Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 456 The Most Expensive Screw in History

The Odyssey command module was currently in lunar transfer orbit.

Commander Carl Jensen shut down communications with Houston and turned his attention to the two team members sitting at the console: astronaut and biologist Sarah and astronaut and propulsion engineer Lena.

The entire space was unusually quiet, so quiet that the faint hum of the life support system was so clear to their ears.

The red warning lights were flashing, as if mocking their $50 billion moon landing dream.

Sarah, the usually calm and composed biologist, was now hugging her knees, her body trembling slightly.

Her gaze was blank as she stared at the endless black space outside the side window.

In the direction she was looking, the moon's light was gradually growing stronger.

"The moon is right there, so close, only three meters away."

But we'll never get there.

We couldn't even slow down, we couldn't be captured.

We are flying toward it at escape velocity, and then it will leave us behind and throw us into the cold depths of space.

Is there anything worse than this to die?

Sarah thought to herself, her mind still echoing with the hoarse voice of ground engineer Patel: "Fuel valve self-locking. Non-redundant sensor failure."

As a professionally trained scientist, she understood better than anyone what this meant.

This is a judgment of the laws of physics, an irreversible dead end.

As for the rescue...

On the moon, who can come to their rescue?

Who dares to come and rescue them?
This is no joke.

Sarah chuckled softly: "Heh, the liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen fuel ratio cannot be confirmed, self-locking."

This is the most fatal single point of failure in the Lockheed design.

We didn't even have a chance to ignite and make corrections.

We became messages in bottles adrift in deep space.

Her voice grew softer and softer until it finally turned into a sob.

She didn't cry, but her mental defenses were crumbling.

Lena, a Black woman and a propulsion system engineer, reacted more violently, filled with anger and resentment.

Because before becoming an astronaut, she was a senior consultant for Boeing's lunar module project.

This malfunction was a double blow to her: a failure of technology and a repetition of past history.

She abruptly ripped off her headphones and slammed them onto the control panel.

Lena spoke shrilly to the control panel: "Damn it! That's just a fuel mixture sensor! A tiny thing less than ten centimeters long! I told you long ago not to cooperate with the Indians. Boeing was fooled before, and now you're doing it again!"
These damned Indians, they're committing crimes. They never consider the consequences of their actions, only caring about getting through the immediate predicament. They never think about what they'll face tomorrow if they manage to get away with it today.

Its redundancy has been removed! Removed! This is practically a crime!

The funniest thing is that we've repeated the same mistakes Boeing made, and this time the situation is even worse than before.

Boeing's problems can be salvaged by SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, but our problems are unsolvable! We are being abandoned.

Her words were relayed back to the control center, where no one dared to speak.

Such politically incorrect and racist remarks, even under these circumstances, would only be dared to be made by Black people.

Jason's mind conjured up some hellish jokes, but thankfully both women were Black, so he couldn't read their expressions.

If there were white or Asian people, wouldn't they look bloodless?
She ran her hands through her hair, growling in anguish, "Karl! Do you know what? We have attitude control thrusters, they provide acceleration! But we don't have enough heat shield! We can't re-enter the atmosphere at that speed, we'll burn up!"

Her expertise only fueled her despair.

The escape pod was designed only for short-distance movement in lunar orbit.

The heat-insulating tiles it carried were far from sufficient to withstand the high temperatures generated during its high-speed return to Earth from the Earth-Moon transfer orbit.

Lina said helplessly, "Not only do we have to drift, we don't even have the right to go home for a visit!"

Carl Jensen, the experienced commander, knew that now was not the time for blame and collapse.

He calmly looked at the two female astronauts who were almost in dire straits.

He walked over to Lina, gently picked up the earphones she had dropped on the ground, and handed them back to her.

Carl Jensen pointed to the moon outside the porthole: "Lina, calm down."

Look there, China's lunar base is there; they have rescue capabilities.

Our thermal protection is inadequate.

