Die on Mars

"Air bag?" Maidong and Tang Yue answered almost simultaneously.

In the early Mars exploration missions, engineers used a rather simple and crude method to deal with the last hurdle of landing - the last few dozen meters of altitude, which was airbag landing.

Wrap the detector in layers of balloons, drop it directly on the surface of Mars, and bounce it repeatedly to cushion and dissipate energy. This technology is essentially the same as a car airbag. It is very old and simple, but quite reliable. The probe quickly inflated the air bag after detaching from the parachute. Within seconds, it was surrounded by a circle of large balloons, and finally fell into the soft air bag to protect itself.

Before high-end Mars cranes like Curiosity were put into use, many pioneers heading to Mars relied on this simple balloon to protect themselves.

"Where did we get the airbag?" Tang Yue asked.

There are no parachutes or airbags on the Joint Space Station. In the middle of the 21st century when the Mars landing plan is highly advanced, primitive and extremely restrictive landing methods such as buffer airbags have long been eliminated - airbags can only protect small and light landers. Today's landing missions often carry dozens of tons of payload, and can only use parachutes and rocket thrust.

"We have to thank the engineers of Maozi Space Agency for this..." Old Cat said leisurely, "Who told them that they like to use inflatable cabins on spacecraft and space stations so much?"

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"Tsiolkovsky, Goddard, Obert, Korolev, von Braun, and all the great masters from NASA, CNSA, RSA, and ESA, please bow to me!" Tang Yue Standing decently in the hall of Kunlun Station, he bowed deeply to the memorial tablet on the table, "Your spirits in heaven must bless the success of the landing plan. The lives and fortunes of my disciples and grandchildren depend entirely on you."

The old cat glanced at the tablets on the table, and the first name on the table was Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

"If you write in Chinese, the spirits of the old men in heaven may not be able to understand it." The old cat spit out a series of retroflex sounds, "You should write Konstantin Tsiolkovsky."

"Go, go, go, do your job." Tang Yue rolled his eyes, "As promised, science belongs to you, and metaphysics belongs to me."

"Don't you know how to tell fortunes?" Old Mao supported his head, "Just tell fortunes."

"Already figured it out."

"How is the result?"

"It's not easy to go up and down." Tang Yue replied.

"What do you mean?" The old cat glanced at him.

Tang Yue is a talented person in metaphysics. He can not only recite spells but also tell fortunes. If he hadn't come to Mars, he might have become a charlatan sorcerer. Old Mao also doesn’t understand why Tang Yue knows these things. In Tang Yue’s words, “This was taught to him by the old man who lived next door when he was a child. The old man is a profound man. It is said that he has shown Feng Shui to celebrities and loves to eat. Cuttlefish was called the Cuttlefish Fairy by people in the world, so Tang Yue often bought squid on iron plates to look for him."

Every time Lao Mao denounced these things as feudal dross, Tang Yue would move the Russians out to block the guns.

This guy is still asking the Patriarch to consecrate the rocket.

"The fire has not been rescued, the fire has not been put out, and the cause has not been completed." Tang Yue said, "This is a great omen."

"Big bra?" Old Mao was startled, "I'm talking to you seriously, Tang Yue, what are you thinking about?"

"What's on your mind? I'm talking about a bad omen, a bad omen! A bad omen! Do you know what a bad omen is?"

"Of course I know what a bra is."

"You stupid cat." Tang Yue said, "Come and read to me! A bad omen! A bad omen! A bad omen! Do you understand?"

The old cat suddenly shut up, looked serious, and pointed to the table.

Tang Yue turned around.

Maidong had a cold look on his face: a gangster.

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"The hexagram of Weiji is bad." Tang Yue sighed, "The situation is unfavorable and full of difficulties."

"The calculation is quite accurate. Isn't this our current situation? We are cornered and surrounded by desperation." Old Mao rested his chin on the desktop, and the workstation monitor in front of him flashed, with another blue screen, and the sound of the chassis fan suddenly dropped. , Old Cat kicked the table leg hard, "Damn it, the data overflowed again."

"Weiji is not a good sign. It means that we can't succeed in our work. I hope there won't be any problems when we land."

"Metaphysics is not useful on Mars. The things of our ancestors are only applicable to the earth. After all, the soil of the Emperor and Queen of Heaven is not the soil of Mars." Old Cat restarted the process of the workstation, turned off the monitor and turned it on again, "Still Let’s look at science. Mathematics and physics are universal in the universe... Miss Maidong, are you ready?"

"OK, Mr. Cat." Maidong replied, "All permissions have been opened."

"Good Job." Lao Mao connected to the computer of the United Space Station. At this time, all the system permissions of the space station were in Lao Mao's hands. This was Lao Mao's request. He asked Maidong to follow the steps to open the underlying code of the control system. .

The old cat can change the behavior of the space station at will. If it wants, it can even bypass the astronauts' instructions and directly shut down the life support system in the space station. If it really does this, all living things in the space station will not survive more than five years. minute.

"Miss Maidong, I have taken over the United Space Station." Old Cat reminded, "From now on, you are not allowed to change the computer's working mode at will."

"clear."

This is necessary work. In order for the Orion 2 spacecraft to enter the atmosphere, Laomao must completely change the Orion flight program, which is equivalent to rewriting the bottom software of the spacecraft. When the Orion 2 spacecraft was originally designed, the engineers did not think about letting it enter the atmosphere. There was no corresponding software backup in the computer system. However, fortunately, the hardware redundancy was sufficient, and the structure and engine of the Orion spacecraft could support it. Program written by Qi Laomao.

For the old cat, computer language is its mother tongue.

Laomao must design a safe landing route. In the past, this kind of work was discussed by multiple research groups in an entire laboratory, because the workload is quite huge - the entire EDL process can be split into different parts. Each stage of Entry, Descent and Landing is a topic worthy of study. The problems contained therein are many and complex, involving every piece of hardware on the spacecraft.

Coupled with the equally troublesome GNC system, Guidance, Navigation and Control modules in the software, these are the tasks of computers and sensors, and can generate a lot of questions and papers.

The EDL system is responsible for safe landing, and the GNC system is responsible for navigation. The two work together to allow Ophiopogon japonicus to land safely.

Normally, this would have been a collaborative project involving more than a dozen universities and scientific research institutions, from hardware to software, but Lao Mao was the sole proprietor.

After all, Lao Mao is the most awesome crosstalk master and programmer in the universe. Among crosstalk actors, he is the best at writing code, and among those who write code, he is the best at speaking crosstalk.

It can talk nonsense about a lama from the east and a mute from the west, while typing out the control code for a four-hundred-ton spacecraft to land on Mars.