"The current communication delay is 5 minutes and 42 seconds."

"The manned spacecraft has entered orbit and is analyzing the landing site."

There were waves of tense reports.

It rang out throughout the BNULM command room.

When the four countries jointly sent this manned spacecraft into the sky, they did not give the spacecraft a code name because there was no consensus on the name.

Therefore, even in a formal occasion like this, manned spacecraft is used as the code name.

Hansen and Zhang Shouquan, who were non-professionals, watched from the sidelines while Gary Hall, the professional director of BNULM, began to direct.

"The communications department has issued an order to the manned spacecraft to orbit Mars for the time being, waiting for the small orbiter to investigate the specific situation and take pictures to send back."

"The data department is preparing to analyze and select the landing site based on a series of more accurate images taken by manned spacecraft."

Gary Hall said this seriously.

The entire BNULM command room also became busier.

The landing on Mars should not be so hasty that the analysis and selection of the landing site should not be done until now.

This is mainly because the unmanned Mars probes that were originally responsible for receiving and surveying the terrain near the landing site all broke down half a month ago.

Curiosity, Insight, and Tianwen-1 are currently in service, as well as the Mars Pathfinder, Phoenix, Spirit, Opportunity, Vulcan, etc. that have completed their missions.

They all lost contact after Du Xing looked at Mars less than half a month ago.

Even the four orbiting probes, Odyssey, Mars Express, Mars Global Surveyor and MAVEN, have lost contact.

Du Xing's glance not only caused the apparent magnitude of many planets including Mars to drop for a moment, but also caused some unknown changes to occur.

Since then, they have been completely in the dark about the exact conditions on Mars.

Because of the sudden interruption of communication, there was no time to send back any information, so they didn't know what impact Du Xing's glance had brought.

It is completely unclear what the current situation on Mars is.

They only had general information about Mars from half a month ago, as well as the coordinates of the landing site that had been determined based on calculations and screening.

But now this happened.

The original information about Mars cannot be trusted. Something must have happened.

Naturally, the originally planned landing site could not be used directly.

Now it is necessary to release the small orbital probe carried by manned spacecraft to conduct orbital flight exploration and determine the specific landing site.

This is also thanks to the cooperation of the four countries and meteorite materials, which has enabled human space technology to advance by leaps and bounds.

Therefore, in addition to carrying four astronauts, the manned spacecraft sent into space by BNULM can also carry a huge amount of supplies compared to before.

A small orbital probe is one of the supplies.

Not only are they small in size and able to fly at extremely high speeds, they can also take pictures of specific scenes on the surface of a planet just like orbital probes such as artificial satellites.

In a quiet busyness.

There was a quick response from the manned spacecraft side.

[BNULM, please note that we have discovered the wreckage of the Odyssey and other Mars orbiters, and the specific pictures have been sent back to the ground. ]

[A small orbiter has been launched, and the full picture of Mars is being explored. The explored pictures are being gradually transmitted back to the ground.]

After the reply from the manned spacecraft came back after a delay of several minutes.

All of us at BNULM have increased our focus.

They all stared at the big screen in the command center, waiting for the pictures to be sent back.

Within a few seconds, the BNULM network system backed by the supercomputing center processed the information sent back by the manned spacecraft.

Several pictures immediately appeared on the big screen.

First up are several images of orbiter debris taken in Mars orbit.

Odyssey, Mars Express, Mars Global Surveyor and MAVEN Mars rover...

These probes sent into the orbit of Mars by human civilization were now shattered as if they had been hit by some huge force.

A large part of their bodies showed signs of being melted, and it was obvious that the huge force also carried high temperature.

In the empty space, they became lonely space junk, orbiting Mars aimlessly under the huge gravitational pull.

The second picture shows the surface of Mars.

Mars is covered with impact craters, canyons, sand dunes and gravel, with no stable liquid water. The southern hemisphere is made up of ancient, impact-cratered highlands, while the northern hemisphere is made up of younger lowland plains.

The pictures sent back at this moment are of the Southern Hemisphere.

Behind the craters and sand dunes everywhere is unspeakable desolation.

