Die on Mars

Tang Yue nodded, very satisfied with the result.

If circumstances permit, he also hopes to bring precious food and fresh water down from the space station. Survival supplies are life.

But when these supplies might threaten landing safety, Tang Yue decided to abandon them without hesitation.

Although biscuits are good, don’t be greedy.

——Otherwise you will choke.

"Is the twelve-ton Eagle spacecraft hanging on the Orion spacecraft only by its docking mechanism strong enough?" Tang Yue asked, "Once it enters the gravity circle of Mars, its stress situation is completely different from that in the weightless state. It can Can you hold it?"

Tang Yue's worries are not unreasonable. The only connection between the Eagle spacecraft and Orion is the docking mechanism. The lander will cling to Orion like a fish, and the docking mechanism is its suction cup. But the strength of the suction cup is actually very weak. Both sides are in a state of weightlessness when in orbit. However, when Orion 2 enters the atmosphere, it is bound to perform reverse thrust and decelerate. The weight of the Eagle lander will all rely on this fragile docking port to hang.

Once a break occurs, the Eagle lander will crash.

But Maidong could not use ropes to tightly tie the Eagle spacecraft to Orion. In the final stage of landing, the docking mechanism had to be released on time to allow the lander to break away from the crashed Orion in time.

"I've calculated this." Lao Mao turned the monitor around. "The lander is docked with Orion 2 using a set of APAS-98 standard docking mechanisms. This is the most docking interface on the Joint Space Station, and it is also the strongest docking mechanism. Mechanism, I said engineers on Earth designed it to be as strong as a ship's anchor."

Old Mao put the Orion 2 model upright on the table, then picked up the pen cap and pressed it against the model.

"The attitude of the Orion spacecraft is vertical when landing, and the force borne by the APAS-98 docking interface is longitudinal, not axial, which also means that the weight of the Eagle spacecraft will not directly act on the locking hook."

The old cat clasped his paws and came to explain to Tang Yue.

"The docking mechanism of APAS-98 is responsible for locking the lander with six rotating locks. During vertical landing, the weight of the lander will be transmitted to the Orion fuselage through the locks instead of pulling the locks laterally, so it truly supports The force is not the docking interface." Lao Mao said, "In this case, the docking mechanism can withstand a force of more than 80,000 newtons, and the weight of the Eagle lander within the Mars gravity circle does not exceed five tons."

"You just need to give me a conclusion." Tang Yue raised his head, "Give me a too long version."

"It's too long to read: the docking mechanism will not break halfway."

"Then it won't hug it so hard that it can't break away when it's time to break away, right?" Tang Yue asked.

It withstood five tons of pressure in the longitudinal direction. This was obviously beyond the normal working range of the docking mechanism. It is difficult to say whether any parts were bent by this weight and became stuck. In the end, the Eagle lander was unable to break away and crashed. Orions were pulled into hell together.

"The lander does not use normal fly-by-wire control when it finally breaks away." Lao Mao said, "After all, the computer has to be dismantled, and the entire set of control circuits will fail. We use the emergency breakaway system."

"Emergency escape system? That... explosive bolt for escape?"

The old cat nodded.

"The emergency escape system of the docking mechanism uses pyrotechnics as power to directly explode the lock hook. The start switch is under the commander's seat. It is similar to the pilot's ejection lever. It is purely mechanically driven and uses a wire rope to transmit force." Old Cat said, "Simple and crude, but very effective. So far...there are no locks or hatches that cannot be opened by explosives."

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Maidong tied five chairs tightly with tape, and packed the lining materials and various small parts of the Eagle lander. She spent more than 20 hours dismantling the lander's command module. Empty, now only a chair and the main console remain.

The center console and system computer are troublesome and difficult to disassemble. This requires strictly following the steps, so Maidong decided to throw out the obstructive garbage first, and finally deal with the console with many parts.

Normally, the United Space Station never litters garbage in orbit. This is one of the safety rules. All domestic garbage must be brought back to the earth and finally thrown into the atmosphere and burned.

Maidong put on her extravehicular suit. The fully pressurized extravehicular suit does not require oxygen inhalation and pressure adjustment. It is very convenient to leave the cabin. She dragged the bundled garbage and slowly sent it to the edge of the space station by the super arm - any object, Once they leave the cabin, it will become dangerous. Although they appear to be relatively stationary, both sides are actually flying at a high speed of three kilometers per second. Once the trajectory or speed of one of them changes, it may cause a collision.

Therefore, Maidong cannot throw garbage out of the cabin at will. She has to push these things far enough so that they cannot threaten the safety of the space station.

Ophiopogon japonicus was dragging more than 100 kilograms of debris, but it was so light that she could not feel the weight. She could easily move them with one finger.

"Miss Maidong, you are now sixty meters away from the core module of the United Space Station." Old Cat's voice came from the earphones, the movement of the super arm stopped, and Maidong also stopped.

"Can it be pushed out now?" Maidong stood on the super big arm, looking at the huge Mars in front of him. He had no clear sense of direction in low-Earth orbit. Sometimes Maidong would feel that Mars was above his head, and sometimes he would not. You will feel that it is under your feet.

At this time, Maidong felt that the red planet was floating in front of his eyes. It was like a huge painting, and every detail on the picture was vividly visible.

"It can be pushed out."

Maidong held the tape with both hands and slowly pushed the bundled garbage toward the Martian ground. When the debris left her hands, it received a small lateral force and began to spin slowly. Maidong watched them move away from her at a constant speed, gradually getting smaller bit by bit.

After a few minutes they became as small as grains of rice, but the tape and some unknown metal parts shimmered in the dark sky reflecting sunlight.

"From now on, there will be another artificial satellite on Mars." Old Cat said.

From a certain perspective, the steps for Ophiopogon japonicus to discard garbage and the space station to release satellites are the same. As long as they are pushed far enough, they will orbit Mars.

"Will they continue to circle Mars like this?"

"Obviously not." The old cat replied, "Miss Maidong, you pushed them into the Martian atmosphere. If there is no external force, their speed in this direction will not change. It won't take too long. It will fall into the atmosphere and burn up.”

"It will burn." The girl said softly.

"Yes, they will burn."

Maidong took a deep breath and waved towards the small satellite.

"Bye...goodbye."