Die on Mars

"Damn...it actually exploded..."

The old cat sat on the chair with a gray face.

"Don't move." Tang Yue held the cat's head, plucked off a broken whisker stuck to his cheek, and then helped it straighten the messy and blackened cat hair.

"I...my beard..."

The old cat burst into tears.

"What did you do? Did you forget the explosion limit of methane?" Tang Yue asked.

"This is because I was careless... There was a problem with the flow rate control of the propellant and liquid oxygen, which caused the oxygen not to be completely burned out, so there was residual oxygen in the pit. When I climbed onto the rover and opened the pressure relief valve and came down again, the oxygen in the pit was The concentration of methane gas has exceeded five percent." Old Cat shook his head, "So it will explode at one point."

Tang Yue patted the old cat on the shoulder, asking him to accept it. After all, it was not a real cat, and its beard was broken and could not be revived.

The old cat really cared about its few beards and had to comb and maintain them every morning. Tang Yue even saw the old cat secretly gluing its broken beard with 502 glue behind his back.

Unfortunately it failed.

This small explosion temporarily interrupted their work of producing fresh water. Two layers of plastic film and the water tank were blown away. The plastic film was useless and shattered into strips like a burst balloon. Tang The film needs to be replaced with a new one. The plexiglass sink is very strong, nothing serious, and can still be used.

Tang Yue and Lao Mao learned their lesson and learned that two people must be present when preparing fresh water in the future.

Otherwise, methane mixes with oxygen in the pit and can easily reach the explosion limit.

Tang Yue held a piece of biscuit in his mouth and moved the large sink on the floor to the table. There were about ten liters of fresh water here. Because it was condensed water, the water contained almost no impurities. This is the result of their work this morning. After ninety-nine days on Mars, Tang Yue had new fresh water for the first time.

"Ophiopogon japonicus, the water has fallen. What should we do next?" Tang Yue asked, "Should we go outside to dig mud?"

The girl, wearing blue overalls, appeared on the screen, "Have you got the fresh water?"

Tang Yue pointed to the sink on the table.

Maidong was pleasantly surprised, "As expected of Mr. Cat."

"What Mr. Cat?" Tang Yue's old face pulled, "This is my credit, okay? Your Mr. Cat almost blew up the condenser."

"Okay, okay, thanks to you Tang Yue." Maidong smiled and clasped his hands, "Let's get back to the topic. You can't just go outside to dig soil. I took samples when I was on the Kunlun Station. Most of the soil on Mars It cannot be used directly to grow crops because the content of chlorine, chlorate and perchlorate is too high... To put it bluntly, it is too dry and too salty. This kind of soil-based tomatoes cannot survive. You need to find slightly better basic conditions. soil."

"Still looking for it?"

"Of course I have to find it." Ophiopogon japonicus nodded, "Have you ever seen anyone planting tomatoes in saline-alkali land?"

"Then is there any way we can reduce the salt content in the soil? For example, filter extraction or something..."

Ophiopogon japonicus spread his hands, "Most extraction solvents are toxic, and I think it's too troublesome to do this because the amount of soil you need to use is huge. In addition, the biggest question is, do you have the conditions?"

"Do we have this condition?" Tang Yue turned to look at the old cat.

The old cat held a broken and burnt beard in his paws, and his expression was dull.

Tang Yue turned his head back.

"Okay, let's look for it."

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"I suggest you use Mars Stray Dogs to sample evenly within a one-kilometer radius with Kunlun Station as the center."

Tang Yue put on the Mingguang Armor and opened the garage with Lao Mao.

They don't often use Mars stray dogs. The Mars rover is actually very troublesome to use and consumes too much energy. It is the most power-consuming thing in the entire Kunlun Station. The Mars Stray Dog is essentially a tractor - it is called a geological survey vehicle because it tows the geological experiment cabin behind it. If you replace the experimental cabin with a trash can, then the Stray Dog is a Mars garbage transport truck.

The Martian Stray Dog looks tall and mighty, but in fact it is a battery car, powered by a battery, driven by an electric motor, without suspension. It is as slow as a turtle crawling, and can surpass a bicycle at full speed. Its off-road ability is basically zero.

When the scientific expedition team was still there, it often happened that stray dogs got stuck in the sand pit and could not move, and the crew had to get out of the car collectively to push the cart. This was actually a short-legged dog.

When this vehicle was designed, it was not designed for long-distance transportation. Its only function was to move the experimental cabin to facilitate field inspections of the geological experimental cabin. So far, the farthest distance traveled by a stray dog ​​on Mars is no more than 20 kilometers. . Theoretically, a stray dog ​​can cover a distance of thirty kilometers on a single charge - and then it has to stop to recharge.

But in fact it has never reached this theoretical value. Lao Wang once commented that the Mars stray dog ​​"charges for five hours and works for half a minute."

Even more OPPO than OPPO.

"Approximately how many samples should we take?"

"Tang Yue, you can draw a quadrat." Maidong replied, "But I think taking about twenty samples is enough."

"Then find a more suitable soil among these twenty samples?"

"Yes."

Lao Mao opened the car door and got into the driver's seat. Tang Yue also climbed up. The Martian Stray Dog's cab was not airtight, so the crew had to wear extravehicular space suits.

The driving method of Mars Stray Dog is very simple. There is a steering wheel plus brake and accelerator. Press the accelerator to accelerate and the brake to decelerate. There is a start button to start when pressed, and a shutdown button to shut down when pressed. I don’t know which lunatic is still on the console. It is marked with the words "A happy journey begins from here!", and then an arrow points to the start button, which is a pure retarded style.

No one comes to steal the battery car on Mars anyway. If the stray dog ​​is really stolen by someone, then this is not a simple theft incident, but an interstellar diplomacy incident.

There are also a few instruments that display power, position, and temperature. They are comparable to bumper cars in an amusement park. They are also the kind that cheerfully says "Dad's dad is called grandpa" when you press a button.

The old cat put on his seat belt and took a look at the remaining power. The battery was fully charged. The Mars Stray Dog was always on standby and would be fully charged every day.

This amount of electricity should be enough for them to run for twenty or thirty kilometers.

"Mars Stray Dog, start." The old cat pressed the start button, and the body of the Mars rover trembled slightly.

A few seconds later, the car stalled again.

The old cat was stunned for a moment.

"I think it might be because you didn't call it by its name and it wasn't happy." Tang Yue said, "You can try starting it again."

"Mars Rover, activate."

Old Cat pressed the start button again and stepped on the accelerator. This time the car started moving and slowly left the garage.