Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 458 External Response
Lin Ran finally revealed a faint smile.

The engineers from Apollo Technology around them breathed a sigh of relief after reading the signal that the orbit change was successful from the data curve.

They are all professionals in the industry and are well aware of the risks involved. They also know that there is no team at all, and it all depends on Lin Ran's judgment alone.

This incredible power left all the engineers present in awe.

It's hard to imagine that a human could do this.

During Lin Ran's command, everyone dared not even breathe loudly, for fear of indirectly affecting the success or failure of this rescue.

After all, this sudden and major event has become news that has swept the globe.

It started in the makeshift press conference room in Florida and spread outwards.

From America across the ocean to China on this side of the sea, this matter has overshadowed everything else and become the current focus.

The construction progress of the Big T base and the unveiling of the Big T lunar base after its completion have suddenly become roadside news.

Previously, Blue Origin was just a roadside project; now, Big T and NASA are just roadside projects.

In Big T's view, all narratives about America's space ambitions were completely overshadowed by a rescue operation from China.

What kind of behavior is this from Bezos? This is betrayal, a betrayal of the great America.

This is a conspiracy orchestrated by the Democratic Party behind the scenes.

The angry T posted a series of messages on his own social media platform, Truth Social:

"A hoax! It's all a show! In just two years, I got NASA and SpaceX to plant our flag at the lunar north pole! We're building the most magnificent base in history, to be named T-Base! And what happened? Now all the media is talking about that Chinese rescue ship! This is a media coup orchestrated by fake news outlets and the failed Democrats! They stole our victory!"

"That loser Bezos owes America an explanation! His cumbersome rocket, using an outdated design, produced a defective lunar module! It was an insult to America's technology! And then he actually paid Apollo Technology! He was funding our biggest competitor! He should be stripped of all government contracts! It's a disgraceful act!"

Conservative media outlets, sensing the opportunity, launched a barrage of attacks against Bezos.

Incidentally, they also attacked international cooperation.

SpaceX, which believes that international cooperation should not be pursued in the aerospace field and succeeded by relying solely on America's local resources, while Blue Origin, which has a deep partnership with India, suffered a huge failure.

As for General Aerospace, this is a bug, which conservative KOLs ignored, as did Big T's accusations.

Because General Motors was the first company to cooperate with China.

In America, whether it's elephants or donkeys, everyone ignores what General Motors does, whether it's cooperating with China or producing a mess like the Xiaomi lunar rover.

Everyone knows to pick on the weakest link.

For a tough nut like GM, forget about it.

Besides, John Morgan is currently in Tokyo, making a fortune for everyone. Every prominent politician in Washington has a share, so people have to give him face.

"Washington suddenly found itself in a politically humiliating defeat to have to rely on its biggest rival to save America's life in its most critical moment."

This also exposes the White House's narrative that NASA has caught up with China's space program.

The Democrats seized on the White House's incompetence, which is why Bezos was forced to plead with China for help regarding the astronaut issue.

Incidentally, Bezos was portrayed as a moral exemplar, with the emphasis on his responsible behavior towards life.

In China, the three terms "Blue Origin Lin Ran", "Chinese people are the main characters in the space rescue", and "Magpie Bridge Rescue" ranked in the top three on Weibo.

Apollo Technologies' official account even created an emergency 3D animation to explain to Chinese netizens the predicament Blue Origin faced and their rescue plan.

So as everyone knows, the rescue was carried out by the Magpie Bridge.

"Didn't some haters say before that the Magpie Bridge was useless? They said that with reusable rockets, building a space electromagnetic orbit is redundant."

Where are the people now? Is this even useful? Without a space electromagnetic orbit, how can we routinely deploy spacecraft on the moon? And how can we possibly complete a rescue operation immediately?

"They don't mean that electromagnetic orbits in space are unnecessary. They're just following the lead of others. Haven't you noticed that the most talked-about topic on the internet regarding the lunar steel dragon is the militarization of space?"

