Reborn in 2011, I am the chief designer of aerospace.

Actually, that's not the case. This map is at best a simple guide for children; if it weren't for research purposes, it probably wouldn't even qualify as a combat map. However, if you're planning to bombard Mars rather than study it, then it's quite useful. "Now, what's the first thing you notice?"

Sheng Tianhong grinned: "I saw seven small American flags, each with a label next to it."

Let's look at these flags first. Consider the geological conditions first, then describe what you see.

Jima shrugged and said readily, "The North and South are indeed different. The upper half of the map is pink, and the lower half is yellow, roughly like that."

That's right. A fundamental principle of geology is that no solid planet is a completely homogeneous mass, nor a random, disorganized pile. They are all composed of components called "geological units." Each unit was formed at a specific time and in a specific way, possessing both depth and breadth. In geological research, we always try to penetrate the Earth's surface and reconstruct the three-dimensional structures hidden from direct view. The relationships between these units can reveal their chronological connections, the characteristics of their formation processes, and the depths they extend beneath the surface…

Sheng Tianhong secretly glanced at the watch.

Gentlemen, have I received your full attention?

Sheng Tianhong and Ji Ma exchanged a glance like children who had done something wrong.

"I dare say you're just doing your job, Song Xingye," Jima said lazily, "and we're very pleased that you're in charge of the site selection committee."

I am not "in charge" of it, but merely within its scope of influence.

"Whatever. Anyway, it'll take us a year to get to Mars, and we won't have anything else to do besides studying these things. Can't we wait until then?" Jima was as calm, rational, and reasonable as ever, but his tone was deathly dull.

A year? Yes, but I won't be teaching you step-by-step then, nor will I be letting you ponder deeply. I'll only have a fleeting, light-speed period to guide you…

This guy will most likely be designated as the mission specialist for the "God Seeker". Good heavens.

Sheng Tianhong gestured for Ji Ma to stop. "Continue, Song Xingye. We insist on science; you're in charge."

“Okay,” he continued, “data from the probe shows that the Martian surface mainly exhibits two types of landforms. The yellow area in the south is covered with giant impact craters, giving it an ancient and weathered appearance; the pink area in the north consists of gentle, young plains. Mars rises south of the equator, with most of the southern region having an elevation above average, while the northern region is generally below average.”

"You mentioned 'ancient' and 'young,'" Sheng Tianhong asked, "what exactly do you mean?"

"The 'young' areas may be 500 million years old. The plains are formed by volcanic activity, frozen lava fields. The ancient impact crater areas, on the other hand, are 3 to 4 billion years old. That's almost as old as the Earth itself..."

Jima interjected, "Then let's get back to the flag. I bet that flag was a key target that Country R identified in the past."

"Yes, you can see it."

"Never mind then," Sheng Tianhong interrupted casually, "Let's take a look at the classic weather map of Country A. I guess those two white bars on your map are markers for the polar ice caps."

"right."

I didn't see any flags on the ice sheet.

No, we must first rule out high-latitude regions as a site for the first mission. Spacecraft launched from Earth will naturally enter Mars orbit, with an inclination not much different from the equator; changing the orbit to reach the poles would require a large amount of additional energy. However, the geological features of the poles are indeed fascinating.

"What are the components of ice caps? Water ice?"

"What exactly is that thing?" Jima asked. "It looks a bit like melted chocolate."

After a flurry of discussion, the group quickly figured out the truth.

These are sedimentary zones, some 30 to 40 meters thick, stretching hundreds of kilometers around the poles. They were formed by a mixture of dust and ice deposited and ultimately shaped by Martian winds. These sedimentary zones indicate that the depositional process must have changed over time (or at least on a millennial scale). But what factors caused this change? Two possible mechanisms have been proposed: first, the eccentricity of Mars' orbit may have changed.

"Why did it change?" Sheng Tianhong asked.

Mars is closer to Jupiter than Earth; Jupiter's gravity is strong enough to cause a lot of disturbances. Alternatively, the tilt of the planet's axis of rotation may also change.

