"Mr. Cat?
Mr. Cat, Mr. Cat, Mr. Cat, is that you?
I can hear you!
I can hear you! I can hear you! "
Mai Dong's tone was filled with great surprise, as though she had grabbed onto a life-saving straw. "Mr. Cat, are you guys okay?
Where's Mr. Tang Yue? "
"Kunlun Station is fine," Old Cat replied. "Tang Yue is also safe and sound."
"That scared me to death … It really scared me to death. You guys suddenly lost contact, and there was no response when I called out to you. What happened down there?"
"Sandstorm."
Old Cat said, "The weather interfered with communications, but thankfully, it didn't cause any damage. We've already resolved the problem."
Mai Dong heaved a sigh of relief.
"Miss Mai Dong, how's the situation on your side?" Old Cat asked. "How many survival supplies do you have left?
How many days do you have? "
"The last piece of compressed biscuit was eaten by me fifteen minutes ago. I wanted to save it for tomorrow, but … I'm too hungry. I'm so hungry that I can't sleep. There's nothing edible on the space station now," the girl said in a low voice.
It was as though she had done something wrong. "I … I even tried to gnaw on the thermal lining of the accommodation module … Later, I realized that I couldn't chew through it at all …"
Mai Dong's voice became softer and softer. Old Cat didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
It turned out that this girl was a glutton. She had even gnawed on the space station when she was so hungry.
Tang Yue leaned against the airlock's hatch and sat on the ground. He had adjusted the brightness of the Bright Light Armour's headlamp to the maximum, but it still could only illuminate a meter in front of him. Tang Yue felt like he was at the bottom of a dark sea. The only place on Earth that was similar to the current environment was the deep sea. As long as the depth was more than two hundred meters, all the light would be absorbed by the sea, and further down, it would be pitch-black.
Tang Yue thought that if there was a diver on Earth sitting at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, with the pitch-black water more than a thousand meters above his head, then the situation would be similar to his … It would be equally dangerous, equally dark, and equally isolated.
But how could someone sit at the bottom of the sea at such a depth?
Humans had the ability to land on Mars, but to date, no one had been able to dive so deep into the sea alone. Billions of tons of seawater would crush any creature … except SquarePants.
Tang Yue was stunned.
He wondered if SpongeBob SquarePants was sitting at the bottom of the sea and looking up at the sea alone. Was he waiting for someone?
"Tang Yue!"
Old Cat's voice came through the earpiece. "Adjust the antenna. Slightly adjust the direction of the signal to the east!"
Tang Yue struggled to get up. He was truly destined to do manual labor. Just the mere mention of it left him tearing up. Tomcat was sitting in Kunlun Station chatting with the young lady while he stood outside in the Radiant Armor. As he did so, he thought of SpongeBob SquarePants.
He thought about how it was when he was a child watching TV in his hometown. The one who stayed in the room to watch the TV was always someone else, and he always came out to play with the bamboo pole.
The communication antenna stood at his feet, and the green indicator flashed rhythmically. Tang Yue gently turned the tripod and made slight adjustments to the direction of the antenna.
"How is it?
Is it clear? "
"About two degrees to the east … Wait, slightly adjust back. Slow down a little. You're turning too much!"
"It's easy for you to say that!
Try doing millimeter-level operations in a sandstorm with wind speeds of thirty to forty meters per second! "Tang Yue retorted." It's already not easy for me to hold this thing steady!
I don't even hold walls, I hold this thing! "
"One and a half!
You only need to adjust the circumferential angle by one and a half … "As the commander, Old Cat obviously ignored Tang Yue's complaints. Its purpose was to maintain communication and make requests. Even if it was a wind speed of three to four hundred meters per second, it would still be a millimeter.
"What the hell is one and a half?" Tang Yue was going crazy. This Old Cat was becoming more and more unreasonable.
"One and a half degrees is one and a half degrees. Half a degree is thirty angle minutes!"
"I know it's thirty angle minutes!
But I have to tell you, my hand is not a goniometer!
I can't give you an accurate unit of measurement! "Tang Yue shouted.
"Then to what extent can you be accurate?"
"I can be accurate to 'about,' 'about,' and 'looks like,'" Tang Yue replied.
"Then adjust the antenna to the east, about an angle that looks like 32 minutes and 15 seconds!"
Tang Yue was speechless.
The Joint Space Station was flying in low-Earth orbit at a speed of 3.5 kilometers per second. Its position was constantly changing, so the direction of the antenna had to be changed as well.
Tang Yue was like a human motor and direction finder. He had to adjust the direction of the antenna every once in a while to prevent the signal from being affected by the sandstorm.
The Old Cat was briefing Mai Dong on the things to take note of during tomorrow's launch. She had to make the best use of her time. Currently, the communication was barely maintained and was very unstable. There was no telling when it would be cut off.
"Listen up, Miss Mai Dong. At the end of the rendezvous between the Eagle and the Joint Space Station, which is the final hundred meters of approach, the docking structure of the Eagle and the space station will be accurately positioned and evaluated. This process is fully automated, but it's especially important because it directly determines whether the docking will be successful or not. The space station will use the circular fitting method to perform the precise positioning …"
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."
"The CRDS will capture the characteristics of the target during the rendezvous. There's a target marker on the Eagle. This marker is made up of six LED lights. It will automatically light up when approaching the space station, but you have to be careful. The marker that automatically lights up is easily affected and disturbed by the ambient light, especially the strong sunlight. Therefore, you have to be careful to avoid direct sunlight."
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."
"The Eagle's docking port is on the back of the fuselage. It's a type of heterogeneous peripheral docking mechanism. In other words, the Eagle's docking port is the same as the space station's, except that one is in the front while the other is in the back. The docking mechanism between the two is designed to prevent reverse transmission. Only after the computer issues a locking command will the docking mechanism lock up. After the docking is successful, you have to ensure that there are no problems with the locking and airtightness …"
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."
"The entire rendezvous process, from long-distance guidance to close-distance guidance, to the approaching, approaching, and docking stages, will be done by the space station itself. Originally, during the long-distance guidance stage, we could provide guidance from the surface, but from the looks of the weather, it's impossible. The space station's microwave radar is originally used for close-distance guidance, but now, you have to let it do the entire process …"
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."
The Old Cat spoke very quickly. It told Mai Dong everything it could think of.
"During the rendezvous and docking, the two-way link between the Eagle and the space station has to be maintained."
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."
"The Eagle will receive a feedback signal from the space station. It will activate its rocket engine according to the distance and gradually decelerate. The final docking speed cannot exceed five meters per second."
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."
The Old Cat fell silent for a few seconds. "Miss Mai Dong, you have been 'Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, the entire time. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
The girl wore an innocent and blank look.
"I don't understand at all."
The Old Cat facepalmed.
"Then why do you keep 'Yes'?"
"Although I don't understand, I feel that what you said makes a lot of sense, Mr. Cat!"
The Old Cat grunted and held its chest. It felt like it had suffered internal injuries. Even its motor had suffered a myocardial infarction.