I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?.

Chapter 742 Mars
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Inside Akar Airport, local officials formed a welcoming team, silently waiting for the guests to arrive.

They were only notified last night that China and the United States were about to hold a business meeting in Victoria and needed the local government to provide a venue. The party that notified them was Amy, so the authorities naturally had no way to refuse.

But why did these two business talks choose this place?

The Victorian authorities treated it as just an amusing incident and made no preparations other than due courtesy.

The roar of engines began to be heard in the sky. People on the ground looked up for a long time, and then saw two C17 transport planes land safely under the escort of four F15s.

The people who came down were not the important persons they guessed, but a group of fierce and ferocious Amei soldiers.

The soldiers drove the Humvee directly from the rear door of the C17 to the authorities' welcoming personnel, which was quite impolite.

"We are the Marines, who among you is the mayor here?"

The famous Ma Run, the president's special fourth-class cattle and horses, the mayor of Victoria has recognized their clothes, but he is a little annoyed by their rudeness and tries to step forward to question them.

However, the leading soldier didn't listen to his nonsense at all and directly took out a certificate issued by the Ministry of Defense of the University of California. According to the description above, Ma Run will temporarily control the airport, and in order to protect the privacy of the participants, the authorities need to avoid cooperation.

The mayor did not doubt the authenticity of the certificate, but he obviously realized that this was not a "business meeting" at all. Considering the recent turbulent world situation, it was hard to tell whether it was some secret agreement.

Reason overcame emotions, and the mayor decisively took the people from the city hall away, and the entire Akar Airport was immediately placed under control.

Not long after, another Y20 landed, and a team of fully armed soldiers also came down.

After dispersing all irrelevant personnel, the first 777 passenger plane finally approached for landing.

The people who got off the plane were surrounded by a group of bodyguards and put into the car brought by the transport plane. Even if there were bystanders, they could not recognize anything.

Finally, a C832 arrived. The passengers who got off were also secretive and hurried away in their own cars.

Two different groups of guests met at a seaside manor. The uniforms of both sides were not the same, and it was obvious that multiple parties were involved.

Jack Sullivan stood up and shook hands with Xu Rang. The two were old friends, but this was obviously the first time Lu Jianfei and Kevin from the Pentagon met, so the etiquette was very thorough.

The two parties sat down on both sides of the long table in the manor in order, and then Xu Rang's secretary opened the notebook, which read:

"Minutes of the Preparatory Meeting for the Agreement on the Joint Defense System of the Solar System"

……

David Usnow was also included in the negotiation team, but his position was not prominent. The Chinese side viewed him as a recorder and did not pay much attention to him.

This meeting is very important as it concerns the construction objectives of the two future space forces and the establishment of the corresponding space order.

In the long run, the truth about alien civilizations will be revealed sooner or later, or the construction of the two space forces will be irreversible.

In this case, it is necessary to formulate corresponding norms, and it is also necessary to restrain others.

After several exchanges before the talks, the two sides called it the "Solar System Joint Defense System", and it would not be inconsistent to disclose it regardless of whether there is extraterrestrial civilization.

After all, there are too many things in the universe that can pose a danger to humans. Not to mention asteroids or giant meteorites, a large-scale solar storm would be enough to harm the Earth.

This is also the breakthrough point for tearing open the Outer Space Treaty. We must first break free from its constraints before we can fully develop space armed forces.

The preparatory meeting first needs to determine how to cooperate in amending the "Outer Space Treaty" or simply replace it. Secondly, like the naval treaty after World War I, it is necessary to agree on the scale and scope of space forces in advance to avoid strategic misjudgments caused by information opacity.

If one of the parties does not get enough information and thinks that the other party is using alien civilization to attack its "allies", the consequences will be terrible.

The other details will not be discussed too late after the "Defense Agreement" is passed by the UN General Assembly. Anyway, the space armed forces are still in the air for the time being.

The personnel on both sides were discussing the next steps very seriously and attentively. David was a little bored with these earthly affairs. He looked at the blocked window from time to time and could vaguely see the outline of the moon.

