Origin of Mars

Chapter 26
Is there life on Mars?

This is a question that has puzzled mankind for a long time since the space exploration process.

Among all the planets in the solar system that humans have discovered so far, among the three terrestrial planets, Mercury, Mars, and Venus, only the environmental conditions on Mars are most likely to give birth to life.

Mercury is the planet with the largest temperature difference between day and night on the surface. Because the atmosphere is extremely thin and cannot effectively store heat, the highest temperature on the surface during the day can reach 432°C!In the evening, it suddenly dropped to -172°C.

With such a terrifying temperature difference, it is extremely difficult for any life to survive.

Not to mention Venus, it has the thickest atmosphere among terrestrial planets, more than 96% of which is carbon dioxide, and the atmospheric pressure on the surface is 92 times that of the earth.The average temperature is even hotter than that of Mercury, which is closest to the sun.

Under such preconditions, people can only put all their eyes on Mars.

"Can you zoom in a bit?"

Yu Han propped his hands on the table, staring intently at a set of high-definition pictures just sent back by the lander. Behind him stood a group of researchers, and this set of pictures seemed to take their souls away.

This is a set of pictures taken by the lander at a certain high point, surrounded by hills, rock formations, and mountains, and in the center of the picture is a huge and beautiful delta.

There is a long road on the left side of it, spreading to the right, and then scattered into countless small traces like branches. The overall pattern looks like a flower that is withering.

"This is the trace of a lake that once existed!"

A scholar named Chen Hang exclaimed. He is also a senior geologist. He was invited to join the Fire Picking Project this time. When I saw this group of bird's-eye view pictures, I was completely stunned.

"Professor Chen?"

Yu Han tactfully moved aside, so that Chen Hang could see these pictures more clearly.

"Mr. Yu, I bet with [-]% certainty that there used to be a beautiful and peaceful lake here!"

Chen Hang nodded at him, stepped forward excitedly, pointed to the screen and explained to the crowd:
"On the northwest side, this is a wide and meandering river, which is sandwiched between canyons. The terrain gradually becomes lower. The water gushes out of the river and pours into this huge pothole. Due to the accumulation of sediment formed by the impact of the water on the river bed, it will Form countless small vertical and horizontal lines like this!!"

Chen Hang's face was full of flamboyance, and his slightly trembling fingers scratched across the screen, explaining clearly and logically.

The presence of water means the possibility of life, and everyone present knows this.

"It means that in a certain period of time, there was a rather large flowing lake here?"

Yu Han's tone sounded incredible.

"I need to see a more detailed picture, rocks don't lie."

Yu Han immediately asked the researchers to give instructions to the lander.

About 10 to [-] minutes later, I saw a green light flashing above the head of Xiaohua who was far away on Mars, and his seemingly clumsy and round body dexterously turned over a hill and headed straight for the previous river bed delta.

It went all the way down until it came to the criss-crossing riverbed. The robotic arm was lowered, and the camera zoomed in. It carefully photographed every detail of the riverbed and transmitted the data back.

Chen Hang's request was finally fulfilled an hour later.

Since the image data transmitted by the lander needs to be downloaded before viewing, and this time the lander used the camera with the highest bit rate under the fuselage, the image file is also quite large.

Finally, seeing the clear and silky photos appearing in front of his eyes, Chen Hang couldn't help holding his breath, and carefully examined them one by one, as if he was studying some rare treasures.

And Yu Hanharin and the others didn't dare to disturb him. After all, they didn't know anything about geology. They could only watch Chen Hang take out the notebook he carried with him, staring at the pictures on the screen from time to time, comparing things back and forth.

Finally, when he turned to a seemingly ordinary photo, Chen Hang trembled and subconsciously stood up from his chair.

"What's wrong, Professor Chen??"

Yu Han was taken aback by his sudden and unexpected behavior, and asked quickly.

"Boss Yu! Look at this photo!!"

