Upgrading from AFSK to PSK modulation still involved working on the motherboard programming, with no hardware changes needed. It was like the same computer being able to run either Windows or Linux. When building the AFSK data transmission link earlier, Banxia had already established a complete system of motherboard, radio, display, and input/output devices. This pile of electronic junk might look cobbled together, but it was quite powerful. The Celeron 3150 industrial control motherboard was a cutting-edge technological creation from before human civilization’s collapse. It had more than enough capability to complete the tasks Banxia gave it. After doomsday, such things could never be produced again—they could only be salvaged from ruins. In simpler terms, this was an ancient artifact.
Unlike AFSK’s old method of modulating sound frequencies, PSK used phase modulation. The experts sent from China Telecom Jiangsu Branch said switching to PSK modulation could achieve transmission speeds of up to 2 Mbps—video calls wouldn’t be a problem.
Banxia: Yay—!
Bai Yang: But the installation and debugging difficulty is many times that of AFSK.
Banxia: Huh—?
Starting from 3 PM, Zhao Bowen had been in meetings until 7 PM. He sat on the sofa with his laptop running Tencent Meeting, with over a dozen windows lit up simultaneously. Each window showed a gleaming bald head—just from the total hair volume of the participants, you could tell this was a gathering of experts.
The living room at the Bai family home was increasingly taking on the appearance of a command center. Not because it was heavily guarded or solemn in atmosphere, but because of the endless documents and meetings. Large batches of documents were delivered here, casually piled in corners, quickly mounting into hills. A casual flip-through showed them all covered in bright red stamps. Wang Ning said even the Provincial Organization Department probably didn’t have this many materials. The meetings were even more headache-inducing than the documents—seven or eight meetings a day, so busy they were stepping on their heels. Old Bai had divided them into several groups: Engineering Group, Physics Group, Aerospace Group, Observation Group, Decryption Group, Computer Group, and Greeting Group.
The Greeting Group was all leadership, who would start by saying the provincial and municipal party committees and governments were very concerned about you all, extending their sincere regards, and greeting from beginning to end.
At these times, Zhao Bowen, Bai Zhen, and Wang Ning could only put down their work, sit in a row in front of the computer, smiling and nodding while thanking the leaders for their concern.
“What do you think? Professor Yang, is it possible to establish such a model?” Zhao Bowen asked. “To simulate and predict the target’s movement trajectory?”
“Very difficult,” someone from the Physics Group answered. “What does the Supercomputing Center think?”
“Computing power isn’t a major issue, we have surplus capacity,” said the Supercomputing Center from the Computer Group. “The difficulties mainly lie in two areas: one is too little data—we can’t even begin machine learning; the other is we’ve never done this kind of work before, no experience, can’t guarantee accuracy.”
The Supercomputing Center paused, then added:
“The root cause is still the lack of data.”
“What about launching a telemetry satellite to survey the Qinhuai, Xuanwu, and Gulou districts of Nanjing twenty years later, getting precise CAD and GIS vector maps as a modeling foundation—is that feasible?” Zhao Bowen asked.
The Aerospace Group fell silent for a moment.
“There are many difficulties. Where do we send the satellite? Telemetry satellites are too complex and heavy—we can’t send it to Mars orbit like last time.”
“Then let it stay on the Moon, land on the lunar surface, hide somewhere, just like Chang’e 4,” Zhao Bowen said. “After twenty years, it can take off again, leave the Moon, and return to Earth orbit. We have the technology for lunar landing and return, right?”
The Aerospace Group nodded:
“Yes, next year’s Chang’e 5 is a lunar sample return probe—that part’s no problem.”
“Then let’s send it to the Moon.” Zhao Bowen smiled, making the final decision. “We’ll go up first, wait for Chang’e 5.”
The Aerospace Group’s brows furrowed high.
In aerospace engineering, Zhao Bowen was a complete layman. He probably didn’t know how many technical challenges were packed into that one sentence—sending a probe to the Moon, waiting twenty years to return… what an insane plan. Who could guarantee the probe wouldn’t die on the Moon?
