From all-round academic master to chief scientist - Chapter 515 Mars Crossing
For Alexander Wolf and the other three, they never expected that the matter behind this would actually be related to the Secretary of State.
Originally, in their eyes, the Secretary of State was a very friendly person to them, but now Jayden Armstrong said that it was the method the Secretary of State told him?
All three of them had expressions of disbelief on their faces.
Doesn’t this mean that Mr. Secretary of State is the mastermind behind all this?
When the Secretary of State was discussing with them before, he seemed very talkative, but in the end… it was all just pretending?
However, if you think about it carefully, it is entirely possible.
After all, only someone of the Secretary of State’s level is able to master the method of absolute control of the engine system.
And the Secretary of State has every reason to do this. After all, their Mars Project aims to be the first in the world to land on Mars.
Previously, because they were worried that China’s Tiannian would reach Mars early, they were encouraged to consume the remaining fuel to accelerate. This makes perfect sense.
Unexpectedly, they never expected that the Secretary of State was actually such a despicable person.
Alexander Wolf’s faces showed extremely angry expressions, but in the end, the angry expressions turned into helplessness and grief.
So what should I do? They are the Secretary of State, and they are just astronauts who happened to be selected.
What’s more, the secretary of state has more power than their vice president. He is completely the number one brother of their president. If the number one brother does such a thing, how can the president, as the boss, not know?
Maybe this matter was requested by the president.
So if you think about it this way, their president is probably the real mastermind behind this.
But obviously, with their rank and status, whether they can capture the president is a question.
Therefore, it is impossible for them to think about anything related to revenge and going back.
Even to a certain extent, whether they can go back now is a question.
Of course, if they knew that their president had already been ready to give up on them, and even asked to slow down the construction of the Mars Savior, which was originally used to take them back to Earth, they would probably Really angry.
However, it is a pity that it is obviously impossible for them to know such news.
However, at the same time, when the three of them were silent, James King’s face on the other side showed a look of surprise, and then he hurriedly said to Jayden Armstrong: “Why did you tell this matter?” Come out? When the Secretary of State knows about it, once the blame is placed on us, I wonder what you will do!”
Jayden Armstrong also calmed down at this time. Thinking that he had just said the name of the Secretary of State in a fit of anger, a look of panic suddenly appeared on his face.
He still maintains awe for such a big shot as the Secretary of State, and when doing these things, the Secretary of State also asked not to reveal that he did it.
But now… these guys actually know about it?
He couldn’t help but glance at Alexander and the other three, and said with an inward look: “Now you know about this, but I advise you not to reveal it, otherwise… Mr. Secretary of State is not someone you can provoke.”
Hearing Jayden Armstrong’s threat, Alexander and the three of them snorted coldly.
Bischi sneered: “You don’t need to worry about this matter. Anyway, when we return to Earth, there will be a prison to take you in.”
Tenia didn’t give him a good look at all.
Only Alexander, although he also had a bad expression, still gave advice: “Jaden, since you also said that the Secretary of State gave you the method, this obviously means that the Secretary of State is using you behind the scenes.”
“And now we have failed. The Chinese have become the first people to land on Mars, so you should know that now you have no value to the Secretary of State.”
“So now, it’s better for the five of us to work together and strive to live well on Mars, so that we can go home.”
“Now, you all should know that going home is the most important thing for us right now.”
Alexander Wolf’s words made others look a little sad. Yes, right now, the most important thing is whether they can return to Earth alive.
However, Jayden Armstrong’s eyes flickered when he heard Alexander’s words.
It was indeed important to go home, and he was not worried at all about what they said, that as soon as he returned to Earth, he would be imprisoned.
Because he knew that the only people who would be imprisoned would be Alexander and the others.
But the problem now is that if Alexander really goes back and they reveal that the Secretary of State is the mastermind behind it, he may not be at peace after he goes back.
There’s a good chance the Secretary of State will simply give up on him.
Thinking of this, his eyes couldn’t help but become cold.
