Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 299 Lin Ran's Interview

"This year is a very significant year for us. After the moon landing last year, there were various voices from the outside world who thought we would become complacent and rest on our laurels, and that NASA would catch up with us immediately."

To put it simply, unless NASA invites me to be its administrator, the probability of them ever catching up with us in terms of lunar landing progress is infinitely close to zero.

At that moment, at Yenching University, Xu Xian was also watching the live stream with Li Yiqing. Li Yiqing exclaimed, "Ran Shen is truly meticulous."

Seohyun found the other person's words rather strange. This was nothing, what did it have to do with being watertight? "What do you mean? I don't understand."

Li Yiqing explained: "Actually, the word 'burning god' should be 'never possible' here, which would be more in line with verbal tics and normal people's speaking habits."

But do you remember that at the Fields Medal ceremony this July, Marina, the winner of the Ermao Award, wanted the God of War to promise that he would never cooperate with Russia, and the God of War said that he would never say "forever".

"The genius mathematician, Ran Shen, had already uttered the word 'forever,' but he abruptly swallowed it back and changed the wording. I guess he just wanted to say 'forever' without leaving the slightest flaw. And this was during a live broadcast! No wonder he's a master mathematician known for his rigor, whose first draft of a paper on Arxiv was so flawless that even Terry Tao couldn't find fault with it."

Li Yiqing was deeply moved because, compared to Lin Ran, Wei Xuhang, who was clearly much older, was far less articulate.

"But we didn't stop this year. We completed four lunar landings, three of which were unmanned and one was manned. All of these landings took place on the lunar south pole, a place that humans had never set foot on before.

This included successfully finding three water ice samples, confirming that Shackleton Crater was a suitable location for building a lunar base, and laying the foundation for subsequent lunar base construction.

While the good fortune of astronauts Wei Xuhang and Li Cong certainly played a part, we must also thank NASA. Without NASA's thorough preparatory work, our search for water ice would not have been so smooth.

Killing someone by destroying their spirit is a valid approach.

The comments section was filled with messages like "kill him by attacking his spirit."

"Burning God is really too evil! The Americans are not wrong at all!"

"Holy crap, I bet the NASA officials watching this live stream are furious they'd vomit blood."

"It's one thing for a NASA official to be so angry he'd vomit blood, but if the White House saw the slides, wouldn't the old man be so furious he'd end up in the hospital? What if something serious happened to him?"

"That's definitely a bit too direct."

Wei Xuhang couldn't keep up with all the comments on the various live streaming platforms, but Lin Ran could clearly remember every single one.

"We have done more work this year than last year, and we are advancing our lunar base plan step by step according to my plan."

Even within my own domain, Burning One Mod is merely a trivial task.

Lin Ran spoke casually, and although there was no hint of showing off, the viewers in the live stream could still feel the strong aura of a "king of showing off."

The Burning 1, despite having a lower payload capacity than the Falcon 9, was one of only two reusable rockets, and even one capable of launching a fuel tank into lunar orbit.

In Lin Ran's view, it was just a trivial job.

"Holy crap, Ran-ge is so pretentious, I can't stand it! I can only give him a 6 out of 10 for this pretentious act, barely passing." Xu Xian complained, "Ran-ge was like this in high school, he got 149 in math and told us he didn't do well, this time he's messed up."

"Having weathered many storms, why are you still using the same old high school 'cool' act? It's so unoriginal."

Li Yiqing's voice drifted into his ears: "Don't you think this is a year-end summary that Ran Shen is giving to the people of the whole country?"

So he didn't even include winning the Fields Medal in his year-end summary. The Fields Medal is nothing special; maybe he was just showing off.

In terms of the difficulty of winning the award alone, the Fields Medal, which has an age requirement of forty and is awarded every four years, is a level more difficult than the Nobel Prize.

Both are PhD candidates in mathematics, with backgrounds in mathematics. Applied mathematics is still mathematics, so they have even greater confidence in the value of the Fields Medal.

"Holy crap, if I could get the Fields Medal, I'd be willing to pay a million dollars a year!" Seohyun wailed.

Li Yiqing said, "If you can get the Fields Medal, you won't just earn a million a year, but at least five million a year in the past few years. You'll have more bonuses from various foundations than you can count."

It's too small; the vision is too limited. I wouldn't even dare to dream of something bigger!

On the tablet in front of them, Lin Ran and Wei Xuhang sat facing each other, both facing the camera.

"More importantly, we need to figure out what we're going to do in the future. I see this episode as an interview and a report on our future work," Lin Ran continued in the video.

Lee Yi-cheong glanced at Seo Hyun with a smug look: See, I guessed right.

"I hope to use this method to arouse everyone's enthusiasm for commercial spaceflight, for space, and for humanity's journey to the stars."

The pull of reality is too strong, and the allure of smartphones, computers, game consoles, and other electronic products makes it difficult for us to deeply understand the significance of space for humanity, and to grasp the meaning of humanity's journey to the stars at a time when Earth's resources are still abundant.

