Die on Mars

The old cat was squatting on the floor in front of the OGS cabinet, holding a screwdriver in his paws and staring at the motherboard with his two cat eyes.

Tang Yue rummaged frantically in the hall of Kunlun Station. Finally, he threw a cup lid on the table and sighed, "It's gone. I've searched everywhere I can find it, and I can't find a substitute at all." ...I don’t know where the chip that was replaced last time is, it was probably crushed and compacted and brought back.”

All the garbage generated in Kunlun Station will be taken away after being processed. This so-called processing is crushing and compacting. It is first violently crushed and then compressed into cubes tens of centimeters square. Semiconductor chips are so delicate and delicate that they cannot survive this process. close.

"What about other alternatives?" The old cat turned his head.

"What other alternatives are there?" Tang Yue shook his head, "In this shabby shack, everything is manual, and Gree air conditioners are considered high-tech... Now we can only see if we can find a suitable processor in the workstation chassis. ."

Tang Yue and Lao Mao began to dismantle the computer case.

The most indispensable thing in the workstation chassis is the processor, but there may not be a chip suitable for the OGS cabinet temperature control system. Each processor in the Kunlun station is highly specialized and cannot be mixed. Tang Yue knows this, and he actually I don’t have high hopes, but I have to look for it before I give up.

"Can this piece be dismantled?"

"No, if you dismantle the computer, it will be scrapped."

"As for this piece...hell, it can't be inserted at all! Old cat, do you have a soldering iron and solder?"

Tang Yue and Lao Mao were busy for more than two hours. They took apart the workstation's chassis, hoping that there would be any parts on it that could repair the OGS cabinet. The final result was disappointing, but it was also what Tang Yue and Lao Mao expected. Medium - The processors used in the OGS cabinet and the workstations are not of the same type at all, and the interfaces are not uniform.

Lao Mao and Tang Yue sat on the floor and put back the workstation case.

"It's getting colder and colder." Tang Yue wrapped his clothes and blanket tightly and put his feet in. "What's the temperature now?"

"Minus three degrees Celsius." Old Cat replied, "It's still slowly declining."

"It's so cold." Tang Yue shivered.

"But the temperature here is still fifty degrees Celsius higher than the outside world." Old Mao knocked the table leg with a wrench, "The shell of Kunlun Station has helped you retain most of the heat, but if it continues to develop according to this trend, by dawn , the indoor temperature at Kunlun Station will drop to minus 5 degrees Celsius, and by tomorrow night, the temperature here will drop to minus 15 degrees Celsius."

Tang Yue shuddered. If the temperature control system cannot be repaired, the indoor temperature at Kunlun Station will continue to drop. The temperature here will drop to minus 15 degrees tomorrow night, and then it will drop to minus 25 degrees the day after tomorrow. , he could not imagine life at minus 25 degrees Celsius. At that temperature, plants could not survive at all. The plan to grow tomatoes could be regarded as a failure, and he would have to wrap up like an Eskimo, maybe forever. Put on the Mingguang Armor.

What's even more frightening is that the temperature will continue to drop, and heat conduction will always be from high temperature to low temperature, until the temperature inside and outside Kunlun Station becomes equal.

The lowest temperature in the outside world can exceed minus 80 degrees Celsius. Tang Yue has only seen this temperature in a liquid nitrogen low-temperature freezer... He doesn't think he can survive in a liquid nitrogen freezer.

"Can the temperature control system be repaired without using this processor?" Tang Yue couldn't sit still and wait for death.

"The processor is the center of the temperature control system." Laomao reinserted the processor into the card slot of the motherboard. "The temperature detection unit transmits information to this chip, and then it gives feedback and issues instructions to the temperature adjustment unit. It's the brain, and without the brain, the temperature control system can't function."

"Use a workstation to host it?" Tang Yue said, "Simple negative feedback automatic control, the performance of the computer is more than enough!"

One person and one cat began to try to connect the temperature control system to the workstation. Tang Yue found scissors and tape, and the old cat took the soldering iron and solder, used a useless data cable, cut the interface, and took out the copper wire.

They made a very simple data interface, plugged one end into the computer case, and then carefully welded two extremely thin copper wires to the pins of the motherboard, one for data input and the other for data output. The cat has a very steady hand and is a skilled old electrician.

When everything was ready, Lao Mao turned on the computer and entered the test program, "Are you ready?"

Tang Yue nodded, opened the OGS cabinet, "Start heating up!"

The two were silent for a few seconds.

Lao Mao stared at the screen, his frowning eyebrows slowly falling, "No response...failed."

"Damn it." Tang Yue was very disappointed. They had been busy all night, but in the end they were all doing useless work.

There are only a few highly automated gadgets in this simple shack at Kunlun Station. If it were on Earth, Tang Yue could just find a computer store to repair the temperature control system of the OGS cabinet, but on Mars, they would use Even a simple chip can't do it.

Tang Yue felt colder and colder, and the clothes and blankets on his body could no longer hold him. He turned back to the crew cabin, took out the sleeping bag, then got into the thick sleeping bag and lay on the ground like a big caterpillar. Only one head is exposed.

The old cat held the processor and stared at it without saying a word.

"Old Cat, do you know Iceman Oz?" Tang Yue asked.

"Otzi the Iceman?" the old cat replied absently.

"There is a very famous mummy. It is an ancient man who lived five thousand years ago. He died in a glacier in the Alps. The body was preserved intact by the ice and snow. It was not discovered until the 1990s." Tang Yue explained, "The cause of death of Ötzi Iceman was an arrow wound. He was hit by an arrow in the shoulder, and he may have died while escaping, so he may have died in a chase."

"Oh." The old cat squinted his eyes and looked at the chip in his hand.

"If the temperature control system cannot be repaired, then I will probably end up like him, turning into a mummy lying in a sleeping bag." Tang Yue breathed a sigh of relief, and the white water vapor disappeared under the dim light, "You said what if In a million years, if some intelligent creature discovers me, will it also display me in a glass cabinet in a museum and label me the Iceman of Mars?"

"It's possible." Lao Mao responded calmly, without looking away, looking a little lost in thought.

Tang Yue was a little surprised. Why was this talkative cat silent now? Nothing can arouse interest.

"Old cat?"

"Shut up." The old cat's pupils slowly expanded, reflecting the processor in his paws, "I have no interest in Iceman Oz or the Iceman of Mars, and I don't care whether you will be killed in a million years. It's on display in a glass case in a museum, and I don't think the label on you is the Ice Man of Mars, it's the Ice Monkey of Mars... I'm thinking about something, a very important question."

Tang Yue was startled.

"what is the problem?"

The old cat twisted his head and put the processor on the table, "How to fix the temperature control system of OGS."

"The problem is that it can't be repaired anymore. Haven't we tried all the methods?"

The old cat turned his head, "No!"

Tang Yue was startled, "What?"

The old cat slowly raised a paw, "There is another way...the last way!"