Chapter 277: 2020 Star Wars
“No, could it be that we’ve been misled all along, and the moon landing is actually very easy?”
In the Blue Origin headquarters meeting room, Bezos and the executives were watching the live broadcast of China’s moon landing returning to Earth.
China’s moon landing mission this time launched at 9:30 a.m. on December 25, 2021, Yanjing time, and returned to Earth at GET 195:18:00, meaning 195 hours and 18 minutes from launch.
That is to say, Lin Ran returned to Earth at 12:58 p.m. on January 2, 2022, Yanjing time, which is 8:48 p.m. on January 1 Silicon Valley time.
Although today is the first day of the new year, none of the Blue Origin executives could take a holiday; they all had to stay at the company and watch the live broadcast obediently.
Blue Origin was like this, and SpaceX was the same.
Bezos even didn’t allow anyone to attend the meeting remotely via Zoom.
Just to prevent you guys from running off to Hawaii, Miami, or Florida for vacation.
As for the virus, these executives were all deathly afraid of dying, absolutely impossible to get infected, and besides, they had to get tested before coming to the meeting.
Bob Smith and Dan Christensen were still there, but Dan Christensen was still the vice president in charge of engineering, while Bob Smith had been ousted by Bezos from the CEO position and was now just a titular senior advisor.
Hearing Bezos’s words and seeing the face of that young Chinese person in the live broadcast footage, the executives present didn’t know how to respond.
Because they knew what Bezos wanted to hear; Bezos definitely wanted to hear some executive say that the moon landing was completely achievable, needing only this or that.
But the problem was, the moon landing really wasn’t as easy as it seemed on the surface.
Out of professional ethics, everyone couldn’t say such words.
But someone dared to say it.
That was Bhavish Patel, Blue Origin’s chief financial officer.
“I agree with Jeff’s viewpoint; the difficulty of the moon landing has been overestimated because there’s always been a force leading us down the wrong path. Clearly the Apollo Program already achieved it, yet we’ve kept trying new methods.
I think we can completely replicate the Apollo Moon Landing like China’s Apollo Technology, completing the moon landing via Saturn V and lunar orbit rendezvous!”
The name Bhavish is common in India, especially in Gujarat and Maharashtra, and Patel is one of the most common surnames in India.
That’s right, he was an Indian-origin executive who graduated from Stanford Business School.
(Bhavish Patel looks like this, an Indian-origin with a slightly cunning air)
He continued: “Although we might not achieve costs as low as Apollo Technology, in terms of time, restarting the moon landing might not be much slower than them.”
The executives present looked at each other, and Bob Smith and Dan Christensen exchanged a glance, seeing the same meaning in each other’s eyes.
No, buddy, do you know what you’re saying? Aldrin just said on the moon that America doesn’t have enough workers anymore, and now you’re saying that although we’ll spend more money, we can complete the moon landing in about the same time.
Resuming the Apollo Moon Landing technical route is fine, but where do the workers come from? You can’t just conjure workers out of thin air.
The worker shortage here isn’t just Aldrin or someone’s feeling; there are data as evidence. The aerospace and defense workforce study jointly conducted by the America Aerospace Industries Association AIA, America Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics AIAA, and Ernst & Young shows that the aerospace field faces severe labor shortages, with 30% of workers over 55 years old, resignation rate nearly 7%, and this number continues to rise.
Compared to China’s massive manufacturing industry, they face a very simple problem: no one.
Bhavish Patel continued: “In my view, our biggest dilemma is actually the lack of enough engineers, but this problem can be solved through advanced manufacturing technology and large-scale recruitment from India.
In places like New Delhi, Bangalore, and Satish Dhawan, there are plenty of experienced, highly skilled workers. With Silicon Valley elite engineers leading Indian worker groups, we can completely create miracles like Apollo Technology.”
At this point, Indian-origin reputation hadn’t gone bad yet, Boeing hadn’t had one crash after another, and India did have some aerospace industry.
Don’t think America’s high-level officials would recognize the problems with Indian-origin workers; on the contrary, they thought Indian workers were a good choice: they speak English Language, high obedience, low salary, relatively high loyalty.
Before it all blew up, Patel’s words had some feasibility.
At this time, there was already a company called Tata Boeing, where Tata is one of India’s famous financial magnates, the Tata Group. This was a joint venture between Tata Group and Boeing, located in India, the global manufacturing center for Apache fuselages and 737 airplane vertical tail structures.
(Boeing’s office building at the Boeing India Engineering and Technology Center in Bangalore; this center covers 43 acres and is Boeing’s largest facility of its kind outside America)
Cooperation between America aerospace companies and Tata goes far beyond Boeing, including Tata Sikorsky Aerospace Limited, that famous Sikorsky, in Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Tata Lockheed Martin Aerostructures Limited, specializing in wings, the global sole supplier for Lockheed Martin C-130J/LM100J model tail assemblies.
