Dead on Mars

Tang Yue nodded, expressing his satisfaction at the outcome.

If the situation permitted, he also wished to bring the precious food and water from the space station; after all, they were the necessities of life.

However, when these resources threatened a safe landing, Tang Yue didn’t hesitate in abandoning them.

Biscuits, however good, weren’t something to covet—otherwise, one would only choke on them.

“Is the APAS secure enough to hang a twelve-ton Eagle from Orion?” Tang Yue asked. “Once we enter Mars’s gravisphere, the strain will be completely different in zero gravity. Will it hold?”

Tang Yue’s worry wasn’t without reason. The only connection between the Eagle and Orion was the APAS. The lander would cling to Orion like a suckerfish, with the APAS as the sucker. However, the sucker was actually very weak. In orbit, these two entities were in zero gravity, but during the atmospheric entry, Orion II needed to produce a reverse thrust to decelerate, placing all of the Eagle’s weight on that frail APAS.

If there were any ruptures, the Eagle would crash.

Yet, Mai Dong couldn’t use a rope to secure the Eagle to Orion. During the final stages of the descent, the APAS needed to release its grip on the lander to eject it from the crashing Orion.

“I’ve done the math.” Tomcat rotated the monitor around. “The lander and Orion II’s docking mechanisms are a standard APAS-98. It’s most common in the United Space Station, and also the strongest kind. I’ve mentioned it before that the engineers on Earth had designed it to be as sturdy as a ship’s anchor.”

Tomcat erected the Orion II model on the table before sticking a pen cap to it.

“During the descent, Orion’s attitude would be vertical. The APAS-98 will experience longitudinal forces and not axial forces. This also implies that the Eagle’s weight won’t be directly acting on the docking mechanism.”

Tomcat clasped its paws together as it explained to Tang Yue.

“Six locks are responsible for ensuring the lander sticks to the APAS-98. When descending vertically, the lander’s weight will be exerted on Orion through these locks, and not pull at the locks in a transverse direction. Therefore, the one bearing the load isn’t the dock,” Tomcat explained. “In such a situation, the APAS-98 can withstand more than 80 kN, while the Eagle lander’s weight due to gravity is only 50 kN.”

“Just give me the conclusion.” Tang Yue looked up. “Give me a tl;dr.”

“The tl;dr version is the docking mechanism won’t rupture midway.”

“Then, will it be too tight, preventing it from being released when needed?” Tang Yue asked.

To experience a longitudinal force of 50 kN, this clearly exceeded the normal operating thresholds. It was hard to tell if a component might clamp up due to the powerful forces, preventing the Eagle from being released from Orion when the time came. Such a malfunction would have Orion pull the Eagle along with it to a fiery crash.

“We will not be using ordinary electronic controls during the final release,” Tomcat said. “After all, the computers need to be dismantled. The entire set of control circuits will be out of commission, so we will be using an emergency release system.”

“Emergency release system? The pyrotechnic fasteners used for emergency evacuations?”

Tomcat nodded.

The docking mechanism uses pyrotechnics for the evacuation system to directly blast away the fastener. The activation switch is beneath the Commander’s seat and is similar to a pilot ejection system. It’s purely mechanical and uses steel cables to transmit the force,” Tomcat said. “It’s simple but effective. To date… there hasn’t been any latch or hatch that the explosives can’t blast open.”

…

Mai Dong tied up the five seats with tape and along with some of the Eagle’s inner lining material, she packed all kinds of tiny components together. She spent more than twenty hours dismantling the Eagle command module, leaving only a seat and console behind.

The control panel and the computer system were relatively more complicated. They weren’t easy to dismantle as there were strict steps to follow. Therefore, Mai Dong decided to throw out the cumbersome trash first before dealing with the control panel that had numerous components.

Typically, the United Space Station wouldn’t throw its trash into orbit as it was one of the safety regulations to uphold; therefore, all consumption trash had to be brought back to Earth and thrown into the atmosphere for burning.

Mai Dong wore an EVA suit that didn’t need any oxygen or pressure modulation, making it easy for her to head out. As she pulled at the tied trash, she used the arm to take them to the corner of the space station. Any item became dangerous once it left the confines of the space station. Even though they looked relatively still, they were actually moving at 3 km/s. Once any of them had a change in orbit trajectory or speed, it could result in a collision.

Therefore, Mai Dong couldn’t randomly throw them outside. She needed to push the trash far away to ensure that they didn’t threaten the safety of the space station.

Mai Dong pulled the trash, that had a mass of more than a hundred kilograms, but didn’t find it heavy at all. She could move them with just a finger prod.

“Miss Mai Dong, you are now sixty meters away from the United Space Station’s core module.” Tomcat’s voice sounded over the comms as the arm came to a halt. Mai Dong came to a stop as well.

“Can I push it now?” Mai Dong stood on top of the arm as she looked at the massive Mars before her. In near-orbit, direction was quite ambiguous. At times, Mai Dong would find Mars above her, and at other times find it beneath her feet.

At this moment, Mai Dong found the red planet floating before her like a gigantic piece of art. The details of the art piece were vivid.

“Go ahead.”

Mai Dong held the tape with both hands as she slowly exerted her strength and pushed the packed trash towards Mars. When the trash left her hands, they received a slight transverse force as they began to spin slightly. Mai Dong watched them move away from her at a constant velocity as they slowly shrank into the distance.

A few minutes later, they were the size of a rice grain, but the tape and unknown pieces of matter reflected the sunlight in deep space as they twinkled.

“From today forth, Mars has another man-made satellite,” Tomcat said.

In a sense, Mai Dong’s trash disposal followed the same steps as releasing a satellite from the space station. As long as it was pushed sufficiently far away, it would continue revolving around Mars.

“Will it keep revolving around Mars?”

“Clearly not,” Tomcat replied. “Miss Mai Dong pushed it towards Mars. Without any external forces, it will not have any change in direction and it won’t take long for it to enter the atmosphere to be burned.”

“It will be destroyed,” the girl said softly.

“Yes, it will be destroyed.”

Mai Dong drew a deep breath as she waved at the tiny satellites.

“Bye… See you again.”