Hollywood Hunter

Monday, March 4.

A factory building in the former site of Hughes Aircraft Company in the Playa Vista area in the southern suburbs of Los Angeles.

Simon arrived on time at eight o'clock in the morning.

In the past 24 hours, this 70-meter-long and 30-meter-wide workshop is about the size of a large-scale studio of a studio. The air that diffuses the arc of the welding arc is also mixed with an obvious smell of sweat, indicating that someone is experiencing here. A long uninterrupted work.

Not counting the staff responsible for judging or assisting, the 50 interviewers yesterday, there are only 43 people left at this time, a total of nine groups, as Simon had previously expected, half of the team continued to work, but to Simon’s satisfaction Yes, the team that has completed its own project has no rest and is helping others.

Simon ignored the reason why the other 7 people left, and personally declared the end of the interview time, directly letting the accompanying NASA test team begin to check the rocket accessories made by the interviewers.The field of aerospace lasts for half a century. NASA has a complete set of standard protocols for various hardware and software related to aerospace.

The exhausted interviewees were taken to an apartment next door to wash, and there will be Elite beautiful models to bring breakfast.

Simon was not idle, sitting at a work desk and personally reviewing the detailed records of the judging team's work for each group of interviewers in the past 24 hours. The judges were all professionals in the field of NASA rocket testing. Simon did not intend to hire these people It's more than enough to temporarily recruit a job as an interviewer.

This is only the third round of interviews and will not confirm the final result.

Simon also did not plan to confirm whether to hire the other party according to whether each group of teams completed their tasks. He prefers to judge whether the parties meet their own requirements based on the interviewer's records.

Half an hour later, the interviewers returned from the apartment next door. The inspection by the NASA team continued. A row of seats lined up on the side of the plant near the entrance. More than ten tall and beautiful girls were setting breakfast After seeing the crowd returning, several of the girls kindly invited everyone to sit down.

The fourth time.

From yesterday to the present, a total of four waves of beautiful girls have delivered meals. One by one, most of the interviewees who are single men, regardless of their appearance or body, have blood swelled. Some of the more open guys have come forward to talk to them. Even when it comes to contact information, everyone knows that this is a professional model Simon Westerot hired to deliver food to them.

Various foods including one day and one night, even cover Italian, French, Chinese, Mexican and other national cuisines. Even if most of them have rich incomes, they are usually not easy to eat.

Gourmet plus beauty.

Tacky!

This was the first reaction of some interviewers who understood Simon Westero's intention.

However, if you can, please continue!

Elon Musk returned with three other teammates who gathered together yesterday, and he also replaced a set of brand-new clothes provided here. Even if there is no rest for 24 hours, the mood of several people at this time is also a little excited, especially It was to see a group of beautiful girls appear, and it was even more exciting.

Looking a little bit, this wave of girls changed people again, but still a long face with thin waist and beautiful face.

If you can marry one, you will definitely not lose.

Of course, everyone's more thoughts at this time are still on whether they can get this job, a little knowledge of the human world, and they can feel the importance of Simon Westeros to SpaceX from the details of yesterday to the present. The past 24 Within hours, during a busy discussion with the small team, several people in Musk also discovered something.

Simon Westero promotes the development of the Internet industry in one hand. The core is three companies, Cisco, AOL and Igreat. The three companies cover the three major areas of Internet equipment providers, Internet service providers and Internet content providers. It constitutes a completed industrial chain.

right now,

This is an obvious reference.

Look at this time again, SpaceX,,, three companies, one is aviation, one is solar energy, and the other is nuclear fusion. Even though it is not as closely related as Cisco, AOL, and Igreat, it also involves humanity. An entire industrial chain in space.

SpaceX provides space technology to send humans out of the earth.

The provided photovoltaic technology can be widely used in space.

The controllable nuclear fusion technology provided is the fundamental energy source for mankind's desire for space and further development. Otherwise, relying only on the mainstream fossil energy at this stage cannot support human expansion in the solar system and beyond.

Half a century ago, with the continuous breakthroughs in the aerospace field, many people began to imagine that mankind entered the space age, but this day has not been able to come.

Now, according to Simon Westero's plan, all this may really be possible.

