Die on Mars

Old Mao helped Tang Yue replace the oxygen cylinder and battery in the Mingguang Armor life support system, and then helped him put on his extravehicular suit. Tang Yue moved his hands and feet, took a deep breath, and lifted the antenna on the floor.

The antenna is very light, a hollow aluminum alloy tripod that Tang Yue can lift with one hand, like a standing microphone.

"Just put it at the door of Kunlun Station." Old Mao stood in front of Tang Yue, stood on tiptoes to hold the latter's mask, and emphasized again, "Don't go too far, and stay where you are and listen to my command."

Tang Yue nodded, indicating that he understood.

"Good Luck!"

The old cat patted him on the shoulder. Tang Yue carried the antenna and dragged the black cable, clicking toward the door of the airlock. Looking at his back, he looked like a bear carrying a tree stick.

Before the Eagle spacecraft is launched, they must get in touch with the United Space Station and prepare Maidong. Although the lander has the ability to dock automatically, there is no guarantee that there will be no problems with the launch in such bad weather, so everyone Everyone must be prepared for emergencies.

The original Ka-band communication antenna of Kunlun Station was set up next to the garage. It was a signal receiving antenna that could automatically turn to track the target. It could ensure that the direction of radio waves irradiated followed the movement of the space station or relay satellite, but this time The sudden sandstorm disrupted everything. It didn't take much for the old cat to know that the antenna must have been blown over, but they were busy transporting supplies and couldn't spare the time or energy to take care of it.

It is unrealistic to repair the antenna now. Tang Yue managed to save his life from outside. If he goes out again, he will die.

So Lao Mao simply found a substitute.

A purely manual antique.

The old cat sat back at the workbench, put on the earphones, and pulled the keyboard and mouse over. While detecting the signal strength and wind speed changes of the communication channel, he continuously adjusted the signal band with one paw and pressed the earphones with the other paw, concentrating on Listen carefully, like an underground worker monitoring the radio station under the lamp in the dead of night.

The old cat hoped to find some meaningful signal in the boundless white noise, but unfortunately, in addition to screams, it sounded like a group of demons dancing in the storm outside, and thousands of female ghosts crying in unison.

"Old Cat, I'm in position." Tang Yue's voice rang in his ears.

"Received." Old Mao quickly replied, "Listen Tang Yue, now stand the antenna in front of the airlock door, and then pick up the cable plug of the antenna."

"Plug? Where is the plug? The plug... I found it! Damn it, the wind is so strong at the door, the plug is flying everywhere, I have to catch it... Damn, I can't bend down, wait, wait, wait. Ah, I have to bend down and grab it first, it’s a USB interface.”

"Yes, it's a USB interface. This is the data cable for the antenna. Look to your left now... On the bulkhead to the left of the airlock door, there is a data interface with a light on."

"I saw the data interface. It was right next to my hand, but a data line was already plugged in here." Tang Yue said, "I don't know where this wire leads to..."

"That cable is the data cable of the original communication antenna of Kunlun Station. You can unplug that cable now and plug in your own one." Old Mao instructed, "After plugging it in, look at the indicator light on the antenna. Is there any light?"

After a while, Tang Yue replied: "It's bright."

At the same time, the screen in front of Lao Mao showed "New hardware connected", which indicated that the antenna was successfully connected to the computer at Kunlun Station.

"Now turn the parabolic antenna to the southeast, slowly and not too fast." Lao Mao gave the order while carefully checking the signal of the communication system. "At this time, the Joint Space Station should be in that direction."

Tang Yue leaned against the door of the airlock. He locked himself on the door with a safety rope. He held the bracket of the antenna with both hands and began to turn it slowly. Although the old cat could not accurately locate the position of the United Space Station, After all, the latter is a spacecraft that operates periodically in orbit. It flies around Mars along a fixed trajectory. As long as the orbital parameters of the space station are known, Lao Mao can easily calculate the position of the space station at any time.

"Is there a signal?"

"No." The old cat stared at the screen, "Keep turning."

"Is there a signal?"

"No."

Tang Yue raised his head and looked at the sky in the southeast direction. Old Mao said that the United Space Station was at that location now, but Tang Yue could not see anything and his eyes were pitch black.

"Adjust the angle of the antenna slightly upward, about five to ten degrees."

"Five to ten degrees..." Tang Yue muttered as he adjusted the direction of the antenna, "I suddenly felt like I was repairing a TV."

"Fixing the TV?" Old Cat frowned.

"The TV set in my hometown in the countryside was like this when I was a child. Before the Internet and digital TV, the TV was connected to an antenna. That antenna looked like a clothes drying rack, and it was hung high with a bamboo pole. We all called it It's a TV stand." Tang Yue said leisurely, "It's a very, very old thing. Even in a remote village like my hometown, the TV stand has almost disappeared."

"That's the Yagi antenna." said the old cat.

"I don't know what its name is. Anyway, we all call it a TV stand. The TV stand is a very cheating thing. The signal often has problems, so the TV programs are often blurred." Tang Yue continued, "When the TV cannot play, When it comes to clarity, we usually use two methods. One is to shoot, shoot as hard as we can, and shoot for TV until it is clear."

"The other is to go out and turn the TV stand. One person stays in the room and stares at the TV, while others come out to adjust the direction of the TV stand. Generally, the TV stand is held up with very long bamboo poles, so we turn the bamboo poles underneath. We spin the penny and shout "Is it clear?" into the room while spinning the penny. If the person inside answers "it's not clear", then we will continue to spin. We will not stop until the person inside shouts "is it clear?" , and then quickly ran back to watch TV.”

The old cat nodded.

"It does look a bit like it."

Tang Yue didn't know why he recalled these things. Some pictures suddenly popped into his mind. The originally fuzzy memories suddenly became clear at a certain moment. In the violent and dark wind and sand of Mars, he could actually recall many years. On a recent summer vacation afternoon, the cicadas on the tree were chirping sultryly and noisily. I was sitting in my hometown room holding a popsicle. The color TV on the table was playing the old TV series "Huan Zhu Ge Ge" and "Young Man Bao Qingtian".

Thinking about it, Tang Yue could even hum a few lines of the theme song, such as "The sea can dry up, the rocks can rot, the sky can collapse, and the earth can crack, we hold hands, hold hands, hold hands" by Huanzhu Gege, and the young man Bao Qingtian's "A clear sky above your head and a belief in your heart are not about youth and ignorance, but about not being afraid of challenges" or something like that.

"Stop!" the old cat suddenly yelled.

Tang Yue couldn't move.

The white noise in the headphones suddenly dropped, and the current noise like a female ghost's howl suddenly disappeared. A weak, trembling, crying voice emerged from the darkness and silence.

"This is the United Space Station. Call Kunlun for the 451st time. Please reply... This is the United Space Station. Mr. Tang Yue, Mr. Cat, can you hear me... Mr. Tang Yue? Mr. Cat?"

The old cat breathed a sigh of relief.

Finally got in touch.

It pressed the earphone and said, "Ms. Maidong, this is Kunlun Station, and I am the old cat! Can you hear me?"