Just yesterday, the astronauts of Artemis VII and VIII moved into the solidified inflatable cabin, and Camp Columbus became the first fixed base of Artemis in the true sense.

Although there is only one cabin, this kind of thing is easy to mass-produce, not to mention that the inflatable cabin has a very light mass and volume ratio. Once it is confirmed to be reliable, NACA can immediately make a large number of them and throw them up.

But David's thoughts were not here, but on the invisible Mars.

Calculating the time, Tianwen-1 will arrive on Mars in these few days, right?

……

October 10th, Beijing time.

Survey ships thousands of kilometers away and the CAAC monitoring network in the northwest and southeast of the mainland are all searching for the same target and constantly checking whether the signals are distorted.

Apart from the Typhoon that flew by early, the fastest lander to reach Mars was the Tianwen-1 lander, which was launched the earliest.

The first Mars probe of the Aerospace Development Commission is not a satellite, but a patrol vehicle that lands directly, but this does not mean it does not exist.

The last and largest spacecraft to arrive, the Tianwen-6, also known as the Zhurong spacecraft, was equipped with six large satellites and more than 20 small satellites.

Many of these satellites are not specially manufactured for Mars missions. Instead, they are modified based on existing models and will transit through Mars without having to worry about signal problems.

In the announcement to NACA, "Lihuo" arrived at almost the same time and did not arouse the other party's suspicion.

Now, Tianwen-1 has begun the active deceleration process and will directly plunge into the Martian atmosphere after orbiting several times and will not stay in Martian orbit for too long.

"Lihuo" has collected enough data and established communication with it, and can guide Tianwen-1 to land very steadily.

The advantage of doing this is that less fuel can be used, most of the deceleration can be completed by using the atmosphere, and time can also be saved.

According to prior arrangements, Tianwen-1, -3 and -5 will land on Plain Zero, and the other two probes will go to the northern hemisphere, so if Tianwen-1 is lucky enough, it will be able to obtain valuable intelligence immediately.

……Mars.

"Lihuo", which had remained silent for a long time, finally became active again and used the backup frequency band to communicate with Tianwen-1.

The comprehensive and powerful "Lihuo" has already carefully mapped the entire surface of Mars. Although it is not a high-precision map like that on Earth, it is completely reliable for use as a reference.

Compared with the moon, the biggest problem of Mars lies in its atmosphere. Where there is an atmosphere, there is wind. The wind will blow away the sand and gravel rich in iron oxides on the surface, erode loose rocks, and cause changes in local terrain from time to time.

Fortunately, the data from "Lihuo" is basically updated in real time. As long as there are no unexpected factors, it will be easy to lead Tianwen-1 to a safe landing.

The Tianwen-1 now looks like a flying saucer with a very disproportionate aspect ratio. Below it is an air shield for deceleration, which is based on the same technology used by the Dawn spacecraft and will undertake the most violent and most important deceleration task.

Now it is inserted from the edge of the Martian atmosphere at a small angle. The thin particles in the atmosphere collide with the gas shield at high speed, continuously emitting a yellowish-white light outward.

But that is from the perspective of space. If an observer stands on the surface of Mars, the scene he sees will be completely different:

The atmospheric pressure on Mars is less than one percent of that on Earth, at around 0.7%, of which 95% is carbon dioxide, with a small amount of rare gases, nitrogen, argon, and even a little methane.

The light seen from the surface of Mars will experience an obvious blue shift. The sunset on Mars is the bluest, and the light emitted by the friction of Tianwen-1 will also appear to have a faint blue halo.

This meteor with a blue glow did not last long. Ten minutes later, Tianwen-25 abandoned the air shield below. At the same time, the parachute on the top opened, and three supersonic circular deceleration parachutes with a diameter of more than meters were deployed.

Tianwen-1, which was still descending at a high speed, finally encountered obvious resistance and continued to slow down.

When its descent speed dropped to tens of meters per second, the parachute ropes of the Sanduo annular parachute were cut, the sky crane on the top was started, and the reverse thrust rocket was used for final braking.

In addition to slowing down, the sky crane can also move in a small range with the rover below to find the best landing spot.

