Chapter 93: These Aren’t What I Want
Lin Ran did not speak, and the room was completely quiet.
Anyone who could escape from a ghost place like Siberia, Korolev was naturally a smart person.
He immediately associated it with the secret report sent back from the Far East by Pokrovsky, including the missile accuracy optimization model that the Soviet Union bought at a high price from China.
That model and the content Lin Ran was now talking about shared the same core, both being applications of optimal control theory in the real world.
“So it was you.”
Before coming, Korolev had also carefully studied Lin Ran’s background and knew that he had gone to Hong Kong last year. Without Lin Ran admitting it, he also knew that he was definitely related to China’s missile accuracy optimization model.
“Randolph, rest assured, the optimal control theory you told me about, I will pass it on intact to Dean Qian,” Korolev said.
Lin Ran shook his head: “Not enough.”
It was not that it couldn’t be done, but that it was not enough.
Korolev narrowed his eyes. He was very clear about the value of the content Lin Ran mentioned, so he asked seriously: “What do you want?
Technical assistance to China, interest-free loan, or industrial project?
You name the conditions, and I’ll agree to those I can.”
The subtext of this sentence was that his authority was limited, so don’t ask for too much; he could make decisions on anything he could agree to.
Lin Ran said: “None of those. I mentioned earlier that my design for space is to build an information interaction network with tens of thousands of satellites.
Tens of thousands of satellites require cooperation from all of humanity. Later, I will have America push for an international space convention at the United Nations. You need to convince the Soviet Union’s high-level officials to vote in favor of the space convention I will formulate.”
Lin Ran’s design was a interlocking chain. Building Starlink Internet in the 1970s after the moon race ended was a very important link in bypassing the fiber optics era.
And to prevent China from missing this link, providing reusable rocket technology to China was one aspect. He believed that under Dean Qian’s leadership, China could also make something similar.
More importantly, it was to formulate a set of game rules similar to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
Under the United Nations framework, design a set of game rules that both maintain international balance and take into account the interests of great powers and small countries.
And China could exploit the bug in it.
If Starlink could really be built successfully, replacing future fiber optics and becoming the internet of this era, then China could sit back and collect money every year just from these game rules.
Because in this era, there was PRC and ROC; currently at the United Nations it was ROC, but in the future it would become PRC.
This was the place where China could exploit the bug, just like how China had been eating the dividends of developing countries in the WTO and various international organizations in the first twenty years.
As for why Lin Ran was confident that this treaty would pass, one reason was that the Outer Space Treaty was originally signed in 1967, so adding some personal elements was also normal.
On the other hand, if the Soviet Union landed on the moon ahead of time, it would greatly stimulate America. America would hope to restrict the Soviet Union’s space strategy development through an international treaty, and the Soviet Union, considering America’s industrial strength and heritage, would also agree to such a treaty.
This was a blatant open scheme.
Korolev never expected this condition: “Sorry, I cannot guarantee this.”
Lin Ran explained: “It will be a reasonable treaty. You’ll know by then.
Alright, I’ll continue explaining to you. When the time comes, you’ll naturally agree after seeing it.”
Korolev took out a notebook from his pocket and a pen from his breast pocket: “Professor Lin, please.”
“We first formally transform the soft landing problem into an optimal control problem. Assume the spacecraft’s motion is represented by the following dynamical equation.”
Fortunately, this was the Faculty of Mathematics office building, and the lounge had a blackboard.
He wrote the formula x(t)=Ax(t)+Bu(t)+g on the blackboard.
After a burst of intense output, Lin Ran finally summarized:
“I propose a relaxation method that introduces new variables to relax the constraints to the point where non-convex constraints can be converted to convex constraints. This relaxation is lossless; it uses the maximum principle, which also means the solution to the convex problem matches the solution to the original problem.
At the same time, here I introduce auxiliary variables and geometric insight to transform it into a convex second-order cone constraint.
Additionally, considering the maximization condition of the Hamiltonian function, this relaxation does not change the optimal solution.
In other words, for the given soft landing problem, if the dynamical system is controllable, then the optimal solution to the relaxed convex problem satisfies the original non-convex constraints.
This losslessness depends on the geometric properties of the system and the normality of the control set, meaning the Hamiltonian function is uniquely maximized at the extreme points of the feasible set.”
Twenty minutes passed in the blink of an eye. Korolev clapped and said: “I have witnessed human wisdom shining at this moment.
Professor Lin, I’m even more interested in you. If you want to come to Moscow, just put a letter expressing your will to come to Moscow in the third drawer of your desk at any time, and we will naturally bring you back to Moscow.”
Lin Ran did not follow up, but asked: “Did you understand everything?”
The reason he dared to talk openly with Korolev here was that immediately after Lin Ran’s room, he had checked and confirmed there were no listening devices.
Korolev pointed to his brain: “Not completely, but it’s all stored in my brain now. When I go back, I will relay it intact to the mathematical colleagues at the Academy of Sciences.”
Lin Ran glanced at the other’s forehead full of sweat and thought that big shots indeed all had super memory. Korolev had probably been fully focused on listening to what he was saying earlier.
After Korolev left, the personnel responsible for Lin Ran’s security work arrived late. He asked and found out that one of them had gone to the toilet due to physical discomfort, and the other had been pulled away by staff from the England side.
“Didn’t Comrade Mikhail Gornyevsky defect to America just last January? How is London still like a sieve?” Lin Ran was speechless.
“Professor Lin, please.” Harold Davenport, chairman of the University of London Mathematical Society, knocked on the door outside the lounge to remind Lin Ran that the academic seminar time had arrived.
If it weren’t for Harold Davenport, Lin Ran would not have come to the University of London, but gone to Oxford or Cambridge.
In the 1930s, Harold Davenport had been a visiting scholar in Göttingen for two years under the funding of the Trinity Research Scholarship, and he had a very good relationship with Seagull.
It was also through Seagull’s connections that Harold Davenport was able to successfully invite Lin Ran.
Lin Ran was a bit dazed, as if Korolev had never been there at all.
“Good morning, everyone. I think we have plenty of time to exchange ideas. I hope to answer some of your questions, whether about work I’ve done or not done, related to number theory, analysis, or geometry. Perhaps I can bring you some brand new ideas.”
