Die on Mars

"The first step is to remove the damaged Dawn Experimental Module."

Lao Mao used the mouse to circle the end section of the United Space Station. The Dawn module was still docked on the crystal module, but it had long since been abandoned, with all power and controls cut off.

Maidong held a laptop in her arms, with messy data cables floating around her. She huddled between the layers of control panels, her face illuminated by the white backlight of the computer monitor.

"Mr. Cat, the hatch is locked, the system self-check is completed, the space station is in normal condition, and Orion 2 is in normal condition."

"Kunlun Station received it."

"The generator is ready to ignite." Maidong reported, "Raptor-02 is ready, three, two, one... ignition."

The space station trembled slightly, and Maidong raised his head. The vibrations were transmitted from the bulkhead to the data cable. The energy progressed along the slender black wires, while the floating paper and pen responded much more slowly. They were still floating leisurely in the air. There is almost no interaction between these suspended objects and the space station in a weightless environment. From a certain perspective, they are independent individuals, flying at the same average speed of three kilometers per second.

Orion 2's rocket engine started again, pushing the space station to rotate with a very small thrust. This was an attitude adjustment to remove the Dawn experimental module.

"The joint space station roll is completed, the attitude is stable, and Raptor-02 shuts down." Maidong shut down the engine, "Mr. Cat."

"OK, good job. You are now a very skilled spaceship pilot, Miss Maidong." The old cat nodded, "The super arm is locked, all attention...disconnect the mechanical connection."

As soon as Lao Mao finished speaking, Maidong felt the core cabin shake slightly, which meant that the Dawn Cabin was officially separated from the core cabin. Since Lao Mao cut off the power and control contact nine months ago, the last mechanical docking was also severed. Open, this veteran-class module that has existed since the establishment of the United Space Station has finally completed its historical mission today, and it can be retired with peace of mind.

The super-big arm carried the Dawn cabin past the porthole, and Maidong watched it disappear behind the solar panels.

"Mr. Cat, have you released it?"

"After it is released, it will still orbit Mars for about three months," Old Cat said, "and then crash into the atmosphere."

The girl closed the laptop in her hand, unplugged the data cable, and folded her super big arms not far away.

"Am I going to see it again in an hour and a half?"

"What I know is that it will definitely come back, but Miss Maidong, you may not be able to find it...after all, it is too small."

Maidong nodded silently.

The first step in the modification of the joint space station is completed.

"The second step is to modify Orion and the Joint Space Station! After removing the Dawn module, the space left will be used to dock the cabin on the Orion spacecraft. It sounds simple, but the same work will take at least half of the work in Earth orbit. Months." The old cat was pacing in Kunlun Station, highly concentrated. It was clarifying its own logic while describing the work steps loudly.

"Except for the command module, all the other seven cabins on the central module of Orion 2 will eventually be dismantled." Old Mao sat down on the table, holding the monitor in his arms, and pointed the schematic diagram to Tang Yue He Maidong said, "The optimal plan is as follows: first remove the α service module of the Orion central module and dock with the crystal module. The second one to remove is the β service module, which will dock with the Hope module. Finally, the γ service module will be docked with the Hope module. Discovery module docking!”

The old cat's toes moved on the screen, and the touch screen display gave the docking results.

According to Lao Mao’s plan, after the transformation is completed, the number of cabins in the United Space Station will increase to nine.

"Why do Orion's cabins all have code names? Don't they have names?" Tang Yue asked.

"Of course." The old cat glanced at him, "It's just that I forgot."

"What about the airlock?"

"There is no doubt that the airlock must be dismantled first and then docked." The old cat looked at Maidong, "This requires a long time and a huge amount of work outside the vehicle, Miss Maidong."

"Yeah." Maidong nodded.

"We must hurry up." Old Mao held the monitor in his arms, "The remaining four cabins on Orion are all inflatable cabins. We need to empty and pressurize these four inflatable cabins and tie them to the shell of the Eagle lander. superior."

"As a cushioning airbag."

"Yes, it will be used as an airbag for the lander when it lands." Old Cat nodded. "At this point, the central module of Orion 2 will only have the command module. The command module is responsible for the control and communication tasks during landing..."

