The Science Fiction World of Xueba

Pasadena, California, USA.

This small town with a total population of only 130,000 is famous for its Caltech and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) located here.

Although JPL is a research institution affiliated to NASA, it is administratively affiliated to Caltech. It was founded in 1936 by Theodore von Karman, the greatest aerospace engineer in the 20th century. Famous Chinese scientists Qian Weichang and Qian Xuesen , Guo Yonghuai are his personal disciples.

At this time, Tian Mu, accompanied by Venkate, director of the NASA Ares program, stepped into a temporary Mars Pathfinder command center that was temporarily converted from a warehouse.

The command center is very simple, with two rows of long tables, on which there are about 20 computers, and various wiring scattered on the ground.

There were cigarette butts and empty coffee cups all over the table, and the staff inside had disheveled hair and bloodshot eyes.

Bruce, the director of the JPL laboratory in charge of the project, said: "We formed a team of more than 30 engineers. According to the technical data of the year, it took half a month to rewrite the system software, and use these obsolete components Rebuilt a ground command and control system of the Mars Pathfinder and connected it to the Earth's deep space measurement and control network. Next, we can only wait to see if Pang and Watney can connect the communication of the Mars Pathfinder. The system is repaired, as long as the Mars Pathfinder starts, we will be able to receive its feedback signal as soon as possible!"

Tian Mu and Venkate nodded frequently.

The joint filming team of CNN and CCTV, which was authorized to enter JPL, pointed the camera at the staff on the scene.

In the past two weeks, Pang Xuelin's adventure in the rover has become the focus of global attention.

Every day, the Ares Project Headquarters will release photos taken by Mars satellites, and then the major media will invite some experts and scholars to come and interpret them based on these materials, and tell the public what Pang Xuelin is going to do and what his next move will be.

The dust storm that erupted on Mars a few days ago made it impossible for satellites to capture the trace of the rover.

Almost everyone in the world is worried about Pang Xuelin.

Fortunately, the sandstorm passed quickly, and Pang Xuelin brought the Mars Pathfinder back to the habitat smoothly.

Therefore, the public is extremely concerned about whether the Ares Project Command can reconnect with Pang Xuelin and Watney.

This is why the CNN and CCTV teams were authorized by NASA to enter JPL for filming.

Just as Bruce was leading Tian Mu and Venkate to introduce the situation, there was a loud cheer, followed by applause.

"We...we have received a signal from the Mars Pathfinder... sure, sure it's the Pathfinder!"

Venkat froze for a moment, exchanged a glance with Tian Mu, and walked up first.

The accompanying people behind them also quickly surrounded them like wolves who saw a lamb.

The camera teams of CCTV and CNN quickly took their positions, aiming at the first engineer who spoke out.

"Nice job dude, what's going on?"

Venkate slapped the shaggy-haired engineer on the shoulder.

The engineer said: "Our deep space measurement and control system has received the signal from the Mars Pathfinder. Just now the system automatically sent back the telemetry signal. It is estimated that we will reach Mars in 5 minutes. Once the signal is received, the Mars Pathfinder can go to Mars." Immediately turn on the high-gain communication, so in 10 minutes, we can receive feedback from Pathfinder again."

"What was the content of the communication you just received?"

Tian Mu asked.

Seeing that he was a Chinese, the engineer couldn't help hesitating.

Venkat said: "This is Dr. Tian Mu, the Chinese commander-in-chief of the Ares project, you can say it directly."

The engineer said: "The information sent back now is the outline of some hardware self-tests.

There are many ineffective subsystems, these should have been dismantled by Pang Yun when he returned to Pathfinder. "

"Where's the Sojourner rover, can it be connected?"

"Temporarily unable to contact, but Pathfinder has two communication systems, the low-gain antenna is responsible for communicating with the Sojourner unmanned vehicle, and the high-gain antenna is responsible for communicating with the Earth. We suspect that Pang and Watney will send the Sojourner unmanned The car was brought into the habitat, and the signal was blocked by the habitat, so it is temporarily impossible to contact..."

Venkate shrugged at Tian Mu and said: "It seems that we have to wait. It's three o'clock in the afternoon on the East Coast of the United States, and the Arsidalia Plain should be midnight. Pang and Watney are probably still sleeping. We Let's wait until they wake up to see the situation!"

...

"Pang, the antenna is moving, the antenna is moving!"

Pang Xuelin opened his eyes in a daze, and saw Watney wearing an EVA spacesuit, and shouted at him.

Pang Xuelin looked at the time and said, "It's only five o'clock in the morning, why did you go out so early to watch?"

In order to ensure the astronauts’ sense of time on Mars, the experts of the Ares project specially formulated a set of Martian time for them. A Martian day is equivalent to 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35 seconds on Earth, and a Martian hour is equivalent to one day. One minute and forty seconds per hour, the five o'clock in the morning that Pang Xuelin said was calculated according to Martian time.

Watney said: "I haven't been able to sleep since last night. I was in a daze until the early hours of the morning. I couldn't help getting up and doing an EVA. The high-gain antenna of the Pathfinder moved, which means that the earth already knows us. Trying to contact them, sent a signal back to Mars Pathfinder. This means we can get in touch with Earth, and we can be rescued!"

