Die on Mars

The total area of ​​insulation tiles that need to be inspected exceeds 20 square meters. Ophiopogon japonicus lacks professional inspection tools. There is no ultrasonic flaw detector or X-ray machine. All she can rely on is her own eyes.

"The ablation is very serious." Maidong stretched out his hand and gently pressed it on the black belly surface. "The surface is very rough and looks a bit like plastic."

"This is a phenolic-impregnated carbon ablation material, and its fixative is phenolic, which is Bakelite plastic." Laomao explained, "So it's normal to look like plastic. Some car tires are also made of this material."

The Eagle lander experienced friction and burning when it first entered the atmosphere. The high temperature of 2,000 degrees Celsius will cause the insulating tiles to evaporate and sublimate, making its ventral surface look far less complete and clean than when it left the factory, like a severely burned The patient has not an inch of intact skin all over his body.

If it weren't for Yang Huanchi, his girlfriend's brother who is a supervisor at NASA, and his nephew's seventh uncle said it was okay, Tang Yue himself would have been unsure. The insulating tiles after being burned at high temperatures looked quite miserable, with uneven surfaces and a burnt out state. , it feels a little rough, and a large area has melted into glass, glowing with a colorful oily sheen.

But fortunately, the success of the Eagle lander does not depend on its appearance.

No matter what it looks like after being burned, as long as enough redundancy is left in the original design, it will definitely be able to withstand re-entry into the atmosphere again.

The super-big arm moved slowly with Ophiopogon japonicus, and through the glass mask, the girl carefully inspected the heat insulation tiles of the lander.

"Those parts that look miserable are irrelevant, they are normal phenomena." Old Mao reminded, "The heat-insulating tiles on the Eagle spacecraft itself take away heat through combustion and sublimation. Miss Maidong, you have to pay attention to this. It’s the deeper cracks and bumpy areas.”

"Are these cracks and bumpy areas?"

"Yes, cracks may cause stress concentration in extreme environments, causing cracks to expand and the insulation tiles to fall off." Lao Mao looked at the picture and nodded, "The unevenness will lead to uneven heating and cracking of the insulation tiles. In these cases All may cause accidents.”

"I see."

Maidong took a deep breath and turned on the LED headlights on both sides of the helmet.

"What should I do if there are cracks?" Tang Yue lowered his voice and asked, "Will it be repaired?"

"What can I use to replenish it?" Old Cat asked, "Do you have 502 glue?"

"No." Tang Yue asked, "Can 502 glue be used to repair this?"

"Obviously not." Old Cat shook his head, "But you don't even have a bottle of 502 glue."

"What...what should I do?"

"There's nothing you can do," said the old cat, "so you'd better hope there aren't any fatal cracks."

Tang Yue was speechless. He didn't know since when, he had become accustomed to the days when there was always a backup plan. If PlanA didn't work, there was PlanB. If PlanB didn't work, there was PlanC. There was DEFG lining up behind PlanC. They just had to face the ground. Just say hello and engineers on the ground will assemble a host of solutions for you to choose from within twenty minutes.

At that time, I was so blessed that I didn’t know how lucky I was. Now that I think about it, it was a good time for a huge nanny group with thousands of top-level support people. I didn’t know how to cherish it at that time, but I regret it now.

The so-called perfect road is just that someone has paved the road for you.

The old cat said there is no way, that means there is really no way, there is no hope at all, and you will hit your head and bleed. These four words are so simple and so cold.

"No cracks were found." Maidong's voice sounded on the channel, "The insulation tiles are tightly attached, but I saw a protruding place..."

Maidong moved the camera to let Laomao and Tang Yue see clearly.

"It's really bulging." Tang Yue rubbed his chin, "Could this be the lifeblood of the Eagle spacecraft?"

The girl gently pressed the protrusion with her hand. It was an obvious bulge on the flat belly, like a wart on the skin. "This should be the material expanding due to heat. Mr. Cat, is this important?"

The old cat stared at the screen and pondered for a moment.

"It's a safety hazard and it's best to eliminate it."

"How to rule it out?" Tang Yue asked.

"The way of heaven is to make up for the excess damage and make up for the deficiency. If there is less, make up for it. If there is too much, cut it off." The old cat replied, "The way to eliminate it is to remove the excess part. Miss Maidong, the inspection work is temporarily over." For now, you should return to the space station to rest, and then deal with this problem the next time you leave the space station, just like dealing with acne."

"So violent?" Maidong was startled. Girls have a sworn hatred for acne.

"Yes, it is so violent." said the old cat,

"Then what should I do to solve it?" Maidong asked, "Use high temperature to soften it? Or find a way to dismantle it and reinstall it? But there are not many tools in the space station..."

Maidong believes that repairing insulation tiles must be a complicated and precise job, and may require a huge set of machine tools, but this condition is obviously not available on the space station.

“What tools should I bring?”

"A file."

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"Tang Yue, I took these dirty clothes to wash." Old Mao held a pile of clothes, "There is nothing in your pocket, right? If you have any shameful gadgets, take them out quickly."

"No." Tang Yue bent down and got into the Mingguang Armor, and put his hand into the spacesuit, "Take it and wash it."

"It smells of heather." Old Cat picked up a pair of dirty underwear and frowned, "I told you a long time ago, don't always secretly hide under the quilt and watch Lao Zheng's educational films..."

"roll!"

Whether it is the Kunlun Station or the space station, washing clothes is a very troublesome problem. Fresh water is a very precious resource and cannot be wasted on unimportant things like washing clothes. According to the previous practice on the ISS, clothes do not need to be washed. Wear them When they get dirty, they are replaced with new ones. Dirty clothes are stuffed directly into the cargo spacecraft and thrown into the atmosphere to be burned.

This pattern basically continued in the early days of the Mars mission. There were no washing machines in the joint space station. Everyone would bring enough disposable clothes, sealed in bags, all made of soft, deodorizing and antibacterial materials. Underwear should be changed every six days. I change my coat once a month and throw it into a trash bag when it expires.

But as the Mars landing mission continues to lengthen, astronauts need to carry more and more clothes to change. A team of six people will have to change out 400 pieces of dirty clothes in a year. This is a quite scary number. , the Orion spacecraft had to make room specifically for clothes.

So later they installed a small washing machine in Kunlun Station.

It's very small, not much bigger than a microwave.

Tang Yue didn't know how it worked. There was no need for washing powder. It might be sterilizing with high-temperature water vapor, but the recovery efficiency of waste water was not high, so washing clothes was quite a luxury for him - Tang Yue every time They all accumulate a lot of dirty clothes and end up washing them all at once.

Tang Yue accurately controlled the frequency of washing clothes to achieve the purpose of saving fresh water. He was familiar with this operation. After all, it was a necessary skill for every college-educated boy.

How to take as few baths as possible for as long as possible and keep your body as fermented as possible.

"Be careful, I only have these few pairs of underwear." Tang Yue was dissatisfied with the old cat's rough movements, "If it's broken, there's nothing to replace it with."

"I know, I know, don't worry." The old cat put a helmet on his head and tried to use a long pliers to pinch Tang Yue's underwear from a distance, but his left arm was not very good and he couldn't poke it. Clamp up.

"Then I'll go out and move the battery panels."

"Good luck." The old cat was still poking at the underwear on the floor.

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An hour and a half later.

"Tang Yue, don't be angry. Listen to my explanation. Listen to my explanation. I made this hole intentionally. Really, really... This hole is for ventilation, allowing your balls to breathe fresh air. …”