If these mature companies are like this, let alone Blue Origin.
So not only did Bezos think it was feasible and got fooled, but the executives present all thought it had some potential.
Both Bob Smith and Dan Christensen felt that with Indian workers joining, the whole plan would have some feasibility.
After thinking for a moment, Bezos said: “Bhavish, like this, make a detailed feasibility report. Is one month enough?”
Bhavish Patel said seriously: “Half a month is enough.”
Bhavish knew his opportunity had come; as long as he formulated a sufficiently perfect plan, the CEO position was waiting for him, along with bringing a large number of Indian workers to America.
Whether recruiting from India himself or cooperating with Tata Group like other “predecessors,” he could make a fortune from it.
As for ITAR and EAR regulations restricting foreigners from working in sensitive technology positions, requiring America citizenship or green card, this was no issue at all for Bezos and the target country India.
Chinese people might worry about public opinion pressure, but Indians, no problem at all; bringing in 10,000 people was just a number in fiscal expenditure for Bezos.
From Randolph Lyn to Bhavish Patel, Bezos had improved.
With this moon landing journey going so smoothly, plus the past Apollo series moon landings, all successful, launched 7 times with 6 successes, the only failure due to an oxygen tank explosion in the service module after launch.
Even the only failure didn’t fully land on the moon; they still safely returned to Earth after lunar orbit.
Such a high success rate, and in the 21st century, a Chinese company succeeded in just over ten billion RMB in a short year and a half (at least on the surface), making countless aerospace practitioners reflect: could the Apollo Moon Landing be the most efficient way?
Europe has no technology reserves, but we do; America has always had the tradition of archiving Apollo Moon Landing technical data. As for some non-standardized knowledge lost, that’s no problem; Chinese people can figure it out, why can’t we?
Besides Bezos’s Blue Origin being tempted, SpaceX continued developing its own Starlink, planning to moon land via Starlink, and Moon Express jumped out announcing it would launch an action called Apollo Revival.
This action aims to revive the achievements of Apollo engineering from historical archives, sending America astronauts to space.
Moon Express also announced it would complete the moon landing before 2026.
This is a commercial aerospace startup founded in 2010, located in Cape Canaveral, Florida, focused on developing robot spacecraft for the Artemis program and Mars missions.
On August 3, 2016, it became the first private company approved by the America government for a moon mission, planning to send a small robot lander to explore the lunar surface in fall 2017.
Of course, the result is they still haven’t achieved a moon soft landing to this day.
But even without completing the moon soft landing, from 2018 to February 2020, they still secured commercial lunar payload services contracts with NASA.
In some sense, America and India are quite similar, both experts at bragging without drafts; whether they can do it or not, boast first.
This time Moon Express jumped out because they secured up to a billion US Dollars investment from Silicon Valley big shot Peter Thiel.
China’s moon landing, or rather a private institution’s moon landing, has a huge impact on the commercial aerospace field; Moon Express just pulled investment fastest due to its history and came out claiming it would moon land.
India’s Tata Group also said it would cooperate with the India space agency to complete the moon landing within the next decade.
Including Japan’s Sun Zhengyi, European Space Agency, and others, everyone was inspired to replicate the Apollo Moon Landing.
Lin Ran’s feat completely ignited everyone’s inner desire for the moon landing.
As for Russia, Russia was busy with big events at the beginning of 2022.
Seeing the Soviet Union flag planted on the moon, Russians felt deeply moved, especially since it was China that accomplished it.
“China did great; they brought a flag with the Soviet Union aerospace program badge printed on it. This is respect for our achievements. We feel both proud and heartbroken. Why could we aim for the moon in the 1960s, but now we’re stuck in the small International Space Station.”
“China acknowledges Soviet Union’s contributions to the aerospace undertaking; our history continues to inspire the world. Gagarin would be proud that his legacy continues not only in Russia but also in China.”
Russia is extremely contradictory: it wants to inherit the great contributions of the Soviet Union era but denies the Soviet Union entity and its representative history with all its might, wanting all the benefits without any of the downsides.
“China’s great move reminds us that space is humanity’s common legacy; every country has contributions. The Soviet Union badge is a symbol of courage.”
Of course, with Russia feeling happy, naturally some countries felt dissatisfied: if every country has contributions, why wasn’t our flag brought up?
Mainly European countries and India; they felt they were treated differently.
“Sister Xiao Man, I did what I said back at the beginning of the year before last, after we returned from Cherry Spring National Park: I replicated the Apollo Moon Landing.”
After returning to Earth came the long quarantine observation period.
He, Aldrin, and Wei Xuhang were all like this.
But that didn’t mean family couldn’t visit.
Family could communicate with the resting astronauts in the ward through transparent glass and communication equipment.