The entire landing process was completed by AI. At this time, Tianwen-1 had arrived around Plain No. 0 and began to search for the optimal landing point and suspected targets at low altitude according to the set standards.

It flew over one rising hill after another, finally locking onto a flat plateau, using the last bit of fuel to slow down in that direction.

50 meters, 30 meters, 10 meters. The sky crane hovered at this height, the explosive bolts connected to the patrol vehicle were energized, and several traction ropes carried the patrol vehicle down rapidly. When it was about two meters from the ground, the sky crane had very little fuel left, and the explosive bolts at the end of the rope were energized and disconnected.

The rover, Firefly 1, which suddenly lost its restraints, made a hard landing. However, the two-meter height could not do anything to it under the gravity of Mars, and the shock absorbers easily absorbed most of the potential energy.

At this time, the sky crane had already deflected autonomously, ran out of fuel, flew to the side and fell, stopping about seventy or eighty meters away.

Firefly 1, which had been on standby for nearly half a year, was successfully awakened by the heat preservation and sufficient power of the isotope battery. The folded monitor unfolded and rose, and the fisheye camera was used to slowly circle around, taking the first panoramic photo while also checking whether there was any damage to its appearance.

Firefly 1 took about 10 minutes to check its entire body functions and did not first ensure contact with the Earth like other probes.

This is mainly due to the existence of "Lihuo". Its relay is much stronger than the transmission of Firefly 1 itself, and there is no need to worry about losing contact.

Only after confirming that its functions were intact and the landing site was accurate did Firefly 1 send its first log back to Earth, along with more than a dozen high-definition pictures.

……

NASA, Deep Space Command Center.

"coming!"

Shen Zuozhou, who was staring at the screen, shouted and finally relaxed.

Within the planned time, "Lihuo" has begun to forward the signal sent back by Yinghuo 1, and it is a very large data packet, which means that the landing must have been successful.

All the high-ranking officials of the Aerospace Development Commission were gathered here, and there were also many confidential secretaries present, ready to report the news to their superiors at any time.

Knowing that there is a suspected alien civilization on Plain Zero, it is actually quite risky to land there rashly, but in the end the decision was not changed.

This is mainly because many landers have visited before. If "it" was really so sensitive, it would have noticed something was wrong long ago.

Besides, the activity range and reconnaissance capabilities of the detectors sent over at this stage are very limited. If they are a little off, the detection efficiency will be too low.

As most people had expected, the landing of Yinghuo 1 did not cause any reaction, at least not noticeable one.

If anything happens that triggers the AI ​​alarm, what is sent back is not a data packet, but a series of rapid beeping signals.

Sure enough, after unpacking the signal, there was only a log and a dozen pictures taken from different angles, all in color.

Firefly 2 weighs 1.3 tons and is nuclear-powered, so it does not need to carry an overly heavy high-gain antenna, so the quality of the detection equipment is relatively sufficient, and there is no need to use a black and white camera to save power, otherwise it will have to be processed on the ground and then colored.

What the Aerospace Development Commission has received now are authentic photos of Mars - they are not as yellow as imagined, and are even a little whitish. It may be due to the light. In short, there is no strong feeling of being in another world.

It was like an uninhabited area full of Gobi desert, with scattered stones all over the ground. From the perspective of Firefly 1, a vast area could be seen.

Without being told, several experts huddled together in front of the screen and had already found the main area of ​​Plain Zero without even having to make any comparisons.

According to the longitude and latitude provided by the system, the place that can be accurately located has no characteristics and is only a few kilometers away from Firefly 1.

The camera captured part of its appearance, but no matter how hard you strain your eyes, all you see is a featureless desert.

Seeing this scene, Lin Ju couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. He really didn't find any traces of man-made things. What else could he do? Look for it!

Tianwen-8 will land in 19 days, and Zhurong will need another days, which means next month, to start full-scale exploration.

If it really doesn't work, Tianwen-2 and Tianwen-4 can also change their itineraries, which requires almost no effort.

After having such thoughts, Zhong Cheng, who was a little disappointed, sighed and patted Lin Ju on the shoulder:

"When the Yankees come over, show them. There are so many photos, it's enough to make some achievements."

(End of this chapter)