Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 313: Mars Rescue! Spaceflight Facts [Subscription Request]

"Your Majesty, since the last video and the second movie both cover the same topic, I think it would be better to show them together."

Although Zhu Yuanzhang was curious about the topic, he held back when he thought of the movie he had to watch.

Then he asked, "What's the name of this first movie? What's it about?"

Liu Kuan glanced at the synopsis of the upcoming film on the tablet before saying, "Your Majesty, the film is called 'The Martian.' It tells the story of a Bald Eagle astronaut who is stranded on Mars due to an accident and may need four years to be rescued."

“So, this is a story about the astronauts having to use the limited resources of the Mars base to survive, save themselves, and escape from Mars.”

After listening to Liu Kuan's introduction, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, Zhu Di and others were stunned for a moment.

They were already surprised to learn that humans had landed on the moon, but now, after hearing the introduction to "The Martian," they subconsciously thought that humans in the future might have landed on Mars.

Because Zhu Yuanzhang and others knew the common knowledge of the starry sky in later generations, they knew that Mars was the planet Mercury, and it was also a planet relatively close to the Earth in the solar system.

Theoretically speaking, if future generations can land on the moon, then landing on Mars is also very likely.

Zhu Yuanzhang came back to his senses and was about to ask, but he saw that Liu Kuan had already put down the tablet and clicked on the movie.

"You'd better wait until you've seen the movie before asking."

Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang shifted his attention to the movie.

So does everyone else.

The movie begins with a deep starry sky, then a planet appears, and the sun emerges next to it, appearing very small, but the light is very dazzling.

With the light, the appearance of this planet became clearer and clearer - it was not covered with clouds and air currents like the Earth, nor did it have blue oceans, but only vast expanses of red wasteland, Gobi, and desert, which was extremely desolate.

At the same time, the name of the movie appeared on the screen - "The Martian".

This made Zhu Yuanzhang and others understand that this desolate planet was Mars.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang had seen Mars with a "high-power" telescope developed by the Mirror Bureau and knew that Mars was indeed red, seeing its surface so clearly naturally produced a unique sense of shock.

As for others who have never seen Mars through a telescope, they are even more shocked at this moment.

'Mars is actually like this?'

"It's like being burned by a blazing fire. No wonder it's called Mars."

"Is this the planet Mars, the symbol of disaster? It certainly looks like an ominous place—why would anyone in the future think of landing here? Aren't they afraid of bringing disaster to Earth?"

'···'

At this moment, due to different cognitions, various ideas appeared in everyone's mind.

Then the Mandarin version of "The Martian" began, unfolding this science fiction film that was highly praised in later generations with the Mars rover, astronauts, and the Mars research base.

The peaceful scientific research expedition scene at the beginning was soon broken by a terrifying storm. During the storm, the protagonist Mark accidentally lost contact with the team, and the safety of the spacecraft was also threatened, so he had to take off and return urgently.

The film then begins with a news report reporting on the scientific expedition accident and announcing Mark's death.

After listening to the introduction, Lao Zhu and others knew that the movie had just begun. If nothing unexpected happened, the Western astronaut should not be dead.

Sure enough, the movie scene changed, and Mark was seen buried in the red sand. He was awakened by the oxygen deprivation alarm of his space suit, and slowly walked towards their scientific research base with injuries.

Seeing this, Zhu Biao, Zhu Di and others couldn't help but think: That is Mars - not America, which is separated from the Central Plains by 10,000 or 20,000 miles of ocean, but another planet that is separated by who knows how many tens of millions of miles!
How can a person survive if he is trapped there?
Not to mention, the planet is barren and doesn't look like there is any life.

And there are terrible storm disasters from time to time!
This situation is really despairing...

However, the following hardcore science fiction content made the Zhu family change their minds - perhaps future generations who have mastered science and technology can really survive on Mars!
The first thing is to solve the food problem.

When they saw Mark using feces and soil to grow potatoes, only a few people in the Zhu family who had no experience in farming felt disgusted, while most people took it for granted - after all, the Chinese have been using human and animal feces to fertilize the fields for a long time.

Next, Mark’s method of solving the water problem really shocked the Zhu family.

While the combustion of hydrogen to produce water was understandable to those with a little chemistry background like Zhu Xiongying, the subsequent use of iridium-catalyzed hydrazine (hydrazine fuel) to produce hydrogen was something Zhu and other students at the university had never heard of before.

Because even Liu Kuan had forgotten about this before watching the movie again.

Of course, although Mark in the movie has a wealth of scientific knowledge, the process of making water is not smooth sailing - he fails in the experiment due to negligence, and is blown away while cheering and celebrating.

Seeing this scene, Lao Zhu and others couldn't help but laugh unkindly.

The movie continues, and after solving the food problem, Mark begins to think about longer-term issues - how to contact the earth and even return to the earth.

Because the survival materials of the Mars base will eventually run out, which will only take a few years, and that will be the time of his death.

