and Boeing were supportive of changing the design scheme. This was so that the final design scheme could benefit their companies in some way shape or form. They even spent money on hiring scholars to find problems in the design…
At the Beijing Grand Hotel.
A group of experts from physics and aeros.p.a.ce engineering sat in an auditorium-style conference room.
An old man wearing a plaid s.h.i.+rt and gla.s.ses stood in front of a projector screen. He then said pa.s.sionately, “Because of these reasons, the original design plan is unrealistic and has to be improved.
“If we implement my improvements, we can cut the budget by 13% and reduce the construction risk.
“Think about it, how much is 13% of 20 billion? It’s a huge number! We should spend this money on people that need it…”
Lu Zhou didn’t know what this guy was rambling about.
In the end, Lu Zhou couldn’t help but yawn. He turned his head to Mrs. Cramer, the chairman of CERN.
“Can we kick him off and put on the next person?”
Mrs. Cramer smiled and said, “I’m afraid not, the European s.p.a.ce Agency requested Professor Banderas to speak for 60 minutes.”
Lu Zhou quietly said, “Why would someone make such a stupid request?”
Mrs. Cramer smiled and said, “Because before he went to teach at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, he used to work as an academic advisor at the European s.p.a.ce Agency. Before he came here, he sent a copy of his PowerPoint to the ESA.”
Lu Zhou snorted and said, “Does he have connections?”
Mrs. Cramer paused for a second and said, “… It seems so.”
Obviously, Professor Banderas used his connections at the European s.p.a.ce Agency to obtain the opportunity of giving this report.
The 13% reduced cost he mentioned wasn’t a small number, so no wonder the European s.p.a.ce Agency gave him an opportunity to present his ideas.
After all, there was a chance they could save a lot of money.
After glancing at the PowerPoint, Lu Zhou flipped through the copy of the improvement plan he had on the table.
This report was full of loopholes, and the drawings and calculations didn’t seem reliable at all.
Of course, this was just his “level 6” engineering intuition.
If Lu Zhou really wanted to find the specific problems, it would take quite some time. After all, engineering was very different from mathematics, things were often not so black and white…
It was difficult to immediately find problems in this report.
However, Lu Zhou had some tricks up his sleeve.
I can’t believe I have to do this…
Lu Zhou sighed and took out his phone. He took some photos of the report in his hand and sent it to Xiao Ai.
[Here’s a report, it looks terrible. I need you to organize it and model it into a 3D composition… Then present the composition and problems clearly.]
Even though Lu Zhou felt like his instructions were a little vague, it seemed like Xiao Ai understood him.
[Yes, Master! ~ (๑•̀ᄇ•́) و✧]
After seeing the text, Lu Zhou put his phone on his lap and quietly waited.
After a couple of seconds, a 2GB file was sent to his phone.
Lu Zhou opened the file and saw a three-dimensional blueprint drawing.
All of the complicated parameters were integrated into the drawing, such as the type of materials and the physical parameters in a low vacuum and low-temperature environment, and the quantum computer was able to calculate a complete model of the lunar surface environment.
Lu Zhou stared at the blueprint and looked shocked.
Xiao Ai really is amazing.
It knows exactly what I want.
While the presenter was speaking, Lu Zhou took out a pen from his bag and began writing on a piece of draft paper.
Five minutes went by, and Professor Banderas was still rambling. Lu Zhou put the pen on the table and looked at his phone. He then raised his hand.
When he raised his hand, the entire conference room looked away from Banderas and stared at him.
Banderas was a little dissatisfied, and his instincts told him something was wrong.
He felt like Professor Lu was going to do something he wasn’t going to like…
However, he thought that there was no way Lu Zhou had already found problems in his report.
“Do you have a question? Professor Lu.”
Lu Zhou replied bluntly, “I’ll just say it, forget about the PowerPoint, your report is full of problems.”
“Sorry, I don’t understand.” Professor Banderas frowned and said, “There are problems in my report? Can you tell me where?”
Lu Zhou was amused.
You know d.a.m.n well your report is horsesh*t, and you’re still trying to lie to me?
“Turn on the projector’s Bluetooth.”
Professor Banderas paused for a second and then followed Lu Zhou’s instructions.
The moment Lu Zhou’s phone was connected to the projector via Bluetooth, the projector displayed a three-dimensional composition image on to the projector curtain.
“Wow…”
There was a commotion in the conference room, and people were surprised because they didn’t see this composition in the report.
Professor Banderas’ face turned blue.
Not just because Lu Zhou layered his blueprints together to create a 3D drawing, but also because there were red labels all over the 3D composition.
And each of these red labels represented a problem.
Even though he knew his blueprints weren’t “perfect”, he didn’t expect this many problems…
This guy…
How did he already create a model?!
Professor Banderas wasn’t the only person that was surprised; everyone in the conference room looked at Professor Lu in awe.
Lu Zhou… is a freak…
Mrs. Cramer, who was sitting next to Lu Zhou, was also astonished. She had no idea how Lu Zhou was able to model a 3D composition blueprint in a couple of minutes…
However, Lu Zhou didn’t plan on giving them an explanation.
He didn’t have to explain anything.
The problems of the report were clearly presented.
Even a second-rate engineer would be able to see the obvious problems, so it was clear that Professor Banderas’ design wasn’t going to work.
“This is impossible, there must be a mistake, how did you…”
“As shown in the model, there are hundreds of loopholes.”
Lu Zhou tapped the table with a pen and spoke without emotion.
“Next.”