Chapter 595
Wang Yifei: Dad, I must become an astronaut! 2. Technical issues such as oxin!
Guangzhou, Zhujiang New Town.
"Damn it, there are garbage dumps everywhere now. What are we going to do with all this garbage?"
In the bustling city center of Zhujiang New Town, there are many garbage dumps nearby, which greatly affects the appearance of the city.
The district officials were furious, but had no good solutions.
The only solution we can think of right now is to fill the landfills, but that would cost a lot of money.
It's not that no one has considered choosing to use waste sorting and recycling, or waste incineration.
However, waste incineration technology has not made effective progress because mixed waste releases a toxic substance called dioxin during combustion.
This stuff is nine hundred times more poisonous than arsenic.
Once this stuff seeps into the environment, it is very difficult to degrade and eliminate naturally, hence its nickname "the poison of the century".
Therefore, waste incineration technology is not advisable.
However, learning from foreign waste sorting and recycling practices might solve part of the waste problem.
However, with the rapid economic development in mainland China, the rate at which waste is generated is also unparalleled.
Sacrificing profits to protect the environment is not advisable, as it could very well cause our current high economic growth momentum to reverse instantly.
After a year of hard work, if you take stock at the end of the year and find that a large portion of your profits went to garbage disposal, you'll definitely be furious.
After all, garbage sorting, recycling, and incineration require a lot of money. Besides, the elderly scavenging teams will collect and sell the recyclable bottles and cans as soon as possible, so they definitely won't let the garbage recycling companies make money.
Therefore, this method is absolutely not feasible.
However, some people abroad have already done this. After all, their development speed is faster and they started earlier than us. They have also caused more damage to the environment, so naturally their demands for environmental protection are greater than ours.
In earlier years, issues such as the ozone hole and the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide were hot topics of close concern to countries around the world.
However, since everyone is focused on development, they naturally don't pay much attention to environmental protection issues.
For example, India, the dominant power in South Asia, is slowly developing into a garbage-producing country.
In Mumbai, the wealthy areas are just one street away from the slums.
Mumbai's slums are notorious, even reported by the international community, but India continues to do as it pleases and ignores the issue.
"Submit the report and ask your superiors if it can be discussed at next year's meeting."
Cities such as Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing, Nanjing, and Harbin have seen numerous discussions about how to handle waste.
The relevant discussion documents on this issue have been compiled and placed in the Wenjin Street compound.
Regarding this issue, relevant technical experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences are also discussing it.
But after all the discussions, the most important thing is still to solve the dioxin problem.
If technical problems such as dioxins generated during the co-combustion of waste cannot be solved, then the problem of garbage mountains will naturally remain unsolved.
In the future, there will definitely be more and more garbage, and relying solely on garbage sorting will certainly not be feasible.
Therefore, we still need to solve the problem of waste incineration. Only in this way can we solve the problem once and for all.
Moreover, burning garbage can generate electricity, providing the city with power, which can be considered waste utilization and turning waste into treasure.
The principle is the same as that of two oil extraction technologies: secondary pressing and solvent extraction.
Wang Duoyu brought his family to Beijing. Liu Xiaoli stayed home to take care of the child, while Wang Yifei went out with him.
The car headed to a secret base in the suburbs. Wang Duoyu gave instructions in the car:
"Since it's summer vacation now, you can go and take a look first. If you're still interested, I'll let you get used to it in advance. Only after you pass the assessment can you participate in astronaut training."
"Okay, Brother Big Fish, don't worry, I will definitely listen to you."
Upon hearing her assurance, Wang Duoyu rolled his eyes.
If he hadn't accidentally let her find out about his trip to the moon last time, would he have been so easily manipulated?
After learning that she could go to space, Wang Yifei showed great interest.
Although she is a pop diva and will definitely be involved in the entertainment industry in the future, she is still young and will certainly not limit herself to just the entertainment industry.
There must be many things in this world that could interest her.
Since she has these advantages now, why not take a chance?
