"The current communication delay is 5 minutes and 42 seconds."

"The manned vehicle has been put into orbit and the landing site is being analyzed."

There was a nervous report sound.

Throughout the command room of BNULM, it sounded.

When the four countries jointly sent the manned spacecraft to the spacecraft, they did not give the craft a code name because there was no unification of the name.

Therefore, even on such a formal occasion as this moment, the manned aircraft is used as a code name.

Hansen, who is not a professional, watched from the sidelines, while Gary Hall, the professional head of BNULM, began to command.

"The communications department issued an order to the manned vehicle to orbit Mars for the time being, and wait for the small orbital probe to explore the specific situation and take pictures and send them back."

"The data department is ready to analyze and select the landing site based on a series of more accurate shots of the manned vehicle."

Gary Hall said seriously.

The entire BNULM command room has become busier as a result.

This landing on Mars should not have been so hasty, and now the selection of landing sites is analyzed.

The main reason is that the Mars unmanned probe, which was originally responsible for receiving and surveying the terrain near the landing site, was all out of order half a month ago.

Curiosity, Insight, Tianwen-1 in service, and Mars Pathfinder, Phoenix, Courage, Opportunity, Zhurong and so on.

All of them lost contact after Du Xing's glance at Mars half a month ago.

Even Odyssey, Mars Express, the Mars Global Surveyor, and the MAVEN Mars rover, the four orbiting probes, have lost contact.

Du Xing's glance not only lowered the apparent magnitude of many planets including Mars for a moment, but also made it undergo some unknown changes.

Since then, they have been blind to the specifics of what is happening on Mars.

Even because of the sudden interruption of communication, there was no time to send back any information, so that they didn't know what the impact of Du Xing's glance was.

What is the current situation on Mars, it is not at all clear.

They only have general information about Mars half a month ago, as well as the coordinates of the landing site that were originally decided based on calculations and screening.

It's just that now something like this is happening.

The original Mars overview information is naturally not fully trusted, and something must have changed at this moment

The original landing site naturally can't be used directly.

Nowadays, it is necessary for manned vehicles to release a small orbital probe to fly around orbit and determine the specific landing site.

Thanks to the cooperation of the four countries and meteorite materials, human space technology has advanced by leaps and bounds.

Therefore, in addition to carrying four astronauts, the manned vehicle sent to space by BNULM can also carry a huge amount of materials compared to before.

Small orbital probes are one of them.

Not only are they small enough to fly at breakneck speeds, but they can also take concrete pictures of the planet's surface like orbiting probes such as Sputnik.

In a quiet bustle.

The manned vehicle side quickly responded.

[BNULM, please note that we have found the wreckage of Mars orbiters such as Odyssey, and the specific pictures have been sent back to the ground. 】

[A small orbital probe has been released, the full picture of Mars is being explored, and the explored picture is gradually being transmitted back to the ground. 】

With the reply of the manned vehicle spanning a delay of several minutes after being delivered back.

All of the people at BNULM have raised their focus.

They stared at the big screen in the command center, waiting for the pictures to come back.

In a few seconds, the BNULM network system, which is backed by the supercomputing center, finished processing the information transmitted back by the manned aircraft.

Several images immediately appeared on the big screen.

The first is images of several orbiting probe wreckage taken in orbit around Mars.

Odyssey, Mars Express, Mars Global Surveyor, and MAVEN Mars Rover......

These probes sent to Mars orbit from human civilization are shattered as if they have received some kind of huge impact at this moment.

A large part of them had been melted, and it was clear that the force was also carrying the heat.

In the emptiness of space, they become lonely space junk, aimlessly orbiting Mars under the huge gravitational pull.

The second image is a surface view of Mars.

Mars is full of impact craters, canyons, sand dunes, and gravel, and there is no stable liquid water. The Southern Hemisphere is an old, crater-filled highland, while the Northern Hemisphere is a younger lowland plain.

The picture that came back at this moment is the Southern Hemisphere.

Behind the crash craters and sand dunes is an indescribable desolation.

The planet, which scientists have hailed as the most suitable for human immigration, looks so harsh at the moment.

But to be honest, having such an environment in space is quite good.

