Chapter 751: Satellite Launch Center

In the center of the northern desert of Iraq, in the middle of the endless Gobi Desert, in a satellite launch center protected by high walls.

It is located in the core area of ​​the launch center, on the edge of a huge artificial lake, surrounded by wide tracks, connecting to the launch platform in the middle.

This place has never been visited by outsiders. Even the current Future Media Company only focuses on the area that is undergoing pre-launch preparations, and no shooting is carried out in other places.

When Cai Ruichen accompanied Musk to the satellite launch center, after seeing the huge layout inside, he was definitely a well-informed technology madman Musk, and he also had an extremely shocked expression on his face.

Space Exploration Technology Corporation also has its own launch site, but compared with the satellite launch center in front of us, it is simply the gap between the countryside and the city.

Because this launch center is really too big, its scale is no less than a small city.

On the periphery of the launch center, there are all high walls. According to his visual inspection, these are tall defensive buildings like ancient city walls, at least 20 meters long.

The 20-meter-high fence can not only block any prying eyes from the outside, but is also equipped with various defensive weapons. It is obvious that various monitoring equipment installed on the fence can be seen, and there are also heavily armed soldiers patrolling.

Such tight protection is no less than any military base. This made Musk feel for the first time that the biggest difference between Future Technology Group and any company in the world is that they have their own army, which is still a legal army.

However, what really shocked the technology lunatics was not the tall city walls around them, but the various layouts in the satellite launch center, which had reached a very perfect level.

Behind the fence, there are tall factory buildings with an area of ​​no less than 10,000 square meters. These factory buildings are all closed, but the front and rear sides are completely open doors.

The front and rear doors of each factory building are connected to the factory by tall rails, and you can also see some rocket rail transport vehicles parked next to them.

The size of these transport vehicles varies, but they have one thing in common, that is, the tools used to launch rockets.

At the first intersection of the railways connecting these factories are four larger fully enclosed factories, both in length and height, which Musk has seen for a long time.

And along the way, Cai Ruichen also briefly introduced the situation here to Musk. Those smaller factories are dedicated to the production of launch vehicle parts, and then these parts will be assembled into rockets and then transported to large factories. Carry out overall assembly.

Finally, the assembled and complete carrier rocket is transported to the launch point through the rails. After the inspection is completed, it can be launched directly.

In fact, there is no need for Cai Ruichen to explain these things, Musk can also see what these factories do.

He has also seen many rocket production factories, but this is the first time he has seen such a large scale and such a huge factory.

Even those small factories are larger than many launch vehicle assembly workshops. With such a huge factory, the launch vehicle can be assembled directly in it, and there is no need to transport it to a special factory.

However, Cai Ruichen did not explain why the size of these factories is so huge, and Musk was not curious enough to ask. After all, this is their territory. In terms of the competitiveness of the core technology, it represents interests. In his opinion, it is okay to ask. Bai asked.

And when he officially saw the rocket launch center in the car,

The face was once again replaced by shock.

Musk once again felt that he hadn't seen what is called a big deal. In front of the rocket launch center in front of him, his company's Dragon spacecraft launch center was like playing a house.

In this huge launch center, there are eight satellite launch points, all of which are built around the Gobi artificial lake in the middle, so that cold water can enter the base of the rocket launch platform nearby, cooling the launch vehicle during launch , the high temperature damage caused by the tail nozzle to the launch platform.

However, in Musk's view, this is all secondary. The main thing is that the eight satellite launch platforms in front of him have brought him a strong visual impact.

According to his guess, the launch center is about 30 square kilometers in size, and almost every space here is used. It is completely a small city, with residential areas and supermarkets.

And the launch center in front of him occupies at least one-third of the land area in the center of the satellite launch base.

In the entire satellite launch base, various wide railway tracks criss-cross, but without exception, they all converge on these eight launch vehicle launch platforms.

And the launch platforms of these eight launch vehicles are much larger than any launch platform in the world.

Musk is 100% sure that this satellite launch center is definitely the best and largest launch center in the world.

If there are enough launch vehicles and requirements, the satellite launch center can definitely launch a large number of rockets continuously in one day, just by using the eight launch platforms in an octagonal layout.

And I don't know what's going on, seeing the eight launch platforms neatly distributed around the circular artificial lake, and the size looks very uniform, it gives him a very weird feeling.

That is the combination of the eight launch platforms and the artificial lake in the middle is also a launch platform.

It’s just that this platform is too big. The circular artificial lake alone has a diameter of about 100 meters. If there is a carrier rocket with the size of this artificial lake as the main body, the eight launch platforms around it can be used to install the boosters for the main body of the rocket.

But there is really such a large launch vehicle, no, should it be said to be a space vehicle?

Musk, who thinks he has always been at the forefront of the world's technological trends, shook his head decisively. Unless it is powered by a high-power nuclear fusion reactor, building such a large spacecraft, even if the aerodynamic layout is perfect, will not be possible at all. Such a large thrust-to-weight ratio allows this big guy to escape the gravity of the earth.

This idea just appeared, Musk glanced at the confident Cai Ruichen next to him, thinking of the technological miracles that this young man in his early twenties had created, he couldn't help asking himself in his heart: Is it possible? Is it really impossible?