Chapter 782: Arrival on Mars?
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
As far as the Chinese academic community was concerned, June was the time for the academician primaries announcement.
On the other hand, June was also the third month of the Heart of Gold flight…
A silver-colored s.p.a.cecraft slowly moved forward in the deep s.p.a.ce. It was tens of millions of kilometers away from Earth.
When comparing the s.p.a.cecraft to the Sun, it seemed like the s.p.a.cecraft was moving at the speed of a snail, but in fact, it was moving nearly four kilometers a second.
If this were four days ago, it would be moving even faster. Its speed had now been greatly decelerated by Mars’ gravitational system.
Johnson stared at the fiery red planet outside the porthole. A victorious smile appeared on his face.
“It’s Mars! Jesus, we’re finally here!”
With a camera in her hand, Julia took a photo of the fiery red planet.
“It’s so beautiful!”
Four days ago, the BFS s.p.a.cecraft carrying the colony capsule successfully separated from the BFR rocket before entering the Mars gravitational system and orbiting the planet in an elliptical orbit.
After deceleration and several complex orbital changes, the BFS manned s.p.a.cecraft, also known as the Heart of Gold, had finally successfully approached the Mars atmosphere.
This was the end of their journey.
This was the beginning of civilization’s exploration of the galaxy!
“When are we landing?” Travis looked at the planet outside the window and said, “I’m feeling a little nauseous.”
Johnson was here for the glory, but Travis was here for different reasons. He only joined the Ares program to hide from his debt.
As for why he had to come all the way to Mars…
1He didn’t have a reason; he never did anything with a reason.
He saw the s.p.a.ce-X advertis.e.m.e.nt when he was drunk, so he filled out the form without thinking. Then when he almost forgot about it, someone suddenly called him and said he was chosen.
Honestly, he thought the phone call was a scam. After all, he didn’t think they would actually take a football player to Mars.
Fortunately, NASA didn’t ask him to do anything complicated. They just gave him some basic colonist training. The more complex operations were done by the former marine, Johnson.
Johnson was different from Travis and Julia. He was the “captain” of the Heart of Gold. He had been carefully selected and had been professionally trained. He actually signed a contract with s.p.a.ce-X years ago.
Apparently back then, there was no such thing as the Ares program. China hadn’t even started its moon landing program, but s.p.a.ce-X already had plans to colonize Mars…
“Prepare for landing!” Johnson floated back to his seat and clapped his hands. “Okay my friends, our future home is right in front of our eyes. Our alt.i.tude is at 316.7 kilometers, and we will reach our target airs.p.a.ce in five minutes! Please put on your Mars s.p.a.cesuit and connect yourself with the environment-control bio-security system. Give me a thumbs up when you’re ready!”
Travis nervously inserted the environmental life control tube into his seat. He put on his seatbelt and asked, “How long are we living here for?”
Johnson smiled heartily and said, “Four to five years at least! Someone might take our place in a couple of years, and of course, it could also be for the rest of our lives. It looks like Vegas here, nothing but red sand.”
Travis couldn’t help but say, “Las Vegas isn’t as deserted as this!”
“Then let’s change that… Guys, prepare for landing! Environment life control system is activated! 3, 2, 1… Ignite!
“Here we go!”
The s.p.a.cecraft was in the target airs.p.a.ce and the orbital calibration was complete. Johnson pressed the landing b.u.t.ton.
His seat began to shake violently, and through the porthole, he saw them getting farther and farther away from the s.p.a.cecraft shuttle.
Travis could feel the g-force acting on him, and he whispered, “Sh*t.”
Johnson, who was sitting in the main pilot’s seat, clenched his teeth while looking excited.
Julia was also sitting in the c.o.c.kpit, and she looked around nervously while secretly praying in her heart.
They had taken the first step toward Mars.
As for what would happen next, only G.o.d could answer them…
…
Even at their closest point, Mars was tens of millions of kilometers away from Earth.
Sending an email from Mars to Earth would take at least three minutes. Therefore, after entering Mars’ gravitational system, it would be difficult for NASA’s ground command center to accurately track and give directions to the Heart of Gold.
However, even though the three-minute delay made it much more difficult to communicate, the news of the Heart of Gold landing still spread all over Earth…
Jinling launch site.
Ever since the establishment of the Lunar Orbit Committee, this had become the home base of the Lunar Orbit Committee.
In order to help the construction of the lunar orbit project, two major aviation and aeros.p.a.ce companies had set up their offices here. Even the China National s.p.a.ce Administration moved some of their offices from Beijing to here.
An urgent meeting was underway in a conference room on the first floor of the launch site command center.
The deputy director of the China National s.p.a.ce Administration, Chen Yunhai, who was also the director of the Lunar Orbit Committee organization department, sat there with a report in his hand.
“35 minutes ago, we received a message from the five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope. Through the diagnosis and identification of the s.p.a.ce signal, we confirmed the electromagnetic wave was transmitted from Mars. The message transmission time was 10 minutes.”
He placed the report on the table and looked around the conference table.
“This is the FAST project team report. According to their speculations, the Heart of Gold has successfully entered Mars...o...b..t!”
Whispers were heard around the conference table.
A lot of people turned their heads toward Lu Zhou, who was sitting at the other end of the table, staring at his laptop. Unsurprisingly, Lu Zhou didn’t react at all.
Yuan Huanmin, the chief engineer of the China Aeros.p.a.ce Science and Industry Corporation, asked, “Have they begun landing?”
“We aren’t sure, but if they’re already in Mars...o...b..t, it shouldn’t be difficult to land.”
Even though this was the first time a human being was sent to Mars, this wasn’t the first time NASA had sent a s.p.a.cecraft to Mars. Starting with the Viking 1, the US s.p.a.ce industry had more than half a century of experience in Mars surface landing. It was unlikely for a landing problem to happen.
After hearing Academician Yuan’s words, Chen Yunhai spoke.
“Not sure, we are still confirming the legitimacy of the news…”
“There’s no need.” Lu Zhou suddenly spoke.
“They were probably successful. The piece of information captured by the FAST team was probably a video transmission of the Heart of Gold to the NASA command center.”
Chen Yunhai paused for a second, adjusted his gla.s.ses, and spoke.
“How do you know…”
Lu Zhou turned his laptop screen around and said, “Because they just uploaded a video on Youtube.”