Chapter 181: The Troublesome Local Government
“Korolev, all you need to do is tell me your launch time and the specific parameters during the launch process.
The more detailed the data, the better.
Your launch will have errors, and the landing point you designed and the actual landing point will definitely deviate.”
In theory, Lin Ran’s proposal has quite high feasibility.
Taking the original spacetime America’s first moon soft landing, Surveyor 1, as an example, its planned landing point precision range was 50 kilometers, but the actual landing point only differed from the target point by 15 kilometers.
Of course, what Lin Ran needs to do now is to calculate the Soviet Union’s landing point, and the precision must be within 2 kilometers.
Reducing the error range from 15 kilometers to 2 kilometers doesn’t sound like much, but it’s actually very difficult.
“We don’t have much time left!
The time window for manned moon landing is only so long, at most we have one month.
The manual refueling operation difficulty requires astronauts to practice repeatedly on Earth.
I forgot to mention, considering that your lunar module and fuel tank still have compatibility and adaptation issues, you need to provide your fuel interface parameters to us as soon as possible.
The modified fuel tank on our side will provide a model to you immediately, and you must simulate the operation in a simulated weightless environment enough times as soon as possible with astronauts to avoid problems during temporary operations at that time.
Including the fuel transfer interface and operation tools, if there are issues, you need to feedback to us as soon as possible so we can adjust at any time.
In short, Korolev, we are very clear that time is running out. If you want to bring the astronaut back, this is the only proposal.
Or you give up moon landing this year.”
Lin Ran communicated directly with Korolev in Russian. After the White House senior officials listened to the translation of Lin Ran’s words into English, they all had similar feelings inwardly, that Lin Ran is not only the director of NASA, but how does it feel like he is also the director of the Soviet Space Agency?
The other side hasn’t agreed to cooperate yet, and you’re already assigning tasks.
“Randolph, we still need to discuss.” Korolev’s tone softened a bit, not as tough as before.
Lin Ran said: “As soon as possible, time is really running out.
No one hopes that humanity’s first moon landing is a tragedy, sending people up but unable to bring them back, that is undoubtedly a tragedy.”
After hanging up the phone, in the White House, Lyndon Johnson asked: “Professor, do you think the Kremlin will agree?”
Lin Ran shook his head: “I don’t know, I hope they will agree.
Just as I said earlier, we hope humanity’s first exploration toward the moon is a complete, perfect success, not a one-way ticket paid for with the astronaut’s life.”
The Oval Office fell into a moment of silence.
When Lin Ran stood on the moral high ground and said this, everyone, even if they had been thinking about reputation, support rate, and election before, now began to feel emotional.
Lyndon Johnson said: “Professor, rest assured, the White House will promote this cooperation. I believe Nikita will make the right choice.”
Lin Ran nodded: “I hope so.”
Lyndon Johnson continued: “Professor, there is another matter. If this moon landing succeeds, and we also successfully bring Gagarin back from the universe.
Then Gagarin will gain unprecedented reputation. To offset this influence, since he comes from the Soviet Union, we will also increase the promotion efforts for you. Subsequently, you may need to frequently go to New York to participate in some interview programs, and can no longer maintain mystery to the outside like in the past.
Professor, what is your intention?
However, such promotion won’t be too much, at most lasting one year. After the news hotspot shifts, the promotion will naturally decrease.”
Lin Ran nodded: “No problem, I know this is to maintain the free world’s public opinion unshaken.”
This kind of promotion is similar. If there is no White House intervention, then the cover character and person of the year in Time Magazine would definitely only be Gagarin. After White House intervention, Time Magazine will turn its gaze to Korolev and Lin Ran, amplifying the merit of the R&D personnel behind, reducing the focus on the astronaut.
Meanwhile, in the Kremlin, everyone was waiting for Korolev to speak.
“The success rate of our moon landing return this time is very low. Randolph is an expert in the field of aerospace, so he can naturally see this.
However, the proposal he put forward, to put it this way, only has theoretical feasibility.
America’s rocket technology has developed to a certain level, and in navigation and control systems, they are more advanced than us.
Their rockets are generally equipped with advanced inertial guidance systems, measuring the rocket’s attitude and velocity changes through gyroscopes and accelerometers, enabling autonomous flight direction adjustment.
In addition, some of their rockets also use radio guidance systems, allowing the ground control center to send instructions via radio signals, and during flight, adjust the rocket’s flight path in real time by controlling the engine’s thrust direction or using small attitude control engines.
So they can adjust the rocket launch based on our launch data and real-time data to achieve overlapping landing points, which is achievable.
But the problem lies in precision; the precision requirement is too high.
Landing points overlap, but the difference is at least tens of kilometers.
Our astronaut on the lunar surface, relying on the spacesuit to run tens of kilometers to find America’s fuel tank, then move the fuel tank back to his landing point, this is not realistic. Gagarin is not a superhuman.
Additionally, time-wise, we launch first, they launch later, the landing times of both sides cannot differ too much, because the spacesuit’s life support system has a time limit.
Their landing time can differ by at most one hour; longer differences would also pose risks.