Well, let’s set that aside for now. Besides this, there were still tons of problems.
“What about telemetry? What method of telemetry to use?”
“Optical radar or synthetic aperture radar,” Zhao Bowen answered.
The Aerospace Group’s eyebrows were about to climb onto their foreheads.
“Professor Zhao, whether it’s optical radar or synthetic aperture, to get high-resolution and high-precision images, the satellite needs to be as large as possible. The larger it is, the heavier it gets, and the harder it is to launch. This is a case of not being able to have both fish and bear paws. If we want to achieve the precision you’re asking for, the satellite’s weight might increase to an unacceptable level.”
“I know it’s very difficult, but I believe you can solve it.”
The Aerospace Group cursed “Damn!” where the microphone couldn’t pick it up.
This was a typical inconsiderate client.
Only knew how to make demands—as for how to achieve them, that wasn’t their problem to consider.
“Quick, go to Northeast to request Changchun Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics—!” the Aerospace Group cried out in desperation.
Bai Zhen and Wang Ning sat across the tea table signing documents, their signatures flowing smoothly. The only job of these two deputy group leaders was to sign materials, and they couldn’t be bothered to read what materials they were. At first, Bai Zhen and Wang Ning maintained an attitude of responsibility to the country and people, scrutinizing the contents—after all, never again in this life would there be such a moment to demonstrate their importance. But later they found that while they recognized every character in the documents individually, they couldn’t understand them strung together. So Old Wang and Old Bai straightened up their attitude as signature tools, sighing that incompetent people were incompetent everywhere—even holding great power, they were just automatic human signature machines.
Each document’s cover thoughtfully had sticky notes indicating which pages needed signatures. Bai Zhen signed an illegible “Bai Zhen” at the end of one document, looked up, and said: “Why don’t we launch a satellite twenty years later to watch the Big Eye? Then we’d completely know that thing’s movements?”
Bai Zhen was even more of a layman than Zhao Bowen.
“Awesome!”
The even more amateur Wang Ning praised Bai Zhen.
So three laymen applauded together.
The meeting continued.
The Decryption Group presented their research findings:
“There’s very little organized information in Teacher’s drafts, mostly doodles. We collaborated with Sichuan University on semantic analysis and found one word frequently at the center of the Teacher’s thoughts.”
“Which word?” Zhao Bowen asked.
“Galaxy,” the Decryption Group said. “The Milky Way.”
“Galaxy? The Milky Way Galaxy?” Zhao Bowen was startled.
“Yes, Professor Zhao, we suspect this word might be strongly correlated with the disaster’s source,” the Decryption Group said.
“Don’t we have an observation project for the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center?” Zhao Bowen asked.
“Yes, there’s a multinational joint project, mainly carried out by two teams from Max Planck Institute in Germany and UCLA, using the VLT and Keck telescopes,” the Astronomy Group answered. “The next plan is to use Very Long Baseline Interferometry to observe the detailed shadow structure of the supermassive black hole in Sagittarius A* in the millimeter wave band. We’re involved a little bit.”
Zhao Bowen pondered for a moment, “Can we increase our efforts?”
“Increase efforts?” The Astronomy Group didn’t understand what he meant.
“More! More Telescopes!” Zhao Bowen said. “We need more and bigger telescopes to give the galaxy a checkup. Whatever method, mobilize all observational resources both on and off Earth—can we do it?”
The Astronomy Group found this difficult.
“The domestic ones are manageable, but the foreign ones need negotiation…”
“Then negotiate! The sooner the better! Comrades, let me teach you negotiation skills!” Zhao Bowen had rich experience in negotiations. He taught his techniques to the Astronomy Group on the screen. “Corner them! Corner them against the wall! Use all four limbs like a gecko to corner them! Just get them to look straight into your eyes, and you’re halfway there! Half the people can’t get past this stage!”
Zhao Bowen stared at the computer screen as if teaching them how to make others submit with just a look.
“Then… what about the other half?”
“Then you go in for a decisive move—how can you lose when you’ve got them cornered?”