Die on Mars

The old cat stepped on the gangway and descended slowly, looking up at the entire lander.

Looking from below at a close distance, the Eagle spacecraft looks like a white tower standing in the desert, with smooth and smooth lines. After all, there is an atmosphere on Mars, so engineers had to add a fairing to it when designing the lander. , it cannot be like the Apollo lunar module back then.

The sunlight on Mars has almost no temperature, and the twelve-meter-high fuselage appears milky white under diffuse reflection. In fact, the back of the Eagle spacecraft is a composite material of silicone and PEEK. If you look at this material at a close distance, it is actually is translucent.

"Old Cat, how is the situation over there?" Tang Yue asked, "I just successfully understood what VLBI on the same beam means."

"I'm checking the descent stage." The old cat answered, and the sunlight cast the lander's huge shadow on it.

"I still have more than 10,000 items that need to be checked." Tang Yue shook his head, "I really doubt whether we can really get it done in two days."

"That thing just looks scary. In fact, at least half of the content in the manual is nonsense - this is the way you engineers work. Every decimal point has to be explained in a separate entry, and then there is a separate entry below. Explain why you need to explain that decimal point." Old Cat said, "If you have enough confidence in the lander, you can not do any inspection at all."

"Is it really possible to skip the test?"

Old Cat nodded, "Anyway, this spacecraft has been inspected on Earth. As long as you believe in the excellent quality of this spacecraft, believe in the designers on Earth, believe in their abilities and character, believe in Boeing, Lockheed Martin and With the technology of the Aerospace Science and Technology Group, I believe they will not cheat you.”

“Then I might as well believe in God.”

Tang Yue shook his head and continued working.

The old cat descended to the bottom of the lander.

The lower part of the Eagle spacecraft is the descent stage, including the first-stage thrust rocket and four sturdy landing gears. The Eagle lander's thrust rocket is two parallel Raptor 3D liquid oxygen methane engines, each engine has There are two combustion chambers and two nozzles. The two engines have a total of four nozzles, which can produce a powerful thrust of more than 150 tons when started.

When the Eagle spacecraft lands vertically, it relies on the descending stage rocket engine to slow down, and the other four swimming engines are responsible for controlling the attitude. At the last fifty meters above the ground, the lander opens the landing gear again, and finally lands safely.

The old cat stood under the lander, looking up at the huge nozzle of the Raptor engine.

The nozzle is embedded and large enough for an adult to fit inside. The ablation marks on the bottom of the Eagle spacecraft are very obvious. The shell around the nozzle has been scorched black. The high temperature of the gas ejected by the reverse thrust rocket is very high. It can exceed two thousand degrees Celsius, which is a very scary number. There are not many materials in human hands that can withstand such high temperatures, so the shell around the engine nozzle is made of high-temperature-resistant zirconium carbide ceramic material.

The old cat carefully examined the nozzle of the engine. The convergent divergent nozzle of the rocket engine was actually a very complex structure. It was not just a simple conical funnel as most people imagined. The entire nozzle is made up of layers of thin tubes placed in circles. When the engine is started, liquid oxygen is filled into these thin tubes for cooling.

The old cat took out the wrench from the tool bag on his chest.

It opened the lander's shell, revealing the engine body and densely packed cables.

In order to facilitate inspection and maintenance, the designers reserved a special inspection window on the fairing of the Eagle spacecraft. When you open the cover, you can directly see the internal situation. The old cat is holding a universal meter in one hand and a wrench in the other. Knock there and poke your head around.

"This is the turbopump...combustion chamber..."

The old cat muttered to himself, while reaching out to pull at the messy cables inside the spacecraft. The Raptor 3D rocket is clearly an American man-made thing and a product of SpaceX, but for some reason, the cables have a strong Maozi style.

The Russians advocate the aesthetics of chaos and violence. They are good at using their extremely powerful integration capabilities to control various failed basic blocks and finally twist them into a powerful whole. This was true when they used nickel-based alloy steel to manufacture the MiG-25. It showed.

What is nickel-based alloy steel?

In human terms, it is stainless steel.

The Russians are the only ones in the world who use stainless steel to build airplanes.

"...This is the storage tank, this is the gas generator... No, the gas generator is here..."

The old cat compared the engine in front of him with the design drawing in his mind, but it was obvious that the design drawing was a seller's show, clean and concise, and looked like a high-tech product of the future, while the thing in front of him was a buyer's show, as if It's an antique from the last century.

The densely packed cables were dazzling, and the old cat wanted to stick his head in.

"This is the flow control valve... What is that? Electro-hydraulic servo valve? No... the electro-hydraulic servo valve is here, that is the injector..."

The old cat patiently opened the lines one by one with a long stick, eyes wide open.

"This tube carries liquid oxygen..."

"Huh? No, what is this line for?"

"This is the oxidizer pump."

"Hmm...huh? Why is this screw screwed backwards? Is the assembly worker left-handed?"

"Why are there two lines here?"

"Where does this line lead to? That's wrong... shouldn't it go to the throttle? Why does it go to the heat exchanger? Brother, did you go to the wrong place?"

"There must be something wrong here. The turbine must be overheated like this. It's a miracle the rocket didn't explode."

The old cat began to sweat on his head.

"Um?"

"Uh-huh?"

"Uh huh huh huh huh?"

"No, that's not how it is drawn on the design... Wait, why are there words on this frame? What does it say... Oh, Eliza... your butt is so sexy... Damn, who wrote this? of?"

The old cat's head began to burn.

"This isn't right."

"It's not right here either."

"It's not right here, it's not right, everything is wrong!"

"Holy shit, shit, shit! You must have bought this rocket on Pinduoduo!"

The old cat was so irritated that he got angry and slapped the table. He angrily grabbed the messy and annoying wires in front of him, and with a "tear" sound, he pulled them all away.

It felt much cleaner and fresher immediately.

Much cleaner and fresher.

Much more refreshing.

Much better.

So cool.

"What's wrong?" Tang Yue asked, "Old Cat, what happened to you over there?"

The old cat was silent for a few seconds.

"Um……"

"What's wrong, old cat? What's wrong?" Tang Yue asked next.

"The problem...it's not a problem. You can go on with your work and don't worry about me. Everything is normal here."

The old cat looked up at the sky and whistled, as if nothing had happened, silently hiding a handful of wires in his paw behind his back.