We know that the RCS has only enough fuel for a single emergency separation ignition.

But the Chinese can come to our rescue.”

He turned to Sarah and helped her up from her curled-up position.

Carl Jensen: "Sarah, you're right, we are being sentenced, but what we have now is time. We have 72 hours of life support and a chance to correct our course."

We still have a chance!

He placed his hand on the console and pointed to the parabolic trajectory on the screen.

Carl Jensen: "The ground in Houston won't give up on us. Our mission is not to fly home on our own, but to survive and get into orbit where the Chinese can capture us."

Lina looked at Jason speechlessly: "No, Carl, are you kidding me?"
I admit that the Chinese may have the ability to save us, but why should they?

Why should the Chinese come to save us?

Is it out of the spirit of the human alliance?
Is it out of international humanitarian spirit?
This is reality, not a Hollywood movie.

Black people aren't so easily fooled.

In America's relatively short history, Black people have been misled far too many times, and when Jason said that, Lena's PTSD was immediately triggered.

Deep space rescue? Can we please stop with the attempts to comfort you?

Jason continued, "A road rescue costs several thousand dollars, while a space rescue, especially one in deep space more than 300,000 kilometers from Earth, would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but I believe in Mr. Bezos."

Lina said speechlessly, "A hundred million? Won't the Chinese seize this opportunity to shout astronomical figures?"
They would only offer figures that even Bezos would find difficult to accept, such as two billion dollars or five billion dollars.

Carl, do you think Mr. Bezos would still insist on saving us if it were five billion dollars?

What we're buying isn't a 100% guarantee of rescue, but merely a possibility, a vague and uncertain possibility.

By the end, Lina's tone had become as light as a feather.

She was close to despair.

After listening, Carl Jensen realized that his rebuttal was weak and ineffective.

Fortunately, it didn't last long.

A voice came from Earth control center: "Shiva Wing, prepare to change course."

“Received,” Carl Jensen said.

"Mr. Randolph Lin will personally oversee the operation, and Apollo Technology will launch a spaceship from the moon to bring you home." Upon receiving this latest message from ground control, Jason immediately informed his two companions.

The three looked at each other, and in an instant, the feelings of frustration and despair that had filled the enclosed space vanished.

A person's name, the shadow of a tree.

Although there is no professor of divine power in this time and space, it does not mean that the name Randolph Lin is without power.

In the aerospace field, this name is an undisputed gold standard, symbolizing an omnipotent legend.

One year to land on the moon, five years to build a lunar base, and now even a lunar electromagnetic orbit.

Even the two Black women, who had fallen into despair, found their hope for life rekindled at this moment.

Carl Jensen gave the order firmly: "Lina, you are responsible for checking the final pressure readings and ignition timing of the escape pod's RCS thrusters."

You know the location of that screw better than anyone else, and you know better than anyone else where those 15 meters per second could push us.

We need to provide Mr. Lin with the most complete data possible for his command.

Carl Jensen then instructed, "Sarah, you are in charge of life support and heat management."

We must minimize electricity consumption and maximize our survival time.

We need to let the ground know that we are still conscious, and that we are still fighting.

T+5 hours and 45 minutes after launch

45 minutes have passed since the accident occurred.

The atmosphere inside the secret meeting room was frozen; the air seemed to have been sucked out.

Jeff Bezos pushed open the conference room door, his expression calm. He didn't look at the track diagram on the table, but walked straight to Natalayaan Chandrasekaran, the head of the Tata Group.

Natarayan remained calm, completely unconcerned about the incident.

He's waiting for a result.

Regardless of whether the negotiations with China yield results, there must be an explanation.

“Mr. Bezos, what was the outcome of the negotiations? Did the Chinese side agree to provide aid?” Natarayan asked.

Seeing the other party's nonchalant attitude, Bezos was furious.

If you guys weren't so useless, would I have bowed down to Randolph?
Bezos did not answer. He walked to the window, his back to Chandrasekaran, like a silent statue.