However, others definitely don’t know about the little Jiujiu in Jayden Armstrong’s heart.
Seeing that Jayden Armstrong didn’t say a word, they were too lazy to continue persuading and began to think about what to do next.
How can they return to Earth safely?
At this time, Alexander Wolf suddenly stood up and said: “By the way, we can contact the Chinese Tiannian number!”
“According to the news from the command center, the Chinese on board the Tiannian discovered the underground ice on the Utopia Plain, so their mission period was extended, and they have not yet left Mars.”
Thinking of this, Alexander slapped his thigh and said: “So, now we only need to contact their Tianan and ask them to take us back to Earth. In this way, we will all be safe!”
Hearing Alexander’s words, everyone else’s faces also lit up.
yes!
There are Chinese spaceships on Mars, and they can ask the Chinese for help.
Although due to national differences and the fact that the Chinese were one step ahead of them and became the first country in the world to land manned humans on Mars, if you speak your mind, the Chinese are indeed easier to talk to.
Think about it, the Chinese people on the Tiannian will also help them, right?
Their hearts suddenly became excited.
And Bischi immediately said: “Then what are we waiting for? Contact them quickly!”
But at this moment, Jayden Armstrong suddenly stood up and said: “No! You can’t do this.”
Hearing what he said, Bischi sneered: “Jaden, if you want to die, just leave the spacecraft now. What we want to do is not up to you.”
Alexander also frowned. His kind words and persuasion just now were meant to hope that everyone could share the difficulties and get through this final difficulty. He, who was called a “good guy” by many, still hoped that Jayden would wake up.
But now, it seems Jayden is going to thwart their best chance at survival?
However, at this time Jayden said: “Don’t forget the Wolfe Clause.”
Upon hearing these words, the expressions of everyone present suddenly changed.
The Wolf Clause is a clause that restricts cooperation between NASA and China.
And they are obviously NASA astronauts, so they are naturally subject to this clause.
The corners of Jayden’s mouth quirked up.
Alexander and the others must not be allowed to go back like this, so they must not seek cooperation with the Chinese.
Although he was very confused in his heart, it was obviously safest to return to Earth directly after contacting the Tianan, but thinking that once they returned, Alexander and the others might expose the Secretary of State, he——
I chose an even crazier path.
Of course, he believed that when the Secretary of State knew what he was doing, he might think highly of him. If he could get along with the Secretary of State, his future and money would definitely be bright.
Although he also knows that the Secretary of State is using him, when the Secretary of State used him before, it was completely in line with his purpose, so the Secretary of State is still a “good guy” in his eyes.
However, although the Wolf Clause does have a restrictive effect on them, Alexander Wolf said at this time: “Don’t worry, I am the captain. I have the responsibility and obligation to bring you back to Earth safely.”
“Even if the command center blames us, just say it was my request and I will bear all the responsibilities.”
After hearing Alexander’s words, everyone except Jayden looked at Alexander with admiration in their eyes, even James King.
“Captain, you are my forever captain.” Bischi patted Alexander on the shoulder and said seriously, “Even if NASA is really weirded out by then, count me in.”
“Count me in too.” Tenia also said.
“I…count me in.” James King, who was on the side, slowly raised his hand at this time. When faced with the questioning expressions of the three people, he hurriedly said: “I mean it from the bottom of my heart this time. , there was absolutely no discussion with Jayden, a racist.”
Obviously, he still hasn’t forgotten the word “nice” that Jayden called him when he was acting with Jayden.
After all, even though it was acting, Jayden could have used other words.
At this time, he was completely impressed by Alexander.
Alexander nodded, and then said: “Okay, let’s not talk nonsense for now, but we still need to contact the command center first. If they agree, it will naturally be the best.”
“But if they don’t agree, we will contact the Chinese immediately.”
“good!”
Others responded one after another.
Then, they started me taking action.
Seeing this scene, Jayden Armstrong’s expression became very gloomy. However, the problem was that Alexander asked Bischi to keep an eye on him to prevent him from becoming a monster, which also made him lose his way.