In the movie, Mark uses the Discovery Rover that stopped operating many years ago to get in touch with Earth. He eventually uses various scientific knowledge to overcome many difficulties, successfully escapes from Mars, reunites with his teammates who have returned to Mars orbit, and returns to Earth...

The movie lasted more than two hours, and even after the closing credits were played, the Zhu family was still in shock at the hardcore science fiction film.

After about a minute or two, Old Zhu finally asked, "Liu Kuan, did the bald eagle really send people to land on Mars in the future?" Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty, no."

After hearing this answer, Lao Zhu breathed a sigh of relief - if the bald eagle in the future could even land on the distant Mars, then its advanced technology would be too despairing.

Before Old Zhu could relax, Liu Kuan continued, "But as early as 1992, the Bald Eagle launched a satellite into the orbit of Mars specifically to observe Mars."

"By 1996, a Mars lander and rover were launched to Mars, and in the following to years, several more Mars rovers were launched for scientific exploration of Mars."

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and asked, "How big of a difference is there between sending a rover to Mars and sending an astronaut to Mars?"

Liu Kuan said, "That's a huge difference—at least before this humble minister traveled through time, the plans of several space powers to land on Mars were still only on paper, and at least decades away from completion."

Zhu Biao then curiously asked, "Has China ever sent a rover to Mars in the future? Does it have plans to land on Mars?"

Liu Kuan recalled and said, "In fact, there are only two countries that have sent rovers to Mars in the future. One is Bald Eagle and the other is China."

"China's rover appears to be called 'Zhurong' and was launched around 2020."

"However, China's subsequent progress in Mars exploration still lags far behind that of the Bald Eagle - at that time, the Bald Eagle's longest-running rover on Mars had been more than a decade old."

"The Zhurong entered a dormant state after operating for nearly two years. Due to some problems, it was unable to exit dormancy as planned before this humble minister traveled through time."

Seeing that Old Zhu, Zhu Biao, and the others were all confused, Liu Kuan continued to explain, "It is said that because the Zhurong uses solar energy, it is covered by sand, which has caused problems with its energy supply. That is why it cannot wake up and resume working as planned."

"The Bald Eagle's Mars rover uses nuclear energy, so it can operate for more than ten years."

Old Zhu, Zhu Biao and others had some understanding of solar energy and nuclear energy. After hearing this, Zhu Biao couldn't help but ask: "Then why doesn't the Zhurong use nuclear energy?"

Liu Kuan shook his head, "I don't know about that."

Zhu Xiongying then asked, "Teacher, I remember when you talked about the manned moon landing in later generations, you said that some people suspected that the Bald Eagle did not actually carry a man to the moon, but instead created a shocking hoax."

"So, could it be that the story of the bald eagle sending probes and rovers to Mars is also a big hoax?"

Liu Kuan shook his head and laughed, "First of all, the story of the bald eagle sending people to the moon was a hoax. It was just a speculation by a few people on the internet in later generations. It has not been confirmed. The mainstream view still accepts the fact that the bald eagle landed on the moon."

"As for the fact that they launched probes and rovers to Mars, China later also launched probes and rovers, which can be verified. How could it be a hoax?"

Zhu Xiongying frowned, "So, the bald eagle is really strong in aerospace?"

Liu Kuan said, "This is quite normal. After all, the Bald Eagle gained a lot of benefits from World War I and World War II. Its technology was more than sixty years more advanced than that of the Xin Dynasty in the early period."

"It will be very difficult for the future Xin Dynasty to catch up with its pace in aerospace. It may take quite some time to surpass it in all aspects."

Old Zhu was thinking, I wonder how many years it would take for the Ming Dynasty to explore the moon or even Mars - he would never see that day anyway.

After coming to his senses, he said, "Alright, let's talk about exploring the starry sky another day. Let's move on to the next movie."

The others also had some questions they wanted to ask, but after hearing what Lao Zhu said, they had to suppress their doubts in their hearts.

Liu Kuan picked up the tablet and turned on the second movie.

Zhu Yuanzhang asked, "What is this movie about?"

"Your Majesty will know after seeing it."

"You're still keeping us in suspense." Zhu Yuanzhang laughed.

After Liu Kuan called up the video, he put it away and touched the screen to play it.

As the movie credits ended, the title of the movie soon appeared on the screen - "Dear".

At that time, there was no spoken word like "dear", so the Zhu family found the name strange. Just from the literal meaning, they thought it was a romance movie.

Then the main film begins, but it seems to be telling an ordinary family story in later generations.

A couple divorced due to emotional discord, and the court later awarded their son to the husband Tian Wenjun.

His wife Xiaojuan remarried and married a successful man. They lived a good life.

Tian Wenjun and his son run a small grocery store for a living. Although their life is ordinary, they are happy and comfortable.

Their son became the only connection between the two after their divorce.

Just when the Zhu family still couldn't figure out the core content of the film, the thrilling plot began.

Tian Wenjun was watching over his neighbor's internet cafe for a while at his request, but his son ran out with a group of other kids...

　First update.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)