Die on Mars

The old cat sat on the chair and began to try to contact the United Space Station.

Normally, the Kunlun Station communicates with the Joint Space Station through Ka, L or C-band radio waves. The Ku-band is a microwave between 12 and 18G Hz. It is a very mature signal transmission band with tens of The small pot TV antenna that was installed on the roof of every household a few years ago is Ka-band.

The communication speed of this channel is very fast, equivalent to a 500M broadband. The signal for daily video communication between Maidong and Tang Yue uses this band.

In addition, the L and C bands are backup. The frequency of the L band is between 1 and 2 GHZ, which is a millimeter wave, while the frequency of the C band is between 4 and 8 GHZ. Compared with the more advanced Ka band, these two The frequency band has been in use longer, is older, and more mature, so it serves as a backup.

The operating cycle of the Joint Space Station is one hour and twenty minutes. That is to say, the Joint Space Station orbits Mars every hour and twenty minutes and passes over the head of the Kunlun Station.

During this one-hour operating cycle, half of the time the Joint Space Station is below the horizon, that is, on the other side of Mars. In this case, the Kunlun Station cannot communicate directly with the Joint Space Station. After all, radio waves do not bend. It cannot penetrate the entire Mars, so the synchronous orbit relay satellite comes in handy at this time.

The three signal relay satellites are evenly distributed in synchronous orbits at an altitude of 17,000 kilometers from the surface of Mars. Except for the polar regions, the signals of these three satellites can cover almost the entire surface of Mars. When the Joint Space Station is on the other side of Mars, The radio waves emitted by the Kunlun Station are transferred in the hands of the relay satellite and then sent to the destination.

The old cat is wearing headphones and calling the United Space Station.

There is a computer screen on the table in front of it, with green numbers showing the wind speed.

At this moment, strong winds are howling outside Kunlun Station. The atmospheric structure of Mars is very different from that of the Earth. The troposphere at the bottom of the Earth's atmosphere is only seven or eight kilometers high, and the stratosphere is above it, so violent atmospheric activities are basically limited to the advection. layer below.

There is no such thing as a stratosphere in the Martian atmosphere. There is no limit to its troposphere, so you can climb as high as you want. The height of the troposphere on Mars can even exceed an outrageous 60 kilometers.

Therefore, the atmospheric activity on the surface of Mars is extremely active. Storms can often roll sand and dust up to an altitude of tens of kilometers, like a thick quilt covering the surface. Human communication equipment has to be damaged in the face of such extreme weather. be thrown off balance.

"How is it?" Tang Yue asked, "Can I get in touch?"

Lao Mao took off his headphones and handed them to Tang Yue.

Tang Yue put on his headphones, and he heard a sharp hissing sound that was high and low, like an old witch screaming loudly, which was very harsh.

"What is this sound?"

"Noise," said the old cat, "noise from the wind and sand in the atmosphere."

"I thought it was Ophiopogon japonicus singing."

"I tried all the available bands, but none of them worked. Whether it was Ka band, L band or C band, they were all killed... The weather is still too bad." Old Cat shook his head, "There is interference above our heads. It's so intense that the dust has accumulated a lot of electric charge, and there must be a lightning storm a few kilometers or ten kilometers above us."

Tang Yue returned the headphones to Lao Mao, "Is there no other way?"

"Electromagnetic interference in the natural environment is a kind of indiscriminate suppression and blocking. No frequency conversion or frequency hopping will work unless your power is large enough to allow your signal to burn through this damn storm." The old cat shook his head. Shake his head.

"Then can we increase the power?"

"It's already the biggest." Old Mao shrugged, "In addition to increasing the power, shortening the distance is also possible. If you can raise the position of Kunlun Station by 60 kilometers, or lower the altitude of the Joint Space Station by 60 kilometers, then I You can still work harder.”

It is impossible to raise the position of Kunlun Station by 60 kilometers. Not even gods can do this.

Tang Yue, the old cat, cannot currently lower the United Space Station to an altitude of 60 kilometers. Changing the orbit of something as big as the space station is a very complicated task. There are many factors that need to be considered. If something goes wrong, the space station has It may accidentally enter the atmosphere, causing abnormal deceleration and eventually crashing.

"The L-band and C-band are completely dead." Old Cat shook his head, "There is only the howling of the female ghost on this channel. I don't know if the Ka channel can be rescued."

"How to rescue?"

"There is only a glimmer of hope." Old Mao turned around, "Ka-band signals have stronger anti-interference capabilities, but their beams are very narrow and highly directional. For example, if the C-band signal is directed in all directions, Diffused broadcasting, then the Ka-band is like the light of a flashlight, and the Ka-band signal transmitter must be pointed accurately in your direction before you can receive the signal."

Lao Mao's explanation was very simple, and Tang Yue could understand it even though he was not a communications major.

"The signal on the Ka-band cannot be connected now. It may be because we failed to point the transmitter and receiving antenna in the right direction." Old Mao pointed to the top of his head, "After all, it is pitch black outside and there is such a strong wind. The communications antenna over there in the garage must have been blown over, and we were completely unable to pinpoint the space station's location or track it."

"So?" Tang Yue nodded.

"So if we can manually adjust the pointing of the antenna and find the exact direction of the space station, it might be possible to restore communications."

"You can just adjust it manually, right? I'll go!" Tang Yue said as he was about to put on the Mingguang Armor.

"etc."

The old cat grabbed him, bent down and pulled out an aluminum alloy box from the cabinet. It opened the box, uncovered the cushioning foam, took out a folded tripod and a pot, unfolded and assembled them in front of Tang Yue, "This is a very old It has no motor or servo system, it is purely manual. It has been here for many years, but it is reliable. In the early days of the Mars mission, those people relied on this thing to get in touch with the spacecraft in the sky. I originally thought that it would not be used. ”

Only then did Tang Yue realize that it was a simple parabolic antenna. When the tripod was set up, it was as tall as a person. There was a pot-shaped antenna on the top of the stand with a gimbal.

"You just saved your life from the storm, and you ran out again. Do you want to die? The garage is so far away, can you still come back?" Old Mao pushed the antenna to Tang Yue, "Over there We will leave the antenna alone. We will repair it when the sandstorm stops. Now we will use this antenna for emergencies... Just set it up at the entrance of Kunlun Station and don't go too far. Then follow my command and we'll try again."

Tang Yue looked up and down at the unattractive gadget in front of him. It looked like a TV pot used in his hometown in the countryside. The parabolic antenna was only a few dozen centimeters in radius.

"Just such a gadget?" Tang Yue was a little skeptical, "Its antenna is not as big as your face. Is the transmitting power enough?"

"Its main function is to receive signals. This is just a son." The old cat said, "As for its father... four hundred kilometers above your head, the diameter of that thing is taller than two of you. After it is turned on, the power Big enough to roast a rabbit.”