Chapter 1110： Landing on Mars

Baikonur Space Center.

The war in the Mediterranean did not spread to this place. The entire Soviet Union was still very peaceful. Even now, they don't even have to be afraid of nuclear deterrence.

As the largest space center in the Soviet Union, it was very busy here.

In particular, in the rocket's final assembly workshop, the Energy rocket is being rapidly assembled.

This year is a heavy year for the Soviet aerospace industry. The Soviet Union will launch eleven Energia rockets, complete the construction of the Mir orbital space station, and complete the assembly of space laser cannons in space within this year. net, complete the complete occupation of space.

The outer space of the earth belongs to the Soviets!

At the same time, another project is also underway in an orderly manner.

Baikonur is the largest space center in the Soviet Union. In addition to carrying out launch tasks, it also performs more measurement and control tasks. There are five measurement and control stations, large and small, which are connected with other measurement and control stations around the world. A huge monitoring and control network is formed.

And now, in a measurement and control center, some experts are looking at the complicated data on the computer screen and analyzing the flight characteristics of the spacecraft. Is it normal?

A tall, thin man with a serious expression stood aside, and at this moment, he was quite nervous.

Che Luomian, a Soviet aerospace expert, for him, landing on Mars is the goal that his back half is tirelessly pursuing, and now, it is the first attempt!

The distance between Mars, which is far away from the earth, and the earth is not certain, and the orbits of both sides are elliptical.

The Mars probe from the earth can not be launched at any time, but only once every 2 years and 2 months. Such a launch opportunity is called a launch window. At this time, the sun, the earth, and Mars will be aligned in a straight line, which is called Mars opposition. This is a good opportunity to launch a Mars probe.

Because, at this time, the distance between Mars and the earth is the closest. Of course, this closest distance is also changing. It is generally believed that the closest distance is about 55 million kilometers, and the farthest distance is more than 400 million kilometers.

If this launch is successful, then wait a few more years, and the next time, that is, in 1988, the distance between Mars and the Earth will be the closest again, about 58.8 million kilometers.

The speed of radio waves is 300,000 kilometers per second, so even if it is a radio that has reached the speed of light, it will take 3 minutes!

The signal received now came from three minutes ago from the distant Mars!

This experiment is very important! Now, the landing signal that we are still receiving, in fact, the Mars probe has landed on Mars, or has crashed!

Mars rover!

When a nuclear-powered engine is used, which can accelerate all the time, the time required for Mars exploration has been greatly shortened, and Mars can be visited within one and a half to two months.

And the current Mars probe is the first attempt. After being sent into space by the Proton rocket from Baikonur, it has separated from the earth. This Mars probe, relying on the nuclear-powered rocket engine at the tail, keeps increasing its speed. , It took forty-one days to finally come to Mars!

After being captured by the gravity of Mars, the most important step, but also the most dangerous step, is to land on Mars!

Even on Earth, the return of the spacecraft is quite dangerous. In later generations, the Columbia was in an accident during the return flight!

On Mars, which is far away from the earth, it is impossible for Soviet aerospace experts to remotely control the probe. Everything is flying according to the program settings.

Like Earth, Mars has an atmosphere. The probe enters the Martian atmosphere from an altitude of 131 kilometers, and the speed is as high as 6 kilometers per second. In just seven minutes, the speed of the probe is reduced to zero, so as to achieve a safe landing. .

This is also the critical moment with the most technical difficulty and the highest failure probability among all Mars exploration missions. It is a veritable "black seven minutes".

In the initial stage, parachutes must be used for the initial deceleration. The main step is the deceleration plan when it comes into contact with the ground of Mars.

Even on earth, this is the most difficult. For example, the first Gagarin to go to the sky, although he came down from the sky, in the final stage, he did not stay in the spaceship. Gagarin was ejected by the ejection seat at a height of several hundred meters above the ground when the spaceship had opened its parachute. He took his own parachute and finally landed.

Internationally, there are three main options for the landing of the Mars rover. One is airbag buffering. Before the lander touches down on the surface of Mars, the air bag that wraps the lander is inflated and deployed. The lander, like a bouncing ball, keeps bouncing on Mars, gradually lowering its altitude and achieving a successful landing.

However, this scheme is only suitable for the landing of light-mass landers.

The other is the landing support buffer, which uses the reverse thrust rocket to achieve power deceleration. At the same time, the probe extends more than four outriggers, and there are buffer devices on the outriggers. The landing is the same as the Apollo moon landing spacecraft. This method It is suitable for the landing of heavier landers and can accurately select the landing point.

The other is the aerial crane landing.

In later generations, the United States launched the 3.6-ton Curiosity rover to Mars, because it was too heavy and had to be done in a special way. When the Curiosity rover entered the Martian atmosphere at a speed of 20,000 kilometers per hour, it was loaded into a shield-shaped thermal shield.

When the probe is 11 kilometers away from the surface of Mars, the huge parachute is opened to reduce the flight speed. After 24 seconds, the thermal protection cover is detached. When the probe descends to an altitude of 1.4 kilometers, the back shell is separated, and the eight brake rockets on the probe are ignited, and the descending speed is decelerated from 80 meters per second to 0.75 meters per second through the reverse thrust of the rockets.

The speed is already very low. When the probe is 20 meters above the surface of Mars, the lander is almost in a "hovering" state in the air. The aerial crane releases the nylon rope to lift the "Curiosity" rover from the lander to Mars. surface to achieve landing.

The Curiosity rover ended up unscathed and carried out experiments on Mars.

And now, for the Mars probe launched by the Soviets, the second option is adopted, because the nuclear-powered rocket engine will provide sufficient recoil!

No camera would capture its descent, the nuclear-powered rocket ignited for two seconds, adjusted its orbit, and followed an arc, and the Mars rover entered the Martian atmosphere.

In the red Martian atmosphere, the Mars rover took on a more splendid color and fell down. Its surface, rubbed with the fiery atmosphere, became dark. At an altitude of 11 kilometers from the surface of Mars, The huge parachute opened, and the speed of the Mars rover was further reduced!

After swaying for dozens of seconds, the parachute at the top was cut off, the nuclear power engine at the tail emitted a fiery flame, and the liquid hydrogen was heated in the reactor and spewed out.

Keep slowing down!

Around, the four outriggers stretched out, and the probe continued to approach and approach the surface of Mars with further deceleration.

Finally, the outriggers came into contact with the ground, and the hydraulic cylinder was squeezed a little, and the balance was restored again.

The engine has been shut down and the probe landed successfully!

On the side of the detector, a camera slowly stretched out. It looked at the world curiously. It was desolate, and there were some yellowish reds everywhere. The sun on the horizon was just a bright spot that looked white.

When this image was transmitted back to Earth, everyone in the measurement and control center couldn't help but applaud!

Che Luomian was even more excited, and it was a success!

This success has verified the huge advantage of nuclear-powered rockets in detecting Mars! Time can be significantly reduced! Then, next, it is necessary to steadily advance the plan of manned landing on Mars!

Use the Energy rocket to put the manned Mars probe into orbit, and on the orbit, receive another rocket or the propellant from the Mir space station. In this way, a behemoth with a total mass of more than 200 tons can be Fly to Mars!

At the same time, another same spacecraft is required to fly to Mars together. This spacecraft is mainly used for return flights!

The whole plan will cost a lot! Fortunately, Marshal Andrei fully supports it!