Chapter 362 Candy and Whip
“This is not fair!” Iwasaki said, pointing to the news related to the Light Armor that filled the screen on Yahoo News.
Not only did Amerikan News give Guangjia space, but so did other countries.
As the Guangjia's cabins were intensively launched into the sky, the entire space station's cabins expanded rapidly at a rate of one cabin every half a month.
Guangjia became the most watched news in the world throughout March. The space station was built faster than dumplings.
In a sense, the construction speed of the Guangjia fully proves the speed of China. Even when it comes to building infrastructure in space, the Chinese have maintained the same speed as on earth.
Imamura just glanced at it, and then continued to focus on the Cansat in his hand, "What's unfair?
This is the first time that humans have launched a satellite to a distance In a universe so far away from mankind, pioneers should be appreciated, even if they are not friendly to us.”
Imamura and Iwasaki are both students of Tokyo University’s aerospace industry. They are juniors this year, and Imamura holds the Cansat. It's a small rocket.
To be precise, Cansat includes rockets and satellites. Students need to design Cansat to complete the entire process from launch to recovery.
Cansat first came from a seminar held by Amerikan and Neon in Hawaii, where they felt that there should be a teaching tool to help students better understand the aerospace industry.
Under this premise, Cansat came into being. At the same time, because Tokyo University was one of the sponsors of the seminar at that time, they send junior students to participate in the Cansat launch competition ARLISS, which is mainly held by college students in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.
For students majoring in aerospace, if they can win a prize in this competition, it will definitely be worth recording on their personal resume.
Before going there, there needs to be a small competition within the Aerospace Industry Major of Tokyo University. Obviously Imamura hopes to get such an opportunity very much.
“I just feel that all the aerospace-related news that appears in our news reports is either Light Armor Aerospace or SpaceX.
These two companies occupy more than 99% of the news pages, whether it is foreign news or our own news.
As for Neon’s own aerospace development, not to mention foreign media reports, even our own media such as Yahoo, Sankei Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, etc. will not report it.
Guangjia Aerospace claims to go to space mining, but they have never obtained even a single sample from an asteroid. However, our Falcon has already retrieved samples from an asteroid, even from an asteroid 340 million kilometers away. Samples were retrieved from the asteroid.
Even Neon's own news media will only give Hayabusa a small space to report on it, as if the first time humans took samples from an asteroid is a trivial achievement. ”
Iwasaki was indignant and dissatisfied with the “illusion of public opinion” that only China and America in the world seemed to have made progress in the aerospace field.
Obviously such a phenomenon did not just happen on the first day. Logically speaking, the sampling spans hundreds of millions of kilometers. Just hearing about this distance is romantic enough. What's more, this is also the first time for human beings, but it has not even made a splash in the news. Can't get excited.
This will inevitably make Neon’s aerospace-related practitioners dissatisfied.
But Imamura didn’t seem surprised, “This is normal, the media will not pay attention to a news without potential news value.
News without potential news value is just an event, not news "Imamura looked directly at Iwasaki, and he, who has always been able to dig out the essence of things, continued:
"You are right, Hayabusa brought a sample from an asteroid for the first time, what next? br>
Has any information been unearthed from the asteroid samples brought back? Is there anything else on it besides olivine and pyroxene, which are common stones on Earth?
Are there microorganisms, are there organic substances? None of these.
The other target is Hayabusa and Neon Aerospace itself. Is there any potential that Hayabusa can continue to explore? Is it possible that its future sample collection objects may be metallic asteroids?
Is it possible for Neon Aerospace itself to develop a series of aerospace products based on Hayabusa?
I’m afraid these answers are no. Then the Hayabusa bringing back asteroid samples is just an event.
Whether it’s SpaceX’s recyclable rockets or Guangjia Aerospace’s Guangjia, they have a lot of stories to tell.
