I Found A Planet - Chapter 357

Chapter 357

Chen Jin had his eyes set on the space mining industry .

The earth’s resources were limited, especially those scarce mineral resources . It would only take a few years of mining and they would be at the brink of exhaustion . The content of some elements in the earth’s crust was only some ten or hundred thousand tons, which would make them even rarer than gold . For instance, the proven global reserves of a metal called Rhenium was only 2500 tons, but it yielded very high value when used as an industrial catalyst for the manufacture of aircraft engines and rocket engines .

As for rare earth resources, their global exploitable amount in 20X8 was about 50 million tons . The remaining reserves of Z nation were less than ten million tons and could at most be mined for another ten years . Together with the rare earth metals stored in warehouses, there was only enough for another 20 years of usage . That implied that in 20 years, there would be no rare earth metals available in the Z nation . They would have to rely 100% on imports .

If no new source was found, the price of rare earth elements would inevitably rise .

But Chen Jin thought of a marvelous solution— space mining .

“The first trillion-dollar tycoon of the next millennium might be born from the space mining industry . ” This was the prediction made by the M nation’s Goldman Sachs Group .

“Mining an asteroid with a diameter of 50 meters could yield 500 billion M-dollars of revenue . ” A private company estimated .

The most authoritative organization in the M nation, NASA, had confirmed that there were more than 15,000 asteroids of different sizes within a 50,000,000 kilometer radius of the Earth . Most of these asteroids were rich in iron, nickel, copper, gold, silver and other metal elements . There were even asteroids that had metal contents greatly exceeding that of Earth .

If these asteroids were all measured by the vulgar unit of money, almost every asteroid would be worth a billion M-dollars .

In addition, the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter’s orbit included more than 500,000 asteroids . The moon, which was only 360 thousand kilometers away from earth, could also be regarded as a huge “resource planet” that harbored an insurmountable amount of minerals .

The resource issue that might be an increasing problem on Earth would vanish at once when the minerals available in space began to be used .

Chen Jin intended to enter the space mining industry . He felt that the time was ripe and space mining had begun to become profitable .

He had two advantages that others did not possess .

“Recently, the New Energy Research Center has successfully developed the ‘High Energy 2′ battery . Its energy density is 2 . 6 times greater than the High Energy 1 battery, attaining an astonishing 4000-watt hours per kilogram, which is equivalent to a third of the energy density of gasoline . ”

“What’s more, batteries generally have more than 90% energy utilization efficiency . On this account, the High Energy 2 battery is actually equivalent to gasoline . ”

“By using High Energy 2 batteries as the energy source for mining spacecraft and further equipping them with solar arrays and high-thrust Hall engines, a mining spacecraft will have almost unlimited navigation capability in space . The small amount of thrust medium, on the other hand, can be replenished when the vehicle is on the asteroids . ”

“I have another advantage that no one else has . I know where the valuable asteroids are and have learned about the location of the high-value rich mines on the moon in advance . For instance, I know of a mine site on the moon that has more than 50,000,000 tons of open-pit rare-earth elements that are of a high grade and are very easy to mine . ”

On planet Haierfa, the minerals on the moon had been mined for hundreds of years and a great deal of valuable information about the asteroid orbits was kept in Nuwa’s database . There was no institution on Earth that knew about this information .

Knowing the specific location of the treasure in advance meant making money was as simple as taking something out of a bag .

Other companies were not yet ready to enter the space mining industry, but for Xing Hai Technologies the opportunity had arrived .

However, Chen Jin still planned to cooperate with the state for a joint plan regarding space minerals . Even with the current repeatable low-cost launching technology, the cost of launching a spacecraft was still above 20,000 dollars per kilogram . Assuming that a mining facility with a total weight of ten thousand tons was to be launched into space, launching alone would cost more than two hundred billion dollars . In later phases, the transportation of further addons, construction of the communication system, maintenance services, space smelting, round trips… everything would require a cost . It was somewhat unbearable that even with Xing Hai Technologies’ strength, the cost was rather high .

Co-operating with the state would allow them to use the national launching system and the measurement and control system for the purpose of serving themselves . It would mean they were sharing a portion of the cost and speeding up mining efficiency . Chen Jin estimated that in approximately three years, the first batch of space minerals would be transported back to Earth on cargo spaceships .

Therefore, Chen Jin set the wheels in motion . He let Ling Jundong file a cooperation application with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of Z .

“Alright! We agree to co-operate . Both of us powerhouses shall work together to solve the issue of resources completely . ” The space agency gave a quick, positive response .

However, before the cheap space minerals could arrive on the Earth, the production cost of Xing Hai Technologies’s “Fantasy 1st Gen” virtual helmet would need to remain high . It would still be difficult to widely promote the product . At ten thousand dollars per unit, there were not many users that could afford it . However, the Fantasy 1st Gen was not a product that would be pushed to the civilian market . Neither did Chen Jin intend to sell it publicly .

There would only be a maximum of a few hundred units of “Fantasy 1st Gen” virtual helmets made solely for the advanced players of the 100% Science Lab . It had been six years since the game was released and it had caught on faster than Chen Jin had expected . There were already 112 players, consisting of top scientists in various fields across the world that had upgraded to the SSS-tier laboratory . They had probed into the most cutting-edge technology which prevented them to withdraw their technical data because their findings were too advanced compared to those available on earth .

There were also a few scientists whose credits were close to obtaining the “Supreme Laboratory” .

When players attained the supreme level, the gameplay would change . The “Fantasy 1st Gen” virtual helmet would be distributed to them, and the “Supreme Laboratory”, the ultimate pantheon of science established in the lunar base, would be open to them . By then, those players could start making contributions to the technological development of Planet Haierfa .

Chen Jin was also very much looking forward to seeing players entering the pantheon .

…

That night, in the virtual world .

Artificial intelligence Alice reported a situation . “Master, the player that has the most credits in ‘100% Science Lab’ and is only 2000 credits away from gaining access to the Supreme Laboratory has been online for two consecutive weeks . Previously, he would log in to the game every single day . ”

“Are you talking about Edward Vuitton who had come out with the String theory and the M theory? Why hasn’t he been online?”

Edward Vuitton was the most famous physicist and mathematician of the generation . He was recognized as the cream of the crop in the scientific community . In the citation statistics that Stanford University published, he was the one with the highest H index . Even the renowned Hawking was only ranked 24th . He was the person with the highest number of credits in “100% Science Lab . ”

“Perhaps it is because of health issues? He is already 88 years old and is suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure . Could something have happened to him?” said Alice .

Chen Jin’s heart thumped . He was such a notable figure that was only half a step away from the Supreme Laboratory . If something were to happen to him…

“Alice, boot up the global surveillance system . Try and locate Edward and have a look at how he is doing . ”

“Sure, ma…” Alice stopped abruptly and said, “That will no longer be necessary, master . Edward has come online . ”

“Oh, he’s online?” Chen Jin sighed out of relief .

“He sent a message to the system wizard, master . ”

“What did he say?”

“He said he is sorry but he will no longer be able to continue his explorations on the path of truth . He has systemic organ failure and has at most seven more days to live . ”

Chen Jin was shocked .