Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 453 The Beginning of the Space Age

Influence is a very mysterious thing.

Since you can't touch it, you often don't have a direct feeling about its power.

Just like most ordinary people cannot accurately judge the influence of a big V.

After being called out by a certain influential figure known as "King of Hell," Feng Ge disappeared from the internet, afraid to speak out. He no longer dared to say that this was a good thing, let alone do live streams or post on Weibo.

This influential figure who has fled overseas simply made a video, yet its power is comparable to Avada Kedavra.

This is a manifestation of influence.

Similarly, Lin Ran's short sentence was as powerful as Avada Kedavra.

The Douyin user he named had a profile picture of an anime girl, but you couldn't tell anything from the profile picture.

But while lying on the sofa watching the live stream, this user was already trembling with fear in real life.

He knew he was working indirectly for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, traveling between Tokyo and Shinkai.

But to his utter surprise, he had only casually posted a slightly pretentious comment, and Lin Ran had called him out on it.

Of the thousands of comments, only his comment was chosen; the odds of that are comparable to winning the lottery.

Upon being called out, he turned ashen-faced, realizing he might never be able to return to China in his lifetime.

Lin Ran won't investigate, but netizens will, and relevant authorities in China will.

He quickly went to the settings menu and tried to log out of the account; he had never been so fast.

Lin Ran didn't care at all, and continued speaking to himself:

"Okay, just kidding. In terms of capability and technological prospects, it does indeed have the capability to project weapons onto the ground, as this netizen mentioned."

But we will absolutely not do that.

We are a privately owned commercial space organization. Our goal is to be profitable, and we have never had anything to do with kinetic weapons or geopolitics.

After Lin Ran explained, most netizens in the live chat were commenting, "I understand."

Normal Chinese netizens know that having this ability and making it public are two different things.

Except for a very few abnormal countries, like the Squid, which openly claims to be able to control everyone's mobile phone, other people, even if they have such ability, will not publicize it so openly.

"The next question is, when will we launch lunar tourism?"
I estimate that we will launch a super cheap version of the lunar tourism project, costing ten million RMB per person, before 2030.

Depending on the moon's carrying capacity and the progress of lunar base construction at that time, it will be open to the outside world. If there are few applicants, you can go as long as you pass the medical examination. If there are many applicants, it may be necessary to draw lots or auction.

In short, everyone certainly won't have to wait too long; it will definitely be within their lifetimes, unlike nuclear fusion, which seems to have an endless fifty years to go.

Lin Ran's live stream sparked public discussion and drew attention to the moon.

Three days later, after the successful recovery of the Magpie Bridge in the East China Sea, the discussion reached a new level.

Although China's various impact craters at the lunar south pole have been connected into one solid block, that was caused by Joe. After I took office, I built a base at the lunar north pole in just two years. This will greatly boost his midterm election campaign.

As for the transactions beneath the surface, the data and navigation systems originated from China, which led to the rapid development of China's semiconductor industry, even resulting in the creation of a fully domestically produced 7nm line—something beyond the comprehension of East Asian semiconductor professionals. Who would have known?

Inside the viewing hall next to the Houston Control Center, the Stars and Stripes hanging everywhere indicated a sufficiently enthusiastic atmosphere, while the varied expressions of the guests revealed that this was not entirely the start of a great victory or the beginning of the space age as America had proclaimed.

The president, wearing his signature red tie, sat in the center of the front row.

He needs this victory, a victory that will completely overshadow their biggest competitor, Lunar Infrastructure.

“Look at this huge thing, it’s made entirely by America, the best!” Big T said to the Saudi envoy beside him.

The Saudi envoy thought to himself, "Is it really made entirely by America? Could it be another joke, like the lunar rover?"

If the former NASA administrator could cooperate with China, why can't Musk? He has huge business ties in China, and his connections there are far stronger than those of his predecessor.

But he wore a smile on his face and complimented, "Of course, America is the best!"

He didn't even wait for a translator before continuing to send signals to the surrounding allied dignitaries: "Joe gave the lunar south pole to China, and that was a disaster."

And I will plant my flag in the Arctic and build a city called Big T Base! We will make America great again, something neither President Kennedy nor President Johnson accomplished!

In another building in Houston, SpaceX founder Elon Musk stared intently at the main control screen.

He was wearing a very common black T-shirt and holding an empty coffee cup.

Despite the outside world's belief that he had the victory in the bag, Musk was filled with an anxiety that only he knew.

