Die on Mars

Tang Yue entered Kunlun Station and took off the life support system on his body. The old cat was wearing headphones and sitting on a chair with his legs hugged, leisurely and humming.

Tang Yue took off his Mingguang Armor and heard the old cat humming "God Is a Girl".

But if you listen carefully to the lyrics, it’s wrong.

“God is a cat,

Wherever you are,

Do you believe it, can you receive it? "

It turned out that it was humming "God Is a Cat".

"Ms. Maidong, please be careful. You are now sixty-six meters away from the core cabin, which is a bit too far." The old cat glanced at the image on the screen and warned aloud, "You should move back."

"Mr. Cat." Maidong was a little embarrassed, "I just untied the fixed rope, and now I can't reach the handle."

"OK, don't worry...I'll start the winch now and pull you back." The old cat raised his head and saw Ophiopogon japonicus floating helplessly two meters away from the work station, trying hard to reach for the handle on the bulkhead. .

The old cat turned on the motor remotely, and the safety rope of Ophiopogon japonicus' outer suit slowly tightened, pulling her back until the girl regained hold of the maintenance handle on the outer wall of the space station.

"Miss Maidong, we have to hold on tight this time."

Maidong nodded and fastened the fixing rope to the bulkhead.

"What are you doing?" Tang Yue hung the Mingguang Armor on the wall and came over with a water glass, "What are you doing maintenance again?"

"Hall thruster." Old Cat replied, "The 600-kilowatt Hall thruster SPT276 that was replaced from the Falcon-III asteroid probe during the last Mars mission."

"Falcon-III?" Tang Yue tried hard to recall. He had heard of this name. It seemed to be a Japanese thing. The Japanese had been very fond of asteroid detection in the past few decades. Each detector flew farther than the other. "It It’s an asteroid probe, isn’t it in the asteroid belt? How come the Falcon’s ion rocket is on the space station?”

"But it will not stay in the asteroid belt forever. The Falcon-III probe's mission orbit will pass the Joint Space Station on its 49th lap, so the crew on the space station can maintain it at this time." Lao Mao Explained, "But the thruster of that probe failed, so it was dismantled and placed here."

"Where's the detector?"

"It flew out." The old cat answered. "The thruster malfunctioned, delaying the mission and canceling the asteroid detection plan. So the ground simply turned it into a deep space probe and used Jupiter's gravity slingshot to shoot it. It may have passed the orbit of Saturn by this time."

"What are you doing messing with this thing?"

"Try to see if we can fix it." Lao Mao said. "If we can fix this thing, then the space station will not have to use the Orion Raptor rocket to adjust its attitude in the future. This can greatly extend the life of the space station - even if Ophiopogon japonicus Miss landed, and the space station can still operate in orbit for a long time."

"You know how to repair this thing?" Tang Yue was a little curious. He dragged a chair over and sat down next to the old cat. "I remember that the structures of ion rockets and chemical rockets are completely different."

Tang Yue saw the structural diagram on the monitor to the left of Old Mao. The SPT276 steady-state plasma thruster on the Falcon-III asteroid probe looked like a cylinder with a diameter of more than one meter, a bit like a searchlight. It was placed On the main truss of the space station, the astronauts on the last Mars mission detached it from the Falcon probe and placed it here in preparation for taking it back during the next mission.

"This one is different." Old Mao shook his head. "This one is larger. The SPT276 on the Falcon III detector is the largest xenon ion rocket currently in service."

"How big is it?"

"Its thrust has reached a very terrifying level..." Old Cat said solemnly, "70N!"

Seventy cows?

Seven kilograms?

A rocket engine with a total thrust of seven kilograms?

Tang Yue was a little confused.

"Can a rocket with a total thrust of seven kilograms push a space station weighing four hundred tons?"

"The worst thing is to reduce the acceleration and push slowly, you can always push it." Old Cat said, "Although the thrust is small, the electric rocket is better than the rocket."

Maidong on the space station is repairing the thruster according to the instructions of the old cat. The behemoth with a diameter of more than one meter does bring convenience to repair. The structure of the Hall thruster is quite simple, and the working environment is much friendlier than that of rough chemical rockets. , the failure of SPT276 was not serious, so when the asteroid exploration plan was suspended, the ground threw the Falcon-III out of the solar system, but decided to keep the thruster.

Maidong carefully opened the propeller casing.

Completely different from traditional chemical rockets, SPT276 has no fuel tanks, turbine pumps, or twisted and complicated pipelines inside. Instead, there are dense electromagnetic coils and layers of insulating walls. This electric rocket ionizes xenon as a propellant The working medium uses electricity as the energy source and does not require huge amounts of methane and liquid oxygen.

Maidong felt that he was repairing electrical appliances - such as induction cookers.

"With this thruster, we can extend the life of the space station by at least one-third." Old Mao was very proud. "It can live for at least another six years. Ideally, it can even operate for another ten years." .”

Tang Yue doesn't care about the lifespan of the United Space Station. Anyway, he can't live as long as it does, and Ophiopogon japonicus can't live as long as it. When he and Ophiopogon japonicus are both dead, the unmanned space station will be no different from a tomb.

The old cat never tired of extending the life of every human relic, extending three years to six years, and six years to ten years. Tang Yue had no interest in this behavior. Deep in his heart, he watched numbly and coldly.

Everything will eventually fade away, and death awaits everyone at the end of the road.

"I just want to know when Orion 2 can start landing."

Both Laomao and Maidong were startled.

"I also want to know when Orion 2 can start landing." Maidong stopped what he was doing and whispered.

"I said that it is estimated that after twenty hours... the landing plan cannot be started until all preparations are completed." Old Cat replied, "But Miss Maidong, I must remind you again that the Orion 2 spacecraft will not be launched again." Entering the atmosphere is an extremely dangerous act, and the probability of failure is extremely high. In fact, there is no need for you..."

This is the first time that the old cat has reminded Maidong that there are risks in landing. It can be seen that the old cat himself is not sure about the safe landing. Under the threat of the comet, the old cat has a last-ditch fight. In order to boost morale, it can face Tang Yue and Maidong. Dong patted his chest and assured him that it was no problem.

But now the old cat has lost his reason to do so.

It has turned back into the scientific research station assistant who calmly and rationally weighs the pros and cons. From its perspective, keeping Ophiopogon japonicus out is the best option.

"I know." Maidong interrupted, "Mr. Cat."

The girl's voice was soft and slow, but there was no room for refutation.

"I'm not afraid of death, but I don't want to die on the space station." Maidong said, "If I must die... then I hope to die on Mars."