Chapter 1574

The celebration of the Ignition Day came to an end, but the excitement burning in people's hearts did not cool down at all, but was pushed to a new peak.

Space Elevator!

This grand project, which originally only existed in people's imagination, never thought that it would really come into their lives one day in the future.

And now it looks like that day is coming soon.

No matter what the other spectators watching the grand event sitting in front of the TV thought, at least for those sitting in the venue, almost no one suspected that Lu Zhou was joking with them.

After all, just three days ago, they who sat here witnessed such a miracle with their eyes. The shock brought to them by the aurora covering the night sky of the entire urban agglomeration, I am afraid that they will not simply forget it in this lifetime.

What's more, even the century-old problem of second-generation controllable fusion can't stop him from moving forward. What is a space elevator?

They are willing to believe in his ability and vision.

Even now, it looks like a big pie...

The bustling crowd poured out of the venue in the Heart of Asia, diverted to the directly connected light rail station and parking lot under the guidance of the staff and security guards.

Although I couldn't hear everyone in the crowd discussing excitedly, the expressions on their faces had already written everything they wanted to say on their faces.

Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Heart of Asia lounge, looking at the surging crowd downstairs, the corners of Li Guangya's mouth slightly raised a smug arc.

Hearing the footsteps coming from behind, he put his hands behind his back, looked at the reflection projected on the floor-to-ceiling windows and said with a smile.

"Did you see the look on people's faces?"

Walking to his side, Lu Zhou glanced at the square outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, and replied in a casual tone.

"I see, what's the matter?"

"It's nothing, I'm just a little emotional," Li Guangya squinted his eyes, and continued vigorously, "In the council report five years ago, I reported on the strategic significance of the space elevator, but the attitude of the vast majority of council members It's ridicule. I'm not doing it to prove anything, but I have to admit, it's kind of a good feeling."

Lu Zhou glanced at him and asked.

"I actually don't really understand one thing."

"Which point?"

"Why are you so obsessed with space elevators?"

"On the one hand, it may be because of feelings," Li Guangya smiled, and after a pause, he changed to a serious tone and continued, "As for the other hand, because I once read a paper...or a research report. "

"Report?"

"Well, about the value of development and utilization of resources outside the asteroid belt."

Using concise language, Li Guangya and Lu Zhou described the contents of the research report.

As we all know, since the industrial system on the Mars colony has matured, the frontier of human civilization has expanded from the orbit of Mars to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

A large amount of low-cost and easy-to-use high-purity ore provided by the asteroid belt supports the huge heavy industry system on Mars, and provides a steady stream of living materials and consumer goods for the society on Earth.

However, since the territory of human civilization expanded to the asteroid belt, the natural expansion of this territory seems to have stopped.

At the beginning, many sociology scholars and experts gave the opinion that after their society developed to a stage of unprecedented prosperity, it fell into the trap of over-prosperity, because there was no existential crisis, and the society as a whole lost its aggressiveness. The driving force.

However, the research report gave a different view.

It interprets this special social phenomenon from an unprecedented perspective.

Based on the fact that efficiency and economic value are the fundamental driving force of all social activities, that research report established a simple mathematical model and came up with a concept called "effective economic zone".

That is, within the scope of this effective economic zone, human social activities have more than positive economic effects. However, once this range is exceeded, the economic effect will decrease with various factors such as distance and voyage time.

The size of an effective economic zone is usually determined by multiple factors such as technological strength, industrial scale, and distribution area. At present, the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is the boundary of this "effective economic zone".

Mining resources from worlds outside the asteroid belt, sending them to Mars for processing, and then transporting the finished products back to Earth, the supply chain beyond the effective economic zone will appear unprofitable due to cost issues, so there is almost no After a company has estimated the cost, it will put the world beyond the asteroid belt in its plan.

Since the author of this research report is a well-known professor of economics at the Pan-Asian Academy of Sciences, he is very influential in the field. Although Li Guangya was not born to study finance, he believes that the future of pan-Asian cooperation lies in distant space, and he has always paid attention to research in this area.

After reading that research report, the idea of ​​building a space elevator came to his mind.

The current over-prosperous Pan-Asian cooperation has begun to show signs of involution. Not only are the people content with the status quo, but the entire society has lost its motivation to move forward.

As an aspiring young man, he could not sit back and watch this great alliance be overtaken by other emerging alliances, and their great goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind has not been realized.

Pan-Asian cooperation needs a super project that can drive the regional economy, expand the scope of the effective economic zone, and allow its citizens to regain their pride and pride.

And the space elevator is undoubtedly such an excellent choice.

Even though he was not the chairman of Pan-Asian Cooperation at the time when he made this decision, it did not prevent him from including the "Jianmu Plan" in his governing platform in advance.

Whatever he is determined to do, he will definitely do!

"Speaking of which, I have to thank you," Li Guangya glanced at Lu Zhou and said with a smile, "If you didn't wake up at the right time, I bet those people would have labeled me a lunatic gone."

Lu Zhou replied in a nonchalant tone.

"You're welcome, it's just a few words, and it's much easier than the big trouble on Ceres...By the way, do you need my help in the follow-up design work?"

Unexpectedly, Lu Zhou, who has always been afraid of trouble, offered to help.

Li Guangya was slightly taken aback, then said with a smile.

"Of course it's best if you're willing to help! If you don't have time, I won't force you here. Just like what we said, if you can provide us with some help when necessary, I would be very grateful."

Lu Zhou glanced at him unexpectedly.

"It seems that you have prepared a long time ago."

"Of course," Li Guangya said with a confident smile, "When I was still the vice chairman of the council, I was already preparing for this day."

That was five or six years ago.

At that time, the research on space elevators was not taken seriously. After all, the key material problems had not been solved, and no matter how much it was talked about, it would be a castle in the air. Therefore, neither academia nor industry regards this thing as a project that can be realized in a short period of time.

If it hadn't been for him to go against the crowd and approve more than one billion credits of funding, implement it in the field of space elevator design, and then use administrative power to integrate the technical backbones of top research institutions such as the Institute of Orbital Engineering of the Pan-Asian Academy of Sciences and the Space Facility Design Institute. , established the initial research and development team for the space elevator project, and now I am afraid that I still have to worry about having no rice to cook.

Now the material problem has finally been solved, and Li Guangya is full of confidence in realizing his ambition.

Although he was curious about where this guy came from, he was confident that everything would go so smoothly, but Lu Zhou didn't say much, just simply nodded.

"Since you've made preparations in advance, I'm relieved."

The system did not stipulate his own participation in this project. As long as this ladder leading to space is built on Earth, his promotion task will be considered complete.

If possible, he still hopes that they can complete this magnificent super project with their own strength, instead of relying on their ancestors for everything.

Just because he's got endless time, doesn't mean his time is worthless.

But in fact, if you think about it carefully, their chances of winning are still quite large.

After all, I have already helped them solve the most critical material problem.

The remaining problems should not be too big, right?