The Science Fiction World of Xueba

帕 Pasadena, California, USA.

This small town with a total population of only 130,000 people is famous for the California Institute of Technology and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) located here.

Although JPL is a research institution affiliated with NASA, it is administratively affiliated with the California Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1936 by Theodore von Carmen, the greatest aerospace engineer in the twentieth century. Famous Chinese scientists Qian Weichang and Qian Xuesen Guo Yonghuai is his disciple.

At this time, Tian Mu, accompanied by NASA Ares Planning Director Wen Carter, stepped into a Mars Pathfinder temporary accusation center temporarily converted from a warehouse.

The command center is very simple. There are two rows of long tables with more than twenty computers on it. Various wirings are scattered on the ground.

There were cigarette butts and empty coffee cups everywhere on the table. The staff inside were disheveled and bloodshot.

The director of the JPL laboratory responsible for the project, Bruce, said: "We formed a team of more than 30 engineers, and spent half a month rewriting the system software based on the technical data of the year, and used these obsolete components. A ground command and control system for the Mars Pathfinder was rebuilt, and it was connected to the Earth's deep space measurement and control network. Next, we can only wait to see if Pang and Watney can communicate the Mars Pathfinder. System repair, as long as Mars Pathfinder is activated, we will receive its feedback signal as soon as possible! "

Putian Mu and Wen Carter nodded frequently.

On the one hand, the CNN and CCTV joint filming team who were chartered into JPL aimed the camera at the scene staff.

冒险 The adventure that Pang Xuelin drove in his rover has become the focus of global attention in the past half month.

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

The dust storm erupted on Mars a few days ago, making it impossible for the satellite to capture the trail of the rover.

几乎 Almost everyone in the world is worried for Pang Xuelin.

Fortunately, the dust storm passed quickly, and Pang Xuelin also returned to the habitat with the Mars Pathfinder.

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

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

When Bruce took Tian Mu and Wen Carter to introduce the situation, a huge cheer came out at the scene, and applause followed.

我们 "We ... we received a signal from Mars Pathfinder ... OK, it is Pathfinder!"

Wen Wen Carter gave a slight glance, looked at Tian Mu and took the lead.

的 The entourage behind them also surrounded the wolves as if they saw the lamb.

CCTV and CNN's photography team hurried to each other, aiming the picture at the first voice engineer.

"Dude, what a good job, how is it now?"

Sven Carter slaps on the shoulder of the disheveled engineer.

Engineer said: "Our deep space measurement and control received the signal from Mars Pathfinder, the system just sent back the telemetry signal automatically. It is estimated that we can reach Mars in 5 minutes. Once we receive this signal, Mars Pathfinder can Immediately started high-gain communication, so after 10 minutes, we could receive feedback from Pathfinder again. "

"What was the newsletter you just received?"

Putian Mu asked.

At first glance, the engineer was a Chinese and could not help but hesitate.

Sven Carter said: "This is Dr. Tian Mu, Chinese commander of the Ares project. You can say it directly."

Engineer said: "The information returned now is a summary of some hardware self-tests. There are many invalid subsystems. These should be removed when Pang Yun returned to the Pathfinder."

"Where is the Mars rover, can you connect it?"

"It is temporarily unavailable, 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. The car was brought into the perch, and the signal was blocked by the perch, so it was temporarily impossible to contact ... "

Venkat Asada shrugged and said, "It seems we have to wait. It is three o'clock in the afternoon on the Eastern Coast of the United States. The Asidalya Plain should be at midnight. Pang and Watney are probably still sleeping. Wait until they wake up and see what happens! "

Uh ...

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

Pang Xuelin opened his eyes stupidly, and saw Watney shouting at him wearing an EVA spacesuit.

Pang Xuelin looked at the time and said, "It's only five o'clock in the morning, have you gone out so early?"

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

Watney said: "I can't sleep since last night. I stumbled into the early morning and couldn't help getting up for a EVA trip. The Pathfinder's high-gain antenna moved, indicating that the earth already knew us. I ’m trying to contact them and giving signals back to Mars Pathfinder. This means we can get in touch with the Earth and we can be rescued! "

Pang Xuelin was mentally prepared for this situation and smiled, "Well, Watney, don't be too excited. Now the earth can only send relevant instructions to the Pathfinder's landing module. Nothing else can be done. Come down to me! "

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

Watney is full of confidence in Pang Xuelin.

Pang Xuelin said: "You first take the recharged resident unmanned vehicle out of the perch capsule, the landing module cannot move, but the resident unmanned vehicle has a camera and can move, I guess we The perch blocked the low-gain signal from the landing module. As long as the Traveler unmanned vehicle was moved out and the connection with the landing module was automatically opened, the Traveler could be controlled from the earth side. "

"What are you doing?"

