Chapter 213: Igniting The Entire World
Install an explosive device in the GPS satellite.
Everyone really couldn’t figure out the purpose of doing this.
Lin Ran explained: “The GPS system plays a major role in the military.
We need to guard against the Soviet Union capturing our GPS satellites, so we need a complete self-destruct device that can detonate the GPS satellite immediately if there’s a risk of capture.”
Lin Ran saw the thoughtful expressions on the faces of the researchers present and sighed inwardly that, at present, the Soviet Union was truly an all-purpose excuse.
Even at an altitude of 20,000 kilometers, they believed that Soviet people would go mad enough to fly up and bring the satellite down.
Lin Ran finally understood why the Star Wars Program succeeded; under this situation, everyone was obsessed, and it would be strange if it didn’t succeed.
In reality, Lin Ran’s reason for installing the detonation device had nothing to do with preventing the Soviet Union from capturing the satellite, but rather preventing America from capturing the satellite.
The Soviet Union was just a convenient mask; what Lin Ran truly worried about was America.
He worried that America would destroy the revolutionary kindling he had woven in the starry sky.
Another researcher asked: “Professor, the signal issue is solved, but what about clock drift? Test data shows that the cesium clock drifts about 1 nanosecond per second on the ground, but in space radiation environment it might reach 3 nanoseconds. At the speed of light, 3 nanoseconds is a 1-meter positioning error.
1 meter error is too large for military use.”
Lin Ran said: “Two proposals. First, install a temperature-compensated oscillator on the satellite to stabilize the clock short-term. Second, ground stations upload correction data every hour, allowing the receiver to dynamically adjust clock deviation.
TCXO increases weight and power consumption, and ground station data upload relies on the communication link. If the link is interrupted, the prototype satellite can be self-sufficient by combining both.
TCXO stabilizes the clock short-term, and the receiver uses Kalman filter to fuse ground correction data and local measurements. Even if the link is interrupted, the filter can predict short-term drift, keeping error within 0.5 meters.”
Richard Kshona exclaimed: “Professor, Kalman filter is a genius idea! This can also incidentally solve the frequency shift caused by the Doppler Effect.”
Lin Ran said: “The filter requires real-time calculation, so the receiver’s processor needs upgrading. During research and development, you need to fully communicate with the supplier to ensure their processor can do this; if not, you may need to ask Congress for more funds.”
“The army will provide the funds.
Professor, regarding orbit prediction. The prototype satellite is at 20,000 kilometers altitude, 12-hour period; how can the ground station ensure orbital precision?”
“Orbital perturbations mainly come from the unevenness of Earth’s Gravity field, such as Earth’s oblateness.
I suggest simplifying the gravity model, with ground stations updating orbital parameters every 6 hours, keeping error within 10 meters.
If you can’t achieve it, come find me again.”
Lin Ran continued:
“Actually, 10-meter error still has a big impact on positioning.
Because your receiver needs 4 satellites to calculate position; if orbital errors accumulate, geometry dilution will amplify the error to 50 meters.
It’s best to improve orbital precision to 5 meters.”
Richard Kshona asked: “Professor, so what do we need to do?”
“5 meters requires a more precise model, including solar radiation pressure and lunar gravity. Ground stations need to add laser ranging equipment to track satellite position in real time,” Lin Ran said.
“Laser ranging? That requires building a global network, with skyrocketing costs. Does the prototype satellite really need something so complex?” Richard Kshona asked.
Without global ranging, how to build a global network, how to scale up the number of satellites?
Lin Ran said: “Kshona, the prototype satellite is for technology verification and must achieve 5-meter orbital precision.
We’ll first upgrade Transit ground stations with laser equipment to verify feasibility, then do global deployment.
By the way, orbital data can also be embedded in the signal! The receiver directly uses the ephemeris broadcast by the satellite, reducing dependence on ground stations.
Ephemeris needs 32-bit data, updated once per second; bandwidth is sufficient. With dual-frequency design, ionospheric latency can also be corrected to centimeter level.”
Richard Kshona marveled: “Great, dual-frequency plus ephemeris can indeed solve the problem. The prototype satellite’s technical route is clear.
Simply perfect! We’ll use PRN code to modulate the signal, TCXO plus Kalman filter to stabilize the clock, dual-frequency plus ephemeris to optimize orbit and latency correction. Next goal: prototype design in 6 months!”
“Six months? Three months!” Lin Ran said.
Under Lin Ran’s guidance, what was originally just a technical feasibility proposal verification now counted as a complete proposal.
And for Lin Ran, his plan had only just begun at best.
Lin Ran’s plan was a canvas interwoven with genius and courage, formed by patterns from two eras.
While designing the GPS satellites, he entrusted their construction to General Aerospace, but that was just the foundation. In each satellite, he envisioned a secret module: technology from 2020: Starlink System.