At nine o'clock, everyone had returned, and quickly ate breakfast, Simon also came from the work area, holding a thing in the appearance of ordinary people similar to hydraulic jacks, but these people on the scene were As everyone knows, Simon is in the hands of an aviation actuator, which is a component commonly used in the aviation field to achieve the balance or steering of aircraft, rockets and other spacecraft through hydraulic transmission.

A group of Elon Musk sitting together couldn't help but looked at each other, his eyes flickered.

The parts that Simon Westero took at this time were officially their work of a group of four. In fact, the Musk group was originally a group of five. One of them failed to stick to it yesterday, thinking that this job is a waste of time. , So I took the initiative to launch before noon.

Elon Musk remembers that the guy introduced himself as a dual master of quantum physics and mechanical engineering at Stanford University. He is a proud guy. It’s a pity for the guy’s launch. Otherwise, they should be able to Complete your work within 12 hours, and also be able to earn points by helping others.

After the other party withdrew, a group of four people finally spent 21 hours. In order to process the drive shaft of the actuator, the four people even learned how to use a precision lathe in this 21-hour period. The ability of ordinary people to learn makes the lathe mechanic who is responsible for helping to ensure safety a bit dumbfounded.

The key is that the parts processed after the temporary learning of four people fully meet the requirements.

Simon came to the center of the row of tables and patted the aero actuator on the table, beckoning everyone not to get up, smiling with a smile: "Although some of you haven't been able to finish the work, I have seen it and still stay All of them have done their best. What I want to say is that if you get this job, this will be your future work status."

Simon's voice fell, and a tall, brown-haired young man by the table raised his hand slightly. Simon got a gesture and smiled at the food on the table and the models who were still in the nearby lounge area: "Mr. Westeros, this is also the ?"

Everyone laughed.

Simon didn’t mind this kind of cross-cutting. He also smiled and said, "The girls over there are just coming to help you improve your spirit. If you still want to follow up, you have to meet them yourself. However, for food, Although you can’t meet the standard of the last four meals, because you are all the elites selected by me, the catering standard after entering the job will definitely be more than yours in the original company. Oh, yes, after all, this is Los Angeles, I Site, there will be many opportunities for participating in various star parties in the future, as long as you are interested, there will be many."

Everyone heard, and all sounded satisfied, and the models waiting nearby looked at them curiously.

Simon waited patiently for a moment before signaling to everyone that he was quiet, and then patted the aero actuator in front of him, saying: "It doesn't need me to introduce what it is. Everyone knows more than me. I have to ask, is there People know that if they want to purchase such a professional actuator, what is the quotation in the industry?"

Simon questioned, the young man who had just made a joke immediately said: "I know, about 100,000 US dollars."

Simon nodded slightly and said sharply, "So, what do you think about the cost of this device in my hand?"

Everyone was a little puzzled.

As a party, Elon Musk has understood Simon’s intention to bring the device, and he did not praise them specifically, but he was not disappointed. At this time, he said: "Mr. Westeros..."

Simon interrupted a little: "You can call me Simon."

Elon Musk paused a bit and changed his name: "Simon, this device was made by my team. I don’t know the quotation for various sensors and other parts. However, in my opinion, this device’s The cost should not exceed US$10,000."

"Yes, in fact, regardless of the labor factors you put in, the total value of all the accessories on this device is only $3900, and the actuators of the same type, NASA certified professional manufacturers, are quoted at $120,000," Simon said. After finishing, he looked at the crowd again and continued: "Just NASA's testing team has tested this device, and they scored 10 points. They gave it a score of 9.5, which basically meets the standards of aviation use. Then, 12 Ten thousand US dollars, and 3900 US dollars, do you have any thoughts?"

Everyone heard it and didn't know how to express it for a while.

Simon waited for a moment, no one responded, and said by himself: "I said yesterday that SpaceX is not a big toy invested by a super rich on a whim, but a company that really wants to transform the space field to promote the future of humanity. Therefore, I need You really bring about texture changes to the aerospace industry, not only the technology based on the predecessors but also the cost."

"Traditional aerospace equipment manufacturers, such as Boeing, need to make 1,200 suppliers to provide components, because each supplier needs to ensure their own profits, so the cost of the aerospace industry has been greatly increased, and, because The technology is too scattered, and it also greatly hinders the progress and innovation of the industry. These are all SpaceX needs to abandon. My operating philosophy for SpaceX is to maximize the design and production of all aerospace equipment components, including the core Rocket engines, etc., the ultimate goal is to achieve 100% of the entire industry chain."