"I can imagine this scenario," Sheng Tianhong said. "If the southern hemisphere has too much mass, it will greatly affect Mars's moment of inertia. The entire planet would definitely start spinning like a top."

He replied with a smile, "From a geological perspective, that's certainly true."

So, what is the second mechanism?

The sun's heat output may change in some incomprehensible way.

Jima frowned: "But that would also change the Earth's climate."

That's right. This is precisely the perfect reason to travel to the Martian poles in the future. Mars is like a mirror; every time we observe it, we can glean valuable knowledge about Earth.

The two remained silent for a moment, processing this fact.

Song Xingye was secretly pleased. Even if they didn't learn anything else, as long as he could break their complacency and make them think about the profound significance this flight might bring, he had already succeeded.

He glanced again at the close-up photo of the polar region. In fact, the image quality of this photo was far inferior to that of images taken by later generations of probes, which focused on mapping the distribution of equatorial landing sites.

Ironically, due to the implementation of the Mars landing program, our overall understanding of the planet is far less than we might have originally thought.

It is the efforts of these people that make all of this meaningful.

Ji Ma said, "I guess the limitations of high latitude regions would also exclude the location you marked in the south, Song Xingye."

I guess so. But there's another particularly interesting location here: the Amphitrite crater. This ancient volcano is much older than the volcanic plains of the Northern Hemisphere, and its formation mechanism remains a mystery. Perhaps the volcanic activity here was triggered by those giant impact craters in the south. Those mustard-yellow spots in the center of the southern plain are Algiers and Heras, two super-massive impact basins over three billion years old. Heras is larger than anywhere else found on the Moon, even more spectacular than the famous lunar maria. This is where the R country landed the Mars 9 probe.

Sheng Tianhong whistled. "Looks like this is all you can get by opening a shop near the asteroid belt."

The Stars and Stripes fly over the Argyll Basin.

"Are you suggesting we try Algier?" Dima asked.

That's possible. Argil is clearly very ancient and extremely deep. But the basin is surrounded by concentric rings, which are actually mountain ranges, making it very difficult to traverse or land in these ring-shaped terrains.

“Now,” he continued, “you can see that the rest of the active area is concentrated in the Western Hemisphere. This scarlet region extending northward is the Tharsis Rise, which is more than five kilometers higher than the surrounding terrain on average. These deep red patches are large shield volcanoes.” He pointed in the direction of the mountains: “Ascrace, Pavonis, and Arsia; to the northwest is Olympus Mons: its base is 370 kilometers wide, and its crater is 50 kilometers in diameter. Olympus Mons is so large that it almost penetrates most of the atmosphere, thus creating orographic clouds, which are formed when air is forced to rise along the mountain slopes…”

“Of course,” Dima said, “but I’ve heard that Mount Olympus is ridiculously high and doesn’t look that spectacular from the ground.”

He shrugged. "Maybe. Look at this." He rummaged through a board of thumbtacks on a wall until he found the image he wanted. He handed the photograph to the astronaut. It was a huge perspective view of a volcano; the cliffs were clearly outlined, and the edges in the foreground were clearly visible. "This is a computer-generated image, taken from an oblique angle, synthesized from data from the Mariner probe."

Sheng Tianhong pointed to the cliff and asked, "How high is it?"

"A cliff? Oh, three kilometers away."

"A cliff three kilometers high?"

"almost."

Both men stared intently at the image on the cliff. Jima raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.

Song Xingye suppressed a laugh. As long as those amazing "switches" are touched, astronauts are actually quite easily moved.

Sheng Tianhong said, "I noticed that there were several flags hanging on the tops of those volcanoes."

That's right. Olympus Mons is the youngest and highest mountain on Mars, and the source of the youngest lava flows on the planet. However, Olympus Mons is 17 kilometers high.

"The air pressure is too high to allow for aerodynamic deceleration," Tima said. "I think this also rules out the possibility of other Tharsis volcanoes."

"Okay," Sheng Tianhong said, "East of Tharsis, I saw a blue stripe stretching along the equator, intermittently. I guess that's Mariner Valley."