I believe that most of you watching my live stream are so interested in Apollo technology, so concerned about it, and so focused on me personally. This is related to space exploration, the universe, and humanity's journey into the solar system, but it is mostly because our moon landing was an achievement, an achievement that no one had been able to do before.

What people enjoy is the feeling of winning, and I hope that I can lead Apollo Technology to continuously bring that feeling of winning to everyone.

That's why you all, even if you're not that interested in space exploration, are able to spend your precious time watching my live stream, following Apollo Technology's news, and seeing what remarkable achievements Apollo Technology has made recently.

Isn't that a good thing? Of course not.

The first artificial satellite was completed by the Soviet Union, the first manned spaceflight was completed by the Soviet Union, the first spacewalk was completed by the Soviet Union, and the first lunar satellite, the first Venus satellite, the first Mars probe, the first Venus probe, the first space station, and so on, were all completed by the Soviet Union.

However, America declared itself the victor in the space race by claiming that its nation was the first to achieve a manned lunar landing.

But we did land on the moon this century. We did it once in the 60s with America’s command module and lunar module separating and reassembling, and then we did it again with fuel transfer on the lunar surface. Did the New York Times, Washington Post, The Times and other newspapers that used to declare America the winner of the space race ever declare us the winner?
No.

In order to win, they were willing to strip the Soviet Union of its achievements, and in order to win, they were willing to ignore the results we had achieved.

Therefore, the pursuit of winning is human nature, and this applies to people in every country around the world.

It's just that we Chinese have always been too simple and honest. We need to achieve results to feel a sense of victory, while America, India, or other countries can manipulate the media to create a sense of victory for their people.

But I hope this is just my personal hope, that viewers watching the live stream will take this opportunity to become interested in aerospace.

It was able to transform the desire to win into curiosity and love for spaceflight.

Of course, we will continue to bring the feeling of winning to everyone, and this kind of winning is a winning victory with results, not just winning for the sake of winning.

While Lin Ran was speaking, Wei Xuhang listened very attentively. Besides pondering the meaning of Lin Ran's words, he also had another thought in his mind: "The professor is really good at talking."

For a long time, entrepreneurs have been keen to express their views in the media.

From the PC era to the mobile internet era, it's not just Jack Ma and Pony Ma who like to express their opinions; people like Meituan Wang and ByteDance Zhang are also good at posting on Weibo, with a posting frequency comparable to self-media bloggers who make a living from Weibo.

Since 2018, this trend has begun to disappear, but another group of entrepreneurs has started to build their own personal brands. This group of entrepreneurs is led by Lei Jun and focuses on the real economy.

These entrepreneurs build personal brands, attempting to place themselves before the corporate image and use strong brand recognition to gain business advantages for their companies.

Unlike the emerging group of entrepreneurs in China, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have recently become more enthusiastic about appearing on podcasts, discussing their business-related topics at length, almost like preaching and sharing their views. Peter Thiel, who helped Vance rise to prominence and is a key member of the PayPal Mafia, is a frequent podcast evangelist.

Lin Ran's approach to building his personal brand is quite different from the two methods mentioned above.

As a purely B2B company, Apollo Technology has no need to do this, as it would not bring even the slightest business benefit.

Lin Ran simply felt that NASA had used a series of actions to promote the popularization of space in the past, and he felt that China's aerospace industry had done too little in this regard, far from enough. He hoped to popularize space knowledge and cultivate interest by creating a personal brand.

It not only sparks young people's interest in space, but also indirectly influences the next generation, inspiring them to develop a greater interest in aerospace.

"Next, let's ask Wei Xuhang. Xuhang and I went to the moon together before, but last time he watched me and Aldrin go from the command module. This time he went by himself. How did you feel?" Lin Ran asked.

After gathering his thoughts, Wei Xuhang said, "When I was interviewed by CCTV, I said that I felt very excited."

After more than a month of reflection, my deepest feeling is that when I was in the shadow of the moon, standing in that shadow, I felt like I was exploring the secrets of the universe.

Professor, you know that the temperature in the shaded area is over 100 degrees below zero, extremely cold, and it's also completely silent and empty.

There was no sound, no life, nothing at all. I felt like I had been exiled to the edge of the universe. I felt like I was not 38 kilometers away from Earth, but so far away that I could never come back.

But the moment the ice was unearthed, the light refracted from it instantly pulled me back to reality from my reverie.

When he talked about this, Wei Xuhang's expression had already drifted to the moon.

Lin Ran was deeply moved by Wei Xuhang's words; light is hope.

Although he had never been to the shadowy region of the moon's south pole, he had experienced the pain of losing his five senses. He didn't know how long he had been deprived of his five senses, and if light hadn't awakened him from the darkness, he felt that he would eventually lose consciousness.

"So, do you want to go again?" Lin Ran asked.

Wei Xuhang replied matter-of-factly, "Of course, Professor, you must send me again next time. Although it feels like I'm thousands of miles away from home, I know my work is very meaningful."

Moreover, going to the moon feels really amazing; it's an experience that can never be replicated in any simulation training center.

