Huang He and Leng Zhiruo spent three days with their son in the training camp before reluctantly parting ways again. Huang Fan plunged back into rigorous studies and training, while Huang He rushed to the West Sea Satellite Launch Center.
This was a satellite launch center that did not exist in the original world. It was jointly invested and developed by Jiangnan Group and the Aviation Science Academy, with its main business being commercial satellite launches.
However, at present, this launch center had only one customer: Jiangnan Group itself. And Jiangnan Group had an extremely important plan that would take its first step today: the Zhou Tian Star Array Plan.
While this plan sounded like something out of a fantasy novel, it was actually a communication plan. To put it more simply, it was the Starlink plan conceived by Musk in another world, which Boss Huang had brought to this world.
However, the Starlink plan was not new. As early as the 1930s, someone had proposed deploying radio telegraph signal stations into space to build a supercomputer network capable of covering the entire world with telegraph signals.
This plan was aborted because the telephone quickly rendered radio telegraph obsolete. Subsequently, the United States launched the world's first satellite, and plans to use satellites to achieve full telephone signal coverage were proposed.
This plan was largely realized, and humans could indeed make calls anywhere in the world using satellites. However, the cost of these satellite phones was astonishingly high, and the signal quality in some areas was very poor. Sometimes, one had to wait for fixed times for the communication satellite to pass overhead before being able to make a call.
This was why it was said that the plan was only half successful, because satellite phones did not reach all users and remained in the hands of a select few.
Then, in the 1990s, Motorola confidently proposed the Iridium project. They planned to launch 66 satellites into space, which would then form a stable mobile communication network.
This way, humans would not need to build any communication base stations on the ground. They could directly rely on satellites in space to achieve the grand vision of communicating with anyone anywhere in the world using mobile phones.
Motorola devoted nearly ten years to this massive and ambitious plan, investing all funds from selling mobile phones and various communication equipment into the Iridium project. In 1998, the plan was indeed successful.
With the help of Russia's commercial rocket launch services, Motorola successfully launched 66 satellites into fixed orbits. Simultaneously, Iridium began operations, and a technological marvel was on the verge of being realized.
However, six months later, Iridium declared bankruptcy, and the 66 launched satellites ultimately became space debris.
Many reasons were later summarized for the catastrophic failure of the entire plan, such as the immense research and development costs and unreliable communication quality.
But Boss Huang, with his incisive observation, stated that the core reason was simply: it was too expensive.
Although the usage fees for the Iridium project were much cheaper than satellite phones, the average monthly bill still amounted to an astonishing $1,200. Even in the United States, this was a price that 98% of users could not afford.
Even more fatal was that users could enjoy similar services at a lower price.
When the Iridium project was in development, there were very few communication base stations globally. Only a few major cities had base stations. 95% of users still relied on landlines for communication, and mobile phone bills were a staggering $2,400 per month.
At this time, the Iridium project envisioned an incredibly bright future.
Once the Iridium project was successful, 56% of the world's regions would instantly have mobile communication capabilities. Everyone could use a Motorola phone to communicate with anyone, and the phone bills would also drop to $1,200.
By all accounts, it was far more perfect than the existing communication methods on the market, so the Motorola board of directors unhesitatingly approved the plan.
Unfortunately, by the time the plan was realized, ten years had passed. By then, except for some impoverished areas in Africa, most major cities in other parts of the world had already established mobile communication base stations. Mobile phones could successfully dial any landline or mobile phone, with a coverage range even wider than that of the Iridium project.
Although the phone bills were still high, around $200 per month, they were still significantly cheaper than those of the Iridium project. Therefore, the communication services and prices offered by Iridium appeared to outsiders as outright robbery.
While robbing them, they were also treating the victims as fools. The failure of the Iridium project was therefore inevitable.
After the Iridium project, the next to attempt a similar venture was Musk's Starlink project.
Of course, the goal was no longer mobile phone signals but a mobile internet network that would span the entire globe.
In fact, Musk's Starlink project was also ill-timed, just as the Iridium project began execution when humanity's mobile communication base stations had already covered the globe.
When Musk's Starlink project began execution, 4G networks had already covered the globe. In almost any part of China, 4G signals could be used normally, and the fees had dropped to a level that ordinary families could afford. By all accounts, this was a very foolish timing.
Yet, the Starlink project was launched. The reason Musk was so confident in launching the Starlink project was that he still believed Starlink had an irreplaceable advantage: its coverage.
Some people might wonder, by 2017, hadn't the 4G network already covered the globe? They could use 4G networks smoothly everywhere.
This was actually a misconception unique to Chinese people. Due to the almost insane investment in base stations by Chinese communication companies, China had indeed achieved basic 4G network coverage.
Except for some remote mountainous areas, wherever there were concentrated populations, network signals covered them.
However, this experience was limited to China. Many people mistakenly believed that the entire world was the same.
In fact, even in the United States, 4G signals covered less than 20% of the area, with over 80% of the landmass lacking 4G signals.
Other countries were more or less in the same situation, not to mention deserts, oceans, and other places where humans did not live in large numbers, where 4G signals were non-existent.
The Starlink project could serve these customers well. To be fair, after the launch of the Starlink project, many ocean-going vessels were the first to install Starlink, which greatly reduced their internet usage costs at sea.
In addition, many American farmers, small tycoons in Africa, and others purchased Starlink ground receivers, allowing them to use the internet smoothly in places where base stations were almost non-existent.
Later, the Starlink project opened up a new use case: war zones.
In war zones, various infrastructures were basically destroyed. Opponents would also fiercely bomb core facilities such as power stations and network data centers.
Once war began, areas and cities covered by artillery fire would be completely cut off from the internet, making Starlink their only means of accessing the internet.
In addition, in the event of the complete collapse of the domestic command and communication system, directly using Starlink for command was also an excellent option. The prerequisite was that you were not an enemy of the United States, and the United States did not prohibit you from using Starlink.
Overall, Musk's Starlink project had its merits and practical applications, but the road to achieving profitability in a short period was still very long.
So, the question returned to Boss Huang. Since he knew the problems with the Starlink project and was aware that it was a difficult plan to make money, why did he pick up the Starlink project again in this world and turn it into his own Zhou Tian Star Array Plan?
The reasons were complex, the most important one being to maintain his own network control. More than half of Jiangnan Group's core businesses relied on the network to operate.
And Jiangnan Group's biggest source of cash flow, the 00 network, was entirely profitable through the network.
If, in the future, some changes occurred that led major countries in the world to directly prohibit the use of the internet for Jiangnan Group's network products, then Jiangnan Group would face the risk of direct collapse.
This situation might seem like a fantasy, but Boss Huang knew that such an order was merely a matter of words.
A disaster that killed thousands of people could be easily glossed over. Then, prohibiting Jiangnan Group from accessing the internet for the sake of so-called national interests would be incredibly simple.
To prevent this situation, the Zhou Tian Star Array Plan became a necessity.
This way, even if some countries prohibited Jiangnan Group from revealing their network to their own countries, as long as the Zhou Tian Star Array remained above their heads, people in any country could rely on the Zhou Tian Star Array to access the internet. This would completely resolve Jiangnan Group's biggest hidden danger, which was the core reason Boss Huang forcefully pushed this plan forward despite the massive investment.
Of course, Boss Huang was not a philanthropist. While spending hundreds of billions of dollars for his son was normal, he couldn't spend another tens of billions of dollars on the Zhou Tian Star Array Plan for a risk that might not even materialize. Therefore, this plan had to make money, or at least have the theoretical possibility of making money.