Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 256 What kind of quirks do technology enthusiasts have!

"Oh, Mr. Zhang is here. So, how's the progress lately?"

Jia Yong was very polite.

He roughly knew Lin Ran's background, and after finding out, he was glad that he had always been very polite.

However, as the dean, he was very busy, so he asked Zhang Xiaoqiang to report on their work progress once a month.

The report here is a face-to-face report.

In addition to face-to-face reports, their weekly reports also show progress.

It's just that everyone writes very professional weekly reports, and the leaders don't even bother to read them carefully.

There are too many weekly reports.

Leaders only focus on major project milestones and important projects, and only ask a few questions before major milestones are reached.

Replicating the F-1 was more of a temporary political task for them.

It is important, of course, but since it is not within the scope of the annual plan, it is not a big problem even if it is not completed.

After all, Lin Ran was in charge of the entire project; they were just assistants at best.

This also meant that Jia Yong had no idea that the project had been completed in just two months.

This is similar to the mission of the warriors to defeat the demon king. The capital city is skeptical about whether the warriors can defeat the demon king, feeling that it is very uncertain.

Even if it is completed, the capital city thinks it will take at least ten or eight years.

Two days later, the Warriors came back and said, "I've taken down the Demon King."

This isn't a surprise, it's a shock.

Jia Yong has this feeling now.

Looking at the paper report in my hand, the final conclusion section clearly stated:
"The F-1's stable thrust and the J-2's high specific impulse demonstrate the perfect combination of the Sixth Academy's manufacturing capabilities and Lin Ran's professional guidance."

Jia Yong picked up his phone from his desk and glanced at it:
"June 2021, 6"

"It's Children's Day, not April Fool's Day," he thought to himself.

Jia Yong looked up at Zhang Xiaoqiang:
"No, the project has already been successfully developed?"

Zhang Xiaoqiang nodded and said, "If our goal is simply to build the F-1 and J-2 rocket engines that are compatible with the Saturn V, then we have already succeeded."

However, in terms of precision, we should have achieved even greater precision than the Saturn V prototype.

Jia Yong understood the other party's subtext.

However, he did not interrupt, but waited for the other person to finish speaking.

"If we want to develop a heavy-lift rocket that meets the requirements of modern aerospace, especially the requirements of our Chinese aerospace system, then we need to optimize and iterate based on the F-1 rocket as a prototype."

"Just like NASA has done with the F-1 over the past forty years, there's still a lot of work for us to do," Zhang Xiaoqiang said.

As a monster rocket engine in history, the F-1 remains the most powerful single-chamber liquid-propellant rocket engine to this day.

Many people within China's aerospace industry are fascinated by the technologies related to the Apollo moon landing, with the most wanting to replicate the Saturn V rocket, followed by the F-1 rocket engine.

Zhang Xiaoqiang was no exception. After successfully replicating the F-1, his first reaction was that we need to optimize it based on this.

In the 2010s, NASA collaborated with contractors to develop the F-1B engine, increasing thrust to 180 million pounds and employing modern manufacturing techniques. Although the F-1B was ultimately not implemented, this may not have been a viable technological path.

Zhang Xiaoqiang thought it was possible that NASA was just too incompetent.

After working with Lin Ran, he became even more convinced of this. Compared to Professor Lin, NASA was utterly incompetent, incredibly incompetent.

"We need to discuss this."

No, I still find it hard to imagine that Professor Lin, with just a few hundred people at most, managed to replicate the F-1 in two months.

NASA tried to reconstruct and disassemble it, but they couldn't do it. What you've done is just too much.

It took Jia Yong a long time to finally manage to squeeze out the remaining half of the sentence:
"That's way too easy."

Zhang Xiaoqiang knew what Dean Jia meant by NASA.

In 2013, NASA found an F-1 engine with serial number F-6049 in its inventory.

This engine was never used due to a malfunction.

NASA is using structured light scanning technology to create a CAD model in an attempt to replicate the F-1 engine.

Although NASA claims that we are only trying to gain a deeper understanding of the technical details of the F-1 engine and to assess the potential impact of modern analytical techniques on performance improvements, such as combustion stability and thrust, and not to replicate it.

We are not replicating; we are optimizing and improving upon this to create a more powerful engine.

But anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is a complete smokescreen, meant to prevent outsiders from suspecting that NASA, or more accurately, the American aerospace industry, can no longer replicate the F-1.

Before Zhang Xiaoqiang could answer, Jia Yong muttered to himself, "No, is this report real?"

NASA has the so-called F-1 production knowledge retention program implemented by Rocketdyne, which left behind 20 volumes of technical documents. Even if Professor Lin got these 20 volumes of technical documents from NASA, it wouldn't be this fast, would it?
We are all veterans in the aerospace industry, and we know very well that the biggest challenge in replicating the F-1 is not the technology.

Modern technology is more advanced than that of the 60s; it has progressed in every aspect.

However, this progress is not necessarily a good thing for technological replication.

"For Professor Lin to replicate the F-1 in two months, he would have to have a complete grasp of the tolerance level for every single defect in the F-1. Is that even possible for a human?"

The so-called defect tolerance means that engineering and theory are different. In actual engineering, not every component needs to be perfect.

Engineers use experience and testing to determine which defects are acceptable, meaning they will not affect the engine's performance, safety, or reliability.

These defects are actually components that enable the engine to function properly. Without these defects, the engine might not even start, or it might even explode.

It's like a mountain of code is a mountain of code, but if you try to fix a bug that you think is simple, the result is that the entire mountain of code explodes, and the program becomes completely unusable.

During the manufacturing and testing process, engineers of the F-1 engine observed that certain defects had no impact on performance, and gradually formed their judgment.

The F-1 engine subsequently underwent extensive ground testing, through which engineers identified which defects would not lead to failure.

Moreover, manufacturing in the 1960s relied more on manual labor, and engineers could make adjustments on-site based on the actual situation, such as deciding whether a weld needed to be redone.

However, this kind of knowledge often remains only in the mind, and is not fully recorded in written documents.

For example, an engineer might remember that air bubbles smaller than 1 millimeter are fine in a certain area, but this detail might not be written into the blueprints or technical documents. It's even possible that the absence of air bubbles in a particular area could actually cause a problem.

In other words, this could be a copy of a famous painting where the artist knew that certain brushstrokes were intentionally left as imperfections to enhance the painting's artistic appeal, but these details weren't mentioned in the instruction manual.

Modern artists may create sketches, but they don't know which flaws were intentional on the part of the artist. As a result, the finished painting may look similar, but it actually lacks the soul of the original.

Zhang Xiaoqiang naturally understood what Jia Yong was talking about, and he said with a wry smile, "Yes, I also find it hard to understand."

Having spent a lot of time with the professor, I've practically been his assistant lately. I review our progress each week, noting what we did and what our achievements were. Every time I think about it, it terrifies me.

As we all know, normal reverse engineering involves knowing the technical route and then gradually working through it step by step.

I'll try using this material. First, I'll build a prototype and do ground testing. If the ground testing goes well, then I'll move on to the next step: ignition testing, to see if there are any problems.

It's all about grinding things up little by little.

There are countless major branches, and under each major branch there are many minor branches. It takes a long time and resources to try and find out which path leads to the final result.

It's even possible that the final result will differ slightly from what was originally done, but this difference, or more accurately, error, is within acceptable limits.

But Professor Lin felt as if he had access to the entire map, knowing exactly where to go, where the puddles were, where the monsters were, and how to avoid those risks.

Zhang Xiaoqiang was somewhat dazed.

At this moment, in the office, Jia Yong said quietly, "I know where Professor Lin's confidence comes from. Indeed, as he said, he knows everything about the Apollo moon landing."

This is the source of his confidence, and also the origin of the name Apollo Technology.

It's really incredible.

But this is the only explanation.

Novels need to be logical, but reality doesn't.

There is no logic in the face of that behemoth, the Sixth Academy, even though Chinese aerospace experts have visited it countless times.

Various ground tests and Heat tests have come and gone, only to shatter people's past understanding of common sense once again.

(The F-1 engine completed in 1968, according to NASA's official website)
"No way, what kind of perverted hobby is Professor Lin having?!"

Chinese aerospace experts who heard about this were speechless after visiting the F-1.

Zhang Xiaoqiang explained with a wry smile, "I'm sorry, Professor Lin insisted on this."

His point was that since this is scientific archaeology, the experimental platform should be reinvented.

