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

This spacecraft possesses a certain degree of maneuverability.

By shifting its center of gravity, Challenger can further reduce its altitude by rolling and pitching up, bouncing like a skipping stone in the thicker atmosphere.

"Three, two, one," Mira counted down.

As soon as they finished speaking, a violent impact suddenly pressed them down, and then the overload quickly plummeted to the bottom, the feeling of weightlessness like falling into the bottom of a giant roller coaster's circular track.

"How's it feeling?" Mira asked. "This roller coaster was pretty good, wasn't it? Get ready for the turnaround."

After a brief climb to dissipate the heat, the Challenger plunged back down to a lower altitude.

Sheng Tianhong tapped on the glass panel of the instrument: "Hey, my altimeter is working, 60,000 meters."

Song Xingye felt a chill run down his spine.

60,000 meters.

The altimeter's reading unit suddenly switched from "kilometers," commonly used in aerospace, to "meters," based on air pressure.

It's like flying a plane.

We're almost there.

The attitude thrusters roared again, and the spacecraft's pitch angle increased further.

The firelight outside the small window gradually faded, and the sky first showed a hazy gray background, then a touch of pinkish-white appeared, just like the color of human skin.

"Lift vector upwards!" Mira shouted.

The MEM (Mars Lander) began to fall again, plummeting at a speed of more than 500 meters per second in the increasingly thin air.

But the whole process was reassuringly smooth, with the most terrifying high temperatures and violent G-force impacts subsiding.

It feels just like sitting in a simulator.

Mira unbuckled her seatbelt and slung it over her shoulder.

"Posture adjustment complete." She said, standing up and leaving her seat.

Sheng Tianhong, who was to Song Xingye's left, also stood up.

During the final powered descent phase of landing, the crew must remain standing.

Song Xingye nervously unbuckled his seatbelt, carefully stepped onto the seat to stand still, and gripped the securing straps on the bulkhead tightly with both hands.

He could barely feel his legs.

Having lived in the microgravity environment of space for a year, he seemed to have long forgotten how to stand.

The vestibular nerve disorder caused his inner ear to spin, and the surrounding aluminum bulkheads seemed to be tilting.

He felt as if his body was incredibly heavy.

He felt a hand on his forearm; it was Sheng Tianhong.

"Don't be nervous," Sheng Tianhong said, "this feeling will pass quickly."

That being said, in most cases after long-duration space missions, astronauts returning to Earth were carried directly from the capsule into wheelchairs by rescue personnel and then rushed to the hospital...

Sheng Tianhong clapped his gloved hands.

"Get to work, everyone," he said.

He turned and went back to his workstation, and Mira followed suit. The two then quickly began checking the new round of inspection checklists.

Song Xingye's current task is to provide assistance to the two drivers.

He pulled the lever to fold up the accelerator seat, freeing up floor space in the cockpit; then, while the driver and co-pilot were focused on operating the controls, he secured the restraints and elastic cables around their waists.

After completing these steps, he retreated to a corner of the cabin, adjusted his posture, and secured himself to the restraint cables.

They had to stand there the whole time until they actually set foot on the surface of Mars.

Suddenly, a piercingly loud explosion came from outside.

The sunlight poured into the cabin like a sharp blade, the light intense and dazzling.

The conical front thermal shield completed its mission, breaking into several pieces and detaching to reveal the complex internal propellant tanks and antenna structure.

A cover then popped out from the bottom of the cabin, revealing the bell-shaped nozzle of the reverse thrust descent engine.

Around the MEM base, six short, stubby landing legs spring out from the cabin and lock firmly in place.

The Challenger's landing configuration has been deployed.

Through the sloping triangular porthole below the driver's seat, Song Xingye glimpsed the dazzling sunlight, the purple sky, and a winding, brown mountain range.

……

Task execution time [days/hours:minutes:seconds] 371/02:03:23

Mira felt a dryness in her mouth as the pressure suit continuously delivered pure oxygen.

Sheng Tianhong stood to her right, while Song Xingye stood silently behind them.

Mira quickly scanned the various data on the control panel.

She has completed pressurizing the engine fuel tanks for the descent phase, invoked the corresponding computer programs, and confirmed the Challenger's flight path through the aiming telescope.

The Jingzhou command center maintained radio silence, allowing only quiet listening.

At this stage, the ground forces are powerless to help.

The Challenger completed a roll during its descent, bringing its landing radar to the ground.