Though this scene was quite like visiting a prisoner.
In just one week, both important and unimportant people wanted to visit, including Pony, but Lin Ran politely refused them all.
But parents and Li Xiaoman, Lin Ran couldn’t refuse.
“Yeah, even today, seeing how you accomplished this great feat, I still find it hard to believe you really did it.” Li Xiaoman’s tone was full of emotion; she said “you” instead of “we.”
She felt she hadn’t helped much in this process.
Fabian Society badge? If that counts as help, it probably wasn’t even one ten-thousandth; otherwise, it shouldn’t be a badge but the Dragon Balls that summon the dragon.
“The moon landing isn’t hard; I don’t think modifying the moon in the future is hard either, as long as it’s allowed under reality’s physical rules; we’ll always find solutions.
What I think is hard is ensuring a peaceful and stable environment to slowly build.” Lin Ran smiled wryly.
Having experienced seven years of the Cold War, personally felt the Cold War atmosphere, participated in Berlin Crisis negotiations in Geneva, chatted about the Dome Project with England’s defense minister in London, Lin Ran knew clearly what dilemmas he might face in the future.
Peace has always been a scarce commodity, not to be taken as the norm.
Li Xiaoman asked: “So what do you plan to do? I know since you brought it up, you must be seeking solutions.”
Li Xiaoman wanted to understand Lin Ran’s real thoughts; she worried Lin Ran might lose control.
When a person, especially a very young one with a history of omnipotence, never failed, and believes they’ll be equally omnipotent in the future, Li Xiaoman felt such people easily lose control—either genius or madman.
These two are separated by a fine line.
She felt she had to be the firewall preventing Lin Ran from losing control, though she didn’t know how long she could do it.
Lin Ran said: “Electromagnetic launch tower on the moon.
When China’s electromagnetic launch tower is really built facing Earth, it’s like having a sharp weapon, stirring up killing intent.
Once it’s built, it’s a strategic deterrence device with more substantial influence than nuclear submarines.”
That’s right; as someone deeply influenced by Cold War thinking, how could he not think of peace appeals in terms of nuclear weapons? As one of the founders of nuclear balance theory in another spacetime, how could he not hope to rebuild a nuclear balance suited to the current 2020 spacetime.
“Place nuclear weapons on the moon?” Li Xiaoman thought Lin Ran’s idea was indeed crazy enough. “No, from the moon to Earth takes at least three days, and after friction heating through the atmosphere, if it explodes, what about polluting the entire atmosphere?”
She inwardly rejoiced that she asked.
Lin Ran explained: “From the nuclear deterrence perspective, time is never the issue; uninterceptability is the most important.
Launching from the moon ensures sufficient initial velocity. Forget existing anti-missile systems; even if their Iron Dome is fully developed, it can’t intercept nuclear weapons from the moon.
As for atmospheric friction burning, this can be avoided technically; hypersonic weapons also enter suborbit then return to low altitude for final explosion.
Nuclear weapons are usually equipped with heat shields to protect against reentry heat loads.
Launching from the moon, reentry at 11 km/s, higher heat load, but solvable technically.
Not sure if you know about the 1966 B-52G bomber; well, you probably don’t.”
Lin Ran fell into recollection; that day Lyndon Johnson was very nervous, calling to ask his opinion.
Lin Ran thought it was mainly because McNamara was too unreliable; asking him would get more useful advice than McNamara in this regard.
“This incident is called the Palomares incident. At the time, an America Air Force B-52G bomber collided with a tanker over the Mediterranean Sea near Palomares village in Almeria Province, Spain.
The collision destroyed the tanker, killing all four crew members, and caused the bomber to break apart, killing three of the seven crew members.
This bomber was participating in Operation Chrome Dome, a Cold War-era airborne alert task requiring nuclear weapon-carrying bombers to fly continuously to maintain nuclear deterrence capability.
At the time of the accident, the B-52G carried four thermonuclear bombs. Three bombs landed on land near Palomares; conventional explosives detonated but nuclear material didn’t, and the fourth bomb fell into the Mediterranean, eventually salvaged intact after extensive search.
Nuclear weapons have safety mechanisms; the 1960s already had such high safety factors, let alone now.
On the moon has several advantages: nuclear submarines might be found, but nuclear weapons on the moon are absolutely impossible to find.
Then launching from the moon at 11 km/s, compared to current common 6-7 km/s hypersonic weapons, impossible to intercept, ensuring its deterrence.
The Star Wars Program was fake, but I want to make the 2020 ‘Star Wars’ plan to ensure world peace real!”
Lin Ran calmly laid out his thoughts on new century nuclear balance, face expressionless, as casually as eating or drinking.
Li Xiaoman couldn’t understand; why not just do aerospace properly? Reusable rockets, repeated moon landings, countless things to do—why get involved in nuclear deterrence?
