Chapter 374

It is far more difficult for a probe to land softly on the back side of the moon than on the front side.

One of them is a signal issue.

On the far side of the moon, wireless signals from the earth cannot be received.

Therefore, as early as the beginning of this year, the China National Space Administration launched a relay satellite, Queqiao, to the Earth-Moon Lagrange point 12.

Used to maintain communication between the Earth Control Center and the Chang'e-4 probe.

But there is a certain delay.

As a result, when the Chang'e-4 probe was in the moon landing phase, technicians at the Earth Control Center were unable to control the probe's landing orbit according to the implementation situation.

This is completely equivalent to a blind descent.

The technical difficulty is more than one level higher than the landing process that can be controlled in real time.

This requires Gu Lu to control every parameter to an extremely precise level.

The minimum requirement is to be accurate to at least five decimal places.

Because there may be a difference of a few milliseconds, it may cause the landing to fail, or the distance from the expected landing point to deviate a lot.

This places extremely high demands on Gu Lu.

However, one of the difficulties is that unlimited signals cannot be transmitted in real time.

But there is another problem in achieving a soft landing on the far side of the moon.

That is to find an ideal landing site for a probe.

Although the front side of the moon is also lined with mountains, the terrain is relatively flat and suitable for landing probes. Many previous probes and astronauts launched by humans have chosen these places to land on the moon.

But the back side of the moon is full of ravines, canyons, craters and cliffs, making it difficult to find an ideal spot for a soft landing.

This is also a very annoying problem.

Gu Lu pulled out the topographic map of the far side of the moon drawn by several scientists from a pile of documents, and studied it with a frown.

Gu Lu circled the areas that could be used as landing points with a red pen.

Then, Gu Lu used the big data provided by the research base here to comprehensively analyze the soil characteristics, environmental characteristics and uncertainties, element distribution, etc. on the far side of the moon, and conducted multiple rounds of screening and iteration.

This work is no less tedious than the calculation of parameters for the sixth phase of Luoyue.

Because this is a very difficult test for Gu Lu's eyesight.

Finally, Gu Lu, whose eyes were sore and swollen, finally chose a main and two landing areas in the rugged and complex terrain on the back of the moon that were similar in overall flatness to the Chang'e-3 Hongwan area, maximizing the landing efficiency.

Reliability and security.

If all goes well, Chang'e 4 will land in the Von Kármán impact crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon.

The Von Kármán impact crater is located in the middle of the spa basin, with a diameter of about 186 km and a center coordinate of (44.8°s, 175.9°e).

Gu Lu's choice of this basin as his landing point has a deeper meaning.

The spa basin is considered to be the largest and oldest impact crater in the solar system, preserving the rocks of the original lunar crust.

At the same time, the spa basin is 13 kilometers deep and is the deepest impact basin on the moon. This means that the impact event that year is likely to dig out materials from the depths of the lunar crust and even the lunar mantle. These may become the basis for humans to study the internal composition of the moon.

key".

Once the Chang'e-4 probe makes discoveries in this area, it may further promote China's pursuit of the moon!

late at night.

The lights in most rooms in the entire research base have long been turned off.

But in Gu Lu's office, the lights stayed on until the early morning of the next day.

…………

The next day.

Half past six in the morning.

After Wu Zheng finished washing himself, he moved his body and prepared to go to the cafeteria for breakfast.

As if something suddenly occurred to him, Wu Zheng turned around and returned to the researchers' accommodation area.

Dong dong dong~~

Wu Zheng went to the bedroom where Gu Lu was arranged yesterday and knocked on the door.

"Professor Gu, are you awake? Let's have breakfast together!"

No one responded.

Wu Zheng knocked on the door again, but still no one responded.

"Aren't you awake yet?"

Wu Zheng shook his head, turned and left.

From the accommodation area to the canteen, you have to pass by the office area where Gu Lu is located.

So, when passing by Gu Lu's office, Wu Zheng was keenly aware that the lights in the office were still on.

Wu Zheng thought that Gu Lu had left in a hurry last night and forgot to turn off the lights, so he was about to go in and turn off the lights.

But what surprised Wu Zheng was that the office door was not locked at all, and he opened it as soon as he turned it.

In an instant, a guess flashed through Wu Zheng's mind.

No way...

Wu Zheng didn't quite believe that the guess was true.

But after opening the door, Wu Zheng still saw the familiar figure of Gu Lu, who was lying on a pile of draft paper with slightly messy hair, carefully calculating formulas.

Wu Zheng was startled for a moment.

Of course Gu Lu heard the sound of the door opening.

Write down the last formula on the scratch paper and circle the resulting number heavily with a pen.

Gu Lu raised his head, his eyes fell on Wu Zheng, and then he grinned.

"Director Wu, you are here at the right time. I have already calculated all the parameters for the attitude adjustment and orbit change of the detector's orbit and moon landing phase!"

"Fortunately, I live up to my fate!"

Wu Zheng looked at Gu Lu's face full of exhaustion and the happy smile without any unnecessary emotions, and felt something was blocked in his throat.

"Professor Gu, you...you didn't go back to sleep all night." Wu Zheng asked in a hoarse voice.

Gu Lu had a pair of dark circles under his eyes and said in a casual tone, "Well, as the saying goes, it will be full of energy, then it will weaken again, and then it will be exhausted. I will take advantage of the momentum and finish everything in one breath."

"Then your body..."

"I'm still young and can bear it. Besides, as scientific researchers, how can we not stay up all night." Gu Lu waved his hand.

Wu Zheng was silent after listening.

Indeed, being a scientific researcher is indeed quite hard.

In the more than four years since he joined the Chang'e-4 project team, Wu Zheng has stayed up all night no less than twenty times.

Moreover, Wu Zheng also achieved the achievement of sleeping only three hours for three days.

only……

Gu Lu was just a mathematician who was called over to help. If Gu Lu was asked to stay up all night, Wu Zheng would feel really guilty.

Of course, there was also a lot of emotion at the same time.

Wu Zheng did not expect that Gu Lu, as an outsider, would be so desperate for the Chang'e-4 project.

Sure enough, his father's praise and praise for Gu Lu were not without reason.

While Wu Zheng was thinking a lot, Gu Lu copied all the data obtained by the calculation to the USB flash drive.

Gu Lu stood up, swayed, walked to Wu Zheng, and handed the USB flash drive into Wu Zheng's hand.

"Director Wu, here are the orbit of the detector and the posture and orbit parameters of each stage of moon landing. I suggest that supercomputer can be used to simulate the moon landing immediately." Gu Lu said in a serious tone.

Wu Zheng nodded, with a smile on his face, "Okay, in that case, we will do it right away..."

Before Wu Zheng finished speaking, he heard Gu Lu's stomach growling next to him.

Gu Lu touched his belly and blushed.
Chapter completed!