Chapter 102 Seven Minutes of Terror
Three hours later.
"Notice!"
"We're entering the Martian atmosphere!"
Looking at the height value on the screen in front of him, Andrew's heart beat violently!
Next, comes the legendary seven minutes of terror!
What is Seven Minutes of Terror?
To put it simply, it takes about seven minutes to complete this series of actions from the time the aircraft enters the Martian atmosphere to successfully landing on the surface of Mars.
From the moment of entering the atmosphere, every second is filled with great terror!
It can be said that if there is the slightest mistake, the Pathfinder landing module with a speed of 100,000 kilometers per hour will fall directly to the surface of Mars.
The moment Andrew finished speaking, a strong vibration came from all over the landing cabin!
At an altitude of 125 kilometers, the landing module began to cut into the atmosphere at a specific angle!
This step is crucial!
Once the angle of entry is too small, the landing module will not be able to enter the atmosphere; if the angle is too large, the landing module will be overheated by the atmosphere and burned!
Andrew gritted his teeth and stared at the screen in front of him.
After seeing the information that three landing capsules had successfully entered the atmosphere, he breathed a sigh of relief.
It is different from ordinary landings on Mars, because there are three landing modules this time, and the risks they face are several times greater!
If Pathfinder 2 fails, they will lose the return capsule and the Mars module, which means they will be trapped and die on Mars.
If Pathfinder 3 failed, they would lose vital supplies. Although they could choose to return directly without endangering their lives, the Pathfinder plan also failed.
As for the failure of Pathfinder 1...that should be the easiest, at least they won't feel any pain.
…
As the landing module successfully entered the atmosphere, the onboard computer quickly began executing the next step.
"drop!"
"The trim wings deployed successfully! Current speed: Mach 3!"
As the prompt sounded, the trimming wings of the three landing modules unfolded at the same time, starting the angle of attack trimming phase.
"Huh...huh..." Andrew's heart rate accelerated again, breathing in the oxygen in the space suit.
Under the massive secretion of adrenaline, Andrew's concentration reached the peak of his life at this time.
Even in the extremely bumpy landing cabin, he could still clearly see every character flashing quickly on the screen!
"Trim successful!"
"Get ready to pop the parachute!"
"Beep! Beep! Beep! Parachute ejection failed, switch to manual control!"
When he saw this line of characters in front of him, Andrew's eyes suddenly widened!
WTF? !
Are you kidding me? !
Would you give me such a fault at this time? !
Andrew kept cursing the NASA space agency in his heart, but his hand movements did not slow down at all, and he quickly grabbed the ring on the side!
Click!
Andrew's expression suddenly changed.
He didn't pull!
"Andrew! Open the parachute quickly!" Bruno on the side looked at the rapidly falling altitude value with dizziness.
Andrew's face turned red and he pulled hard with all his strength!
Bang!
A strong pulling feeling came!
The parachute opened successfully!
Seeing the rapidly decreasing speed on the screen, Andrew breathed a sigh of relief.
"Holy shit..." Bruno looked at the console in front of him with a pale face, "Labor and management no longer believe in NASA..."
Suddenly, Andrew realized a problem. His expression suddenly changed and he shouted loudly: "Bruno! Look at No. 2 and No. 3!"
If the parachutes of Pathfinder 2 and 3 did not pop up... Andrew could not imagine the consequences at all.
The moment he heard Andrew's words, Bruno felt his heart skip a beat.
His lips trembled slightly as he pressed the button on the console.
Seeing the flashing characters on the display screen, Bruno breathed a sigh of relief.
"No...they are both fine..."
The crisis was temporarily over, Bruno joked with a pale face: "Haha...NASA seems to care more about those supplies..."
Bruno's hell joke naturally drew the eyes of Andrew and Joey.
"drop!"
"The landing legs successfully deployed!"
"The range and speed sensor starts working!"
As the beep sounded, a string of data quickly flashed across the screen.
Andrew glanced at the altitude data.
1.5km.
"We're almost there!" Andrew's expression moved slightly and he said softly.
As Andrew finished speaking, a line of characters appeared on the screen again.
"The main engine is ready to start..."
"The main engine started successfully!"
A strong vibration came from the soles of the feet, and correspondingly, there was an even stronger sense of deceleration!
After dozens of seconds, the feeling of deceleration gradually disappeared, and the three landing modules hovered over Mars relying on their main engines.
"Optical imaging starts!"
"Mobile obstacle avoidance is on!"
The landing module slowly adjusted its position in the air. When the altitude slowly dropped to 100 meters, the laser three-dimensional imager started.
With the help of optical and laser imaging, onboard computers rapidly analyze Martian surface data.
After a few seconds, the computer found a relatively flat location with less rocks.
The computer precisely adjusted the operating power of the main engine and controlled the landing module to slowly lower its altitude.
5m!
4m!
As the altitude on the screen continued to decrease, the three astronauts became more and more nervous.
This is the last step!
With a slight vibration coming from the soles of their feet, a long-awaited character suddenly appeared on the screen.
[SUCCEED]
The landing module was silent.
"We... succeeded?"
Andrew's voice sounded in the team's radio channel: "How are No. 2 and No. 3?"
"Successful landing!" Bruno confirmed in a brisk tone, "They are on our left, and we can see them through the porthole!"
Andrew quickly turned his head and looked at the porthole on the left.
Sure enough, Pathfinder No. 2 and Pathfinder No. 3 stood quietly on a red surface of Mars.
"Success! We succeeded!" Joey on the side excitedly unbuckled his seat belt and threw himself into Bruno's arms.
"Wow~" Andrew on the side looked at the scene in front of him and whistled softly, "Pay attention, everyone, there are surveillance cameras here!"
Joey's face was slightly ruddy. He raised his head and glared at Andrew through the glass mask, then returned to his chair with a sullen face.
Andrew ignored the two of them, took a deep breath to calm down, and turned on the radio communication switch.
"Calling Houston, this is Pathfinder 1, we have landed successfully!"
"Repeat, we have landed successfully, the astronauts are in good health and can perform extravehicular operations at any time!"
