On the second trip out of the cabin, Mai Dong came with a file.
At first, she had some doubts about this method. Wasn't using a file to repair the spacecraft's heat-resistant tiles the same as using an electric soldering iron to repair a CPU?
"Who told you that the lander's heat-resistant tiles are a CPU?"
Old Cat said calmly, "It's just a tractor. What's wrong with using a hammer to hit a tractor?
Back then, the workers at the Stalingrad tractor factory in the Soviet Union used the hammers in their hands to hit tens of thousands of tractors … and even more T-34 tanks. "
Mai Dong sighed softly.
According to Old Cat, repairing the Eagle's heat-resistant tiles didn't require any troublesome steps at all. Laymen were used to imagining the work to be overly complicated.
The heat-resistant ablative material only needed to be smoothed out when it expanded, so the tool only needed a file.
"Be careful, girl. Slow down a little." Tang Yue watched closely. "Don't rush. Your body temperature and heart rate are rising."
Mai Dong's EVA suit was monitoring her physical condition in real time. All the data was summarized in front of Tang Yue and Old Cat.
"I got it."
Mai Dong leaned her body to the side and used her back to block the dazzling sunlight. "It's easier than I thought. The outermost layer is a porous foam structure. I thought it would be a hard ceramic tile."
Compared to mechanical repair, Mai Dong felt more like she was doing some carpentry work.
"Ding!" The workstation prompted that the calculation was complete.
Old Cat glanced at it.
"Failed."
"What failed?" Tang Yue asked.
"Two processes. The simulation result of the Eagle lander's unpowered re-entry into the atmosphere is the 66th failure."
Old Cat explained, "The other is trying to use the Orion spacecraft's engine. I temporarily ignored the difficulty of the engineering and technical details and only considered the feasibility of a safe landing … In the end, I realized that it can't even maintain the most basic structural strength, let alone a successful landing."
"What do you mean?"
Old Cat took off his headphones, turned around, and picked up a pen from the table to demonstrate to Tang Yue.
"This is the Eagle lander."
Old Cat shook the pen cap in his hand.
"This is a rocket engine."
Old Cat waved the pen again.
"Now, we will use tape made of some unknown material from Zenith to tie them together firmly. Then, we will use Iron Man's superpower to manually dismantle the rocket engine and create a control system so that the Eagle's computer can control the engine." Old Cat inserted the gel pen into the cap. "Finally, we will throw them into the atmosphere of Mars …"
Tang Yue stared at the pen in Old Cat's hand.
"Do you know what's going to happen?" The Old Cat slowly inched closer. Its pair of brown cat eyes reflected Tang Yue's face.
"What will happen?" Tang Yue gulped.
"Fireworks."
Old Cat threw the pen on the table and made an explosion gesture. "Once this pieced together thing enters the gravity circle, it will completely disintegrate. The fuel tank will explode one hundred percent when it enters the atmosphere in a prone position. The thin aluminum alloy shell is extremely easy to deform without support."
"You mean, we can't use the engine on Orion?"
"Yes," Old Cat answered straightforwardly. "It's completely unrealistic. You'd better give up on it."
"But I still want to struggle a little more."
"The Orion II Earth Fire transfer spacecraft uses nine Raptor 10D high-pressure combustion engines in parallel. Each engine has a thrust of more than 120 tons. Only such a thrust can support the entire United Space Station's orbital maneuver. However, the Raptor 10D engines aren't used by the Eagle lander."
Old Cat said, "This thing is almost as heavy as the Eagle. Tying it to the lander will completely destroy the latter's aerodynamic shape. The already uncontrollable attitude will become even more difficult to control."
"Designing a spacecraft has never been a simple matter of addition and subtraction. The people at the Central Fluid Research Institute and the Skunk Factory know this very well. You know it very well too … Don't struggle anymore. It can't be saved."
Tang Yue shifted his gaze to the monitor. In the video, Mai Dong was still working hard to repair the heat-resistant tiles.
"Have you done all you can?"
"I've tried all the configurations. None of them have succeeded," Old Cat said. "The engine lacks the protection of the heat-resistant tiles and will burn up in the atmosphere."
"The thrust-to-weight ratio of the Raptor 10D engine is more than one, right?
Its thrust-to-weight ratio is more than one, right? "
Tang Yue asked. "If its thrust-to-weight ratio is more than one, can we … can we reverse the entire process and land vertically?
Just like Falcon 9 back then? "
"It can't be done."
Old Cat shook his head. "The speed is too fast, and there isn't enough propellant. I've simulated it so many times, but there's never been an Eagle that can cross ten thousand meters in one piece."
"Ten thousand meters?"
Old Cat nodded. "Ten thousand meters is a threshold. Once the altitude drops below ten thousand meters, the atmosphere will suddenly become dense, and the dynamic pressure on the lander will sharply increase … The Eagle with the engine tied to it will immediately lose its attitude. The Eagle lander's ascent stage isn't an airplane. It doesn't have wings. Once it tumbles, there's no way to save it."
Tang Yue grabbed his hair.
Damn it.
"Not using the engine is also a dead end. Using the engine is also a dead end … F * ck, is there really no other way?"
"But 'using the engine is a dead end' is a false proposition. I'm just stating to you the workstation's prediction of the feasibility of using the Orion engine to land. In fact, it's too difficult to implement. Miss Mai Dong can't do it alone."
Old Cat added, "I've said that you're asking her to dismantle a frigate with her bare hands. Do you think she can do it?"
"How do you want me to tell her this?" Tang Yue was very irritated. "Tell her that you're dead meat?
That the Eagle can't land at all? "
"That's not my business."
Old Cat shrugged. "I've told you the results. You decide what to do. Or you can tell her the results and let her decide what to do."
Ever since he learned that the comet was about to hit Mars, Old Cat had become more and more Buddha-like. Previously, it had strictly controlled Tang Yue's life, limiting the amount of food and water he consumed. Every morning, it would wake him up on time. Now, Old Cat no longer cared about these trivial matters. Tang Yue could sleep as long as he wanted.
When Tang Yue asked, Old Cat would say, "That's not my business. You decide."
"If you don't care about anything, what's the use of having you …" Tang Yue slumped into the chair and sighed.
"I'm useless. I'm useless. I'm going to dig a hole and bury myself. Don't disturb me for the next five hundred years." Old Cat turned around and left.
"Hey, hey, hey, Brother Cat, don't go. I'm just saying. Why do you have to take it so seriously? That girl Mai Dong is still working. You can't abandon her!"
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Mai Dong spent a long time grinding the heat-resistant tiles. She carefully checked the results of her labor inch by inch and put the file into her tool bag with satisfaction.
"Mr. Cat, Tang Yue, the heat-resistant tiles are done." Mai Dong returned to the space station. "What's next?"