Die on Mars - Chapter 214

c214 Day 326 (5) Eye Jumping Technique and Orbital High

Tang Yue stopped what he was doing and said, “Girl, you have to trust us and rescue…”

“Rescue will definitely arrive in time, right?” Maidong said, “You have told me this many times.”

Tang Yue was speechless. He had indeed said this sentence too many times. He no longer knew whether it was to cheer up Ophiopogon japonicus or to encourage himself. No one knew whether the rescue would arrive in time – according to the routine of Hollywood movies According to the rules, this cargo spaceship must arrive, and it arrives at the very moment of extreme crisis. It saves the little girl at the last moment when the space station is about to crash. The hero and heroine successfully reunite and usher in a happy ending.

But reality is not a movie, and there is never a perfect ending planned by the screenwriter in advance.

The principle of mediocrity is everywhere in this universe, and any result is normal and reasonable.

The old cat sullenly banged the stretcher with a vise. It didn’t want to say anything at first, and it didn’t have to take any responsibility if it didn’t make any promises, but Tang Yue kicked it.

“Ahem… Miss Maidong, let me teach you a rough way to judge the orbital height.” The old cat cleared his throat, “Can you see the Ixi Plain now? Or the Endeavor Crater? Gale Crater ?Victoria Crater? Any crater will do, find a reference directly below you.”

“Hmm… Endeavor Crater… Endeavor Crater… Let me look for it. It should be on Meridian Plateau, which is near the equator… I can see it, I can see Endeavor Crater, cat Sir.” Maidong replied, “Mr. Cat, can you hear me?”

“Copy that, Miss Maidong, can you find a pencil or ruler over there? If you really can’t find it, you can take off the gloves of the spacesuit in the cabin and give your thumbs up.”

Maidong looked around, reached out and grabbed a pencil that floated by in front of him, opened the cap, “Mr. Cat, I have a pen in my hand.”

“Okay, now listen to me and follow my instructions – straighten your right arm forward and hold up the pen.” Old Cat instructed, “Close your left eye again and stare with your right eye. The tip of the pencil should coincide with the left edge of the Endeavor crater. Make sure that the crater, the pencil, and your right eye are in line. Do you hear me clearly? They must be in a straight line.”

The girl followed what the old cat said, holding the middle part of the pencil, straightening her arms, holding it straight in front of her, closing one eye, slowly turning her body, so that the tip of the pencil pointed at the impact crater on Mars. Edge shadow.

“Okay, Mr. Cat.”

“Now open your left eye and keep your body, arms and pencil from moving. Then close your right eye and use your left eye to look at the tip of the pencil.” The old cat said, “Tell me where the tip of the pencil is now.” where?”

“Well…it points to the center of Endeavor’s impact crater.”

“Okay.” Old Cat nodded, “Okay, Miss Maidong, you can open your eyes. The current altitude of the Mars United Space Station is about one hundred to one hundred and twenty kilometers.”

Tang Yue and Maidong were both startled.

Tang Yue stood on the side and watched the whole process. He was a little curious when he saw the old cat magically using a pencil to open and close his eyes to get the altitude data of the space station.

“How did you calculate it?”

“This is a very old distance measurement method, called the ‘eye-jumping method’. Before the invention of advanced optical sights and radars, the eye-jumping method was once commonly used by artillery to measure the range of targets.” Lao Mao explained, “The principle is actually very simple. You just use your eyes, a pencil and a reference object to construct two similar triangles. The interpupillary distance of an ordinary person’s eyes is about six centimeters, and the length of an arm is sixty centimeters. This is a height-to-base ratio of ten to one. If a triangle is similar to it, the height-to-base ratio must be ten to one.”

“We use the Endeavor crater as a reference. The diameter of the Endeavor crater is 22 kilometers. The moving distance of the pencil tip is half the diameter of the crater, which is 12 kilometers.” The old cat continued, “This big triangle The base is twelve kilometers, then its height is one hundred and twenty kilometers… This is the distance between Miss Maidong and the ground.”

Tang Yue was a little surprised. The surprise was not because of the eye-jumping technique, but because the cat actually knew the altitude of the United Space Station. It had always known how to measure the orbital altitude, but it had never told him.

“The current height of the Joint Space Station is located in the upper atmosphere of Mars, which is the bottom of the ionosphere.” Lao Mao said.

“Have I entered the atmosphere?” Maidong asked.

“The nominal atmosphere is actually the same as a vacuum.” Lao Mao said, “The density of the atmosphere will not increase significantly until below 60 kilometers, so this altitude is relatively safe and has enough buffer space. I think It is entirely possible that the space station will persist until Tianzhou 37 arrives.”

Lao Mao’s promise is more reassuring than Tang Yue’s, because Tang Yue’s encouragement is only based on a certain kind of mysterious self-confidence. Its theoretical basis includes but is not limited to “man can conquer nature”, “where there is a will, there is a way” and “people’s subjective initiative” “It is the driving force that determines the direction of history” and other ancestral philosophical thoughts. It’s okay to use these things to shout slogans, but when used to calculate orbital dynamics problems, it is epilepsy.

But the old cat is different. Everything it says must be based on rigorous mathematical and physical calculations.

What Ophiopogon japonicus needs now is not slogans, but calculations.

The girl was slightly relieved. Although the results of the eye-tap estimation were very rough, it was still the only reassurance they could get when they were desperate.

“Thank you, Mr. Cat.”

The old cat stopped talking, and then immersed himself in tightening the screws on the stretcher. He was twisting the screws with such force that it seemed to have a grudge in the past life. Then the old cat pressed hard on the frame of the stretcher to confirm that it could bear an adult. weight, and this time it didn’t fall apart.

“I told you a long time ago that the rescue will arrive in time.” Tang Yue also breathed a sigh of relief. Now he has the confidence to say this, “You still have a long life, girl, you still have a lot of things to do.” If you do it, you can definitely have a happy and meaningful life. Your future life may be very boring and monotonous. After all, Kunlun Station is indeed not a good place, but I believe you can still find happiness in it.”

“I accept your good advice.” Maidong smiled, “If I can go down, then I will take wedding photos with you.”

“I’m not joking.” Tang Yue curled his lips, “The wedding photo joke can stop here.”

“I’m not kidding either.”

Tang Yue made a movement and choked.

“Really, I’m serious…” The girl looked at the Martian land under her feet, raised the pencil in her hand, closed one eye, and said in a sly tone, “Tang Yue, after I land safely, let’s Let’s marry.”