Chapter 355 Reflections that touch the soul
The two people recording the program are from NASA, and everyone is very aware of the severe situation that NASA or America's manufacturing industry is facing.
If the basic manufacturing industry can use industrial transfer as an excuse, then the high-end manufacturing industry, led by the aerospace industry, cannot find an excuse under any circumstances.
The federal budget allocated to NASA alone amounts to more than 20 billion US dollars each year.
And it does not mean that all aerospace-related research and development expenses are paid by NASA. There are many technologies related to military use, and the Amerikan Air Force will be involved.
For example, the research and development of aircraft vertical take-off and landing technology was jointly funded by NASA and the American Air Force, and the specific research and development was conducted at Georgia Tech University.
There are many similar cases.
NASA’s $25 billion budget does not mean that it only invests so much in the aerospace field.
So the problem Amerikan faces now is that the mid- to low-end manufacturing industry has been transferred and cannot come back at all, and the high-end manufacturing industry is also facing collapse.
The aerospace industry is like this, and the military industry is naturally not much better.
Not to mention ten years ago, but five years ago, it would have been hard for the outside world to believe that after Amerikan sent people to the space station, there was no way to bring them back, and Boeing would not be able to handle this matter.
Facing this situation, Mark and Chris have completely different views.
Chris hopes to put all the blame on the minorities. In the past, the reason why NASA was invincible in the competition with Da Mao was because we were all white men. But now that minorities and women have come in, everyone The R&D began to completely collapse.
This can only be said now. If he had dared to say this before, Chris would never have thought of receiving an order of even one million from NASA.
Mark obviously disagrees with Chris:
"SpaceX is an exception, just like Light Armor Aerospace is an exception.
Except for SpaceX, the other suppliers NASA has found are unimaginably poor in delivery quality."
Mark thinks so. It's like finding some key information, "Wait, let me think about it again."
Chris nodded, "Yes, you really should think about it carefully. If there are no suppliers, don't talk about NASA now." To compete with China Aerospace, we can’t even compete with the European Space Agency.”
Chris would firmly refute this view, what is the problem of suppliers? My goal is not to become NASA’s rocket launch supplier. Business?
If there is a problem with the supplier and NASA has to research everything on its own, then should I start a business?
After a five-minute pause, Mark clapped his hands suddenly: "I thought about it, it's not the supplier's problem.
It's our system that has a big problem.
< br>We are now trapped in a cycle where no one needs to take responsibility if the process is just.
The spacesuit was originally developed in 10 years since 2007, but as a result, not only did the budget increase more than ten times, but the time required was also increased. It took 10 to 24 years to complete.
Is anyone responsible for this? No.
Members of the Central Council said that this seems wrong. We should conduct an audit. After the audit, we found that no one has any problems. It takes so long, so let’s get on with it.
There were repeated audits, repeated meetings, repeated budget increases and postponement of the complete node.
No one needs to be responsible for this matter, and the MPs have not changed. You cannot blame the MPs, because they are not responsible for this matter. They have already fulfilled their obligations, auditing, and budgeting. They were not absent from any of the review meetings and project discussion meetings.
Is the supplier to blame? No, the audit did not reveal any problems.
No one is responsible, our progress is so slow.
Did you find it? Whether it is NASA itself or its suppliers, we are now trapped in a cycle where there is no problem if the process is just.
It is not just us, or the entire Western world is facing this dilemma.
As long as the process complies with regulations and can pass the audit, then each of us can receive a salary even if we do nothing every day.
Come home with me and ask my son what score he got on the exam. He told me he got a C. I was very angry. Your dad got an A on every exam in college. .
I asked him what was going on, and he said he tried hard, but there was nothing he could do.
I went to the teacher, and the teacher gave me the same feedback. My son worked hard in school and told me not to care about his grades. Grades are not important. What is important is his healthy and happy growth.
In order to find out whether my son is studying well, I have to find his teacher privately and use some small means to ask him how my son is doing in school.
This way he told me the truth, saying that he didn't study hard at all and never listened carefully in class.
That’s right, parents in the entire Greater Bay Area, if you don’t take your child to cram school in person and stare at him at the door, whether he is in a public school or a private school, the teacher will only tell you Your child works hard, and grades are not important.
Look, does this look like NASA? As long as there are no problems in the audit of any project, even if it is delayed for ten or twenty years, there will be no problem. No one needs to bear responsibility.
What we are facing now is such a strange cycle where there is no problem with process justice. Even if the entire project, from the R&D personnel below to the R&D director to the management above, no one is working seriously, no one will bear responsibility for this. ”
This touches the soul.
It’s okay for everyone to talk about the superficial issues. It touches the soul. It’s okay for Mark to talk about it as a Youtuber, but Chris still has to do it with NASA. A business entrepreneur, he must resolutely refute such nonsense:
“No, no, no, we can see that it only took two years for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 from getting the contract to the first launch. time, it took seven years for the launch to be successful.
If European space agencies did not purchase technology from Guangjia Aerospace, they would have made no substantial progress so far. "Chris said.
Mark shook his head: "It's still the same logic, SpaceX is an exception.
Musk himself knows this. He can control every progress of SpaceX, and he will fire engineers who are not working without hesitation.
Can NASA or NASA’s suppliers do it?
Musk can ensure that his subordinates do not fool him, and in the example you just gave, can Vanessa, the director of the Johnson Space Center, do the same?
She couldn't do it because she didn't understand spaceships at all.
A case that impressed me very clearly. Do you know about the Spirit Star Project? "Lingshen, an asteroid located in the asteroid belt of Mars and Jupiter, is an extremely large metallic asteroid. It is suspected to be the core of a certain planet. Ninety percent of the entire volume is made of metal. Including iron, gold, platinum, etc., which are extremely valuable for mining.
