Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 156 He's the bird that flies the highest! (6k)

The experts and engineers present looked at each other in bewilderment, because Lin Ran had immediately touched on their core issue.

Lin Ran thought to himself, "No problem. If you could solve these issues, there wouldn't be a GPS later on."

However, Kershaughnessy still surprised Lin Ran: "Did I say something wrong?"

Krshoff replied, "No, no, no, Professor, you're right."

We haven't gotten to that point yet.

“Professor, you’re overestimating our progress.” Krshaun swallowed hard.

Rui, standing to the side, added:

"The 1962 Transit 5A-1 failed to achieve navigation functionality due to a power system malfunction."

The Transit 5A-2 launch in 1963 failed, and it did not reach orbit.

The Transit 5A-3, which was launched this month, is unusable for navigation due to a memory malfunction and decreased oscillator stability during launch.

em
Professor, what you're describing are just theoretical problems; we haven't succeeded in them yet.

Difficult to stretch.

Extremely difficult to maintain.

Lin Ran knew about this, but he didn't really know the details.

Lin Ran suddenly realized, "You only have failures, no experience of success. No wonder you came to me."

"How pitiful," Lin Ran said indifferently.

I thought the professor would speak up and say that we were all trash.

Before they arrived, the experts and engineers at Hopkins had already made preparations.

Not to mention them, even Jack Rui was prepared.

Jack Rui even comforted them, saying, "Nobody at NASA hasn't been yelled at by a professor. You'll have to get used to working with professors."

But the advantage is that the professor can bring you victory after victory.

They believe the former, and they also believe the latter.

After all, there is supporting evidence for these claims.

In the past, they and NASA were like brothers, never the second brother; they failed together and moved forward together through those failures.

NASA has now taken off, and their 5A-3 mission failed again last month.

I just couldn't bear it anymore.

They were all struggling together before, but now not only has NASA taken off, but even the nearly defunct translation machine project in Georgetown has been transformed into a symbol of America's technological prowess by the professor.

It also uses the technology ark to package itself as the future world.

This was too much for Johns Hopkins University to bear. They thought, "What are you Georgetown students? You're just here because you have professors to mentor you."

So everyone was truly impressed; they were prepared to be scolded before they even arrived.

The mental preparation is complete.

They also have high expectations for Lin Ran.

Because aerospace is essentially Lin Ran's original profession, and their project relies heavily on advances in mathematics.

The person in charge, Krshner, is a PhD in mathematics, specifically pure mathematics, who came to the field of missile and rocket technology research later in life.

As a fellow pure numerology Brahmin, what's wrong with asking the professor for help?
Besides, everyone else is being criticized, so it's as if I wasn't criticized at all.

Having your microphone on is much better than being targeted and bombarded by someone.

Lin Ran's casual remark, "How pitiful," truly broke everyone's defenses.

Most of the experts present blushed instantly.

Krshaun quickly explained, "Professor, what Director Rui said just now was not complete."

We still have successful projects.

For example, the Transit 5A-1 experienced a power failure, which prevented the navigation function from being verified.

However, we successfully verified the solar panel deployment and rocket separation technologies.

"With 5A-3, we improved the power system, successfully entered a polar orbit, and maintained attitude stability throughout the entire process thanks to the gravity gradient."

Krshoff got desperate.

Lin Ran raised his eyelids and said coldly, "Where's 5A-2? You forgot 2."

Krshoff murmured, "The launch failed."

But that wasn't our fault, it was a problem with the rocket!

Krshona's voice gradually grew louder.

"I don't recall NASA having any launch projects like this," Lin Ran pondered.

Rui quickly stepped in to smooth things over: "That's not important."

In short, its launch failure was a problem with the rocket.

Lin Ran shook his head: "No, this is very important. If NASA has a rocket that fails, it will be a mistake on my part."

But to my recollection, NASA hasn't had any rocket launch failures this year.

Rui gestured to Kershoff, who thought to himself, "Yes, it's the Air Force's problem."

Then he said, "Because Transit is a highly confidential project."

Therefore, its rocket launches are managed by the Air Force.

The launch of the Transit 5A-2 satellite used a Thor-Ablestar rocket, which was manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company.

The Air Force's Ballistic Missile Division is responsible for coordinating the testing and development of the rocket.

The Office of Naval Research is the end user of the Transit system.

It has nothing to do with NASA.

Lin Ran clicked his tongue. "No wonder."

Although the word wasn't uttered, the engineers present had already internalized it: rubbish.

The thought that immediately came to mind was: if there's a problem with the rocket, can we be blamed for being useless?