This planet, which is praised by scientists as the most suitable for human migration, now seems to have such a harsh environment.

But to be honest, having such an environment in space is already quite favorable.

In many ways, Mars can be considered Earth's brother. It has seasons, polar ice caps, volcanoes, canyons, and weather. The Red Planet has many signs of ancient floods, but now water exists mainly in icy mud and thin clouds.

now.

Everyone at BNULM analyzed the images sent back by the manned spacecraft based on their respective professional knowledge.

"The overall structure has not changed significantly compared to the data from half a month ago."

"The specific possible landing locations in the southern hemisphere of Mars have been analyzed and screened, and we are waiting for data from the northern hemisphere for comprehensive consideration."

"Compared with previous Mars data, no abnormalities have been found for the time being, but the rover in the southern hemisphere of Mars is still out of contact, and for now it can be considered to have the same fate as the orbiter."

"Based on the location of each orbiter when it was damaged, as well as the angle of the specific scars, we can roughly analyze that the force that destroyed the probe came from the northern hemisphere of Mars."

After a thorough investigation and analysis.

I didn't find anything special on Mars.

We did not discover the so-called ancient starry road, nor did we find out why Mars suddenly glowed to the naked eye, nor did we find out why the various probes on Mars were suddenly damaged.

Or at least that's what it seems at this cursory detection.

It can be temporarily confirmed that there is probably nothing abnormal in the southern hemisphere of Mars.

If there is anything unusual.

It should be in the northern hemisphere of Mars.

And this requires waiting for further detection results from the manned spacecraft.

The position where the manned spacecraft enters the Martian orbit is close to the southern hemisphere of Mars. Even if a small orbital probe is released, it will take some time to detect specific information about the northern hemisphere.

Therefore, the people of BNULM fell into a long-lost tranquility.

Fortunately, by the time the manned spacecraft was launched, human technological level had made great strides forward because of the meteorite material.

This detection process will not take long.

Consider a communication delay of several minutes, and the time required for detection.

No more than twenty minutes.

Sure enough, not long after.

Information about manned spacecraft came again, and everyone was concerned.

[On Mount Olympus?! ]

[Impossible! This is impossible!!!]

【picture.jpg, picture.jpg, picture.jpg】

A series of information was transmitted to BNULM's command center.

In the aerospace field, the aerospace technology that once could only send a few kilobytes of information has made many aerospace workers develop a habit of not sending meaningless messages when speaking.

This is to save the limited information capacity.

Even though technology is now advanced to the point where it doesn't matter how much information is sent, the four astronauts on a manned spacecraft should still develop the habit of not sending random messages.

But now, the information sent back to BNULM is so redundant.

Except for the last sentence, the whole article is filled with too many punctuation marks and short sentences with unclear meanings.

This situation made everyone subconsciously feel that something was wrong.

Why did these professionally educated elites, these four high-level talents selected from four countries, scream and shout in surprise in the information sent back to the BNULM command center? What did they see?!

In silence, BNULM's network system completed parsing the images sent back by the manned spacecraft.

Three pictures that were enough to shock everyone were displayed on the big screen.

The first picture is Mount Olympus.

Olympus Mons is located at 18.65 degrees north latitude and 226.2 degrees east longitude on Mars in the solar system. It is a shield volcano on Mars, the highest volcano on the surface of Mars, and the largest known volcano in the solar system.

Olympus Mons is about 600 kilometers wide and covers an area of ​​about 300,000 square kilometers. It is formed by the long-term eruption of highly fluid basalt lava.

It is 21,171 meters above the Martian datum, and the height difference from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain is 21.9 kilometers.

The Mars Express and the Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter have extensive records of surveying Olympus Mons, and there are also many studies on this highest peak in the solar system around the world.

Now in this photo.

There seem to be some pixels on the surface of Olympus Mons that aren't quite right?

But the first picture is really not very clear.

The second image shows some small black dots distributed over a flat area on Mount Olympus.

But I still can't see anything special.

Because the small orbiter needs to quickly pass over the entire Mars and conduct detection and analysis, there is no time to calibrate the shooting accuracy.

