Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 247 Like a Lifetime Ago (Seeking Monthly Tickets!)
He was shrewd enough when he was a businessman, and now that he's a politician, he reaps all the benefits and avoids all the risks.

They sent their son to the front lines of Baiyue, hoping he would gain the prestige of serving in the army and fighting on the front lines, thus adding a layer of prestige to his reputation.

Under the American democratic election system, voters buy into this approach.

White voters, in particular, admire this so-called tough guy image.

What could be a better proof of being a tough guy than serving in the military and fighting in wars?
But Fred didn't want his son to go and die.

The statistics from 1966 were alarming: more than 6350 soldiers were lost in the jungles of Baiyue, and the number of wounded exceeded 3. Those Baiyue warriors disguised as trees were not to be trifled with.

Fred chose to send his son to the New York Military Academy when he was 13, but that didn’t mean he was willing to let his son carry a rifle and risk his life against the enemy in the muddy rainforest.

Fred is indeed a rising political star, but being a rising political star also means not having much of a network of connections.

With the White House and both houses of Congress now controlled by the Democrats, neither the generals on the front lines nor those at the Pentagon need to give Fred any face.

The subtle rivalry between Fred and Nixon also made it difficult for Fred to break free from Nixon's control.

Nixon had extensive connections within America's military because he had served as Eisenhower's vice president for eight years.

The person who could help him the most was Lin Ran.

The relationship between Lin Ran and McNamara is beyond doubt. Not only Washington knows it, but New York also knows it. McNamara is a follower of the professor.

If Lin Ran is willing to help, wouldn't it be great if he just stayed behind and typed in on the calculator?

As for when his son enters politics and runs for office, at least twenty years will have passed since the war ended. As long as it's not mentioned, who will know whether he's on the front lines or in the rear?
Lin Ran patted the other's head; the blond hair was indeed rough. "Good lad!"

Fred had no idea what Lin Ran was thinking.

Follow Fred into the Elephant Party’s largest stronghold in New York: the United League Club.

Just as Fred had said, the place was already bustling with guests.

Guests chatted casually in twos and threes, sipping champagne.

After Fred walked in, Lin Ran could clearly feel that everyone's eyes were on him.

"Please be quiet, everyone. I'm pleased to introduce our guest today, Professor Randolph Lin!" Fred announced loudly.

A round of enthusiastic applause erupted from the audience, with both men and women showing great enthusiasm.

Lin Ran nodded slightly in greeting.

Fred continued, "Last year, under the professor's leadership, NASA successfully completed the moon landing. Although our president tried to take credit for it at a press conference held at the White House and in interviews with reporters, we know very well that it was all thanks to the professor!"
Since the professor joined NASA, we have all witnessed NASA transform from a zoo lion that didn't know what it was supposed to do into the most fearsome food chain overlord!
Let us raise our glasses together, both to celebrate the arrival of 1967 and to congratulate the professor on the many outstanding achievements he has led NASA to.

The staff members next to them had already brought wine glasses to Lin Ran and John Morgan, and the pale yellow champagne was waiting for Lin Ran to pick it up.

Lin Ran felt that this beginning was a bit strange. It wasn't a party to celebrate the New Year, but rather a celebratory banquet for him.

Lin Ran felt it was rather strange that the Donkey Party officials were being given a celebratory banquet at the secret meeting place of the Elephant Party.

However, everyone raised their glasses, and cheers and celebrations filled the air.

During the subsequent free movement, everyone came up to chat with Lin Ran for a few minutes:
"Professor, your contributions are unparalleled."

Without your wisdom and perseverance, the moon landing program would not have succeeded. Without a doubt, you are our hero.

"Professor, you are a national treasure. Your achievements will be recorded in history, and the people of America will remember you forever."

Standing in the center of the venue, Lin Ran clearly remembered that a few years ago, in the same place, everyone took turns coming to chat with him.

However, the person he was talking to was not himself, but John Morgan.

Lin Ran felt as if he had lived through another world. Six years had passed, and John Morgan's status had risen rapidly, but he was still no match for Lin Ran.

