February 24th.

At this time, 9 days have passed since Liao Qingsong and others settled in the Mars base, and they have expanded the Mars base, which had only 5 cabins before, to 16 cabins.

"Haibo, what's the weather forecast for today?" Liao Qingsong walked into the master control cabin and asked.

Fang Haibo called up the relevant information and looked at it, and then replied: "The weather is sunny today, and the probability of sandstorms in the next 3 days is less than 14.7%. ”

Liao Qingsong thought for a while and said, "Then Kai Lide and I, let's go explore around today." ”

"Be careful, we have found 37 species of bacteria and 13 viruses in the Martian soil and air these days, and it seems that Mars is not a lifeless planet." Fang Haibo reminded.

These bacteria and viruses are all samples they have collected from the vicinity of the base these days and analyzed through laboratory tests, and these bacteria and viruses are microorganisms unique to Mars.

Obviously, although this situation is quite unexpected, it does not exceed the expectations of the Human Innovation Alliance, through the analysis of the geology and atmosphere of Mars, human beings have long known that Mars has a relatively thick atmosphere and water resources in history.

It's just that the magnetic field of Mars is constantly weakening, and under the impact of the solar wind and asteroid meteorites, the Martian atmosphere is constantly thinning, and water resources are constantly blowing into outer space.

In the presence of water and an atmosphere, and in the habitable zone of life in the solar system, the possibility of microbial presence is very high.

Liao Qingsong nodded: "I'll pay attention." ”

These alien viruses and bacteria, human beings have no immunity and no treatment plan for the time being, if they are infected, it will be troublesome, but the Mars space station has transported a nanorobot virus treatment module from Blue Star, if it is really unfortunate to be infected with alien viruses and bacteria, it can only be treated with "Great Cleansing Treatment".

"Keep in touch with the base at all times." Fang Haibo said with concern.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of safety."

After speaking, Liao Qingsong took Kai Lide to wear a mecha and a large tracked vehicle and headed southwest.

Along the way, the sky was full of red sand and the blue sun hung high in the sky, and the two piloted the mecha to slowly advance among the rubble and gravel, stopping from time to time to drill and sample, or sending out micro-drones to reconnoiter the surrounding terrain.

Although the Utopia Plain is a plain terrain, it does not mean that the terrain is flat, and soon Liao Qingsong and his wife encountered a canyon more than ten meters wide.

"This depth and width of the tracked car can't pass, we have to look for other routes." Kailide said as he looked at the test data.

"Put a drone and look at the bottom of the canyon." Liao Qingsong commanded.

A miniature drone took off from the top of the tracked vehicle and headed towards the bottom of the canyon, and the two of them clearly observed the situation in the canyon through the drone's camera.

"It's a fault canyon." As he looked at the layers of soil and rock formations, he knew that the canyon was a geological fault structure.

"Initiating carbon-14 geochronology." Liao Qingsong commanded. Kailide hurriedly started the carbon 14 detection system, and soon the carbon 14 detection data appeared in the system, and through the analysis of the detection data, the geological age of these soil layers and rock layers was roughly out.

Kai Lide analyzed: "Judging from the results of these data, the geological age here is relatively young, roughly about 16 million ~ 240 million years. ”

"Wait." Liao Qingsong said suddenly.

"What's wrong?" Kellid asked, confused.

"Return the drone to where it was."

Although "......" was confused, Kai Lide still operated the micro drone to return to the position just now, and Liao Qingsong carefully observed the picture sent back.

"Stop." Liao Qingsong shouted.

Kai Lide hurriedly pressed the pause.

"Enlarge the picture."

Kai Lide enlarged the surveillance screen according to Liao Qingsong's instructions, and suddenly his eyes widened, and then carefully watched the enlarged picture.

It is a geological sedimentary rock of 123.74 million ~ 123.81 million years old, not that there are any special minerals in this sedimentary rock, but the outline of a suspected fossil appears on it.

Liao Qingsong once again released a drone to go down, and soon they found more suspected fossils on the sedimentary layers of 123.74 million ~ 123.81 million years and before.

Among these suspected fossils, they found 3 large species [centipede-like fossils 150 million ~ 180 million years old], [beetle-like fossils 145 million ~ 170 million years old], [starfish fossils 120 million ~ 190 million years old], and some relatively small fossil species appear in various sedimentary layers.

If it is one or two suspected fossils, it may be a coincidence, but the appearance of a large area, and it can be classified, it is very likely that these fossils are Martian paleontology.

"It's a discovery of the century, there were multicellular organisms on Mars in ancient times, and there are a lot of fossils." Kailide suddenly became excited.

"I'll go down and collect some samples, and you'll watch the situation up there." Liao Qingsong commanded.

“OK。”

Liao Qingsong quickly started the ion engine of the mecha and slowly descended down the canyon, through the lighting system of the mecha, he clearly saw the fossil deposits that appeared from time to time on the rock formations on both sides of the canyon.

The condensed matter rifle was instantly aimed at a centipede-like fossil, cutting the fossil whole piece, followed by a number of other fossils, and sending them to the crawler piece by piece.

The two of them were busy for more than three hours, exploring the 3-kilometer-long canyon, and found no less than 5,000 suspected fossils on it, all of which were exposed to the rock formations, and it is unknown how many fossils were inside.

Martian time, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, the two returned to the Martian base with these fossil samples.

Fang Haibo and others, who had already received the news, also came to watch these fossil samples, and by the way, they helped Liao Qingsong and the others send the information of these fossil samples back to Lanxing.

Using the Mars space station's quantum communicator, they quickly packaged the data and sent it back to Blue Star.

……

Wang Tu and Zhao Hongxing looked at these photos, videos, and test data and immediately exclaimed, Wang Tu hurriedly instructed the assistant: "Immediately call the heads of the Institute of Extraterrestrial Biology and the Institute of Paleontology." ”

"Okay."

The assistant hurriedly went down.

"I didn't expect that there are not only microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses on Mars, but also such large multicellular organisms." Zhao Hongxing looked at the information and sighed.

"This is quite normal, the water bears on the blue star and the like can also thrive in this extreme environment, and the multicellular creatures on Mars are not too unexpected." Wang Tu explained.

Soon the person in charge of the Institute of Extraterrestrial Biology and the Institute of Paleontology appeared in the holographic conference room, Wang Tu sent the relevant information to the two of them, and the two of them suddenly brightened up with this discovery, and hurriedly asked to go to Mars for a field trip.

After Wang Tu and Zhao Hongxing thought about it again, they agreed that the Institute of Extraterrestrial Biology and the Institute of Paleontology would send four people to Mars.

However, Wang Tu has taken the lead in reminding them that once they go to Mars, they will stay on Mars for at least half a year, and they will be quarantined for a year or two when they return to Blue Star, but for these scientists who are not afraid of death, exploring the unknown is the most important thing, and they did not hesitate to say that they would go to Mars to investigate in person.

It turned out that they had the courage, Wang Tu could only arrange for them to prepare for a spaceship and go to Mars.