However, the radar signal has not yet been locked.

Through the porthole, all one could see was a triangular alien sky interwoven with vibrant purple and pink.

Sheng Tianhong reported: "Listen to my countdown, there are three minutes and thirty seconds left until ignition... three minutes and thirty seconds."

Mira then pulled the safety release switch for the descent engine.

Mira took a deep breath.

This was her first time serving as commander in a mission.

This shift in identity brought her a powerful sense of liberation.

She vowed to make sure everything went smoothly and not allow any mishaps.

Moreover, she has practiced this landing maneuver thousands of times in simulators and the MLTV Mars landing training vehicle, and she can land perfectly even with her eyes closed.

That being said, this is Mars, man.

This distant and ancient alien world might have other plans.

This landing module must outperform all previous test prototypes.

"My PDI status shows 63," Sheng Tianhong said in a low voice.

This is an old system logic that has been used since the last century.

Code 63 means: The computer is checking whether it is ready to enter the PDI phase and is about to start the power descent procedure.

"Go ahead and do it," Mira said. "I'll take over."

Sheng Tianhong pressed the "Execute" button and then "Ignite".

Precisely to the second.

Mira was initially unaware, but the instrument panel showed that the engine was running smoothly at 10% of its maximum power during the descent.

Half a minute later, the engine thrust climbed to 100%.

She still couldn't hear any engine roar, but the entire cabin was filled with high-frequency vibrations.

This feeling is extremely uncomfortable, like a dentist's high-speed drill bit pressing directly against your teeth.

This is a completely different experience from that in a simulator.

Challenger descended smoothly along Track 1, with a smooth and effortless deceleration process.

"The altitude data of AGS and PGNS are completely consistent." Sheng Tianhong, the navigator, reported to Mila, which meant that the data of the redundant primary and secondary navigation systems had achieved perfect synchronization.

"Three minutes after ignition, the altitude reached 39050 meters."

However, this altitude reading is still only a blind measurement calculated by the two navigation computers, and the landing radar has not yet locked onto the ground target.

Although Sheng Tianhong can still read the data from the barometric altimeter, this instrument, which operates in the unfamiliar Martian atmosphere, is still in the experimental stage, and its readings are considered invalid according to the mission specifications.

"Good condition, continue descending," Sheng Tianhong stared intently at the screen. "All indicators are normal at the four-minute node... We will continue our descent at the four-minute node."

"Received," Mira replied briefly.

All data are normal, altitude 33,000 meters...

However, the radar warning light on Mira's control panel remained on.

The landing radar should have been activated long ago and should have detected the ranging signal reflected from the ground long ago.

However, the lock-on operation has yet to be completed.

"What the hell is this damn radar doing, Mira?" Sheng Tianhong asked anxiously.

He reset the switch again.

"Still no response," Sheng Tianhong said through gritted teeth.

"Come on, baby," Mira prayed softly, "lock me in."

But there was still no movement on the dial.

"hurry up."

"Is talking to a machine even useful?" Song Xingye suddenly blurted out from the back row.

"Shut up, Lao Song," Sheng Tianhong snapped without turning his head, his attention entirely focused on his appearance.

Mira's heart tightened.

Apart from the radar, all other data is impeccable; the speed is perfect, and the altitude estimates of AGS and PGNS are also spot on.

But without radar signals, even if the barometric altimeter shows normal readings, they are essentially blind.

The mission safety guidelines clearly state that if the radar fails to lock on when the descent reaches an altitude of 10,000 meters, the landing mission must be terminated immediately.

Sheng Tianhong suggested, "Try restarting the landing radar."

Mira yanked the radar circuit breaker out, her muscles tense with anger and rage, then shoved it back into the slot.

"Alright, reboot complete."

The warning light is still on, and the vehicle is not locked.

She turned her head, looked directly into Sheng Tianhong's eyes, and said, word by word, "The weather is nice today; it's a good day for landing."

The unspoken message in her eyes was crystal clear: to hell with the security rules, to hell with the radar, and to hell with the Jingzhou Command Center.

They are tens of millions of kilometers away from us. By the time the signal reaches them, we'll already be celebrating on Earth.

We've come this far through so much, we absolutely cannot give up here.

Even without radar, we can just land by sight, screw it.

Sheng Tianhong looked back at her.

Sheng Tianhong cursed inwardly: You crazy bastard! Are you really going to do this?

