Die on Mars

Tang Yue began to select compressed biscuits that met the requirements. In front of him were almost all the rations in Kunlun Station. Under ideal circumstances, these compressed biscuits would be enough for him to survive for 800 Martian days. This was calculated by Lao Mao when he distributed the supplies. ——I don’t know what the old cat was thinking when he was counting the food. He held the lives of the last two people in the universe in his hands. Whoever has more biscuits will live one more day.

This doraemon played the role of God for a time, putting Tang Yue and Maidong on opposite ends of the scale, weighing the weight of two lives.

The compressed biscuits at Kunlun Station have different production dates. The oldest batch can be traced back to the ninth landing mission, which was ten years ago in 2042. Not long after the Orion spacecraft was put into service, the Chinese first served as The mission commander boarded the spacecraft. It is worth mentioning that the commander was Tang Yue’s teacher, Li Yang, currently the deputy director of the China Astronaut Center. It is said that he was a top flight expert in the First Space Division before being selected to become an astronaut.

Tang Yue sat at the table, with cardboard boxes at his feet. He checked the production dates on the biscuit packages one by one. If he found those that met the requirements, he piled them on hand, and those that did not meet the requirements were thrown into the box.

"June 2041...that's not right."

"August 2044, wrong."

"February 2051, wrong."

Tang Yue randomly picked out a piece from the mountain of biscuits, "Production date: July 2046, China Astronaut Research and Training Center... That's right!"

"How much vitamin C can one piece of these cold-processed biscuits contain?"

"I don't know, I can't say for sure." Tang Yue shook his head. He held the compressed biscuit in front of the camera and shook it. "The package says that each biscuit contains 120 milligrams of vitamin C. In fact, it is definitely less than this amount. , the cold-processed biscuits are a failed product. The vitamin C contained in them will continue to be lost as the storage time is extended. Yang Huanma showed me a table... It seems that the content decreases by 25% on average every two years. .”

Ophiopogon made a rough calculation, "So now 75% of the vitamin C in the biscuits has deteriorated?"

"It's possible, so these biscuits don't contain many vitamins and can only be used for emergencies." Tang Yue continued to pick. He didn't know how many compressed biscuits that met the requirements in Kunlun Station. Judging from the current situation, cold-processed biscuits Of course the more the better.

Tang Yue read the production date and month on the package in a low voice, threw a lot of biscuits into the box, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"2051, 2044, 2044... or 2044..."

On the space station, Maidong watched as the number of biscuits on Tang Yue's hand increased one by one. He felt very nervous. This was a matter of life and death. The more biscuits compressed by the cold process, the more vitamin C was available, leaving Tang Yue with it. the more time.

"How will you collect the vitamin C in these cookies?" the girl asked, "You can't eat them all, right?"

According to Tang Yue, cold-processed compressed biscuits contain less than 30 milligrams of vitamin C. An adult should supplement 100 to 120 milligrams of vitamin C a day, and this number will be even higher on Mars. What's more, Tang Yue's body is on the verge of suffering from scurvy. He needs to take in at least two hundred to three hundred milligrams of vitamin C every day.

If Tang Yue relied on eating biscuits to supplement his vitamins, he would eat ten cold-processed compressed biscuits a day.

This will definitely kill him.

"Of course you can't eat it. Do you think I'm a machine that burns carbohydrates? A dozen yuan a day, are you filling the boiler with coal?" Tang Yue patted the bricks piled up beside him, "So many compressed biscuits, how can I eat them?" It will definitely kill people if they get up, I want to extract the vitamins!"

"extract?"

"Yes, do you still remember the characteristics of ascorbic acid?" Tang Yue gritted his teeth and smiled, "It happens to be the easiest type of vitamin to extract!"

"Ascorbic acid is easily soluble in water... Are you saying that vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin?" Ophiopogon japonicus frowned, "You need to use water to extract the vitamin C in the biscuits? But the aqueous solution of vitamin C is not stable at all and is easily oxidized. ah."

Ophiopogon japonicus doesn't understand why Tang Yue said that ascorbic acid is the easiest vitamin to extract. In fact, it's the opposite. Vitamin C aqueous solution is easily destroyed by oxidation. This thing is extremely reducing and cannot exist stably at all. Under laboratory conditions To extract vitamin C, hydrochloric acid or oxalic acid must be added.

"It's inconvenient to extract vitamin C on earth because of the presence of air. The air will quickly oxidize ascorbic acid, but girl, use your little brain, where am I?" Tang Yue tapped the camera with his finger, Quan thought it was He clicked on the girl's forehead and said, "I won't extract vitamin C in Kunlun Station. I will go to the garage...The biggest shortage there is oxygen. Nothing will react with vitamin C, so there is no problem in extracting vitamin C." .”

Maidong clapped his hands and marveled.

"After all, you are a top student from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Why can't you even think of this?" Tang Yue smiled.

The girl pouted. It's not that Maidong didn't expect this, but her thoughts were confused from the beginning.

My mind went blank and I couldn't think normally.

Tang Yue suddenly said that he was going to die soon. This sentence really frightened Maidong, and he has not recovered yet.

Tang Yue spent an afternoon picking out all the compressed biscuits with production dates between 2046 and 2048. There were ninety-six pieces in total. Based on the calculation that one biscuit contains 30 mg of vitamin C, nine Sixteen pieces contain a total of 2880 mg of vitamin C.

"If I supplement 200 mg of vitamin C a day, these biscuits can only last me fourteen days." Tang Yue pondered for a moment, "If I supplement 200 mg of vitamin C every two days, then these biscuits can last a month."

The vitamin C content in cold-processed compressed biscuits is still too little, and the growth cycle of tomatoes is as long as two months.

One month left.

"That's all, it's only one month away. At worst, if I lower my daily vitamin C intake, I won't die in a month." Tang Yue shook his head. He took down the empty water tank from the shelf and counted six pieces of compressed water. Biscuits, threw them into the sink, found a metal rod as a pestle, and threw them into the sink, then tore off a roll of medical gauze from the first aid kit, found two syringes, used a measuring cylinder to take half a liter of water, and used a cup Assemble, tighten, and throw everything into the sink.

Finally, Tang Yue took off a thermal blanket, rolled it up and stuffed it into the sink, and took off the Mingguang Armor from the wall.

"Ophiopogon japonicus, I'm going to extract vitamin C. You continue to search for the old cat." Tang Yue got into the Mingguang Armor and contacted Ophiopogon japonicus while checking the extravehicular suit. "Notify me if you find anything."

"Well, I understand."

Tang Yue bent down awkwardly, held the sink in his arms, looked around, and paused for a while, "I'm going out, bye."