Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 298 Not Much Is Asked
Valentin's eyes narrowed, his smile froze, and he immediately became more vigilant.

Technology loss is a perpetual pain for Russia.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, America launched a massive poaching operation against the Russians, much like it had against Nazca and Germany.

However, it's not just the Americans who are taking advantage of this; countries large and small are doing it too.

(The two images above are from Adam Moody's 1996 report, "Rethinking the Brain Drain of the Former Soviet Union." The first image describes specific cases of Soviet experts going to work in countries outside Russia after 1991, and the second image describes the loss of staff in various institutions within Russia. These are the verifiable cases, and the actual loss is likely to be even more severe.)

The first image mentions China in the following ways: In late 1994, as many as 1000 Russian experts were working in China to improve its nuclear weapons and rocket development; in late November 1994, three Russian scientists were working at a nuclear energy company in Shenzhen, China, and the company president stated that more Russian scientists would be hired. (The first image, which resembles the second, failed to pass review.)
Because China has taken a lot of advantage of Russia, especially in the field of military technology.

As for the fact that Mao is wary of China and tries to avoid being exploited too much, and that China simply cannot buy some strategically important technologies, that's another matter entirely.

Because if you don't sell, you can't stop Ermao from selling. Ermao and China are thousands of miles apart. If you don't sell, I will.

From the Russians' perspective, even if the Russians sell that stuff, they're still taking advantage of us.

Therefore, from this perspective, China is definitely one of the biggest beneficiaries of technology transfer after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Valentin felt that the other party was definitely trying to take advantage of them again. It wasn't that they wouldn't sell us their reusable rocket technology, but now they wanted to take advantage of us again.

From the start of the war, Russia found itself surrounded by enemies.

Valentin sighed inwardly. As a high-ranking official, or at least someone who could be considered high-ranking, he naturally knew that even his little brother in East Asia dared to make demands. In that case, it was normal for his big friend in East Asia to have some demands as well. After all, the most important thing now was to win the war. As for the technology, let's sell it.

I don't feel bad for selling my father's land.

"Professor, you speak, and I will relay it to the Moscow side. I think what you want is beyond my control." Valentin grinned, but the smile was more like a grimace.

Lin Ran said quietly, "I want all the technical data and historical archives surrounding the RORSAT system."

It took Valentin a long time to realize what RORSAT was. This had to be awakened from his ancient memories, memories that were far removed from forty years ago.

He hadn't graduated yet, and hadn't started working.

Seeing that Valentin had realized what was happening, Lin Ran added, "Valentin, you know, don't try to fool me with ordinary information or fake information. I need the real, core, first-hand information from your internal sources at the time, including technical data and launch records, the more detailed the better."

Valentin took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Professor, but in my opinion, this technology is of no value to you."

This is not the Cold War, and even if it were, RORSAT would be of no value to Lin Ran.

RORSAT is a highly mobile satellite system developed by the Soviet Union in the 70s to monitor maritime conditions, and the satellites used in this system are nuclear-powered.

Nuclear-powered satellites were used at the time because battery technology was not advanced, there were no reusable rockets, and launch costs were relatively high.

Nuclear power can extend the lifespan of satellites. As mentioned earlier, high maneuverability is a key feature of nuclear-powered satellites, which can simultaneously ensure high maneuverability, long lifespan, and good stability.

However, in 1967, the United Nations signed the Outer Space Treaty, and with the rapid advancements in battery technology over the past few decades, solar energy technology has also made great strides.

In addition, Lin Ran and his team have mastered reusable rocket technology, making the cost-effectiveness of launching nuclear-powered satellites far inferior to that of conventional satellites.

For Lin Ran, nuclear-powered satellite technology is not even worth mentioning.

As for the launch logs and related data in their possession, they were even less valuable. Apart from their archaeological value, Valentin couldn't think of any other use for Lin Ran.

Even if you want to launch a satellite to the moon, there's no need to use a nuclear-powered satellite. Their RORSAT series nuclear-powered satellites don't use nuclear fusion, but nuclear fission to generate electricity.

He couldn't have imagined it even if he racked his brains, but this thing was actually useful and extremely useful to Lin Ran.

Here's a brief introduction to the history of nuclear-powered satellites; these things have a long history.

The predecessor of the GPS project that Lin Ran participated in was called Transit, and the power source used by the Transit-4A satellite was essentially nuclear energy.

It uses a device called a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RPS), which releases heat through the decay of a suitable radioactive material and then converts the heat energy into electrical energy through the Seebeck effect.

The Russian RORSAT, on the other hand, is a small nuclear fission reactor installed on Ansat, with an output power of around 5 kilowatts, while the RPS has a power of between 40 and 300 watts.

