Chapter 61: The Hidden Rules Of The Spacecraft Design Competition
“Then let’s take a step back, first spend 50 million to buy two Atlas rockets from Convair, then do an orbital docking?”
Lin Ran used his hand to simulate the spacecraft, clasping them together in the air:
“You see, the spacecraft completes docking in the air.
No matter which proposal, as long as you want to go to the Moon, you can’t avoid rocket docking. If we can lead in this technology, NASA will absolutely not be able to avoid us as long as they don’t reinvent the wheel.”
John Morgan said: “Brother, think of something else.
The Atlas rocket originated from the SM-65 Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile, deployed by the Air Force in the past few years.
According to the news I know, a single one costs around 5 million US dollars, and if sold, at least 8 million US dollars.
Besides, we can’t buy it at all. Although it’s produced by Convair, the ownership and usage rights of this strategic weapon are all in the hands of the Federal Government.
So don’t think about it, let’s first get the order from NASA.”
During this time, Lin Ran went to General Aerospace Company every few days. The proposal was about to be handed over to NASA, and it would be ridiculous if it didn’t pass the first round.
In this process, Lin Ran met engineer Jim, who John Morgan poached from Glenn Martin Company—more precisely, chief engineer Jim Qian Bolin.
This is also a famous character; he is from Maple Leaf Country.
In February 1959, Maple Leaf Country suddenly announced the cancellation of the Arrow rocket project, and this news caused 14,000 employees at the aerospace factory near Toronto in Ontario Province to lose their jobs.
It also caused chief aerodynamics expert Jim Qian Bolin of the fighter jet CF-105 to leave.
He first worked at Glenn Martin. After Glenn Martin’s project was not selected, he joined NASA and became the chief engineer for the manned space program Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, seen by Maple Leaf Country people as a symbol of talent outflow to America.
Because of Lin Ran’s appearance and the split of General Aerospace, Jim’s fate took a turn here; he was poached by John Morgan from Glenn Martin to General Aerospace as chief engineer.
“Randolph, why did you think of adding 13 tons of liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen propellant and 3 LR-115 engines, and modifying the lifting body design into a blunt body reentry design?” Lin Ran finally came to the company, and Jim seized every moment to communicate with him.
Previously, Lin Ran was in Hong Kong and could only communicate with them remotely, which was too inefficient, and many doubts couldn’t get full answers.
Jim Qian Bolin’s view of Lin Ran also changed from scrutiny to conviction.
At first, he thought the other as a mathematics master could only give suggestions from a mathematical perspective; he couldn’t understand where the other engineers’ worship of Lin Ran came from.
In this era, making white person engineers admire you is not easy.
Later, with remote communication and project advancement, he truly submitted; the other was indeed much stronger than him, and this strength was not in one point but in the overall grasp.
The current proposal, compared to what he initially thought, led comprehensively at a glance, even the aesthetics of the design drawing led.
Lin Ran explained: “What we are doing is a moon landing mission, not a lunar orbit mission.
The entire spacecraft needs to land on the lunar surface, so the added 13 tons of liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen propellant and 3 LR-115 engines provide descent capability.
And not choosing lifting body design is because such a design requires too much control process.
Too much control process means more links, and more links mean more risk. We need to make it as simple as possible, reduce technical difficulty rather than increase it.
This design helps the landing module withstand the impact of lunar landing, including reinforcing the structure of the command module and service module.
The entire mission process changes from simple orbital maneuver to complex descent and possible ascent phase.
In this case, you need to consider both descent and ascent; using lifting body design is not only more complex but also heavier, requiring a rocket with greater thrust.
This is also a potential point of failure.”
Lin Ran stared straight at Jim, his gaze sharp, full of confidence in what he said.
It would be strange not to be confident, after all, he was extremely familiar with the Apollo Program.
He didn’t know how many historical documents he had read.
Just short of participating personally.
“Including if we pass the preliminary review, then in subsequent optimization, we need to consider propellant allocation to balance the thrust needs of descent and ascent phases.”
“This variant is to make T-410’s reentry moderately controllable. You see, that’s why we add four aluminum alloy control flaps here, and a composite heat shield made of ablative material and superalloy (to ensure the solar panel is not exposed, and can continue to power the spacecraft in space.
Pair these two electronic equipment with the propulsion module. Besides the electronic equipment of the manned moon landing spaceship, we also need to equip engine and liquid fuel.
Ensure T-410 uses the lower stage connected to the rocket adapter ring on the way to the Moon.
These are enough to make it truly land on the Moon.”
Jim looked at Lin Ran with admiring eyes, while Lin Ran thought to himself that actually these are not important; what’s important is getting the approval of Maxim Faget, chief designer of NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center.
From the declassified documents of Apollo moon landing history, the implicit rule of any spacecraft design competition is whatever Maxim Faget wants, Maxim Faget gets.
Maxim Faget has an implicit veto from NASA.
Nothing else matters.
John F. Kennedy won the election on November 8, 1960.
After winning the election, he gave a speech.
This Christmas, Professor Horkheimer went back to Frankfurt to see old friends, and John Morgan spent the holiday with his family at the family villa.
After learning Lin Ran was alone, editor-in-chief Huang Yunji of the Overseas Chinese Daily News strongly invited him to his home for the holiday, saying he was also alone.
Unfortunately, NASA’s bidding primary election had ended, General Aerospace entered the rematch, and Lin Ran also accepted the first round of investigation from the relevant Federal side.
The overt first round, and after the investigation ended, they explicitly told him that any future outbound travel needed to be communicated with them in advance.
Lin Ran politely declined to avoid trouble for Huang Yunji, after all, his identity and workplace were extremely sensitive.
He originally planned to go to Times Square, New York, to spend Christmas and the last day of 1960 here.
Just like when he came, standing in the center of Times Square under the neon ball marked 1961, plus he had countless doors near Times Square.
But unexpectedly, Fred invited him to his home for Christmas, and Lin Ran thought it was simply too interesting.