In many ways, Mars can be considered the brother of Earth. It has seasons, polar ice caps, volcanoes, canyons, and weather. There are many signs of ancient floods on the Red Planet, but now the water is mostly found in icy mud and thin clouds.

Now.

All the people at BNULM are analyzing the pictures from the manned vehicle and analyzing them according to their expertise.

"The overall structure is smaller, and the data half a month ago have not changed significantly."

"The specific landing locations in the southern hemisphere of Mars have been analyzed and screened, and we are waiting for the data from the northern hemisphere to be comprehensively considered."

"Compared with the previous Martian data, no anomalies have been found for the time being, but the rover in the southern hemisphere of Mars is still missing, and it can be regarded as the same fate as the orbiter for the time being."

"Based on the position of each orbital probe when it was damaged, as well as the angle of the specific scar, it can be roughly analyzed that the force that destroyed the probe came from the northern hemisphere of Mars."

A pass of detection and analysis.

Didn't find anything special on Mars.

The so-called ancient starry sky road was not discovered, the reason why Mars suddenly shone in the naked eye, and the reason why the various probes on Mars were suddenly damaged.

Or rather, at least under this rough probing.

It can be tentatively determined that there is probably nothing abnormal in the southern hemisphere of Mars.

If there is something out of the ordinary.

It should be in the northern hemisphere of Mars.

And this, it is necessary to wait for the results of further detection by the manned vehicle.

The manned spacecraft enters the orbit of Mars close to the southern hemisphere of Mars, and even if a small orbital probe is released, it will take some more time for specific information about the northern hemisphere to be detected.

So, the people of BNULM fell into a long-lost tranquility.

But fortunately, when the manned vehicle was launched, the scientific and technological level of mankind had made great strides because of the meteorite material.

This probing process will not take long.

Take into account the communication delay of a few minutes, as well as the time required for detection.

It also doesn't take more than twenty minutes at most.

Sure enough, it wasn't long after.

The information about the manned vehicle came again, and everyone's hearts were touched.

[On Mount Olympus?! 】

【Impossible!】 That's impossible!!! 】

[BNULM, please note that we have found a possible location for the anomaly, and we have applied for a landing attempt near it!] 】

[Picture .jpg, Picture .jpg, Picture .jpg]

A flurry of information was conveyed to BNULM's command center.

In the field of aerospace, aerospace technology, which used to be able to send only a few kilobytes of information, has made many astronauts have a habit of speaking without sending meaningless information.

This is to save the already small amount of information capacity.

Even if the technology is so powerful that it doesn't matter how many messages are sent, the four astronauts on a manned vehicle should have the habit of not sending messages indiscriminately.

Nowadays, the information sent back to BNULM is so redundant.

Except for the last unexpected, there are too many punctuation marks and unclear phrases throughout the text.

Such a situation made everyone subconsciously feel that something was wrong.

Why did this group of professionally educated elites, these four high-level talents selected from the four countries, shout in such surprise in the message sent back to the BNULM command center?

What did they see?!

In silence, BNULM's network system parsed the images sent back by the manned vehicle.

Three pictures that shocked everyone were displayed on the big screen.

The first picture is Mount Olympus.

Mount Olympus, located in the solar system of Mars at 18.65 degrees north latitude and 226.2 degrees east longitude. It is a shield volcano on Mars, the highest volcano on the surface of Mars and the largest known volcano in the solar system.

Mount Olympus is about 600 kilometers wide and covers an area of about 300,000 square kilometers, which is formed by the accumulation of highly mobile basalt lava over a long period of time.

It is 21,171 meters above the Martian datum, and the difference in elevation from the foot of the mountain to the summit is 21.9 kilometers.

The Mars Express and the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter orbiter have a large number of survey records for Mount Olympus, and there are many studies on the highest peak of the solar system around the world.

Now on this photo.

There seems to be some pixels on the surface of Mount Olympus that are not quite right?

It's just that this first picture is really not clear.

The second image shows small black dots on a flat area on Mount Olympus.

It's just that I still don't see anything special.

Because small orbiting probes need to quickly skimmer over the entire Mars and conduct exploration and analysis, the shooting accuracy is too late to calibrate.

So the first two pictures are a bit blurry.