So the first two pictures are a bit blurry.

The third picture is different.

Astronauts on manned spacecraft have extremely high authority and have a high degree of freedom in controlling small orbital probes.

Now it was obvious that manual control had been initiated, causing the small orbiting probe to stop running at high speed and to get close to and focus on the flat area with the black spot.

Now the third picture is the result of manual shooting.

With today's advanced technology, it is enough to capture a newspaper held by a person on the ground with slow and careful calibration.

When everyone in the BNULM command center saw the content of the third picture, they all gasped.

Now everyone finally understood why the astronauts on the manned spacecraft were surprised.

It can be seen in the third picture after precise calibration.

It is a huge flat area on Mount Olympus, and in this area there are countless human-shaped terracotta warriors standing densely.

With the precise and rapid analysis of the intelligent system, the number of 129,600 terracotta warriors in the picture was accurately counted.

They were wearing standard armor in the style of the Qin Dynasty, and their overall formation was like an ancient military formation, as if they still carried the momentum of fighting on the battlefield.

With the high-precision camera of the small orbiter and its excellent side-angle shooting technology, the faces of these terracotta warriors can be displayed vividly in front of everyone.

This scene looks particularly shocking.

For a moment, the entire BNULM command center fell into silence.

There was no other sound except the sound of swallowing saliva.

These countless terracotta figurines look so similar to China’s world-famous Terracotta Warriors.

Terracotta Warriors are a category of ancient Chinese tomb sculptures, that is, funerary objects made in the shape of warriors and horses (chariots, horses, soldiers).

It's not surprising to see it on Earth.

only……

Outside the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang.

Or we can see the Terracotta Warriors on Mars, which is tens or even hundreds of millions of kilometers away.

It's really too weird.

How come the numerous Mars probes before didn’t find these things? There are more than 129,600 Terracotta Warriors! Even on Earth, they can’t be easily hidden.

Could it be that these things suddenly appeared because the so-called ancient starry road was opened? Then what is the significance of these things coming to Mars? How much connection do these terracotta warriors have with the earth, with humans, and with China? What role does the eternal daylight, which runs through human history, play in this? Countless doubts filled everyone's mind.

Everyone subconsciously looked at the Chinese scholars around them, as if expecting an explanation.

The Chinese scholars all looked at Zhang Shouquan, the highest-ranking official here, in confusion, hoping that the top official of this secret department would know something.

As for Zhang Shouquan, he swallowed and remained silent for a long time, not knowing what to say.

He is just an ordinary human being, just an ordinary director of the Xunxiao Bureau.

How can we know what the situation is on Mars?

He could only guess that all this might have been done by Yong Zhou.

After all, Yong Zhou had been to space before.

Although what he saw and heard this time shocked him.

However, as a veteran Eternal Day fan, he firmly believes that behind the vast majority of supernatural phenomena in the world, there is a high probability that the power of Eternal Day is involved.

Mars is no exception!

Otherwise he really didn't know how to explain it.

It can't be that the First Emperor built his real tomb on Mars.

According to human beings themselves, how could they have landed on Mars thousands of years ago?

Yong Zhou must have been involved or influenced by this.

After pondering for a long time, Zhang Shouquan asked Gary Hall to give the order for the manned spacecraft to prepare to land on Mars near Mons Olympus.

As for himself.

He left the command center in shock and stood alone in the empty yard, slowly coming to his senses in the cool breeze.

It’s not that he didn’t want to contact Yong Zhou. When the Ancient Starry Sky Road was discovered, he wanted to contact him through Yong Zhou’s communications office in China.

It’s just that this time it involves Mars, a plan in which the four countries have invested heavily, and the future development of human foreign technology.

Zhang Shouquan was somewhat worried that it would be the same as the last time on the moon, and he would not be able to land on the moon again.

But now it is certain that things will be big and potentially troublesome, and may involve the remains of Eternal Day.

Lighthouse has been eager to curry favor with the big shot recently.

If he doesn't take the initiative to contact her, Lighthouse might really take over.

Perhaps, it is time to contact Yongzhou’s liaison office in China.

(End of this chapter)