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

Many years later, the words of Weinbaum still resonate in her memory, as if she had read those stories just yesterday.

Therefore, when Mira learned that this trip to Mars would be named after the spaceship described by Weinbaum, she was so excited that she almost jumped for joy.

As she grew older, she read almost every science fiction novel and imagined countless spaceships landing on Mars. Bradbury's "Silver Ship" always appeared in her mind, those ships carrying humans to and from Mars, eventually landing on a beautiful, habitable planet. Arthur C. Clarke's "The Search for Gods" also left a deep impression on her; it was a massive machine composed of two giant spheres connected by a hundred-meter-long tunnel, like a subway tunnel. The rear sphere was equipped with nuclear-powered engines, maintained by robots, while the front sphere was the crew's living quarters, complete with living quarters, a dining room, and an observation deck…

Mira leaned back in her seat, took a small sip of the liquid food from the tube, and stroked the dial, unable to help but laugh: "Such a big restaurant, isn't it?"

In her view, a true human expedition to Mars would be more realistic than replicating the Wernher von Braun project of the 1950s, which involved assembling a series of practical modules into a "Search for the Gods" spacecraft.

Of course, she knew this journey carried far more than just her personal dreams. As the "Searching for Gods" set off for Mars, she could clearly feel that she was not alone; those silver behemoths that only existed in novels were also there, from the works of Clark, Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, and Edgar Rice Burroughs…

Mozart's melody filled the cabin, and Mira calmed herself down, beginning to check the long list of tasks one by one.

……

Task elapsed time (MET) [days/hours:minutes:seconds]: 313/11:33:22

313/11:33:22 Commander (CDR): ...As an astronaut, I would like to take this opportunity during this live television broadcast to express my gratitude to all participants. The success of this deep space flight is first and foremost due to the efforts of the scientists; it is their efforts that have enabled us to make this journey to Mars possible. Secondly, I would like to thank the people of East Korea; it is your support that has made this great undertaking possible. Furthermore, I would like to thank the government for its decisiveness; it is they who have facilitated the project's implementation. Finally, we would like to pay tribute to the space agency and all the professional teams. Although this journey to Mars appears incredibly easy on television, the reality is far from it. The launch system that sent us into orbit is an extremely complex system, and every component must be flawless. Just this switch panel I have here has more than three hundred components linked to it on the control rack, and there are countless such devices in the command module and various probes. In addition, there are countless circuit breakers, levers, and control valves. The MS-II rocket, the final stage heavy-lift launch vehicle that sent our massive "Search God" rockets into deep space, has performed flawlessly so far. However, it must ignite again in the next mission, or we will never reach our target...

We firmly believe that all equipment will function properly and we are confident about the remainder of the flight. This is all thanks to the hard work of countless people behind the scenes. First, there are the men and women workers who personally processed and assembled these precision components in the workshop; second, there is the testing team, who endured unimaginable high pressure during assembly and debugging… conducting rigorous retests again and again. Third, there are the astronauts who ventured into space before us, who, like building blocks, completed the complex docking of the various components of the "Search God" in Earth orbit. Finally, there are all our colleagues at the space center, from management and the mission planning team to the flight control team and the crew training team. It's like a television news program; only the three of us are on screen, glamorous and successful, while behind the scenes, unseen by the public, thousands of staff members are silently dedicating themselves, each giving their all in their respective roles.

313/11:35:10 Mars Module Pilot (MMP): [Audio indistinct]

313/11:35:12 Commander-in-Chief (CDR): That's right, everyone did their best. We especially want to thank these unsung heroes, and also thank all the friends who are watching TV and listening to the radio tonight. Finally, at this special moment, we must deeply mourn the astronauts who sacrificed their lives for the space program. Here, I would like to pay tribute to our colleagues from R and A countries who have also sacrificed their lives. Frankly, I grieve for every life lost. No goal is worth sacrificing one's life for. However, it is the sacrifice of these brave and fearless male and female astronauts that paved the way for today's Mars mission. Next, Mira will show you a keepsake we plan to leave on the surface of Mars... Mira?

313/11:35:45 Mars Module Pilot (MMP): Got it. I'm holding it up to the camera now. I hope everyone can see it clearly. Perhaps adjusting the reflection angle slightly would be better. For those listening on the radio, let me describe it verbally: It's a disc made of single-crystal diamond, shaped like a coin, about an inch in diameter and only eight millimeters thick. We used excimer laser technology to engrave a large amount of information inside the diamond. First, we deposited a layer of graphite inside as the information carrier, and then sealed the surface with a dense layer of diamond. The reason we chose diamond to make this keepsake is because it is the most durable material known to mankind. Even if our Mars probe and other artifacts left on it weather away over a long period of time, it can still be preserved for millions of years.

As we all know, this is the only planned Mars landing mission for humanity in the foreseeable future. This diamond disk is like an indestructible time capsule, left for future generations who might follow in our footsteps back to Mars. Or perhaps it's a letter we leave for future life on this red planet, for the intelligent civilization that might one day emerge here. It's somewhat like a miniature film, storing a vast amount of information, most of the text so small that it's impossible to decipher with the naked eye. But we know that it contains sincere greetings from all nations on Earth, a precise star map of the entire solar system, and a detailed analysis of human biology. Cleverly embedded within this thin diamond are minute samples of Earth rocks, lunar rocks, and human tissue. Furthermore, it records the names of 400,000 people who contributed to the "Search for the Gods" mission. We unanimously agree that leaving this information forever on the Martian surface as a monument to this historic mission is most fitting.

