Liao Changtian's proposed solution can be summarized into three steps: going to the sky, going to the ground, and going to the sea. Each step is further divided into several sub-items, each of which is a huge challenge.
Therefore, Zhang Fan is very grateful for the return of "Firebird," which at least helped him solve one of the problems of "going to the sky."
Katerina, a nuclear physicist, was also a great help, providing significant assistance in solving the second challenge, "penetrating the earth."
The third challenge was to ascertain Ivanka's current situation. The ground-penetrating radar on the Soyuz space station could only detect a blurry point, lacking sufficient detail.
Ultimately, I have to see it with my own eyes.
The place where you go into the sea is naturally called "Whale Bay".
Zhang Fan has been preparing for subglacial exploration for the past few months, and he works in the maintenance workshop in his spare time from mining.
The blueprints Liao Changtian gave him were called "Pangolin," which functioned similarly to "Beetle," but "Pangolin" did not carry people, so its size was only one-tenth that of "Beetle."
The "Pangolin" is an unmanned underwater vehicle. When it enters the water, water flows directly into its interior, achieving a balance between internal and external water pressure. Therefore, its pressure resistance is much higher than that of the manned "Beetle".
Judging from its appearance alone, Zhang Fan thought the "pangolin" looked like a "torpedo." He hung the "pangolin" on the outside of the "firefly," preparing to head to "Whale Bay."
Katerina's nuclear physics major is still very useful, so she will stay at the "Bird's Nest" base as a miner, while Yui will continue to be a Martian farmer. Therefore, Su Muran and Zhang Fan will go to "Whale Bay" together.
"A princess sleeping 3,000 meters below the ice layer, it sounds so romantic." Along the way, Su Muran kept asking Zhang Fan about Ivanka.
"That's not romantic at all."
"How is it not romantic for a prince to go and rescue a princess who is sleeping in an ice castle?" Su Muran said with a smile.
"Katerina said you two have very different personalities, but I think you two are the same kind of people, birds of a feather."
"Hehehe."
Su Muran turned her head and looked at Zhang Fan for a long time.
"Do I have flowers on my face?" Zhang Fan asked, staring at the road ahead.
"Haha." Su Muran laughed and turned to look ahead. "Compared to the you before, you're like a completely different person now."
What was I like before?
"A naive, immature, presumptuous, and unrealistic recent graduate."
"Uh...so what am I like now?"
“The same kind of wild idea. But…” Su Muran turned to look at Zhang Fan, “you will have the courage and drive to make this wild idea a reality. Your confidence… will make the people around you feel that this is not a wild idea, but something that will really come true.”
“It was bound to happen!” Zhang Fan glanced at Su Muran with some dissatisfaction. “Professor Su, this isn’t blind arrogance or overconfidence, but rather the result of in-depth analysis and rigorous calculations…”
"Alright, alright." Su Muran interrupted Zhang Fan. "I believe you, I believe you, okay? Otherwise, I wouldn't have come with you. I want to see how you manage to pull someone out of the ice 3,000 meters below the surface."
Upon arriving at the Martian south pole ice cap for the first time, Su Muran was also awestruck by the sight before her.
"This is 'Whale Bay'?" Su Muran stared wide-eyed, pointing under the ice. "Don't tell me this is a whale."
"Of course not. That's cooled magma rock. It rose to the surface because it's full of pores, and now it's frozen underneath."
"Give me a hand." Zhang Fan handed an ice axe to Su Muran. "We need to dig a hole in the ice."
The two men used ice axes to break through the ice and dug an ice hole one meter in diameter and two meters deep.
Zhang Fan controlled the "Firefly" crane to vertically hoist the "Pangolin" to the center of the ice cave.
The pangolin's head emitted a strong red light, and the surrounding ice began to melt rapidly, quickly filling the ice cave with ice water.
Zhang Fan released the steel cable suspending the "pangolin," which sank vertically into the icy water under its own weight.
The "Pangolin" consists of a directional sintering engine in the head, a power compartment in the middle, and a propulsion propeller at the rear, and uses lithium deuteride as its energy source.
The propellers primarily serve to adjust the pangolin's attitude in the water and do not provide forward propulsion. The pangolin moves forward mainly by using a directional melting engine in its head to melt the ice in front of it and then sinking under its own weight.
Liao Changtian learned from the previous experience of the "Beetle" getting stuck in the ice, and the "Pangolin" which uses a molten engine for propulsion is unlikely to get stuck in the ice.
Liao Changtian also considered that there might be magma rocks blocking the way forward, so he installed a holmium laser rock crusher inside the directional melting engine.
Holmium lasers are used in numerous surgical procedures to treat kidney stones. The energy generated by the holmium laser vaporizes the water between the fiber optic end and the stone, forming tiny cavitation bubbles. These bubbles then transfer energy to the stone, pulverizing it into powder.
The holmium laser lithotripter, of course, doesn't break down kidney stones, but rather much larger magma rocks—something unimaginable before. According to Liao Changtian, it was "Phoenix" that made all of this possible.
The pangolin can travel at a speed of 1 kilometer per hour and takes 3 hours to descend to the ice layer below 3,000 meters.
As the pangolin melts the ice in front of it, the ice behind it gradually cools and refreezes. Viewed in cross-section, it resembles a capsule moving through the ice, with the ice in front constantly being dug out to the back – hence the name "pangolin."
The ice cave at the top was already frozen over. Zhang Fan could see a blazing red dot below through the ice. He was remotely controlling the tail propeller of the "pangolin" to make minor adjustments to its direction of travel.
Through the screen in the "Firefly" cockpit, one can see the footage returned by the high-temperature camera in front of the "Pangolin".
The pangolin is getting closer and closer to the beetle deep in the ice.
To withstand water pressure exceeding 3,000 meters, the pangolin's internal volume of cavitation was minimized to achieve a balance between internal and external water pressure.
In other words, the pangolin will be on a one-way journey, and once it reaches its destination, it will be unable to return to the ice surface using its own buoyancy.
Beep beep beep—
The pangolin's metal detector returned a message indicating that a metallic substance had been detected ahead.
Beneath the Martian south polar ice cap, that's the only place where artificial metallic materials can be found.
Zhang Fan stared intently at the "Firefly" screen, reduced the power of the melting engine, and shut down the holmium laser lithotripter. The "Pangolin" began to slow down its movement.
Su Muran also leaned over from the side, her eyes fixed on the screen.
She was more curious than anyone about what Sleeping Beauty looked like under the ice.
Zhang Fan shut down the molten engine and made minor adjustments to the direction of the rear propeller, causing the "Pangolin" to slowly sink under its own weight.
clang--
The front of the "pangolin" touched the transparent porthole of the "beetle".
Su Muran's eyes widened further.
really.
Inside the ice castle, a princess of unparalleled beauty sleeps.
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