Baikonur Space Center.

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

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

In particular, in the Rocket's assembly workshop, the Energy Rocket is being quickly assembled.

This year, it was a heavy era for the Soviet space industry. The Soviet Union would launch eleven Energy rockets within this year, complete the construction of the Mir orbital space station, complete the networking of space laser cannons in space, and complete the complete occupation of space.

The outer space of the earth is Soviet!

At the same time, another project is also underway in a tense and orderly manner.

Baikonur is the largest space center in the Soviet Union. In addition to carrying out launch missions, it also carries out more measurement and control tasks. There are five measurement and control stations of all sizes distributed here, which are connected with other measurement and control stations around the world, and form a huge measurement and control network.

Now, in a measurement and control center, some experts are looking at the complex data on the computer screen to analyze the flight characteristics of the spacecraft. Is it normal?

A tall and thin man with a serious expression stood aside. At this time, he was in a very nervous mood.

Cheromian, a Soviet aerospace expert, for him, landing on Mars was the goal his back body was pursuing tirelessly, and now it was his first attempt!

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

The Mars rover starting from Earth is not allowed to be launched at any time, but there is a launch opportunity every 2 years and 2 months. Such a launch opportunity is called a launch window. At this time, the sun, Earth, and Mars will be arranged in a straight line, called Mars opposition, and this is a good opportunity to launch a Mars rover.

Because at this time, the distance between Mars and Earth is the closest, of course, the closest distance also changes. 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. By the next time, the distance between Mars and Earth will be the closest again in 1988, about 58.8 million kilometers.

The speed of radio waves is 300,000 kilometers per second, so even radios that are almost at the speed of light will take 3 minutes!

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

This experiment is very important! Now, the landing signal that we are still receiving is actually the Mars rover, or has crashed!

Mars rover!

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

The current Mars rover is the first attempt. After being sent to space by the Proton rocket, it left Earth. This Mars rover relied on the nuclear-powered rocket engine at its tail and continued to speed up. It took 41 days to finally arrive at Mars!

After being captured by Mars' gravity, the most important and most dangerous step is to land on Mars!

Even on Earth, the return of spacecraft is quite dangerous. In later generations, Colombia was in trouble while returning!

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

Like Earth, Mars has an atmosphere. The probe enters the Martian atmosphere from an altitude of 131 kilometers, with a speed of up to 6 kilometers per second. It takes only seven minutes to reduce the speed of the probe to zero, thereby achieving a safe landing.

This is also the critical moment with the greatest technical difficulty and the highest probability of failure among all Mars exploration missions. It is the veritable "Black Seven Minutes".

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

Even on earth, this is the most difficult thing. For example, although Gagarin, the first person to heaven, came down from the sky, in the final stage, he was not in the spacecraft. Gagarin had opened the parachute and was ejected by the ejection seat at a height of hundreds of meters above the ground. He rode his own parachute and finally landed on the ground.

Internationally, there are three main solutions for landing of Mars rovers, one is airbag buffering. Before the lander lands on the surface of Mars, the airbag wrapped around the lander is inflatable and unfolds. This lander, like a jumping ball, constantly bounces on Mars, gradually lowers the altitude, and achieves a successful landing.

However, this solution is only suitable for logging in light-weight landers.

Another type is landing support buffering, which uses reverse thrust rockets to achieve power reduction. At the same time, the detector extends more than four legs, and there is a buffer device on the legs. The landing is the same as the Apollo lunar spacecraft. This method is suitable for landing of heavier landers, and the landing point can be accurately selected.

Another type is the landing of an air crane.

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

When the probe is 11 kilometers away from the surface of Mars, the huge parachute is opened first to reduce the flight speed. After 24 seconds, the thermal protection cover is disengaged. When the probe drops to an altitude of 1.4 kilometers, the back shell is separated, and the eight brake rockets on the probe ignite, and the descent speed is reduced from 80 meters per second to 0.75 meters per second through the rocket's back thrust.

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

Curiosity finally unscathed and launched an experiment on Mars.

Now, for the Mars rover launched by the Soviets, the second solution is adopted, because the nuclear-powered rocket engine will provide sufficient recoil force!

There was no camera shot of its descending scene. 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 Mars atmosphere, the Mars rover fell down with more brilliant colors. Its surface rubbed against the hot atmosphere and became dark. At a height of 11 kilometers away from the surface of Mars, the huge parachute was stretched out, and the speed of the Mars rover was further reduced!

After flying for dozens of seconds, the parachute on the top was cut off, and the nuclear-powered engine at the tail emerged with a hot flame, and liquid hydrogen was heated and sprayed out in the reactor.

Continue to slow down!

Around the surroundings, the four legs stretched out, and the probe continued to approach the surface of Mars with further slowing down.

Finally, the outriggers came into contact with the earth, and the hydraulic cylinder was squeezed for a while, restoring the balance again.

The engine has been turned off and the detector has successfully landed!

A camera slowly stretched out next to the detector, looking at the world curiously, desolate, with some yellowish red everywhere, and the sun in the sky was just a highlight that looked white.

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

Cheromian was even more excited and succeeded!

This success verified the huge advantages of nuclear-powered rockets in detecting Mars! They can significantly shorten the time! Then, next, we need to steadily advance the plan of manned landing on Mars!

Use the Energy rocket to send the manned Mars rover into orbit, and in orbit, receive another rocket or the propellant from the Mir space station, so that a behemoth with a total mass of more than 200 tons can fly to Mars!

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