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"Mr. Wu, we deserve your continuous commitment to the development of civil aerospace technology. From commercial launch vehicles to this new experimental spacecraft. Now many of us are more concerned and ask you when will we, ordinary tourists, be able to fly Go to space and engage in space tourism. Many people also ask whether the price of space tourism can be lowered, so that it should not become an exclusive project only for the top rich."
Su Qian asked Wu Hao.
Wu Hao put down the coffee in his hand and said with a smile: "This is also the goal we have been working hard on, which is to send more tourists to the sky to experience a wonderful space journey.
However, it is not easy to achieve this goal. Apart from other things, we must first have a manned spacecraft that can successfully send people into space.
As we all know, manned spacecraft is a very grand and complex systematic project. It is difficult for most companies, let alone companies, to support such a huge project.
Therefore, there are currently only a handful of countries in the world that can operate manned spacecraft, and they are only the few that everyone is familiar with.
Although there are already related successful cases, some companies and more than one company have developed manned spacecraft.
But without exception, these companies have invested huge amounts of money, resources, manpower, material resources, and time to achieve such results.
Therefore, if we want to build a manned spacecraft, we must invest a lot of manpower, material resources, and time. This will be a huge number that is very difficult for us to bear.
Therefore, if we really want to engage in a manned spacecraft research and development project, we definitely cannot do it alone. We need to invite more companies to join in. We all work together so that this thing can be realized.
In fact, it is about technology, which can be put together with cost.
First of all, manned spacecraft technology can be said to be a combination of cutting-edge technologies gathered from the current comprehensive human technology. There are only a handful of countries that can develop manned spacecraft, and there are only a few of them. The technology is highly monopolized.
If we want to do it, we will have to face a project that most countries in the world cannot do. You can imagine how difficult it is.
Of course, this is not only reflected in technology, but also in research and development costs. To put it bluntly, most countries on the planet cannot support such a huge money-burning project. "
Speaking of this, Wu Hao glanced at Su Qian, and then continued: "The traditional manned spacecraft has a very small space and can only carry three to four astronauts at a time. As for the space shuttle, there are also the current new generation of As for the manned capacity, the number has been expanded to seven to eight people, almost doubling the number.
But despite this, the current carrying efficiency of these passenger-carrying vehicles is too low, and the price converted into one passenger is very high. Except for those who are particularly wealthy and can afford it, it is difficult for ordinary people, even those with a substantial family background, to afford it.
So if we want more people to take a space trip at a more reasonable price, then we have to lower the price of each spaceship ticket.
If you want to lower prices, you have to lower transportation costs per passenger. If you want to reduce costs, you must first reduce the launch and transportation costs of the rocket.
We can use recyclable and reusable launch vehicles, which can greatly reduce rocket transportation costs.
Then the next step is to board the manned spacecraft. The current manned aircraft carrying capacity is too poor. If you want to use it commercially and reduce costs, you need to expand the manned aircraft carrying capacity.
It will at least double the current maximum capacity of seven people, or even more. Generally speaking, it is more appropriate to control the number of passengers within the range of fourteen to twenty-one people.
In this way, we can evenly distribute the cost originally shared by seven passengers to 21 passengers, so that the transportation cost for a single person will be reduced a lot.
Secondly, it is to reduce the cost of manufacturing and using the spacecraft. There are two paths in this regard, the same as with our commercial launch vehicles.
Either use ultra-low-cost disposable spacecraft, which will reduce the cost a lot. The ultra-low cost I am talking about here does not mean sacrificing the safety and reliability of the spacecraft. Instead, we will use this basis to eliminate unnecessary items on the spacecraft, thereby further reducing costs.
The second method is that, like our Jianmu-2 retractable launch vehicle, it can be recycled and reused, which can also reduce costs.
If all of this can be realized smoothly, we are confident that the cost per passenger will be controlled within 2 million yuan, so that more tourists with space dreams can realize their dreams and take a dream trip to space. "
"Two million yuan is still too high a price, and I'm afraid it's hard for most people to afford it. If nothing else, let's just talk about me. Although I also have a strong dream of space, I don't have two million to go on a space trip. " Susie said with a wry smile and shook her head.
Hehehe, Wu Hao smiled and shrugged: "Unless we make a huge leap in aerospace technology, the cost of going to space cannot be reduced to a level that everyone can accept.
Just like the current intercontinental flights, aircraft technology has been developed for nearly a hundred years. Now, not everyone on the earth can afford an intercontinental flight ticket.
The same is true for space travel. What we can do is reduce this dream from being out of reach for most people and untouchable in their lifetime to a dream that can still be realized in this lifetime if many people work hard.
This is currently the limit of what can be achieved based on our current social and technological level. "
Hearing Wu Hao's words, Su Qian nodded. Indeed, Wu Hao was right. The price of two million can be said to be very conscientious. You must know that the world's first space passenger spent 20 million US dollars to go to space.
The price quoted by Wu Hao and the others was only two million, less than one-tenth of that price, and it was still in RMB, not US dollars. It could be said that it was already very cheap, and we really couldn't ask for too much.
Hearing his answer, Susie nodded, and then said to him: "In what you just said, you mentioned that unless we make a huge breakthrough in the field of aerospace technology, it is impossible for us to reduce the cost of going to space to everyone. are acceptable.
What technological breakthrough do you mean here? Is it similar to the space elevator in the science fiction "Three Body"? "
After hearing Su Qian's words, Wu Hao smiled and shook his head.
"The book "The Three-Body Problem" is very good, and I am also a loyal fan of it. However, if we want to realize the sky elevator in the Three-Body Problem, conservatively we estimate that it may not be possible within the next hundred years."
