Chapter 184: One Small Step And One Giant Leap!
This is also the point of the most contention recently, from newspapers to television stations.
Physicists and astronomers from universities and research institutes are trying every means to lower the public’s expectations for this moon landing.
“Professors are indeed great, no doubt, but they are not omnipotent. The moon landing is still too forced right now, with too many technical problems to overcome.”
“The moon landing is a systems engineering project, and this one is even more like a sudden one. The Kremlin’s sudden moon landing plan caught the White House off guard, and the White House side wants to reduce the impact that the Soviet moon landing might bring through cooperation.”
“Getting to the Moon is more likely, after all, the Soviet Union successfully completed a soft landing on the Moon last year, which proves they have a certain foundation, but returning is difficult. NASA has only achieved hard landings in the past, not even one soft landing has succeeded.”
In short, the experts’ attitudes are almost unanimously pessimistic.
Behind this is the factor of the White House’s instigation. The White House side, through connections with academia, has these scientists analyze this moon landing based on their own scientific literacy.
As long as one stands from a scientific perspective, it is hard to believe that humanity can accomplish the moon landing.
The attitudes of expert scholars are generally pessimistic; a 10% success probability is already Jenny picking a relatively high number from the analyses she has seen to report to Lin Ran.
The ones who hope most for success are Europe, especially Germany, which faces the Cold War frontline directly.
Germany hopes most that this US-Soviet joint moon landing can succeed, and the Cold War situation can further ease.
No way around it, the Berlin Wall is right in Germany, East Germany and West Germany are split into two pieces, and even the entire Germany’s administrative power is divided into four parts.
For Germany, the threat of the Cold War is the most direct.
“This plan will prove America’s strength once again, just like the Berlin airlift.”
“I believe the professor will definitely succeed. Since NASA, led by the professor, can convince the White House to accept cooperation, we believe the professor definitely has a certain grasp, and it’s definitely not like the outside world says, an attempt out of desperation.”
“Analyzing the mathematical knowledge needed for this moon landing from the professor’s mathematical attainments.” This is the slogan displayed when West Berlin’s first channel’s International Morning Talk specially invited Professor Seagull, Lin Ran’s mentor, for an interview.
At this time, both West Germany and East Germany had no private television broadcast institutions. West Germany’s main television stations were ARD and ZDF, operated by public broadcasting institutions, covering audiences throughout West Germany.
And International Morning Talk is even an old-school serious interview program that has been on air since 1953.
Over this past month, Seagull has been on television explaining from a mathematical perspective how to ensure that two rockets launched at different times can land at similar times at similar landing points.
Explaining what applied mathematics problems need to be overcome, which really advertised the University of Göttingen throughout Western Europe.
The dry mathematical content, because it is linked to the hottest global news, plus Seagull’s identity, actually achieved good ratings.
In short, the overall attitude is pessimistic.
After hearing Jenny ask this, Lin Ran pondered for a moment and said:
“I believe we will succeed, successfully sending people up, and successfully bringing people back.
This is a kind of intuition, Jenny, do you believe it?
Just like the first moment I learned about Fermat’s Conjecture at the University of Göttingen, I was just an obscure student at that time, but my intuition told me that I could solve it.”
Jenny sighed: “Professor, if you could be a bit more romantic at a time like this, you should say that the first moment you saw me, your intuition told you that I would fall in love with you.”
Lin Ran explained: “No, Jenny, you falling in love with me is a high-probability event, me solving Fermat’s Conjecture is a low-probability event.”
Lin Ran appeared calm on the surface, but in his heart he was thinking that he really had no grasp this time.
Could only rely on metaphysics.
Really could only rely on metaphysics.
In the original spacetime, America conducted a total of 7 manned moon landings, succeeding 6 times.
The only failure was Apollo 13 in April 1970, ridiculously failing midway through launch, at 320,000 kilometers from Earth, when the service module’s oxygen tank exploded, causing massive oxygen leakage, and damaging the spacecraft’s electricity and life support system.
Even so, they smoothly returned to Earth with no casualties.
Equivalent to 7 moon landings with no casualties; from a later perspective, one can only believe that metaphysics played a role.
Otherwise, it’s hard to explain how they could safely return to Earth even when an oxygen tank explosion occurred.
This is like a single success probability of 70%, then succeeding 7 times in a row, that probability is 70% to the power of 7, only 8.24% (approximately).
Since a 8.2% probability event from later times happened, succeeding in returning this time at 10% shouldn’t be hard, right?
Lin Ran could only think from this angle that Gagarin’s safe return is a high-probability event.
On December 21st.
Almost all television stations had only one thing: live broadcasting this US-Soviet cooperative moon landing.