Pang Xuelin was mentally prepared for this situation, and smiled: "Okay, Watney, don't get too excited, the earth can only send relevant instructions to the landing module of the Pathfinder at most, and can't do anything else. Come down and give it to me!"

"Yes, you are our communications expert, so naturally it's your turn!"

Watney has full confidence in Pang Xuelin.

Pang Xuelin said: "You first take the recharged Sojourner unmanned vehicle out of the habitat module, the landing module cannot move, but the Sojourner unmanned vehicle has a camera and can move. I guess we The habitat module blocks the low-gain signal from the landing module, as long as the Sojourner unmanned vehicle is moved out and the connection with the landing module is automatically opened, the Earth can control the Sojourner.”

Watney was slightly taken aback: "What are you going to do?"

Pang Xuelin smiled and said: "I got some cardboard, I want to write something to greet the headquarters!"

...

Half an hour later, Venkat, who had just returned to the accusation center from the press conference, saw the beaming look in the accusation center, and couldn't help but wondered: "What's the matter? What good news is there?"

Tian Mu smiled and said: "The landing module and the Sojourner unmanned vehicle have been connected, and we have just issued an order to turn on the camera! The order will take five minutes to reach Mars, but if you want to really see the pictures captured by the camera, you must at least Ten minutes later. By the way, how is the press conference going?"

Venkate took the coffee from his colleague, took a sip, and complained: "What else can these reporters say, it's nothing more than repeating the same old tune, they still want photos of Pang and Watney, saying that the public is special Wondering what's going on with Watney and Pang. Even if we fire up the sojourner, all we'll get is images of them in their space suits, and with the capabilities of that vintage camera, how good are the pictures? Gao doesn't know yet!"

Tian Mu nodded and said, "Reporters are like this. The most important thing for us now is how to find a way to communicate directly with Pang and Watney, not these trivial things."

The two stood aside and chatted for a while, and soon, Tim, the JPL engineer who was the first to discover the feedback signal of the Mars Pathfinder, called out: "Here we come, the camera is turned on, and there is a picture...it should be a panorama!"

On the big screen in the command center, the dim yellow image of the surface of Mars first appeared, and the camera slowly rose, and the rover, landing module and habitat module all appeared in the camera.

As the image slowly emerges, a handwritten note is held up to the camera by a thin metal rod.

There was a line on the note: "[Yes]...can you see... [No]!"

Thunderous applause flooded the entire accusation center, and everyone cheered and hugged each other.

Venkate reacted immediately and said, "Quick, Tim, quickly steer the camera and point to [Yes]!"

"clear!"

Tim gave the order quickly!

"Pang, do you think they can receive our message?"

In front of the habitat, Watney has been in a state of anxiety since Pang Xuelin put the note in front of the camera of the Sojourner unmanned vehicle.

Pang Xuelin said confidently: "Don't worry, didn't you check all the Sojourner unmanned vehicles? There must be no problem! It will take at least ten minutes for them to give feedback. We just need to wait patiently!"

In the movie, Watney got in touch with the earth very smoothly. Pang Xuelin knew the plot in advance, so he naturally had no psychological burden.

Sure enough, ten minutes later, the camera turned around and pointed the lens at [Yes].

"They got it! They got it!"

Watney is excited!

Pang Xuelin smiled slightly, took down the note without haste, and replaced it with a new one.

...

JPL Mars Pathfinder Command Center.

The second photo slowly appeared on the big screen again.

This time, there were a lot of words on the note, but fortunately, it was enlarged by the big screen and I could barely see it clearly.

Venkat stared closely at the big screen and read Pang Xuelin's words word by word.

"Hi everyone, Project Ares Commanders, great to be in touch again, and Watney and I would like to say hello to all of your families if we don't need your help again. Watney and I are doing great now , Watney is a genius botanist, and we've grown potatoes on Mars, so the food issue is less urgent. The CO2 absorber has about 2,500 hours left, and the oxygenator and water circulation system are in good shape, so We will not have an existential crisis in a short period of time. Next, I will introduce to you how to restore communication..."

"Oh, shit!"

Card space is limited, there is only so much text on this card, Venkat and Tian Mu can only wait for the next photo.

Ten minutes later, the third photo was successfully sent back.

"Because 26 letters are placed around the unmanned vehicle, each card can only get a viewing angle of about 13 degrees, and the information transmission is not accurate enough. I will use ASCII codes to manage letters. Each letter can be expressed in hexadecimal. To Sometimes you can send us not only letters and numbers, but even punctuation marks. But this is only a short-term expedient method, and the signal transmission rate is too low, so I came up with a new method. I need to let the second The high-level communication system can connect to the low-gain communication system of the Pathfinder landing module, that is to say, let the habitat module replace the Sojourner unmanned vehicle. In this way, we can not only communicate directly by text, but also transfer files and photos... ..."

...

Fourth photo.

"But I don't have the source code of the underlying communication system of the Sojourner unmanned vehicle. I need you to pass it over. With this, I can modify the communication system code of the Habitat module so that the Pathfinder landing module thinks The habitat is the sojourner. That's about it. Finally, give my regards to my colleagues on the Hermes!"

Venkate and Tian Mu looked at each other.

Venkate sighed: "Pang is really a genius. I was still thinking about how to establish a real communication with them. I didn't expect Pang to directly give a way."