Chapter 1010: Can the Rockets still play like this?
For doctoral students like them, the pressure in life is still very huge. Those who can get a doctorate are basically in their twenties and upwards, with the average being around thirty years old.
For them, this age is the most difficult time in life, especially those who are engaged in technology and are also engaged in aerospace, rocket and satellite technology.
The development of domestic commercial aerospace is still relatively slow. Basically, most of them went to public institutions after graduation, and their salaries are still relatively small.
Of course, that was after I went there. Although there are certain subsidies and scholarships during the PhD period, life is still relatively cramped compared to many of them who are already married, have children, and have many social activities.
Now that we had a free dinner, especially if it was so sumptuous, everyone couldn't help but feel a little unable to control themselves.
As for Chen Zhihong, he also knew the situation of his students, so he stopped trying to persuade them.
Compared to the young people who were devouring their food, Chen Zhihong ate more slowly. Wu Hao also followed suit.
"Xiao Wu, the main purpose of our visit this time is to observe your launch. We didn't come to witness your first retractable rocket launch and recovery process last time. To be honest, it's a pity.
But this time it’s good, we can finally see the whole picture of this ultra-low-cost launch vehicle with our own eyes.”
Chen Zhihong wiped his mouth and then said to Wu Hao: "In fact, we have been studying ultra-low-cost launch vehicles over the years, but how to control the manufacturing cost of rockets is a very complex and difficult problem.
If you want to reduce costs, you can only work hard on materials and technology. But for high-risk products such as launch vehicles, the most stringent requirements are often materials and technology.
So, this is a conflicting issue. How to reduce costs while ensuring the reliability of the launch vehicle is a difficult problem facing many rocket technology developers.
And obviously you are ahead of everyone else in this regard."
Chen Zhihong first praised him, and then asked him: "What did you think at the beginning, and how did you balance the relationship between the two?"
Hearing Chen Zhihong ask questions, his accompanying doctoral students and other experts also stopped eating and began to listen carefully.
Wu Hao smiled and shook his head when he heard this: "Actually, I didn't think about it that much. When we started the project, we were just thinking about how to save money.
On the one hand, we are a private enterprise and do not have such strong financial support, so we must be careful and do the most with the least money.
On the other hand, since we want to engage in private aerospace, we must focus on the market. The products we develop must also have very strong market competitiveness.
So what is the market competitiveness of launch vehicles? Reliability, safety, carrying capacity, and the most important thing is cost.
In fact, the difference between the first four is not too big, but the only thing that can widen the gap and the most affecting market competition is cost.
If we can control the cost of rocket development and manufacturing, it means that we can compete with similar products on the market at a very cheap payload launch price and obtain orders.
Also along this line of thinking, we started the development of two types of rockets.
So how to reduce the carrying cost of rockets, there are only three solutions. First of all, the first one, large payload rockets, can transport more heavy loads, so the average cost per kilogram of load will naturally be reduced. Only
However, as the carrying capacity increases, the cost of the rocket will naturally increase. Moreover, the technology of large-load rockets is relatively high and is not suitable for us for the time being.
So we set our goal on two other solutions. First, the first one is to reduce the manufacturing and launch costs of rockets. Anyway, conventional rockets are disposable and cannot be recycled, so why do we need to make rockets so good?
Well, as long as it can be used.
To give a very simple example, the spray painting on a rocket would cost hundreds of thousands if it were sprayed normally, but we saved this money, although it is a bit ugly.
Of course, we can also sell the rocket body spray painting as advertising space. For example, this time, we sold the rocket body spray painting to an e-commerce company for more than one million yuan, which is equivalent to
This is to recover part of the cost in advance.”
Hearing what Wu Hao said, Chen Zhihong, his doctoral students, and everyone else couldn't help but open their eyes wide, and their hearts were boiling, and they were making complaints.
It's really stingy that this rocket can be played like this. As expected, it's still no businessman and no traitor.
"Following this idea, we save wherever we can. Coupled with the new mixed liquid fuel we use, the manufacturing and launch costs of the rocket are more than half cheaper than conventional rockets. In this way, we have
Strong market competitiveness.”
"That's it, let me tell you, so many units and commercial companies are willing to give orders to you, it turns out it's so much cheaper." Chen Zhihong suddenly realized, but then asked: "What about the safety and reliability of the rocket? What do you think?
How to ensure reliability and safety while reducing costs in this way.”
"These two are not directly related to the cost of the rocket. They have a certain impact, but the impact is not as huge as we imagined. In fact, we are very willing to use enough materials where we must."
Speaking of which, Wu Hao took a sip of hot soup and said with a smile: "On the other hand, this is also related to our encouragement of innovation. We encourage everyone to boldly innovate, whether they are researchers, manufacturing personnel, or employees of other companies. As long as they are researchers, manufacturing personnel, or employees of other companies.
Those who can put forward feasible suggestions, plans, inventions, and even ideas can receive certain generous rewards according to the situation. From thousands to tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions.
An old technician in our manufacturing workshop has received nearly 10 million in bonuses from the company by virtue of more than a dozen related process and invention patent technologies, and every year, we will also pay him a certain usage fee.
With this bonus, he bought a villa in Anxi and settled down, successfully rising to the social elite. He reached a height that is difficult for most white-collar workers to achieve.
There are many similar examples. Many young employees in the company have also received very generous rewards for their relevant innovative inventions.
Therefore, many employees are very rich. You can see that those who drive luxury cars and sports cars in our company are not necessarily the company’s leaders, but probably most of them are employees.”