Chapter 731: Mars Base (Part II)

The Hope experimental spacecraft orbited Mars, briefly conducting a flight around the planet.

During this process, two Mars exploration satellites were released at the most suitable positions calculated by the Smart Brain, and they also began to orbit Mars.

According to the designs of the Decepticon Engineers, the service life of these two Mars exploration satellites is approximately three to four years.

Three to four years is absolutely enough for Sun Cheng and his team to establish a powerful base on Mars; by then, there will be no need to manufacture satellites on Earth and send them over from hundreds of millions of kilometers away.

Therefore, they do not care about the service life of a single Mars exploration satellite.

The two Mars exploration satellites were released by the spacecraft into Martian orbit, where they were quickly awakened and began to work.

The Hope experimental spacecraft acted as a signal receiving station; the data collected by the two Mars probes were continuously transmitted to the spacecraft, and after being rapidly processed by the Smart Brain, they were simplified into data more convenient for Sun Cheng and his team to view, appearing on a screen inside the spacecraft.

Sun Cheng watched carefully for a while, the smile on his face growing deeper.

"... It seems our luck is good; within the next few days, there should be no Storms in the Valles Marineris region..."

Weather forecasting is a science that requires the collection of massive amounts of data while also consuming vast computational power for deduction.

Taking weather forecasting in various countries on Earth as an example, this ancient discipline, which has existed for over several thousand years, originally relied only on human experience, using data seen by the eyes and sensed by the body to make deductions, so inaccurate forecasts appeared very frequently and often carried much subjectivity and mythological color.

Weather forecasting truly formed into a complete science in the mid-to-late 20th century.

With the gradual perfection of geography, atmospheric science, earth science, physics, and so on, and the birth and development of satellites and computers, weather forecasting finally became a possibility.

When Sun Cheng was young, domestic weather forecasts were often wrong nine times out of ten.

However, with the development of national technology, by the time he was in university and working, precise weather forecasts could even be accurate to the weather, air quality, and so on for every time segment of the 24 hours in a day.

Different planets mean that the environment, atmosphere, and so on must be different, which would indeed have some impact on the Mars exploration of Sun Cheng and his team.

However, modern science is called science because, in the process of its development, a series of formulas and concepts summarized and deduced by human elites, one after another, can be applied to various different environments after being perfected and slightly adjusted.

The Central Main Control Intelligence on the Hope experimental spacecraft, based on the data collected by the two Mars exploration satellites, quickly deduced that the air pressure and temperature difference in the vicinity of Valles Marineris, where they were about to land, would not lead to the birth of a Storm in the next few days.

In other words, the time when Sun Cheng and his team arrived at Mars was the most suitable time for landing.

"Since the heavens are so kind, how can we fail to live up to this favor!"

After digesting the data fed back by the two Mars exploration satellites, Sun Cheng no longer hesitated and immediately issued an order to the Central Main Control Intelligence of the Hope experimental spacecraft.

"Smart Brain, prepare to land on Mars!"

"Order received, Captain. The Hope is about to enter the Martian atmosphere. There may be some turbulence in the coming period; please pay attention to safety!"

"Understood!"

The Martian atmosphere is similar to Earth's, which is also the theoretical basis for Earthlings to constantly propose developing Mars into a second Earth.

Because as everyone knows, the reason Earth can nurture life, besides its birth position being neither too close nor too far from the Sun, and having a satellite—the Moon—to help it block the vast majority of meteorite impacts from the universe, is another very important reason: Earth's atmosphere.

The atmosphere can refract various dangerous radiations from the universe, while simultaneously preventing most gases required for life, including oxygen, from escaping into outer space.

It is just that if Earthlings want to transform Mars, the difficulty is still very great.

Its atmospheric density is not even one percent of Earth's atmospheric density; such an atmosphere cannot refract enough cosmic rays, including sunlight, and even less can it prevent the gases generated within Mars from continuously dissipating into the universe.

"With Earth's current technology, it will take at least several hundred more years of development before it is possible to establish a small or medium-sized base on Mars..."

Sun Cheng sat in the pilot's seat, feeling the violent shaking caused by friction after the spacecraft entered the Martian atmosphere, and his mood was very good.

After the Decepticon Legion had already occupied the Moon in advance, Mars could be said to be the most suitable base camp for an ambitious person like him in the Solar System.

To coordinate the resources of the entire Mars, and then establish a base, a force, and even a legion that obeys his orders.

In the future, Sun Cheng might be able to rely on Mars to establish another Decepticon Legion that belongs to him.

The turbulence did not last too long; soon, accompanied by a prompt from the Smart Brain, the turbulence began to disappear.

The Hope experimental spacecraft had successfully entered Mars, and its flight altitude and speed were both continuously decreasing.

"About to enter Valles Marineris ahead, whether to dock on the spot..."

The voice from the Central Main Control Intelligence of the Hope experimental spacecraft was still continuously reminding him, but Sun Cheng looked through the transparent baffle at the front of the spacecraft at the desolate world outside, which was like the deserts and Gobi of Earth.

"No need to dock for now. Smart Brain, just control the spacecraft to descend into Valles Marineris, fly longitudinally along the Canyon, scan the terrain inside the Canyon, and find the most suitable location for building the Base!"

"Order received, speed is about to drop to two thousand meters per second, switching to automatic cruise..."

The speed of the Hope experimental spacecraft became slower and slower; when it successfully entered a wide Canyon, the speed of the spacecraft had dropped to extremely slow.

"So beautiful!"

Through the transparent baffle of the spacecraft, Sun Cheng could clearly see the scenery in Valles Marineris where the spacecraft was currently located.

When he was still on Earth before, he had been to the two most famous Canyons on Earth—the Grand Canyon and the East African Rift Valley—and had even thought about establishing a base there.

Sun Cheng originally thought that the Grand Canyon and the East African Rift Valley were already magnificent enough, but now, compared with Valles Marineris, they seemed a bit petty.

The special air currents that occasionally rose within the Canyon caused the cruising spacecraft to bump up and down, but it did not affect their search for the most suitable docking location within this vast Canyon at all.

This search took a full seven or eight hours; when night fell on Mars and the sky gradually turned from reddish-brown to dark, the Hope experimental spacecraft, carrying Sun Cheng and his two Decepticon Engineers, finally landed slowly at a spot within Valles Marineris.

As the spacecraft cabin opened, Sun Cheng walked off the spacecraft first, feeling the suddenly increased wind force in the Canyon and the temperature fed back from the armor plates on the surface of his body.

He looked toward a dark place several hundred meters away from where the spacecraft was docked; there, there was a deep cave that looked like the mouth of a demon.

And it was precisely the first base location Sun Cheng had chosen for the Mars Base.

Reading URL: n.