I live in the Martian wilderness!

16:15 PM, Mars, southern Utopia Plains.

The pale sun was already hanging low in the western sky, casting extremely long shadows over the Achilles rocky area.

The temperature began to plummet, and the chill seeped into the vacuum insulation layer of the Xuanjia combat suit, silently eroding the internal temperature.

In the center of that desolate wasteland covered with reddish-brown wind-blown sand dunes, Gu Yu stood quietly.

Before him stood the Zhurong Mars rover, which had been dormant for over twenty years.

Looking at this first Mars rover in the history of Chinese spaceflight, Gu Yu's heart pounded.

He wanted to know now, immediately, right away, whether the heart that once touched the hearts of hundreds of millions of Chinese people could still beat inside this cold, rusted steel shell.

"Xuan, ambient temperature?"

"Current temperature is -52°C, core module estimated temperature is -82°C. This is consistent with the 'deep cryogenic' model."

"Very good, everything is going according to plan."

Gu Yu pulled out a square metal box—[T-3 type nano polymer shield].

He placed the metal box on the flat ground next to the Zhurong ship and pressed the red activation button on the side of the box.

"laugh--!!"

A burst of high-pressure gas was ejected from the box.

The next scene was visually stunning, like something out of a science fiction movie.

The thin film, folded like tin foil, began to expand wildly under the pressure of the gas inside!

The shape memory alloy skeleton hidden in the folded layers also automatically stretches and deforms, eventually forming a dome structure.

In less than a minute, a silver dome, five meters in diameter and three meters high, rose from the ground on this red wasteland.

On the side of the dome directly facing Gu Yu, an orange "industrial-grade airtight zipper" is clearly visible.

Without pausing, Gu Yu immediately returned to the Tissot cockpit and took control of the "land reclamation" bulldozer blade module.

The massive bucket precisely scooped up the surrounding Martian sand and dust, carefully covering it onto the circular skirt at the bottom of the protective shield, like decorating a cake, and compacting it firmly.

He then inserted two thick, high-pressure resistant hoses into the two pre-drilled ports on the side of the protective cover, marked "Circulation In" and "Circulation Out".

"Xuan, activate the 'High Temperature Forced Convection' heating mode." Gu Yu stared at the temperature curve on the screen.

"Locking the heating rate at 3 degrees Celsius per minute is the limit that those aging electronic components from twenty years ago can withstand."

"Understood. Heat exchanger is activated, circulating fan power 30%."

With the order given, a highly efficient "heat storm" began.

The core of this plan is to use the powerful nuclear waste heat of the Tiansuo to extract the originally cold Martian atmosphere from the tent, heat it up, and then blow it back in.

The tent maintains the same air pressure inside and outside, allowing for safe entry and exit at any time, while the interior is a warm, circulating area of ​​hot air.

A long forty minutes passed.

"The cabin temperature has risen to 15°C." Xuanjian's announcement came on time. "The Zhurong's structural temperature has stabilized and has reached the safe power-on threshold."

"it is good."

Gu Yu unzipped the tent and crawled into the warm tent.

He walked straight to the rear of the Zhurong and skillfully located the circular interface protected by a dust cover—the Zhurong's "ground diagnostics and external power supply port".

Pull a specially designed cable with a complex diagnostic chip from the swivel and precisely insert the connector into the port.

"Click".

The locking sound was crisp and pleasant. From this moment on, Xuanjian officially established a physical connection with the "nervous system" of the Tianshuo and the Zhurong.

"Xuan, initiate system-wide passive diagnostics."

"Use a weak diagnostic pulse to read the resistance value of each circuit, the capacitance of each capacitor, and the initial state of each sensor. Give me a factory-grade health report."

"Understood. Sending diagnostic pulses, scan initiating..."

Gu Yu's heart was in his throat.

This is the most crucial step, and also the one that depends most on luck.

While space equipment is reliable, nothing can be guaranteed to remain intact after twenty years on Mars.

Microcracks caused by thermal expansion and contraction, damage to the chip by high-energy particles... any tiny physical damage could cause this wake-up plan to fail.

On the HUD interface, a circuit topology diagram of the Zhurong ship appears, with thousands of lines being scanned one by one, and green dots representing "normal" continuously lighting up.

Time passed by, and the cockpit was so quiet that only Gu Yu's own heartbeat could be heard.

[Diagnosis complete.]

"Captain..." For the first time, shock appeared in Xuanjian's voice.

"Thousands of key nodes across the entire vehicle... scan complete."

"Circuit system: No open circuits."

"Structural system: Not a single crack."

"Thermal control system: All 32 heating circuits are connected without any fuses breaking."

Conclusion: Perfectly intact.

Gu Yu was stunned. He stared at the screen full of green, which represented perfection, and could hardly believe his eyes.

Twenty years.

On the Martian surface, it experienced more than 10,000 cycles of extreme temperature differences, from scorching heat to frigid cold, and endured countless bombardments of high-energy particles from solar storms.

But every heating wire, every solder joint, and every circuit board was intact!

"This..." Gu Yu's throat was a little dry, and his voice was excited, "This is fucking... an industrial miracle."

This transcends probability and engineering. It's an almost artistic, obsessive pursuit of ultimate reliability.

This is the inevitable result created by that generation of Chinese aerospace engineers more than 20 years ago using the most advanced materials, the most stringent welding processes, and almost obsessive redundancy design!

"That's great..." Gu Yu's clenched fist relaxed. "It's still alive, Xuan. It's alive inside and out!"

"In this way, we won't need to use the 'Divine Craft' module for any destructive repairs."

"Mysterious! The Zhurong actually survived tens of thousands of extreme temperature cycles after a twenty-year power outage, and its core remained completely undamaged!"

"Yes, Captain, thanks to its multi-layer insulation (MLI), that is, this golden 'down jacket,' there has been almost no vacuum leakage or structural delamination."

"Twenty years ago, this was an incredible level of craftsmanship."

"It is this perfect passive thermal control system that preserved the last spark for our successful awakening today."

"Xuan, bring up its 'phase change thermal storage' module data."

"Understood." On the screen, a section inside the Zhurong vehicle was highlighted.

"The n-undecane phase change material... has completely solidified, with no leakage."

Gu Yu nodded. This was the secret weapon that allowed the Zhurong spacecraft to survive the cold Martian nights alone without a nuclear battery: a high-tech "hot water bottle".

During the day, it absorbs the sun's heat, melting solid n-undecane into a liquid.

At night, the liquid slowly solidifies, releasing the stored heat to keep the core components warm.

Its design goal is to barely maintain a minimum survival temperature of minus twenty degrees Celsius on a cold night when the power is out, so as not to freeze to death.

But now, the situation is completely different.

"Xuan, based on the model you created, what if we now abandon its frugal 'hot water bottle' solution?"

"If you directly power its intact active thermal control system with electricity, at what core operating temperature can it eventually recover and stabilize?"

The logic core of Xuanjian was running at high speed, and a few seconds later, a number was highlighted in the center of the screen.