[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-you-were-told-to-build-a-tractor-but-you-re-buil":3,"chapter-you-were-told-to-build-a-tractor-but-you-re-buil-you-were-told-to-build-a-tractor-but-you-re-buil-chapter-800":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","You were told to build a tractor, but you're building a rocket?",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1306381,1735,"Chapter 800 - 756: Lost Contact","you-were-told-to-build-a-tractor-but-you-re-buil-chapter-800",800,"\u003Cp>\"Loss of contact, which type is it? Is the transmitter damaged, or is it a total loss of control?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Jim and others were considering how to verify the news from the Aerospace Development Committee, Zhong Cheng was anxiously asking about the situation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, Firefly-1 had been out of contact for two hours, but at that time he was still receiving a visit from the NACA delegation, so the control center had first tried to solve the problem temporarily before deciding to notify NACA after giving up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhong Cheng didn’t receive the news much earlier than they did; it was a completely unexpected situation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had just arrived at the control center, and the message he was given was that Firefly-1 had lost contact, but there are different types of loss of contact.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the antenna was damaged, it would be an entirely acceptable accident—no one could guarantee that a solitary little machine millions of kilometers away wouldn’t have some malfunction as long as the control system was still intact. The subsequent probes would find a way to fix the antenna. It wouldn’t be a big problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But if the entire rover was completely destroyed or out of control, the problem would become very serious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Clarifying which type of failure it was had become the current imperative task.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The situation isn’t too good.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Ju, who had arrived earlier than Zhong Cheng and knew more, looked somewhat inscrutable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The loss of contact was very sudden; it happened instantaneously during normal operation, cutting off all signals just as if it had vanished without any warning.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Um... it wasn’t Artemis’s doing this time; we can be sure that there’s an issue with Firefly-1.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhong Cheng: \"Can Firefly-1 still be captured on camera?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Of course, Departing Fire has passed over Zero Plain several times and captured it in high-resolution photos. Firefly-1 hasn’t moved since the loss of contact. We can pretty much conclude it has stayed in place.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhong Cheng quickly had someone pull up the satellite images. The pictures, magnified at high power, were clear, and in different time intervals, the position of Firefly-1 almost completely overlapped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If it was just the communications system that had broken down, Firefly-1’s AI would definitely proceed with emergency protocols and not simply remain stationary without any action.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Out of power? Impossible, the RTG battery was designed to last 10 years, and we’re barely into that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Frozen? The time of loss of contact was during the Martian day, and although the temperature was low, even Earth’s commercial chips would have withstood it, let alone a well-protected rover.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Electric power system malfunction? A robust and independent rover like Firefly-1 had a rather comprehensive redundant system; they were independent and didn’t interfere with each other. Even if there was an issue, the chances of it suddenly completely freezing up were still too low.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking at Lin Ju and the others’ calm yet serious eyes, there probably was only one answer left.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"How could this be!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yes, how could this happen!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shen Zuozhou echoed him, although their mission was to find traces of alien civilizations, such a sudden event still caught everyone off guard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There weren’t few means that could cause Firefly-1 to \"die\" abruptly—a close-range EMP hit, or a sudden blast of intense radiation. Anyway, it wouldn’t be too difficult for humans to achieve.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Either way, \"Departing Fire\" would have difficulty detecting these traces in space and cannot detailedly examine the ground’s conditions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So far, Departing Fire’s data was still normal; magnetic fields, temperature, and other standard readings showed no large-scale fluctuations, and no gravitational waves were detected.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Aerospace Development Committee couldn’t determine what caused Firefly-1 to \"die,\" so whether further probes should continue to the site was now an issue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the targets in the northern hemisphere were abandoned, there were still three probes and a large shuttle craft that could land on Zero Plain. Should they continue towards reconnaissance?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The nature of the mission had now changed; it was more akin to a scout going into the front lines. Losing a few probes wasn’t a big deal, but if it triggered some unforeseen event, it would be terrible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The consensus was that the probability of living aliens in the Solar System wasn’t high, but since the gravity wave transmission system was still operational, it was entirely possible that a self-defense system existed. If activated by the probes, it could mean the immediate demise of human civilization.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tianwen-2 and Tianwen-3 had already been prepared to begin landing, but now their orbits had been altered to temporarily hover in Martian orbit, halting the landing plans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"They’re already discussing how to handle it up there, but for now, it’s probably better for us to do nothing at all to avoid further provocation,\" Shen Zuozhou said with a sigh. Doing nothing was definitely temporary; even if continuing forward was dangerous, they must conduct more detailed exploration.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If subsequent probes also lost contact abruptly and couldn’t send back any data, only astronauts would be left to take the risk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Internally, sacrificing a few astronauts wasn’t unacceptable, but to send them out blindly was to treat lives as dispensable—the uncertainty was too great.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The urgent task is to try to re-establish contact with Firefly-1, at least to figure out what happened to it, what caused it to lose contact,\" Zhong Cheng thought and said, which was currently the only way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Ju: \"If the higher-ups make a decision, it’s still best to send down another probe. Actually, Zhu Rong would be the best candidate; it has many tools and humanoid robots that could potentially drag Firefly-1 out from a distance. The other probes are sister probes to Firefly-1 and approaching rashly might yield nothing.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhong and Shen both considered it for a moment and then merely nodded slightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Ju knew they were hesitating; losing a few rovers would be easy to replace, and the Aerospace Development Committee wouldn’t even blink an eye before launching ten more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Zhu Rong was different. Its size, the difficulty of construction, and launch costs were all very high; the consequences of losing it were too severe, so they used it with caution.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just like the Yamato Battleship, it had superior performance but couldn’t be risked lightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Skipping that topic, Zhong Cheng suddenly asked:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"How’s the training for March going? When will they conduct the lunar voyage?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shen Zuozhou: \"It’s at the end of this month. The crew has completely adapted to the rotating space station, and they will complete a voyage to the Moon at the end of the month, along with delivering some supplies.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"And Enterprise? When can it resume flight training?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The Space Force says it’s doing well, it’s just that Enterprise’s landing method is a bit too vigorous. With an atmospheric environment, it’s vastly more complex than Chapter 9’s on the Moon. We need to select highly skilled elites, or they won’t even withstand dizziness.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhong Cheng nodded, not seeing this as a problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"We’re not short of elites. Which of the March’s crew isn’t elite? Arrange for one or two Enterprise crews as soon as possible to train jointly with March.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Um, the construction of Enterprise-2 also needs to be expedited; otherwise, the counterweight issue is troublesome.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since March was entirely rotating, it had to ensure that the center of gravity remained at the geometric center. Simply docking with one shuttle would be imbalanced; during rotation, it must dock with two or four shuttles simultaneously.\u003C\u002Fp>",1246,"2026-06-05T18:21:15.095Z",1,"novelbin.me","250e0bb236f4f8a53be49e154d51961bdf1ca71437f40bf4c2d19b1b7bfc56db","you-were-told-to-build-a-tractor-but-you-re-buil-chapter-575","you-were-told-to-build-a-tractor-but-you-re-buil-chapter-574",804,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fyou-were-told-to-build-a-tractor-but-you-re-buil-cover.jpg"]