When SpaceX pinched the rocket with chopsticks, even ordinary people could talk about its principles and significance, not to mention the media. However, with Hayabusa’s asteroid sampling, the public can understand it through a small Do you read any information from a bunch of samples? ”
Imamura’s answer is obviously not the answer Iwasaki wants to hear. What Iwasaki wants to hear is that Amerikan and China control world public opinion. Under their suppression, Neon’s aerospace industry cannot gain traction. Some exposure.
Imamura’s answer gave a brand new explanation from the perspective of the matter itself.
Iwasaki changed the subject and said, "Imamura, do you think it is possible for us to launch a space station? Going to Lagrange Point? ”
Imamura replied without raising his head: "Of course it is possible, it is just a matter of time.
There are no natural barriers to any technology. Maybe in a hundred years, we will launch a space station around the moon."
Iwasaki opened his mouth wide: "One hundred years is too long.
In a hundred years, the Mars cities of Light Armor Aerospace and SpaceX will have been built."
Imamura said helplessly: "What else?
In fact, Neon is not suitable for the development of the aerospace industry at all. We are very weak in this area. Not to mention participating in the competition between Amerikan and China, even compared with SpaceX or Light Armor Aerospace, we still exist. There is a big gap.
If you want to learn more about the gap in the entire industry, you can read the book "The Era of Space Ventures" written by Mr. Shintaka Komatsu.
Although he does not have a professional background in aerospace, he was hired as an expert by JAXA as a venture investor. In this book, from the perspective of an investor, he explains in detail why neon is so popular in modern times. The internal logic of the commercial aerospace era has lagged behind. "
JAXA is the abbreviation of Neon Space Agency.
Iwasaki said distressedly: "I really can't read this kind of book. I am not interested in business operations at all. ”
Imamura said: "The essence is that Neon does not have enough market to cultivate the country's aerospace industry.
The method NASA uses to cultivate Space is called COTS, which is commercial orbital transportation services. They launched private spaceflight in 2006 Venture Enterprise Transportation Services Procurement Plan, through which private companies order services for transporting goods and people to the International Space Station
The successful bidders will sign phased payments with NASA. The winning companies at that time were SpaceX and Orbital Sciences. Not only were they able to obtain orders from NASA, but NASA would also provide them with technology transfer and talent transfer support.
Mr. Komatsu calls this model Candy and Whip. The candy part refers to allowing private companies to use various NASA patents, technologies, and equipment. And NASA will set a lot of milestones before the final goal is achieved.
Pay a portion of the amount after a milestone is solved.
Payment form signing here. Not only did they provide financial assistance, but they also provided guidance from tutors to explore how to solve the next topic after completing one.
To this day, SpaceX still uses this method to solve problems.
Encounter a problem - propose a method - test - solve the problem, and keep repeating this process. However, compared with other commercial aerospace companies, SpaceX is extremely efficient in solving problems. It solves a problem with many companies. The 10 different problems that pop up are different. SpaceX often only needs to repeat it once to solve the problem it encountered last time. ”
This is why Iwasaki likes to ask Imamura for advice. Even though Imamura's attitude is not good many times and he often answers questions for him while still doing his own things, Iwasaki still wants to talk to Imamura.
Imamura knows a lot and can give unique insights into many things.
After listening, Iwasaki immediately asked: "So the support NASA gives SpaceX is sugar, and the contractual constraints are whips."
Imamura shook his head: "No, the entire contract is sugar, NASA Providing technical support and almost teaching you step by step how to complete the launch mission, how can it be regarded as a whip?
The entire commercial orbital transportation service used to cultivate SpaceX and orbital space is sugar, after the end of COTS? CRS is the whip, the full name of CRS is commercial supply service
Because commercial supply services place higher demands on you, these companies need to iterate on the technologies they obtained from NASA in the past, otherwise you will not be able to complete the entire commercial supply service at all.
In 2008, NASA required SpaceX to complete 12 supplies and required it to be able to provide long-term and stable space transportation services. This is the whip that gives these companies sufficient motivation to promote the acquisition of technology in the past. Further practicality and commercialization.
At this stage, no matter how much the research and development costs and transportation costs are, NASA will not care. They will only pay the amount written in the contract.
