Chapter 796 Rescue Succeeded!

above the orbit of Mars.

There was silence in the cockpit.

Quietly waiting for the results from the other end of the communication channel, Liu Biao took a deep breath and suddenly spoke.

"captain."

Xu Zhenghong: "What's wrong?"

Liu Biao: "Is it appropriate for us to do this?"

"Is there anything inappropriate for the exchanges between countries? Being in the same position, maybe they won't pre-condition the rescue," Xu Zhenghong smiled looking at this slightly younger comrade-in-arms , turned his attention to the dust-buried planet, "Besides, even in the name of humanitarianism, we can't make this trip in vain."

Liu Biao asked, "What if they don't find what we want?"

Xu Zhenghong was silent for a while, then spoke.

"It's a loss for us."

However, for the sake of maximizing their interests, they will eventually let them on board.

And this is what Professor Lu explained to him...

...

Meanwhile, the surface of Mars.

The alloy door panel on the outside of the life support unit opened slowly, and a red-painted Mars rover drove out of it, facing the billowing sand sea.

Looking at the approaching green dot on the radar, Johnson's face was full of complex expressions.

Obviously, it is impossible for NASA to issue such an absurd task. The so-called "this is your request" by the Chinese man is not even an excuse to comfort himself.

But if he wants to go home, he has no choice...

Under the guidance of the car radar, Johnson quickly arrived at the destination.

After parking the car not far from the center of the explosion, Johnson, who had already put on his extravehicular space suit, took out the toolbox from the trunk of the rover and walked towards the very center of the crash site of the BFS spacecraft.

"Xie Te... all fell into this ghostly state."

While watching the shocking tragedy, Johnson took samples of the materials of the various components of the BFS spacecraft according to the requirements in the mission log, and kept them in a special sample box.

Soon approaching the core area, the number of damaged wreckage gradually increased.

Carefully stepping over the steel fragments, Johnson took out the arc cutting torch from the toolbox, pressed the button against the deformed metal shell, and quickly cut a circular fracture in the shell for people to enter.

After doing all this, Johnson let out a sigh of relief, and threw the cutting gun into the toolbox and put it away.

"Huh... It's time to work."

Talking to himself, he reached out and grabbed the metal strip in the cabin of the BFS spaceship, and with both arms slowly exerted force, he slid over the metal waste and slid into the cabin.

"The black box... let me see, it looks like it's under the cab seat. Well, that's how it should be..."

Turning on the flashlight on his chest, Johnson wiped the dust off the mask of his space suit, followed the route he remembered, and began to grope in the direction of the cab.

In fact, as Lu Zhou guessed, there is indeed something similar to a black box on the BFS spacecraft. It will record a series of calculation data from the launch of the BFS spacecraft to orbit, as well as the communication records with NASA headquarters.

If the BFS spacecraft encounters an accident and falls to the surface of Mars, recovering the black box is also one of the tasks of the ground colonists.

However, this part of the work does not include the part of handing over the black box to the Chinese...

Finding the green suitcase with reflective strips from under the broken driver's seat, Johnson hesitated for a moment, then finally shook his head, turned and walked towards the outside of the cabin...

In a life support unit thirty kilometers away.

Jones and Tai Wei, who stayed in the experimental cabin, were anxiously waiting for news from Captain Johnson.

I don't know how many times I looked out of the porthole, even though there was nothing but yellow sand there, Taiwei still couldn't help stretching his neck and looking out.

At this moment, the door of the experimental cabin suddenly opened, and Johnson, who was wearing an extravehicular space suit and covered in sand all over his body, walked in carrying a green box with reflective strips and a slightly smaller suitcase.

There was a smile on Taiwei's face, and he greeted him, but Johnson didn't look at him, pushed him away and walked straight to the console, connected the data cable on the spacesuit to the next box, and then pressed the button Button for connecting communication.

"I have found what you want."

The loud current sounded for a while.

The answering voice came quickly from the communication channel.

"Congratulations, you have already got the ticket to go home. Now please enter the return cabin and prepare to start the ignition process. We will arrive in the sky above New Virginia in 5 minutes."

"receive."

After unplugging the data cable, Johnson looked at the two teammates standing behind him, and heaved a sigh of relief as if he had relieved a heavy burden.

