"drop!"
The buzzer sounded again.
The red light on the detector came on again.
Xia Wanyi numbly reached out and cleaned up the mixture of ice and soil that had been spread out on the testing instrument.
Still haven't found it?
Seeing Xia Wanyi's stiff movements out of the corner of his eye, Bai Yixuan gave a wry smile and asked over the radio.
Xia Wanyi sighed softly, and while reaching out to put the next batch of samples into the testing instrument, she shook her head and said, "Not yet."
"How many meters underground are we now?"
Bai Yixuan slightly raised his eyelids and glanced at the LCD screen on the drilling rig in front of him.
“It’s already 25 meters from the ground.”
"25 meters?!" Xia Wanyi exclaimed in surprise. "They haven't even reached the actual ice layer at this depth?!"
Bai Yixuan shook his head with a wry smile and sighed deeply.
"I reckon we've made a wasted trip this time."
"Who would have thought that the surface filling at the bottom of this deadly meteorite crater is nearly twenty meters thick!" Bai Yixuan's voice was full of resentment. "I bet Professor Lü would be stunned if he knew this news, right?"
Xia Wanyi glanced speechlessly at the remaining five meters of drilling steel pipe.
"So, after all that work, we've only drilled down to five meters underground?"
Bai Yixuan chuckled awkwardly.
"Ahem...you could say that."
Xia Wanyi: "..."
Suddenly, Hong Fan's exclamation came through the radio.
"Captain! Stop chatting!"
"The drilling rig seems to have hit a layer of ice!"
Seeing the drilling steel pipe descending at a significantly slower rate, Hong Fan and Bai Yixuan both revealed a hint of surprise in their eyes.
...
Twenty minutes later.
"drop!"
As always, the red indicator light shone mercilessly through the glass mask, illuminating Xia Wanyi's numb face.
She mechanically swept the dirt, now mixed with more ice, aside.
Seeing Xia Wanyi's actions, Bai Yixuan sighed deeply.
"Captain, what should we do now?"
Hong Fan straightened up, gently rubbing his aching lower back, and asked in a low voice, "Should we report this to Professor Lü?"
Bai Yixuan pondered for a moment, then shook his head.
"It hasn't come to that."
"We've only drilled one hole so far, let's continue!"
"After all, Professor Lü said when we set off that this could be an extremely difficult and lengthy task."
...
Outside the Mars capsule.
Two "small moons" hang high in the Martian night sky.
Those are Phobos and Deimos.
Compared to the Moon, Phobos and Deimos are relatively close to Mars, at only 9,000 kilometers and 23,000 kilometers respectively, but they are much smaller, only one percent the size of the Moon.
Therefore, neither of them can often reflect sunlight onto the surface of Mars.
In some high-latitude regions, these two small satellites are not even visible.
As soon as he stepped out of the Mars capsule, Andrew instinctively looked up at the sky.
When he saw those two exceptionally bright large stars in the night sky, he was stunned and stood there.
"See, we're lucky."
"I actually saw Phobos and Deimos at the same time!"
Andrew's eyes sparkled with excitement, but that excitement quickly turned into regret.
Unfortunately, the sunlight reflected by Phobos and Deimos, as well as the starlight from stars in the far distance, cannot illuminate the somber darkness of Mars.
"Alright, alright, we can talk about sentimentality later. Don't forget, our oxygen supply is only enough to support three hours of extravehicular activity."
Bruno laboriously dragged the carbon dioxide absorption equipment and toolbox out of the circular gate.
"Andrew, could you please turn on the spotlights quickly? I can't even see the road!"
Bruno's jarring complaints interrupted Andrew's thoughts.
He turned his head helplessly to look at Bruno behind him, and then turned on the high-intensity searchlight.
The searchlight was very bright, but it only illuminated a small area in front of the two people.
In the endless darkness, this glimmer of white light appeared somewhat dim and powerless.
After setting up the searchlight, Andrew reached for the toolbox next to him, walked to the area where the air circulation equipment was installed, and skillfully removed the metal protective shell from the exterior of the Mars capsule.
"Joey, has the air circulation system been stopped?"
Just to be on the safe side, Andrew asked Joey, who was in compartment one, via radio.
Soon, Joey's response reached his ears: "It's stopped!"
Andrew closed his eyes slightly, and scenes from his training flashed through his mind.
After recalling the operating procedures, he picked up the tools one by one and slowly disassembled the air circulation equipment.
When he saw the carbon dioxide absorber, he was stunned and stood there.
The surface of the carbon dioxide absorber was covered with reddish sparks.
"The cause of the malfunction has been found."
Andrew said softly, "I guess NASA didn't seal it properly; the carbon dioxide absorber is covered in Martian dust."
"Tsk!" Bruno clicked his tongue over the radio. "I told you NASA couldn't be trusted!"
"What do we do now?"
"We don't even know where the seal is compromised!"
Andrew's eyes were full of helplessness, and he sighed deeply.
"What else can we do? We'll install the replacement equipment today and wait for a response from Houston."
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