Die on Mars

Day Three Trapped on Mars.

The weather is fine today, but there is still no news from the earth.

Lao Mao had packed all the supplies that needed to be transported into the boxes. Tang Yue began to check the status of the Eagle spacecraft. He stood under the lander and looked up at the Eagle spacecraft. The sun cast a huge shadow on the gravel.

Tang Yue pulled the handle on the landing gear hard, and the ramp slowly lowered.

The payload bay of the Eagle spacecraft is at the top and occupies only a small part of the space. It has a command module and a cargo bay. There are six seats in the command module. The standard number of members is six, but there are enough seats reserved in the cabin. If necessary, seats can be temporarily added to accommodate up to ten people.

Today's Mars landers are no longer comparable to the Mercury series spacecraft of the past. The space of those antiques from nearly a hundred years ago is as narrow as the bottom of a bed filled with debris. The astronauts sitting inside are like being fixed to death. Component.

But the cabin of the Eagle spacecraft is spacious enough to fit a mahjong table.

Under the crew cabin is the cargo compartment. Since the lander is in a vertical state under normal circumstances, the cargo compartment is actually under the astronauts' feet and connected up and down through a hatch on the floor.

Further down the cargo bay, the main structure is the fuel tank of the rocket engine. These huge aluminum alloy tanks with a diameter of several meters are filled with methane and liquid oxygen. The entire Eagle spacecraft is a two-stage structure, which is upgraded when it leaves the surface of Mars. The engine ignites and pushes the payload into orbit. As for the descent stage, it will stay on Mars. At this time, it plays the role of a launch platform and base.

The electric ramp led Tang Yue up slowly. He stepped on the ramp with his feet and held his hands on the ladder. His body was covered with various large and small bags. Tang Yue was unable to crawl while wearing Mingguang armor, so he could only rely on the electric motor to slow him down. Pull up slowly.

With a click, the gangway reached the top.

"Let me wipe it...it's really heavy." Tang Yue raised his hand to unscrew the hatch above his head and climbed up with all his strength, panting. He was carrying a tortoise shell weighing dozens of kilograms, but there was no one there. Help him, it's really inconvenient to do anything alone.

"Old cat, you bastard, can't you help me share the burden?"

"Unfortunately, I was not designed to do rough work." The old cat rejected his request very directly.

"Then why did you design it?" Tang Yue was very annoyed, "Are you specifically complaining about it?"

"I am an electrical and mechanical engineer, an astronomer, a communications expert, a cross talk master, a cat who is good at catching mice, but I am not a bricklayer." The old cat said slowly, "I am not a rough worker. my task."

"Then I was born by my parents to do rough work?" Tang Yue climbed into the cargo hold, "We are all made of flesh, what's the difference? Why can I do it but you can't?"

"Unfortunately, I am not made of flesh."

Under normal circumstances, the maintenance work on the spacecraft is definitely not completed by one person. There are six people in the expedition team. Excluding the people on duty on the joint space station, there are at least five people who have landed on Mars. Checking the lander is so The troublesome thing is that with the cooperation of many people, Tang Yue alone can't even take off his extravehicular suit.

Panting heavily, Tang Yue took off all the tool bags hanging on his body, and then lay flat on the floor of the cargo hold to rest.

"Mr. Tang Yue?" Maidong's voice came from the earphones, "Are you okay? How is the situation?"

"The situation is not optimistic."

"Mr. Tang Yue, what's wrong with you?"

"I have never been so tired since I was born in my mother's womb. Count how much work I have done today..." Tang Yue lay on the floor in a big figure, "I moved batteries for several hours this morning. Board, checked the Kunlun Station, rode a bicycle for half an hour, packed the supplies, and now climbed the lander... The problem is that this bastard old cat only gave me two sandwiches!"

"Mr. Cat...that's scary."

"Mai Dong, tell me, is this exploitation? Is it the most evil kind of exploitation?"

"..."

"Investment!" Tang Yue lamented, "I am just a miserable internment worker from Mars. Have you ever learned Comrade Xia Yan's "Investment"?"

"Learned."

"Mars in mid-April, at 6:15 in the morning, before dawn, the people sleeping in the crowded Kunlun Station were already yelled by the old cat to get up, and a robot wearing silk shirts and trousers that were inappropriate for the season shouted loudly Shouting: The shop is being demolished! Get up! Then, he shouted like an order: Tang Yue! Go move the battery panels! Damn it, you are still lying down, you pig!"

Tang Yue began to revise the original text again, humming feebly.

Maidong burst out laughing.

"Old Cat is a bastard!" Tang Yue said, "The proletariat of the whole universe unite to defeat Old Cat!"

The gangway slowly went down again, and when it went up again, it brought the old cat up. When it came up, it kicked Tang Yue.

"Who are you calling a bastard?"

Old Mao closed the hatch, and with a beep, the green light turned on, and the air pressure in the cargo hold slowly rose. After a few minutes, Mingguang Kai reminded Tang Yue that the external environment was normal. Tang Yue sat up with difficulty, and Old Mao Help him open the exit of the extravehicular suit.

Tang Yue crawled out of the Mingguang Armor and took off his extravehicular suit, as if he had been reborn.

He stood in the empty cargo hold. The cargo hold was a bit like a super large can. The inner walls were covered with a white composite material. There were also several sets of light orange cabin suits hung on it. There were nylon on the inner walls and floor of the cargo hold. Belt buckles are used to secure the transported goods. When supplies are delivered to the space station, those supplies will be bundled here.

There is also a hatch above the two people's heads, which is the command module.

Tang Yue climbed up the gangway on the wall, opened the hatch, and got into the command cabin.

Lao Mao took out the ultrasonic flaw detector from underneath and began to check whether there were cracks and scratches on the rocket fairing and structure.

The space of the command module is slightly smaller than that of the cargo compartment. Since the command module is located at the head of the entire spacecraft, its internal space is a cone shape with a larger bottom and a smaller top. The layout is a bit like the cockpit of a space shuttle.

There are six seats on one side, two in the front and four in the back. On the other side is the main console, which is densely packed with buttons and LCD monitors.

But the seating arrangement of the Eagle spacecraft is very different from that of the space shuttle.

The seating arrangement of the space shuttle is similar to that of an ordinary aircraft, because it is a rolling landing and can land directly on the airport using the landing gear.

The Eagle spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere in a lying position, but landed vertically, so the crew seats were placed with their backs to the belly of the aircraft.

There is no problem in looking at it this way in a vertical state, but when the lander entered the atmosphere, everyone lay down with their backs to the earth, facing the sky, and their heads facing forward.

Tang Yue stood in the command module and looked out through the porthole. He could see the entire Kunlun Station not far away, and beyond that was the endless sand and desert.

He turned on the power, and within a few seconds, all the lights and screens in the command module lit up.

A line of words was slowly typed on the main screen of the main console:

Welcome to the Eagle Lander.