Galaxy Technology Empire

February 12th.

The two sister spacecraft of the Chaser, "Exploration" and "Qiuri", were completed at the new Chang'an Space Station. The Human Innovation Alliance, which owns three sublight-speed spacecraft, has begun planning for a Mars base.

February 15th.

The Sun Chaser and Discovery were fully loaded with 4,000 tons of material, spanning 170 million kilometers, and reached the Mars geosynchronous orbit space station.

"Mars Space Station, this is the Sun Chaser spacecraft, requesting to dock in the port."

"Mars Space Station has received it and is allowed to enter the port for parking. The parking area is the 10th line parking area."

"receive."

At this time, the Mars Synchronous Orbit Space Station has a team of 30 people stationed here, including 15 space station staff, 5 Space Force soldiers, and 10 scientific researchers.

After the completion of the berthing of the Sun Chaser spacecraft, the Discovery spacecraft entered the port and berthed.

This time, the mission of landing on Mars and establishing a Mars base was led by the experienced Fang Haibo and Liao Qingsong. The second team of the Space Expedition Force consisted of a total of 10 astronauts.

After the Sun Chaser spacecraft unloads its supplies and the second team of the Space Expeditionary Force, it will return to Blue Star; while the Discovery spacecraft will temporarily stay at the Mars Space Station.

After Liao Qingsong and Fang Haibo were ready, they inspected three landing spaceships. One of them was the Qinglong-class spacecraft they were riding on, and the other two were Xuanwu-class spacecraft.

The area where they landed this time was the Mars base built remotely by the Sun Chaser last time. The Mars base is in the southern part of the Utopia Plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars. About 200 kilometers further south is the Isidi Plain, and to the east is the Elysian Plain. Aung San.

Data detected by previous detector equipment shows that the southern area of ​​​​Utopia Plain is dominated by wind accumulation and lava accumulation plains.

"Are you ready?" Liao Qingsong asked loudly to the members of the second team of the Space Expeditionary Force.

"Ready." Everyone replied in unison.

"Okay, ready to go."

Led by Liao Qingsong and Fang Haibo, everyone entered the life-sustaining and load-bearing cabin of the Qinglong-class spacecraft. Landing on Mars is obviously easier than other planets.

First of all, the surface gravity of Mars is only about 38% of the Blue Star. Secondly, the atmosphere of Mars is very thin. The atmosphere of Mars is composed of 95.32% carbon dioxide, 2.7% nitrogen, 1.6% argon and 0.13% oxygen. The density of the Mars atmosphere is only 4% of the Blue Star. The total mass is only about 1%, and the thickness of the atmosphere is about 128 kilometers.

The weak surface gravity and thin atmosphere are of great help to the landing and departure of the spacecraft. It is estimated that the fuel consumed by the spacecraft from the surface of Mars into outer space will not exceed 20% of that of Blue Star.

However, if a mass projector can be built on Mars, the exchange of materials between the Martian surface and outer space will be very simple.

The Qinglong-class spacecraft first heads for the Mars base in the Utopia Plain of Mars. Due to the thin atmosphere of Mars, the airbag landing method used on Blue Star is not suitable. The landing spacecraft will use reverse thrust engines to land. This is the same as the spacecraft landing on the moon. Pretty much the same way.

The spacecraft rushed into the Martian atmosphere with flames that rubbed against the atmosphere.

"Reaching 50 kilometers to the surface."

"Start the reverse thrust engines."

"Thrust reverse engine activated."

The spacecraft's three auxiliary engines suddenly spit out light blue flames, braking the high-speed Qinglong-class spacecraft to slow down three times in a row.

The Qinglong-class spacecraft finally arrived about 500 meters away from the landing site. The spacecraft's buffer airbags instantly deployed, and soon the spacecraft landed successfully. Immediately afterwards, two other Xuanwu-class spacecraft also successfully landed at the landing site of the Mars base.

Liao Qingsong and others began to leave the life-sustaining anti-load cabin and put on extravehicular space suits.

"Everyone, prepare to leave the cabin. Li Xuan, you stay behind the ship." Liao Qingsong ordered.

"yes."

Liao Qingsong and Fang Haibo took the lead in passing through the airtight hatch of the spacecraft and officially stepped onto the ground of Mars. What they saw was a brown-red desert terrain. The sky was much dimmer than the blue star. A blue ball of light hung in the air, and there was a large A small irregular "moon".

The blue ball of light is the sun. The reason why the sun appears blue is mainly caused by the high carbon dioxide content in the Martian atmosphere. The irregular "moons" with one large and one small size are Phobos and Deimos.

However, Liao Qingsong, Fang Haibo and others did not stop to watch the scenery of Mars, but quickly entered the Mars base and arrived at the main control cabin of the Mars base.

"Hai Bo, take one person to check all parts of the base first, especially the power, water supply, air system, and protection and life support systems." Liao Qingsong turned his head and ordered Fang Haibo.

"Okay, leave it to me." Fang Haibo quickly took an astronaut to stay in the main control cabin, and they began to test various systems through the self-test system of the Mars base.

[Everything is normal in the power supply system... Everything is normal in the backup power supply system... Water supply system...] Fang Haibo looked at the feedback from the self-test system and found no problems.

On the other side, Liao Qingsong began to take the remaining six astronauts and began to transport the materials transported from the two Xuanwu-class spacecraft.

In the evening, the blue sun has already faded, and the temperature on the gravel plain near the Mars base has dropped sharply. Although the astronauts are wearing spacesuits, the sudden drop in temperature can still be detected by their portable sensing systems.

"Attention all members. Attention all members. A sandstorm is about to approach the base. Please enter the safe area."

"Repeat it again..."

Liao Qingsong activated the shortwave communication system: "Everyone confirms that they are in the safe zone. Please come back after receiving it."

"Kelly received it."

"Huang Zongwu received it."

"..."

"Okay, pay attention to safety." Liao Qingsong felt relieved after seeing that all the researchers were safely inside the base.

Soon the base's condensed matter shield was activated, and a hemispheric shield completely enveloped the base. Although the sandstorm on Mars is a paper tiger, the dust carried by the sandstorm may affect the base's instruments. If it is an old-fashioned solar panel , it is almost like night under the dust storm, but the power supply system of the Mars base is a nuclear fusion reactor, so there is no need to worry about the impact of the dust storm.

In less than ten minutes, an overwhelming Martian dust storm swept over.

"Like a giant beast." Kailide said as he glanced at the sandstorm.

Huang Zongwu beside him said with a smile: "To use a poem, this is the feeling of black clouds pressing down on the city and threatening to destroy it."

Soon a sandstorm engulfed the base, but no one was too worried about this problem. This sandstorm was equivalent to a Category 3 to Category 4 wind in Blue Star at most.

Even if astronauts are in a sandstorm, it will not have much impact. The only problem they need to worry about is losing their way. The magnetic field of Mars is very weak, and compasses are useless at all. They can only rely on satellite positioning systems.

However, according to security regulations, base personnel are not allowed to move in non-safety areas in this case unless forced to do so.

19:12, the sky has completely darkened, and some researchers have already started preparing for dinner.

Liao Qingsong and Fang Haibo reported the relevant situation to the Mars Space Station in the main control cabin. The sandstorm encountered at the base today was the information reported by the meteorological satellite. Mutual communication with the Mars Space Station is very important. They must report the base situation to the Mars Space Station regularly.