Tang Yue sat down, panting. He leaned against the airlock's hatch and looked up at the Eagle lander a hundred meters away. The eagle head painted on the white fairing looked majestic.
The Eagle lander was a big guy. It was about four stories tall and was supported by four thick hydraulic legs. The bottom of the descent rocket had a total of four embedded convergent diffusion nozzles. When landing, these four nozzles would spew out high-temperature and high-pressure gases at thousands of meters per second and provide a huge thrust of 120 tons. Other than the four main nozzles, there were also four small swimming engines that were responsible for maintaining the lander's attitude stability.
How to land the Eagle safely was also a problem. Humanity's space program had never allowed such a big thing to enter the atmosphere — except for the space shuttle. However, the space shuttle did not need to make a vertical landing. Most spacecraft's return capsules were small things that were two to three meters tall and could only hold a few people at most. They were very light and had a sturdy structure. Using a parachute could effectively decelerate them.
However, the Eagle could not do this because its size and weight were too big. Furthermore, the Martian atmosphere was too thin. At an altitude of ten kilometers, the density of the Martian atmosphere was only 0.0065 kilograms per cubic meter. In comparison, the density of the Earth's atmosphere was 0.413 kilograms per cubic meter, a difference of 63 times.
Under such circumstances, the parachute could not provide effective deceleration. It was impossible to pull such a huge object. When the Eagle reentered the atmosphere, its speed would exceed ten times the speed of sound. It would whiz across the sky and then shatter into pieces on the Martian surface.
This problem had never been solved well. Various proposals had been rejected for various reasons.
In the end, the legendary Caltech JPL stepped forward and waved its hand. Let me do it!
A group of technical geeks in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory had shut themselves in their rooms and ate instant noodles for half a year. This group of top baldies on Earth had spent half a ton of draft paper before they finally came up with a solution. They decided to use parachutes and reverse rocket thrusts to decelerate the lander. They also designed layers of insurance for the lander.
This group of people designed the lander as a lifting body, which was completely different from the traditional blunt conical spacecraft. It did not use a ballistic reentry method, but instead glided through the atmosphere and gradually decelerated through long distances.
The lander entered the Martian atmosphere at an altitude of 120 kilometers. At this time, its speed was as high as 21000 kilometers per hour. Three minutes later, it opened the inflatable decelerator at its abdomen. The so-called inflatable decelerator was a huge air cushion. The Eagle was sitting on this atmospheric cushion. It was unknown what it looked like, but one could imagine an Arabian flying carpet.
The inflatable decelerator was the first deceleration. It could reduce the speed to about 2000 kilometers per hour. At this time, the second deceleration began. The deceleration air cushion was abandoned. At the same time, a huge umbrella with a diameter of 30 meters was opened.
The parachute lowered the Eagle's speed to 300 kilometers per hour. At this moment, the altitude had already dropped to a few hundred meters. The anti-propulsion rockets were activated as the lander slowly descended in a vertical position.
Finally, hydraulic pressure lowered the landing frame.
He stood firm.
Mission complete!
This was the final design of the Eagle in front of Tang Yue. It looked like a space shuttle standing on the ground, but it did not have the large wings of a space shuttle. It was more like a round steamed bun.
The white part that Tang Yue saw was the back of the Eagle. The abdomen on the other side was actually black and covered with heat-resistant tiles. When the Eagle entered the atmosphere, it flew down with its abdomen facing downwards. It was quite carefree.
Tang Yue glanced at the display on his wrist. "The temperature is -29 degrees Celsius. It's so f * cking hot."
"I dare you to say that after taking off the Bright Light Armour." Old Cat's voice sounded in the earpiece.
"If I were a Martian, I would definitely find this temperature very hot."
Tang Yue even fanned himself with his hand, even though he could not feel anything through the mask. "It's a hot summer afternoon. I really want to eat a popsicle … ice cream frozen with Martian sandstone and perchlorate salts, filled with carbon dioxide. Ah, one bite and it's filled with the taste of childhood."
Old Cat thought, "… What nonsense are you talking about?"
"I'm reminiscing about my childhood growing up on Mars."
As Tang Yue spoke, he began to hum softly. He was humming the tune of Luo Dayou's "Childhood." "On the rocks by the crater, cockroaches call out for summer. In the valley by the desert, only a spaceship is parked on it …"
"Why are there cockroaches on Mars?" Old Cat was stunned.
"Mutated cockroaches," Tang Yue answered. "Have you seen the Mutants on Mars?
There are mutated cockroaches in it. "
Old Cat was speechless.
"Are the solar panels all set up?"
"Yes."
Tang Yue spent two hours moving the solar panels out piece by piece. Then, he spread them out on the sand in front of Kunlun Station. He did this job once a day and once a day.
Tang Yue struggled to get up and pushed the cart like a Martian migrant worker.
Old Cat was organizing the supplies in Kunlun Station. It slowly circled the hall. Distributing the supplies was a very troublesome matter. Since Tang Yue had indicated that it would be evenly distributed, Old Cat could not be biased. An adult needed to consume 80 grams of protein, 3,500 milligrams of sodium, 3,000 milligrams of potassium, 1,000 milligrams of calcium, and a variety of vitamins every day. In order to maintain a balanced nutrition, Old Cat had no choice but to study carefully.
Tang Yue pushed the cart and slowly stopped under the Eagle spacecraft.
The lander's landing frame was thicker than Tang Yue's arm. Under each leg was a foot pad that was half a meter in diameter. It was used to reduce the pressure, and the weight of more than a hundred tons was placed on the four pillars. It stood tall and firm.
Tang Yue used a long-handled rake to remove the rubble around the lander. The Eagle's landing zone was hard ground. At the bottom was a hard rock, and above it was a thin layer of soil. It was very flat, almost a natural landing and launch site.
Tang Yue slowly circled the Eagle and looked up at the lander. A strange idea suddenly popped up in his mind.
"Old Cat, what do you think will happen if we sit on this thing?"
"You will die even faster that way."
Old Cat said indifferently. "With the space station's self-sustaining capabilities, it's already difficult to sustain Miss Mai Dong alone. If you were to join in, the space station would crash in less than two years."
"But isn't Orion II still there?"
"Orion II is still there," Old Cat asked. "So what?"
"Can we sit on Orion II and return?" Tang Yue asked. "I want to see with my own eyes if Earth has really disappeared."
"No problem. Of course, you can return."
Old Cat was very straightforward. "But you won't be able to return once you go. Without anyone to guide and correct your trajectory, you won't even be able to reach Earth's orbit. Even if you can enter Earth's orbit, without Earth's gravity capturing you, you will only become a gigantic piece of trash in space … Do you still want to return?"
"Pretend I didn't say anything."