Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 180 I Never Fail! (6K)

Lin Ran shook his head and said:
"Of course not."

As I just explained, there are four possibilities if we cooperate with Soviet Russia.

Without us, the chances of Gagarin returning are 5%, or even less than 5%.

But with our assistance, the chances of him returning may increase to 30%.

It's still very little, but better than nothing.

Honig then asked, "Professor, based on my understanding of NASA's progress, our spacecraft are still in the design phase. Where would we get a spacecraft to provide for Gagarin's return?"

Lin Ran explained, "Who said we were going to provide a spaceship?"
Our mission this year was to achieve a soft landing on the moon.

What we need to do is remove all the original sensors, lunar rovers, and radio equipment from the spacecraft that lands on the moon, and replace them with fuel storage equipment.

We will send the fuel to the moon, where Gagarin will manually complete the docking and fuel transfer.

Mr. President, this plan requires both of us to accurately calculate the launch window and orbital parameters.

I believe the Soviet Union has now determined its launch window.

Therefore, what we need to do is get the Soviets to provide us with as much complete data as possible, the more data the better, and the more complete the data the better.

Only then can I ensure that our spacecraft launch will land in the same area of ​​the moon as Gagarin, and that he will be able to locate our refueling tanks and bring them back to the spacecraft during his extravehicular activity (EVA) period.

So we don't have much time left.

McNamara was well aware of the difficulty: "Professor, you mean you calculate our launch window and orbital parameters based on their launch window and orbital parameters?"

"How can we ensure that our landing point is no more than five kilometers away from Gagarin's?"

Lin Ran nodded and said, "That's right, and they launched first, and we launched later."

I also need to make sure that after Gagarin lands on the moon, he can visually observe our lunar module landing from there, so he knows where to retrieve the fuel supply packs we've prepared for him.

The Honnigs were dumbfounded; to be precise, everyone present who knew a little about the subject was dumbfounded.

"Professor, can you really do it?" Honig asked.

McNamara murmured, "If anyone in this world could do this, I think it would probably be the professor!"

It's rumored that the chances of the Apollo moon landings returning safely are roughly equivalent to the chances of humans crossing the Pacific Ocean in a washing machine.

That statement is an exaggeration.

But the solution Lin Ran proposed, at this point in time, is indeed comparable to a washing machine crossing the Pacific Ocean.

There are too many difficulties to overcome.

The first step is a soft landing, which requires the spacecraft to slow to near zero upon contact with the lunar surface to ensure that the equipment remains intact and can continue to perform subsequent tasks.

The Americas had never successfully achieved a soft landing before.

If a soft landing is not achieved, the fuel tanks would pose a significant risk of exploding upon impact with the lunar surface.

Secondly, there is the issue of accuracy. In terms of accuracy, it is necessary to calculate the impact point of the other party. Since the two sides launch from Earth at different times and from different launch points, the final requirement is that the impact points are almost identical.

Finally, there's the time; the landing times on the moon can't differ too much.

The requirements were too high from every perspective.

After listening, Lyndon Johnson asked, "Professor, how confident are you?"

Lin Ran said, "I'm 30 percent, at most 30 percent confident, that Gagarin can successfully return to Earth."

Lyndon Johnson nodded and said, "Okay, Professor, I understand. I need to think about it some more."

Lin Ran said, "Okay, Mr. President, let me remind you that the sooner you make your decision, the higher the probability that Gagarin will be saved."

Our time is really running out.

Lyndon Johnson was experiencing intense internal turmoil.

He didn't want to be blamed for the failure of the space race during his term, nor did he want the two sides to cooperate in sending a Soviet citizen into space and bringing him back safely.

Lin Ran was right. If America could help bring it back, it would definitely mitigate the impact of the Soviet Union's first moon landing in the space race to the greatest extent. But after all, this was a collaboration between America and the Soviet Union.

The military and hardliners in Washington had long been dissatisfied with Kennedy's conciliatory approach to the Soviet Union, and Lyndon Johnson shared the same concerns.

"Professor, the president has asked you to stay in a White House guest room for one night. He may want to discuss countermeasures with you at any time."

One by one, the people in the presidential office left. As Lin Ran left, the White House Chief of Staff quickly walked up to him and whispered something in his ear.

Lin Ran nodded and said, "Okay."

In the end, only three people remained in the Oval Office: Lyndon Johnson, Jack Valentine, and Hubert Humphrey.

Jack Valentine has been a close confidant of Lyndon Johnson for many years and a core member of Johnson's team.