This lunar-modified starship not only needs to complete the parallel ultra-long-duration ignition of multiple Raptor engines to ensure precise entry into the Earth-Moon transfer orbit, but also needs to ensure the structural integrity of the support landing legs during landing, as they will bear the enormous weight of the prefabricated base components.

In reality, it involves enormous risks, which is completely different from testing.

Musk thought to himself, "Damn, a 500-ton payload, this is a challenge to the structural limits. We've solved the 'Raptor' cascade failure from the last launch, but is this one really going to be okay?"

This stems from concerns about the Starship's numerous engines operating in parallel.

This technology is still far from mature. He turned his gaze to the navigation data stream flashing on the screen.

This core ultra-high precision inertial measurement unit and lunar space navigation data are the product of their secret technology exchange with China.

This system has a much lower error rate in deep space environments than any of NASA’s existing products.

Its reliability has been verified multiple times, so that's the least of your worries.

Ambassadors from various countries smiled and raised their glasses to toast Big T, but many of them were filled with resentment.

Japan was asked to make a massive investment of $500 billion in America, but they didn't want to put it all into America's AI infrastructure projects.

This timeline is 500 billion, because America is under much more pressure and they need to bleed their allies more to ensure their own development.

Japan hopes to invest a portion of its budget in aerospace, specifically in the lunar base project.

The reasons are simple. On the one hand, it's about risk diversification; you can't put all your eggs in one basket with AI. The gap between LLM and general AGI doesn't seem to be narrowing. On the other hand, it's about America's harsh profit-sharing ratio: 1% for Neon and 9% for America.

If you're dividing the pie like this, I might as well invest in aerospace, a field that's practically unprofitable anyway. I wouldn't get much anyway, but at least I'd have a stake in your lunar base, a sense of presence, and be able to send Japanese people there, while also doing some cutting-edge materials research—those are Japan's strengths.

Unfortunately, America flatly refused.

They only accept investments from Japan, specifically in AI infrastructure.

The President of the European Commission then turned to the French ambassador beside him and whispered in French: "The Chinese are speaking with their lunar infrastructure capabilities, and America is catching up."

They all treated the moon as their own backyard.

We in Europe must accelerate our Ariane program, or we won't even have a ticket to the moon in the future.

Europe is characterized by a strong sense of crisis, but there is a lot of inaction, or rather, inaction is worse than action.

Kennedy Space Center, countdown: T-10 seconds.

Big T stood up, and his action made everyone else stand up as well.

"1098"

"4321"

T-0!

Twenty-nine Raptor engines ignited simultaneously, spewing forth orange-red flames and billowing heat. The starship slowly and steadily rose from the ground amidst a massive cloud of white smoke.

The ground shook violently, and the glass in the viewing hall rattled.

"Take off!" Musk's voice echoed throughout the arena.

The starship began to accelerate, passing through the clouds.

Houston Control Center, 2 minutes after liftoff.

"Acceleration is normal! Thrust curve is perfect!" Musk finally smiled.

He knew that the most dangerous phase was over.

After the starship successfully entered the Earth-Moon transfer orbit, thunderous applause erupted in the viewing hall.

Big T stood on the podium, waving his arms, his voice filled with the fervor of a victor: "We did it! America is back! We're not only going to send people to the moon, we're going to build a permanent, beautiful, and magnificent Big T base there! We're going to prove that in space, freedom and innovation are always the best weapons! Let those guys building railways in Antarctica see that we are the true masters of space!"

His words were impassioned and inflammatory.

In reality, outside his sight, the starship was relying on that clandestine Chinese navigation system to correct the minor deviations in its entry into lunar orbit.

Shortly after the deafening roar of the Kennedy Space Center, another giant rocket was ready at the launch pad in Florida.

This is a lunar landing project jointly developed by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Indian industrial giant Tata Group.

Blue Origin's new rocket, codenamed "Odyssey".

To put it simply, it's the Saturn V.

After the Apollo moon landing, Bezos has always aspired to replicate the Saturn V.

Whether it's gathering information from America's own territory or openly poaching talent from General Aerospace.

Bezos can be said to have used every means possible.

Three-tiered design, large size, classic black and white color scheme.

Their mission, costing a staggering $50 billion, is a combination of America's and India's technological and financial ambitions.

Clearly, the launch was only attended by senior Tata Group officials, Indian diplomats, and the Blue Origin team.

　There is another chapter tonight

　　
　
(End of this chapter)