Because of the two camps, some countries in the Soviet camp could only broadcast Soviet launch footage.
Free World Countries all bought broadcast rights from American television stations.
And American television stations bought the rights from the Soviet Union, starting to play from the Soviet launch: Soviet launch, America launch, orbit insertion status all the way to Moon live broadcast.
Columbia Television (CBS), with legendary reporter Walter Cronkite hosting the entire live broadcast.
The CBS studio is located in the center of New York City.
The wall hangs the Stars and Stripes and the CBS logo, behind the broadcast desk is a huge curtain displaying in real time some data or photos provided by NASA.
In the studio, technical personnel are busy adjusting equipment to ensure stable signal transmission.
In the audience seats, reporters and guests are fully focused.
“I feel like my heart is about to jump out, I really can’t imagine how much pressure Gagarin has to bear.”
“I believe in the professor, believe in Gagarin, believe they can successfully complete this moon landing mission.
I only have one hope, that President Johnson won’t refuse to let Gagarin come to America for a speech and visit like President Kennedy did.”
“You’re thinking too far ahead, right now I just want him to return safely.”
The reporters and audience in the studio, no one hopes for this moon landing to fail just because Gagarin, responsible for the moon landing, is a Soviet person.
The air is filled with an atmosphere of tension and excitement intertwined, as if everyone can feel that this moment will be firmly recorded in human history.
Every audience member can feel the weight from history.
Walter Cronkite sits in front of the broadcast desk, wearing a dark suit, tie neat, hair impeccably groomed.
At the start of the live broadcast, he opens with his signature opening remarks:
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to CBS special report. Today, we will witness the greatest cooperation in human history—the US-Soviet joint moon landing.
Before the program begins, let’s first play a latest interview from the Soviet Union facing Gagarin.”
His tone conveys awe for this moment, both calm and full of expectation, making the audience feel as if they are in Moscow’s Star City.
“I feel unprecedentedly calm, yes, just calm.
I know deeply that I am going to create history for all humanity, I carry the expectations of all humanity, I won’t let everyone down.”
The torrent of history roars past, every audience member in the studio holds their breath.
Those holding their breath are not just the CBS studio audience, but global audiences.
The White House is watching the live broadcast, the president and White House bureaucrats watching television live in the Oval Office, White House reporters watching the live broadcast in the temporary venue set up in the press room.
Jenny watches Gagarin’s composed and calm response, thinking in her heart what the professor is doing, silently praying for the professor, hoping this moon landing can really go smoothly as the professor’s intuition says.
Gagarin is wearing a spacesuit, standing beside the rocket.
Although the rocket only shows a little, not the full view, everyone knows this is the moon landing rocket.
“No, I don’t think it’s hard, I just feel incredibly fulfilled.
After returning to the front line of space training, I feel my life has meaning again, I feel like I’ve been fully reactivated, I am very grateful to the Kremlin, grateful to the Soviet Space Agency for giving me this opportunity, and also very grateful to the White House and NASA for making this cooperation happen.” Gagarin said.
“Failure? Of course, I have of course considered the risk of failure, after all, I’m not the professor, my life has also experienced failure.
But I’m not afraid, because if I fail, it will also accumulate experience for those who come after, humanity will eventually have the day of successfully landing on the Moon.”
Gagarin’s interview is in Russian, but with English subtitles below.
When the word “professor” comes out, combined with the context, everyone knows it refers to Randolph Lin.
Gagarin’s interview is not long, after all, his task is the moon landing.
After Gagarin’s interview ends, Cronkite says: “Whether success or failure, Gagarin is humanity’s hero! Wish him a safe return.”
Cronkite continues: “Good, next let’s see a firsthand message from NASA’s Redstone Arsenal, interviewed by a CBS reporter with NASA Director Randolph Lin.”
The television screen switches to Lin Ran.
Compared to Gagarin in a spacesuit, Lin Ran has a completely different style: suit, glasses, young face and eyes sparkling with wisdom—the last one is imagined.
After all, under the pixels at the time, no light could be seen at all.
“Professor, do you have confidence? Earlier Gagarin mentioned in the interview that you have never failed.” the CBS reporter responsible for the interview asked.
Lin Ran nods: “I have confidence, we have done sufficient preparation work.
I believe this will be humanity’s victory, a perfect ending.
I don’t want to elevate this mission to the height of all humanity, but I am very clear that our work now is the focus of all humanity.
Everyone is watching our moon landing mission.
We can only succeed, cannot fail.”
The photo of Lin Ran raising his fist spreads widely around the world.
Time Magazine buys the copyright of this photo from a Washington Post reporter, makes it into a poster and places it in the December moon landing special issue.
Because of this poster, the moon landing special issue sells millions more copies than other magazines doing special reports.