Chen Hang pointed to the screen. The photo showed a pile of small stones hidden under the rock formation, which looked like a pile of smooth pebbles.

"My God, this is so perfect. This is a typical example of a riverbed. I can now be [-]% sure that this was once a huge and vast riverbed with tens of thousands of tons of water flowing above it!"

Chen Hang looked around excitedly, "The cobblestone is a peculiar rock shape, it represents that the rocks in the original shape were once shaken in a certain environment, changing them from a thick, sharp shape to such a beautiful round shape ! Only a persistent river can do all this magic! This means that this lake has existed for hundreds of years! Even thousands of years!"

Chen Hang's explanation was easy to understand, and everyone immediately understood what he meant.

On Mars, there was a lake of such a stage?

Although it has already turned into a piece of wind and sand, Yu Han seems to be able to see the picture of the rolling water flowing above it in the past.

This is a brand-new discovery of Mars by humans. Even the M country has never clearly published the report that there were lakes with living water on Mars.

"All life needs water to grow."

Lin Lu also looked very excited: "Whether it's from a giant blue whale to a microbe invisible to the naked eye, the essential source of life is the same. If there were hundreds or even thousands of ancient lakes on that land, It is very likely that there was life on Mars."

"Is there a collection device on the lander?"

At this time, Yu Han, who had been silent all this time, suddenly raised his head and asked the researchers beside him.

"...Yes, but this collection device is not perfect, the most advanced function is only rock composition analysis."

The researchers answered.

"Is it possible to achieve a microscope-level magnification display?"

Chen Hang asked suddenly.

"That's too difficult. We can't do such an advanced equipment reduction technology at all."

This answer was expected by Chen Hang. He sighed, slowly raised his head, and suddenly met Yu Han's eyes, and both of them could see deep regret from the depths of each other's eyes.

If this lake has existed for a very long time, the impurities carried by the river will continue to settle down, and day after day, these impurities will form a mud layer on the bottom of the water.

If life ever existed on Mars, these mud layers must have harbored special fossils formed from the corpses of countless microorganisms.

In the depths of the seabed, there are also such fossils. They are called living stacked rocks. Although they look like stones, there is a layer of bacteria under the surface. They multiply and die, forming layers of thick fossils .

But on Mars, it could be microbes, or it could be something else.

This is obvious common sense, and Yu Han immediately realized it after listening to Chen Hang's explanation.

"It's okay. If we can detect the age of these soils, it will be a big step for mankind on Mars."

Harlem, who was silent for a long time, spoke slowly.

"Yes, sir, we have to take our time."

Lin Lu also stepped forward and rubbed Yu Han's shoulder for help.

"If it can be confirmed that microscopic life forms such as microorganisms did exist on Mars, it may be of great help to find out the origin of this alien civilization." Yu Han sighed, pinched his temples, "I It’s really too quick for quick success, take your time.”

After sorting out the almost mistakes in mentality, Yu Han immediately asked the researchers to issue instructions to let the lander automatically select the most suitable location, use the built-in tools to collect the soil on this land, and use the equipment in the body to analyze the rock composition. analyze.

This is an extremely long function, and they can't see the progress of this process. The only picture they see is the undulating mountain peaks in front of them, and the slight dust that has been blown up from time to time.

This lone lander is completing perhaps the most important event in human history -- proving that life ever existed on Mars.

And at this moment, Yu Han suddenly caught a glimpse of a small black dot that flashed rapidly in the perspective of the lander facing the front.

Perhaps because of intuition, Yu Han immediately felt that something was wrong with this little black dot.

Sure enough, after a few seconds, I saw this small black dot continuously enlarged in the viewing angle. This was seen by Yu Han and the others. It turned out to be a figure, a silver robot slowing down in the air, and the flames on its legs gradually weakened. , the sunlight reflected on the beautiful armor.

Is it the robot in charge of the entire base? !

Yu Han's pupils shrank subconsciously, and this happened to be the first time he saw Fang Liang after the armor was upgraded.

