Fifteen million kilometers away from Earth in deep space, the Hermes nuclear-powered spacecraft has entered a deceleration phase.

It turned the bow of the ship and pointed its stern in the direction of the Earth, and the high-speed argon atoms ejected from the ion engine gave the ship acceleration in the opposite direction of its flight.

Over the next 20 days, it will slowly slow to within the first cosmic velocity and eventually be captured by Earth's gravity, slowly reducing its speed to 3.07 kilometers per second, in opposition to the International Space Station in geosynchronous orbit.

Inside the International Space Station, the Ares 3 mission team will travel through the atmosphere on a small shuttle to return to Earth after a thorough medical examination, where they will be treated as human heroes.

Everywhere they went, there were flowers and applause.

It was supposed to be a wonderful return trip, but the news of the failed launch of the supply spacecraft on Earth not long ago made all the members of the Ares III mission team lose their interest in talking.

Colonel Lewis stood motionless like a sculpture in front of the porthole of the gravity cabin, his eyes glazed over, and the brilliant starry sky seemed to lose all its brilliance in her eyes.

"!"

Sergei Panteleev slapped the table, then got up and went straight to the gym, he wanted to vent his depression with strenuous exercise.

Haruko Kitagawa had tears in her eyes and sobbed softly.

Beck, Gross, Friedrich, they were also silent.

For the members of the Ares 3 mission team, Watney and Pang Xuelin have been comrades for many years, and they finally accepted the news that they were still alive, but finally watched them lose all hope and die on Mars, a blow that not everyone can easily bear.

"Okay, everyone disperses, there are still twenty days left, even if Pang and Watney really can't come back, I hope everyone here can go home safely!"

After some time, Colonel Lewis recovered from his stupor, turned to his teammates, and said.

Ding Dong –

At this moment, the electronic sound of the spaceship AI suddenly sounded.

"Received an anonymous encrypted email, did you open it?"

Colonel Lewis was slightly stunned, she came to a monitor, clicked on it, and said, "Open!" ”

Soon, a file named kinder.jpeg appeared on the computer screen, Lewis clicked to open it, and the screen showed that it was an invalid file name, she frowned, and chose to open it again, it was still useless.

"Haruko, come here, this file is a little strange, jpeg should be an image file format, why can't I open it."

"I'll take a look!"

Haruko Kitagawa wiped away her tears and stepped forward to take Lewis's place.

Her hands fluttered on the keyboard, the window on the screen opened and closed quickly, and after a while, she said, "This must be a broken JPEG prefix, probably broken during download, let me use the binary encoder to see what the hell is ......"

After a few seconds, a string of characters appeared on the screen.

Kitagawa frowned: "It's strange, this is not a JPEG file, but an ASCII text document, it seems, it seems to be a bunch of mathematical formulas." ”

Lewis was slightly stunned, she bent down to look at the text, and then turned back to Friedrich and said, "Friedrich, you come and help us take a look!" ”

Friedrich received his Ph.D. in mathematics and astrophysics from the University of Chicago and was the navigator of the Hermes spacecraft.

He quickly walked over and looked at the formula on the screen, his brow furrowed for a moment, then loosened again, while muttering, "This...... It seems to be a plan to change tracks...... Oh, my God...... It's crazy! ”

……

Ten minutes later, everyone in the Ares III team, including Sergei Panteleev, who was sweating in the gym, gathered inside Hermes.

Lewis's eyes flashed wonderfully: "The situation is probably like this, we now choose to change orbit and accelerate, cut into the Earth's orbit in half a month, and converge with the supply spacecraft launched on the Earth at a perigee of 350 kilometers, and then with the help of the Earth's gravitational slingshot effect, Hermes gains an acceleration again, and is expected to fly to Mars in 230 Martian days - this plan is more than 100 days faster than the original supply spacecraft plan." The only impact is that we will be in space for another 585 days! Perhaps Project Ares command wasn't optimistic about this plan, so someone left it to us and left it to us to choose! ”

"Colonel Lewis, what do you think?"

Baker said.

"I don't want to lie, I want to do this, we left Pong and Watney, and I want to get them back with my own hands," Lewis said. But there is a hidden danger in this, I hope you have a clear understanding, if we cut into the earth's orbit wrong, there is a possibility that the ship will be destroyed and people will die, and the docking with the supply spacecraft may also cause a disaster, even if everything goes well, the 585-day long journey, and any problems with the Hermes during this period may make us have no return. So I would like to ask everyone's opinions, as long as one of you is against it, I will choose to abandon this plan! ”

"I agree!"