But no matter what, he still breathed a sigh of relief deep in his heart. If he could return to Earth safely, that would be the best.
Soon, they sent what happened and the plan to contact the Tiannian to the ground command center.
But the reply given to them by the command center made them feel cold.
Because, they still have to land on Mars before they can go to Tiannian for help.
Since Tiannian does not have an interface for docking with other spacecrafts, even if it does, the interface technologies of different countries will not match. Just like the Tiangong Space Station and the International Space Station, the interface technologies of the two are different, so docking is impossible.
Therefore, if they want to board the Tiannian, they have to land first, and then board the Tiannian, which is also staying on the surface of Mars, on the surface of Mars.
Finally return.
As for whether it can cooperate with China, obviously in the end, although NASA did not express it, it obviously acquiesced.
This actually made Alexander and the others a little happy.
At least, NASA didn’t let them die.
Of course, the most important thing is that when NASA knew that they could still contact Tianan, they were immediately afraid that they would discredit Alexander, Bischi and Tenia on earth, and praise Jayden Armstrong and James King. The truth was known to China.
And they couldn’t gamble that if they didn’t let Alexander and the others contact the Tiannian, Alexander and the others would disobey their orders and secretly contact the Tiannian.
Therefore, NASA can only choose to agree to them, and then contact the two sides with two opinions.
They asked Alexander not to disclose the specific things that happened during the process, saying that this was their country’s own business, that is, family scandals should not be made public.
And they contacted the Chinese Space Administration and asked the Tiannian astronauts not to reveal to Alexander and the others the news on earth about smearing the three Alexanders and praising the two Jaydens, and in the name of avoiding damage during the spaceflight process. Their camaraderie as teammates.
Therefore, they can only bet that there will be no accidents in the process. Otherwise, once the truth is known to China and then announced, their NASA’s reputation and support rate will plummet again.
There is really no way around this. Who will let Tiannian land on Mars first?
Moreover, the Tiannian was originally supposed to stay for five days and then leave. Who would have thought that they would rely on luck to discover the underground ice on Mars, and ended up staying here for so long.
This really puts them in a dilemma, so they can only gamble through this method.
Anyway, it only takes two months for the Tiannian to return to Earth, which is fast enough. They can only hope that the secrets that happened on the Mars will not be revealed during these two months.
In this way, the Mars contacted the Tiannian, and Zhang Wei and the others on the Tiannian also received the notice from the command center, so they naturally agreed.
After all, in this way, the fact that it was the Chinese astronauts who rescued the American astronauts on Mars will definitely help their international reputation.
What’s more, this is also an opportunity to embarrass the US aerospace industry, so they naturally have to seize it better.
After some communication, the Mars spacecraft finally began to land.
This would be a dangerous landing, as their fuel was already at a dangerous level, leaving them with no buffer left.
Therefore, whether they could land safely became the last difficulty they had to face.
Just like that, their login process began.
“Landing module, start separation.”
Sitting in front of the console, Alexander’s mind became extremely calm.
Although he was the deputy captain before, he has always been the main pilot of the spacecraft because his technology is the best.
And sitting in the passenger seat was Jayden.
However, his operating skills are relatively poor. Who asked him to always waste part of his time on making short videos when training on earth.
“Engine brake ignition, start!”
At this time, Alexander said again.
Then, they suddenly felt resistance from the seat belts.
Their speed began to decrease, from a speed of 3.6 kilometers per second, to slowly falling below 3 kilometers per second, which also meant that they left the threshold of the first cosmic speed of Mars, and the centrifugal force provided by the orbiting speed could no longer be used. To balance the centripetal force provided by gravity, their landing module began to decrease in altitude.
In this way, as time passed, they finally entered the dusty atmosphere of Mars.
The weather on Mars today was not good, and the dust in the air was very serious. After they entered, their field of vision was greatly restricted, and the visible range was barely less than 500 meters.
This can be said to be very dangerous for their landing module with a speed of nearly two thousand meters per second.