313/11:37:07 Commander (CDR): Okay, Song Xingye, it's your turn to announce the dedicated call signs for each module for the remaining phase of this mission.

313/11:37:11 Mission Specialist (MSP): Thank you, I know. Sometimes our internal space jargon can be quite confusing.

313/11:37:15 Commander (CDR): Just a reminder, the microphone is on.

313/11:37:17 Mission Specialist (MSP): It's really baffling; sometimes even I get dizzy. For example, our astronauts' own "calendar" starts counting days from the moment the rocket leaves the ground. At that time, we were riding the launch vehicle, taking off from the Suzhou Space Center. So for us, today is MET day 313, which is the 313th day of mission elapsed time, meaning we've been away from Earth for over 300 days. But for those watching on TV, it's just an ordinary day on the calendar. And the naming rules of the radio call sign system are even more confusing. You might ask, why do spacecraft sometimes have cool, unique names, like "Eagle" and "Columbia" for Apollo 11, while other times, the Jingzhou Flight Control Center just calls us by the general name "Searching for the Gods"? The reason is quite simple: we only need to use different call signs to distinguish between multiple independent spacecraft when a mission involves separation and simultaneous communication. This Mars mission is no exception. In a few months, when we reach Mars orbit and some of the crew will transfer to the lander for descent, this call sign system will come in handy. Unlike the lunar missions of the past, we didn't rush to name the various modules before launch, because they weren't needed initially. As the crew, we prefer to use the long deep-space cruise to Mars to calmly and carefully consider these names.

313/11:38:25 Commander (CDR): [Unable to hear clearly]

313/11:38:28 Mission Specialist (MSP): And today, I can finally reveal the names we've finalized. I know many children are watching our live stream in their classrooms right now, and I hope these names will add a touch of vibrancy to your history lessons. I also hope you understand that everything we're doing in space exploration today is essentially a magnificent continuation of the great human exploration history you've read about in your textbooks. Sheng Tianhong, if you're ready…

313/11:38:46 Commander (CDR): Of course. To align with the historical heritage Song Xingye just mentioned, we've decided to name our spacecraft after the illustrious exploration ships of the Age of Exploration. I'm particularly pleased with the mission module's name; it was in this module that we successfully completed our flyby observation and research of Venus. Therefore, we've decided to name it "Endeavour," in tribute to Captain James Cook's great ship that sailed to Tahiti in 1769 to observe the transit of Venus. Mira…

313/11:39:17 Mars Module Pilot (MMP): Yes, next up is our command module, the module that will eventually carry us back to Earth. We've named it "Discovery." Actually, this name carries the glory of two legendary ships: one was the 1610 expeditionary ship commanded by Henry Hudson, dedicated to finding the Northwest Passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; the other was Captain Cook's flagship during his explorations of Hawaii, Alaska, and the west coast of Canada. It's up to you, Song Xingye.

313/11:40:00 Mission Specialist (MSP): Finally, the grand finale is our Mars Lander (MEM), which will carry human footprints and become the first manned spacecraft to land on the surface of Mars. We've decided to name it after a famous Royal Navy research vessel from the 1870s that conducted two scientific expeditions to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

313/11:40:19 Commander (CDR): That's right.

313/11:40:21 Mission Specialist (MSP): We will name this Mars lander "Challenger".

[Task execution time: 349 days, 11 hour, 14 minutes, and 03 seconds]

Two months ago, Mars was already the brightest object in the sky after the sun, but it still looked like just a point of light.

However, just twenty days before it was to enter orbit, Mars gradually unfolded in view, revealing its disk-like outline.

As the terminator swept across the planet's surface, Song Xingye could see with the naked eye the wrinkles and undulations, as well as the craters and canyons bathed in sunlight.

As time went on, he gradually discerned more distinctive details on the surface of the earth.

That enormous fissure, clearly visible from a thousand miles away; Mariner's Canyon; the Arctic Crown, bulging due to water ice that forms before winter; and the massive black calderas of the Tharsis volcanic group.

It was truly astonishing that he could recognize so many different landforms; it felt as if he had been here before.

He thought to himself, Mars is obviously a small planet.

The Tharsis volcano, Mariner Valley, Therthys Plateau, and the vast frozen basin of the southern Greek Plain—these magnificent landforms stretch across the Martian surface, their sheer size even dominating the curvature of the entire planet.

In some respects, Mars is in line with his expectations.

Its appearance is very similar to the giant grating sphere in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), but there are also surprising differences.

Mars is not predominantly red, but rather has a brown base with subtle shades of light brown, ochre, and rust on its surface.

There is a striking visual contrast between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, with the younger landmasses north of the equator appearing brighter, almost yellow.

Because the Soshen lander approached Mars at an inclined angle, the side of the lander in the thick shadow of the night hemisphere faced the probe, thus giving Mars a convex shape.

On the planet's edge and in areas where the sun's rays are at a lower angle, the dark shadows appear even more ominous.

These features give this small planet a strong three-dimensional feel and a distinctly rounded shape.

This slightly orange planet is the only non-point-shaped celestial body visible in the boundless 360-degree space, besides the Sun.

During the longest phase of the deep space mission, the spacecraft traveled through the vacuum between planets, with only the sun and stars outside. The monotonous daily routine of the long flight was exhausting, and Song Xingye appeared somewhat depressed.

He became withdrawn, merely carrying out his duties numbly, deliberately avoiding communication with other crew members.

He guessed that his companions were also suffering, but they seemed to have found their own ways to vent. Mira was engrossed in the spaceship's hardware, while Sheng Tianhong was carefully tending to the pea seedlings he had planted.