Three small partners of the rocket dream: Flying ideal country or castles in the sky

It times Sun Yu the same dream of three people in the 1993, the Hu Zhenyu investment of 10 million yuan was established in January 2 this year, so far only 3 members. Three partners have a clear division of labor. Hu Zhenyu recently saw a variety of investors, and initially he gave the team a billion estimate, with an investor of 16 million and a 16% stake. Recently, however, he has adjusted his goal: after careful decision, we now plan to postpone the 16 million-dollar financing plan, which will be a small scale in the incubation stage, with a scale of around 3 million yuan, with a lower valuation relative to the target of 100 million yuan. "The purpose of this financing is to strengthen the future market access to the product base for phased sample rockets" to provide financial support. Good at chemistry Hu Zhenyu to rocket booster production is very research, booster by the fuel and oxidizer produced, burning on the ground to form a reaction, the rocket into space, recently, he was in the new composite solid propellant (APCP) to improve the formulation and production scale upgrade, More than half a month will be the engine ground test. Shing put forward the concept of "sounding rocket commercial operation" for the fast intercontinental traffic of manned sub-orbit, he is currently studying for a PhD in aeronautics and astronautics at Tsinghua University, and has been a top student in physics at the Hkust, after entering the University of Michigan to obtain a master's degree in aerospace technology and a two-year engineer in the United States. As a result of the policy, it is difficult for Hong Kong people to enter the space science and technology system between China and America, and to establish private space companies is a way to Shing. At first, Hu Zhenyu was a Shing supplier, providing some necessary equipment and raw materials for the Tsinghua Laboratory, with many contacts and finding kindred spirits. Another partner, Wu Xiaofei, is busy in a plot at his hometown in Jiangsu, he squatted in the July noon of the big sun painted blue paint, this is the building of the liquid Engine ground test system, it can allow a larger size of the engine for longer testing, while real-time acquisition of a number of modules of the push, Pressure and temperature characterization data. Four years ago, Wu Xiaofei like rockets, but only some solid rocket motor in the lowest end of the fuel, in the domestic amateur, no one successfully made liquid engine, so I decided to do it, through the research literature, made a liquid engine. "Chinese version of SpaceX", Ling passenger space by the media so called, because they want to do the cause of private aerospace, in this field, Ellon MASC founder of the company SpaceX is considered to be the leader, his other company called Tesla. SpaceX, a private rocket, China, is the key word of the flight, its flying ideals have attracted much attention, just because of its foot in the private capital to advance the pace of space. Dream: Intercontinental manned rockets half an hour from China to the United States manned sub-orbit rapid intercontinental traffic is my idea, such as through the intercontinental manned rockets, passengers from China to the United States, only half an hour. Rockets up to 1200 kilometers of space, in the air through ignition, jet and other means, real-time correction direction, position,and landed within a predetermined range. "The average plane is 10 kilometres above land, and the manned rocket is 120 times times the altitude of the plane." Passenger cabin can accommodate two to four people, need a pilot, Shing don't feel this unreachable, less than 20 can be achieved. "How to solve the human body in the rocket rise and fall in the process of discomfort?" "We certainly have a range of solutions, such as speed adjustment, the use of idiosyncratic materials, and the user experience will be great." At present Virgin space travel is only a few minutes, intercontinental manned rockets can experience space travel, but also to achieve traffic function. Shing answered the IT Times reporter. However, one space researcher questioned: Intercontinental manned traffic, the use of rockets to replace aircraft, not a good line. Intercontinental launch is generally missiles, this is the national secret protection of the military industry, the state will not let them launch, the United States is not afraid to receive, with trans-continent space carrier transport people, 50 years can not be achieved. However, the industry believes that the world between the round-trip transport, such as spaceship technology, it is possible to achieve private, technically not particularly difficult to break through. Last June, Shing launched a small rocket and successfully recycled a range of data, including the speed at which the Rockets traveled at different altitudes and locations. Hu Zhenyu launched a small rocket last July and was widely reported by the media, but he was not able to recycle valid data, just launch. Young people launch small rockets, not new. As early as in 2006, 14 undergraduates from Beihang University independently designed sounding rocket, and successfully launched at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. 