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

In space, muscles quickly enter a "lazy" mode if not forcibly used, and will atrophy completely without training. Therefore, he had to relentlessly train on the isokinetic trainer. In addition, there were some torturous "alternative methods," such as the "penguin suit," which made him wobble like a penguin when moving inside the spacecraft, hence the name. This thing was covered with resistance bands that constantly tried to pull the body into a curled-up fetal position, forcing the muscles to keep exerting force in the resistance, simulating the state of resisting gravity. Another example is the negative pressure compression pants with reinforced leg support, which reduced the air pressure around the lower limbs, forcing the heart to pump blood from the legs back to the upper body at a higher speed.

Extensive isokinetic exercise also helps slow down bone mineral loss. Only by continuously applying high-intensity loads to the muscles can the bones maintain their proper strength in order to counteract this force.

Every two or three days, the crew members undergo a comprehensive medical examination, including electrocardiograms, cardiac impact tests, and monitoring of respiratory rate and lung capacity. All data is transmitted in real time to aerospace medical experts on Earth. Just dealing with these tedious biomedical tests can take up a full day of their work week.

No one likes this kind of grueling training, but Sheng Tianhong knew in his heart that he had to set an example. If he dared to slack off even a little, others would definitely follow suit. Therefore, he made sure to complete at least the required amount of grueling training every day without fail.

However, even with all the precautions taken, Sheng Tianhong inevitably developed the typical "bird leg syndrome" of astronauts, with his leg muscles visibly atrophying. The soles of his feet, from being off the ground for so long, became as delicate and soft as a baby's skin. Conversely, the most exhausted part of his body became his hands. In the weightless environment, his hands took over the function of his feet. They had to constantly pull on the surrounding fulcrums, dragging his body around the capsule, and hold on tightly upon reaching the target to stop the enormous inertia brought about by his massive mass.

[Task progress time (hour:minute:second): 11:43:24]

Today is Sheng Tianhong's shower day. In this godforsaken place, each of them is only allowed to take a good shower once a week.

He took off his vest and shorts and stepped into the folding shower stall. It was a cylinder made of white waterproof fabric that looked like a giant accordion. He pulled up the curtains that surrounded it, secured the hooks to the metal cover on the ceiling, then lathered himself with soap and rinsed himself with the showerhead. Since there was no gravity, the wastewater was sucked away by the airflow.

During his workday, he could clearly feel dry, flaky skin constantly peeling off his body. The quick sponge bath during shower breaks was clearly insufficient to completely alleviate the symptoms. However, a good shower seemed to soothe even his stiff muscles.

To be honest, the water droplets in the weightless state are all suspended in mid-air, and the experience is more like taking a sauna than taking a shower.

During a break in the shower, he thought of his two team members.

All selected astronauts underwent specialized training by NASA psychologists to address the psychological characteristics of humans under prolonged isolation. Having experienced numerous spaceflight missions, Sheng Tianhong considered himself to have exceptional resilience and a perfectly clear mind. However, he could still keenly perceive that two crew members were exhibiting most of the symptoms of isolation at different stages: sleep disturbances, boredom and emptiness, restlessness, anxiety, anger, depression, migraines, irritability, difficulty concentrating, and even a severe decline in spatial and temporal perception.

Every day, the "Search God" receives a barrage of text messages of greetings from supporters, family, and friends, but due to the excessively high communication latency, it is impossible to have any meaningful real-time conversations. Those voices that were once so familiar are now forced to cross the cold barrier of light speed and come in a fragmented manner, which not only does not bring comfort, but also amplifies the crew's torment on the deserted island.

These pressures have already had a significant impact on the crew.

On the surface, Mila seemed unaffected by the emotional fluctuations. She remained the same witty astronaut, frequently cracking a dry joke, but Sheng Tianhong knew that her sharp edges were becoming increasingly acute. Mila was, at heart, a pure pilot, accustomed to the short, exciting, adrenaline-pumping pace of action.

However, Sheng Tianhong felt that Mira wouldn't cause any major trouble. Mira was confident in her abilities, and her moment of glory would arrive the moment she personally piloted the lander to the surface of Mars. Sheng Tianhong felt that his current task was to keep this guy calm until they successfully reached Mars.