Pang Xuelin laughed: "I make some cardboard, I want to write something to greet the command!"

Uh ...

Twenty-five hours later, Wen Carter, who had just returned to the accusation center from the press conference, saw a cheerful look inside the accusation center, and could not help wondering: "What's wrong? Any good news?"

Tian Mu laughed: "The landing module was contacted with the Sojourner unmanned vehicle. We just issued a command to turn on the camera! It takes five minutes to reach Mars, but to really see the picture taken by the camera, at least Ten minutes later. By the way, how is the conference going? "

Taking a cup of coffee from a colleague, Vincart took a sip and spit it out: "What else can these reporters say, it's just an old-fashioned replay, but they also want photos of Pang and Watney, saying that the public is special I want to know the recent situation of Watney and Pang. Even if we start the sojourner unmanned vehicle, we can only capture the images of them in spacesuits, and with the capabilities of the old antique camera, how good can the photos be? Gao doesn't know yet! "

Putian Mu nodded and said, "The reporters are all like this. Now the most important thing for us is how to find a way to communicate directly with Pang and Watney, not these trivial things."

The two stood side by side and talked for a while. Soon, Tim, the first JPL engineer who found the Mars Pathfinder feedback signal, shouted, "Here, the camera is turned on, there is a picture ... It should be a panorama!"

On the big screen of the accusation center, the image of the faint surface of Mars first appeared. The camera slowly rose, and the rover, landing capsule and perch capsule appeared in the lens.

As the image slowly appeared, a handwritten note was held in front of the camera by a thin metal rod.

There is a line on the note: "[Yes] ... Can you see it ... [No]!"

The thunderous applause drowned the entire accusation center, and everyone cheered and hugged each other.

Sven Carter reacted for the first time and said, "Quick, Tim, quickly control the camera to turn and point [yes]!"

"I understand!"

Tim quickly gave instructions!

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

In front of the perch, Watney has been in anxiety since Pang Xuelin put a note in front of the camera of the Sojourner drone.

Xi Pang Xuelin said with confidence: "Rest assured, haven't you checked the sojourner self-driving car? Certainly no problem! Waiting for their feedback signal takes at least ten minutes, 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, and naturally there was no psychological burden.

Sure enough, after ten minutes, the camera was rotated and the lens was pointed at [Yes].

"They received! They received!"

Watney excited!

Xi Pang Xuelin smiled slightly, and took the note down without any trouble, and changed it again.

Uh ...

指控 JPL Mars Pathfinder charges center.

The second photo slowly appeared again on the big screen.

This time, there are a lot of words on the note. Fortunately, after zooming in on the large screen, I can barely see it.

Wenwen Carter stared at the big screen tightly, and read out Pang Xuelin's words.

"Hello everyone, the commanders of the Ares project, I am very happy to get in touch with you again. If you do not need your rescue, Watney and I really want to greet your family. Watney and I are doing well now Watney is a genius botanist, and we have planted potatoes on Mars ~ www.readwn.com ~ Food problems have become less urgent. There are about 2500 hours of carbon dioxide absorbers, oxygenator and water circulation system The state is not bad, so we will not have a crisis of survival in a short time. I will introduce to you how to restore communication ... "

"Oh, shit!"

The card space is limited. There is only so much text on this card. Wen Carter and Tian Mu can only wait for the next photo.

Ten minutes later, the third photo was successfully returned.

"Because the 26 letters are placed around the driverless car, each card can only get a perspective of about 13 degrees, and the information transmission is not accurate enough. I will use ASCII codes to manage the letters. Each letter can be expressed in hexadecimal. At that time, you can not only send us letters and numbers, but even punctuation marks. But this is only a short-term workaround. The signal transmission rate is too low, so I thought of a new method. I need to make the second Level communication system can be connected to the low-gain communication system of the Pathfinder Landing Module, that is to say, let the perch capsule replace the Traveler unmanned vehicle. In this way, we can not only communicate directly with text, but also transfer documents and photos ... ... "

Uh ...

Fourth photo.

"But I do n’t have the source code for the communication system of the Sojourner unmanned vehicle. I need you to pass this thing over. With this, I can modify the communication system code of the perch and make the Pathfinder Landing Module think The perch is the sojourner's self-driving car. That's about it. Finally, say hello to my colleagues on the Hermes! "

Wen Wen Carter and Tian Mu face each other.

Sven Carter lamented: "Pang is really a genius. I was still thinking about how to establish a real communication with them. I didn't expect Pang to give a solution directly."