Die on Mars

In the few seconds that Tang Yue was stunned, the light outside the porthole dimmed, like a huge dark curtain covering his head, and the sunlight immediately disappeared. Tang Yue was a child born and raised in a southern city. , I have never seen a sandstorm in my life.

Not to mention the dust storms on Mars.

Tang Yue was immediately dumbfounded.

Is this the end of the world?

The next second, the howling wind and sand came towards us, and the lander was immediately engulfed.

Although Tang Yue and Lao Mao were in the command module, they were still frightened involuntarily. The gravel blown up by the strong wind scraped against the outer wall of the lander, and the floor of the command module was shaking slightly. God knows what kind of weather this is, a sandstorm. Is there still an earthquake in it?

The Eagle spacecraft was a masterpiece of ergonomics and materials science, but in the storm it was like a trembling, dilapidated house made of broken boards. Tang Yue felt as if the roof would be ripped off in the next moment.

"Mr. Tang Yue! Mr. Tang Yue... you can hear..."

Violent current noise surged through the earphones, and Maidong's voice was drowned out.

"Ophiopogon japonicus? Ophiopogon japonicus!"

Communication was interrupted.

"What the hell!"

Tang Yue held the dashboard with one hand and leaned back on the chair to stabilize himself. The old cat was one meter away. It was sitting on the floor close to the inner wall, holding on to the seat belt with one paw.

It was so dark outside the porthole that he couldn't see his fingers. The lander seemed to have been thrown into deep water in an instant. What was whizzing by outside was not air but water. Tang Yue never knew that a sandstorm could be so big that it could cover the sky and the sun. Without seeing the sun, as a southerner, his imagination of sandstorms is of sand flying all over the sky.

The only light source in the command module was the light above Tang Yue's head. Tang Yue crawled over and grabbed the old cat.

"Sandstorm." The old cat said, "It's a sandstorm."

"Why was there no warning?" Tang Yue asked.

"The earth is gone." The old cat replied, "Who gave you a warning?"

Tang Yue sat on the floor, leaning against the porthole and looking out. It was dark outside, but the weather was sunny just a few minutes ago.

"Will the lander be blown over?"

"No." Old Cat shook his head, "The thunder is just big and the raindrops are small. It will be okay if the wind speed is doubled. The atmosphere on Mars is very thin and has a very low density. The force on the lander is actually very small. No It's going to blow the lander over like in some movie."

It climbed onto the commander's seat, quickly turned on the monitoring system on the main console, and the blue numbers on the screen began to jump.

"The current wind speed is... thirty-two meters per second, and it is still rising."

Tang Yue got up and stood behind Lao Mao's chair, "What is the concept of this speed?"

"In terms of speed, it is equivalent to a Category 12 typhoon on Earth."

Tang Yue was surprised.

Category 12 typhoon?

As a southerner, he was deeply impressed by typhoons. Every summer, several typhoons land, bringing a lot of rain and floods, and then uprooting street trees and billboards on both sides of the road, causing billions of damage to the city. Economic losses of tens of billions.

Strictly speaking, typhoons are a serious natural disaster, but this disaster comes regularly every year, so people in the south have become accustomed to it.

"The current wind speed is thirty-nine meters per second." Old Mao said solemnly, "The speed is equivalent to a Category 13 typhoon, and the wind speed is still rising slowly."

Tang Yue was frightened and looked around, fearing that the Eagle spacecraft would be overturned by the strong wind.

"The wind speed is forty-four meters per second, a Category 14 typhoon." The wind speed finally stabilized, and the old cat pushed the chair back and turned his head.

"Tang Yue, I'm afraid we have to suspend the launch plan."

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Lao Mao and Tang Yue sat in the command cabin. Neither of them spoke, and they were silent for a long time.

Tang Yue took off his extravehicular suit. This time he heard the howling wind outside. Outside the portholes was darkness like thick ink. They were trapped in the lander. In this case, no one dared to go out at will.

"We can only stay here for the time being." Old Cat said. "The visibility outside is less than three meters now. Going out will probably be a dead end."

"How long will the sandstorm last?" Tang Yue asked.

"I don't know." The old cat shook his head. "It may pass in a day or two, or it may last for a month or two. If your luck is worse, it may take half a year."

"How did previous expedition teams deal with sandstorms? How did they deal with this thing?"

"It can't be solved. We can't deal with the sandstorm at all." Lao Mao replied, "Once the earth sends an early warning, the expedition team must suspend all work, abandon all missions, evacuate immediately, and return to the space station."

Tang Yue pulled his hair hard and let out a long sigh.

Damn, what is this?

The supplies have been packed in boxes and loaded into the cargo hold, and they are waiting for the launch of the Tomorrow Eagle spacecraft. Everything is ready, all they need is the east wind.

It turned out that it was not the east wind that came.

It's a typhoon.

The sandstorm that broke out on the way disrupted all plans. He and Lao Mao were trapped in the Eagle spacecraft. They could not return to Kunlun Station and lost contact with Maidong.

"Old Cat...can the Eagle spacecraft be launched in a storm?"

The old cat was startled, "What are you thinking about?"

"Can you?" Tang Yue looked serious. He grabbed the old cat's shoulders and stared into the latter's cat eyes.

"You want to launch a lander in a sandstorm? Tang Yue, are you crazy? The wind speed outside is forty-four meters per second! And it's so dark that you can't see your fingers. Do you still want to continue working in this situation? You don't want your life. Do we have to abandon the launch plan?" Old Cat pointed out the window and his tone became fierce, "We can start again after the storm has passed."

"No." Tang Yue shook his head, "We don't know when the storm will end. If it takes two months for the sandstorm to stop, then do we have to wait two months? Ophiopogon japonicus can't wait that long, let me ask you , can the lander be launched in a storm?"

The old cat stood there and gritted his teeth, "Theoretically, it's possible."

Tang Yue's eyes lit up.

"The Eagle spacecraft is designed to withstand crosswinds of fifty meters per second. The density of the atmosphere on Mars is very low, and the force on the lander is very small. The attitude can be controlled by relying on the rocket engine." Lao Mao said, " But this is really too risky. The impact of sandstorms is not only reflected in attitude control. The Eagle spacecraft has never been launched in such bad weather conditions before..."

"Ok, deal!"

Tang Yue interrupted the old cat, turned around and got into the Mingguang Armor, "The Eagle spacecraft will take off as planned, and I will go and carry the supplies."

"Where are you going? Do you want your life?"

The old cat grabbed him, pulled out a cable, tied one end to himself, and locked the other end around Mingguang Kai's waist.

"If you don't want to die... just follow me."