These domestic public figures who follow suit are simply echoing foreign opinions. They take whatever is said on foreign websites, make a localized version, and then start barking like dogs in China.

Now that the Magpie Bridge is going to rescue the Americans, I want to ask: will it even be effective? Are we weaponizing space, or are we conducting rescue efforts in the spirit of internationalism? Speak up!

"I've always felt that the name 'Magpie Bridge' is really inappropriate. The Moon Steel Dragon could be called Magpie Bridge, since it looks like a bridge."

"What I get from Bezos is that they only paid for the cost. Can't Bezos be a little less generous? Why not seize this opportunity to rip off the Americans? If it were me, I would take at least three billion dollars. One billion dollars per person wouldn't be too much, would it?"

"When will domestic directors be able to remake this space rescue? Isn't it much more exciting than those crappy films you make? And you ask why no one watches the movie? It's because the subject matter and content of your films are terrible. They're not as exciting as what actually happened in real life. Who would watch them?"

"Don't remake it. I don't believe these domestic directors can handle this story well. If the final scene is a black female astronaut and a white male astronaut kissing on the Magpie Bridge on their return to Earth, I'll be disgusted."

"That's true. If it weren't Guo Fan directing, and it were another director, I reckon they would have focused on the love story between the male and female astronauts and used China's space rescue as a backdrop."

Chinese netizens also had a heated discussion, with China playing a leading role in this.

Moreover, this is a concentrated outburst of multiple complex emotions and national narratives.

The concrete manifestation of technological overtaking and the shattering of the "Western myth"—of course, this shattering is not a one-off event, but this time the contrast with the fact that the saviors in Hollywood movies are all white is too stark.

This completely shattered the long-held myth of Western leadership in space exploration, humanitarianism, and high technology.

Finally, there's the extension of the "infrastructure maniac."

In the past, China was known for its massive infrastructure development. Opponents have always focused on the fact that all countries have experienced large-scale infrastructure projects, and that this is nothing special. America and Japan's Ministry of Finance have both gone through this period.

So what about now? Do other countries also have "new space infrastructure" symbolized by the lunar electromagnetic orbit?

China's unique, low-cost, reusable lunar transportation system brings unparalleled pride to the Chinese people.

Just like the Starship's chopsticks retrieval system, it can make Chinese netizens who are paying attention to this matter feel frustrated and realize that there is still a big gap between China and America in the field of aerospace.

However, the general sentiment among Chinese netizens is that it's achievable, but it will take time. We need five to eight years to catch up, and sooner or later we will have our own reusable rockets and be able to develop starships.

Unlike other netizens, after experiencing California's spending hundreds of billions of dollars on high-speed rail that only built one kilometer, their first reaction upon seeing the steel dragon on the moon was that America could never do it.

Because they no longer have that ability.

On Reddit and Twitter, the comments from netizens were surprisingly consistent: instead of "we should build a better one," they carried a heavy sense of self-deprecation: "We'll never be able to do it."

This collective pessimism stems from a painful, close-up association: the California high-speed rail project.

It cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, yet only a small section was barely completed in the desolate Central Valley, ultimately becoming a symbol of Commissioner Smith.

"Look at that abandoned railway line in California, and then look at the steel dragon on the moon."

"We can't even build a smooth railway track in the desert, so how can we talk about launching a spacecraft on the moon?"

This is a common question in the minds of America's netizens, and a collective lament of all insightful people in America when faced with its own decline.

History is a cycle.

When Yuri Makarov, the current director of the Black Sea Shipyard, was asked how to complete the Varyag, which was only half-built when the Soviet Union collapsed, Makarov replied:
"I need Soviet Russia, Moscow, the State Planning Committee, the Military-Industrial Committee and nine defense industry ministries, 600 related specialties, 8000 supporting manufacturers, in short, a great country to accomplish it."

Makarov's words are an epic portrayal of the national system and the highest praise for the industrial capabilities of an era.

Americana netizens projected this statement directly onto China's lunar orbit:
"China built the steel dragon on the moon because they possess that great nation."