“Professor, what do you think is the biggest difficulty of this moon landing?” the reporter asked.
Lin Ran thinks: “The biggest difficulty lies in paying attention to every tiny detail.
Any tiny detail could ultimately lead to mission failure.
From deciding on cooperation to final cooperation, there are too many big and small details.
This is the biggest difficulty of this moon landing.”
“Professor, last question, anything to say to the global public watching the live broadcast in front of their televisions?” the reporter asked.
Lin Ran says without thinking: “The historic moment we all witness together will be perfect, smooth, ideal.
Gagarin’s small step on the Moon will be humanity’s giant leap!”
Lin Ran thinks to himself, Armstrong, I’ll borrow your famous quote first, anyway in this spacetime, you can’t take that small step first.
The television screen switches back to the New York CBS live studio, Cronkite remarked:
“The professor said it perfectly, this is Gagarin’s small step, and humanity’s giant leap.
Humanity will step on the Moon’s land for the first time, I believe in NASA, believe in the professor, believe in Gagarin, you will definitely succeed.”
Redstone Arsenal, now should be called the Space Mission Center’s control center, although not fully built yet, the temporary facilities are already in use.
Four layers of consoles are neatly arranged, each console covered with buttons, switches, and small CRT display screens, with numbers and curve graphs jumping on the screens.
The room is lit by embedded fluorescent lights, appearing dim yet especially futuristic.
At least Lin Ran feels that way at the moment.
On the big screen, a map of Earth and Moon occupies the center, with dots and lines outlining possible flight trajectories.
Pneumatic pipes occasionally make light sounds, passing thermal paper printed documents between consoles.
Engineers mostly dress casually, not to mention suits and leather shoes, few even wear leather shoes, mostly wearing cotton slippers, headphones on, monitoring multiple voice circuits.
The first thing Lin Ran does after returning to the control center is to take off his suit and such.
To ensure the perfect completion of this mission, Lin Ran unusually allows the engineers to smoke in the control center, ashtrays on the consoles piled full of cigarette butts, administrative staff coming in from time to time to clean them.
Lin Ran returns to the third-layer console, standing and overlooking the entire room.
In front of him is a console, the screen displaying real-time mission status, with a cup of long-cooled coffee beside it.
Suddenly, the teletypewriter in the corner clicks, breaking the control room’s murmurs.
A young operator quickly tears off the note, passes through the narrow passages between consoles, and hands it to Lin Ran.
The note is printed with a string of numbers and text, this is an encrypted transmission from Moscow.
Lin Ran picks up the note: “Report from the Soviet Union: Launch successful. Launch time 14:30 UTC.
Specific trajectory parameters as follows: speed 7.8 kilometers per second, inclination 28.5 degrees, target landing point Sea of Tranquility, coordinates 0.67408° N, 23.47297° E.”
The room stirs slightly.
Lin Ran raises his head, gaze sweeping over everyone present: “Focus! I let you smoke to focus, whoever drops the ball in this mission, Director Hoover of the BI is waiting for you!
Gentlemen. We have a mission to complete.”
He turns to his assistant John Smith, responsible for this specific analysis:
“John, take this data, calculate our launch window according to the algorithm I formulated.
The Soviet lander’s target is Sea of Tranquility, our fuel tank must land within 2 kilometers range.”
Smith takes the note, nods: “Understood, sir.”
He gathers the trajectory team, hurries to the rear computer room.
There, the IBM computer cluster hums, tape drives spinning nonstop.
In the computer room, Smith and the team surround a punch card machine, inputting Soviet data into the system.
He stares at the printed preliminary data, brow furrowed: “Wait, these speed units are kilometers per second, our system uses miles per hour.”
Time is too tight, they didn’t even have time to rehearse in advance.
This is a problem that arose temporarily.
After hearing, Lin Ran’s voice sounds:
“1 kilometer equals 0.621 miles, per second converted to per hour…”
Lin Ran’s result is even more precise than the computer.
A few minutes later, after Lin Ran recites, they complete the conversion, re-input the corrected data into the computer.
The computer starts processing, tape drives humming lowly.
About an hour later, the computer spits out a stack of thermal paper, printed full of numbers and curves.
Smith quickly scans, confirms the result: “Based on Soviet data, our optimal launch window is 2 hours later, 16:30 UTC. Trajectory angle needs adjustment of 0.5 degrees to match Moon position.”
He puts the result into the pneumatic pipe, sends it back to the control room.
The pipe makes a “whoosh”, the paper tube flies to Lin Ran’s console.
Lin Ran opens the paper tube, pretending to carefully review it.
Actually, his brain has already completed the calculation.