"Besides, Professor, think about it. If we really launch lunar tourism in the future, a trip there would definitely cost hundreds of millions of RMB, right? If I go now, not only do I not have to pay anything, but the company will even pay me back. Isn't that like making hundreds of millions just by going? I definitely have to go."

Lin Ran smiled helplessly and said, "You, just now some netizens asked in the live chat if you would join the Japanese space agency, since Japan is extending an olive branch to you?"

Wei Xuhang's expression turned extremely serious: "Absolutely not! National and personal grievances will never be forgotten!"

The comments section was filled with "good, good, good".

On the Simplified Chinese internet, if you dare to say anything bad about Japan, people will jump out to defend you and attack you, saying that it's too late to be talking about national hatred. But when the number of people is large and the discussion is placed in a public space with a large number of people, such voices disappear and dare not emerge.

Lin Ran nodded, then turned to the camera and said, "Did everyone hear that? Let's all witness this together. To paraphrase Zhu Yuanzhang, 'We'll drink from the golden goblet together, but we'll fight without mercy.'"

Wei Xuhang asked in confusion, "Professor, what does this poem mean?"

Lin Ran said, "It means you went to the moon and enjoyed the benefits of a free trip there. If you dare to switch jobs to Japan, I will definitely not let you off the hook. The viewers in the live stream will witness this."

"Next year, if Qian Fei or Zhao Jianguo recover well, then this time you will go to the moon with one of them. If things go smoothly, you might even set off at the beginning of next year. In short, be prepared."

We certainly won't be going to the moon once a year; the frequency of our moon visits will only increase.

Let me tell you that we will be laying some solar panels at the lunar south pole early next year.

As everyone knows, the lunar surface contains solar wind, dust, and various high-energy particles brought by the solar wind. Under such conditions, the lifespan of solar panels would be very limited.

A lifespan of thirty years on Earth might not even be guaranteed for three months on the moon.

This time, we need to lay some solar panels first. On the one hand, we need to make breakthroughs in materials, and on the other hand, we need to see if we can optimize the design structure.

The work, including the dismantling and installation of the fuel tank, should begin early next year.

"Professor, I guarantee I'll complete the mission!" Wei Xuhang said earnestly.

Lin Ran nodded and then said, "I've seen many netizens asking why Wei Xuhang doesn't call me boss, President Lin, or Ran Shen, but instead calls me professor."

Let me explain. When I first recruited them, my primary identity was that of a professor at Jiaotong University, so everyone was used to calling me Professor. Aldrin's nickname was Doctor.

"A PhD and a professor—I quite like those titles, so it's stuck with me ever since."

Wei Xuhang sighed inwardly. The professor really knew how to make up one lie after another. It wasn't that he liked everyone calling him that. When people found out that when they called him that, Lin Ran would suppress his tyrannical side when working together. But if they called him something else, he would turn into a tyrannical persona that focused on the facts. After everyone found out, they all started calling him "Professor".

"Alright, that's about it for the interview. Let's start today's Q&A session. I'll pick some comments and then answer them," Lin Ran said.

"My first question is, what's the secret to Wei Xuhang's good luck?" Lin Ran glanced at him.

Wei Xuhang quickly said, "Actually, I wasn't just lucky. In my opinion, everyone has their lucky moments. When you're unlucky, you should quietly accumulate energy and seize the opportunity when you're lucky."

I am a retired Air Force soldier. I participated in the astronaut selection process when I was serving in the Air Force, but I was not selected. In the long years after my discharge from the military, I never gave up on exercising my body, which is why I was able to be successfully selected when Apollo Science was recruiting.

If I were like many of my retired comrades, with a beer belly and cigarettes always in my pocket, I wouldn't have been selected, no matter how lucky I was.

So I don't think I was lucky, because if I were lucky, I should have been selected as an astronaut that time, instead of wasting half my life and only becoming an astronaut in my forties.

"My second question is for Ran Shen: what are your thoughts on the falling out between Musk and the White House?"

After Lin Ran finished reading, he thought, "Musk and the White House have fallen out? Is that so strange?" "I'll just sit here and watch."

"The third question is, how do you view Musk's statement in an interview that my achievements were packaged by the Chinese government and that other people's achievements were attributed to me?" Lin Ran finished reading and grinned: "Let's just sit back and watch; their opinions are not important."

Why do we always care about foreigners' opinions? It's unimportant, okay? Let's put it this way: just wait for the defeated to whine. Musk thinks changing the White House leadership will change things, but sorry, changing the White House leadership won't change anything, because America's problems can't be solved by changing personnel.

"Okay, I won't be answering any more questions about external opinions. Their opinions really aren't important."

When will we take drones to the moon? When will the lunar drone center be built?

The problem is this: we need to have adequate communication equipment and sufficient energy supply before we can even talk about drones.

Drones also consume electricity. Secondly, as mentioned earlier, the moon has high-energy particles that severely interfere with communications, making it difficult to develop a communication system.

According to the plan, this is something for the year after next. Next year, we will first complete the deployment of a series of lunar satellites in terms of communications, and then we will start building the Earth-Moon cargo space route starting next year.

Once this is completed, the entire lunar construction will be accelerated.

(End of this chapter)