Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 372 There aren't many suitable candidates left (Supplement)

"China's commercial space agency Apollo Technologies has completed its first robotic operation, further expanding the area of ​​photovoltaic panels to be laid on the moon. This has raised concerns among environmentalists who worry that its lunar operations will cause irreversible damage to the lunar environment."

In response, Kate, founder of the Open Lunar Foundation, stated: "I will continue to monitor the company's latest developments, paying attention to potential resource conflicts and environmental risks arising from a lack of international coordination. We call on China to join the Lunar Ledger database and share details of base construction to ensure sustainable governance, reduce potential friction, and promote peaceful access for all countries."

On television, a CNN anchor is interviewing Kate, co-founder of the Open Moon Foundation, who is speaking eloquently about China's lunar landing.

The Open Moon Foundation’s mission is to ensure peace and cooperation on the Moon through collaboration in areas such as technology, policy, and infrastructure.

The Lunar Ledger mentioned in the interview is a shared database that was launched a few years ago, mainly used to record and track human activities on the moon.

For example, Apollo Technology has already landed in Shackleton Crater and laid out a dense array of solar panels there. If other organizations were to land there later, their own landings would likely fail, and Apollo Technology's base would also be destroyed.

Such risks can be avoided if the data is registered in advance on a shared platform.

When there are more organizations involved in lunar exploration, such a data-sharing platform will become very necessary.

The question is, who would build this kind of data sharing platform? Does a non-governmental organization like yours even deserve to?

People in China can't see this news, but John Morgan Jr. can. After seeing it, he was quite disdainful of it. What's the use of your appeal? You can appeal a thousand times, but the Chinese side won't pay any attention to you.

He now lives in Austin year-round, far removed from the bustling city life of New York, shuttling between Austin's affluent neighborhoods and suburban factories.

John Morgan Jr. deeply appreciated how wonderful the physical manufacturing industry was.

Yes, it's wonderful.

Despite the fact that money comes too easily in the financial industry.

The essence of the financial industry is information asymmetry, and top financial groups like the Morgan family not only do not lack information asymmetry, but can also create it themselves.

Just as China wants to use the breakthrough of photovoltaic modules to reap huge profits in the capital market, the Morgan family can also take advantage of the information gap, because China needs to make statements to the outside world and release information to form a consensus on short selling.

So no matter which channel the message is sent through, the Morgan family will be among the first to know, and they will be able to act accordingly.

As for creating information asymmetry, there's no need to elaborate. In another year, when Big T takes office, he will show you the most direct way to create information asymmetry and reap profits in the capital market.

Even the Morgan family is ashamed of themselves. We still have to rely on bribing members of parliament, forming a united force, making plans in advance, and spending several months to complete a small harvest, and several years or even a decade to complete a large harvest.

Your president is actually able to cut crops once a day, that's amazing.

Ordinary people are like韭菜 (leeks, a metaphor for being exploited), but for the Morgan family, making money in finance is as easy as breathing. As long as there are capital markets in the world, they can make a fortune from them. They are already part of the dollar tide.

John Morgan Jr. witnessed firsthand how his family's financial empire was exploited; money was just a number to them.

At first, I didn't feel excited at all, and as I got older, it went without saying that I felt even less excited.

In manufacturing, the smells of stainless steel, machine oil, gears, precision parts, 3D printing equipment, and so on, all mingle together in the factory, creating a more tangible and enjoyable experience.

This kind of exhilaration cannot be compared to any change in numbers.

What bothered him the most was that there were very few white people in the entire factory; the few white people there were all middle-aged or elderly, and there wasn't a single young white person to be seen.

John Morgan Jr. saw many images of his ancestors in photographs, holding companies in steel, oil, electricity, and railroads, posing with workers—a truly spectacular sight, almost entirely white.

America's tycoons were the real tycoons in history, the ones who dared to go against Washington, just because they had workers and security forces.

Nowadays, most of the factory workers are of Chinese, Indian, or Latino descent. These people will work for you, but they won't be your slaves.

General Aerospace's massive hangar was basking in the scorching summer sun, the air thick with the pungent smells of metal and lubricating oil.

Inside the hangar, towering steel beams support the ceiling, and LED lights illuminate blueprints and toolboxes on desks.

Chief Propulsion Engineer Dr. Vasquez stood in front of the turbopump assembly frame, hands on his hips, brow furrowed.

This is an F-1 engine that traveled across the ocean.

The core of Saturn V.

It was also a company called Apollo Technology on the other side of the Pacific that was the biggest factor holding them back.

But replicating it is far from simple: modern materials such as high-grade nickel alloys can certainly replace the original Inconel-X, and 3D printing can also achieve a level of precision that was unattainable by hand welding in the 1960s.

However, the real difficulty lies at the heart of the engine: combustion instability, a chaotic pressure wave feedback loop, which is a problem they have been unable to solve for a long time.

"Still haven't found a solution?" John Morgan Jr. asked.

Influenced by Lin Ran, he likes to call this problem-solving.

Unravel the mystery the professor left for himself.

“Boss, the F-1’s combustion chamber has high-frequency pressure oscillations that can destroy everything in milliseconds,” Dr. Vasquez said.

This is a talent that John Morgan Jr. managed to poach from NASA with great difficulty.

However, the other party was happy to do this job. Compared to making up PowerPoint presentations and specs to fool NASA into spending money, replicating the F-1 engine was much more interesting.