"Old cat, everything is red again!"

"change."

"The current angle of attack is twelve degrees thirty-seven minutes and fifty-five seconds. Will it be reduced by one second?"

"reduce!"

"Data overflow."

"Smash!"

Once the modification work of the Orion spacecraft officially started, manpower was immediately insufficient. The HP computers in the Kunlun Station and the system computers on the space station were running at full capacity. Every monitor in front of Tang Yue's eyes was jumping with charts and data. In his hands Copying with pen and paper, remembering everything densely.

The old cat was pacing around Kunlun Station, like a feline suffering from zoo syndrome.

Tang Yue held a pen in one hand and pressed the keyboard with the other, working from side to side, shaking like an epileptic.

"Old Cat, the first prediction result of the impact point of Comet Tomcat is out!" Tang Yue suddenly stood up and raised the scratch paper in his hand.

The telescope on the space station finally collected enough data, and the workstation made calculations based on the observational data and made preliminary predictions at distant distances spanning up to one astronomical unit.

"It will hit the northern hemisphere." Tang Yue said.

"Nonsense." Old Cat pulled a chair over and opened the computer's prediction results. The graphical simulation results were very intuitive. The colorful terrain map, red is the plateau, blue is the plain, and there is a big flashing red circle on the surface of Mars. , very dazzling.

"This is the possible impact range of the comet. With all the data collected so far, the computer can only be accurate to this extent." Tang Yue expanded the map of Mars and enlarged it, his hands shaking slightly.

The workstation marked the area where Comet Tomcat-Tang-Mai is likely to impact the Earth's surface. This is a very large oblate ellipse with a semi-major axis of more than 3,000 kilometers. The detailed longitude and latitude of the ellipse center are 18°N and 45°E.

The old cat pondered for a long time.

"This area is too broad and rough. It covers almost half of the Arabia Terra and the entire Sabaea Terra." The old cat pointed to the map, "Look, we are located in the Ishidi Plain. To the west is the huge Sabah Highlands, which is 4,700 kilometers wide. Further west of the Sabah Highlands is the Arabian Highlands, which is also 3,000 kilometers long from east to west.

The center of this ellipse is located in the middle of the Basha Sea Highlands, but its semi-major axis is 3,000 kilometers. In other words, this area of ​​more than 28 million square kilometers is the possible landing point of the Tomcat-Tang-Mai comet. , the comet may hit anywhere within this ellipse. "

Tang Yue stared at the big red circle for a long time, and then pointed at the small plain on the map. The latter was also within the scope of the big circle, which meant that the comet was also likely to hit the Kunlun Station. overhead.

"Kunlun Station is also within this circle."

"The area of ​​Ixidi Plain is too small. What we want to look at is not the probability of the comet hitting Ixidi Plain... The center of the predicted area is 2,500 kilometers away from Kunlun Station. I said that the impact of the comet will destroy the radius of two thousand kilometers." If everything within 1,500 kilometers happens to fall on the point of 18°N, 45°E, then Kunlun Station will be destroyed." Old Cat said in a low voice, "The vitality of Kunlun Station lies in... our relationship with Whether the distance between impact points is greater than 2,500 kilometers.”

"In other words, if the comet falls to the west of the center of the ellipse, Kunlun Station will be able to escape." Tang Yue said.

The old cat nodded, "If it falls east of the center, then the distance between Kunlun Station and the impact point will be less than 2,500 kilometers, and everything will be over."

"A probability of 1 in 2?"

"To be honest, it's not a 1/2 chance. Mars rotates from west to east, so the comet is slightly more likely to land in the east."

Tang Yue raised his head and took a deep breath. He was silent for a while, "Is it more likely that it will fall on top of our heads?"

"Yes."

Tang Yue stared at the computer screen for a long time, "Even if it's a little bigger, it's not much bigger, right? Our chances of survival are still very high. Maybe God sees that we are living so hard and has moved it a little to the west?" It’s not impossible.”

The old cat pressed his shoulder.

"Yes, it's not impossible."