Chapter 9: Utterly Impossible
Time is tight, and the task is heavy.
The biggest problem now is that he still doesn’t know what the time flow rate is like in 1960.
In other words, if he spends 24 hours in 2020, how much time does that correspond to in 1960.
Now 12 hours have already passed, and in Lin Ran’s idea, he needs to quickly get the Fabian Society badge and then return to 1960.
In 2020, he is just an insignificant small fry, and no one will notice no matter how long he disappears.
But in 1960, there is a NASA engineer like Haines by his side, and the other party has some fame within NASA.
After returning to 2020 and looking through NASA’s official public documents, Lin Ran learned that Haines was originally a core member of a series of aerospace engineering projects at NASA in the 1960s.
And if he forges a Fabian Society badge, if there is enough time, this is not necessarily not a method.
The biggest bug now is that time does not allow it.
But this still has some problems; he only knows what the badge looks like but doesn’t know if the badge has any anti-counterfeiting designs.
Once there is an anti-counterfeiting design and someone sees it’s a forgery, that will create new trouble.
Therefore, no matter how you consider it, obtaining the ancestral Fabian Society badge from Li Xiaoman’s family is the best method.
“Sister Xiao Man, I have a way to earn a lot of US Dollars in a short time, but this plan needs your cooperation.”
Last night, the two drove overnight for four hours to rush back to America, which means they traveled under the stars until 4 a.m. to return to their residence; now only an hour and a half has passed, and Li Xiaoman had just fallen asleep when Lin Ran knocked on the door and called her to the public space on the 3rd floor.
Li Xiaoman’s anger level was maxed out. She is not like Lin Ran, who has just undergone modification and can keep his brain calm even without sleep for three days and three nights.
No matter how calm she usually is or how ambiguous her relationship with Lin Ran is, being tossed around like this is really unbearable.
“Randolph, what the hell are you doing!
No matter how big the money-making plan is, I just want to sleep right now.”
Lin Ran said: “Once this plan is completed, it can earn 100 million US Dollars or even more.”
Instantly, Li Xiaoman perked up. Obviously, money is the most direct stimulant for the brain.
Especially since Lin Ran mentioned 100 million US Dollars.
This is not a small number.
It is true that Li Xiaoman comes from a family with deep scholarly roots, but she really has no money.
After both parents passed away, she lived with her uncle’s family in the ancestral property left by her grandfather; she lives on the third floor, and the rest is occupied by her uncle and aunt.
And she has no idea how much property her parents left for her; it’s estimated that even if her uncle and aunt have it, they wouldn’t leave it to her.
Secondly, nominally this house should have half ownership for her, but in reality, her uncle and aunt have no intention of giving her any ownership.
Finally, PhD students in science and engineering have scholarships, but she is studying for a PhD in the law department; not to mention scholarships, the tuition is terribly high, tens of thousands of US Dollars per year.
And that’s at a public school; if it were Columbia University, this number would triple.
Otherwise, with her family background, she would definitely go to the Frankfurt School gathering place—Columbia University—to pursue her PhD.
Besides working part-time and taking loans, Li Xiaoman also rents out her house to barely maintain her life.
After graduating to become a lawyer, if she wants to intern at a top law firm, she even needs to pay them money herself.
Therefore, the attraction of mentioning money is undoubtedly huge.
Li Xiaoman first asked: “You’re not joking with me, are you?”
Lin Ran shook his head: “I’ve never been the kind of person to joke about such things; moreover, even if I were to joke, I wouldn’t do it at 6 a.m., right after you worked hard to bring me back.”
Li Xiaoman said: “Give me two minutes; we’ll talk in your room later.” She didn’t want her uncle and aunt to hear about this big business.
Two minutes later, Lin Ran saw Li Xiaoman with water stains still on her face in his room; obviously, she had regained clarity by washing her face, and now she was full of fighting spirit again, with an elite image.
“Look, last March, the White House announced at the 5th meeting of the national Space Committee that America would return to the Moon before 2024, which is 4 years earlier than NASA’s original schedule.
And this document is NASA’s full-year 2020 budget passed on April 2, which includes rockets, Orion spaceship, lunar gateway, and commercial lunar landers.
Among them, the commercial lunar lander will start risk verification this year, and the subsequent bidding will adopt a multi-stage contracting approach.
Multi-stage contracting: NextSTEP model, that is, NASA provides technical guidance, while specific companies handle commercial development.
The earliest NASA used this model to support two commercial aerospace agencies, one of which was SpaceX.”
Li Xiaoman already regretted it and looked at Lin Ran with the eyes of someone looking at a fool: “You’re not telling me that you’re going to participate in NASA’s multi-stage contracting, are you?
Just the two of us?
I know your university graduation design project was the Apollo Moon Landing, so you think you’ve really participated in the Apollo Moon Landing.”
Li Xiaoman felt this was even more absurd than teasing her; it was completely off the charts, more absurd than any Hollywood blockbuster she had seen.
Lin Ran explained: “It differs in details from what you’re thinking, but the things we need to do might be even more absurd.
For commercial lunar landing, NASA uses bidding, and the winner is almost certainly Musk’s SpaceX.
But obviously, whether from public information or the terrible personal relationship between Bezos and Musk, Blue Origin must get a piece of the pie in between.
If I can help Blue Origin win this project, how many US Dollars’ reward would they be willing to give me?”
Li Xiaoman was already speechless: “Your premise is all based on the impossible.
But the problem is, how can you help Blue Origin get NASA’s order?
Are you the director of NASA or the director of the White House national Space Committee?”
Lin Ran thought to himself, if I save Kennedy in 1963, then I might really become the director of NASA.
Lin Ran said: “What if I can help Blue Origin return to the Moon one step ahead?”
Li Xiaoman stood up to leave: “Randolph, you are indeed sick; what you need is rest. I’ve heard a joke today that’s even more absurd than a joke.”
Li Xiaoman does this to exercise her Chinese Language ability, so she usually asks Lin Ran to speak Chinese with her.
One calls her Sister Xiao Man, the other is called Randolph; when Chinese people international students from State University of New York hear them at gatherings, it feels weird.
Lin Ran quickly grabbed Li Xiaoman’s hand: “Xiao Man, I know you think this is unbelievable.
But this is exactly what I’m going to do next.
America successfully landed on the Moon in 1969 and thereafter completed a total of 6 moon landing missions.
But now it can’t land on the Moon again; the historical technology and materials are still there. During my stargazing trip to Cherry Springs this time, I figured out a core technical problem.
Once this technical problem is solved, by digging out the historical information, it is entirely possible to complete the moon landing using the Apollo Moon Landing technology path.
What we need to do is make Blue Origin believe we can do it, use Bezos’s resources to complete this plan, and get the money from Blue Origin.”
