It rains on Mars every day.
Zhang Fan, wearing a spacesuit, sat on the roof of the maintenance garage at the "Bird's Nest" base.
The entire red wasteland before us was shrouded in a white fog.
It rains incessantly during the Qingming Festival.
The pedestrians on the road were heartbroken.
Where can I find an inn?
The shepherd boy points to Xinghua Village in the distance.
Today is a national holiday in the People's Republic of China to commemorate our ancestors.
This is the first Qingming Festival since the beginning of the new era. There are so many people who need to pay their respects, we have to give them a holiday.
According to Liao Changtian, Qingming is an auspicious day, as the continuous drizzle will further accelerate the settling of radioactive dust, and the day when humans can take off their masks and move freely outdoors is just around the corner.
If Liao Changtian were standing in front of Zhang Fan right now, Zhang Fan would definitely want to kill him, because he had given Zhang Fan a task that sounded like something out of a fantasy novel:
Nuwa mends the sky!
Zhang Fan wasn't patching up the sky; he was patching up a hole 2,000 meters below the Martian south polar ice cap.
According to Liao Changtian, what is falling on Mars now is not rain, but boiling water vapor.
Zhang Fan stretched out his hand; the temperature emanating from the spacesuit was cool, but it was indeed boiling water vapor.
The daytime temperature on the surface of Mars is only around 20 degrees Celsius, but the atmospheric pressure on Mars is extremely low.
On the high plateaus of Earth, rice cannot be cooked in an ordinary pot because the air pressure is low, which lowers the boiling point of water. When the water in the pot boils, the temperature may only be 80°C.
The lower the air pressure, the lower the boiling point.
Mars has an atmospheric pressure that is only 0.75% of that of Earth, and its boiling point is close to 0°C. Liquid water, on the other hand, typically has an initial temperature above 0°C.
The white fog before my eyes is as if the entire planet Mars is boiling.
At night, the scene changes completely. As the temperature drops rapidly, water vapor sublimates, turning into ice crystals that fall to the ground under the influence of Mars' gravity, resembling hail – a spectacular sight.
During the day, this ice will sublimate directly into water vapor, just like the white fog we see now.
It's the same every day.
The only difference is that the fog is getting thicker and thicker, and the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is increasing every day.
Zhang Fan jumped off the roof of the repair garage, splashing mud on the ground with his feet.
He was wearing the Mark 8 (MK-8) exoskeleton. This was a repair exoskeleton that Zhang Fan had modified himself. It could be worn over a spacesuit, greatly reducing the workload of astronauts. The extended robotic arm of the exoskeleton came with various repair tools, which could reduce the time astronauts spent frequently searching for tools and improve work efficiency.
The robotic arms originated from the agricultural robotic arms in the production module that are responsible for field management of crops. All robotic arms are controlled by an arm computer on the spacesuit, which is connected to "Phoenix".
At this moment, Zhang Fan looked like a steel warrior carrying an octopus, emerging from the vast white fog.
Wow, that's so cool!
On Earth, everyone watching the live broadcast from Mars on their televisions was stunned. The men, in particular, were practically practically staring with excitement.
"I really want to own one!"
"I wonder if the people at NASA could copy this?"
"If it could really be replicated, I'd be willing to buy it no matter the cost!"
Qiongzhou Island, Wenchang Temporary Center.
"Could we replicate his repair exoskeleton?" Yang Jiandong stared wide-eyed at Zhang Fan on the screen as he used the exoskeleton robotic arm to nimbly maneuver inside the repair garage.
“Yes, but it’s useless.” Liao Changtian shook his head. “Although we understand the basic construction principles, the gravity on Earth is three times that of Mars. This equipment is too bulky and can only be used to its full potential on Mars.”
Zhang Fan had no choice but to create this exoskeleton, because Liao Changtian reminded him every day that he didn't have much time left.
Due to the continuous eruption of underground magma chambers, more and more water ice on the Martian south polar ice cap is melting. The ice cap is now like an egg with an increasingly thin shell, and a flood of 21.6 million cubic kilometers could be launched at any time.
Based on data collected by the ground-penetrating radar on the Soyuz space station, Liao Changtian believes that at most two weeks will pass before the melting ice overflows the edge of the ice dam, making time urgent.
Zhang Fan finally completed the modification of the "Firefly" Mars rover today, and he gave the modified rover a new name—
"Beetle".
The "Beetle" Mars rover has a "battering ram"-like device installed at the front. This was originally a rock crusher used for geological drilling on Mars, which has been modified into an ice-breaking drill bit.
The Beetle's body has undergone special reinforcement and waterproofing design, and the living quarters on top have undergone multiple layers of pressure-resistant enhancement, enough to withstand the water pressure at a depth of 1,000 meters, turning the living quarters into a deep-sea submersible similar to a "mini Jiaolong".
The tail attached to the "little dragon" is a 1000-meter-long high-strength steel cable.
This is Liao Changtian's "Nuwa Mending the Sky" solution.
First, an ice tunnel is drilled through the ice cap above the magma chamber using an ice-breaking drill bit. The steel cable is then anchored to the ice surface. The "Beetle" drills into the ice tunnel, dives below the ice cap, and releases a "depth charge".
These "depth charges" are mainly composed of liquid nitrogen and coolant. The instantaneous low temperature generated by the explosion will freeze the surrounding water into ice. If the explosion occurs around magma, it will cause the magma surface to cool rapidly and solidify into solid rock.
This is how to repair the holes in the "walls" of a magma chamber.
According to Liao Changtian's calculations, the Martian south polar ice cap has become very thin, and a 1,000-meter-long steel cable would be enough for the "Beetle" to dive below the ice.
The difficulty of the plan lies in the fact that the "depth charge" must accurately hit the hole in the magma chamber. If the hole is successfully sealed, the "beetle" must return to the ice layer within 10 minutes. Otherwise, the ice sheet, which has lost its heat source, will freeze again in a very short time. If it moves too slowly, the "beetle" may be permanently trapped in the ice layer of the Martian south pole.
Zhang Fan will be going to complete the mission alone this time. There is only one Beetle, so it doesn't really matter how many people there are. In fact, if there are more people, they will consume more oxygen and food.
The "Bird's Nest" base is more than 1,500 kilometers away from the Martian south polar ice cap. Near the south pole, the Mars rover cannot obtain enough power from solar energy, so the "Beetle" is powered by fuel rods with lithium deuteride as the main component.
After a reluctant farewell to Yui, Zhang Fan did not go to see Ivanka, but instead asked Katerina to say hello for him.
Katerina nodded, saying little. Ever since Ivanka was imprisoned, even she had become taciturn, as if she had lost interest in everything.
Before boarding the "Beetle," Zhang Fan glanced at the No. 2 living pod from afar. He could only see the small window on the No. 2 living pod and wondered if anyone inside was watching him.
After closing the pressure cabin door of the driver's cab, Zhang Fan started the Mars rover.
The "beetle" crawls across the red desert, slowly making its way toward the Martian south polar ice cap.
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