2008, the Beihang second "also launched successfully." The aerospace personage introduced, the one of the "Beihang University No. Second" launch by the school investment funds, private aerospace business to develop, must find financial support. "Question: Where is the money?" Where is the market? What is the business model? "Angel investor Michael just listened to the IT Times reporter talk about this project, without hesitation asked: it can make money?" I can't see. I want profits and business returns. "Shing is not worried about the profit model: sounding rocket launch services for universities and research institutes, selling peripheral products in the development process, such as engines, test consoles, etc. Sounding rockets are used to explore space, the environment, carry out microgravity experiments, and, in weightlessness, efficiently perform experiments that cannot be carried out under ground gravity conditions, such as technical validation experiments, which detect whether the communication hardware planned to be launched into space meets the specifications and strength. Sounding rockets can be launched at a height of 270 kilometres. At present, the rocket has risen to 100 kilometres and has entered the orbit of space. If we need to stay in the air for a long time to collect atmospheric information, we will use balloons, Wi-Fi and other instruments, sounding rockets are suitable for collecting data at high accelerations and loads. The rocket was launched to a high altitude, and the time of weightlessness was only a few minutes, and the current record was not more than 10 minutes. "Shing said. However, the research market is too small for investors to consider their financing weakness. National government agencies, sectionsResearch all that much demand? If there is demand, why should we find a private organization? Those who do projects for the country, have the confidence of the enterprise, even if the state-owned enterprises into private, and the relationship between the government is still, they certainly have more high-precision, security requirements. Pre-angel investment manager Wang Chunli has been involved in a number of High-tech smart products, hardware investment. We know that research institutes also think that the country is too expensive to buy, performance is not enough, and there is no choice. "Shing is very optimistic, we sell peripheral products, will be on their own, the core of their own processing, control quality, at present, many of our processes have been machine, the next step will be automated." "The more qualified, the background of the units and institutions are also ambitious to enter the private aerospace industry." Private aerospace? Isn't this our school project? Sorry, I can't answer it. Said a reporter in the University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in an interview. Fog: A combination of policy and technology risk shows that the space industry 1 of dollars of input, will return 7 to 12 U.S. dollars, high return on investment so many private capital of aerospace technology civilian has a high interest, and Ling passenger space 10 million yuan of capital in this field seems to be a little something. In the mist, there is the policy of not seeing clearly. An aerospace insider revealed that the aerospace system enterprises are the main problem is the cost and management, aerospace is the state-owned enterprises, management costs eventually superimposed on components, thereby pushing up the unit price, the introduction of private enterprises, promote competition, reduce costs, now the country has a policy to encourage private enterprises to enter the space field, The advantage of private enterprises is to control the cost. But there is a risk in policy and it is not clear when the country will be able to introduce policies. "Private enterprises are not fully equipped with the development of aerospace products such as comprehensive high-tech conditions." Professor Zheng of Beihang University believes that the creation and development of any technology companies need to have the talent, money, technology, market and institutional environment conditions, meaningful and valuable space product development tasks, a number of specialized High-tech personnel and a large amount of funds to complete. "Manufacturing risk, weak domestic processing capacity, is considered to be another pain point." The United States has a strong basic industry, China needs to import foreign high-end components, but the U.S. export restrictions on China. SpaceX company's success, in Zheng's view, because the United States has a civil development of aerospace conditions, the development of aerospace and other complex High-tech products required technology and talent can be easily from outside the company to seek and receive support, the company's limited resources are mainly used in product creativity and design, Our society does not yet have such conditions. "Hu Zhenyu saw a lot of investors, and accumulated the face of the": When investors raise eyebrows, open eyes to give him a look, he understood that he was recognized; when investors ignore no light, he will continue to introduce his entrepreneurial philosophy. It is sometimes an idealistic encouragement to support his power. A IDG VC told Hu Zhenyu: When the amount of investment rises to tens of millions of dollars, they don't care whether the money can beSomething, but you, the team, can stick to what an outsider seems to be unable to accomplish.