Free Web NovelChapter 1322: Chapter 632_2
Director Liu was also aware of some information, it seemed to be about manufacturing a kind of satellite that orbited the sun, related to Space Link Technology. Due to confidentiality issues, it required supervision from the science and technology division, but the specifics were not very clear.
"Director Liu, I wonder if you have heard of a term?"
"What is it?"
"Dyson sphere," Zhao Yi said the three words calmly.
"Dyson sphere?" Director Liu’s mouth opened wide in surprise; of course, he had heard of the Dyson sphere.
The "Dyson sphere" was a theoretical concept proposed by Freeman Dyson.
The so-called "Dyson sphere" is, in fact, an artificial celestial body of varying diameters up to 200 million kilometers, designed to encapsulate a star and harvest its energy.
It serves as a natural nuclear fusion reactor powered by a star—a "sphere" made up of satellites orbiting the sun, completely encompassing the star and capturing most or all of its energy output. Dyson believed such structures were a logical inevitability for civilizations that exist for long periods in the universe and whose energy needs keep rising, and he suggested searching for such artificial celestial structures to find advanced extraterrestrial civilizations.
Since then, a variety of designs, including building artificial celestial bodies or a series of such structures to encompass the sun, have continuously been proposed by visionary engineers or in science fiction, all bearing the name "Dyson sphere."
These subsequent speculations did not stop merely at solar energy collection stations.
Many engineering designs also included building human colonies and industrial bases.
Director Liu, who had long held a leadership position in the science and technology division, was also familiar with the Dyson sphere, especially following the research on controlled nuclear fusion, about which he had studied carefully. Recently, he had even considered whether to link controlled nuclear fusion with the Dyson sphere, of course, he hadn’t come up with anything.
Suddenly hearing Zhao Yi’s remarks, he said subconsciously, "Could it be that you intend to create a nuclear fusion device that orbits the sun and uses the sun as an energy source?"
"Of course not."
Zhao Yi gave a direct negative answer, then continued, "But the concept is somewhat similar. Recently, I have developed spatial energy transmission technology and want to create a satellite close to the sun to transmit the solar light energy around it."
Director Liu nodded as he listened, "I see, but what’s the significance of that, just light energy—" He didn’t continue, the implication was pretty clear.
Compared to the high energy of nuclear fusion, the efficiency of light energy truly was too inferior.
"It’s still high-end research though!" Zhao Yi said with a smile. He didn’t elaborate further but added, "I plan to start with light energy transmission technology to solve the solar energy conversion rate issue of the Z-wave satellite. Maybe this could even help the company turn a profit."
"I see!" Director Liu suddenly had a moment of realization.
He subconsciously ignored the latter part of the sentence and focused on the issue mentioned earlier—
The power of the Z-wave satellite.
Director Liu had knowledge of the Z-wave satellite and knew that Yixing Technology was a company that manufactured space shuttles and surely hoped to support space shuttling with the help of the Z-wave satellite.
Obviously.
The current power of the Z-wave satellite was not enough to enable a shuttle to perform space travel.
Director Liu had some understanding of this problem. He thought that launching an Energy-Gathering Satellite to orbit the sun was in preparation for achieving space shuttle travel.
The talking time between the two was almost up, and they entered the meeting room, where other people were present, and then the negotiations began.
The Yixing Technology side was quite professional, with Zhao Yi as the main core and a team of six others.
The Advanced Compression Materials Company and Space Information Technology Company each sent a small team, and there were two representatives from the Aerospace Bureau, one of whom was an engineering academician related to aerospace research and development.
Both companies were not opposed to cooperating with Yixing Technology, but they were mainly concerned about secrecy as well as the profitability of the project.
Even the newly established cutting-edge technology companies would definitely care about revenue, as the purpose of any company operation is to realize profit.
However, the thoughts of the company representatives were similar to those of Director Liu.
Although Zhao Yi submitted the spatial energy transmission technology, the manufacturing of an Energy-Gathering Satellite to orbit the sun, transmitting only light energy, would be extremely costly, an astronomical figure by any estimate.
If even the slightest problem arose along the way, it might all be for naught, like a wasted effort.
Even if everything went smoothly, to recoup the investment through light energy transmission would definitely be an indefinitely long-term matter. freeweɓnovel.cøm
This line of thinking was very normal. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
Because the same amount of energy can be easily produced by ordinary power generating sets; manufacturing high-end satellites to orbit the sun would be an absolute loss.
Therefore, they all subconsciously overlooked Zhao Yi’s constant emphasis on ’energy transmission being profitable,’ believing it was Zhao Yi’s personal investment in cutting-edge technology, which also served as a foundation for Yixing Technology to manufacture small spacecraft for space shuttles in the future.
"Academician Zhao, truly magnificent!"
"Investing personal funds for the advancement of science!"
"Yixing Technology is a company under the Aviation Group, and although it seems the Aviation Group will mainly bear the losses, Academician Zhao will surely contribute a portion of the expense."
"There’s no doubt about the direction of the technological research, but similar projects yield very low returns, which indeed make them hard to initiate."
Speaking of this project, it felt similar to launching a satellite to orbit the moon; simply transmitting some energy back, it’s hard to say how useful that would be.
But one thing for certain is that manufacturing a satellite to orbit the sun, be it an exploratory satellite or an Energy-Gathering Satellite, would certainly require a colossal amount of funding, easily running into tens of billions.
Taking out such a large sum of money all at once would strain even Yixing Technology.
Of course.
No matter what, they were only participants and were there merely to assist with manufacturing, which would only be profitable.
The negotiation proceeded very smoothly.
Zhao Yi gave an introduction to the Energy-Gathering Satellite that was to be made and confirmed that the design was already completed. The main reason for negotiation was the need for Space Link Technology in the manufacturing process. The manufacturers would be the Space Information Technology company, which would also require the collaboration of high-compression material companies.
In the end, the meeting clarified several points: Yixing Technology was in charge of design and would bear all manufacturing-related expenses. At the same time, it would own eighty percent of the usage rights to the transmitted light energy from the Energy-Gathering Satellite.
Furthermore, Yixing Technology would also make a one-time payment of eight hundred million yuan to the two companies for the usage rights of Space Link Technology and spatial energy transmission technology; it was also made clear that for every subsequent Energy-Gathering Satellite manufactured, a patent fee of one hundred million yuan would still be payable.
Subsequently, Zhao Yi led the team to negotiate with the Aerospace Bureau, which would provide related technologies. However, all related expenses would be borne by Yixing Technology, and additionally, five billion yuan would be paid to the Aerospace Bureau for technical support costs.
The meeting concluded.
Yixing Technology signed cooperation agreements with the high-compression material company, Space Information Technology company, and the Aerospace Bureau.
Having completed the signing of a series of agreements, technical patents and designs were no longer an issue, and they could begin collaborative manufacturing.
In fact, in terms of the soft technologies related to the manufacture of satellites to orbit the sun, there were really no problems; the main issue lay with the materials.
In this regard, Zhao Yi had a clear design scheme. Both Space Information Technology company and the high-compression material company just needed to collaborate on the manufacturing.
Regarding the supplemental technology provided by the Aerospace Bureau, more communication was required, but there were no major issues.
Because the main core involved only Spatial Connection Technology—essentially manufacturing a space link device capable of orbiting the sun—this was relatively simple.
Zhao Yi’s estimated manufacturing time was about two months approximately, with most of the time being spent on the production of compressed materials.
Very soon.
The collaborative manufacturing began.
