Chapter 782 - 742 Mars_2

The Aerospace Development Committee’s first Mars probe was not a satellite, but a rover that landed directly. However, this doesn’t mean there were no satellites involved.

The last to arrive, the largest Tianwen-5, also known as the Zhu Rong Spaceship, crammed 6 large satellites and more than 20 small microsatellites inside it.

Many of these satellites were not specifically made for the Mars mission; they were retrofitted from existing models. With the "Departing Fire" acting as a relay on Mars, there was no need to worry about signal issues.

And in the notifications to NACA, "Departing Fire" almost arrived at the same time, not raising any suspicions from them.

Now, Tianwen-1 has already begun the active deceleration process and will enter the Martian atmosphere after several orbits, not staying in Martian orbit for too long.

"Departing Fire" has already collected enough data and established communication with it, able to guide Tianwen-1 to a stable landing with great confidence.

The benefit of doing so is the reduced fuel consumption, relying on the atmosphere for the majority of the deceleration, while also saving time.

According to prior arrangements, Tianwen-1, 3, and 5 will land on Zero Plain, with the other two probes heading to the northern hemisphere. So, if luck is on its side, Tianwen-1 could immediately obtain valuable information.

...

Mars.

The long-silent "Departing Fire" finally came back to life, using a backup frequency to communicate with Tianwen-1.

The fully functional and powerful "Departing Fire" had already meticulously surveyed the entire surface of Mars. While not high-precision maps like those on Earth, they were completely reliable for reference.

Compared to the Moon, the biggest issue with Mars is its atmosphere. Having an atmosphere means there is wind, which can blow away the iron oxide-rich sand and erode loose rocks, occasionally causing changes in the local terrain.

Fortunately, the data from "Departing Fire" is virtually real-time, ensuring that it can easily lead Tianwen-1 to a safe landing, barring any unexpected factors.

The current Tianwen-1 appeared like a UFO with disproportionate width and height, its underside equipped with a deceleration shield, employing technology derived from the Dawn Spaceship, which would bear the brunt of the most intense and primary deceleration.

It entered the Martian atmosphere at a shallow angle, with particles in the thin layers of the atmosphere colliding at high speed with the deceleration shield, constantly emitting a white glow tinged with yellow.

However, that was the perspective from space. If an observer were standing on the surface of Mars, the sight would be completely different:

The atmospheric pressure of Mars is less than 1% of Earth’s, at about 0.7%, consisting of 95% carbon dioxide, a small part of rare gases, nitrogen, argon, and even a trace of methane.

Seen from the Martian surface, the light would undergo a noticeable blueshift. The setting sun on Mars is particularly blue, and the light emitted by the friction of Tianwen-1 would also appear to have a faint blue halo.

This meteor-like object, glowing blue, did not last long; after about fifteen minutes, Tianwen-1 discarded its deceleration shield below while the top hatch opened, deploying three supersonic ring-shaped parachutes, each over 25 meters in diameter.

Still descending rapidly, Tianwen-1 finally experienced a significant drag and continued decelerating.

When its descent velocity consistently dropped below several tens of meters per second, the ring-shaped parachutes were cut loose, and the top-mounted sky crane activated the reverse thrusters for the final braking.

Aside from slowing down, the sky crane could also move the rover within a small area below it, searching for the optimal landing site.

The entire landing process was carried out by AI, and by now, Tianwen-1 had arrived near Zero Plain, starting to search for the best landing spots and potential targets at a low altitude, as predetermined.

It flew past several protruding hills, and ultimately locked onto a flat highland, utilizing the last bit of fuel to decelerate towards that direction.

meters, 30 meters, 10 meters... The sky crane hovered at this height, the explosive bolts connecting it to the rover fired, and the rover descended rapidly on several tether lines. At about two meters above the ground, with fuel nearly depleted, the explosive bolts at the end of the tether lines severed the connection.

The suddenly released rover—a.k.a. "Firefly-1" Mars rover—had a solid hard landing, but a height of two meters under Martian gravity was no issue for it, as its shock absorbers comfortably absorbed most of the potential energy.

At this time, the sky crane had already autonomously veered off, expending its fuel to fall at a distance about seventy to eighty meters away.

After nearly half a year in standby mode, Firefly-1 that was succoured by an isotope battery for heating and had ample electric power, smoothly woke up. Its folded monitor unfolded and rose, then it leisurely circled around with a fisheye camera, taking the first panoramic photo while also checking its own exterior for any damage.

It took Firefly-1 roughly 10 minutes to check all of its functions, unlike other probes that first ensure communication with Earth.

This was mainly because of the presence of "Departing Fire," its relay transmission was much more powerful than what Firefly-1 could send on its own, and there was absolutely no worry about losing contact.

Only after confirming that its functions were intact and the landing location was precise and correct did Firefly-1 send its first log back to Earth, along with a dozen high-definition images.

...

The space agency, Deep Space Command Center.

"It’s here!"

Shen Zuozhou, who was staring intently at the screen, shouted, and finally relaxed.

Within the scheduled time "Departing Fire" had begun relaying the signal sent back by Firefly-1, and it was a large packet of data, which meant the landing was surely a success.

Members of the Aerospace Development Committee were all gathered there, along with many classified secretaries ready to send the news up the chain at any moment.

Landing in Zero Plain, where there was suspicion of an alien civilization, actually carried non-negligible risks, but in the end, this decision remained unchanged.

This was mainly because many landers had visited before, and if "it" were so sensitive to such activities, it would have noticed something was wrong long ago.

Besides, the current detectability and operation range of the probes was quite limited. If they were to deviate, then the efficiency of the investigation would be too low.

Just as most people had anticipated earlier, Firefly-1’s landing didn’t elicit any reaction, at least no obvious one.

If there was anything that triggered the AI alarm, what would have been sent back wouldn’t have been data packets, but a string of urgent, beeping signals.

As expected, after unpacking the signals, there was only one log and a dozen pictures taken from different angles, all in color.

Firefly-2 weighed 1.3 tons and was supported by nuclear power, plus it didn’t need to carry an overly heavy high-gain antenna, so there was a rather comfortable buffer for the weight of its detection equipment. There was no need to use a black and white camera to save power, which would otherwise require ground processing and color addition.

What the Aerospace Development Committee received now were the authentic Mars snapshots—not as yellow as imagined, and even somewhat whitish, possibly because of the lighting. It just didn’t feel like a strong parallel world sensation.

It looked like a desolate region filled with gobi, with rocks scattered everywhere. From Firefly-1’s vantage point, one could see an expansive terrain.

Without being asked, several experts had already crowded around the screen, and they had located the main area of Zero Plain even without needing to check.

According to coordinates provided by the system, the identifiable location had no distinctive features and was only a few kilometers from Firefly-1.

The camera captured part of its appearance, and no matter how wide one’s eyes were opened to observe, all that could be seen was a featureless desert.

Seeing this, Lin Ju couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed. Indeed, there were no signs of artificial traces. What else could be done? Search!

Tianwen-3 would land in 8 days, and Zhu Rong needed 19 more days. That meant they could only start full-fledged exploration next month.

If worst comes to worst, Tianwen-2 and Tianwen-4 could also change their itineraries, and this would hardly require any effort.

After harboring such thoughts, Zhong Cheng also sighed with a hint of disappointment and patted Lin Ju’s shoulder:

"Let the Yankees see it when they come, with so many photos, enough to publish some results."