So he needed to use 1960s moon landing technology and reusable rockets in 2020 to obtain raw resources, then complete research and development of low-altitude internet similar to Starlink.
Then bring the module back to the 60s and launch to low Earth Orbit to complete networking.
But satellite networking was just the beginning.
NASA’s unmanned lunar module would penetrate the far side of the Moon’s shadow, leaving a gate, a gate to infinite possibilities.
Through it, Lin Ran would transport servers, storage, and power, implanting them on the far side of the Moon.
There, in desolate craters and eternal silence, he would forge the impossible: humanity’s first social media platform.
A social media where everyone could speak.
Functionally similar to Weibo and Twitter, anyone could browse, post, like, comment, but it was neither Twitter nor Weibo.
This would be a boundless bazaar, a digital cathedral where every voice could ring out freely, unbound and untamed.
A place where no hand could silence and no power could review.
In Lin Ran’s view, the 1960s and 1970s were an era of idealism, an era of clashing thoughts; in such an era, relying on newspapers and television to spread thought was really too backward.
In this era lacking entertainment, a social media platform could ignite thought like a torch in the darkness; global public would access this invisible network, their ideas colliding and sparking, ultimately burning into an unstoppable force.
Of course, there were countless technical difficulties to overcome.
Starlink relies on digital communication protocols; current communication technology is mainly based on analog signal processing, with efficiency and capacity far below digital technology.
And advanced signal processing technology, these technologies could efficiently transmit large amounts of data.
Starlink’s connections all require software support and certain computing power; for current computer technology, it was far from reaching the level to support such a complex system.
But Lin Ran had calculated that if he didn’t need to reach Starlink’s data exchange level, just pure text data exchange, supporting only English Language and Chinese language, that meant data transmission in KB units, which was achievable.
Adjust Starlink’s communication protocol, adjust frequency bands, adjust modulation methods; redesign communication module and antenna. Despite technical difficulties, these were achievable.
Lin Ran hoped to ignite the whole world through such a social media.
And by then, he would have vanished without a trace, able to casually contact China.
Lin Ran estimated that by then, technologically surging China would be able to manufacture something similar to a handheld computer, with the simplest function: connect to Starlink, then browse and type on social media, which would be enough.
Fundamentally destroy the Western narrative logic starting from the 1970s.
But Lin Ran was well aware that once his goal was achieved, the signal transmission alone wouldn’t fool anyone; Americans would definitely know the signal came from GPS.
Then they would face a paradox: whether to shoot down GPS.
If they did, they wouldn’t know how Lin Ran did it.
If they brought back security, it would require a completely different technical route from the original.
Even if they could really do it, Lin Ran had a final trick: detonate it for you on Earth.
America would face a dilemma: whether to self-destruct its own great wall, or let public opinion spiral out of control, letting thoughts collide freely.
Human thought collision was one aspect, technology another.
In this spacetime, use satellite internet to replace fiber optics, directly taking the high-frequency space launch technical route to feedback the modern era.
Once technology matures, stuff high-performance artificial intelligence on the far side of the Moon, create an omnipotent oracle; you could ask any question, from mundane to profound.
Lin Ran hadn’t anticipated a technical route like GPT, let alone something like Deepseek that could touch the soul with just a few graphics cards.
But even Microsoft Xiaoice, for 1960s public, was almost like the technological singularity artificial intelligence Lin Ran predicted.
But Lin Ran hadn’t expected that future revolutionaries in South America would ask Teacher D questions, Japan’s red tide would ask Teacher D, America’s resisters the same, even China’s.
Want to find the treasure left by the professor? Come to the far side of the Moon! What interstellar era of great navigation.
Even without Soviet Union moon landing, just excavating the treasure left by the professor would be enough to drive these countries mad into aerospace technology.
You know, Lin Ran put it on the far side of the Moon.
They would need to achieve far side of the Moon landing, long-term stay to search, then return to Earth.
“Search for the professor’s treasure.”
Lin Ran wanted to whisper to the world in this way, burying bait on the moon frontier.
Once the Soviet Union collapsed, with no interest in aerospace investment or leaving Earth, able to arbitrarily harvest the world with US Dollar tides, then I’d give you a reason, a reason crazy enough for Earthlings.
Countries would compete in pursuit, not for war, but for miracles, pouring resources into space.
As for when humanity explores the far side of the Moon, he could just move it to Mars; by the time humanity can explore Mars on a large scale, the interstellar era would have begun, no longer needing gimmicks.
From culture to technology, fully ignite this spacetime.
After doing this, the world’s technical route would be completely led into a direction even Lin Ran himself couldn’t grasp.
“Randolph, what a terrible year.” Professor Horkheimer was getting older; before Christmas, when Lin Ran visited him, he specially brought his work “Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression”.
After taking the book, Professor Horkheimer complained to Lin Ran: “I don’t want to see war, but war is unavoidable. Every day seeing war news, whether good or bad, I feel it’s terrible.”
