Chapter 438 - 429 Landing_1

At 15:36 Capital time, the live broadcast of Dawn III had been in orbit for quite some time, with ongoing exchanges between studio guests and the host.

Just when people were becoming impatient and eager, half of the screen switched to the ground control center, where a command was issued.

"Lander separation!"

In the other half of the screen showing the exterior of the Dawn Spaceship, the lander attached to the front of the command module trembled slightly and then drifted away from the spacecraft under the force of nitrogen gas.

They had now reached the vicinity of the Krum Impact Crater and were ready to begin deceleration.

Staring out the window at the lander, which had pulled away to a distance of over ten meters, Ding Jihua was now "the loneliest person."

"03, please confirm ’Full Moon’ attitude."

"01, visually, attitude is good, can brake, can brake!"

"Received, I will begin braking."

As they were about to land on a planet with gravity, Zhang Zhiguang and Fang Lin were lying relative to the lunar surface, able to clearly see the Moon’s surface through the observation window.

He pressed the "quick positioning" button on the navigation system panel, and the lander immediately requested relative positioning from the Dawn Spaceship, satellites, and Lunar Rovers. Three coordinates appeared on the screen—if all were green, it meant the error was less than the recommended value, and they could proceed with the automatic landing system.

Confirmed.

Immediately, a three-dimensional simulation animation appeared on the monitor, with three curves originating from the lander: the blue representing the current lunar orbit, the yellow dotted line the calculated landing route, and the green dotted line, coinciding with the blue one and blinking, the actual trajectory.

After Zhang Zhiguang turned back to confirm that Fang Lin and all items inside the cabin were securely fastened and wouldn’t float around, he clicked "Execute" on the displayed route of the automatic landing program.

In the view of the camera on the exterior of the lander, the engine nozzles at the rear suddenly began to rotate, spewing white smoke after a few movements and then the screen began to shake.

At 15:57, the landing phase of the Dawn III mission officially began.

The entire deceleration to landing process was estimated to take about two hours, with multiple decelerations and attitude adjustments along the way, expecting to complete the lunar surface landing around 18:00 in the evening.

At the same time, NACA finally announced the live broadcast time for the Artemis II landing mission: 7:00 a.m. Central America time on July 4th, which is 17:00 Capital time.

This was an hour later than planned, mainly spent on confirming the landing site and performing checks on the lander.

The landing sites for Artemis II and Dawn III were both near the Krum Impact Crater, a terrain not known for being flat, especially the gentle areas outside the ring mountains which were not large.

The prime location had already been reserved by Dawn III in advance. If Artemis II were to land there as well, the final scene would be an awkward stand-off between four astronauts on the Moon.

Therefore, the alternative location found was not as favorable, and "Blue Moon" needed to be ready for manual adjustment of the landing site.

There was also the inspection of the lander, which took a full three hours—they didn’t have the assistance of strong AI robots.

When everything was ready, they had exceeded the original planned time by an hour.

The mission progress had reached 90%, only the last step remained.

...

"Guidance of Dawn 2 begins!"

"Laurel 02 control normal, descent rate normal!"

"U-Tu signal stable, descent rate—normal!"

At 17:39, the ground control center was filled with nothing but the staggered voices of the announcers, everyone focusing on the tasks at hand in front of their screens.

Academician She looked up at the huge screen, her hands clenched tightly into fists.

Although the Dawn 2 mission’s lander had succeeded on the first try, he was still very tense.

After nearly two years of effort and an unprecedented investment of 50 billion yuan, it was all for this day.

Although the live broadcast for Artemis II had already begun, the lander had not yet started its descent, and the first place was indisputably their own.

Next to him, Lin Ju, although not as visibly nervous, was incessantly tapping his fingers on the table.

Everyone was silent, holding their breath and awaiting the events that would unfold in the next tens of minutes.

Not just here, but in cities, in the countryside, on ships, in Antarctic and Arctic expedition camps, on space stations, and every place marked by human presence, regardless of nationality, skin color, or wealth.

Even just gazing at space could liberate thoughts from the constraints of geography.

[Current altitude: 10 kilometers!]

Fixed to the cabin wall, No. 14 provided real-time data broadcast over the radio for Zhang Zhiguang and Fang Lin inside the ascender, constantly monitoring changes in the surrounding environment.

[Mission commander, the Dawn 2 lander is about to start visual guidance. Please prepare for manual operation!]

Zhang Zhiguang sat calmly beside the porthole, now seeing the surface details of the Moon becoming infinitely rich; he had already felt the Moon’s gravitational pull.

After nearly four days of weightlessness, even one-sixth of Earth’s gravity was making him feel slightly uncomfortable.

His stomach, just adapted to zero gravity, began to drop again due to gravitational forces, causing a mild nausea and discomfort. Luckily, they had not eaten much at noon, and the food was mostly digested, mitigating any significant effect on their bodies.

He kept gently moving his fingers, reacquainting himself with the feel of the flight stick, his gaze intensely focused on the window.

Despite still being in autopilot, more than an hour of piloting was more exhausting than flying a space shuttle, as the lander could not rely on the atmosphere to glide for landing.

Beneath the Dawn 2 lander’s sideways-moving position, the radar on the lander section and a lens about 20 cm in diameter were minutely adjusting direction; as the altitude dropped to 10 kilometers, it activated the guidance lights.

Due to its modular design, researchers from Blue Moon sought ways to extend the usefulness of the landing component that remained on the lunar surface. One solution was to equip it with an ultra-high power guidance light that used metal vapor illumination, bright enough for clear guidance without being too dazzling for a short time.

Zhang Zhiguang caught sight of an extremely faint bright spot on the gray-white lunar surface, weaker than a firefly but singular and firmly rooted in his field of vision.

[Current altitude: 5000 meters!]

[...3500 meters, estimated circular probability deviation error 180 meters, please take note!]

[2000 meters!]

Descending to this altitude, Zhang Zhiguang could already see two small black dots next to the Dawn 2 lander, likely a lunar rover or robots.

[500 meters!]

In the heads-up display on his visor, Zhang Zhiguang could now see that the estimated landing point was about 150 meters off from the planned site; he glanced at the 22% fuel remaining and gently pushed to the left.

With a slightly stiff wrist, Blue Moon entered manual operation mode, and the 12 RCS units on the exterior began to discharge gas, angling towards the center of the plain illuminated by the landing craft’s bottom searchlight.

[200 meters! Descent rate 13.5, please pay attention!]

[Automatic landing system activated, please release the joystick!]

Watching the satellite TV at the Presidential Palace, John saw the gray-white lunar surface on the live broadcast gradually enlarge from a rough pockmarked texture, with plains around the craters becoming more prevalent. The Moon’s surface, when viewed at different altitudes, appeared almost indistinct, as if within arm’s reach, yet seemingly tens of kilometers away.

Only through the altitude meter in the UI’s lower-left corner and the lights of Dawn 2 could one tell the lander was still descending.

This dizzying scene lasted only a short while before a puff of gray-white dust arose on the screen, followed by a noticeable jolt. The screen then froze on the fine lunar dust and golden foil-covered landing legs.

On July 4th, at 17:52 Capital time, Dawn III’s Blue Moon lander successfully landed in the Aitken Basin at the Lunar South Pole, approximately 1.12 kilometers southwest of the Krum Impact Crater’s edge, with only a 25-meter deviation from the predicted landing site.