Rebirth: Starting from Lighting Up the Tech Tree

Chapter 261 Mars Project

After returning from the Sahara, Zuo Cheng spent three consecutive days in the conference room of the aerospace division. The table was covered with Mars maps, orbital mechanics calculation tables, and technical parameters of the Cangqiong-3 spacecraft. On the morning of the fourth day, he handed the final plan to Chen Hao.

After reading the first page, Chen Hao looked up and asked, "Are you sure you want to type two at the same time?"

"Not two," Zuo Cheng said. "It's three. Two nodes on Mars are being surveyed simultaneously, then we'll immediately turn to Europa. Mars is just a warm-up."

The meeting room fell silent for a moment. Chen Hao lowered his head and continued reading the proposal, stopping when he reached the third page.

The technological upgrade of the Sky3 deep-space version will be completed within two months, enabling it to achieve Earth-Mars transfer orbit capabilities. A Mars probe will be launched within four months, targeting both Valles Marineris and Hellenistic Plains. After landing, the probe will transmit data back via SkyRelay, while remote analysis will be assisted using interplanetary sensing capabilities. The entire timeline is only four months. In NASA's standard procedures, four months is typically only enough to complete the first two rounds of program review meetings.

Chen Hao closed the plan. "You mean, within two months, we'll convert a near-Earth orbit rocket into a deep-space transport vehicle, and then two months later launch two Mars rovers to a place we've never been before, to find an ancient relic whose location we're unsure of."

"right."

Chen Hao leaned back in his chair and stared at the fluorescent light on the ceiling for a few seconds. "Do you know how long the average preparation time is for a NASA Mars exploration mission? From feasibility study to launch, eight years."

"I know."

"You know that's good." Chen Hao stood up, tucking the plan under his arm. "Okay. Let's begin."

The aerospace division meeting ended at 2:00 AM. The corridor was empty; the cleaning lady, pushing her cart, saw all the lights still on and shook her head. Shen Yiming took on the first task. The next day at noon, Tianyan-2 completed its space search for all orbital mechanics parameters. The results were remarkably consistent with Zuo Cheng's estimates. A launch window opened in two months. The optimal Hohmann transfer orbit would open in seventy-four days, lasting less than two weeks. Missing this window meant waiting two years.

Shen Yiming projected the calculation results onto the conference room wall. The blue arc started from Earth's orbit, passed the tangent point at the outer edge of Mars' orbit, and arrived at the same position as Mars seven months later, at the predetermined time. All the acceleration points were accurate to centimeters per second. The entire trajectory was the optimal solution selected by quantum computing from hundreds of billions of possible routes.

Zuo Cheng opened the system panel and used his interstellar perception capability to remotely scan the energy status of the two Martian nodes. The Mariner Canyon node had an energy index of 0.12, nearing complete dormancy. The Hellenic Plains node had an energy index of 0.08, completely dormant. A new module was added to the system panel: Solar System Node Status Monitoring. The names of the three nodes were labeled next to the icons of the three planets. The two active nodes on Earth continuously flashed a warm yellow light. The two Martian nodes were dark gray, marked as dormant.

"When my detectors arrive," Zuo Cheng thought to himself, "they will light up."

Over the next few days, Han Lu coordinated international cooperation. She flew to three continents and met with the heads of four space agencies. NASA provided all the landing data from the Galileo Mars probe, including high-resolution topographic maps of the Mariner Valley region and all orbiter images from the past twenty years. The European Space Agency's Mars topographic map covered the entire Martian surface with meter-level accuracy. Japan's JAXA provided a Martian atmospheric model, including complete seasonal dust storm prediction data. All of this was shared freely. No agency requested exclusivity.

Han Lu sent a single sentence back to headquarters: The whole world is waiting for us to fly to Mars.

Chen Hao rearranged the entire commercial space launch schedule. All commercial launches for the next three months were transferred to Cangqiong-2, squeezing out twelve commercial satellites from the schedule. Han Lu called each client individually to discuss delays. It took a whole day to make all twelve calls. Not a single client demanded compensation for breach of contract. One European client said: "We're willing to wait. Not for Cangqiong-2, but for the data your Mars probe will send back."

Yu Ying spent three days building a deep-space environment simulation laboratory. She compiled a list of all the extreme conditions that could occur on the Martian surface. Martian surface temperature: -20°C to +20°C during the day, -80°C at night. Atmospheric pressure: 0.6% of Earth's sea level. Dust storms: wind speeds can reach over 30 meters per second, obscuring the sky for weeks. Cosmic radiation: Mars lacks Earth's magnetic field protection, and surface radiation intensity is 200 times that of Earth. She simulated each of these in the laboratory. Every component of the probe had to survive in the simulated environment for at least 200 hours before being mounted on the rocket.

On the evening of the seventh day, Zuocheng held a general mobilization meeting. There were no PowerPoint presentations, no data, and no timeline.

He walked to the front of the conference room, stood next to the whiteboard, and said a few words.

"This isn't a commercial launch. This isn't even a scientific exploration. This is information gathering. Those two nodes on Mars hold the keys to the Interplanetary Communication Network of the Founding Civilization. With it, we'll know how to communicate with people 31,000 light-years away."

After he finished speaking, he put down the marker on the whiteboard.

"Seventy-four days left. The window waits for no one."

After the meeting, we returned to the satellite tracking and control center. There were still seventy-four days left; the entire aerospace division had to complete eight years' worth of work. No one complained. Not because they were afraid to complain, but because no one felt this task wasn't worth the arduous effort.

Yu Ying was waiting for him in the lobby. The countdown timer on the electronic screen had just lit up. Seventy-four.

"Last time you went to the Sahara, it took you two days. This time, it will take seven months one way to Mars."

Zuo Cheng stared at the number. "The same operation. A thousand times larger scale. From now on, every step is pushing the boundaries of humanity outwards."

He remembered Chen Xinghe's inscription at the Sahara Rift, and the last words the digital figures uttered before dissipating. Four days later, he traversed half the Earth and entered the depths of the desert. Seven months later, a human probe would traverse half the solar system towards Mars, delivering that greeting to the depths of the canyon.

The lights in Building 402 were still on in the early hours of the morning. From the Aerospace Division to the Quantum Computing Division to the Satellite Control Center, behind every lit window was a group of people pushing the boundaries of humanity outwards.