Chapter 441 - 432 Are You Ready_1

"There they are!"

Sixty minutes after Dawn III landed, Jeremy had already located the Krum Impact Crater from the "Gateway" space station.

If they had arrived an hour earlier, they might even have seen the guiding lights emitted by the Dawn 2 lander.

Wiseman was currently in the HALO module—which would be better described as a node module, as there was hardly any space.

Victor and Koch had entered "Blue Moon" half an hour ago and had just closed the hatch.

He was overseeing the evacuation of the interior of "Blue Moon," a necessary step before landing.

Precharging the lander with air was indeed simpler, but if it encountered severe vibrations or other unexpected issues during descent, causing the hatch to deform and the gas to leak, it could lead to serious risks.

The Moon had no atmosphere, and the force of nearly 1 standard atmosphere of pressure was immense and unimaginably destructive.

The interior space of "Blue Moon" was larger than that of "Full Moon," but because it was equipped with more powerful vacuum pumps, it could evacuate all the air in as little as eight minutes.

Soon, the interior of "Blue Moon" reached a vacuum state.

Wiseman glanced at the time; it was about right.

"Are you ready?"

"Ready."

Victor and Koch were both prepared, and "Blue Moon" had long been in the right state.

"HLS Disconnect!"

Since Dawn III had not yet exited, many people were also watching the Artemis II mission, with many of them watching both missions simultaneously.

This scene of two Moon-landing missions happening almost at the same time would certainly go down in history as a moment to remember.

"Blue Moon" detached from the side port of HALO, and the nitrogen propulsion system automatically activated, gently pushing it to drift towards the orbit.

In the Houston command center, cheers had already erupted.

Even though it was a bit late, it was still worthy of celebration for all of America when the actual landing began.

Due to the direction of its orbit, "Blue Moon" needed to turn around before initiating the deceleration. It had plenty of fuel onboard and smoothly completed this maneuver.

After finding the precise direction, the BE-7 engine at the rear started at full power. The light blue flame unique to methane fuel engines lingered in the "Gateway" camera for a dozen seconds before quickly disappearing.

...

At 19:34 Beijing time, Zhang Zhiguang, who had rested in the lander for 100 minutes, felt it was about time.

He and Fang Lin had slept for half an hour after eating, and miraculously, they not only fell asleep quickly at such an exciting moment, their sleep quality was impressively high, leaving them feeling energetic upon waking.

The ground control was just quietly watching them, and the lander was silent aside from the sounds of the electrical systems running; on the Moon, there could be no further disturbances.

"Control center, this is 01. We are in good physical condition and request to exit the module for a walk."

"Control center copies, movement authorised; please prepare the materials and create a vacuum inside the module before exiting, and handle it according to the actual situation, over."

"01 copies."

While Zhang Zhiguang was communicating with the ground, Fang Lin was retrieving various materials and equipment from inside the module to be used outside. 14 had been released from its restraints, but it now sat quietly in the corner. It was too crowded for three "people" to move around in here, so its job was to be the chatterbox.

[Commander, I’ll stay here to farm. Can you bring me some chili seeds next time? I’d like to use them as snacks.]

[Actually, it’s not lonely at all on the Moon, I have many little animal friends, like the spider that looks a lot like a rabbit, though it’s a spider, it’s actually a rabbit.]

[I can modify the moon rover, and in about a month, find Apollo 11’s landing site and touch Neil’s footprint, which would give humans a scare.]

[...]

"..."

Fang Lin finally couldn’t help but look at Zhang Zhiguang. After the landing, with nothing else to do, the AI offered to activate its companionship mode and tell some jokes to alleviate the loneliness—and they were all brand new jokes generated by the AI itself, so they agreed.

Whether it alleviated the loneliness or not was uncertain, but the jokes were indeed terrible. AI-generated humor always felt a bit eerie.

"14, exit companionship mode."

[Okay, one last thing, you can apply to Xinyuan Company for a remote update of the voice pack and personality settings. I can provide even better service.]

Without the robot mechanically reciting cold jokes, the cabin became much quieter.

The two men busied themselves for another ten minutes, ensuring there was nothing else they needed to take outside.

At 19:50, they put on their helmets, pulled down their visors, and checked each other’s seals for integrity.

Zhang Zhiguang pulled the exhaust switch and reported over the radio:

"Command center, we will conduct an extravehicular activity in 10 to 15 minutes.

Repeat, we will conduct an extravehicular activity in 10 to 15 minutes."

In the command center on the ground, Academician She stood up again.

"01 and 02, please pay attention to safety, any complications and the mission can be aborted."

After that, he turned to Lin Ju and saw him sneakily hiding in a corner.

What’s he doing sitting that far away?

Academician She muttered to himself, then picked up the red old-fashioned telephone on the table. In a few seconds, the call was connected.

"Hello?"

It was the authoritative voice of a superior.

"This is Qiongzhou. The moon landing mission of Dawn III has confirmed the commencement of the extravehicular activity. Please confirm if the communication quality is good."

"Very good, I can hear you clearly. Please continue with the extravehicular activity. I am waiting, along with many others at Mount Hua, for your good news."

"Qiongzhou understands!"

Academician She put down the phone, then silently clenched his fists, the final task now entirely in the hands of the two astronauts on the Moon, with nothing left to do from the ground but monitor.

...

"Beep beep beep... beep beep beep... beep beep beep..."

"Koch, Koch, what’s happening?"

In the 55th minute after the descent of "Blue Moon" began, Victor heard the buzzing of the alarm in his earpiece, and lights were flashing urgently on the control panel.

Christina, who was closer, opened her eyes wide and identified the source of the alarm.

"Sensors, it’s the pressure sensors!"

"What?"

Victor didn’t understand at first. Had it not been for the fact that the flight attitude was still normal, he would have initiated the escape procedure.

The escape procedure for "Blue Moon" was simple: increase the thrust of the engine to break away from the descent and re-enter orbit, then actively find or seek to dock with the spacecraft. As long as there was no immediate explosion, they would likely survive.

Koch: "It’s that leaking tank, its sensor is now detecting a loss of pressure, triggering the alarm."

Victor caught on. The leaking liquid oxygen tank had confused Wiseman for a long time; despite showing pressure without any gas present, it was now finally reading normally.

That was good, it could only count as a minor scare. As long as they ignored that sensor, it would be fine.

Victor displayed the calm characteristics of a pilot, refocusing his attention on the control panel, continuing with the descent procedure.