Dead on Mars

Chapter 45 - Sol Five, Either Make or Break
Tomcat quickly figured out the reason. One of the Eagle’s sensors had malfunctioned, giving the lander’s computer a wrong signal, making it believe that it had reached the predetermined orbit. Therefore, it shut down and detached the first-grade rockets ahead of time. It had shut down twenty seconds too early.

This also meant that the Eagle had shut down the rockets 180 seconds after the launch.

This was a mistake that could have been avoided if Kunlun Station had maintained communications with the Eagle. Kunlun Station could have corrected its error in time, but unfortunately, their communications had been cut during the malfunction. No one was there to stop the lander from going crazy.

Having the rockets shut down prematurely was a severe mistake. It resulted in the orbit entry’s failure.

The Eagle had failed to enter the planned parking orbit. It had entered an elliptical orbit with an apoapsis of 280 kilometers and a periapsis of 110 kilometers. To put it simply, it was unfaithful to its intended orbit.

Tomcat grabbed its ears in frustration as it twisted and kneaded it… Damn it, I was just praising you for how obedient you were. Why did you go astray in a blink of an eye? This is troublesome.

Tang Yue stumbled back with the antenna in his arms.

He placed it on the ground before sitting down, panting. “How’s it. Has the kid succeeded?”

Tomcat turned over. “Succeed my ass. Your son is about to be executed by the Nazis.”

Tang Yue jumped in fright. “What? What happened?”

He didn’t even take off the Radiant Armor as he stumbled over and came in front of the computer screen. His entire being was sucking the warmth from everything.

The computer had already displayed two trajectories. One of them was the preset trajectory and represented in a red dotted line.

The other line was the true trajectory the Eagle had taken. It was represented by a solid blue line.

Obviously, the actual orbit’s height was lower than the preset parking orbit height.

“The Eagle’s height is at 280 kilometers.” Tomcat pointed at the blip on the computer. “It should be at 350 kilometers.”

“Is that problematic?”

“Very problematic.” Tomcat nodded. “The little guy didn’t enter the correct parking orbit which means that all of our plans from before have gone to waste. The subsequent orbital maneuver and rendezvous procedures need to be completely redesigned. As the preliminary orbit is too low, we have to expend more propellant to accelerate it… but that’s not the greatest problem.”

Tomcat moved the mouse and enlarged the figure. Then, it pointed at the other end of the orbit trajectory to Tang Yue. “This is the orbit’s periapsis, which is the lowest point in the orbit. Its height should be 150 kilometers, but it’s now only 110 kilometers… That’s too low.

“110 kilometers makes it enter the atmosphere. Even if the atmosphere is very thin at that height, it will still produce resistance,” Tomcat explained. “Every time the Eagle passes the periapsis, it will lose energy because of the atmosphere’s resistance, causing its height to constantly drop, and the final outcome would be…”

Tomcat tapped the “Enter” button as the computer gave the simulation’s results.

The simulation was a tight blue spiral that looked like a mosquito coil. It meant that the trajectory’s height would constantly decrease and approach the Martian surface. Finally, it would plunge into the atmosphere and be vaporized.

Tang Yue widened his mouth for a moment. Only then did he realize that he had broken out into a cold sweat.

“We have to change its orbit as quickly as possible!”

“I hope so too, but we can’t rashly accelerate the Eagle,” Tomcat said. “Don’t forget we have insufficient propellant. Accelerating without a plan will only make the payload capsule on the lander a piece of space trash.”

“How much longer?” Tang Yue asked. “How much longer does the lander have?”

“The Eagle’s current orbit period is 53 minutes. It will circle Mars once every 53 minutes,” Tomcat replied. “Before it descends to the lowest safe point, it can still circle Mars another…”

Tomcat entered the numbers into the computer which quickly gave the result.

“Sixteen cycles.”

Sixteen cycles.

With 53 minutes each cycle, the Eagle had fourteen hours left.

They had to change the lander’s orbit within fourteen hours to leave this orbit that eventually led to death. Time was of the essence, but worst of all, this wasn’t something that could be rushed.

Tang Yue and Tomcat observed the Eagle on the screen as Tomcat zoomed into the figure, making the second orbit enter their sights. Another blip was slowly moving across it—the United Space Station’s orbit. It was an even higher elliptical trajectory with a periapsis of 380 kilometers and apoapsis of 480 kilometers.

The United Space Station’s orbit period was 80 minutes. In fourteen hours, it could circle Mars ten times.

“In these fourteen hours, there are only seven suitable windows for the orbital maneuver,” Tomcat said. It reached out its paw and pointed at the apoapsis of the lander’s orbit. “At the apoapsis, the lander’s speed is 3.2 km/s. For normal orbital maneuvers, it would accelerate at the apoapsis before entering a brand new orbit…”

Tomcat tapped on the keyboard as Kunlun Station’s computer gave the computational results.

A brand new circle was drawn labeled in striking yellow. It encompassed the Eagle’s elliptical parking orbit as it intersected with the circle.

The two overlaps were where the lander needed to be accelerated.

To put it simply, if the Eagle were to accelerate at the apoapsis, combusting the rockets would allow it to enter a circular orbit of about 280 kilometers. But this orbit was insufficient for the docking with the United Space Station. This was because the latter’s orbit was even higher. Even at the parking orbit, the United Space Station’s height was at 380 kilometers.

Therefore, the Eagle needed to make two orbital maneuvers.

It had to accelerate another time.

The second acceleration would have the rockets nudge the Eagle, allowing it to enter the space station’s orbit.

This was the most reliable method. Using two intermediary orbits and accelerating two orbital maneuvers was the most common method for orbital maneuvers.

“But doing so is very risky.” Tomcat shook its head. “Using two intermediary orbits and initiating two orbital maneuvers might appear the safest, but it also expends the largest amount of propellant. If we use this plan… we might expend all of the Eagle’s propellant.”

“If we do two orbital maneuvers, how many rendezvous can we have?”

Tomcat lifted its paw, and said slowly, “Once. At most once.”

Once.

Tang Yue’s limbs went numb. With only the chance of one attempt, the chance of success was reduced to 5%

It was either make or break.