Plus, the lunar surface is a vacuum environment with drastic temperature changes, and gravity is only one-sixth of Earth’s, which places higher requirements on fuel storage and transfer.
They need systems that can stably store fuel in the lunar environment and ensure no leakage or contamination during transfer.
The fuel transfer equipment also needs to adapt to low gravity conditions, making it convenient for astronauts to operate.
In short, there are too many problems to overcome here.
To put it this way, our own proposal gives a 5% probability of successfully bringing Gagarin back, and Randolph’s proposal should also have a 5% probability.
Given that everyone’s probability is 5%, why should we cooperate with America?”
After Korolev finished speaking, everyone present fell into contemplation.
Mikoyan, he had met Lin Ran during the Geneva negotiations, where the negotiation content revolved around solving the Berlin Crisis and promoting the hotline; he was the regimental commander of the Soviet delegation.
He had a very good impression of Lin Ran, including Korolev’s idea of gradually trying to poach Lin Ran from America, which also had Mikoyan’s strong support.
“Doesn’t America have other unique technologies that could significantly improve the plan’s success rate?” Mikoyan said. “What I mean is, Randolph was so confident on the phone; since he dared to say that, they must have some other reliance.”
Korolev explained: “In the world of science, America’s technology is actually very open and transparent.
I said 5% probability already giving face to Randolph.
You know, we completed the moon soft landing last year, while America hasn’t achieved a single soft landing.”
Nikita asked: “Everyone, share your views. Should we cooperate with the Americans?”
Ustinov spoke: “My idea is that we should not cooperate with America; the time window they gave is too narrow.
From now to the moon landing, there’s only one month left; we cannot judge their true intentions.
Additionally, we have to give too much specific data to the Americans.
Who can guarantee that America really wants to cooperate, rather than obtaining our moon landing data?
This contains huge risks.”
Dmitri Ustinov is the chairman of the Soviet Union’s National Defense Industry Committee. Because he is the head of the Soviet military industry, he has long promoted weapon research and development and armament expansion.
One’s position decides one’s thinking.
His position determines that he must be tough on America; he has always believed that any diplomatic posture from the West contains strategic traps, aimed at weakening the Soviet Union’s military advantage or obtaining technical intelligence.
Gromyko thought for a moment: “I think this is an opportunity.”
Gromyko was very clear that Nikita is a comrade who wants to end the Cold War, or at least control the Cold War at a low intensity, then slowly make internal adjustments to the Soviet Union, reduce military spending, and boost the economy.
So his speech was very skillful:
“After Kennedy’s death, we cannot judge Lyndon Johnson’s intentions—whether he hopes to ease tensions with us or take a hardline confrontation.
I think we should seize this cooperation, use this cooperation as an opportunity to rebuild cooperation with America, and see if we can maintain the easing stance from Kennedy’s era.
On the other hand, to a certain extent, after we control Hoover, we naturally hold a strategic advantage, and we also need to ease tensions to slowly develop our forces in Washington.”
After multiple rounds of negotiations with Hoover on the Soviet side, Hoover ultimately chose to submit for his own political life and Deputy Director Tolson’s political life.
He vented all the anger of his handle being grasped by the Soviets onto the Mafia.
(In rumors, the Mafia holds evidence that Hoover is homosexual, so Hoover has always turned a blind eye to the Mafia’s behavior.)
And Hoover’s first reaction was that his secret was leaked to the Soviets by the Mafia, whether intentionally or unintentionally doesn’t matter; what’s important is that he has completely lost freedom, so Hoover chose to set up a trap to wipe out the Mafia and vent his anger through revenge.
After pondering for a moment, Nikita said: “I agree with Gromyko’s viewpoint.
However, some places need adjustment. Thus, let Dobrynin be responsible for the negotiations.
The specific negotiation content is that we need reciprocal cooperation.
It’s impossible for us to unilaterally provide data; America must also provide data to us.
We will provide our moon landing data to them, but after cooperation ends, they must give us a copy of the data as well.
As long as they agree, we cooperate.”
The news from the Kremlin arrived at the White House the next morning.
After McNamara heard it, he couldn’t help but sigh inwardly: “Is this the professor’s prestige? Even though America hasn’t achieved a single lunar soft landing, the Soviets are willing to cooperate with us on the moon landing.”
This is like you have never taken an exam, and when registering, you preemptively announce you can get full marks, and no one who hears it doubts it.
Lin Ran waited in the White House until the afternoon.
Of course, it wasn’t entirely idle waiting.
He was also working, designing a sufficiently perfect model to ensure the final moon landing effect could be precise to one kilometer.
Fortunately, 21st-century computers can be used to run the results.
However, what Lin Ran didn’t expect was that the final sticking point in the negotiations between both sides was:
Gagarin has to bring two national flags up, not only the Soviet Union’s, but also America’s Stars and Stripes to the moon.
Then both sides argued endlessly over whether to plant the Stars and Stripes first or the hammer and sickle flag first.
Just over this issue, Dobrynin called the Kremlin back and forth five times.