The third picture is different.

The astronauts on the manned vehicle have a very high level of authority and a high degree of freedom to control the small orbital probe.

Now, apparently, manual control has begun, allowing the small orbital probe to stop running at top speed and get close to and focus on a flat area with black spots.

Now the third image is the result of the manual shooting.

With today's advanced technology, it is enough to photograph the newspaper that humans on the ground are holding when they are slowly and carefully calibrated.

When everyone in the BNULM command center saw the contents of the third image, they couldn't help but gasp.

Now, everyone finally knows why the astronauts on the manned vehicle are surprised.

I saw the third picture after the exact calibration.

It is a huge flat area on Mount Olympus, and in this area there are countless terracotta figurines standing densely packed.

Under the precise and rapid analysis of the intelligent system, the number of 129,600 terracotta figurines in the picture was accurately counted.

They were wearing standard armor in the style of the Qin Dynasty, and the overall formation was like an ancient military array, as if they still had the momentum of fighting on the battlefield.

Under the high-precision camera of the small orbital detector and the excellent side-swing angle shooting technology of the small orbital detector, the faces of these terracotta figurines can be vividly displayed in front of everyone.

This scene looks particularly shocking.

For a moment, the entire BNULM command center fell into silence.

There was no sound other than the sound of swallowing.

These countless terracotta figurines look so similar to the terracotta warriors and horses that resounded all over the world in China.

Terracotta warriors and horses are a category of ancient Chinese tomb sculptures, that is, funerary objects made in the shape of terracotta horses (chariots, war horses, soldiers).

It's not surprising to see it on Earth.

It's just that......

Outside the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor.

Or see terracotta warriors on Mars, tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of kilometers away.

It's just a little weird.

How come many previous Mars probes didn't find these things?

That's more than 129,600 terracotta warriors! Even on Earth, it is not easy to hide.

Could it be that it was because of the opening of the so-called Starry Sky Ancient Road that these things suddenly appeared?

So what is the significance of these things coming to Mars?

How much do these terracotta warriors and horses have to do with the earth, with human beings, and with China?

What role does the eternal day, which runs through the history of mankind, play in this?

Countless doubts filled everyone's hearts.

Everyone subconsciously looked at the Chinese scholars around them, as if they were expecting an explanation.

And the Chinese scholars also looked at Zhang Shouquan, the highest-ranking here, with a bewildered expression, hoping that the highest official of this secret department would know something.

As for Zhang Shouquan, he swallowed his saliva, and was silent for a long time, not knowing what to say.

He's just an ordinary human, just an ordinary director of the Day-Seeking Bureau.

Where can we know what's going on on Mars?

He could only guess that all of this might have been the work of Eternal Day.

After all, the footsteps of Eternal Day are not without going to space.

Although what he saw and heard this time shocked him.

However, as a veteran of Eternal Day, he firmly believes that behind the vast majority of transcendent phenomena in the world, there is a high probability that the power of Eternal Day is involved.

Mars is no exception!

Otherwise, he really doesn't know how to explain it.

It can't be the first emperor and his old man who built the real mausoleum on Mars.

With the words of human beings themselves, how could He De have landed on Mars thousands of years ago!

There must be the involvement or influence of eternal day behind this.

After a long silence, Zhang Shouquan asked Gary Hall to give the order that the manned vehicle was preparing to land on Mars near Mount Olympus.

As for himself.

He left the command center with a stomach full of shock, and stood alone in the empty courtyard, slowly coming back to his senses under the cool breeze.

It's not that he doesn't want to contact Yongday, when the Starry Sky Ancient Road was discovered, he wanted to contact Yongyang through the communication office in China.

It's just that this time it involves Mars, the plans that the four countries have invested a lot in, and the future development of human foreign technology.

Zhang Shouquan was a little worried that he would not be able to land on the moon again, just like the time on the moon.

It's just that now things can be sure to be big, and they can be troublesome, and they may involve what is left of the eternal day.

The lighthouse has been on the sidelines lately, trying to hug its thighs.

If he doesn't take the initiative to contact him, he may really let the lighthouse take the position.

Perhaps, it's time to contact Eternal Day's communications office in China.

(End of chapter)