After taking Lin Ran’s book, he said: “Good name, it indeed fits your thought.”
The “Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression” Lin Ran proposed this time was the magnum opus of critical race theory, originally a branch of the Frankfurt School, based on critical theory, building a complete theoretical system.
It posits inequality based on various identities, including race, class, gender, nationality, disability, etc., the oppression produced by their interconnected combinations.
The original book mainly analyzed white people’s oppression of black people, rarely focusing on other minority ethnic groups, while Lin Ran added the Chinese people part, and also incorporated content from Eduardo Galeano’s work “Open Veins of Latin America”.
(“Open Veins of Latin America” was originally published in 1971, systematically describing how Latin America was exploited and hollowed out.)
The enriched content, the diversified information from later generations, made this book thicker and fuller; as a theory itself, the arguments were much more solid.
It could be said that with this work in hand, whenever the Donkey Party wanted to push LGBT or racial equality in America in the future, Lin Ran would at least count as the foundational patriarch in theory.
Professor Horkheimer didn’t read it; just from the table of contents he knew what Lin Ran wanted to say, which also fit Lin Ran’s tendency shown in interviews.
He sighed: “Randolph, as long as this book is decently written, Martin Luther King will definitely use it as a theoretical weapon.
And Lyndon Johnson will make a big fuss over it, as an outstanding theoretical achievement in civil rights during his term.
Even when future Elephant Party candidates take power, to prove they’re not that conservative, also respecting civil rights and racial equality, they’ll still treat you as an honored guest.
Do you know why?”
Horkheimer was indeed emotional; back then he just saw that this young fellow didn’t get along with Nazi Germany, so he thought to lend a hand.
Unexpectedly, in just a few years, the other party achieved such great accomplishments that even within the Frankfurt School, they were willing to respect him as an opinion leader.
You know, within the school, the power structure is very loose. He was the founder, but that didn’t mean he could smoothly hand over power to his students.
But Lin Ran could gain recognition from all big shots in the school just by name, without even needing to meet.
Similarly, if someone else wrote such a book, not only would they not gain fame upon release, they might not even get published, like the early “Open Veins” which couldn’t be published in many Latin America countries.
“Because I wrote it well?” Lin Ran habitually boasted.
Horkheimer smiled: “No, because it’s you who wrote it, Randolph. Theories created by people can add fame to them, and the same person can add luster to the theory.
And simply because it’s written by you, it will naturally be seen as an important achievement in the civil rights movement.
Leave it here; I’ll help you revise it. Once done, I’ll have fulfilled a wish, and I can retire to Frankfurt.”
Lin Ran murmured: “Professor, are you leaving?”
He suddenly felt a huge sense of loss sweeping over him; from records, Horkheimer would die in 1973, meaning he had eight years left.
Lin Ran knew well that without Horkheimer, his start in the 60s would have been much harder.
This was purely subjective feeling; whether the other party actually helped, Lin Ran thought it undeniable, whether helping him establish footing in America, or building connections with Rockefeller and Morgan, or endorsing him in academia.
These, no one else could do better than Horkheimer.
Lin Ran suddenly felt sentimental; eight years, maybe not even seeing each other once a year.
His own future time in Germany would be scarce.
This was truly seeing each other one less time.
Maybe this was the final farewell.
“Yes, Randolph, I’m old. If not for you, I think I’d have returned to Frankfurt around 1960.
Chinese people emphasize return to one’s roots; we Germans don’t emphasize that.
But we also have the concept of homeland, of hometown; I hope to spend my last days in Frankfurt.
Randolph, you’re young; you don’t know that time passes slowly when young, quickly when grown, but slows again when old.
This sense of time makes one want to return to hometown in old age.”
Germany also emphasizes homeland; homeland is one of the core concepts in German culture, like the 2014 Augsburg peace celebration using “Homeland? I’ve never been there!” as slogan.
Lin Ran fell silent after hearing this; he couldn’t keep the old man in New York just because of his own sentiment.
He himself felt like ice that wouldn’t melt in an international cocktail, always yearning to return to China, even if for a long time he couldn’t go back for various reasons.
Having such feelings himself, he couldn’t demand the same of others.
Lin Ran sighed deeply and said: “Okay, I understand.
Professor, a modern poet from our China wrote a ci poem called ‘Farewell’; I don’t know if I can personally see you off when you leave New York, but I’ll sing this song to you now as an early farewell:
Outside the long pavilion, by the ancient road, fragrant grass stretches green to the horizon
Evening breeze brushes willows, flute voice fades, sunset beyond mountains
At heaven’s edge, earth’s corner, half our close friends scattered
One gourd of turbid wine drains remaining joy, tonight farewell chills dreams.”
The song was full of sorrow; Lin Ran thought to himself that unknowingly, it had been almost six full years since he came to the 1960s.