Pre-calculated in 2020, now computed by his own carbon-based brain computer.
Lin Ran says moments later: “Good, but we verify once more. Run a simulation, ensure foolproof.”
The trajectory team quickly runs the simulation on the computer.
On the screen, the virtual rocket trajectory arcs over the lunar surface, gradually approaching the Soviet landing point.
A few minutes later, simulation results show: fuel tank expected to land 1.5 kilometers from target point, error within acceptable range.
Lin Ran nods: “Good. Notify Cape Canaveral, adjust launch time to T-minus 48 hours, 16:30 UTC. Execute trajectory parameters as such.”
After John Smith opens the paper tube sent back by Lin Ran, he is shocked: “Director, this might not be right!”
Lin Ran firmly says: “This is my adjusted data, execute as such!”
John Smith has fully witnessed Lin Ran’s powerful brain computation ability; earlier they tried to use the computer for mile-kilometer conversion, but Lin Ran directly gave a more precise result than the IBM computer at the time.
He muses this is another demonstration of the professor’s powerful computation ability: “Yes, sir!”
The control room team starts bustling, updating console data, coordinating with Cape Canaveral’s launch team via voice circuits.
McNamara stands in the glass-enclosed observation area, whispering to the person beside: “The professor will definitely succeed! I believe in the professor’s ability.”
Dobrynin is also in the observation area, expression equally serious; hearing McNamara say this, he nods: “We all believe in the professor!”
Dobrynin never dreamed that one day he would stand together with McNamara at NASA’s Redstone Arsenal watching Randolph Lin work.
What an unprecedented experience this is.
After the parameters are sent to Cape Canaveral launch pad, Smith returns to the console, taking a moment to check Lin Ran’s corrected parameters with paper and pen.
But this is futile, if the IBM computer can’t compute it, he certainly can’t with paper and pen.
Just after two steps, John Smith gives up, “Mortals shouldn’t try to track the professor’s thinking.”
Cape Canaveral’s control room is packed with people.
The screen shows real-time footage of the Cape Canaveral launch pad.
The launch commander’s voice echoes via broadcast: “T-minus 10, 9, 8…”
At “T-minus zero”, the rocket ignites, flames surging out, sending the fuel tank into orbit.
Redstone Arsenal control room receives feedback, everyone holds their breath, eyes fixed on the trajectory data on the screen.
The screen shows it entering the predetermined orbit as planned.
Cronkite’s voice excited: “The rocket has launched! Two hours after the Soviet rocket launch, our rocket carrying the fuel tank has also launched!”
Both voice and expression show immense excitement and thrill.
Although Cronkite is trying hard to stay professional, at this moment, he can’t hide his true emotions.
Fred Hoyle in the guest seats was specially brought from England.
Fred Hoyle is England’s famous astronomer, Cambridge University professor, became the most famous popular science writer in the current astronomy field in the 50s through “The Nature of the Universe”.
Has always been the first-choice guest for BBC space-related television programs.
Fred Hoyle, like Cronkite, stares fixedly at the screen, silently praying in his heart for smooth completion this time.
Cronkite turns to Hoyle, asks:
“Professor Hoyle, can you explain to us what is most important right now?”
Hoyle, wearing a gray suit, holding a microphone, tone professional and steady:
“Of course, Cronkite, the most important step now is smooth landing.
We are now waiting for news from the Soviet Union, waiting for the spaceship carrying Gagarin to successfully soft land on the Moon, Gagarin sending back a safety message.
The second step is NASA’s fuel tank smooth soft landing, no burning, no explosion, no other accidents.
The third step is the landing points being close, theoretically allowing Gagarin to approach the fuel tank.”
Three days later in the studio.
“Latest news from the Soviet Union, the Soviet manned spacecraft has successfully entered lunar orbit.
Currently, Gagarin is making final orbit adjustments.”
“Latest news, Gagarin has successfully completed landing! This is a photo from the Soviet Union.”
A photo of Gagarin standing on the lunar surface, with the hammer and sickle flag and Stars and Stripes planted in front of him, appears on television.
Honestly, the Soviet Union and America arguing over which flag to plant first is completely meaningless.
Soviet technology can’t do synchronous live broadcast, America’s equipment arrives one step later than Gagarin.
So after Gagarin plants the flags, the photos are transmitted back to Earth, no one knows which flag was planted first on the Moon.
The public seeing this photo at this time all feel unprecedented emotion in their hearts.
Because it has extremely strong symbolic significance, symbolizing the easing of the Cold War, not causing endless pain like World War I and World War II.
“Audience friends, we can see that humanity has stepped on the Moon’s soil for the first time.
Just as the professor said, this is Gagarin’s small step, and also all humanity’s giant leap!”
