Great Power Heavy Industry: Rise

Chapter 384 Mars, here we come!
The one who exclaimed was a geological prospector who was surveying the geological structure under the surface of Phobos.

Zhong Cheng rushed over. From the data on his survey equipment, it can be clearly seen that there is only a rock layer more than 100 meters below the surface, and there is an ice layer below.

Zhong Cheng ordered a comprehensive geological survey of Phobos to find out how much water resources there are under the surface of Phobos.

The next day, it turned out that Phobos is a mixture of rock and ice.

There are numerous pores and faults in Phobos' rock formations, filled with salt-rich water ice.

82% of the mass of Phobos is ice, so it can be said to be an ice star.

It's just that the ice on the surface has been evaporated by the sun's radiation, leaving only the rocky layer, which also makes humans mistake it for a rocky planet.

In fact, astronomers have doubted this for a long time. The average density of Phobos is only 1.872 g/cm, which is much smaller than the rocky planets Mars and Earth.

The average density of Mars is 3.9335 g/cm, and that of the Earth is 5.515 g/cm.

Phobos has a very low density, so some people think that it is hollow, and some even believe that it is actually a "Martian man-made spaceship".

But as the Star Reacher landed on Phobos, everything came to light!
Zhao Wei and Ye Wenhao began to direct engineering personnel to build a transfer station on Phobos, building a temporary dome with a diameter of 100 meters and a height of 30 meters.

This dome base also has a simple ecological maintenance system, which can accommodate 30 people to live and work in it.

At the same time, wells can be drilled to get ice, and pure water and minerals can be extracted to supplement the consumption of Star Picking.

And Zhong Cheng and astrophysicists began to study the plan of landing on Mars.

Mars has the same diverse terrain as Earth, with mountains, plains and canyons.

Mars is basically a desert planet, with sand dunes and gravel all over the surface, and no stable liquid water.

The atmosphere dominated by carbon dioxide is thin and cold, and dust is suspended in it, and sandstorms often occur every year.

Due to factors such as lower gravity, the size of the terrain is also different from that of the earth, and the terrain of the northern and southern hemispheres has a strong contrast.

In the southern hemisphere of Mars, there are curved highlands similar to those on the Moon, whereas its northern hemisphere consists mostly of newly formed low plains.

The two are separated by an obvious slope, and there is a huge height change of several kilometers on the north-south border.

Volcanic terrain is interspersed with it, numerous canyons are scattered all over the place, and aeolian sand dunes are also scattered all over the planet.

The north and south poles have polar caps composed of dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) and water ice, and the dry ice covered will grow and decline with the seasons.

Because in the future transformation of Mars, the low plains in the northern hemisphere will definitely be submerged by the ocean, and even lowlands such as the plains in the southern hemisphere may form lakes.

Therefore, bases on Mars should be built on high ground or plateaus.

Considering that the future Mars space elevator will be built above the Martian equator, the first Mars base should be built on a highland or plateau on the Martian equator.

In fact, most of the highlands or plateaus on Mars are distributed along the equator. From west to east, there are Lukus Plateau, Tarsis Plateau, Solis Plateau, Luna Plateau, Pearl Terrace, Meridian Plateau, Arabian Terrace, Show Batai, Great Setis, Tyrena, Nepensis, Cimmerian.

Among them, the Tharsis Plateau is about 14 kilometers high and more than 6500 kilometers wide. It is accompanied by the relics of prevailing volcanism and contains five large shield volcanoes, including Olympus Mons, the largest in the solar system, which is 27 kilometers high and 600 kilometers long. Width.

But because he was worried that the volcano would erupt again in the future, Zhong Cheng gave up his plan to build the first Mars base on the largest and highest plateau in the solar system.

After a comprehensive comparison among the remaining highlands or plateaus, the Meridian Plateau was finally determined.

The Meridian Plateau, also known as the Meridian Plateau, is named after the border of the eastern and western hemispheres on the meridian of Mars, and it is also on the equator, so it can be said to be the center of the map of Mars.

And it can be connected to the plains in the northern hemisphere through the Ares Canyon in the northwest, and there will be an outlet to the sea in the future.

To the west, it connects with the Tharsis Plateau through the largest canyon in the solar system - Mariner Canyon.

The other three sides are directly connected to plateaus or highlands, strategic location and geographical location are very important.

According to the landing plan of the ignition plan, the Star Reacher temporarily stays on Phobos, and Zhong Cheng leads 64 engineering personnel wearing engineering mechs to land on Mars first.

Zhong Cheng and others will level off an airstrip at the center of the Meridian Plateau before landing on the Asterisk.

Mars has 0.4 times the gravity of the earth, and the atmosphere is thin, and the Star Reacher needs at least a 10-kilometer takeoff and landing runway.

The first people to land on Mars must build a simple runway as soon as possible under the condition of limited material supply. The task is very arduous.

In the next three days, as Phobos orbited Mars 9 times, Zhaixing launched 18 communication and exploration satellites over Mars, and established a network with the Deep Space Network.

October 10th, Earth Sea City time, 26:9 am.

Zhong Cheng and others made preparations for landing on Mars. They got off the Star Reacher, and when Phobos flew over the Tarsis Plateau, they jumped off the ground of Phobos one by one and flew to Mars.

Zhong Cheng and Hu Bo lead the team, and there are 62 old members of the original Star Reaching Project. Because this mission is very dangerous, newcomers cannot go.

They brought their own drinking water, food, and construction tools for a day, and carried out "airborne" from an altitude of 6000 kilometers above the surface of Mars. This is also a feat never before seen in human history.

For the sake of safety, everyone formed a long shuttle formation, Zhong Cheng took the lead, and after Hu Bo was cut off, the other team members formed a circular center.

This ensures that someone goes wrong and others can come to the rescue in time.

The crowd drove the mechs to fly obliquely downward in the direction around Phobos. After an hour, they reached a position 3000 kilometers above the Meridian Plateau, and the speed was already the same as the rotation speed of Mars.

Everyone began to fly straight down, accelerated by the gravity of Mars, and the downward speed quickly reached a speed of 6000 kilometers per hour.

Then use the power of the mecha to maintain this speed and fly down.

The red planet is getting bigger and bigger in everyone's eyes, and everyone is getting closer to the ground.

It was the first time for Zhong Cheng to fly to a planet wearing a mecha, and the thin atmosphere of Mars still made a screeching sound when it rubbed against the mecha at high speed.

Their goal is the crimson "fireball", which makes people feel like moths are flying into a flame.

10 points.

Zhong Cheng led the team to fly to a position 30 kilometers above Mars, and he ordered to slow down and descend.

10 points.

At a low altitude of 1 kilometer from the surface of Mars, the descending speed of the mecha has dropped to a speed of 100 kilometers per hour.

10 points.

Zhong Cheng slowly landed on the crimson earth of Mars. He turned off the engine in the mecha, walked a few steps on the rocky ground, and felt the gravity on Mars.

The gravity on Mars is equivalent to a little more than twice that of the moon. Although it is still a bit light, it does not have the feeling of floating.

The cameras installed on other mechas clearly transmitted this picture back to the star-seeker, and then the star-seeker sent it back to Earth.

This is the first step for human beings to set foot on Mars. This step broke the silence of Mars for billions of years.

Mars, here we come!
(End of this chapter)