You know, many people don't even have the chance to take a gamble.
If, in the future, a pop diva like her can land on the moon, then she will definitely be the most awesome star.
Actually, she is the most talented star in the entertainment industry right now; after all, no one can compare to her.
Looking at the entertainment industry, which celebrity has a background in mathematics?
There are no Peking University law school hostess or Tsinghua University singers among them; not a single one of them is any good.
That Tsinghua University singer was from the Department of Electronic Engineering, but he wasn't the top scorer in the college entrance exam.
Moreover, Wang Yifei had already debuted before becoming the top scorer in the college entrance examination, and later became a queen of the music scene.
Now he's even investing in movies, preparing to develop his career in the entertainment industry.
When the car arrived at its destination, Wang Duoyu watched his daughter go to the base, while he himself took a car to the Wenjin Street compound.
I'm here for a meeting with the leadership, mainly to address the issue of the garbage mountain.
This problem has become a major obstacle to current economic development.
Especially in the tourism industry, nobody wants to see so much trash in a tourist city, right?
The core concept is to turn waste into treasure.
Although Want Want Group has now mastered controlled nuclear fusion, the mainland can be said to have no shortage of electricity.
However, the small solar device is still in the secrecy stage and cannot be exposed casually. Therefore, the focus on the application of controlled nuclear fusion devices is all done in secrecy.
Try to hide this thing as much as possible.
"Let our Want Want Group research this technology. The dioxin problem isn't a big issue; I believe my technical team can solve it."
After chatting for a short while, Wang Duoyu took the initiative to speak:
"However, I need policy support. After we develop the waste incineration technology, the electricity produced can be sold directly to the State Grid or China Southern Power Grid at market price. But the subsidies for waste recycling and related matters must be given to our Want Want Group."
Despite the current severe problem of garbage mountains, which seriously hinders domestic economic development, Wang Duoyu knows that once the technical problems such as dioxins are solved...
Then waste recycling will form a perfect closed loop of interests, it's practically a hen that places orders.
So naturally he wouldn't let such an opportunity slip by.
Upon hearing this, the leader nodded in agreement. As long as the request wasn't too unreasonable, of course there was no problem.
Want Want Group's development in mainland China has reached an extremely large scale.
However, compared to overseas companies, the Want Want Group in mainland China is quite ordinary.
The sheer size of Want Want Group's overseas assets is even more terrifying; it's worth noting that even the technology for landing on the moon was transferred from the Somali peninsula.
So if Wang Duoyu said that their Want Want Group also possessed science fiction technologies such as interstellar travel, the leaders would definitely believe him.
Seeing that the leader had agreed, Wang Duoyu did not bother him any further.
Anyway, he can meet with the leaders frequently, and he also has their contact information, so he can communicate directly by phone if there is anything.
After leaving the Wenjin Street compound, he went to the training base.
At this moment, Wang Yifei is undergoing weightlessness simulation training in the astronaut training program, which is the most basic training program.
Because in the space environment, one is almost constantly in different weightless or hypergravity conditions, such training is necessary to move on to the next step.
If Wang Yifei wants to become a qualified astronaut, she shouldn't even think about anything else if she can't even pass the most basic training.
However, her physical fitness was excellent, and she passed the test very quickly.
"Big Fish, you're here. How was it? I did pretty well, right?" Wang Yifei's face was pale, but her eyes were full of light.
Seeing her stubbornness, Wang Duoyu snapped his fingers, and soon someone brought over a detailed form of the astronaut training program.
"Take a look at this information first, and we'll talk about other things after you've seen whether you can hold on."
Her pupils dilated instantly after she took the form.
Astronauts need to undergo seven categories of learning and training, and the first category alone left her speechless.
The document in her hand was more than ten pages long. The first page was just the table of contents, and the second page was the first major category of projects, which was the basic theoretical learning.
It's simply to help astronauts grasp the basic knowledge related to manned spaceflight.