“In short, Transit has indeed had many problems in the past, which is why we hope that you, Professor, can provide us with some assistance,” Jack Rui said gently.

Elsewhere, ARPA is the boss, with hundreds of millions of dollars in budget at its disposal, able to give it to whomever it wants. But here, it can't be so arrogant.

"I see.

But I still find it hilarious.

Professor Krshona's rebuttal just now was like saying we should send people to the moon.

The first time we launched a rocket, it exploded in mid-air.

The second time we did send it to the moon, but it was a hard landing, and the spacecraft and astronauts were destroyed and killed.

The third time it was sent up, it landed successfully, but it couldn't be brought back.

Did you succeed? You're halfway there, but is this kind of success acceptable?
This is clearly unacceptable.

My current impression of the Transit project is that it succeeded in the small, seemingly insignificant details.

Regarding the core navigation function, we haven't even tested how effective your design is yet.

"Don't you think there's a big problem?" Lin Ran said.

Everyone present felt ashamed.

As Lin Ran said, this navigation system has never been tested since it was designed.

The problems Lin Ran pointed out were only theoretical.

Is that really the case? Will it actually take longer than the fifteen minutes Lin Ran mentioned?

No one knows.

After all, the difference between theory and reality can be negligible or enormous.

"Professor, you're right, we have indeed been failing in the past."

"So do you have any good suggestions for us?" Jack Rui broke the silence in the conference room.

Lin Ran nodded and said, "Of course, have you forgotten my slogan?"

The experts present exchanged glances and then said in unison, "My life has not been a failure."

Lin Ran laughed and said, "That's right, it seems everyone is quite familiar with me."

It would be strange if I weren't familiar with it.

"So the first thing we need to do is..."

Lin Ran drew out his words, fully arousing everyone's curiosity.

"Change the name."

Change the name?

"Professor, what does changing the name mean?" Krshaun asked, puzzled. He wondered if there was some deeper meaning behind it that he hadn't figured out.

Lin Ran replied matter-of-factly, "Just like you all thought."

First, change the name.

Haven't you noticed that calling 5A has never been successful?
Let's change this name first, to 5B.

Subsequent models were all called the Transit 5B series.

What 5B-1, 5B-2?

A project needs a good start. Since you didn't have a good start before, let's start now and make it good.

Now everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Did this metaphysics really work?
Of course, some people believed it.

Although feng shui is not a popular field of study overseas, different countries have their own superstitions.

“Alright, Professor,” Jack Rui broke the silence.

Lin Ran continued, "First, have a good start."

Then we'll talk about optimizations at other levels.

Let's talk about the technical aspects first.

I suspect your principle is based on the Doppler effect.

The satellite operates in a known orbit and broadcasts radio signals at fixed frequencies, which should be dual-frequency signals of 150MHz and 400MHz to correct for ionospheric refraction.

There is a Doppler frequency shift effect between the frequency of the signal received by the ground receiver and the frequency of the satellite transmission.

Frequency shift is caused by the radial velocity of the satellite relative to the receiver. It manifests as a higher frequency (blue shift) when the satellite approaches and a lower frequency (red shift) when it moves away.

By recording the frequency shift curve during the satellite's complete pass from horizon to horizon, the receiver can infer its geometric position relative to the satellite's orbit.

By combining the known satellite orbital parameters, the receiver's two-dimensional position can be calculated.

Lin Ran explained their design in just a few words.

Lin Ran continued:
"The receiver records the change of Doppler frequency shift over time, forming a Doppler curve."

The shape and key points of the curve contain location information.

The receiver transmits the frequency-shifted data to a dedicated computer on the naval vessel, which then uses the least squares method to fit the Doppler curve and calculate the receiver's position.

Each pass provides a position estimate, and multiple passes can improve accuracy.

From a fundamental perspective, what problems have you identified?

"Too complicated?" one expert said timidly.

Everyone admired his courage.

After all, if you answer incorrectly, you'll be targeted and called a piece of trash.

"Yes, it's too complicated."

I won't even discuss how long it will take for the computer to calculate, or whether the noise caused by the ionosphere and multipath effects will prevent your system from fully utilizing its theoretical signal processing capabilities.

You can't even solve the stability problem of the oscillator. Oscillators are affected by temperature and aging, and are prone to frequency drift, which in turn affects the accuracy of your frequency shift measurements.

Shouldn't this part be improved?
Should the oscillator itself reduce the impact of temperature?

Should redundant oscillators be added to the satellite and calibrated regularly to reduce drift?