"Maybe some of you already think this is a little crazy, how could a company do all the work in the aerospace field on its own."

"But, in the 24 hours from yesterday to now, you have actually proved that you have this ability. The next step is only a further challenge. If you think this is impossible, then you can quit now. If you want to try this Challenge, the last interview, three days, write a detailed readme to me, not those rigid introductions, I want you to describe in detail, in the first workflow of SpaceX's personal design and manufacture of a launch vehicle , What are you competent for?"

"OK, I'll be here today."

Simon finished speaking, and once again swiftly took a group of followers away.

Because it was Monday and the schedule was tight, Simon arrived by helicopter. After the event, the Black Hawk helicopter took off from Playa Vista, crossed the marina del Port where the sea tanker was dense, and flew straight to Malibu on the other side of the Los Angeles Bay. Daenerys Studios.

The work in the morning is still the various trivialities of the Westeros system.

In the afternoon, according to the schedule, return to the recent plans.

Simon departed for San Francisco at two o'clock in the afternoon and arrived in Palo Alto in an hour. In a common office building near Stanford University, there is a start-up company that has been bought by Westero in advance. It is regarded as a new technology field, mainly developing a new concept technology, 3D printing.

Said to be a new concept, in fact, 3D printing has begun to appear in the 1980s, but it has not developed much because of the lack of actual application direction.

In Simon's memory, there was a boom in 3D printing many years later. From the current perspective, it should be more of an industrial operation for obtaining venture capital, and then gradually quieted down.Because 3D printing is difficult to achieve large-scale industrial production, you can only play with the concept. If it is really used to produce cars or shoes, the cost is too high to be cost-effective.

However, Simon remembered the direction that 3D promised to be truly suitable or perfect, in the space field.

3D printing sounds very high-end. In fact, the popular explanation is that it is still a model making technology, but 3D promises to be more high-end, and it can make complex models that cannot be completed by traditional industrial methods.

The most typical memory is the rocket engine.

The traditional manufacturing method is used, because many accessories cannot be formed at one time, and can only be distributed for splicing and assembly. Therefore, a rocket engine has thousands of parts and a long manufacturing cycle. It usually takes six months for a rocket engine. carry out.

In comparison, rocket engines manufactured using 3D printing technology have many complex parts that can be molded at once, and the parts are directly reduced from more than 1,000 to less than 100. In the aerospace field, a single screw often leads to the launch of tens of millions of dollars in rocket launch The reason for the failure is that there are too many parts, which increases the unspecificity of the rocket launch.The number of parts has been reduced to one-tenth of the original, and it is conceivable how much the rocket launch success rate will be promoted.

In addition, 3D printing technology can also significantly shorten the construction cycle of rocket engines.

The reduction of parts, the substantial increase in stability, and the shortened construction period will eventually be reflected in the construction cost of a rocket.

In Simon's vision, if the plan is extended to the entire colonial space cycle, the rocket is definitely a spacecraft that needs to be eliminated. Even if the US space shuttle has suffered various setbacks, it is already on the verge of giving up. Simon also believes that this is the only reason. It is really the right direction and will continue to advance in this direction in the future.

Now, in the short term, what Simon wants to do is to significantly reduce the cost of rocket manufacturing while undergoing technological changes.

SpaceX once proved that these two directions are not contradictory.

As Simon deepened his understanding of the industry, he also firmly believed in this.

Speaking of 3D printing, as long as this technology is practically applied, it is difficult to measure the reduction in spacecraft manufacturing costs. At the same time, 3D promise itself is also a major technological advancement for the entire aerospace industry.

It's like the human laziness driving technological progress.

The pursuit of low cost will also prompt a company to adopt more advanced technology.

The first stage of SpaceX is only to develop a low-cost launch vehicle, which seems not to be an improvement. However, in this process, Simon intends to build on the predecessors as much as possible, and then accumulate various new technologies that have appeared in human society in the past three decades. , This will actually bring about a progress in many fields such as cutting-edge materials, mechanical engineering, electronic technology and so on.

The simultaneous advancement of three companies, including SpaceX, will bring a comprehensive technological leap forward, because these three companies have actually covered all aspects of human science and technology at this stage.