Dead on Mars

“The Eagle?” Tomcat removed the earpiece, unsure what Tang Yue was getting at.

“The Eagle’s Ascent Vehicle. The little guy we launched up there. Isn’t it still connected to the United Space Station?”

Tomcat waved its claw. It obviously knew that the Eagle’s Ascent Vehicle was still connected to the United Space Station. Back then, both of them had gone to great effort and danger before successfully sending the Eagle into the embrace of the space station. Looking back, Tomcat felt that it must have been mad to agree to such a risky operation.

However, the Eagle’s Ascent Vehicle couldn’t be used as a vessel to enter the atmosphere again. It was one-use, having completed its mission after it entered orbit.

Now, the Eagle was just a large piece of space trash. Logically speaking, it was to be abandoned, but the reason Mai Dong hadn’t abandoned it was because with Earth gone, man-made space trash became rare and precious.

“The Eagle no longer has the ability to enter the atmosphere,” Tomcat said. “It’s worthless and the propellant has been completely expended. You want that lass to descend on a condemned spacecraft?”

“Based on regular flight standards, the Eagle is already condemned. However, it has some redundancy in its design. There’s definitely some room to be squeezed from that redundancy… right?” Tang Yue’s pupils dilated as he suppressed his voice. Tomcat was alarmed to hear that. Tang Yue was using a gambler’s thought process. He wanted to infinitely approach the spacecraft’s design limits, betting that it could survive.

This was akin to having a city on the brink of destruction, while you had the last Boeing 737 plane for escaping. However, Boeing had already informed you that the plane had reached the end of its lifespan.

At this moment, you’d have to bet that the plane’s designers had left sufficient safety redundancies. Even though the plane was rated for an MTBF of 10,000 hours, you would take the bet that 10,001 hours would be fine.

Tomcat and Tang Yue had made such a bet the last time, and thankfully, they had won the bet.

“Apart from the Eagle, we don’t have anything else that has the ability to enter the atmosphere. The space station’s and Orion’s structures don’t permit it because they will definitely disintegrate and burn,” Tang Yue said. “However, the Eagle’s design allows it to enter the atmosphere. It has a lifting body design with its blunt nose, not some fragile lattice structure. Therefore, even if the space station can’t withstand the resistance and overload, it will be able to withstand it!”

Tomcat fell silent in thought.

Tang Yue’s idea was very bold and crazy, but he was right. In terms of structure, the Eagle was indeed sturdier than the space station. The space station had no hopes of entering the atmosphere, but the Eagle stood a chance.

“If we come up with a way to stabilize the lander into an atmospheric entry position, the heat insulation layer on its surface might be able to help Mai Dong survive the heat.” Tang Yue spoke very quickly without any thought. Clearly, he had been thinking about this problem for some time.

The heat-insulating material was an advantage unique to the lander. The Eagle’s belly was covered with a layer of black heat-resistant tiles. During the atmospheric entry, it could have this face the ground as it withstood the heat produced by adiabatic compression.

The lander’s heat-resistant tiles were the only hope to resist the heat.

“The Eagle’s heat-resistant tiles have been exposed to the heat during its first landing,” Tomcat reminded him.

“Those people on Earth love to leave at least double the amount of redundancy.” Tang Yue raised two fingers. “Do you remember Cryptic Yang? He told me that the heat-resistant tiles on the lander can allow for the Eagle to do it three times.”

“Cryptic Yang?” Tomcat obviously remembered the man. His heroics of attempting to mix Sparkling Oldenlandia Water with Swedish herring canned food was still fresh on its mind. “Wasn’t he involved in compressed biscuits at the nutrition center? What has he got to do with the heat-resistant tiles?”

“His girlfriend’s brother’s mentor’s eldest nephew’s seventh maternal granduncle was a department head at NASA.”

“But we have no idea about the situation regarding the heat-resistant tiles on the Eagle. If there’s any damage to it, it will just replicate the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster,” Tomcat said. “It needs careful inspection.”

“But at the very least, we have hope.”

“It’s too early to call it hope.” Tomcat wore a serious expression. “Even if the Eagle can withstand the heat, it’s unable to decelerate by itself. When it enters the atmosphere, it will be in free fall. Putting someone in a metal can and throwing them from four hundred kilometers will kill anyone unless they are the Hulk.”

Tang Yue nodded with a frown.

He had tried his best to find viable means to descend, but they couldn’t be built on wishful thinking. Tang Yue and Tomcat were betting, betting on Mai Dong’s life. Considering the sanctity of life, they couldn’t make any mistakes. As long as a single mistake happened during the atmospheric entry, the lady would be vaporized.

The major obstacles that Tomcat talked about were the strength of the structure, the high-temperature resistance, and the deceleration. The Earth could only solve the first two problems, but the last problem was an unsolvable stumbling block. Just to have the complete lander safely land, engineers on Earth had to design several deceleration solutions. The JPL eggheads spent six months eating ramen and racking their brains before they came up with an unassailable plan.

Now, Tang Yue only had half the lander on hand. Furthermore, it was a shell without any propellant. To try landing with an empty shell? That was treating the laws of physics and engineering with the greatest contempt.

Since time immemorial, all that viewed the laws of physics and engineering with contempt had resulted in a bloody outcome.

Anyone who attempted to go against Newton eventually got hit by Lord Isaac in the face.

Tang Yue set up a few tables with white paper. On them were written: “Lord Newton,” “Lord Konstantin Tsiolkovsky,” “Lord Wernher von Braun,” as well as “Lord Sergei Korolev.” Then, he began kowtowing on the desktop.

“Lords, please show your powers to your followers. If you don’t make your presence felt, humanity will be doomed.”

“The final problem is navigation. If we were to let Miss Mai Dong descend, we need her to land accurately near Kunlun Station,” Tomcat said. “We do not have any rescue teams or helicopters on Mars. If the lander landed hundreds of kilometers away, no one could rescue her in time.”

“Hey, Mr. Cat, what are you guys being all secretive about?” Mai Dong appeared onscreen.

“Nothing. Nothing.” Tomcat wore its earpiece and said, “I’m only persuading Tang Yue not to hide under his blankets every night watching Japanese language flicks. Otherwise, it might lead to kidney deficiency… It’s not like his body is okay to begin with…”

Tang Yue sat by the side, holding up his head as he stuck out his tongue.

With the resources on the space station slowly depleting, Mai Dong’s predicament was exposed once again. If she continued staying there, her physical condition might only worsen.

To be frank, even if Mai Dong was brought down, the duo wouldn’t be able to live long. Kunlun Station was equally limited in resources, but at the very least, being together allowed them to help each other. Tang Yue wasn’t really scheming anything. He was in no mood to scheme in an environment where he had little to eat or drink. It was just that being in a dire situation, he would enjoy having another person accompany him so they could share in the warmth.

Every time he sat at Kunlun Station’s entrance to watch the sunset, Tang Yue would muse about how nice it would be if he had someone with him.

That way, he could say to the other person: “Look, doesn’t the sun look like an egg yolk?”

“Directly using the Eagle’s Ascent Vehicle is impossible.” Tomcat walked over and pressed down on his shoulders. “But it’s not completely hopeless.”

Tang Yue was stunned.

“You have a solution?”

“No.” Tomcat shook its head. “This matter needs time and we can’t be rash about it. I need to make careful calculations. The Eagle can at the very least help us resist the heat problem. That’s already one big step. The other steps will need planning.”