As the main pilot, Alexander is responsible for controlling the engine and the entire landing module. As the co-pilot, Jayden needs to use radar to detect surrounding conditions to alert Alexander.
When landing in this environment, someone must be responsible for monitoring what is going on outside the field of view.
Of course, they had just landed, so they would not encounter any danger yet, so Jayden just stared blankly at the situation outside the porthole.
Looking at the environment in front of him, Jayden felt a little panicked. This environment was really terrible.
If he were on Earth, he might not feel this way, but they were on Mars now, which made him feel a little panicked.
Now he is afraid of any accident.
In fact, he has the idea that in the future he will be diagnosed with Mars syndrome, which is a kind of anxiety caused by the Martian environment when he lands on Mars for the first time, which has a small probability of happening.
But obviously, current humans are not aware of the occurrence of such symptoms.
I don’t know how much time had passed, but Alexander’s voice suddenly came to Jayden’s ears: “Jaden! What are you doing?”
Jayden suddenly came to his senses.
“What…what happened?”
“Don’t be distracted! At this time, do you dare to be distracted?”
Alexander scolded.
“I…” Jayden opened his mouth. Although he felt uncomfortable being reprimanded, he was indeed a little distracted just now.
But at this moment, he looked down at the radar map, his face suddenly shocked, and he shouted: “Get out of the way! Two kilometers ahead is…”
Before he could finish speaking, the speed of the landing module allowed them to see what was in front of them.
Mars, Olympus!
Olympus Volcano, the tallest known volcano in the entire solar system!
It is 21 kilometers above the base level of Mars, which is higher than both Mount Everest combined.
Their current height is 20 kilometers above their heads.
This means that they are about to collide!
Everyone in the cabin was stunned. Of course, Alexander reacted quickly. He quickly lit the fire and consumed nearly half of the remaining fuel at once.
Fortunately, they finally avoided collision after rubbing against the top of Mount Olympus.
Looking at the volcano that was thrown away by them, they all felt a sense of shock.
What caused all this was because of Jayden’s distraction just now.
But at this time, Alexander was no longer in the mood to blame Jayden.
The ignition just now has consumed too much of their fuel, and the next landing…
It’s dangerous.
The altitude began to drop again, and Alexander began to try to expand the windward area as much as possible to increase resistance and avoid converting too much dynamic potential energy into gravitational potential energy during the descent, causing their speed to be too fast.
But the air on Mars is too thin. Even if the windward area becomes the largest, the resistance it can provide is too small.
The only good thing is that the gravitational acceleration of Mars is only 0.38 times that of the Earth.
In this way, they were getting closer and closer to their destination, which was the landing place of their supply ship in Chris Plains.
However, their speed was too fast, and Alexander was simply not sure that the speed would drop low enough.
But at this moment, he discovered a hill in front of him.
Finally, he gritted his teeth and shouted: “Anti-impact stance!”
After hearing Alexander’s words, the people in the cabin could only listen to him and made a posture to prevent impact.
When the pressure was too high, he aimed the bottom of the engine at the hill, and then——
“Output four! Ignition!”
He adjusted the output of the engine to maximum and then pressed the ignition button again.
The remaining fuel was pumped out like crazy, and the engine also spewed out strong tail flames.
At this moment, they all endured a gravity force of 11g, which almost made them faint.
But it works.
The speed of the landing module dropped sharply, and just before impact, the fuel was just running out.
But in the end, they hit the hill at a speed of 60 meters per second.
A huge impact came immediately.
But luckily, the surface of this mountain was basically sand, so they were greatly buffered. What was even more surprising was that there was a cave inside this hill, and they actually crashed through the cave wall. Crash into the cave.
In the end, their landing capsule crashed inside.
As for this cave, it is surprisingly the same cave that contains the second mysterious ruins discovered in the United States.
After their landing capsule crashed through the cave wall, it happened to hit the mysterious ruins.
It was a relic similar to an altar.
And because the landing capsule hit it, a crack was smashed out, and a moment later, a glimmer of light came out of the crack…