Son of the Stars

Chapter 176 Volunteering
During the entire Mars landing mission, the portholes of Dawn's living module faced the direction of Mars from beginning to end.

Although even the technological level of the moon landing period would not allow astronauts to navigate in space with the naked eye, it is actually a very valuable thing to be able to continuously view the target through the portholes.

It can give astronauts a "sense of belief", a visible goal, and a marker that can always remind them of their goal.

The inside of the huge porthole with a diameter of 80 centimeters was densely painted with marks by the Dawn astronauts. From the small sesame dot when the porthole was pointed at Mars when it first entered the transfer orbit, until now - Mars occupies half of the window. The Mars depicted on the porthole slowly deflects from left to right, and then gets bigger bit by bit.

Now, looking at such a window full of markers, the crew members of Dawn 7 have mixed feelings in their hearts, and thousands of words in their mouths, which finally turned into a sigh.

"Wow!"

On the gray-brown planet, there is a desolate and quiet scene. As the first people in human history to see this scene, the crew of Dawn 7 commented, "Wow!"

It’s not that the more educated you are, the easier it is to say something immortal in this environment. Even though the minimum academic qualifications of Dawn 7 crew members were a master's degree in engineering, everyone still generally felt that only this word could best express their sighs in the face of this unprecedented sight.

Dawn 7 traveled through mountains and rivers, and after flying in space for a full year and four months, it finally arrived within the gravity range of Mars and was successfully captured by Mars' gravity.

Dawn 7 has become the third largest satellite of Mars. Dawn 6, which will also enter the gravitational range of Mars in two days, is slightly smaller than Dawn 7 due to design and functional configuration reasons - it cannot compete with Dawn 7. The honor of being "the third largest satellite of Mars".

Although such a heavy price was paid, the rewards were equally "generous". Zheng Yan, who had lost control of her emotions, quickly regained her composure. Although she still had occasional headaches and joint pains, overall her condition had returned to stability.

Finding joy in suffering is an important magic weapon for human beings. It always allows people to gain a weak "sense of superiority" in the face of difficulties. Although it is painful and helpless, I can still find happiness in this pain - you can't defeat me, I am stronger than the pain.

In this regard, Zheng Yan commented, "People still have to be a little fatter to be considered calm."

Although pain is meaningless, giving it meaning can help humans get through the most difficult times. As long as there is meaning and hope, no matter how hard the days are, they will eventually pass.
Although people have regained their sanity, Zheng Yan still needs to go through some pain. For example, she was not included in the first batch of Mars landing lists, and may need to stay in orbit four hundred kilometers from Mars until the entire manned landing mission is completed.

"If you still have a conscience, then wait for us." Dawn 6 sent a communication message that seemed plaintive but actually threatening. "The first one to land on Mars was Dawn 7. It took two days for Dawn 6 to land on Mars." On track. How many liberal arts students are going to scratch their heads with this test?”

After Zheng Yan received a large dose of hormone shock, her whole body became "swollen". Ordinary people tend to have a big appetite after receiving hormone treatment, but Zheng Yan, who is floating in a weightless environment, consumes less - which makes her fatter more obvious.

In this regard, all members of Dawn 7 unanimously decided to ignore it - there were no liberal arts students on Dawn 7 anyway.

What's even more painful is that this was not the request of Deputy Commander Field, but Zheng Yan's own decision.

Zheng Yan herself has no impression of losing control of her emotions. However, based on the analysis of surveillance videos, crew narrations and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's console response, Zheng Yan also believed that she did have cognitive impairment at that time.

Cognitive impairment is actually very dangerous - especially for astronauts. At such a long distance from the earth, any decision may lead to the destruction of the ship and the failure of the mission. In order to ensure the success of the manned Mars landing mission under extreme working conditions and to ensure the safety of the crew, manual operation was given the highest authority from the underlying structure of the spacecraft.

But now, Zheng Yan, who can directly control and theoretically has direct command power, finds that her knowledge is not reliable. She inevitably fell into panic - due to cognitive unreliability, she was not even sure whether she had transferred command to the crew, especially to Field. She could only decide to stay in the orbital cabin by herself and leave all the work to the AI ​​system as much as possible. The Mars landing mission is very dangerous. From descending to landing to establish a base, to establishing a stable landing site to receive supplies, every step is crucial and no mistakes can be made at every step. In the face of the entire mission and the safety of the crew, Zheng Yan's decision to stay on the orbital module was made effortlessly.

Mars is so close, but we can only watch it, which is certainly not a good feeling for astronauts. Zheng Yan looked at Mars outside the window and returned to the lounge after a while.

The other team members were all preparing for landing one by one according to the order of the list. Zheng Yan had no way to participate and could only go back to sleep by herself to reduce interference to the team members.

"Sister Zheng cannot be left alone." Silva said while busy checking the supplies on hand, "Her situation has just stabilized, and I don't know if there will be fluctuations-human manual operations have more authority than AI It’s still big. We all landed, and the orbital module may not be safe.”

Ruan Hongying glanced at her partner, and she knew that this usually taciturn guy had already made a decision. I feel a little proud that my partner has noble sentiments and is willing to give up the opportunity to land on Mars for the first time for the safety of everyone. But he was a little angry, angry that he didn't communicate with him before making this decision.

"The landing mission requires a commander, and Field is not suitable to stay." Silva continued, "I am a pilot and have experience driving Dawn 7. The others are payload experts and need to go directly to Mars to start their work... …”

He turned to look at Field, and then said, "Commander, I apply to stay on station."

"I have to think about it." Field did not make a decision directly. He just nodded and continued to count his list. "Is there anyone else who wants to apply to stay on the station?"

No one spoke, so Field nodded, "Continue working first, and we'll make a decision about staying at the station later."
-
Tang Qinglong raised his head from behind his desk at the Institute of Physics of Central University.

His hair was greasy and messy, his eyes were bloodshot, and his dark circles were thick as if he had been beaten. His voice was hoarse and his mouth was full of bubbles. This is not just Tang Qinglong's appearance description - the entire experimental group, from Yang Weimin to Mu Zhiran, and even Giuseppe also look like this.

After not sleeping for several days, everyone was on the verge of collapse.

The reason that brought everyone to the brink of collapse was the clone who had just been sent into the shielded room.

It is a genetic abnormality. The XXY chromosome combination makes it lack gender characteristics. The skin color of its whole body is completely different, like a rag doll that has been sewn together with rough techniques - black, white, yellow and brown colors appear randomly on its body. , as if there were spots on it.

In order for the clones to be cultured and "charged" as quickly as possible, the entire research team worked hard day and night. Finally, with the help of Tongxinge and Estella, the assembly line was successfully put into production.

Now, every two days, the experimental team can get a cloned body for experiments. But before the experiment, the clone needs to be injected with a sufficient amount of sedative to minimize its suffering.

Watching the door of the shielding room slowly close, Lu Chen sat down in the corner.

"The experiment has begun - go back to bed quickly." Tang Qinglong said to the "inhuman" team members on the screen, "I will stare at them for a few more hours, and then you will take my place."

(End of this chapter)