Reborn Before the Apocalypse: My Backing is the Nation

Chapter 68 Fall
Amidst the intense heat and high pressure of the gas jets, the lunar rover suit's speed relative to the moon gradually decreased.

Its trajectory is a parabola. If it loses enough speed, according to the law of universal gravitation, it will continue to fall towards the moon and eventually crash into it.

The jetting continues throughout this process.

Finally, all its radial velocity was eliminated, and its motion pattern relative to the moon changed to vertical descent.

From this moment on, it will free fall in the moon's gravitational field, just like a small pebble falling from a great height on Earth.

The only difference is that the Moon's gravitational acceleration is only one-sixth that of Earth, and its rate of increase per second is only about 1.6 meters.

In the control room, everyone's eyes were focused on the large screen, intently watching the ever-expanding, increasingly detailed lunar surface transmitted back by the lunar rover suite.

Jiang Yang knew that, according to the plan, when the lunar surface was about 1000 meters above the surface, the thrusters, which were shaped like square steel plates, would have their thrusters at the four corners activated simultaneously to drastically slow it down.

During this process, it will descend to a height of only two meters above the lunar surface and hover there temporarily.

The cameras on the lunar rover will automatically capture and analyze the lunar surface terrain below for a final confirmation.

If there are no unforeseen circumstances and it can land, then it will be "thrown" down by the retrorockets.

It takes about 1.6 seconds for an object to travel from two meters above the lunar surface to impact the ground within the moon's gravitational field, resulting in a final impact velocity of about 2.5 meters per second, roughly equivalent to the speed of an object falling straight to the Earth's surface from a height of 33 centimeters.

This impact force is well within the design tolerance range and will not damage the lunar rover.

At its current speed, the lunar rover will land on the lunar surface in just a few minutes at most.

On the large screen, the number representing the height of the lunar rover suit kept shrinking, commands were transmitted from Earth to the Moon, and feedback data from the lunar rover suit was constantly updated on the large screen.

The signal connection is good, the equipment is working well, and everything is as expected.

In 39 seconds, the thrust reverser will be powered on.

But at that moment, Jiang Yang saw the number representing the signal transmission rate on the big screen suddenly drop to zero.

The previously clear lunar images, captured and transmitted in real-time by the lunar rover's camera, suddenly froze.

Communication is down!
A piercing alarm sounded throughout the control room.

Professor Li Jiaming, who was in charge of lunar exploration, immediately looked up, his previously confident expression suddenly turning serious.

At this moment, the lunar rover is less than 2000 meters above the lunar surface. However, its speed is still maintained at over 200 meters per second, almost equivalent to that of a jet airliner!

If the thrusters fail to start properly and cannot slow down the aircraft, it will crash into the hard rocks on the lunar surface like an out-of-control passenger plane in just ten seconds!
Professor Li Jiaming bent down and typed rapidly on the keyboard with both hands.

Forced system restart, comprehensive and rapid self-check, signal system reset, anti-interference system activation, autonomous operation activation, and so on—a series of emergency preset commands were sent from Earth, relayed by the lunar relay satellite, and arrived at the lunar rover suit in just 1.3 seconds.

However, Professor Li Jiaming's efforts yielded no results.

The high-resolution lunar exploration satellite, which was launched into lunar orbit not long ago, is still transmitting clear images of the lunar rover suite back to Earth from a distance of tens of kilometers.

Thus, people could clearly see that the Lunar Rover Suite 1, which resembled a bundle hanging from a steel plate, silently crossed the "death altitude."

The thrusters must activate before reaching the point of death. Otherwise, even if they do activate, they won't be able to slow the vehicle down before it hits the ground. At that moment, the final outcome is already decided.

Just seconds later, at the speed of a jet airliner, the lunar rover suit, weighing over 800 kilograms, crashed heavily onto the lunar surface.

The lunar exploration satellite captured clear images of lunar dust and rock fragments flying everywhere. The lunar rover suit had already been reduced to a pile of scrap metal in the collision.

The atmosphere in the control room was as heavy as mercury.

Professor Li Jiaming's face showed a look of bewilderment: "How could it fail? How is that possible? Everything was perfectly normal just a moment ago..."

This tiny lunar rover weighs only a few hundred kilograms. It may seem insignificant, but behind it lies a giant rocket, an orbiter, a lander, a retrorockets, and a series of other complex devices.

Going further upstream, you'll find thousands upon thousands of factories and the hard work of countless engineers and technicians.

Now, with this impact, all efforts have been in vain.

Jiang Yang was also filled with doubts.

He knew very well that although lunar rovers were sophisticated, their complexity was far less than that of a Giant Spirit II rocket.

For the domestic aerospace industry, which already possesses mature solutions and manufacturing experience, the difficulty in manufacturing lunar rovers or the Giant Spirit II rocket lies not in the technology, but in the final assembly stage.

The Giant Spirit II rocket involves millions of parts. To assemble so many parts and make them work properly—even if each part is selected from the best and has undergone strict screening—it is normal for malfunctions to occur.

However, the lunar rover only involves tens of thousands of parts at most, and its complexity is far less than that of the Giant Spirit II rocket.

How could such a seemingly "simple" little thing malfunction so badly?
Sun Changhe's solemn voice came through: "One failure is not a problem. We still have 14 more to go."

Professor Li Jiaming composed himself: "Yes."

The second lunar rover suite has also separated from the orbiter and is rapidly descending towards the lunar surface amidst drastic deceleration.

This time, the entire operations team was much more serious and meticulous.

They checked the equipment's working status repeatedly, looking for any possible points of failure, and patiently verified each piece of data.

"everything is normal."

This time, everyone had a premonition.

This lunar rover will definitely land successfully and begin subsequent work, definitely.

The vertical fall phase begins. Under the influence of the moon's gravity, its descent speed continuously increases.

In just over ten seconds, the reverse push will begin.

But at that very moment, the piercing alarm sounded again.

Jiang Yang looked up abruptly and saw on the large screen that the signal connection between Earth and the lunar rover had been lost again.

(End of this chapter)