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

He had long since given up hope of returning home; the image of that long journey home lingered in his mind.

But that's all in the future.

At this very moment, he is climbing out of the abyss of despair and setting off towards a warm future on Mars.

He gazed at the approaching Mars for as long as possible, trying to identify places he had never truly seen before.

It seems like I need to constantly refresh my perception of this planet.

……

[Task execution time: 371 days, 01 hour, 32 minutes, and 30 seconds]

Mira made a final fine-tuning to the Challenger's attitude control rockets, confirming their proper function by spraying a small amount of propellant.

The solenoid valve emitted a clear click.

"Gentlemen, the propellant pipeline is connected and in normal condition."

Through the white helmet, Sheng Tianhong's expression was somewhat solemn.

"Okay, let's get to work then," he said.

Mira grinned.

With a crisp sound of exploding bolts, the Challenger was ejected from the Searcher.

Immediately afterwards, the solid rocket boosters attached to the bottom of the Mars Lander Module (MEM) briefly ignited.

The surge of propulsion from this ignition signaled that Challenger had entered a new orbit around Mars.

Song Xingye was tightly bound to the seat, trying his best to relax.

Challenger will orbit the new orbit several times, during which time the pilots and mission control personnel will conduct a comprehensive check of the systems.

The MEM's ascent section is hidden in the cone-shaped upper heat shield, and the entire compartment is a nearly vertical cylinder, standing tall above the main body of the spacecraft.

Three seats were crammed side by side in the narrow cabin floor.

Through the porthole, Song Xingye gazed at the attitude indicator screen on the navigation guidance panel and the optical aiming telescope hanging from the ceiling.

The main windows of the cabin are large triangular and tilted downwards, providing the pilot with a clear view of the landing site when standing.

Above his head, there was a small rectangular aiming window, and the outer heat shield also had corresponding observation holes.

Squeezed between his two companions, Song Xingye looked up at the small window, feeling like a prisoner who could only gaze longingly at the only skylight in the cell roof.

The interior of the Apollo command module is warm and inviting, with brown, gray, and green as the main color scheme.

However, the cabin was filled with unpainted aluminum materials, the walls were very thin, and the structure was ingenious but somewhat rough.

He could even clearly see the rows of rivets that held the hull together.

Through the porthole, Song Xingye watched as the Search God spacecraft gradually disappeared from the view of the Mars Lander Module (MEM).

This was the first time he had carefully examined the spacecraft since the rendezvous and docking in Earth orbit.

The robust and reliable MS-II class propulsion engine still sits firmly in the center of gravity of the main module, although the external storage tanks on both sides have long been discarded. It is connected to the slender MS-IVB class rocket in front, which will be activated later to decelerate and send them back to Earth orbit.

The entire Endeavour spacecraft, including the cylindrical mission module and solar array, re-docked with its nose facing forward after separating from the MS-IVB class and turning around, allowing the engines at the bottom of the mission module to be removed from the protection of the fairing.

Meanwhile, their Discovery was docked at the side docking port, hanging over one side of the mission module.

When Challenger returns to Mars orbit, its landing module (MEM) will be jettisoned, and the remaining booster stage, mission module, and command module will be re-docked together in preparation for return ignition.

This group of spacecraft is entirely composed of cylinders, square boxes, and metal plates, and its configuration has been changing since it entered Mars orbit.

In Song Xingye's view, all these orbital assembly tasks were like a child playing with building blocks in space, which he found unbelievable.

When they jettisoned the mission module from the booster, it was like cutting off their way home.

But he also knew that there were contingency plans for each stage.

Even if the landing fails, they can still manage to assemble some kind of spaceship to support the return mission.

All of this exposed the limitations of their operating methods and technology.

Perhaps one day, they will have enough power to complete this journey in a relaxed manner, without having to painstakingly dismantle and reassemble this damned spacecraft.

After a year of space travel, this cobbled-together spacecraft had long lost its luster in Earth orbit.

The pristine white paint from before launch has faded to yellow, and the parts of the ship in shadow have turned brown due to Martian dust.

When the Search God was out of sight, he could only see darkness through the small window.

In the pitch black, the occasional scattered outlines of the ochre-colored earth flashed by.

