"No response to shortwave calls."

"Detection radar no target signal"

"Failed to establish communication attempt, code E9"

“……”

After 130 hours of work, Daystar One finally lost contact.

In fact, there were many signs before the loss of contact, and the performance of this hastily built lander has far exceeded everyone's expectations.

The original landing site for Venus-1 was a high ground next to a low volcano, which was chosen as the landing site by the probe due to its relatively flat terrain.

The soil here is relatively new and soft, and the investigation is not very meaningful, so Lin Ju asked to use most of the remaining fuel to take off again and continue the exploration in another place.

After 15 minutes of deliberation, the site was chosen on a plain about 2 kilometers on the other side of the volcano, and a route over the volcano was planned—although it had not yet erupted, all indications were that it was an active volcano, as evidenced by the apparently coloured soil in the photographs.

Daystar 1 was specially designed to live up to expectations, taking it over the volcano and taking a very clear picture up close before landing on the edge of a swamp in the intended area.

The ground had expected the corrosive swamp to quickly destroy the air shield around the lander, but it lasted nearly six days before it was completely destroyed, and the amount of data collected during that time was far greater than all the information in the past combined.

In the end, Daystar 1 ended up slowly sinking after dumping, and the strong acidic liquid in the swamp entered its structure and destroyed the weak parts, and the electrical lines were gradually destroyed, and finally lost contact completely.

But this is completely enough, and the detection ability of Qixing-1 as a soft landing stationary probe is limited, and the 130 hours can be a new record, which has played an incredible value.

The only pity is that the scientific community has been speculating that there is no shadow of sulfur-based microorganisms at all, but there are many types of organic matter, and there is still a probability of life.

Shen Zuozhou put down his headphones with great satisfaction, he has been accompanying Daystar One to create miracles in the past few days, and this is definitely a time worth recording in his career.

Xiao Okada walked over and patted him on the shoulder:

"Enjoyable, huh? Next time, we'll send a rover and launch the first long-lasting Venus vehicle there. ”

There is also a part of the payload of Daystar 1 to assess the extent of damage to the ground environment, and Xiao Okada's feeling is ...... Not bad.

It's just that the corrosive substances in the air can resist, the main problem is still the high temperature, but there are not many materials that can withstand more than 400 degrees of high temperature, and the heat insulation measures are not complicated.

"Let me do the math...... Mid-November next year should be another window period, right? Lao Xiao, I don't think you can use a wheeled structure or a crawler type, the contact area is large, and the corrosion speed is too fast. ”

"That's right, when the time comes, we will definitely work together to get a nuclear-powered rover of about 3 tons and work for at least a year."

"When will we land on Venus......

"Venus? I think immigrants have to build a super airship there, and the altitude of 50 to 65 kilometers is still suitable for survival, but that's all, it doesn't make much sense, and there are no useful mines on Venus. ”

Hearing the ore, Shen Zuozhou suddenly thought of the moon mining plan that had been hyped up all over the country in the past few days, and then contacted the newly manufactured "Pioneer I" passive exoskeleton spacesuit made by the base.

In order to strengthen the astronauts' ability to move, the base has accelerated the speed of manufacturing the "Pioneer I" in advance, which effectively controls the expansion of the spacesuit with external hard passive bone armor, which not only has strong protection and improves the weight-bearing capacity when worn on the body, but more importantly, it can allow the wearer to move freely, without reducing the activity efficiency like being slowed down.

It's a lot cooler to wear, just like in a science fiction movie, and there are two pieces in the base cafeteria for employees to try on and suggest improvements.

Thinking of this, Shen Zuozhou pulled Xiao Okada to the cafeteria, and there were already many people around the I-shape.

Xiao Okada squinted and saw a familiar person:

I saw Guo Fan pinching the Kai Kai I exoskeleton with satisfaction, and said to Wu Jing next to him:

"The props group is too pompous, just change it according to this, whether it's the color scheme or the sense of design, it's really good, what do you think?"

Wu Jing: "Director Guo, you don't have to go to the moon, then you can't catch up with the Spring Festival, and now the movie is already very long." ”

Guo Fan: "Okay, but I think The Wandering Earth 2 can be filmed on the moon, and when it is released during the Spring Festival, I will fight for it, what if it happens?" ”

Wu Jing: "Then you might as well go to United Mining and ask them to hire a crew to shoot an advertising film on the moon, and then we will secretly shoot a little movie content by the way." ”

Guo Fan: "That's a brilliant idea. ”

Wu Jing: "......"

……

July 27, Florida.

The concrete launch pad, which was last blown by the wake of 33 engines, has been repaired, covered with steel plates and designed with deflector grooves.

The Super Heavy Booster B7 and Starship SN17 have been assembled and are being refueled.

Wayne, who was also on hand from the Defense Advanced Planning and Research Agency, and both he and Musk chose to watch the launch test outdoors this time.

"Do you think this time will be successful?"

Musk shook his head and chose to tell the truth:

"We have made almost a subversive change to the redundant control system of the first stage, and the last launch actually showed that the problem of multiple engines in parallel is not a big problem, mainly because of SpecaX's lack of experience in launching super rockets.

However, the last launch failed to fully test the various systems of the second-class starship spacecraft, and we have not been able to find a problem for the time being. ”

Wayne: "DARPA wouldn't have invested in a nuclear-powered version of Starship if the regular version of Starship hadn't been launched. ”

Elon Musk: "I'm more worried about whether you can deliver reliable nuclear engines before Starship succeeds, and if there is a nuclear explosion here, I'm afraid the FAA won't give us another license for a year." ”

Wayne: "......"

There's a reason Musk said this, as Congress has expressed distrust of all of NACA's projects after the failure of the Artemis II mission.

After organizing a team of investigators for the Artemis 2 mission, all space-related programs established last year re-demonstrated their reliability, and the JFT nuclear propulsion program in Nevada was found to be extremely risky.

After evaluation by a panel of experts hired by professors from several universities, the Hexagon was not optimistic about the success of Dr. Freeman's A105 engine this year.

Therefore, the return to flight of Endeavour can only be temporarily terminated, and the NERVA A105 must be verified by the Hexagonal review team before it can be launched.

Therefore, the front and rear parts of the nuclear-powered starship are in an unsuccessful state for the time being, and it is really not certain who will get it first.

(End of chapter)