Under the clear blue sky, a shimmering star shines in the daytime, bringing a significant change to this eternal world.
However, whether it was an illusion or not, as time passed, the star gradually grew larger and shone with a unique rhythm.
It looks like a shooting star, but also seems to be some kind of signal.
Until more than an hour passed, finally, the star had become as big as a big one, and its whole body was blue. It was clearly visible even in the daytime, and it continued to grow bigger as time passed.
Finally, a spacecraft with white flames flashing at the bottom slowly descended from the sky, and finally landed on a relatively flat ground.
boom…
A low impact sound was heard, and the spacecraft landed successfully. Two nuclear-powered engines comparable in size to the spacecraft itself automatically became the landing gear of the spacecraft, making direct and intimate contact with the ground.
Then, there was silence.
"Ares successfully landed."
However, at this moment, the electronically synthesized female voice from before came again from inside the silent spacecraft, "The first-level alert has been lifted, and everyone is allowed to leave the rescue cabin."
Following these words, the red light on the sixteen steel coffin-like devices located in the center of the spacecraft, which was also the strongest room of the spacecraft, quickly turned green, and then turned on with a scoff.
Everyone then laughed and sat up one by one. They walked out of the rescue cabin with a staggering feeling, and then jumped in unison, feeling the gravity coming from the ground in a novel way.
"I haven't felt gravity for a week. Now that I feel gravity again, I'm still a little uncomfortable..."
Someone suddenly spoke.
"You'll get used to it soon."
Another person added, "But the gravity of Mars is only two-fifths of Earth's. It may be easy now, but it will be easier for you when you return to Earth in the future. By then, you may have to adjust your breath for more than half a year before you can get out of bed." .”
"Actually, there are solutions."
A third responded, "That's being a Martian."
"Ha ha ha ha!"
As everyone laughed, some people breathed a sigh of relief, while others quickly took off their spacesuits and walked happily towards the canteen.
"where did you go?"
"Go have a glass of whiskey, of course!"
After all, only a few people went to drink. At this time, Zhou Xiong, the captain of Ares, sat up. He did not take off his spacesuit directly, but walked directly towards the bridge.
"Captain Zhou!"
A group of people immediately followed, and everyone knew what they were thinking.
Zhou Xiong waved his hand to calm down. He first came to the bridge and saw the scenery outside the window at the first glance.
Outside the window, there is an endless world of ice and snow.
Everyone rushed to the window with some novelty, but saw that the scenery here was not much different from the North and South Poles on the earth. They were both flat. Obviously, the ice caps firmly covered the surface below, and everywhere they looked could be seen. A pure white.
There weren’t any snowflakes flying or any strange rocks standing there.
No one was surprised by all this. The reason why they chose to land at the South Pole of Mars was to build a base. At the same time, only the North and South Pole of Mars had water.
However, they know that only a small part of this ice and snow is real water ice, and most of it is dry ice composed of carbon dioxide.
"Jizhe, how do you feel?"
Among the crowd, a young female scientist from Zhongzhou District asked her companion.
"Well, at least it looks no different from Earth."
Another young researcher with a somewhat cynical expression replied, "Actually, I would rather see the location where those Mars landing vehicles landed. That's where the unique terrain lies."
"It's a pity that we won't be able to see it for at least a few months."
A scientist from the North America area responded, "After the base is built, we may have the opportunity to go there, but not now."
After hearing this, everyone immediately started discussing in low voices.
"Okay, everyone, be quiet."
At this moment, Zhou Xiong suddenly spoke, and everyone's voices fell silent. Then he raised his head and looked at a rectangular camera above his head, "Moss, release the landing vehicle and drone, let me explore the surroundings, and collect all the Send the detected data."
"clear."
The female synthetic electronic voice came again, and then a huge void screen opened in front of everyone, and four pictures were displayed on the screen at the same time. The pictures were black at first, and then quickly opened up in a burst of white snowflakes. Turn on, and the screen is black and white imaging for night vision.
The picture seemed to be a small "room", and at the same time, the four pictures slowly rotated 360 degrees. Then everyone only saw a door slowly opening in the room in front of the screen, and at the same time, light was revealed.
Immediately, the black-and-white image was automatically converted into a color image. At the same time, the carriers of the two cameras slowly moved out of the "room", while the other two cameras slowly floated up and flew out together.
These four cameras are actually two landing vehicles and two drones.
Next, the landing vehicle and the drone drove out of Ares. The landing vehicle was a metal crawler with a solar panel on top. Once it drove out, it immediately left a line of shallow traces on the ice sheet. .
The landing vehicle began to drive around the ice field in a circle with the spacecraft as the center, trying not to miss any open space around the spacecraft.
The drones rose rapidly and flew in two directions at the same time. Their goal was to fly as far away as possible to map the nearby terrain.
"The external atmospheric pressure is 7.5 millibars, and the air composition is 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% hydrogen, 0.2% oxygen, 0.1% water vapor, carbon monoxide, neon, krypton and xenon, etc."
At this time, the preliminary detection results have also come out. Just listen to the synthesized female voice saying, "The outside temperature is minus 85 degrees, and the wind force is level 5."
"The landing vehicle samples the surface."
Zhou Xiong ordered again.
"Sampling in progress... Sampling completed, analysis started..."