A moment of silence made Natarayan anxious. No, based on my understanding of the Chinese, they would never give up such a golden opportunity to flex their muscles in front of the world.

Bezos slowly turned around, his eyes sharp, and pierced directly at Chandrasekaran.

Bezos said softly, "They agreed."

The rescue operation is about to begin, and China's lunar spacecraft is making preliminary preparations.

Our astronauts are saved.

Natarayan's heart finally settled. I knew it! In a time when even America doesn't believe in internationalism, the Chinese are the easiest to fool.

He pretended to breathe a sigh of relief, put his hands together, and thanked them in a low voice.

“Great! Well, their condition is that, according to our initial estimate, it should only require tens of millions of dollars in fuel and operating costs, and a billion dollars should be enough.”

Bezos walked back to the conference table and pushed a sticky note with numbers on it toward Chandrasekaran.

The only thing written on it was a string of numbers: $10,000,000,000.

Bezos said, "Their asking price is ten billion dollars."

Natarayan's breath caught in his throat; he felt as if his heart was being squeezed by a Chinese man.

He looked at the astronomical figure and involuntarily leaned back in his chair.

This is not a Chinese person I know.

Isn't their main selling point a combination of high quality and low price?

Natarayan's voice trembled: "Ten billion? Mr. Bezos, do you know what that money means? It's twice the entire budget for our lunar lander development!"

Bezos nodded and said, "Of course, I know what this means, so the Tata Group will cover the entire cost."

Natarayan raised his voice: "No, how can we bear the full cost?"
From any perspective, it's impossible for Tata to bear the entire cost.

Bezos's tone was filled with overwhelming pressure as he stood in front of Natalya.

If Lin Ran were there, he would have a strong sense of déjà vu; Bezos was unconsciously treating him like Johnson.

"Proportion? You're talking about proportion? Chandrasekaran, you'd better get this straight: there's no cooperation now, only losers and saviors!"

He suddenly raised his voice and pointed at the table:

"The Tata Group must take full responsibility for this fatal quality incident."

Your low-cost 'Shiva Wings' are now becoming a floating object in deep space.

Its failure was not due to cosmic radiation, but because of a defective screw!
The Tata Group must take full responsibility for this!

Bezos rested his hands on the table, looking down at Vadra.

Bezos said, "I will not pay a single penny for your fatal quality management failures and your arrogance towards life! Your ten billion dollars is not a ransom, but a fine you are paying for your failure in quality control and the near-death experience of three astronauts!"

Bezos threatened, "You have only two choices: First, prepare the funds immediately and pay the full amount of $10 billion, which I will then declare to the world as an international humanitarian aid fund."

The Tata Group can retain its remaining reputation, and your stock can avoid hitting rock bottom.

Second, refuse to pay.

I will place all the blame, from the media to politics, on Tata's quality fraud and that defective screw.

The details of your lunar module malfunction will become a disgrace in the history of global spaceflight.

At that point, what you'll lose won't just be ten billion dollars, but the future and reputation of the entire group!

More importantly, you will completely lose the opportunity to play with America's space community.

Blue Origin's IPO won't include you, our future moon landing won't include you, and I will sign a ten-year, $20 billion annual procurement agreement with Apollo Technologies—that too will not include you.

That's Bezos's skill.

They portrayed the long-term bills with Apollo Technology as if it were a strategic partnership, or even a perk.

Natarayan is totally falling for that.

His eyes lit up: "A long-term cooperation agreement? $20 billion in procurement every year?"

Bezos nodded and said, "That's right."

He knew that Natarajan was already interested.

He continued, "You can start preparing the funds now; the Chinese spaceships won't wait for your internal meeting to end."

Natarajan nodded and said, "Okay, but when you release the news about the cooperation between Blue Origin and Apollo Technology at the right time, I need to get a share of the profits from the capital operations at that time, otherwise the price of 10 billion is too high."

"it is good."

(End of this chapter)