Mira could feel the cabin tilting slightly around her, and through the huge porthole, the alien sky and a crimson land rushed past.

Challenger began to increase its pitch angle, while its altitude continued to approach the ground.

"Twenty-four thousand meters," Sheng Tianhong reported to his superior, "Prepare to reduce speed and conserve energy."

The main guidance program then reduced the thrust of the descent engine to 60%.

Mira could clearly feel the slight tremor subsiding, and everything was perfectly in line with the scheduled timetable.

"The controls are fantastic," she said. "It's so much more fun than an simulator."

At 21,000 meters, the spacecraft continued its descent, and the radar still had not locked on it. Its speed had dropped to 1,200 meters per second.

1200, that's already the speed of an aircraft flying within the atmosphere.

Mira gripped the control stick tightly; she was personally piloting the spacecraft through the Martian atmosphere.

Mira gripped the control stick tightly; she was personally piloting the spacecraft through the Martian atmosphere.

She looked out the window; the stars had disappeared, and the sky had transformed into a towering, brownish-red dome.

She could clearly see the ground below, a desolate wasteland with deep folds, slowly passing beneath her feet.

Visibility was excellent at this time, and the low-hanging morning sunlight stretched the shadows of the terrain to an extremely long length. The strong contrast between light and shadow made every detail of the ground visible.

The Challenger is drawing a broad arc from the southwest as it approaches the landing site.

As the spacecraft flew over the ancient and scarred crater region of the Southern Hemisphere, the scene was almost like playing a lunar lander simulation game. Countless craters were layered upon each other, and the ancient and massive craters were almost completely covered by newly formed smaller craters.

However, the interior of the crater here is filled with sand dunes that undulate like ocean waves. The edge of the rock wall of one of the giant craters even shows obvious signs of being eroded and collapsed by flowing water. This is definitely not the moon.

This desolate land is winding and awe-inspiring.

This is a desolate planet, with no ground support whatsoever... There isn't even a single guiding runway light down there, man.

But from another perspective, at least there are no anti-aircraft guns aimed at your rear.

"Seven minutes and thirty seconds," Sheng Tianhong stared at the screen, "16,500 meters, approaching the 'high gate' node, the radar still hasn't locked on."

"High gate" refers to the location where Mira can first visually see the landing point through the porthole on the planned flight path.

She leaned out and looked ahead.

The planned landing site is located on the north side of a steep cliff at the entrance of an outflowing river valley.

According to Song Xingye's previous description, the landscape of this valley closely resembles a dried-up riverbed on Earth.

Mira has studied this area countless times using high-resolution photos taken by the orbiter and plaster models of the terrain. She knows every detail of it like the back of her hand and can picture it with her eyes closed, just like she knows her own living room.

But at this moment, the Martian sun was low in the sky, the ship still maintained a tilt of more than fifty degrees, and the dazzling sunlight refracted and flickered on the triangular porthole glass...

Everything was completely different from the plan on paper.

The terrain beneath our feet is intricate and complex, weathered and ravaged over millions of years, with its features constantly changing in the field of vision.

Every shadow was as deep as an abyss, and every rough texture of the ochre-red ground seemed to leap out at your eyes. Under this extreme contrast of light and shadow, the sense of vertical difference was magnified infinitely.

"Fifteen thousand meters," Sheng Tianhong said through gritted teeth, "the radar still hasn't locked on."

Damn.

"Listen, Mira, let's review the emergency procedures for aborting a landing." Sheng Tianhong's tone was filled with deep helplessness.

Damn it, he decided to give up.

According to procedures, the spacecraft must immediately pull up and level off, ignite its ascent engines... The final baseline for terminating the landing is set at an altitude of 8,000 meters.

"No, we must not stop." Song Xingye suddenly spoke from the back row.

Sheng Tianhong turned and glared at him: "What did you say?"

"We cannot stop; we are very likely flying through a radar blind spot right now."

"Then explain to me what exactly a radar blind spot is on Mars," Sheng Tianhong coldly demanded.

"It's volcanic ash," Song Xingye said urgently, "and pumice too."

He tightened his seatbelt, peered out the driver's window, and tried to find evidence in the ravaged landscape below.

"Those are all low-density materials, with almost no hard rocks. Their radar reflectivity is extremely poor, so the signals emitted by the landing radar are like mud sinking into the sea, and the echoes cannot be detected at all."

"Or," Sheng Tianhong countered, "it's just that this damn landing radar is broken."