But Song Xingye was completely different.

Song Xingye was a very tense, rigid, and even somewhat aloof person. He possessed the inherent arrogance of a scientist, always displaying a haughty and condescending demeanor. Mira's provocative jokes and elaborate schemes had clearly infuriated him, but he stubbornly refused to utter a word, choosing instead to silently endure it, sulking like a mute. This passive resistance benefited no one.

On the other hand, Sheng Tianhong genuinely admired and respected Song Xingye's resilience and perseverance.

Sheng Tianhong once frankly told him that for him, the whole significance of this mission was to pilot the spaceship, execute orders, and finally set foot on the surface of Mars, and then return to Earth alive.

In contrast, Song Xingye was able to deeply understand and empathize with the risks of this journey, which was undoubtedly an extraordinary interstellar voyage. He seemed to harbor some kind of deep-seated obsession, and during the mission, he was able to convey this awe-inspiring feeling to everyone.

There were a few moments when he even exuded the air of a poet.

Sheng Tianhong was well aware of the value of this quality, which actually aligned with his initial expectations. According to the Jingzhou Command Center, even though their weekly television newsletter ratings had experienced a precipitous decline after the initial hype faded, they have now miraculously begun to recover, almost entirely thanks to Song Xingye's outstanding performance.

He dried himself with a towel, and then had to pick up a vacuum hose to clean the water droplets hanging on the walls of the shower chamber bit by bit. The whole process was both time-consuming and laborious.

Finally, just like every time he took a shower before, after he had gone through a lot of trouble to dismantle and put the shower away properly, the little bit of comfort he had finally gotten from the shower vanished in an instant.

[Hour:Minute:Second]13:12:51

Sheng Tianhong sat down at the control console in the mission module and quickly checked the operating parameters of the spacecraft's various systems, the remaining consumables, the remaining attitude control propellant, and the evaporation emissions from the cryogenic storage chamber... All the data looked normal.

The only problem was that the large solar panels on both sides of the S-IVB booster, which spread out like wings, were getting too hot. These panels could be tilted 25 degrees to cool them down by allowing sunlight to hit them at an angle. Sheng Tianhong suggested to the mission control center that the tilting operation be performed a few days earlier. A few minutes later, Jingzhou replied that it would evaluate the matter.

In addition, the feed system for a steerable dish antenna pointing towards Earth also malfunctioned, with downlink signal strength dropping by 3 decibels, possibly due to a crack caused by thermal stress somewhere in the system. This is a major problem, as it will significantly reduce the rate of transmitting high-definition images to Earth. The ground team stated that they will not take any concrete action for the time being, but will conduct simulation analysis first.

Next, he discovered that several of the 17 rechargeable battery regulators in the service bay were malfunctioning. Regulator number 15 had stopped working a few days earlier, followed by number 3, which also went offline. These faults caused a sharp drop in available power of about 200 watts. Jingzhou suspected that a low-voltage trip had occurred somewhere, causing the regulators to switch frequently. Sheng Tianhong had to find a way to bypass the faulty node and restart the system, and then report the power consumption data to the experts in the MOCR (Mission Operations Control Room) back-end computer room.

This work is slow, tedious, and seemingly meaningless. The routine tasks are extremely energy-consuming, but they are an unavoidable cost of long-term space missions. After all, it is these seemingly cumbersome steps that keep this "handcrafted iron lump" running.

[Hour:Minute:Second]15:49:01

Finally, he was able to conduct interstellar navigation.

He floated towards the observation room of the mission module, stood before the viewing window, and retrieved his optical instrument kit. This kit included a single-magnification wide-angle telescope and a 28x sextant. The sextant was a sturdy, slightly bulky little device, equipped with an eyepiece and a graduated semi-circular disk, used to measure the angles between celestial bodies. These brass instruments were exquisitely designed, compact yet substantial. Sheng Tianhong was captivated by them. If he had to take one souvenir from this mission, Martian rocks could go to hell; he would definitely choose this exquisite little set.