It includes advanced mathematics, computer science, flight dynamics, aerodynamics, geophysics, meteorology, astronomy, astronautics, the design principles, structure, navigation and control, equipment testing, and aerospace medicine, among other things.
There are about ten courses to learn, and it's a systematic learning process; it's not enough to simply have a basic understanding of Western medicine.
It's almost equivalent to her having to go back to a complete university, and to a subject that is relatively complex and not so closely related.
The remaining six categories are physical training, psychological training, aerospace environment adaptation training, lifesaving and survival training, flight procedures and mission training, and large-scale joint exercises.
In summary, these seven categories of training programs are dazzling, and the total training time is at least four thousand hours.
If it's the training for professional astronauts, then the duration exceeds six thousand hours, which is basically more than four years.
"Big Fish Bro, is this true? Do I really need to learn so much?"
Wang Yifei looked at her father with disbelief.
"Yes, think back to which year I started frequently going out and not staying in the study or villa at home?"
Three years ago!!!
"That's right. I've been studying for at least three years. You know how fast I learn. Plus, I'm a professional researcher in this field, so I have a huge advantage in this area."
After a pause, Wang Duoyu continued:
"It took me this long, so for you, at the very least it would be four years, and that depends on whether you can stick with it."
"Because training to adapt to the aerospace environment is a minor matter; psychological training is the most difficult part."
Psychological training aims to improve the psychological quality of astronauts. Its courses mainly include psychological education, psychological relaxation training, psychological compatibility training, isolation training in confined environments, and psychological training targeting illusions, etc.
These things may sound simple, but they become quite terrifying during the fourth phase of astronaut training, 'Intensive Preparation'.
Many professional astronauts have failed at the fourth stage.
During his previous astronaut training, Wang Duoyu had visited underground caves several times. In the pitch black, he and his group spent six days and five nights exploring caves.
Systematically cultivate psychological resilience, teamwork, and risk management skills.
Even a training program like this, which focuses on cave exploration, includes many different activities.
For example, they need to complete predetermined tasks such as cave exploration, scientific research, material management, and life support, and also need to overcome many challenges such as fear of the dark and sensory deprivation.
Because cave environments share similarities with extreme conditions in space, such as isolation, confinement, and high risk.
Wang Yifei was dumbfounded. Was it really that complicated?
Just when Wang Duoyu thought she was going to give up, she suddenly said firmly:
"Dad, I must become an astronaut!"
However, she should be in Hollywood now to film a movie. The movie "Fast & Furious" has already started filming, and as an investor and one of the lead actors, she can't not be on set.
Moreover, the production team made a point of accommodating her by concentrating her scenes during the summer vacation.
But she came to Beijing for testing to become an astronaut, which has already delayed her for almost a week. This is definitely not acceptable.
Every extra day the production is delayed costs the crew hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"Alright, then take care of yourself. We'll talk more when you get back."
Seeing that his daughter was so stubborn, Wang Duoyu didn't bother to persuade her.
She probably just had a whim, and she'll soon find out what real difficulties are.
Being an astronaut isn't something you can just talk about.
His daughter went to Hollywood to become an actress, while Wang Duoyu plunged into his office and began researching new technologies.
Regarding the garbage issue, he has handed it over to Yabofein and his team to handle.
However, when Zheng Baoyin and his team heard that Want Want Group was to take full responsibility for this matter, they were dumbfounded.
"Uncle, this is a huge problem, we can't touch it."
Want Want Group is a high-end multinational corporation, so why would it suddenly want to expand into a business like waste recycling?
Although research projects on co-incineration technology for waste and solving dioxin problems may sound sophisticated, these are indeed difficult technical issues to address.
Anyway, foreign countries have been talking about it for decades, but it still hasn't been solved.
But waste recycling is just waste recycling. Why don't so many wealthy companies in China, especially state-owned enterprises and central enterprises, get involved in it?
Is it because they don't have money? Or because they lack the skills?
Wang Jianchao and his colleagues all opposed the idea and advised against Want Want Group taking over the business. (End of Chapter)