"...let's go home."

...

New Virginia's escape pod is located in the center of the life support unit, directly above the methane generator.

When the situation on the surface of Mars deteriorates beyond control, the colonists only need to enter the return capsule and start the escape procedure, and the liquid oxygen and methane in the life support unit will be injected into the engine at the base of the return capsule as much as possible for return The capsule returns to the BFS spacecraft in orbit.

Of course, now the BFS spacecraft has been actively crashed by NASA.

Although there is no direct evidence to prove that NASA did this, Johnson can't think of a better reason than that.

Even, he would rather believe that NASA voluntarily gave up on them.

This will also make him feel a little less guilty...

Dragging a long and thick column of smoke and flames, the hemispherical silver-white return capsule separated from the life support unit and washed away the billowing dust.

At this moment, this failed exoplanet colonization campaign, which lasted less than three months, ended with the withdrawal of the colonists.

Of course, although they failed, the experience and lessons they learned from their failures are enough to pave the way for their successors and help them go further...

Heading to a silent starry sky, the return capsule ascending to orbit gradually lost power and merged into an orbit around Mars. After floating for half an hour, he finally fell into the arms of the Xiaguang.

Extend the camera lens and look from a distance. The two spacecraft, one large and one small, slowly approaching under the sunlight, are like two shining points of light that meet.

"New Virginia made it to orbit... our oxygen may not last long, we need help."

"This is Xiaguang, we have received your request, please wait patiently for rescue."

The hatch opened slowly, and the thick and long mechanical arm protruded from the cabin, slowly clamping the outer shell of the return cabin. At the moment of contact, the bulkhead of the return cabin shook violently for a while, but soon stabilized, and was slowly dragged out of the cargo hold by the Xiaguang.

This design was originally used to recover space junk and satellites that failed to crash normally after reaching the end of their service life, but it is of course technically feasible to recover the escaped return capsule.

Almost at the same time, in Jinling City, thousands of kilometers away, surrounded by media reporters, the Lunar Orbit Construction Committee held a press conference as scheduled to disclose the latest progress of the rescue operation.

When they heard the news that the BFS spacecraft had fallen from the orbit around Mars, the reporters on the scene were shocked and uproarious. The scene was out of control for a while, and Johnson's wife, who came to China from North America, was holding her nose and crying.

But in just a few hours, everything turned around.

When the news that the return capsule successfully entered orbit, Xiaguang arrived at the target airspace, and the spacecraft recovery operation started came one after another, the reporters on the scene, people from all walks of life who were waiting for the final result, as well as the staff of the US embassy and the families of the victims held their breaths. He took a breath, nervously waiting for the final result.

In the end, when the news of the successful rescue reached the Jinling ground command center across tens of millions of kilometers and a delay of five or six minutes, the news of "the rescue work was a complete success" and "all three astronauts survived" was also announced on the same day. It was immediately announced on the big screen at the press conference.

When the lines of exciting words came into view, when all the worries and prayers got a satisfactory answer...

The scene of the press conference.

In an instant.

Filled with thunderous applause!

"God... thank you! Thank you! I really appreciate it! Sorry, I don't know how to express it, my emotions are a little out of control, woo woo woo..."

Tightly holding the hand of the chief designer Lu Zhou, the sobbing woman said thank you excitedly, her legs slowly lost their support, but fortunately the staff next to her quickly supported her, and the excited She didn't fall to the ground until she was about to faint.

Lu Zhou gave her a comforting look, and then told the staff to take her to rest.

The life and death of her husband is uncertain.

For more than a month, she must have suffered a lot.

Now the stone in her heart has finally landed, and she can finally sleep peacefully.

Standing in front of the reporter's camera, Chen Yunhai, director of the Organization Department of the Lunar Orbit Construction Committee and deputy director of the Huaguo Space Administration, announced the victory of the rescue operation in a solemn voice, and announced the timetable for the return of Xiaguang.

Standing aside and watching from a distance, the embassy staff took off their eyes and wiped the sand from the corners of their eyes with their index fingers and thumbs. Immediately afterwards, he, like the people next to him, applauded this moment.

Although they lost this game, there is no doubt about it.

but……

He still couldn't help but applaud for this moment...