Sheng Tianhong leaned against the window and began his work. He first measured the apparent diameter of the sun's disk to estimate the distance between the spacecraft and the sun. Next, he determined the angles between Venus and a certain star, and between Earth and a certain star. With these three basic measurements, the spacecraft's position in three-dimensional space could be determined. Finally, he also performed several redundant measurements for calibration.

He discovered that in microgravity, he simply couldn't hold these optical instruments steadily. Fortunately, there was a solution: suspend the device in mid-air, aim it at the target as much as possible, and then bring it close to the eyepiece to read precise data.

The first orbital correction maneuver occurred ten days after leaving Earth. At that time, the flight trajectory was severely deviated. The orbital planning team in Jingzhou sent ignition correction parameters to the "Search God" spacecraft. The MS-II class maneuvering propulsion system, with its two modified rocket engines, immediately ignited, producing a significant velocity increase of 25 meters per second. However, the latest data shows that the spacecraft is still slightly off its planned trajectory. Today, Sheng Tianhong will verify the spacecraft's position and velocity and recalculate its trajectory. If accurate calibration can be achieved tomorrow, the second orbital correction ignition will eliminate that small remaining deviation.

Ground-based methods for monitoring spacecraft are varied. As a spacecraft accelerates away from Earth, its radio carrier frequency undergoes a Doppler shift, similar to the sound of a high-speed train whistle. To more accurately measure distance, the ground sends uplink modulation signals—a short string of digital codes—to the spacecraft, which are then transmitted back directly. Experts can then calculate the relative distance between the spacecraft and Earth by analyzing the delay in receiving the signal. Scientists even conducted a radio experiment aboard the SpaceX spacecraft, using the changing angle between the spacecraft and quasars in the background sky to aid in positioning.

Even with all these technological means at their disposal, it's still impossible to achieve absolutely precise positioning of the "Search God" spacecraft; its overall accuracy can only reach about half of the required standard. The final solution still relies on the spacecraft's own equipment.

In fact, the "Searching for the Gods" spacecraft was indeed equipped with an autonomous optical sensor system. Its solar array housed two solar sensors, miniature cadmium sulfide photoresistors, and a star tracker, a lens device with an image dissection tube. However, this automated system was ultimately not very intelligent, and every few days it would be fooled by bright space debris. These tiny specks of debris, drifting alongside the spacecraft in its solar orbit, severely interfered with the star tracker's normal operation.

Therefore, just like the sailors who have sailed across the oceans for thousands of years, Sheng Tianhong must also rely on the stars to guide his giant ship.

He hummed a tune as he worked, knowing full well that he was quite skilled in this area. Countless repeated practices in ground-based planetariums and lunar laboratories had enabled him to achieve a measurement accuracy of less than one-thousandth of a degree, and this ancient navigation technique itself gave him a great sense of accomplishment.

After completing the operation, he packed up the instrument and returned to the control panel. By processing the data through the computer, he accurately calculated his coordinates. Although the raw data would eventually be transmitted back to Jingzhou, he still felt very satisfied to have completed this task independently.

Sheng Tianhong habitually visualized the mission trajectory in his mind to perceive his location in real time. Although they paid an astonishing price of five years transporting fuel to send the booster into orbit, this energy was negligible on a cosmic scale, so much so that the spacecraft's orbit almost perfectly coincided with Earth's orbit. After escaping Earth's gravitational well, "Search God" would follow its master like a loyal hunting dog, maintaining stable synchronization with Earth in its orbit around the sun.

Preliminary observations are encouraging; the spacecraft has essentially reached its designated position, and he estimates that the TCM-2's ignition speed increment will only be a few meters per second.

After finishing all that, he decided to treat himself. He turned off the cabin lights and sat in a warm corner by the large porthole, with only the low hum of the ventilation fans in his ears.

The "Search God" drifts alone in deep space. The Earth and the Moon have degenerated into two twinkling points of light. Looking across the entire universe, only the Sun still maintains its disk-shaped outline.

This sense of loneliness was extraordinary, more profound than any of his previous space missions, even surpassing his time in the lunar laboratory. Before, unless he was on the far side of the moon, Earth was always within sight.