Die on Mars

Tang Yue moved the panels onto the trolley and dragged them out of the garage. The old cat took away ten panels. Now Tang Yue only has thirty panels left in his hands. Thirty solar cells are not enough to fully support the Kunlun Station. In order to ensure the operation of the station, Tang Yue had to shut down a considerable part of the power-consuming equipment in Kunlun Station, leaving only the basic life support and communication systems.

The indoor temperature of Kunlun Station is currently maintained at about minus ten degrees Celsius. It is a veritable ice cellar. Tang Yue wears Mingguang Armor to withstand the low temperature. He feels warmer when carrying battery panels outside than when he stays indoors.

The sun had already risen in the sky, looking tepid like a big light bulb. Tang Yue raised his head and glanced at the direction of the sun. Since Mars rotates in the same direction as the earth, from west to east, and its inclination angle is also similar, the sun is in the celestial sphere. The trajectory on the Sun is basically similar to that seen on Earth, rising in the east and setting in the west.

Tang Yue unloaded the battery from the cart, placed it on the ground, and plugged the cable tightly. He gently brushed away the dust on the surface of the battery panel, and the smooth battery panel reflected a huge circular mask.

Tang Yue's appearance could not be clearly seen in the reflection on the battery board. The shadow looked bloated and unbalanced, like an alien with a huge head. Tang Yue stared at the shadow for a long time, and suddenly thought of Buzz in Toy Story. Light years.

Tang Yue sighed.

Tang Yue never thought that something would go wrong with Lao Mao. The latter was the most reliable among the three of them. Lao Mao had been at Kunlun Station for many years. He had rich experience and seniority. He was the de facto leader of Kunlun Station. Station Commander - Although there is no fixed candidate for the nominal station commander of Kunlun Station, the commander of the previous Mars landing missions serves as the station commander.

Transporting the Chelome probe was just a matter of picking up a courier, which was completely within Lao Mao's capabilities. Driving hundreds of kilometers was impossible for Tang Yue, but it was nothing to Lao Mao. , in past Mars missions, it has successfully completed far more difficult and dangerous tasks than this one. Logically speaking, the old cat should not have any problems.

Tang Yue really couldn't imagine what kind of trouble there could be on Mars that could make the old cat fall into a state of complete loss of contact.

Once contact is lost, the space station will be unable to locate stray dogs on Mars. In the past, locating stray dogs required the old cat to actively contact and report its location. In fact, there may not be other remote sensing satellites in Mars orbit, and they can actually search for Mars rovers. , but these satellites belong to different countries and institutions and use different data channels. To use them, you need authorization. Now the earth suddenly disappears, and these satellites are all invalidated overnight.

Global positioning has never been an easy task. If you want to accurately locate a signal source on the ground in orbit, then at least three satellites are needed to do this. Americans have spent decades establishing a system in Earth orbit. Only with the GPS constellation can ground targets be tracked in real time. Obviously, there are no such things on Mars.

Without the support of the Earth, it would be difficult to move forward on Mars.

Tang Yue raised his hand to scratch his head, but his hand was blocked by the mask.

The green light on the edge of the panel lights up, indicating that it is working normally.

Tang Yue straightened up and looked around. Thirty battery panels were neatly placed in the battery farm. Not far away was the descent stage and garage of the Eagle spacecraft. A hundred meters away was the small Kunlun Station. Tang Yue Yue's world can be said to be very large or very small. It is said to be large because he is the only one on Mars. The entire planet belongs to him. The world is vast and he can go wherever he wants.

It's small because Tang Yue will die wherever he goes. He can only live in the small area around Kunlun Station. With resources and supplies cut off, all he has is a world that is destined to be ruined and abandoned.

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When Tang Yue set up the solar panels and returned to Kunlun Station, Ophiopogon japonicus had already completed its first photo shoot. During the fifteen-minute window, Ophiopogon japonicus took a total of 1,500 photos, with an average of 1,500 photos per photo. The field of view is 2,000 square meters. Together, these 1,500 photos cover an area of ​​approximately three square kilometers.

"Tang Yue..." Maidong let out a long breath. In just fifteen minutes, she concentrated so hard that she didn't even dare to blink. She was almost exhausted. "The first round of scanning has ended, and the image files are being transferred. Among them...the progress is 86%, 87%, please pay attention to receive it."

The girl leaned on the camera and smiled slightly, her hair stuck to her white cheeks with sweat.

"How is it?" Maidong tilted his head.

"That's great. Girl, you have been a great help. You are indeed a talented and beautiful girl." Tang Yue removed the life support system of Mingguang Armor, "Thank you very much!"

Ophiopogon japonicus has numbered all the photos from one to one thousand five hundred, corresponding to them one by one on the map. During the next scan, Ophiopogon japonicus will continue to work according to the progress of this round until the first part of thirty square meters is completed. All kilometers of the area have been photographed.

The two immediately began to interpret the pictures.

But the interpretation of pictures is not easy. In the early days when the resolution accuracy of spy satellites was not high enough, the resolution of photos required a large number of interpretation experts. This was a highly specialized job. Neither Tang Yue nor Maidong were professionals. , I don’t know any skills, I can only use the slowest and most primitive way to conduct a carpet search pixel by pixel.

The optical tracking system used by Ophiopogon japonicus is not a professional ground observation equipment, and the maximum resolution accuracy is only five meters. The photos taken are of very low definition, and all of them are black and white, so they cannot rely on color to find stray dogs on Mars.

Tang Yue sat on a chair wrapped in a blanket and turned on the computer.

He enlarged each picture to the maximum size, so big that you could see the pixels, and he searched for the missing cat and the missing dog in the mosaic that filled the screen.

"Old cat...Old cat, where are you?" Tang Yue stared at the screen tightly, his eyes widened as he wandered over the pictures, barely getting into the computer, "Old cat, old cat, old cat Old cat, old cat..."

Tang Yue clicked the mouse, and the photos passed before his eyes one by one.

On the other hand, Maidong didn't have time to rest. She took a breath and plunged into the endless pictures.

There are more than a thousand photos, each one looks exactly the same, full of gray and black fields and hills. If there are no numbers, Ophiopogon japonicus can't even tell the difference.

"Tang Yue! Look at this... is this a stray dog ​​from Mars?"

"Um...no, this is anorthosite."

"Tang Yue, what about this one? I think this one looks similar!"

"No, if you turn the picture around and look at it from an angle, it's just the shadow of the dune."

"this?"

"dune."

"this?"

"Sandpit."

Every time Maidong came to Tang Yue with images that might have results, the latter was nervous and excited, making careful judgments. However, every excitement turned into disappointment, and every object suspected of being a Mars rover was eventually confirmed to be a rover. Rocks or shadows, Maidong and Tang Yue refused to miss any clues. They were so eager to find the old cat that they almost recognized every blurry pixel in the photo as a stray dog ​​from Mars.

In the blurry black and white photo, the layers of sand dunes looked like the undulating sea surface. Tang Yue felt that he was looking for a small boat drifting with the current in the sea, and that small boat might have been destroyed by the waves. It tipped over and sank to the bottom of the water forever.