Finally, Fred found an opportunity to have a quiet conversation with Lin Ran in a secluded corner:
"Professor, do you think there's anything wrong with America right now?"

Lin Ran raised an eyebrow, unable to discern Fred's true intentions in the dim light: "You mean?"

Fred said, "America needs a change! Lyndon Johnson will only lead us into the abyss."

The Baiyue people were engaged in an endless war of attrition, and one American soldier after another was dying on the front lines. I was very worried about them.

So, Professor, your godson will soon be going to the front lines.

Lin Ran was somewhat surprised after hearing this. In his memory, Fred's son had evaded military service, which led to mainstream media outlets like the New York Times digging up the story and making fun of him during the 2020 election as a way to damage his image and undermine his voter support.

Now, he was surprised to learn from Fred that his godson was going to war.

Old T and the battlefield seem completely unrelated.

"This is really bad news." Lin Ran pretended to be sad, but in his heart he was very curious about what kind of person Old T would become in this time and space.

Her father transformed from a real estate developer into a mad politician, and she couldn't evade military service; she had to go to the Baiyue front, a war that fundamentally changed America's younger generation.

The Lost Generation originated from the Vietnam War.

Lin Ran found it hard to imagine what kind of mutation Old T would undergo in this timeline.

“Yes, but military service is the duty of every American, and my son is even less able to shirk it.” Fred said with a heavy expression.

Lin Ran thought to himself, "I'd be a fool to believe you. With your wealth and current status, getting your son exempt from military service would be a piece of cake. I didn't grow up reading Yilin magazine; I don't believe the old American rich people who don't take shortcuts and use back channels."

Moreover, Lin Ran knew very well that on America's social media, Old T had been nicknamed "Bone Spur Military Academy Student" by others, mocking him for using bone spurs to evade military service in the 1960s.

"Professor, you know, the Baiyue campaign was a terrible war, an unprecedentedly terrible war. Lyndon Johnson did an absolutely awful job!"

I'm very worried about Donald's safety. I'm very worried about him. He hasn't gotten along well with the Godfather yet." Fred was almost in tears.

Lin Ran was speechless. This kid never asks me for anything; he just expects me to ask him to.

You want me to say yes voluntarily, right? Okay!
"Fred, don't worry about that. I can't stand by and watch my godson fall into danger. I will personally instruct the relevant people to take good care of him and arrange a suitable position for him," Lin Ran said earnestly.

In my heart I was thinking, "You don't ask me for help, you want me to say it myself, aren't you just trying to take advantage of me?"
The logic here is that if Fred says something, it means he owes someone a favor, and by playing the victim and waiting for Lin Ran to speak up, he's taking advantage of the situation.

"Then I'll talk to Lyndon Johnson and tell him that my godson Fred's son is going to the front lines, and ask him to look after him. As for how Lyndon Johnson will look after him, that's none of my business," Lin Ran thought to himself.

Whether Lyndon Johnson will send your son to the front lines as an infantryman or throw him into logistics to work as a calculator, I don't know. I'm sure the president will give him a suitable position.

As for if he gets sent to the front lines, don't blame me. How was I supposed to know Lyndon Johnson would do something like that! And then I'll join you in strongly condemning Lyndon Johnson.

If Fred had honestly begged him, Lin Ran would have spoken to McNamara on his behalf, since they couldn't miss out on such a spectacle.

But Lin Ran was very dissatisfied with Fred's behavior.

If we've had enough fun in the 2020 timeline, then the 1960 timeline, which may lack entertainment, is fine too. Let's see if he can fight his way out of the Baiyue jungle and face the judgment of fate.

How can one truly become a Great Again warrior without undergoing the tempering of iron and fire?
“Come on, thank your godfather properly!” Fred called his son over.

Lin Ran nodded slightly, thinking to himself, "He really should thank me."

After the moon landing, there was a long vacation.

Lin Ran applied for a long vacation from the White House, a full two months long.

Two months is not a very long time for outsiders.

But for Lin Ran, who has access to different time-flow ratios, 60 days means he can stay for a full 3600 days in 2020.

