Dead on Mars

“A length of 88 meters. Removing the power module, the truss and engine will be a total length of 63 meters.

“The power module has a mass of ten tonnes, taking up 2.44% of Orion II’s total mass. The central module is seventy tonnes, taking up 17.11%. Clearly, these can all be reduced. 80.44% of the entire spacecraft’s mass is concentrated on the dynamic module.”

Tomcat paced about in the Hab, muttering as it held the Orion model in its paw.

“Tomcat, the angle of attack calculations are done.” Tang Yue was slumped over the table napping when he woke up in a state of reverie as he looked at the indicator. “It’s all red!”

“What about the specific thrust… There’s still the engine’s specific thrust data…” Tomcat turned around and frowned. “It’s all red?”

Tang Yue wiped his drool and nodded. “What does it mean? What does it imply? Is it a good thing?”

“It means it exploded.” Tomcat came over to take a glance. Indeed, the numbers on the display had far exceeded the normal ranges. “It means that if Orion II does the atmospheric entry with a 20° angle of attack, propellant tank 3 will be released from the truss, causing the oxygen conduit to crack and leak, creating an explosion… The nine Raptor 10D engines will explode together.”

“Oh, alright then.” Tang Yue pulled at his hair.

“Modify the angle of attack and redo the calculations!”

Tomcat instructed.

“By how much?”

“By an arcsecond.”

“An arcsecond?” Tang Yue asked. “Modify it to 19° 59′ 59”? How different is that from 20°?”

“None, but it’s worth giving a try.”

Tang Yue adjusted the numbers as the workstation continued working.

A few seconds later, a warning window popped up.

“ERROR!”

“It hanged again.” Tang Yue silently restarted the process, entering the parameters back into the now empty fields.

In recent periods, the HP workstation had been churning through excessive workloads. Even though Tomcat had quite a bit to say about it, objectively speaking, the computer had been working hard. The CPU had fully expressed the spirit of diligence. In calculations like fluid dynamical simulations that contained more than a hundred parameters in the model, it would take Tang Yue a year to complete the computations by hand if not for the workstation.

“Tomcat, you must be nicer to the computer. It’s not deliberately hanging. Both of you stem from the same root, so why rush into fratricide?”

“Don’t speak for it.” Tomcat curled its mouth. “That slut of a computer deserves it.”

…

“… Three, two, one. Engines deactivated,” Mai Dong reported. “The United Space Station has entered the predetermined orbit.”

“Roger that, United Space Station.” Tang Yue and Tomcat observed the blip on the monitor as the latter entered the predetermined orbit successfully. “Miss Mai Dong, you are now in orbit.”

This was a routine orbit adjustment. Orion II would use its engines to raise the United Space Station’s height by six meters.

The United Space Station needed to have its orbit adjusted periodically, but since it lacked the power to do so, it needed Orion to provide the external force to raise its height slightly. At times, this job was left to Orion I, but this time, Orion II took on the burden.

Mai Dong heaved a sigh of relief.

“Tang Yue, Mr. Cat. Do we begin dismantling Orion today?”

“Mai Dong, get some rest now,” Tang Yue said. “Have some food and wait until sunrise.”

After dismantling the Eagle, Mai Dong’s missions had become more burdensome. To ensure that Orion II could safely enter the atmosphere, the power module and central modules needed to be dismantled to shorten the spacecraft and reduce its weight.

The power module was a strong twenty-five-meter-long metal truss. It had eight solar panels as well as a set of service mechanisms. It was sixty meters wide in total, making it the most eye-catching and massive part of the Orion spacecraft. At the same time, it was the part with the lowest mass of ten tonnes.

The central module was core to the Orion II spacecraft. It had a total length of thirty meters and eight sections that were connected to one another. It was rather massive in size and was no different from the space station in functionality. However, the usage of the central module on Orion was mainly to support the daily lives of the astronauts. Most of the supplies were stored here while the same part in the United Space Station dealt with the various research projects.

A modular design was mainstream when it came to aeronautical development. The Mars project had evoked a new surge of aeronautical technology development, and one of them was the common berthing mechanism. Orion and the space station used such a docking mechanism.

After a ferry spacecraft like Orion was put into service, the boundaries between the space station and spacecraft gradually blurred. Any section in Orion could be dismantled and made part of the space station. To expand the space station was as easy as piling on Lego bricks.

“Which section do I dismantle first?” Mai Dong asked. “The solar panels? Or the central module’s bay sections?”

“Dismantle the central module section first before dismantling the power module. However, there’s no need to rush. Doing this will be quite troublesome, especially with the power module. I haven’t thought of an absolutely safe method yet,” Tomcat replied. “We need to take it as it goes.”

The power module was a massive twenty-five-meter-long object weighing ten tonnes. Any mistake could cause it to destroy the entire space station.

The module modification of Orion may sound like mixing and matching Lego bricks, but in fact, it was more like demolishing a building. It was big, heavy, time-consuming, and dangerous.

The United Space Station didn’t come equipped with trusses that could be dismantled, and Mai Dong lacked the necessary tools and facilities. The power module was simply a combination of the truss and solar panels. In essence, it was a bare mechanical framework. Towards such an object without a docking mechanism, the United Space Station’s arm was helpless. After all, the latter wasn’t a true claw that could grab the truss like chopsticks.

The space station in Earth’s orbit was Orion’s dockyard. All repair and dismantling work was carried out in Earth’s orbit. The new ISS had specially created a fixed frame and anchor lines to deal with the eighty-meter-long behemoth. It allowed astronauts to work safely on the huge metal frame in zero gravity.

“There are a total of eight bay sections in the central module. How many need to be removed?”

The eight bay sections in the central module were located in the middle of Orion’s truss. The most important section was the command module where the computer was. It was the core of Orion.

The other seven bays were for habitation, including the living quarters and stores. From Earth to Mars, even with a slingshot at maximum thrust, it would still take more than three months. Orion needed to have enough supplies to support a six-member team.

“Apart from the command module, dismantle everything.” Tomcat didn’t hesitate. “However, they cannot be abandoned. We need to pick out the soft, inflatable section to be used for the airbag during the final descent.”

“How are we going to use the inflatable section as an airbag?” Tang Yue asked. “If I recall correctly, probes in the past were rapidly pumped with air when they were about a hundred meters in altitude. Can this section bay do the same? How do we pump in the air?”

“Of course not.” Tomcat shook its head. “We don’t have an air pump.”

“You want to fill them up with air and attach them to the lander before doing the atmospheric entry?”

“That’s right.”

“Holy sh*t, you want to let the Eagle drop down with a few airbags? Won’t those airbags burst? Won’t they be blown away?”

From Tang Yue’s point of view, the filling of the airbags was the final stage that happened when it was less than a hundred meters from the surface.

However, Tomcat didn’t share the same thoughts. It planned on letting the lander fly down in airbags.

“You just need to tie it tighter. If we can do something like getting Orion to descend vertically, what’s so bad about tying on a few airbags?” Tomcat was very calm. “Just do it; don’t harp on thoughts of the importance of life and death.”