He stated that upon returning, he would build the Apollo Science Center's S-IC static test rig according to its specifications.

"We'll use it here temporarily for now."

The historic S-IC static test stand at the Marshall Center has been used to test the development of the Saturn V, the Space Shuttle, and current propulsion systems, as well as NASA’s latest rocket space launch system. Since its construction in the 1960s, it has served as a test stand for cutting-edge engines and propulsion technologies.

The test stand was originally used to develop and test the first stage of the Saturn V rocket, which consisted of five F-1 engines, each capable of producing 150 million pounds of thrust.

The test bench's base supports contained 1200 million pounds of concrete.

The test stand was modified in 1974 to test the external fuel tanks of the Space Shuttle. In the early 21st century, it was again used for the development of next-generation propulsion systems.
Experts find the absurdity to be that China Aerospace has a professional rocket engine test rig located in the Qinling Mountains, about 35 kilometers from Chang'an, with a nice-sounding name: Baolongyu Test Area.

It is also the final verification stage for China's aerospace propulsion system. All engines must pass the process acceptance test in this test area before they can enter the final assembly stage.

Lin Ran insisted on handcrafting a test bench for an F-1 engine from the 1960s.

(Engineers install an F-1 engine on a static test stand at Marshall Space Flight Center.)
Not everything was better in the 1960s.

Even though NASA landed on the moon in the 60s, China's space program has yet to land on the moon.

Taking rocket engine test benches as an example, the test benches that enable China to achieve millisecond-level response in data acquisition are significantly more advanced.

The visiting experts were amazed by the high level of completeness of the Chinese version of the F-1 and the excellent results of the actual tests, but they were also shocked by the backwardness of the test bench.

This is as strange as bringing over a supersonic passenger plane from the 1980s, and not only bringing the supersonic plane, but also the airport management system with paper tickets from that era.

"Perhaps this is the quirk of a genius. He studied the Apollo moon landing after graduating from university, and his replication is truly ingrained in his bones."

The experts had many questions for Lin Ran, but unfortunately, Lin Ran had already successfully completed his mission and returned to Shenhai.

The issue of technological tolerance was mentioned earlier.

Chinese aerospace experts are eager to understand every detail of the F-1 engine replication process, so as to figure out what is tolerable and what is not. This knowledge can be applied to the field of China's self-developed engines.

You can ask Zhang Xiaoqiang, but Zhang Xiaoqiang certainly doesn't know as much as Lin Ran does.

He only knew how to do many of the specific technical details, while Lin Ran knew why they could be ignored and which parts this defect would affect.

However, Lin Ran had neither the obligation nor the time to answer questions here. Apollo Technology's first manned space mission was about to begin, and the astronauts would be sent up by Burning One.

After the news of the successful development of the F-1 rocket engine reached everyone who needed to know,

Lin Ran had met that person who was unemployed before, and he knew all too well what it meant to get things done in two months.

This means that Lin Ran is indeed as he said, he knows every detail of the Apollo moon landing, and given sufficient resources and manpower, he can really complete the moon landing in just over a year.

"Good good."

Meanwhile, on the other side, the official Weibo account of China's space program posted a seemingly insignificant message, which was seen as a Category 10 hurricane by space enthusiasts:

"Recently, the Luna-1 engine, jointly developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and Apollo Technology, successfully completed its ignition test. The engine's parameters include a sea-level thrust of approximately 150 million pounds, a vacuum thrust of approximately 174.6 million pounds, a sea-level specific impulse of 263 seconds, and a vacuum specific impulse of 304 seconds."

"This engine signifies that my country has caught up with the world's advanced level in the field of single-combustion chamber liquid propulsion rocket engines. It is another breakthrough in my country's aerospace technology and will play a crucial role in providing power for heavy-lift rockets in the future."

The Weibo post was too obviously targeted.

Even if the general public doesn't know what this means, plenty of science bloggers will tell them.

What does it mean.

These parameters are exactly the same as those of the F-1, and it was jointly developed with Apollo Technology. It's also called Luna-1. Isn't this just pure self-deception?

Do you think I don't know what you are?
The F-1 has caused a huge uproar on social media, and its influence is clearly not limited to Chinese social media; it has also caused a stir abroad.

　Here are two chapters, and I'll be drawing lots for the prizes right away.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)