Hubert Humphrey is not the Humphrey from "Yes, Minister," but rather Lyndon Johnson's Vice President.

Both were among Lyndon Johnson's closest confidants.

"Gentlemen, I'd like to hear your opinions."

Jack Valentine spoke first: "I think the professor's opinion makes sense. If we only consider the perspective of public opinion, this is definitely the most effective way to quell public opinion."

Gagarin returned, thanks to our efforts; Gagarin didn't return, the Soviets sent him to his death in order to win the space race.

Regardless, we have occupied the moral high ground.

However, this will also cause dissatisfaction among some people, and some hardliners against the Soviet Union.

But if we do nothing, we will also face a problem: we will have to confront the Soviet Union's powerful propaganda offensive.

Mr. President, I believe you have also seen the immense pressure President Eisenhower faced in the media after the Sputnik moment.

Even Nixon's eventual defeat to President Kennedy was partly influenced by the Sputnik moment.

The Soviet Union's achievement of landing on the moon first was undoubtedly far worse than Sputnik's.

Our cooperation with Soviet Russia displeased the conservatives; our refusal to cooperate with Soviet Russia will affect your reputation and approval ratings.

That's enough.

The Sputnik moment refers to the launch of the first artificial satellite by the Soviet Union and Russia, which the media portrayed as a landmark event signifying the Soviet Union's technological leapfrog development.

After Valenti finished speaking, Humphrey continued, "Johnson, I think we should cooperate with the Soviet Union."

You know, this has always been my stance.

We should cooperate on some international issues; the Cold War was not a situation where only confrontation and not cooperation were permissible.

Furthermore, cooperating with the Soviet Union and Russia in space was President Kennedy's dying wish, and we are helping him fulfill it.

Unlike Jack Valentine, whose statements were all based on Johnson's interests, Humphrey, as vice president, still had some of his own political ideals.

His consistent advocacy has been for nuclear disarmament and international cooperation.

In addition to advocating for easing relations and limited cooperation with Soviet Russia, Humphrey also advocated for "increasingly encouraging autonomy and freedom of action of other countries in the Soviet bloc."

To put it bluntly, he believed that it was necessary to divide the relationship between Soviet Russia and its allies, and to use a more inclusive stance to divide Soviet Russia's allies.

When Humphrey expressed his political views in a speech, he used China as an example.

He believed that the differences between China and Soviet Russia should be used to encourage China to engage with liberal countries through diplomatic and economic means, thereby promoting a more independent stance for China on the international stage.

After the two finished speaking, Lyndon Johnson fell into deep thought, and after a moment said, "As you know, it's not just the conservatives who don't want to ease relations with the Soviet Union and end the Cold War; the military does too."

Humphrey nodded: "Of course I know. It's not good for the military to stop the Cold War and carry out large-scale disarmament."

The problem is that our cooperation in the space field is limited; it is the Soviet Union and Russia that give us the data, not the other way around.

I believe that, given our large-scale amphibious landing operation in Baiyue next year, this has fully demonstrated the White House's determination and will to confront the Soviet Union.

A single collaboration in space wouldn't provoke much opposition from the military.

Humphrey knew that Lyndon Johnson was worried about ending up like Kennedy.

That gunshot served as a constant reminder to Lyndon Johnson: you may be president, but if you cross the line, we can make you nothing.

“Okay, I understand,” Lyndon Johnson said.

He thought for a moment, then got up and walked to the phone.

"Edgar? This is Lyndon Johnson."

“Mr. President, is there something important happening so late?” Edgar Hoover’s voice came through the phone.

After Lyndon Johnson gave a general description of the situation, he asked, "Edgar, based on your intelligence gathering among the public, what is the public's attitude towards our cooperation with the Soviet Union on space?"

On the other end of the phone, Hoover was already overwhelmed by the Soviets.

He never imagined that the Soviets would have so much bombshell information. Some of it he had actually done, and some he absolutely hadn't, but the Soviets had photos, and once they were released, regardless of whether he had done it or not, he was finished.

When Hoover heard this, he knew that Johnson was using the guise of soliciting public opinion to actually seek his opinion. After all, given Kennedy's example, it was normal for Lyndon Johnson to respect his opinion.

Considering his current distorted cooperative relationship with the Soviet Union—or, to put it bluntly, being controlled—Hoover said, "Mr. President, I think the White House can decide this matter. Public opinion doesn't matter, does it?"

Upon hearing Hoover's statement, Lyndon Johnson made up his mind: "Where's the professor, Valentine? Get him here for me."