"Dry ice accounts for 95.7% of the surface, water ice accounts for 2.2%, and there are other components such as iron oxide and silicon dioxide. No traces of microbial activity have been found yet."
Following MOSS's words, everyone looked happy. Although there was enough evidence to prove the existence of water on Mars in several previous unmanned explorations, but now when they actually witnessed it with their own eyes, everyone was filled with joy. It’s all beyond words.
"Captain Zhou, let me go down for inspection!"
At this moment, someone in the crowd finally couldn't wait any longer and spoke.
"I am coming too!"
"Let me go too!"
"And I!"
A group of people started shouting loudly.
"Everyone calm down!"
Zhou Xiong quickly pressed his hands and suppressed everyone's pleas. "Don't worry, everyone. If there are no problems with the environmental detection results, we will live here in the next few months to a few years. So there is no need to worry." .”
"However, initial manual inspection is also necessary. If this is the case, each of the four continental regions can select a candidate to go to the outside world for detection. This is already the limit. After all, the outside situation is unknown, and I have to be responsible for everyone's situation. "
Following Zhou Xiong's words, everyone agreed and chose among their three people to go out for inspection.
Among the remaining four scientific researchers representing Black Light Technology, Zhou Xiong, as the captain, had to deal with a series of sudden changes. Naturally, he could not be the first to go out for inspection, so he gave this opportunity to a young man with blond hair.
This is an expert in biology, and his name is Hannibal Caesar.
That's right, he is Hannibal who followed Chen Chen as early as the founding of Life Science City and is now a top genius in biology. He is also a professor-level member of the God's Forbidden Zone and has extremely high authority within Black Light Technology.
This trip to Mars for exploration was Hannibal's initiative. Because he had a dream of interstellar travel, and this operation took a long time to prepare, the probability of failure was extremely small, so Chen Chen arranged for him to be part of this manned mission. In the spacecraft, they became the first batch of scientific researchers to go to Mars.
At this time, he did not stay with the others, but came to the laboratory of the spacecraft and took out a metal can on a row of biological display racks.
This metal tank contains the protoplasts of a special plant - "tardigrade moss".
"Tadigrade moss" belongs to a genetically modified euryplasma moss, and its body is derived from a moss called Physcomitrella patens.
Because the DNA structure of moss is relatively easy to repair, and various compounds can be produced in large quantities by replacing moss genes with genes that produce desirable compounds, Hannibal cultivated this independent plant at Chen Chen's request. "Tadigrade moss" plant.
The general process is: Hannibal uses the genes of tardigrades to modify Physcomitrella patens. After all, tardigrades are the most powerful living animals that Hannibal can find in the earth's biosphere.
They can withstand six times the pressure of the deepest seafloor, hundreds of times the human dose of radiation, and temperatures close to absolute zero. There have been many experiments in which a batch of tardigrades were exposed to a vacuum close to absolute zero. It lasted for 10 days, and in the end, many animals were still alive.
The trick of the tardigrade is the so-called "cryptobiosis", which slows down its life metabolism to the point where it almost stops. When it enters a dormant state, its body water content can be reduced to less than 3%, which is truly "dehydration". But once the water is added back, the tardigrade can be "reborn" like a phoenix.
Therefore, Hannibal strengthened the tardigrade through black water. After a series of strengthening, a "monster" that was as thick as a human finger and covered with hard chitin appeared in reality.
This "mutant tardigrade" has very strong adaptability. It can survive for three to five years without eating or drinking. It can survive even if it is placed in boiling water. It can withstand low temperatures close to absolute zero, even in a vacuum. Zhongya has only entered a state of cryptozoology and will revive as soon as the temperature rises.
In a cryptobiotic state, mutated tardigrades can survive for more than a hundred years.
So after Hannibal cultivated a satisfactory mutant tardigrade, he used its gene to graft onto the gene of "Physcomitrella patens". Although this transgenic moss did not undergo the same transformation as the "mutated tardigrade", It has a state-of-the-art survivability, but it can thrive even in a freezer at hundreds of degrees below zero, and its lifespan is longer than all its earth companions.
According to experimental tests simulating the Martian environment, this type of vegetation, called tardigrade moss, has a high chance of being able to withstand the severe cold weather on Mars and become a special type of bryophyte that can survive on Mars.
There is not much else in the Martian atmosphere, and the most is carbon dioxide. After genetic debugging, this Phy moss can survive in severe cold temperatures of tens of degrees below zero, and only requires a very small amount of water. If it is cultivated this time If successful, it means that it is possible for the Martian environment to be modified.
At that time, as the moss releases more and more oxygen, the Martian atmosphere will become thicker. This will be followed by an increase in temperature, causing the large amounts of carbon dioxide buried below the surface of Mars to continue to evaporate, and then bring about Higher greenhouse effect…
When the temperature of Mars reaches a certain level, there will even be room for more vegetation to survive, until animals can also begin to survive on Mars. Once here, the entire Mars can enter a virtuous cycle.
Of course, dreams are beautiful, but there is still a long, long way to go before we can reach this point, and now is the beginning of everything.
After getting the jar of moss, Hannibal followed a group of teams to the isolation cabin of the spacecraft. At this time, everyone had already selected the first group of people to go out for exploration. This group of people shouted excitedly, and some even made bets. , to see who can break out of the spacecraft first and become the first person in history to set foot on Mars.