Of course, he won't be able to stay in 2020 for the entire 60 days; some of that time will be spent socializing in New York, like the time he's using now, which is a vacation.

Including some time to go on vacation to Hawaii with Jenny.

But Lin Ran estimates it will take about twenty or thirty days.

按照1比60换算，那也能在2020时空呆上整整1200天到1800天的样子。    这是一段漫长的时间，也是为60时空积蓄足够的能量的时间。

As we approach the end of December 2020, all of Apollo Space's work is progressing smoothly according to plan, and the scattered red and white decorations appearing in the office building are a reminder that Christmas is just around the corner.

Lin Ran frequently traveled between Shanghai and Beijing during this period because he needed to persuade China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation to help replicate the F-1 and J-2 engines.

In other words, if we can get these two engines sorted out, it would mean that we've already achieved half the success of replicating the Apollo moon landing in modern times.

For China's space program, there is no need to develop the F-1.

Let me elaborate a bit more.

The F-1 rocket engine is a single-chamber liquid rocket engine developed by America in the 1960s for the Saturn V rocket and widely used in the Apollo lunar landing missions. Its key parameters include:

The thrust is approximately 6770 kN, with slightly higher vacuum thrust. It uses a gas generator for circulation and rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen as propellants.

The development process encountered serious combustion stability issues, which were resolved through special injector and baffle design.

The F-1 was the most powerful single-chamber liquid rocket engine in history, and its thrust represented the limit of liquid rocket technology at the time.

On the one hand, China is catching up with SpaceX's technological path and is pursuing a multi-engine cluster model, but it lacks the actual need to develop large single-chamber engines.

On the other hand, China's aerospace industry is also researching an engine called YF-130, which has a thrust of about 4900 kN, similar to the F-1 engine used in the Saturn V rocket.

(A Chinese rocket engine is being tested at the Tongchuan Test Center)
They are no longer in a hurry to build the F-1; in fact, they have no intention of building it at all.

On the contrary, the manufacturing difficulty itself is not a major problem for China's aerospace industry. In the past, it was limited by the manufacturing precision of large thrust chambers and cooling systems, but China has gradually solved this problem in recent years.

Lin Ran's repeated trips to Yanjing were also aimed at persuading China to develop the F-1.

However, Lin Ran realized that it wouldn't be easy to simply convince China's aerospace industry; he couldn't just talk the talk, he had to prove himself.

Even if it takes more time.

So we should start with manned spaceflight.

Let's get the person up there first, then we'll talk about the rest.

With only 500 million RMB on hand, it's not that simple to ask China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation to help open another production line specifically for manufacturing F-1 and J-1 engines.

So, starting in November, after failing to fool people on his fifth trip to Yanjing, Lin Ran changed his route.

Today marks the day when the design blueprints for the first original rocket used in the Apollo moon landing were finalized:

Lin Ran proposed a two-stage rocket design scheme. The first stage engine uses seven YF-102 liquid oxygen kerosene engines connected in parallel, each with a sea-level thrust of 835 kN, for a total thrust of 5845 kN.

The second-stage engine consists of only one YF-102V vacuum-optimized engine, with a vacuum thrust of around 900 kN and a specific impulse of 330 seconds.

Both of these rocket engines are models that China Aerospace sells to the public.

Private aerospace companies mostly buy YF series engines.

Of course, there are also self-developed ones. For example, LandSpace has developed the Tianque series methane liquid oxygen engine for the Zhuque-2 rocket.

iSpace is also developing the JD-1 engine with the goal of making it reusable.

Lin Ran said: "The rocket design has been completed. We are using the Long March 2F as a reference. It can send the Shenzhou spacecraft, weighing about 7.8 tons, into low Earth orbit. The total thrust is about 5920 kN and the takeoff mass is 464 tons."

The Long March 2F uses eight YF-20B engines, four in the core stage and four in the boosters.

The YF-102 has higher thrust; seven units can provide 5845 kN, which is close to our needs.

We simplified the design, eliminating the boosters and using only seven YF-102 engines in the core stage, resulting in a simpler structure. Over the past two months, we've optimized the mass distribution to ensure sufficient thrust-to-weight ratio and delta-v.