Does the receiver need to periodically send signals to calibrate its deviation, including the reference signal from the ground base station?

After Lin Ran finished speaking, there was a brief silence, followed by applause in the conference room.

“The professor truly lives up to his reputation,” Jack Rui said, echoing the sentiments of the other experts.

“We’ve considered this problem, and our idea is to solve it using two solutions: temperature-compensated crystal oscillators and temperature-controlled crystal oscillators,” Jack Ruie continued.

Jack Ruiz, a PhD in Electrical Engineering from MIT, was ARPA's first technical bureaucrat, so he had a deep understanding of technical details.

After hearing the first solution, not only the other experts, but even Jack Rui was convinced.

Otherwise, why would others earn $6.8 part-time while I only earn $1.8 full-time as the director?

That extra $50,000 is where the value lies.

Transit was initiated in 1958, and after many twists and turns, it's now 1963. Five years have passed, and it took so much manpower and resources to come up with a solution.

They didn't even look at the materials; they just listened to your introduction and then broke down the principles for you in detail, even providing one, two, three, or even more solutions for just an oscillator.

It took them five years to come up with one.

What is the gap?

This is the gap.

These experts, who had never dealt with Lin Ran before, finally understood why their NASA counterparts weren't making a fuss.

The gap is stark; they don't have the leverage to cause trouble.

"Alright, let's move on to the second optimization point." Lin Ran gestured for everyone to calm down.

"There's more?" This thought flashed through everyone's minds.

Didn't I mention noise earlier?

We need to develop more robust signal filtering techniques. You could consider Kalman filtering to remove noise caused by multipath effects.

Another point is the optimization of the least squares algorithm, although I haven't seen how your algorithm is designed yet.

But I'm sure your algorithm still has room for improvement.

Reduce the amount of computation to adapt to the computing power of modern computers.

Let me give you the simplest example: using piecewise linearization to simplify nonlinear fitting.

Finally, the receiver hardware could also utilize narrower bandwidth filters to increase interference immunity.

Krshoff is taking notes.

Other experts were also taking notes after hearing content relevant to them.

"Professor." Krshaun was completely convinced. He even felt that if he were Lin Ran, he would probably have criticized him from beginning to end.

The professor only said "useless," which was a bit too gentle, Kershaugh thought.

"You just mentioned that the ionosphere and multipath effects can both cause noise."

"But the solution you provided only covers the multipath effect. Is there any way to eliminate the influence of the ionosphere?" Krshaugher then asked.

Lin Ran replied matter-of-factly, "Of course."

The problem is that current hardware can't do it.

A third frequency signal can be added to improve the calibration accuracy.

Alternatively, a more accurate ionospheric model could be developed, and ionospheric detectors could be deployed on the ground to calibrate the ionospheric signals using real-time ionospheric observation data.

But both of these make the whole system more complex.

It places higher demands on computing equipment.

I think we should focus on perfecting the basic navigation system first, and then we can talk about other things.

Three days later, Jack Rui returned to Washington.

ARPA's headquarters are located at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.

It wasn't until 2009 that ARPA separated from the Pentagon and had its own separate office building.

"How was it?" McNamara asked with a broad smile.

It was he who overcame internal opposition and persuaded the Navy and Air Force to allow Lin Ran to participate in the Transit project.

Jack Ruiz raised his coffee cup and clinked it with McNamara's, saying, "Amazing!"
The professor's suggestions in one day were more comprehensive, feasible, and practical than the Transit project team's three-year design plan.

Honestly, if Transit's funding didn't primarily come from the Navy and Air Force, I'd be willing to transfer it to NASA and let them take over.

McNamara laughed: "Didn't you witness the professor's power during the Tower of Babel battle?"

Do you understand? There are a great many geniuses in this world.

In the field of mathematics, there is no shortage of geniuses.

I was a genius in my small town since I was a child; no one could ever beat me in math.

But when I went to Berkeley, the reason I studied economics instead of my favorite subject, math, was because I was no longer number one in math; I couldn't even get into the top five.

In the field of mathematics, a problem that takes me a long time to figure out might be answered by others simply by intuition.

How despairing it is when your efforts can't even match someone else's intuition.

Even among the top math students from universities like Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, and Princeton, there are still differences in their abilities after they enter academia.

The professor's analogy of the frog and the bird was excellent.

"You know this metaphor, right?" McNamara's face was full of emotion.

Jack Rui nodded: "I know. The frog buries itself deep in the earth to ponder a question, while the bird looks down at the earth to find the direction for the frog."

McNamara took a sip of coffee and nodded, "That's right."

