It had been nearly two weeks since they landed on Mars, and it had been three days since the life support system was renamed "New Virginia".
During this period of time, the New Virginia Observation Station … or rather, the colony's work went quite smoothly. Although they encountered a sandstorm that lasted for 17 hours, the storm passed without any mishap.
In fact, the atmosphere of Mars was a hundred times thinner than that of Earth, so the sandstorm itself wasn't dangerous. The danger was the electrostatic lightning that appeared with the sandstorm, as well as the lack of energy for the solar power plant.
However, this was already taken into account by Space-X's Mars colonization project team. The life support system was equipped with a generator that burned methane, which could replace the solar power plant.
At the same time, the first thing these colonists did after landing was to install lightning rods in their new homes to prevent possible accidents …
Even though they encountered a lot of trouble adapting to life on Mars in the early days, fortunately, they managed to overcome it. On the other hand, while cooperating with NASA's ground command center to complete scheduled scientific research tasks, Johnson usually took half an hour a day to record "The Mars Diaries".
As the Columbus of this new continent, he certainly hoped that more people would be interested in his "New Virginia". Therefore, when he was filming, he usually chose to show the good side of colonial life, the adventurous side, and ignored the bad parts.
In fact, the broadcast of this "large-scale colonization advertisement" was also quite successful. People unexpectedly liked this and enthusiastically discussed life on Mars. After every episode of "The Mars Diaries" was broadcast, it would cause a lot of discussion on FB and Twitter.
So far, five episodes of "The Mars Diaries" had been released, and it had become one of the most popular online shows in North America. Many TV stations had obtained broadcasting rights from Space-X.
Today was the filming of the sixth episode.
Johnson straightened the camera on the table and took two steps back. He smiled at the camera with his white teeth.
"Hey, everyone, I'm Johnson, the captain of the Heart of Gold! Long time no see, we meet again! "
"Unfortunately, we encountered the same sandstorm as Opportunity! It's pitch black outside, so we can't go out for an adventure today … But don't worry about us. We're not going out because we're afraid of being blown away by the wind. Even if there's a tornado in the thin atmosphere, it's no different from tickling us. "
"Let's talk about something else today. I'll show you what we do in the colony when we can't go out …"
Johnson picked up the camera equipment from the table and walked to the public area next to it. He told the audience about the interesting things that happened here and how to use the VR game equipment or the treadmill to kill time.
"This is where we have fun … Even though it's a little cramped right now, it's still the beginning of a business. Everything will get better … Travis, say hi to everyone."
Travis, who was playing the game, forced a smile on his face. However, when Johnson looked at him, he quickly put on a bright smile.
Johnson returned the "good" sign and winked at him.
"I'll cut out that part for you. You don't have to thank me."
"Then I really have to thank you."
Travis rolled his eyes, put on his VR goggles, and continued fighting in the sea of video games.
In fact, life here was quite boring. It was far from the utopia that Johnson described.
However, these things obviously weren't suitable to be shown in half an hour. Or rather, even if he accidentally showed them, Space-X would kindly delete them when they edited the video.
However, these things weren't important.
He didn't shoot these things for the sake of spreading negative energy.
Talking to the camera and watching the audience grow tens of millions of kilometers away had become part of his daily routine. If it weren't for the lack of content and the fact that editing took time, he would've filmed one episode a day to relax.
After Johnson showed the audience Travis, who was playing the VR game, and Jones, who was reading a book next to the coffee machine, he walked to the rover garage and stood next to his "car".
"Happy times are always short, it's time to say goodbye. I look forward to seeing you again, and I hope you look forward to our next meeting. Bye — "
Johnson made a cool pose in front of the camera and ended the day's filming.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming from the garage door. Travis, who had finished his gaming time, walked over.
He looked at Johnson, who was standing next to the rover. He crossed his arms and spoke in a complaining voice.
"This damn show doesn't make me feel good at all."
Johnson smiled and stuffed the camera into his pocket. He then walked to the door and patted Travis on the shoulder.
"Relax, buddy, when the sandstorm stops, I'll take you for a ride."
Travis complained, "I don't want to go for a ride, go by yourself. There's nothing here but sand! Dammit, why did I even come here? "
There was no such thing as a highway on Mars. It was slightly better in the desert, but the last time he went to the rocky area for sampling, the bumpy road almost made him throw up his lunch.
After the novelty period of arriving on Mars, he was quite resistant to going to work and requested to transfer his work to the colony.
Even though Johnson was helpless, he still agreed to his request.
As a replacement, Jones was transferred to work.
Fortunately, these missions didn't require a lot of people. Most of the equipment was highly automated. Sometimes, they didn't even need to get off the rover.
Before they set off for the life support system, NASA had already considered the fact that the three colonists couldn't leave the capsule.
To put it bluntly, their main task was actually to test this life support system. The other scientific activities were mostly incidental.
"Okay, buddy, everything is going to be fine. We survived the two-month flight, our good days are just beginning. "
Johnson didn't know how to respond to his teammate's complaints. He could only try to comfort him.
It didn't matter if his teammates liked him or not, this was the only thing he could do.
However, what he didn't know was that while he was comforting Travis, the NASA ground command center tens of millions of kilometers away was in chaos.
That's right.
The sandstorm on Mars was nothing to be afraid of.
However, if this global sandstorm lasted for more than half a year, even with the methane generator as a backup power source, the situation would become less optimistic …
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