Exactly. This magnificent canyon system stretches for 2,500 kilometers, reaches depths of 4 kilometers, and spans over 100 kilometers in width. We have confirmed that this system was not formed by water flow; many of the individual "canyons" are surrounded on all sides, preventing water from entering or flowing out. What we see here is a geological fault structure, similar to the characteristics of the Rift Valley in Africa.

"The entire valley seems to cascade down from your Tharsis Ridge," Dima said.

Yes. We believe this is no coincidence. As the uplifted area rises, magma retreats from its surroundings, causing fissures on the surface, which in turn triggers earthquakes and large-scale faulting.

Sheng Tianhong said, "I think we might as well go directly to Sailor Valley and take a look."

"Perhaps," Song Xingye said. "This flag is actually hidden in a tributary called the Candor Canyon. We found rock strata on the canyon walls here, which gives us clues about the origin of these canyons."

However, I dare say this terrain is not easy to deal with.

They're not easy to deal with. Some of the smaller canyons there are several kilometers deep. If you had several months to explore, along with some kind of aircraft...

“But we don’t,” Sheng Tianhong said. “Alright, Song Xingye. That leaves only two places. They are both located at the junction of ancient geological formations in the Southern Hemisphere and volcanic plains in the Northern Hemisphere.”

"Yes. This region, located in the Eastern Hemisphere, is separated from Tharsis by most of the planet. It is called the Nilothetis Terrace, or what we call 'folded terrain.'" He pulled out a black and white composite photograph, in which the surface of the land showed a uniform folded texture.

"Good heavens," Sheng Tianhong said, "it looks like hammered bronze."

We believe that the older terrain in the south was eroded in the border region, forming this irregular gully landscape.

"The landing looks quite difficult," Dima said.

Yes, a long-distance traverse is required to conduct a systematic investigation.

"Okay, that leaves only one location."

The last flag was planted on the western edge of the Tharsis Rise, right next to the boundary between the north and south terrain. It stood in the center of a green strip that ran through Mariner Valley, which, together with the blue marker strip of Mariner Valley, formed a rugged, upright cross that spanned the equator.

This area was clearly shaped by flowing water. Rivers extending from Mariner Valley traverse the northern plains.

Sheng Tianhong smiled slightly: "So these are the famous water-eroded landforms you mentioned in your 'thesis'."

"This is an equatorial region," he explained, "so it has both young and ancient geological types, and this mix is ​​crucial for us. Most mixed terrain is complex and fragmented, but the topography here is quite landing-friendly. If you're looking for water, you should be able to find it here, probably underground. And wherever there's water..."

"Perhaps there is life there." Sheng Tianhong rose from his chair, walked to the map, and approached the label next to the small flag. "Mangala Valley. What does that name mean?"

All the major valleys are named after Mars. East of Mariner Valley, there's even a "Valley of Death"...

What about Mangala?

Sanskrit. The oldest language in the Indo-European language family.

"So, Mangala (the ancient name for Mars) might be the oldest name for Mars in the Western world," Sheng Tianhong said with a smile. "I quite like that." He stood in front of the map and turned to Song Xingye: "So you've been pushing the site selection committee to choose Mangala. Of course, this is for practical reasons. After all, the committee happens to have some of the world's top experts in this field. Right, Song Xingye?"

He grinned, and Jima laughed along with him.

"Still worried about getting a seat, Song Xingye?" Ji Ma asked kindly.

He felt a chill. These people saw right through me.

But this might not be a bad thing. If Dima knew I was keeping a close eye on this goal, he might take geology even more seriously.

He just needs to give it one more push...

He started rolling up the map: "How about it? I'll send you a preprint of my next paper on Mangala, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. After you read it, you'll be crying, my fellow drone enthusiasts."

"What do we do now?" Sheng Tianhong asked. "Is this it?"

Outrageous. This is just the beginning; the most interesting part is yet to come. Now let's talk about Martian climate, compare it with Earth's, and then...

After a few complaints, the meeting room fell silent again.