In the previous candy stage, NASA would bear the company's losses and provide companies with a guarantee of zero loss risk, but it will not in the whip stage.
If your technology is not up to par, then you will have to face losses and the company will have to raise external financing on its own.
Otherwise you will fall behind in this long race.
Because NASA’s CRS is not static, its requirements will become higher and higher. In the first year of 2008, there were 12 launches. Later, the entire launch requirements became higher and higher, and each launch The contract amount is getting lower and lower.
If you fall behind once, it’s no problem. You can get some financial respite by going to Silicon Valley to raise money. But if you fall behind the second time or the third time, you will fall into an unprecedented predicament until there is no way out. Turn over.
NASA has cultivated companies like SpaceX through this method of candy and whips. You can say that Musk is awesome, but NASA’s mechanism is an indispensable part.
Can you imagine that you have been doing Cansat since your freshman year, and then every year the college forces you to break through your past limits? Do you want to continue like this for more than ten years? ”
There was panic on Iwasaki's face. To be honest, if Imamura hadn't wanted to participate in the ARLISS competition, he himself wouldn't have much interest in Cansat.
Iwasaki asked curiously: "Under NASA's high-pressure business cultivation strategy, don't any companies fail?"
"Of course there are." Imamura said matter-of-factly: "As mentioned before COTS in the preparation stage is sugar. NASA provides a lot of convenience in this part and also helps companies bear their losses. It is equivalent to a zero-risk business.
It is somewhat similar to the concept of the school's graduation project. In this graduation project, it can be done. Only SpaceX and Orbital Science graduated.
In the past, their COTS training was SpaceX and Rocket Plane. Later, Rocket Plane was eliminated, and Orbital Science entered the program instead of Rocket Plane. Even Orbital Science, He also slowly fell behind in the subsequent whipping sessions.
Only SpaceX can really survive until now.
And I think if it weren't for Musk's existence, SpaceX would also have to fall behind sooner or later. ”
Imamura continued: “Even the most professional experts in aerospace-related venture capital do not believe that SpaceX is the result of the development of the market economy. On the contrary, it is the active ripening of Amerikan at the government level.” The result of private aerospace companies, it is a survivor of NASA's cultivation process.
In my opinion, JAXA should adopt a similar approach and try to cultivate private commercial aerospace companies instead of relying on private capital to invest in such companies. This is not what private capital can do. "
After hearing this, Iwasaki thought thoughtfully: "What about the light armor aerospace?
Has the Chinese government also adopted similar methods of cultivating gu? "
"No, for Huaguo, they have always participated after there are results, rather than actively cultivating. Huaguo Aerospace has its own plans and sequences. Huaguo Aerospace has a strong influence on its commercial aerospace field. We have always adopted a non-participation and non-interference attitude.
They even blame private commercial aerospace agencies on how they can poach people from them, trying to use this kind of public opinion pressure to force private companies not to poach people from China Aerospace.
It’s just that under the leadership of Guangshen, Guangjia Aerospace has risen at an extremely fast speed and has made great achievements. China will still provide very strong support.
In a sense, light armor spaceflight is a rarer miracle. It relies on a flash of inspiration from a genius.
In comparison, it is much more reliable for JAXA to adopt the NASA model. It is more likely to expect that Gu will raise a Gu King than to expect Neon to emerge a talent who can win the Nobel Prize in his twenties. . "Imamura said.
Imamura, who seemed calm at first, suddenly became frustrated: "But now it's too late.
Even if Neon now has the technology of SpaceX, it is too late. The time window has passed, and the future of Neon Aerospace is bleak. In the future, it is inevitable that it will only be possible to do some scrap work, and can only start from SpaceX and Guangjia Aerospace. If you pick up a market that they are not in, you have to get these two giants to stop focusing on their own fields. "
Iwasaki rarely saw such a sad expression on the optimist Imamura. He quickly asked: "Is there really no chance at all?
Now their progress and displayed technology are not that advanced, right? They are all very mature technologies, and compared with room-temperature superconductivity, they are all within an interpretable framework. ”
(End of this chapter)