Of course, America did the same thing before, they

Launched in 1965, SNAP-10A, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, also carried a nuclear fission reactor, which provided it with power.

However, the SNAP-10A is not under NASA's jurisdiction; it is entirely the responsibility of the American Air Force. Lin Ran only knew that this thing existed, but that was all; he did not participate in its development.

America only ever launched one nuclear-powered satellite, SNAP-10A, and the technology was quickly relegated to the research stage.

The Soviet Union's RORSAT series of nuclear-powered satellites began launching in 1967, with a total of 33 satellites launched. It wasn't until 1973, when America's assistant secretary for naval research, Peter Waterman, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, mentioning that the Soviet Union possessed a maritime surveillance system based on highly mobile satellites, that America began to suspect that the Soviet Union was developing nuclear-powered satellites.

Confirmation came in 1978 when the nuclear-powered satellite Kosmos 954 re-entered the atmosphere, and its scattered radioactive debris fell in the northwest of Canada.

This triggered Operation Morning Light, which, simply put, involved America and Canada jointly cleaning up the nuclear radiation from the satellite's fall and demanding 600 million Canadian dollars in compensation from the Soviet Union under the Outer Space Treaty. The Soviet Union ultimately only paid 300 million Canadian dollars.

The Soviet Union confirmed on the day of the crash that Kosmos 954 contained 50 kilograms of uranium-235.

This is the first confirmed nuclear-powered satellite.

Lin Ran's anchor point in the 60-timeline is the beginning of 1967, the year the Outer Space Treaty will be signed at the United Nations.

Soviet Russia was quite cunning; it preferred to sign the treaty rather than let the Western camp guess that they were developing nuclear-powered satellites.

At that time, even within the Soviet Union itself, few people probably knew that their RORSAT was a nuclear-powered satellite.

Looking at Valentin in the 2020 timeline before him, Lin Ran thought to himself, "This is truly a coincidence of fate. Valentin, 60 years in the future, is telling me about top-secret intelligence from Soviet Russia 60 years ago."

In 1967, Lin Ran believed that this intelligence could play an unimaginable role for him, and might even be related to his escape in the 60s.

As for Soviet/Russian technology or Russian technology, it was meaningless to Lin Ran.

In the 2020 timeline, the largest industrial nation with the largest number of science and engineering talents, and in the 1960 timeline, holding the world's largest research funding and absolutely accurate scientific and technological vision, Lin Ran indeed looked down on the Soviet Union's petty and trivial matters.

"No, I'm just curious. Satisfying my curiosity is its greatest use," Lin Ran said casually.

Valentin murmured, “Professor, well, I completely understand. I think there shouldn’t be any major problems. Moscow won’t make things difficult for you on this matter.”

Indeed, a sixty-year-old technical file and data could please a bigwig in China's aerospace industry; in Valentin's view, this deal was definitely a win-win. Before Valentin left, Lin Ran added:
"Don't forget, it needs to be complete data. You also need to show me your research on satellite nuclear weapons. I won't make things difficult for you. I just need some general timelines, not the technical details."

Valentin didn't ask Lin Ran how he knew about this thing; he only looked at the relevant information after he became a high-ranking official in the aerospace field.

Because it's unnecessary; a smart person can guess it.

Since the Soviet Union was capable of developing nuclear-powered satellites, it was inevitable that it would also develop satellite nuclear weapons. Otherwise, why would the Soviet Union have jumped into the Star Wars movement so eagerly as soon as Reagan mentioned it?

Isn't it because they did their research in advance and even achieved good results? Only with confidence can they think of playing the space race with the Americans after losing the moon landing race.

Moreover, the Soviet Union itself had a history of developing some orbital bombardment systems, deploying nuclear bombs in low Earth orbit.

It's perfectly normal for Lin Ran to have guessed this from the perspective of the nuclear-powered satellite.

“Okay,” Valentin agreed.

Anyway, you don't need the technology, you just want these historical archives. If you like to look at them, I'll give them to you.

Judging from Lin Ran's past actions in America, he resurrected the American Saturn V from the historical archives. It's normal that the other side likes this kind of historical material, Valentin thought.

If China develops satellite nuclear weapons based on the technical data he provides, then it's not Russia that should be worried, but the United States; the United States should be the one with a headache.

As for China secretly developing it, with such advanced modern detection equipment, it's impossible for you to secretly pull out a near-Earth orbit nuclear missile.

The moment you launch, an American satellite might try to collide with you.

Therefore, Valentin was not worried about what consequences would arise for China if the technical data was provided to them.

Seeing this, Lin Ran felt relieved.