“Doctor, why can’t we use computer simulation software to predict those unstable waves? The original relied on repeated trial and error, but we have supercomputers now. The professor replicated the Saturn V in just over a year. I don’t believe they used trial and error; they definitely used computer simulations to get good results,” John Morgan Jr. reminded him.

Dr. Vasquez said, “Boss, you’re right, but the problem is we don’t know how Apollo Technology models things, how it handles resonance, how it adjusts the pressure wave frequency parameters, or how it matches the pressure wave frequency parameters to the natural frequency of the combustion chamber wall. We don’t know any of this. We’ve already hired a group of PhDs in applied mathematics from Ivy League universities, and they have no idea how to do it.”

John Morgan Jr. said quietly, "What we need is vision. We need masters. Only masters can help us find a solution."

This isn't something that can be solved by simply piling on manpower; it requires someone who can jump high enough, not a group of people who can only jump one meter, put together and expect to jump ten meters high.

Dr. Vasquez said, "I know, but the problem is, can applied mathematics do this?"

Before he could finish speaking, John Morgan Jr. waved his hand and said, "I'll go find him. I know who to ask."

A name popped into his mind: Terry Tao, also a Chinese-American mathematician who spanned multiple fields. Perhaps he could help them solve this problem.

John Morgan Jr. paced across the concrete floor, wearing gloves and touching the cold metal frame.

John Morgan Jr. took a deep breath; the air still carried the lingering smell of ozone from welding.

"Doctor, simulation is just the starting point. We can first conduct some supporting tests to collect data and get some peripheral work done."

I will find people to tackle the core issues.

Dr. Vasquez quickly replied, "Don't worry, boss, we've been doing it all along, including simulating fuel flow with nitrogen, checking cold flow tests for turbulence, heat resistance tests on alloy coatings to ensure the combustion chamber walls won't melt at high temperatures, high cavitation-free tests on subsystem turbopumps, and so on."

These tests are all underway, and they are progressing rapidly, exactly according to our established timeline.

Dr. Vasquez is indeed capable; it's just that his abilities were buried in NASA's dysfunctional working environment in the past.

"Doctor, I have full confidence in your abilities."

Before leaving the factory, John Morgan Jr. thought to himself, "This is much more interesting than financial games."

Upon arriving at the office area, there were many more white faces; the proportion of white people was much higher than in the factory.

Jessica, the blonde, blue-eyed secretary, walked in: "Boss, I have some new information to report to you. Randolph Lin, the founder of Apollo Technologies, has publicly stated that the next moon landing will include a passenger, and he himself will participate in this moon landing."

John Morgan Jr.'s eyes lit up: "You mean, the next moon landing trio: a passenger, the professor himself, and an astronaut?"

Jessica didn't know why, but John Morgan Jr. preferred to call Randolph "Professor," so she calmly said, "Yes, he also said the price was quite high."

John Morgan Jr. slammed his hand on the table. "What's the big deal? No matter how expensive the price is, how much can it be?"

For him, money is just a number.

With a professor accompanying me to the moon, the biggest concern is resolved, and the safety level is definitely maximized.

A professor can't possibly disregard his own safety.

As for fame and getting closer to the professor, those are secondary. Just being able to go to the moon and visit a base in China is worth the price of admission.

“Help me get in touch. Never mind, I’ll come myself,” John Morgan Jr. said.

He chose to call Lin Ran at 8:00 AM Beijing time on a weekday, knowing that Lin Ran would be most likely to answer the phone at that time.

“Professor,” John Morgan Jr. said humbly, “I want to go to the moon with you, and I’ll offer more than whoever makes the offer!”

He's not a mentally challenged second-generation idiot; he wouldn't go so far as to shout, "I'll pay double!"

After all, the wealthy Saudis and Qataris don't treat money like money.

"Oh, about that? I'm sorry, but for this moon landing, we only accept applications from Chinese citizens," Lin Ran explained. "It's not that I don't allow it, it's that Beijing doesn't allow it."

They said that for my safety, the project would not be open to overseas consumers for the time being.

"Huh?" John Morgan Jr. immediately understood the intricacies of the situation.

I'm afraid there might be assassins.

Going to the moon, even if it costs a hundred billion dollars, would be worth it if I could kill the professor along the way.

For America, Lin Ran's appearance caused them to lose countless billions, from the US stock market to the precarious state of their tech monopoly—money cannot measure these losses.

The people in Yanjing are especially afraid that some unknown prince in the Middle East, who is indeed rich and capable of fabricating an identity, could take Lin Ran away on the way to the moon.

Even if there's only the slightest possibility, Yanjing doesn't want to take that risk.

So, no sooner had Lin Ran issued his announcement than Song Nanping approached Lin Ran, explained the pros and cons to him, and made it clear that while he could do this, the tourists going to the moon with him had to be Chinese citizens, or even Hong Kong tycoons. He added that the authorities in Beijing did not trust them and would create obstacles to prevent him from doing so.

Sun Ge, for example, immediately tweeted after Lin Ran issued the announcement, saying he was willing to spend $10 billion to buy a spot to go to the moon.

As a result, netizens reminded him: "Sun Ge, do you still dare to go back to the mainland? I'm afraid you'll not appear in Wenchang, but in Yanjing."

Sun Ge has been running around all these years, only daring to stay in Hong Kong and never daring to return to the mainland, as if he were under a tight rein.

With such restrictions, there are very few suitable candidates left.

　This chapter is a make-up update. I will gradually make up for it according to the daily update schedule this month, and I will definitely add more chapters for monthly votes!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)