Sergei was the first to say: "We are comrades-in-arms in distress together, if we don't save Pang and Watney, who else can we go!" ”

"I agree!"

"I agree!"

Baker and Gross spoke out one after another.

Friedrich laughed: "I miss my wife and children on Earth, but I am going on a great voyage, and they will be proud of me!" ”

In the end, everyone focused on Haruko Kitagawa.

Haruko Kitagawa weakly stretched out a hand and smiled, "I can't wait to see Pang and Watney!" ”

……

In the joint meeting of the Ares plan, experts from various countries participating in the meeting were arguing over the rescue plan proposed by Pang Xuelin.

Venkart looked at the chaotic scene in front of him and said nothing.

Just then, a staff member quietly walked up to Venkat and whispered a few words to him.

Venkat patted the table and said, "Okay, guys, there's no point in arguing anymore, we just received news that the Hermes is changing orbit and accelerating, apparently, someone shared the plan with the crew of the Hermes, and they made a decision for us!" I think our next energy should be on how to deliver supplies to the Hermes in half a month! ”

For a moment, in the conference room, everyone opened their mouths wide and focused their eyes on Venkart.

……

When Venkat came out of the conference room, he saw Tian Mu greet him with a solemn face.

Venkart smiled: "Tian, what's wrong? We succeeded, and Project Ares Command decided to carry out the rescue plan proposed by Pong! ”

Tian Mu didn't have the slightest joy on his face, and said: "Karp, I checked the rescue plan proposed by Pang last night, and there is a problem in it!" ”

……

"What? You want me to go? Pang, no, this is absolutely not good! ”

Mars, Asidalia Plains, perching pod, Watney is roaring loudly at Pang Xuelin.

Pang Xuelin calmly sat on the chair and said: "Watney, this is really the last resort, even if there are supplies, the fuel carried by the Hermes spacecraft is not enough for it to be parked in Martian orbit again, so it can only drop the supplies as when it passes by the Earth, and then return to Earth with the help of the gravitational slingshot effect of Mars." This is the perfect opportunity to join the Hermes with the Hermes spacecraft aboard the MAV in the Schiapallelli crater, while I continue to stay in the plains of Aneedaria and await the arrival of the Ares IV mission team, using the supplies brought by the ship! ”

Watney said, "Then why don't you come with me?" ”

Pang Xuelin said: "I have already calculated, when Hermes passed through Mars, the speed and altitude reached the limit of MAV, even if you are alone, you need to reduce the weight of MAV on a large scale to make it possible for you to reach the orbital altitude of Hermes." And the docking process is so dangerous that there is almost no chance of success with the words of the two of us! ”

Watney frowned, "Wouldn't it be better for us to use the Hermes to get supplies, and then wait patiently for the Ares IV mission team on Mars?" ”

Pang Xuelin shook his head and said: "This is not feasible, the reason is very simple, the Hermes has to carry out a mission of at least more than 585 days, in order to maintain the redundancy of the mission, the earth must prepare about seven hundred days of supplies for them, and the six members of the Hermes need at least thirty-five tons of supplies to add fuel." The largest supply spacecraft currently used on the ISS is China's Gluttonous cargo spacecraft, which can carry 40 tons of supplies, so the Ares program command can provide us with only five tons of supplies. Of the five tons, in addition to one ton of food, the carbon dioxide absorber alone will occupy three tons, and the remaining two tons will be allocated to spare parts for various equipment in the perching chamber, including parts for the oxygenator. And because the Hermes was so fast, the supply bay couldn't make a soft landing at all, so the risk of partial damage to supplies after a hard landing had to be considered. Therefore, these five tons of supplies are only enough for me to barely use, and if there are two of us, we will still be waiting to die on Mars! ”

Watney faintly showed signs of being persuaded by Pang Xuelin, and after a while, he said: "Then I'll stay, and you leave in the MAV!" ”

Pang Xuelin laughed and said, "Watney, how much do you weigh?" ”

Watney is nearly 1.88 meters tall, but Pang Xuelin is only 1.75 meters tall.

Watney was vaguely aware of what Pang Xuelin was about to say, and muttered, "Eighty-five kilograms!" ”

Pang Xuelin said with a smile: "Look, isn't this over, I only have 70 kilograms, your daily calorie consumption is ten percent more than mine, the oxygen consumption of daily breathing, and the output of carbon dioxide are also more than mine, the resources on Mars are already stretched, you say, if you don't go, who will go?!" ”