Once we get these two documents from the Russians, the feasibility becomes much greater.

Who says only Reagan could create Star Wars? I could too.

Congress wants to cut my budget? I'll increase it even more.

You want to destroy the global satellite internet I launched? Those are nuclear-powered satellites; it's hard to say where they'll land after being shot down. Do you really dare to shoot them?
Lin Ran has already seen the future in the present.

"Hello everyone, I am Lin Ran. This is the second episode of the Burning program. In the past month, there have been various claims about our second moon landing."

The reason I haven't made a video to respond yet, and why some of it is correct and some is incorrect, is because I wanted to wait until our astronaut Wei Xuhang finishes his quarantine and returns to Shanghai before inviting him to record this program with me.

We're doing a live stream this time, and there will be a Q&A session with comments. I'll be clicking on comments from all the platforms, so you don't need to crowd onto the same platform and put too much pressure on it.

After the live stream ends, the recorded broadcast will be edited into a program and posted on our official accounts on various platforms.

Because the program was announced in advance, and the live broadcast was during prime time on Saturday, the total number of viewers across all platforms was close to 50 million.

After Pony took over as CEO, he held discussions with major domestic platforms, resulting in the simultaneous launch of Apollo Technology's official accounts on Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, and WeChat Video Channel.

Sponsorship fees vary from company to company; for example, Douyin charges 100 million yuan a year, while Xiaohongshu only charges 50 million yuan a year.

The price here depends mainly on each company's willingness, and as the leader in short videos, Douyin's willingness is definitely the strongest.

This is limited to the domestic market. YouTube and Instagram are more interested; they're even willing to pay $100 million a year, but Apollo Technology didn't go there.

Because of the cooperation with John Morgan Jr., the White House has relaxed its efforts in governance.

Apollo Technology still can't buy technology and products from foreign companies. Things like AI computing cards and aerospace engines are out of the question. But it can cooperate with both Chinese and foreign companies in general.

Otherwise, these emerging companies listed on Nasdaq wouldn't have dared to participate in the previous lunar rover recruitment drive.

Executives from different platforms were also watching the live stream. When Bilibili executives heard this, they rolled their eyes. "What are you saying? We'd love for everyone to come to Bilibili to watch the live stream and drive traffic to us."

Wei Xuhang appeared slightly reserved. "Hello everyone, I am Wei Xuhang."

The comments section was full of people wishing me good luck on my exams.

On the internet, Wei Xuhang is known as the "lucky koi," a title that extends beyond the Simplified Chinese internet; he is also considered a lucky charm abroad.

Various rumors have emerged, saying that Japan and Korea are trying to poach him, since they are all East Asian countries and are similar in their superstitions.

In an interview, Fumiya Tsutsui, director of the JAXA Manned Lunar Rover Engineering Center, said that Wei's performance on the moon was amazing, and even said that they were trying to bring in Chinese astronauts.

Another JAXA official also stated that they would very much welcome Wei from China to join Japan.

This is because Japan also has its sights set on the moon. They have launched countless unmanned lunar probes and have always wanted to piggyback on the US Artemis program to go to the moon.

(A concept image of the neon lunar rover from 2019, with the Toyota logo at the front; the new concept image from 2023 is almost identical to the 19 one.)
(This is what the solar panels of the lunar rover designed by the Japanese have looked like after they've been deployed. This design is much more reliable in appearance than the one from the American supplier.)

It's worth noting that Japan received two lunar landing slots from Artemis; the US guaranteed two Japanese astronauts in the cooperation agreement with Japan.

Therefore, from Japan's perspective, wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to plan for Wei Xuhang?
In the past, Japan could naturalize Brazilian players to develop football; now, naturalizing Chinese astronauts for lunar missions is routine.

As for Korea, it is not well-regarded in America and does not receive such treatment. They are just a side note when Simplified Chinese internet bloggers discuss this matter.

"I see the comments are all about good luck and wishing everyone good luck on their exams. Aren't you going to wish everyone good luck?" Lin Ran said, looking at him with a blank expression.

Wei Xuhang quickly replied, "Oh, I wish everyone good luck on their exams."

Lin Ran said helplessly, "No, can't you say a few nice things?"
Okay, I'll take over. I wish all the viewers watching the live stream good luck on your exams, good health, and a smooth life.

Chinese netizens watching the live stream thought to themselves, "The lucky koi truly lives up to its name; it perfectly matches everyone's perception that his only virtue is good luck."

Lin Ran continued, "Our conversation today will naturally focus on the second moon landing, which is of great significance."

　Recommended book: "Entertainment Industry: I'm Already a Top Star, and the System Only Just Arrived?"

　　
　
(End of this chapter)