Lin Ran then stood up and stood on the whiteboard, skillfully drawing a rocket sketch with a marker, marking that the seven YF-102 engines were arranged in a hexagonal shape, with one in the center.

他快速计算：“假设总起飞质量438吨，重力约4292千牛，7台YF-102提供5845千牛，推重比为5845÷ 4292≈ 1.36，符合发射要求。

YF-102 is a gas generator cycle, similar to SpaceX's Merlin 1D.

The Merlin 1D has a specific impulse of approximately 282 seconds at sea level and approximately 311 seconds in vacuum.

The situation is similar for YF-102, with an average specific impulse of 290 seconds for the first stage and 330 seconds for the YF-102V vacuum specific impulse for the second stage.

Then the dry mass of the first stage needs to be as low as possible.

The dry mass of the first stage of a modern rocket accounts for approximately 10-15%.

Assume the first stage propellant is 350 tons, with a dry mass of 30 tons, the second stage is 50 tons, the load is 8 tons, and the total mass is 438 tons.

第一级初始质量m0=438吨，燃烧后质量mf=30+50+8=88吨，质量比MR=438÷88≈4.98。

假设第一级平均比冲290秒，排气速度ve=290×9.8≈2，842 m/s，delta-v1=2，842×ln(4.98)≈4，563 m/s。”

他继续说道：“第二级初始质量m0=50+8=58吨，燃烧后mf=5+8=13吨，质量比MR=58÷13≈4.46。

YF-102V比冲330秒，ve=330×9.8≈3，234 m/s，delta-v2=3，234×ln(4.46)≈4，835 m/s。

总delta-v≈4563+4835=9398 m/s，接近9000-9500m/s的需求。

During this period, we considered gravity and drag losses, optimized the trajectory, and added propellant during the process.

The initial design of the Burning-1 rocket has been completed, and the next task is to conduct simulation and verification of the technology itself.

In addition, regarding materials, we need to communicate fully with suppliers to determine if there are materials that meet our requirements that can be used to reduce dry mass while ensuring the stability of the rocket under high thrust.

My plan is that we must complete the theoretical verification work by mid-January, then spend two months assembling the rocket, and finally complete the launch before spring in March.

Wang Jiarui and Liu Jiyuan are both freshmen at Jiaotong University and members of the Lin Ran Mathematics Class. They have been interning here for half a year and have become very familiar with Engineer Li from the Track Calculation Group.

They gradually mastered the use of certain professional rocket design software.

Over the past six months, everyone has learned where this company's money came from—it came from Aldrin.

This left them in awe; they couldn't believe such a thing was possible.

After all, the sale of Aldrin's Beverly Hills mansion is news in America, big and small.

One of the employees at Apollo Technology saw it online by chance, and it spread like wildfire until everyone knew about it.

This also amazed everyone with Lin Ran's ability to "deceive" people. He was able to turn the old man's place into a place where gold coins would explode. What kind of superpower is that?

"Engineer Li, what were the test results of the rocket designed by the professor?" Wang Jiarui asked.

Li Rui sighed: "Absolutely perfect."

Test results show that Lin's design not only successfully sent the rocket into its intended orbit, but also performed impeccably in terms of technological advancement and economy.

To put it simply, the rocket's first-stage propulsion system uses seven engines connected in parallel. During the test, the thrust curve on the screen was as smooth as a straight line, without any fluctuations.

The pressure and vibration that a rocket experiences when flying under high thrust are unimaginable, but the professor's design makes it incredibly stable.

Test data showed that the rocket showed no signs of structural deformation or failure.

Our structural engineers felt that General Manager Lin had reached a level that was difficult for everyone to understand.

Every detail was considered in the selection of materials and the structural layout, including the stress distribution and vibration resistance design of key parts.

Structurally, it is flawless. It remains so stable even under high thrust, demonstrating unfathomable design expertise.

To be honest, I really don't understand why we had to do the Apollo moon landing.

With Mr. Lin's abilities, wouldn't it be better to directly attract investment in the market and focus on developing civilian rockets?

(End of this chapter)