Die on Mars

The old cat was stunned for a moment, then jumped up.

"Holy shit, shit, this is so fucking crazy, Tang Yue, you are such a lunatic!"

"Is that possible?"

"I have to calculate, I have to calculate!" The old cat pushed the keyboard and stood up. It began to pace around in the main hall of Kunlun Station, its eyes flickering, and huge amounts of data rolled in its mind. Every detail was Can't be missed.

"The Joint Space Station itself has no power and cannot change its orbit...it cannot change its orbit..."

"But we have Orion 2!"

The old cat said to himself.

"After one orbit, the orbital altitude difference between the Eagle spacecraft and the Joint Space Station will widen to 120 kilometers... 120 kilometers! 120 kilometers!" Old Cat began to simulate the difference between the two in his mind. running track.

It has a good and powerful computer - the reason why it often used pen and paper for calculations was because Tang Yue was present, and it had to show and explain the calculation process to Tang Yue.

The old cat paced faster and faster, lost in thinking and calculation, and began to evaluate the feasibility of this strategy.

The mountains cannot go to Muhammad.

But Muhammad could walk to the mountains.

Since the Eagle spacecraft can no longer raise its orbital altitude, let the United Space Station lower its altitude! Let the space station lower its altitude by 120 kilometers to catch the falling lander!

Although the space station itself does not have power, they still have the powerful spacecraft Orion 2 in their hands!

As a ground-fire transfer spacecraft, every time it returns to Earth from Mars, Orion 2 needs to accelerate from the Mars orbit into the Hohmann transfer orbit, so it has sufficient fuel and powerful power... If the space station is a buoy on the sea drifting with the current, Taiwan, then Orion 2 is a powerful tugboat!

They can make this powerful tugboat move forward against the floating platform!

Catch the supply boat before it sinks!

"time."

"Time?" Tang Yue asked.

"The key lies in time. After the Eagle spacecraft orbits once, when it meets the space station again, its orbital altitude will drop to 280 kilometers. This is when it is closest to the space station, and it is also our only chance." Lao Mao said. , "If we miss this point in time, the lander's altitude will continue to decrease and we will not be able to reach it."

"How long is it until this point in time?"

The old cat glanced at the time.

"Fifty minutes!"

"We want to lower the altitude of the space station by 120 kilometers within fifty minutes?"

"Not fifty minutes."

"We can't start decelerating now. If the timing of deceleration is not right, the space station will miss the Eagle spacecraft. The space station must change its orbit at the right time so that its transfer orbit is perfectly tangent to the lander's orbit." Old Cat in An arc was drawn on the table, "When the Eagle spacecraft reaches an altitude of 280 kilometers, the space station must pass through that point exactly!"

"Then how long do we have?"

"Countdown to one thousand three hundred and twenty seconds! Start decelerating in twenty-two minutes!" Old Cat replied.

They started to slow down after twenty-two minutes, so the time left for them to change orbit was only twenty-eight minutes. They had to lower their altitude by one hundred and twenty kilometers in twenty-eight minutes.

There has probably never been such a violent orbit change in the history of mankind. It is simply falling all the way - they want the space station to fall faster than the Eagle spacecraft, and catch the lander before it falls into hell!

Lao Mao quickly calculated the thrust of the engine on Orion 2, the remaining propellant of Orion 2, the mass of Orion 2 and the joint space station, the trajectory of the Eagle spacecraft, the remaining propellant of the lander, and the precise intersection of the two. Time, dense and huge data flowed through the old cat's mind. The old cat was full of firepower, his eyes were closed tightly, and his orifices were filled with smoke.

"The Eagle spacecraft has less than 20 percent remaining propellant."

"After one orbit, the relative speed is one hundred and twenty meters per second, and the axial roll angular speed is fifteen degrees per second. The reverse thrust rocket can reduce the speed to a maximum of six meters per second!"

"Safe docking is no longer possible, docking is no longer possible..."

"But we can catch it!"

The old cat's eyes widened. He was surprised by his bold idea. There has never been such a risky space program in human history. To be honest, this is not really a plan anymore, but a crazy one. Try, risk everything, take the plunge.

The old cat stopped. It stood in the main hall of Kunlun Station, opened its eyes and murmured softly.

"Damn, Tang Yue, you are such a genius."

·

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"Miss Maidong! Listen, go to Orion 2 immediately!" Old Cat's voice sounded in the earphones, "Go now!"

Maidong was taken aback and immediately followed the instructions.

She put on a white cabin suit, kicked her feet lightly on the bulkhead, turned around and left the core cabin, and then quickly passed through the segmented cabin sections and interfaces.

The Orion 2 spacecraft is at the other end of the space station. It is connected to the Silence multifunctional module. The Silence module is a dedicated dock for the Orion spacecraft. The two Orion spacecraft usually dock here.

But now Orion 1 has left, and only spacecraft No. 2 is left on the space station.

Maidong walked through the long and narrow cabin of Silence, and through the porthole, she could already see the huge hull of the spacecraft outside the window.

The Orion 2 spacecraft also has a truss structure. The crew cabin, solar panels, propellant storage tanks and engines are all installed around the metal truss. It looks thin and long, and its volume is even larger than the United Space Station.

After all, this spacecraft also has to support the survival and activities of an entire scientific expedition team. It also has a powerful power system with huge propellant storage tanks and rocket engines.

When normally docked, the Orion spacecraft and the Mars space station form a joint space station.

The word "United" in the name of this space station comes from this.

It has nothing to do with the United Nations.

Maidong struggled to open the heavy hatch and got into the passage, panting, "Mr. Cat, I'm in!"

"Go to the command module!" said the old cat.

five minutes later.

"Mr. Cat, Mr. Cat...I'm entering the command module!"

"Okay, Miss Maidong, listen to me, now I need you to manually control this spacecraft! Do you understand what I mean? I need you to manually control this spacecraft!" Old Cat said word by word.

The girl was startled. She looked around, and her eyes were filled with densely packed and complex buttons, which made her dizzy.

"Manual control? I, I, I, I have never learned..."

"Don't worry." Old Mao sat in front of the workbench, "I haven't learned it either."

"so what should I do now?"

"What should I do?" The old cat grinned through gritted teeth. It opened the operation and maintenance manual that was as thick as a dictionary in its hand, "Learn now."