The Challenger spacecraft flew across the Martian terminator, the line between day and night.

"We will enter the descent orbit (DOI) in thirty seconds," Sheng Tianhong said. "Everything is ready."

"Release confirmed," Mira said.

DOI stands for Descending Orbit Initiation, which involves a single ignition maneuver that puts the spacecraft into a low-altitude elliptical orbit that intersects the planet's surface.

Song Xingye saw Mira's hand hovering above the manual ignition button.

The Challenger was Mila's masterpiece, and the landing process that followed was the culmination of her countless days and nights of hard work.

She looked excited, nervous, and full of anticipation.

The simulator is always preset to a fault state during training, which is its original design purpose: to familiarize the crew and ground control personnel with various possible dangers and train them on how to deal with them.

But Song Xingye always felt that Mira's mind was pre-programmed to be "normal".

It would be harder than climbing to heaven for her to accept the reality that this pile of scrap metal might crash.

But in Song Xingye's view, the situation was already quite good.

"Fifteen seconds," Sheng Tianhong counted down. "Ten-second countdown, ready, everyone. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four."

Mira, wearing a spacesuit glove, pressed the ignition button.

Two, one.

Several rockets ignited in succession, producing a series of muffled bangs and clicks.

Immediately afterwards, Song Xingye felt a strong push-back sensation deep in his back.

"The engine deceleration indicator light is on," Mira said with a bright smile. "It's fantastic! Running perfectly!"

It felt like the Challenger had been given a hard push.

He had heard that solid rockets burn much more violently than liquid rockets.

The engine continued to burn, while Sheng Tianhong kept time.

Compared to the enormous size of the MEM, the thrust generated by this rocket is negligible.

There was no violent shaking, no vibration, and not even a noticeable deceleration.

The only sensation you can feel is the continuous push-back feeling and the steady hissing sound of the propellant burning.

The thrust suddenly disappeared.

Almost at the same instant, the deceleration propulsion section was jettisoned and detached.

Everything seemed exactly the same as before.

Challenger remains in Mars orbit.

Song Xingye was still in a state of weightlessness, tightly bound to the seat by the seatbelt and floating.

But the probe is currently gliding along a downward trajectory and will eventually plunge into the atmosphere about 30 kilometers above the Martian surface.

Due to atmospheric drag, the probe will never have another chance to climb back up.

Challenger has officially embarked on its one-way journey to the surface of Mars.

Suddenly, an unsettling sense of clarity washed over him, and he became acutely aware of how small and fragile the little spaceship was.

This is completely different from landing on Earth, where you are falling towards a planet inhabited by humans, or into a vast ocean filled with search and rescue ships.

At this moment, the three of them were crammed into a small metal cabin, falling towards a desolate and lifeless world.

This place is so far from Earth that I can't even see a trace of my hometown.

They are not ending their journey and returning home; instead, they are constantly pushing the limits, pushing exploration to the extremes of human technological capabilities and risk tolerance, to the point that even mission control cannot communicate with them in real time.

It's like climbing a staircase; with each step you take up, the way back becomes farther and farther away.

However, Song Xingye felt not fear, but rather a sense of relief.

Another critical point has been crossed.

The further the mission progresses, the fewer variables there are to worry about.

"Prepare to discard the deceleration pack," Mira said.

Sheng Tianhong counted down: "Three, two, one."

Song Xingye heard a muffled thud as the explosive bolts ruptured the metal connecting belt, ejecting the small deceleration pack from the bottom of the Challenger.

Then came a strange impact sound, which sounded like the footsteps of some kind of giant bird. It must have been the sound of discarded metal scraping against the hull of the spaceship.

As the deceleration sections separated, the Challenger plummeted along a trajectory like a cannonball.

The heat shield at the bottom gives it the shape of a blunt cone, which is exactly the same as the shape of the Shenzhou spacecraft command module, except that the Mars landing module (MEM) is almost three times the size of the former.

Mira adjusted the spaceship's attitude so that the thickest blunt end of the titanium alloy honeycomb heat shield faced the direction of flight.

When the attitude control thrusters were activated, Song Xingye glimpsed the gray mist billowing out from the small window above.

Then, the fog outside the window grew thicker and thicker, briefly shimmering with a translucent halo.