But if you can be a bird, who would want to be a frog?

Among so many mathematicians of the bird-like type, the professor is definitely among the most outstanding.

Do you know how amazing the Randolph Program is?
He saw almost the entirety of mathematics.

In this day and age, when theoretical mathematics is becoming increasingly abstract, this is an incredibly difficult task.

To put it simply, the professor is like the bird that flies the highest.

In mathematics, he has the ability to see the essence of things. The same is true in other fields.

Understanding the essence of things is never an easy task.

However, mathematics can help you see the essence of things.

I had just retired from the military. At that time, Ford II was also a retired naval soldier. He hoped to change the chaotic situation in Ford, so he hired a team of ten, including myself.

We hope that we can help this company revitalize itself through modern management and control theories.

Back then, Ford employees didn't respect us and called us 'test kids'.

I changed the test child to a successful child.

Quiz Kids

Whiz Kids

Only two letters were changed.

"So when the professor said that all I could bring you was success, I really resonated with that statement, and that's what I did in the past."

To win their hearts and minds, it's not enough to just understand their nature; you also need to be able to bring them success.

I then began to introduce computers to build models in order to find the most efficient and rational means of production. This led to a great deal of rationalization, which I named scientific management.

I used spreadsheets to display trends in the automotive industry, and my management style was later widely imitated by executives in other companies and industries.

Identifying problems and forcing organizations to change is often against their will, and it is even more difficult to get them to think deeply and realistically about alternative course of action.

But data doesn't lie; data can silence dissenting voices. Even if dissenting voices still exist, they won't appear before you or become obstacles to your progress.

This is the power to see the essence.

I knew from day one that the professor had the ability to see the essence of things.

And it's even better that the professor continues to succeed.

The professor's astonishing intuition about the essence of things is only stronger than mine; he's the bird that flies the highest!

Lin Ran being a pure Brahmin is one reason, but the fact that Lin Ran's management style and background have so many similarities is another reason why McNamara values ​​him.

Jack Rui listened thoughtfully.

“Minister, have you heard the rumors about the professor and Soviet Russia?” Jack Rui said.

"Of course I've heard of it, but it's impossible, absolutely impossible."

"If the professor had ties to Soviet Russia, would the Soviet Union have tolerated such a talent working for America?" McNamara didn't believe it at all.

"Professor, I have a favor to ask you." John Morgan had made an appointment a long time ago and finally met with Lin Ran.

The Morgan family was envious.

They were envious of IBM's current popularity.

Although they don't believe that the technological singularity is so easy to achieve, they are envious of the enormous profits the other side currently enjoys.

The enormous profits from the stock market and the massive orders from the Department of Defense were enough to make the Morgan family envious.

America has not yet completed its transition from industrial capital to financial capital.

The Bretton Woods Agreement has not been destroyed, and the dollar and gold remain strongly linked.

Finance is important, but it is only a supplement; the real economy still holds a significant position.

In particular, General Electric, the company on which the Morgan family built their fortune.

General Electric also makes computers.

However, General Electric made small computers, mainly for spreadsheet processing.

Unlike IBM, which made all kinds of computers, including mainframes and minicomputers.

"What's the deal?"

"General Electric has spun off its computer business and established a new company called General Electric Computer Corporation."

Because General Aerospace has a history of dealing with NASA and the Department of Defense.

General Aerospace already had a military business, mainly focused on aircraft electronic systems. The acquisition of Glenn Martin further expanded its business to include engines.

"So the family handed over the management of the general-purpose computer to me."

I'm wondering if the user-side implementation of the Transit project could be handled by a general-purpose computer?

Morgan came running because he smelled it.

The computers used in the Transit system are mainly divided into two categories: ground station computers, which are used for orbit parameter calculation and data processing; and user terminal computers, which are the navigation computers on ships.

Given the Morgan family's strength in the navy, obtaining this information would be a piece of cake.

"I'm just an advisor."

"No, Professor, you can decide on this order."

We certainly can't compete with IBM for the computers at the ground stations.

After all, IBM's mainframe computers are far superior to ours, and our general-purpose mainframe computers are still under development.

However, General Electric's small computers on ships are no less capable than those of IBM or other manufacturers.

When the scales are balanced, your attitude, Professor, is enough to change everything.

John Morgan's eyes burned with fervor; the success of General Aerospace had fully awakened his ambition.

John Morgan hoped to transform these two companies under his command into the new General Electric.

"What can I get?" Lin Ran asked.

　em Simply asking for monthly tickets
　　
　
(End of this chapter)