NASA ground command center.
The president's roar echoed in the conference room next door.
"F * ck! What a bunch of idiots!
"If there is a sandstorm there, why did you choose this bad time to send our colonists there?!"
The people in the conference room looked at the angry president. They didn't dare to breathe, afraid that the president would vent his anger on them.
Especially Director Carson, his face was full of awkwardness.
He didn't expect this to happen.
After all, he wasn't God, how would he know when a sandstorm would occur on Mars …
"Mr. President … We don't have a meteorological observatory on Mars. Although I understand your feelings, we can't know the climate change on Mars in advance. Also … "
Director Carson paused for a second and spoke with difficulty.
"Generally speaking, the most frequent sandstorms are in summer, especially global sandstorms, which rarely appear outside of summer … It's completely out of our control that something like this happened. Although we've considered countermeasures …"
The president stared at him and asked aggressively.
"What's the strategy?"
"But there was a small accident." Director Carson said with an awkward expression, "In our original plan, we planned to build methane and groundwater resources, then use the resources on Mars to deal with this problem. You know, as long as the external input of resources is sufficient, surviving this period of reduced sunlight is not a problem at all, but … "
"But?"
Director Carson gulped and said quickly, "But our colonists have just landed on Mars, and they are not ready to collect methane and water resources on Mars. The methane reserves brought from Earth … can't last long. "
To put it bluntly, they did not expect to encounter such a harsh environment in the second week after they landed.
Even though it was difficult to predict a global sandstorm on Mars through astronomical observation, it could be estimated. According to statistics, it would only happen once every three Martian years, which was 5.5 years in Earth years.
The last global sandstorm was in 2018, and it had only been three Earth years since then. Logically speaking, they still had a window period for the Hohmann transfer orbit. Even if there was an accident, they could use this window period to send enough survival supplies to help the colonists get through the difficulties.
However …
No one had expected that Mars would not play by the rules this time. Just three years later, another sandstorm swept across the entire planet. From the astronomical observatory on the ground, the entire planet had turned into a giant red egg. Not a single ray of sunlight could penetrate the surface …
The fact that the solar power station didn't work wasn't the worst part.
The worst part was that their planting area had just been inflated, and the plants needed sunlight to grow.
There were only two choices left for the colonists. They could either dispose of all the crops that had just sprouted, or they could generate electricity to provide sunlight for them.
No matter which choice it was, both were difficult choices.
"Why didn't you think of this before?!" The president looked at Director Carson and said angrily, "When I spoke at the White House, I clearly said that if we can't guarantee the safety of our colonists, we'd rather not send them there!"
Carson: "Sir …"
The president stared at him and said, "Do you have any questions? Mr. Carson. "
"Yes, you did say that." Director Carson gulped and said, "But you also said during the closed-door meeting … We have to establish our advantage in the space race as soon as possible at all costs."
The expression on the president's face suddenly froze. He awkwardly rubbed his nose and coughed.
"Did I say that?"
The Vice President standing next to him nodded silently.
"I remember you saying … The meeting minutes can prove it."
Anyway, the vice president was just a mascot in the White House, so he didn't have to give the president face. Not to mention that he was the head of the reorganized National Space Committee. He obviously didn't want to be blamed on him.
The president said with a straight face, feeling a little embarrassed.
"That's not the point. No matter what I said, I want you to reconsider your countermeasures immediately! Especially you, Director Carson! "
Carson subconsciously straightened his back when his name was suddenly called.
"Yes, sir!"
The president ordered in an indisputable tone.
"Within 24 hours, I need you to come up with a plan, then implement it within 72 hours. I don't care what method you use, we have to ensure the safety of our astronauts, or at least keep them alive!
"If you can't do it, you know the consequences."
Carson's forehead was covered in cold sweat as he spoke.
"Yes, sir …"
…
[New Virginia! The light of humanity!]
"These people sure are optimistic."
Lu Zhou looked at the news pop-up on his computer screen and smiled as he shook his head.
During lunch break, Lu Zhou was in the dean's office at the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study. As usual, he was drinking coffee while reading his thesis.
Coincidentally, he saw this piece of news in the pop-up window.
"Looks like Space-X is really putting in a lot of effort. They even posted their articles on internationally renowned academic forums."
However, the current trend of public opinion seemed to be as such.
Ever since the BFS spacecraft successfully dropped the landing capsule, New Virginia seemed to have become a land of dreams. Especially after the broadcast of "The Mars Diaries", the entire Ares program was hyped up …
Media outlets in North America seemed to have gradually stopped mentioning the "space race". Instead, they focused on the families and friends of the colonists, as well as the 30-minute videos that were released every once in a while.
Lu Zhou was also a loyal "fan" of "The Mars Diaries"; he never missed an episode.
After all, if he wanted to defeat his opponents, he had to understand them first.
Even though he felt like Elon Musk was exaggerating when he was in North America, there was no doubt that Elon Musk was capable.
At least for now, the BFR rocket was already at the top of the chemical propulsion system, and there was still room for improvement.
And the life support system …
Therefore, in addition to watching "The Mars Diaries", Lu Zhou also requested the Qianzhou Radio Observatory's FAST project team to monitor the electromagnetic wave signals from Mars in real time through the Lunar Orbit Committee. He then sent a copy of the data to Xiao Ai to decrypt.
Even though the decryption wasn't easy and not all of the information could be successfully decrypted, this was still a way to obtain information about the "New Virginia" colony.
If everything went well, they might be able to obtain some critical information.
For example, the exploration of resources in some areas of Mars …
Lu Zhou closed the webpage and was about to end his lunch break. However, a pop-up window popped up on the lower right corner of the screen.
[Master, file 0001 signal has been decrypted! Do you want to take a look at it? ψ (`́) ψ]
Lu Zhou looked at Xiao Ai, who was waving his little devil's fork. He smiled and spoke.
"Yeah, send it to my desktop … Oh yeah, how's the decryption of the other files?"
[Not yet, they use different encryption methods for each communication. It will take some time to decrypt them … (; ´ д`) ψ]
"It's okay, just take it slow. I'm not in a hurry."
[Okay! Xiao Ai will do his best! (≧ ∀ ∀) ψ]
Even though Xiao Ai was intelligent, he wasn't omnipotent.
Even with the assistance of a supercomputer, it was difficult to immediately decrypt a communication encrypted with professional technology.
Document 0001 was the first communication signal between the Heart of Gold and NASA's ground command center after it arrived on Mars. It had been two weeks since the FAST project team began monitoring it.
Lu Zhou quickly scanned the contents of the document. Just like he expected, it was mostly "reporting safety" or "applying for missions". There wasn't much useful content.
Just as Lu Zhou was about to save the document into his USB, he suddenly heard a knock on the door.
Lu Zhou closed the folder on his desktop and cleared his throat.
"Come in."
The door was pushed open, and Hou Guang came in.
He had a serious expression on his face, and he didn't even bother to greet Lu Zhou before he spoke.
"There's news from the Qianzhou Radio Observatory. When they were directly observing Mars, they discovered something unusual."
Lu Zhou leaned back in his office chair and said, "Something?"
"It's a global sandstorm!"
…
(Thank you to the leader of "Evergreen" for your tip ~ ~ The trip is over, it's time to come back and write.)
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