Everyone in AIM was completely stunned and froze in place.

"This is that robot? Its exoskeleton armor already has the function of flying??!"

Harlem looked astonished, looking at Fang Liang who landed lightly, his mind was in chaos.

Fang Liang's armor form at this time is closer to human body proportions than before, with wide shoulders and long legs, which is simply a human model with golden ratio.

This perception made Harlem feel even more puzzled and incredible.

Although he knew it was impossible, he always felt that the person standing in the picture was a human wearing armor similar to Iron Man.

Compared with Iron Man, this dark silver mechanical armor is more fierce and violent. If Iron Man in the movie has round and soft lines, then the robot in front of him is like a sharp sword that fell from the sky.

"Its exoskeleton armor has been upgraded, obviously."

Lin Lu swallowed, his tone trembling, "It should have been completely remodeled."

and many more!

Yu Han shook his palm and suddenly thought of something.

The screens on both sides have a delay, and it has been 10 minutes before I saw this robot in the screen.

"How about the lander?!"

Yu Han rushed to the console and asked the researchers.

".It shows that everything is normal, an area has been selected, and the collection is ready to start."

This petite female researcher was almost taken aback by Yu Han, and stammered in response.

On the other side, after Fang Liang landed on the ground, he discovered that this round object that was motionless in the rising sandstorm was Xiao Hua.

Since the mask is not equipped with any device to enhance vision, Fang Liang still looks down from the sky to the ground with normal human eyesight.

The modified flying device on the body is also very powerful, which fully fits the gravity and sky environment on Mars.

Fang Liang is now completely fascinated by this feeling of soaring in the sky.

It was also when flying low from an oblique mountain peak on the northwest side that Fang Liang suddenly saw a round creature hidden in the dust.

Fang Liang put away the injection device, in the spirit of not wanting to waste fuel, the soles of his feet touched the ground, and slowly walked towards Xiaohua who was motionless.

It wasn't until he got close to it that Fang Liang could see what it was doing—slim robotic arms improved and strengthened by the research center were picking up the rocks under him, crushing the soft parts into fine powder, and then taking them into his body.

What is this doing?
Detect rock composition?
Fang Liang raised his eyebrows slightly, guessing in his heart.

He had never eaten pork but had seen pigs running. After staying in the origin base for so long, Fang Liang, who knew nothing about it, had an instinctive feeling for these things.

I don't know what the technicians in Huaguo control Xiaohua every day.

Fang Liang walked around Xiao Hua, secretly guessing in his heart.

It is nothing more than taking photos, detecting the terrain, and wanting to thoroughly understand this unknown red planet.

In fact, Fang Liang also really wanted to know what kind of attitude Huaguo has now after seeing such an "alien base" on Mars.

At present, Fang Liang does not have a source of information, a source of information from Blue Star.

No reason, if you want to talk about the reason, it is simply curiosity, extreme curiosity.

Fang Liang wanted to know what kind of measures Blue Star would take after learning that alien civilizations had appeared on Mars in 2014.

Whether to try every means to transmit information to Mars, or hold various meetings intensively in an attempt to find a surefire solution.

Even sending people directly to Mars, Fang Liang thinks it is possible.

It's just that he hasn't figured out how to face these people.

This is a question worth pondering.

If Mars was to be completely occupied, Fang Liang could build up a strict defense to keep all living beings out of the orbit of Mars.

It's just a matter of time, but is this really the best way to go about it?
Thinking of this, Fang Liang suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of loneliness in his heart.

The dark silver armor only armed his body, and what traveled to Mars was still a human heart.

If all Mars is covered with machinery, what will the ending be like?

Thoughts were racing through his mind, Fang Liang approached Xiaohua from the side, sighed softly, and touched its shell.

Nothing tactile.

All Fang Liang felt was the collision of metal and iron, cold and hard.

Just like the original appearance of this planet.

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(End of this chapter)