Mars, distance from Earth.

The planetary system of Mars consists of itself and two orbiting moons, but compared to the Earth-Moon system, its companions are very shabby.

The diameter of Phobos is just over 20 kilometers, and the diameter of Phobos is only 15 kilometers, operating at an altitude of 1,300 kilometers and 8,300 kilometers, respectively.

The moon is nearly 3,500 kilometers in diameter, and these two little ones are at most large meteorites compared to them, and scientists have proved that they are two meteorites captured by the gravitational pull of Mars.

Their surface is not only pitted but also does not form a relatively regular approximate circle, so the light reflectivity is very low, and it looks like only two faint star spots on the surface of Mars, which is 1/12 of the Earth's view of the Moon, which is about the same as seeing Venus from the Earth.

What is not visible on the surface of Mars is a tiny bright spot next to Phobos, which glows blue and is much smaller than Phobos.

This is the comet-fire combination that is decelerating in full force, and after a nine-month journey, it arrived on Mars at least half a month earlier than expected.

When Lihuo was pushed by the Comet thrusters from Earth, only five months after the last Martian opposition, it chose the longest route to Mars.

The probe launched at opposition will take up to six months to arrive, and the only time in the process is to accelerate and decelerate.

But the Comet is different, with two nuclear reactors and the solar energy it has received over the past nine months, and the Hall thrusters have been working at maximum power for the rest of the time, except for a brief shutdown when making a U-turn and deceleration.

During the entire flight, it worked for 193 days in the acceleration stage, and with the help of the chemical engine when it was out of the earth, it reached a speed of 92 kilometers per second at its peak and was able to fly 330,000 kilometers per hour.

The ground had been worried that its Hall thruster would fail for so long, given that the situation in space is unpredictable, but fortunately it crossed the elliptical distance of nearly 1.1 billion kilometers unharmed and is still working.

However, its mission was almost complete, when at an altitude of 6,900 kilometers from the surface of Mars, the "Comet" turned off its engine, then the explosive bolt was energized, and the "fire" came into operation at the same time, and the two parts that had been together for nine months were separated.

The ejected "Off-Fire" immediately began to continue to slow down, while the "Comet" reversed course and began to accelerate again.

It will accelerate again with the gravitational pull of Mars, briefly brush Mars back to Earth, and return in about five months – if there is no problem, it will be able to catch the 2018 Martian opposition and set sail again with a new probe.

After briefly adjusting the orbit, the fire shut down again, and did not turn on its metahydrazine fuel engine until the orbital altitude was reduced to about 300 kilometers, and quickly slowed down, and after just a few minutes, it entered the low-Earth orbit of Mars at a perigee of 218 kilometers and an apogee of 294 kilometers.

……

"The fuel balance is 45.4%, and the power supply is normal!"

"The gain antenna is pointing normally, and the signal is delayed for 581 seconds!"

"The orbit deviation is 1.7%, and it is expected to be corrected in 10 minutes!" ‘

“……”

Seryov looked at the dazzling red words "PING: 580264ms" on the screen, and after converting it, he couldn't help but sigh:

"10 minutes, a full 10 minutes of delay, a distance of 174 million kilometers, a distance of 1.16 astronomical units, in fact, the fire has now completed two orbit corrections, but we have not even started here."

Xiao Okada: "Yes, it's too far away from us, but the biggest advantage of nuclear power is that the power is abundant, the platform is large enough, and the high-gain antenna we use is definitely the largest of all deep space probes, and even at such a long distance, it can still communicate stably and send back clear images." ”

"The outside world only knows that it will arrive in October 2018, and we can safely carry out observation of Mars in this year's time."

Seryov called up the orbital route of "Lihuo" on the computer, passing through the "Zero Plain" at the south pole of Mars without error.

In 1832, German astronomers Wilhelm Beale and Johann Heinrich von Madler discovered a topographic feature resembling an "A" on the surface of Mars, and then used it as a feature to develop the 0 degree longitude of Mars.

At 73 degrees east longitude and 69 degrees south latitude, these two sets of numbers are the base's top secrets, more advanced than any technology.

Because its existence accurately illustrates one thing: there is a high probability that there are aliens in the universe, and the base can be determined that there is absolutely one.

Fortunately, the place where Plain Zero is located is the South Pole of Mars, which is very inconspicuous compared to the popular location of Mars exploration in the world, the Utopia Plain, almost in two directions, north and south.

And now, "Lihuo" will use the detector on board to conduct a careful search for a year.

Despite its weight and space, it was crowded because it squeezed out almost every detection device imaginable.

In addition to the usual electromagnetic wave and ray ray detection in all frequency bands, it is also equipped with a laser interferometer gravitational wave detection device.

In February last year, the Aramco LIGO Laser Interferometer Observatory detected the first definite gravitational wave signal, which was created by two black holes that collided at one-half the speed and were 150 kilometers in diameter, about 1.3 billion years ago.

Only such a large amount of energy can be released to produce gravitational waves that can be significantly detected, and the power of gravitational waves generated by the Earth orbiting the sun is only about 200 watts, and scientists have spent a full 100 years constantly improving the sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors.

Of course, what is above the "fire" is not the ultra-high-sensitivity detectors on the ground composed of laser beam arrays separated by several kilometers, but just a gadget that is better than nothing, and if it can detect it, then the earth will definitely be able to receive it - at most earlier.

Seryov waited for ten minutes, and the ground finally received the image transmission signal from the "fire", and then it took about 9 minutes to receive the first picture in its entirety.

It was a reddish planet with a more orange-yellow surface, and the images taken by the rover's super-diameter lens were very clear, showing the rich details of the Martian surface.

It is not Venus, which is full of magma-like flowing atmosphere and full of irritability, nor is it the moon that is lonely to the point of despair, but a kind of calm desolation, and it is easy to see the huge riverbed that has been dry for an unknown number of billions of years.

Xiao Okada admired the shocking huge picture, and it took a long time to come back to his senses and find the location of Plain Zero on it.

"The cycle is almost nine Earth days, and it will take three days for the probe to orbit directly above Plain Zero."

Seryov: "Time is still too tight, you should still throw a lander down." ”

Xiao Okada: "By the end of June next year at the earliest, robots will be standing on the surface of Mars. ”

(End of chapter)