Three hours later.
"Notice!"
"We're about to enter the Martian atmosphere!"
Looking at the altitude reading on the screen in front of him, Andrew's heart began to pound!
Next up is the legendary seven minutes of terror!
What is the terrifying seven minutes?
Simply put, from the moment the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere to its successful landing on the Martian surface, this series of actions takes approximately seven minutes.
From the moment we entered the atmosphere, every second was filled with immense terror!
It can be said that if the slightest mistake were made, the Pathfinder lander, traveling at 100,000 kilometers per hour, would crash directly onto the Martian surface.
Just as Andrew finished speaking, a strong tremor came from all parts of the landing module!
At an altitude of 125 kilometers, the landing module began to cut into the atmosphere at a specific angle!
This step is crucial!
If the angle of entry is too small, the landing module will not be able to enter the atmosphere; if the angle is too large, the landing module will be overheated and burned up by the atmosphere!
Andrew clenched his teeth and stared intently at the screen in front of him.
He breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the information that the three landing craft had successfully entered the atmosphere one after another.
Unlike a typical Mars landing, this time, with three landing modules, the risks they faced were several times greater!
If Pathfinder 2 fails, they will lose both the return capsule and the Mars module, meaning they will be trapped on Mars.
With the failure of Pathfinder III, they lost crucial supplies. Although they could choose to return home without endangering their lives, the Pathfinder project was declared a failure.
As for the failure of Pathfinder 1... that should be the easiest thing to do, at least they won't feel any pain.
...
As the landing module successfully entered the atmosphere, the onboard computer quickly began executing the next procedure.
"drop!"
"Trim wing successfully deployed! Current speed: Mach 3!"
As the warning sounded, the trim wings of the three landing craft deployed simultaneously, initiating the angle-of-attack trim phase.
"Huff... huff..." Andrew's heart rate quickened again as he gasped for oxygen from his spacesuit.
Fueled by a surge of adrenaline, Andrew's focus reached its peak.
Even inside the extremely turbulent landing module, he could still clearly see every character flashing rapidly on the screen!
"Balance achieved!"
"Prepare to deploy parachutes!"
"Beep! Beep! Beep! Parachute deployment failed. Switching to manual control!"
When Andrew saw the line of characters in front of him, his eyes widened in surprise!
WTF?!
Are you kidding me?!
You give me this kind of malfunction at a time like this?!
Andrew cursed NASA in his mind, but his hands didn't slow down at all as he quickly grabbed the pull ring next to him!
Click!
Andrew's expression changed instantly.
He didn't pull it!
"Andrew! Open the parachute!" Bruno, standing nearby, stared in disbelief at the rapidly descending altitude.
Andrew's face turned bright red, and he pulled with all his might!
Bang!
A strong pulling sensation came over me!
Parachute deployed successfully!
Seeing the speed rapidly decreasing on the screen, Andrew breathed a sigh of relief.
“Holy shit…” Bruno stared at the control panel, his face pale. “I’ll never trust NASA again…”
Suddenly, Andrew realized something. His expression changed drastically, and he shouted, "Bruno! Quick, check on numbers two and three!"
If the parachutes for Pathfinder II and III hadn't deployed either... Andrew couldn't even imagine the consequences.
The moment Bruno heard Andrew's words, he felt his heart skip a beat.
His lips trembled slightly as he pressed a button on the control panel.
Bruno breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the characters flashing on the screen.
"No...they're both fine..."
With the crisis temporarily averted, Bruno, pale-faced, cracked a joke: "Heh... NASA seems more concerned about the supplies..."
Bruno's hilariously bad joke naturally earned him eye rolls from Andrew and Joey.
"drop!"
"Landing legs deployed successfully!"
"The distance and speed measuring sensor has started working!"
As the notification sound rang, strings of data quickly scrolled across the screen.
Andrew glanced at the height data.
1.5km.
“We’re almost there!” Andrew said softly, his expression shifting slightly.
As Andrew finished speaking, another line of characters appeared on the screen.
"Main engine ready to start..."
"Main engine successfully started!"
A strong tremor came from the soles of my feet, accompanied by an even stronger feeling of deceleration!
After several tens of seconds, the feeling of deceleration gradually disappeared, and the three landing modules hovered in the air above Mars, relying on their main engines.
"Optical imaging activated!"
"Obstacle avoidance activated!"
The landing module slowly adjusted its position in the air, and when the altitude gradually decreased to 100 meters, the laser 3D imager was activated.
With the aid of optical and laser imaging, the onboard computer rapidly analyzed Martian surface data.
A few seconds later, the computer found a relatively flat location with fewer rocks.
The computer precisely adjusted the operating power of the main engine, controlling the landing module to slowly descend.
5m!
4m!
As the height on the screen continued to decrease, the three astronauts became increasingly nervous.
This is the final step!
With a slight vibration coming from the soles of my feet, a long-awaited character suddenly appeared on the screen.
【SUCCEED】
The landing module was completely silent.
"We...succeeded?"
Andrew's voice came through the team radio: "How are numbers two and three?"
"Landing successful!" Bruno confirmed in a light tone. "They're right to our left; we can see them through the porthole!"
Andrew quickly turned his head to look at the porthole on the left.
Sure enough, Pathfinder II and Pathfinder III stood silently on a crimson Martian surface.
"We did it! We did it!" Joey excitedly unbuckled his seatbelt and jumped into Bruno's arms.
"Wow~" Andrew, looking at the scene before him, whistled softly. "Listen up, everyone, there are security cameras here!"
Joey's face flushed slightly. She looked up, glared at Andrew through her glass mask, and returned to her chair with a sour expression.
Andrew ignored the two of them, took a deep breath to calm himself down, and then turned on the radio communication switch.
"Calling Houston, this is Pathfinder 1, we have landed successfully!"
"To reiterate, we have landed successfully, the astronauts are in good health and are ready to conduct spacewalks at any time!"
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