Lin Ran was certainly not asleep at this moment. He was thinking a lot, because in this timeline, achieving a moon landing several years ahead of schedule was no easy feat. Considering the limited effectiveness of spacesuits at this time, the landing point could only be within a range of about two kilometers from Gagarin's.

“Professor, I’ve made up my mind. We’re going to cooperate with the Soviets,” Lyndon Johnson said.

After listening, Lin Ran sighed, "Indeed, we still have to go to space."

Such a spirit of international cooperation is only seen in the aerospace field.

During the Cold War, Gagarin became a global icon and was able to gain a great deal of prestige within the liberal camp.

Even after the Cold War ended, there were international collaborative projects like the International Space Station.

"Okay, then there's only one last issue: cooperation still requires the consent of the Soviet Union. They need to provide us with as much complete data as possible."

"The more complete the data they provide, from the launch time to the data collected by the sensors during the launch process, the higher our chances of success," Lin Ran said.

Lyndon Johnson said, "Leave that to me."

Nikita would be willing to cooperate.

Professor, all you need to do is succeed, and succeed.

I have another question: is it possible for us to do a live stream?

The live broadcast of the American lunar rescue highlighted the fact that Soviet Russia's radio technology lagged behind ours.

Although the people on the other side were Soviet Russians, the rescue operation was carried out by Americans, and the entire event was broadcast live by American television.

Clearly, even a non-expert like Lyndon Johnson knows that America has a very obvious advantage in civilian technology.

Lin Ran thought for a moment: "We can do it perfectly well with just a few simple adjustments."

However, as I said before, time is running out.

We can use slow-scan television technology to transmit images back from the lunar surface in real time.

The only problem is that the image might not be clear enough.

Given the limited energy resources of lunar probes, there are strict requirements on the power consumption and weight of video equipment.

This requires a redesign.

The good news is that our moon landing program has always included live television coverage, so we have a relatively complete solution.

In 1962, America's Telstar satellite achieved the first transatlantic television signal transmission, proving the feasibility of long-distance video transmission.

In 1964, the U.S. Surveyor Program used slow scan television (SSTV) technology to transmit low-resolution black-and-white video from the lunar surface.

In other words, from a purely technical perspective, at this point, the conditions were met for live television broadcasting.

NASA has built a complete deep space network, and high-gain antennas provide the necessary technological foundation for image transmission.

Soviet Russia could do that too.

On the one hand, the Soviet Union wanted to send people up, but it had limited space to carry other equipment, and it might not have enough weight or space to provide for video equipment.

On the other hand, real-time video requires fast data decoding, transmission, and terrestrial decoding technology, and the Soviet Union's signal processing speed was insufficient to achieve real-time video playback.

Taking the image sequence transmitted back by the Soviet Union from Luna 9 in 1966 as an example, each frame took several seconds to transmit, and the whole process was more like slow motion than real-time video.

After Lin Ran finished speaking, Lyndon Johnson excitedly pumped his fist. With this comparison, he wasn't afraid of any accidents.

"Professor, I only have one request: during the design process, the American flag on the fuel tank must be highlighted!"

"The American flag will be visible on camera the entire time," Lyndon Johnson said. "I'll go connect with Nikita via hotline right now."

Lin Ran nodded and said, "Okay, I'm also going to start working on it."

"Also, President Johnson, I may need to speak with Korolev in real time to keep you informed of the situation."

Lyndon Johnson nodded: "I will give you temporary security clearance, and I will issue you a new executive order shortly."

As is well known, America is a country governed by lawyers, with a plethora of legal provisions.

For sensitive technology cooperation like this, let alone with the Soviet Union and Russia, although the National Aeronautics and Space Law does not prohibit space cooperation, there is also the National Security Operations Memorandum 285 which restricts your cooperation with the Soviet Union and Russia. All cooperation involving the Soviet Union and Russia will be strictly reviewed.

The same applies to allies.

In the 70s, due to external pressure, America decided to transfer some nuclear weapons technology to France. However, due to legal restrictions, the White House was not confident that it could circumvent the law. Therefore, their strategy was for the president to sign a license order, and for America's experts to use the "negative guidance" or "twenty questions" method.

The “Twenty Questions” approach involves French experts continuously asking American experts questions, to which the American experts can only answer yes or no, gradually narrowing down the scope until they obtain the answers they desire.

The entire aid process was kept highly secret at the time and Congress was not notified. It was not until the late 1980s that it was exposed by scholar Richard Ullman in his article "The Hidden Connections of France" in Foreign Policy magazine.

