Chapter 1082 [Elon Musk’s lobbying]

It's October.

North American local time, Tuesday afternoon, October 6.

Elon Musk appeared in New York City. At this time, he was facing several real talkative bosses in North America who were behind the scenes in a hall. Facing these consortium bosses, Elon Musk said seriously: "Everyone. , I must tell you, what is before us now is that a race to 'space enclosure' has begun. The pace on the other side of the ocean is already too much faster than ours, and we could have been far ahead..."

As he was talking, Elon Musk dug out the worldVu project that he promoted last year and went bankrupt after only a few months. Every line was full of complaints, denunciations and regrets. He was really angry about this matter, if it weren't for Someone is blocking it, maybe thousands of satellites have been sent up by now.

This time, with the launch of the "Star Network" project in Greater China, Elon Musk also seized this opportunity to output vigorously.

There was a consortium boss who was sitting with a delicate crutch in both hands and turned to glance at the man next to him. The man was about 45 years old and his name was Gracias. He suddenly looked at Elon Musk and said: "Space enclosure? You mean orbital resources? But as far as I know, the earth's satellite orbital resources are theoretically infinite. The radius continues to expand around the earth, and countless concentric circles can be drawn on different planes."

Elon Musk said immediately: "Yes, that's right. But unfortunately, in fact, many orbital resources have almost no use value, or the cost is too high and the technical requirements are higher. Orbitals in advantageous locations are naturally scarce. From traditional From a perspective, the most valuable high-orbit satellites are geosynchronous orbit satellites, which are more than 22,000 miles above the ground and have an orbital inclination of 0 degrees, which means they are located above the Earth's equator."

"The direction and period of the operation of this type of satellite are synchronous with the rotation of the earth. From a ground perspective, the satellite is in a relatively stationary state. The orbital resources of high-orbit satellites are the most scarce and the most competitive field. They can only accommodate a few Hundreds of satellites.”

Gracias asked: “How many satellites can be accommodated in low orbit?”

After hearing this, Elon Musk lowered his head and thought for a moment before replying: "It is difficult to give an accurate number, but we can make an assumption. For example, cars driving on the highway are dynamic. We can only use this highway to determine the dynamics of the car." The approximate limit can be calculated based on how long the road is and how much safe distance is left between vehicles. It is roughly estimated that at a low orbit altitude within 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers), the effective orbit can accommodate approximately 100,000 to 110,000 satellites. "

"Of course, this is already a relatively crowded state. If so many satellites are launched into low orbit, collisions may occur frequently. Once they collide, it may also fall into a vicious cycle, that is, satellites collide, generate debris, and trigger the next One collision, more debris, is similar to a rear-end collision on the highway."

Having said this, Elon Musk looked around at the silent consortium bosses present: "Star Capital has already begun to make arrangements. In the past few years, they have invested in many research projects on space orbital debris cleanup. They have obviously previewed such results and implemented them in a targeted manner. By then, track cleaning will be a big business again, and they will be ahead of the curve again."

"Everyone, let me tell you what Fang Hong wants to do. The provision of satellite Internet services disclosed by the 'Star Network' project company is only part of it. It is just the tip of the iceberg. Under this, his bigger intention is to Encircling space on a large scale, and those scarce orbital resources are the areas that need to be enclosed.”

"The launch of tens of thousands of large-scale satellites through the 'Star Network' occupies scarce orbital resources, and these satellites will independently enter the atmosphere and burn up at the end of their lifespan, but before they enter the atmosphere and burn up, Jiutian Star Network will definitely launch new satellites To repair the network, it is impossible to give up the occupied orbital resources.”

Elon Musk gushed with a serious expression of urgency: "ITU (International Telecommunication Union) rules stipulate the principle of first occupying orbital resources. Satellites launched by latecomers must avoid the orbits of existing satellites and cannot It will cause adverse interference to the first mover's satellites. StarNet plans to deploy at least 50,000 low-orbit satellites in the next five years, and even more in the future."

"Now their 'Blue Arrow-5A' heavy-load rocket can send more than a hundred satellites at a time. Coupled with Fang Hong's strong vision and ambition for space expansion, even if tens of thousands of satellites are deployed within a year, I’m not surprised either.”

Elon Musk looked around at everyone with a solemn expression and said: "By then, the space orbital resources that others can choose to launch satellites will become increasingly narrow. It won't take long for these non-renewable and scarce resources to be used." The Starnet' swallows it all up."

"These cheap satellites, which cost only hundreds of thousands of dollars each, occupy scarce resources in low-Earth orbit. In the future, Jiutianxing Network can buy and sell these orbital resources. If others want to launch satellites, they will have to go to Jiutianxing Network to buy or lease the orbits they occupy. resources, he would have to spend tens of millions of dollars to purchase his orbital resources in one go or lease his orbital resources for a limited period. If it were me, I would definitely choose to lease, and I believe he would do the same."

At this point, Elon Musk slowed down and strengthened his tone: "Everyone, in the future, human activities in the space field will only become more and more frequent, and the limited and scarce orbital resources will become more and more valuable. , a scarce orbital resource is valued at US$20 million, and the value of scarce orbital resources alone is conservatively estimated to be no less than a super-large market of US$2 trillion.”

After hearing Elon Musk say the astonishing figure of 2 trillion US dollars, several conglomerate bosses present could not sit still, and their calm expressions were finally moved by it.

Even if Elon Musk uses exaggeration in his description, even if he is trying to draw a pie, there are no problems or loopholes in the logic of this pie.

Because there is one main line of development of human civilization that is extremely clear and unquestionable, and that is towards the stars and the sea. In the future, the development of the space field will become more and more frequent. Whether it is as large as a country or as small as a company, the demand for satellites will be increasing. The bigger the market, especially now that rocket recycling has significantly reduced launch costs, the incremental market space is gradually opening up.

So in the future, limited and scarce orbital resources will be hot commodities. Without orbital resources, your satellites will not be able to go to heaven.

At this time, Elon Musk said: "In short, whoever has scarce orbital resources and whoever has more scarce orbital resources can only go to him to buy or lease orbital resources to launch his own satellites. This is not" What is “space enclosure”?

"Fang Hong is once again ahead of everyone, but we are still unaware or even unaware of it. He has found a track resource that is a sure profit, and the cost he paid is only a few hundred thousand dollars a piece. satellite."

"Even so, this satellite will become part of the 'Star Network', bringing him a satellite telecommunications network with global coverage, a network separate from the Internet. As long as the user scale of this platform exceeds the critical value, this Opening the network can break even or even make a profit, and the realization of rail resources is pure profit."

At this moment, Elon Musk expresses two meanings in every word he says: This matter has a huge stake in it, and others have already taken the lead in doing this. If we don’t Follow-up, it’s not the problem that the daylilies are cold, but that they smell bad.

Finally, a person from the Pioneer Group who was present immediately said: "Mr. Musk, I support your 'Starlink' plan. Tell me how much capital you need. Pioneer can lead a round of financing."

Elon Musk was greatly excited, but his expression was well managed. He said: "Not only Starlink, but more importantly, SpaceX is in urgent need of more financing support at the moment."

…