"Rocket delivery" is not a joke

2024-04-07

Private rocket company Jianyuan Technology recently announced the launch of a research project on using reusable carrier rocket technology to transport express delivery in collaboration with Taobao. The news of "rocket delivery" quickly spread across the internet, and many netizens went to ask Taobao: Are you really joking about April Fool's Day? On April 1st, April Fool's Day, the official Weibo account of Taobao responded to netizens saying that many great things initially seemed like a joke. "Rocket delivery" is like an April Fool's Day joke, but in fact, it is actually a serious scientific research project. The essence of rockets is transportation. In recent years, with the breakthrough of reusable technology, rockets have also expanded from satellite to ground transportation to land transportation, from "interstellar express" to "land express". The point-to-point transportation of rockets, also known as land express delivery, has entered the experimental stage in the United States. SpaceX, an American space exploration technology company, launched a plan as early as 2022 to use a "starship" heavy rocket to transport cargo to various parts of the world within 30 minutes. From a commercial feasibility perspective, rocket delivery has a promising future and is worth exploring. In 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance, and National Defense Science and Industry Bureau jointly issued the "National Medium - and Long Term Development Plan for Civil Space Infrastructure (2015-2025)", which clearly encouraged private enterprises to develop commercial aerospace technology, initiated the transformation process of China's aerospace from a single government led to a combination of government led and market driven, and gave birth to a group of start-up companies in China's commercial aerospace. Jianyuan Technology, established in November 2019, is one of them. The main product of this private rocket company is the "Yuanxing-1" medium to large stainless steel reusable liquid carrier rocket. The rocket head is designed with a express cargo warehouse, with a volume of 120 cubic meters and a capacity to transport 10 tons of goods. The aerospace industry requires significant investment and high risks. Only by finding a sustainable commercialization model can private aerospace companies recover funds through the commercial application of technological achievements, further invest in research and development, and achieve technological iteration and upgrading, forming a virtuous cycle. In 2023, China's annual express delivery business volume reached 132 billion pieces, ranking first in the world for 10 consecutive years. The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing predicts that the total social logistics volume in China will reach 350 trillion yuan in 2023. As a large e-commerce platform, Taobao's huge logistics demand will obviously release huge development space for private aerospace. Taobao and Jianyuan Technology cooperate to explore rocket delivery, which not only supports China's space exploration of new commercialization paths, but also improves the logistics and transportation efficiency of e-commerce express delivery. This means that the customers who will pay for rocket transportation capacity in the future are no longer limited to the current government and enterprises, but will expand to the general public consumers. From a technical feasibility perspective, rocket delivery is very immature and requires patience. Reusable rocket technology is the key to achieving the commercial goal of rocket delivery. At present, the cost of rocket delivery is too high, and it can only be applied in special scenarios such as the delivery of large amounts of emergency supplies in the early stage. To reduce rocket launch costs, the first step is to achieve reuse. For example, 70% of the cost of a rocket is in the first stage, and once the first stage is reused, the overall cost will significantly decrease; Secondly, in reusable rockets, stainless steel is used as the main material to replace traditional materials

Edit:    Responsible editor:

Source:

Special statement: if the pictures and texts reproduced or quoted on this site infringe your legitimate rights and interests, please contact this site, and this site will correct and delete them in time. For copyright issues and website cooperation, please contact through outlook new era email:lwxsd@liaowanghn.com

Return to list

Recommended Reading Change it

Links

Submission mailbox:lwxsd@liaowanghn.com Tel:020-817896455

粤ICP备19140089号 Copyright © 2019 by www.lwxsd.com.all rights reserved

>