Lyndon Johnson agreed so readily because the entire cooperation process involved the Soviet Union providing data to America.

Korolev was startled awake from his sleep. His secretary was waiting outside. He looked closely and saw that there was more than one person outside; a whole group of people were waiting for him.

He glanced at the time; it was already one in the morning.

"Comrade Ivan, what happened?" Korolev asked.

Ivan's voice came from outside the door: "Comrade Korolev, the Kremlin wants you to come over immediately. The car is already waiting outside. The Americans want to cooperate with us, and NASA Administrator Randolph Lin wants to speak with you personally."

Korolev felt that the voice didn't sound very real.

At this time, Randolph and I spoke on the phone. Kremlin, am I still asleep?

It wasn't until the cold winds of Moscow swept in from outside in November, making him shiver, that he realized Ivan was telling the truth.

"Comrade Korolev, that's the gist of it. America somehow found out about our lunar landing program, and they want to cooperate with us to increase the chances of our astronauts successfully returning to Earth."

Nikita and the other commissioners were already on their way to the Kremlin.

We need your professional judgment on whether to cooperate with America, and whether there are any other conspiracies involved.

Comrades from the Kremlin briefed Korolev on the situation in the Volga car.

Korolev nodded and said, "I understand."

Upon arriving at the Kremlin, it was nominally Lin Ran who spoke with Korolev, but in reality, everyone in the Kremlin could hear Lin Ran's voice, and similarly, everyone in the White House could hear Korolev's voice.

"Korolev, to make a long story short, your lunar landing program is an incomplete one. It's a program that only considers sending people up there, without considering how to bring them back to Earth. It's a program that prioritizes winning the space race over the lives of heroes," Lin Ran said.

Korolev took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Randolph, I don't know what gave you that impression."

You made such a wrong judgment without knowing any specific details of our moon landing.

Korolev knew Lin Ran was right, and he couldn't possibly admit it during the call. Who knew if it would be recorded and leaked to the outside world?

"Isn't that obvious? Your high-thrust rockets haven't undergone thorough testing, your space docking technology is equally inadequate, and all you're relying on is a successful soft landing on the moon."

The mission is considered complete if you think of people as objects inside a spacesuit, safely send them to the moon, and send back a few photos and videos.

As for whether he can return safely, we can only pray that God will intervene.

The probability of successfully returning is probably about the same as crossing the Pacific Ocean while sitting in a washing machine.

Korolev's voice turned cold: "Professor, you are the head of NASA, not the head of the Russian Space Agency. You have no right to interfere in our space affairs."

Inside the White House, Lyndon Johnson gestured to Lin Ran to speak gently and not to mess things up.

Lin Ran nodded to indicate that he understood: "Korolev, I am not here to criticize you."

Instead, we can cooperate.

Only through our cooperation can we bring the heroes who went to the moon back to Earth intact.

Just as the news we'd received on the way had indicated, Korolev thought, "We don't need cooperation. However, if you have any good cooperation proposals, we can consider it after this successful moon landing."

No one would ask how America knew they were going to land on the moon, and no one would think that America didn't have accurate and reliable information.

As for how the information was leaked, that's a matter for further investigation and is not within the scope of this discussion.

The Kremlin only cares about what the White House wants to do.

Lin Ran said, "All you need to do is send the people up there."

We are also planning a soft landing on the moon this year, and we are responsible for sending the fuel to the moon.

Our Surveyor program, which we are scheduled to carry out this year, was originally planned to perform a soft landing on the moon, but now the probe has been turned into a fuel tank.

Make sure the fuel tank lands precisely near your astronauts' landing site.

Your astronauts can locate the fuel tank and transfer the fuel, thus reducing your payload and significantly increasing the chances of your astronauts returning.

Korolev was shocked by this outlandish idea. "Randolv, are you kidding me?"
How could you possibly achieve a lunar landing accuracy of only a few hundred meters?
I admire your optimism.

When encountering difficulties with landing accuracy, it's already quite impressive that the surveyors managed to stay several kilometers off from the landing point!

Korolev thought Lin Ran's idea was a pipe dream.

"No, Korolev, you have to believe me, I can do it!"

All you need to do is tell me your launch data, when you launch, and the data during the launch process.

NASA will be responsible for achieving a precise landing on the moon!
Don't forget, I never fail!

Lin Ran's tone was incredibly calm, and even through the long-distance telephone line, everyone in the Kremlin could feel the confidence in his voice.

　I'm asking for a monthly pass!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)