They have the ability to integrate cutting-edge superconducting materials technology, nuclear reactor technology, lunar soil 3D printing technology, and the will of hundreds of thousands of engineers to achieve a national-level projection of will.

And what about us? We have Wall Street capital, top-notch ideas, and Musk's genius, but they are bound by endless political infighting, infighting among interest groups, and an excessive pursuit of cost.

We have long lost that collective mobilization capacity—the ability to mobilize without regard to cost, solely for a goal—and that capacity will never return.

This space rescue was an unprecedented display of strength.

On the day the incident occurred, at a public forum at Harvard, when Mearsheimer was asked about it by students in the audience, he said:
"In the cold jungle of international politics, only power is the ultimate currency."

The dollar is the backing of power, and we are losing power.

What appears to be a rescue operation is actually a strategic deterrent.

We must strip away the civilian veneer to see its core military potential.

The impact of GPS, starting with the Vietnam War, was that the systematic and information-based warfare model fully matured in the Gulf War.

Similarly, the core capability that China demonstrated this time lies in its high-precision, ultra-fast orbital maneuverability across millions of kilometers.

They are able to accurately calculate and intercept a target drifting in deep space, and complete the orbital change within a very short time window.

In civilian applications, this is a life-saving technology; but in military applications, it is the ultimate space weapon.

If China can precisely intercept a high-speed drifting escape pod, then they can equally precisely intercept or strike any satellite or military asset operating in Earth orbit, or even in lunar space.

This rescue demonstrates China's ability to react quickly and project power within the vast gravitational field of the moon.

This means they have the capability to establish a no-fly zone on the moon.

They can pose a significant threat to any foreign assets that enter lunar orbit without launching chemical rockets or creating visible flames.

We have actually lost the moon.

That's why nobody cares about the base the president built on the moon.

That's just a toy.

No matter how magnificent it is, its existence depends on the benevolence of China.

The logic of deterrence is that if something can be done, it has already been done.

Deterrence lies not in actual actions, but in potential capabilities.

I'm not saying that China has weaponized their lunar electromagnetic orbit.

But the key point is that they can!
This is the essence of deterrence.

After speaking, Mearsheimer said with some frustration: "This incident will fundamentally change our and our allies' understanding of space security."

In the near future, we will have to spend hundreds of billions of dollars trying to develop similar countermeasures, and until then, we will all live in the shadow of each other's space-based threats.

Mearsheimer concluded with a hint of helplessness: "In space, there is no friendship, only undeniable power."

And China, through America's contribution, is showcasing its unique capabilities to the world.

"How is it, Jason?" Lin Ran asked.

"Sir, this feeling is better than ever before, it's like being brought back from the dead."

Regardless of whether the rescue ultimately succeeds, at least we can look at the moon instead of drifting in endless void.” Jason still had the mind to joke.

This shows that he was indeed in a good mood.

"Okay, the rescue will now begin in three steps, and the entire process will be carried out jointly by the automatic capture system on the unmanned spacecraft and our ground control," Lin Ran said. "This is the key to the rescue."

"Lina and Sarah, it's time to prepare for the extravehicular activity."

The two of them will be transferred first.

Jason, you stay in the escape pod and operate the final attitude stabilization system.

Once the spacecraft enters its designated orbit, Lina, you will be the first to exit the capsule. Your target is Spaceship One.

Pay attention to the top of the spacecraft; our flexible capture arm will deploy and drop a high-strength tether.

This rope is equipped with an automatic tensioning and cushioning system.

Lina was a little nervous: "Sir, received."

Rope deployed, received.

Lin Ran instructed, "Remember, the propulsion backpack of the spacesuit can only be used to exit the escape pod, not for long-distance maneuvers."

You must grab the rope within the zero-speed window when the relative speed between the two spaceships drops to its lowest point.

This is the most crucial step; you absolutely cannot make a mistake. You must remain calm and complete this step.

(End of this chapter)