Of course Chris knows that, to be precise, everyone who is engaged in commercial aerospace knows about the Spirit Star. < br>
The ultimate picture of all space mining is to mine the metal from the Psyche.
"I know, NASA's Psyche Project is to explore the Psyche Planet. I even reviewed that project as an expert." Chris was very proud.
Mark said: "I have been paying close attention to that plan since its launch.
In my opinion, being able to use the resources of the Spirit Star means that we have officially entered the interstellar era, and the entire business Spaceflight is no longer a game, but has substantial practical significance.
After Wright proposed space mining, I became more concerned about NASA's plan to detect the Psyche.
It is impossible for Wright's space mining to bypass the Psyche Planet. I am very curious about whether Wright or NASA can bring back the Psyche Planet's ore first.
We proposed to detect Psyche in 2015. We originally planned to launch in 2022, but the results were continuously delayed. First, the test equipment, guidance system, and control system of Psyche were completely delayed.
In the end it seemed to be delayed for more than a year, and in the end there was only one delayed report, and no one had to pay the price.
However, it was only delayed for more than a year, and the price paid was that the Venus exploration plan continued to be delayed.
Psyche does not involve many new technologies. We have all worked at NASA. We know very well that this is mainly a problem of positioning. It uses a very mature solar electric propulsion system and scientific instruments. Only a multispectral imager, a magnetometer and a gamma-ray spectrometer were brought up, but it was delayed for more than a year.
In the past four years, Huaguo has developed high-precision and highly controllable electric thrusters. ”
(The Psyche spacecraft is heading to the Psyche Planet. Can it find which one is the Psyche Planet?)
Mark thinks this is too bad. If there is no Chinese country as the reference frame, then these are completely acceptable. After all, Amerikan is not good enough, and Europe and Neon are not good either.
But the problem is that now that China is used as a reference coordinate, there will be a sincere feeling of hatred towards NASA.
"There is a reason for this. In 22 years, the virus epidemic was at its peak." Chris explained.
Mark said: "How about we make a bet, whether it will be the Light Armor Aerospace that brings back the ore from the Spirit Planet first, or NASA. If we don't take NASA as an example, any Amerikan commercial space agency will do it first. OK.”
Chris doesn't want to bet, but it's impossible not to bet. After talking to this point, his identity in this program today is from NASA's position: "What are you betting on?"
"A single person on the Light Armor "Travel." Mark said: "They haven't opened the Guangjia tourism project yet, but I believe that when Amerikan or China can bring back ore from the Spirit Star, the Guangjia will definitely have space tourism. Business."
Chris stretched out his hand: "Okay, high-five as proof."
After the entire program was broadcast, it attracted widespread attention in the academic community and Americen's insightful people. They began to reflect.
Musk reposted the program on Twitter: "Mark expressed my feelings. Compared with China, no one is responsible for the delay in the progress of our project."
Soon he added: "If NASA can be the first to bring ore back from the Spirit Planet, I am willing to donate 1 billion US dollars to NASA in my own name."
No one originally followed this video How many.
Not many people have the patience to watch a long interview show, especially the person being interviewed is not a well-known person. Chris’s resume at NASA is not well-known to the outside world.
Mark mainly does popular science programs, and his audience is obviously not very interested in his interviews.
Therefore, Musk’s first tweet did not cause much response. After the second tweet was sent out, many people were attracted to watch Mark’s interview in full.
After reading it, they felt that Mark's speech touched their hearts.
“What Mark said is great. I’m fed up with delays in all infrastructure construction projects, from building a road in front of my house to various railways. I’ve never heard of any projects. There are no delays.
Correspondingly, there are continuous delays, rising budgets and infrastructure projects that will never be completed, as well as the reality that no one needs to be responsible for this. For example, if I delay, I don’t have to take responsibility, but I can get more budget from the state government, so why should I complete it on time? Isn’t it true that the longer I delay, the greater the benefits?”
"I agree with Mark. All companies doing business with the federal government are trying to find ways to get more money out of the federal budget. For them, delay is as simple as eating and drinking. If the delay is doubled, the profit can be doubled.
It’s just that it’s not cost-free as the outside world says. There is still a cost. You need to pay the auditor when responding to the investigation. Even so, it is still very profitable. The profit is doubled, and the audit fee is the most. One-tenth of the total.”
"What's even more frightening is education. When we emphasize happy education, China's education is trying every means to cultivate high-tech talents. We have completely failed in talent cultivation."
Twitter began to focus on this interview A large number of reflection monsters have emerged, pointing the finger directly at Washington, believing that the current federal government is seriously ill.
Someone also spoke for the federation:
“I work at McKinsey and have been responsible for the audit of more than one infrastructure construction project. I would like to say that it is normal for a project to be delayed, and it is abnormal not to be delayed. . You should not ask why projects are delayed. According to statistics, more than 90% of infrastructure construction projects are delayed. The root cause of project delays is real-world defects and labor delays. There will be delays in transfers, roadblocks in land acquisition and approvals, and unforeseen problems will arise, but even if these problems can be reduced, it is unlikely to go away and Mark's complaint only shows that he has never managed. A specific project.”
A McKinsey executive took to Twitter to speak out for the federation, and soon everyone was trolling him.
America’s comments are all focused on why the Chinese can do it.
“Why can’t China delay the delay? Or even deliver it early?”
“I’m sorry, but more than 90% of your infrastructure projects will be delayed, including China’s infrastructure projects? "
"Then why can't you leave enough time for the entire project when making the budget and consider the amount of redundancy in advance? If you leave enough time and there is still a delay, that is your management problem. If you don't leave enough time, , that’s the problem with your planning.”
"We can accept delays, but what we cannot accept is to keep delaying the time, delaying the time again and again."
(End of this chapter)