Even after Mira stopped the thruster ignition, the glow lingered for a long time.

Soon, the halo began to turn into a pink glow.

A sharp whistling sound came from the outside of the ship.

That was the glow emitted by the Martian atmosphere.

When Challenger's heat shield entered the Martian atmosphere at extremely high speeds, the gas molecules were violently rubbed together, causing them to emit bright light.

Mira cheered, "We're almost there! Grandpa Mars is waiting for us!"

"Damn it..." Sheng Tianhong said, his voice sounding somewhat nervous.

For the first time, Song Xingye felt the real sensation of deceleration. He felt a gentle pressure on his abdomen and his legs felt slightly heavy.

An indicator light on Mira's control panel lit up.

"We're here!" he shouted. "0.05 GB. The show's about to begin, let's get going."

0.05 G marks the traditional threshold at which a spacecraft officially encounters atmospheric drag.

At this moment, they have reached this critical point in the Martian atmosphere.

The feeling of overload caused by deceleration escalates abruptly and violently.

This is much more intense than the bumps in a simulator.

Damn it, the atmosphere on Mars is supposed to be very thin.

It appears that the structure of the atmosphere is far more complex than they had anticipated, and the density differences are even more dramatic.

The pressure he felt in his chest had become extremely severe.

He opened his eyes wide and tried his best to remember every detail.

Every bit of pain he endured will reveal more mysteries about Mars to atmospheric scientists in the future.

After all, he was one of only three people in human history to have personally experienced this moment.

However, at this moment, for some reason, he felt that none of it seemed worth it.

He heard a crisp click from the solenoid valve of the attitude control thruster.

Mira stared intently at the navigation display: "Heading perfect, bearing 147 degrees..."

The Challenger must hit the designated re-entry corridor precisely.

Whether in the lateral or longitudinal direction, the allowable guidance error is only half a degree, which is equivalent to a narrow window less than fifty kilometers wide.

It's about to break 1GB.

Just one gigabyte?

Song Xingye suddenly felt as if his spacesuit was made of lead, and as if a 200-pound fat man was pressing on his chest.

Is this really the standard sense of gravity on Earth?

After living in a microgravity environment for a year, the burden was simply unbearable, like a person carrying a huge sandbag for the rest of their life.

"1.5 GB..." Sheng Tianhong announced the number.

Song Xingye let out a muffled groan.

He was pressed firmly into the back of the seat, his arms tightly pinned to his sides.

What was originally an overload equivalent to the weight of Mira and Sheng Tianhong now felt incredibly heavy on him.

"Hang in there, guys," Sheng Tianhong said. "It's 1.8 G already. You've all been through worse in the centrifuges, 2.1 G."

Mira was completely focused on operating the navigation panel, her hand constantly hovering above the radar control system.

"2.5," Sheng Tianhong gritted her teeth and read aloud with difficulty, "6!...5, 3. Hey, what did I just say?"

Above Song Xingye, the light entering through the small window had turned gray, cold and chilly, yet its brightness was no less than that of daytime on Earth.

Mila and Sheng Tianhong were bathed in this hazy halo, causing the orange of their spacesuits to fade and their faces to be obscured by the reflection of their helmets, making them somewhat blurry.

The entire cabin seemed to have transformed into a complex fluorescent tube.

The weight pressing on his chest and legs began to lessen.

He felt his chest gradually expand, his breathing became smoother, and he was finally able to inhale air deeply into his lungs.

A dazzling yellow light flashed past the small window overhead, burning fiercely.

Those were fragments of the heat shield breaking off from the bottom of the spacecraft, carrying away the intense heat.

More debris flew past like raindrops, some only the size of a fist, others larger, occasionally striking the spaceship's hull with a crisp impact.

Panic spread through Song Xingye's body.

God, we can't hold on much longer.

This is the first time Mars has had a chance to kill us, he thought.

I wonder if it will actually kill us.

He imagined that if viewed from the ground, Challenger would look like a giant comet, shimmering with intense light.

As it burned and crackled along the way, it left a brilliant red trail in the dark Martian night sky.

The attitude control thrusters fired again, pulling the Challenger's nose up.

"Ready," Mira said, "begin to engage maneuverability."

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