Chapter 25 25. The Last Moment is Approaching

"The height is 15 holes, and the speed is 95. The heat shield has been thrown away." The space station continued to report the measured data. That is to say, the probe hammer has successfully entered the atmosphere and slowed down.However, it is not too early to be happy.The distance that needs to be passed ahead is not only a vertical distance of 150 kilometers, but also a horizontal distance of 300 kilometers; as the storm is roaring, the situation of this distance has become very complicated.Although there is still fuel available on the probe hammer, its mobility is limited after all.If the first attempt to land on a mountain fails, there is no chance of a second attempt.

"The altitude is 12 holes. The atmosphere has no effect." The situation of the probe hammer falling from the sky is like a spider spinning its own spider silk ladder very fast. "I hope it has a long enough line," thought Duval, "it will be so annoying if it runs out of line within a kilometer of its target!" through such a tragedy. "Height eight holes. Normal descent. Tension 100 percent. Slight resistance." Well, since the atmosphere is already at work, let the ultra-sensitive instruments mounted on this little device take care of it. Near the car with a full set of detection equipment, there is a small telescope, which is now automatically tracking the detection hammer, which is not yet visible to the naked eye.Morgan walked over there.The cameraman followed him like a shadow.

"See anything?" Maxine asked in a low voice after a few seconds. Morgan was staring at the sky, and he didn't answer her. "Height six holes. Deviation to the left. Tension one hundred percent." "Things are all right," thought Duval, "but there, on the other side of the stratosphere, seems to have happened. Morgan must have seen the probe..." "The height is five to five, and the correction is two seconds." "Yes!" Morgan said, raising his voice. "I see the exhaust gas!" "Altitude five holes, tension 105 percent. Difficult to keep heading, chattering."

It was unbelievable that after passing a distance of nearly 36,000 kilometers, the detection hammer would end its journey less than 50 kilometers away from the target.However, how many planes and spaceships have crashed in the last few meters! "The height is four or five, there is a strong gust of wind, and the detection hammer is deflected by the vice again, and the correction amount is three seconds." "I can't see it," Morgan said disappointedly, "There are clouds." "The height is four holes, there is strong flutter, and the tension is 150." The report continued.

The situation is not good!Maxine Duvall knew that the thread would break at 200 percent tension.As long as there is another violent impact, the whole experiment will be "end of life". "Altitude three to five. The wind is increasing. Pulse period - one second. Fuel is almost used up. Tension one hundred and seventy. Distance three holes..." The atmosphere became more and more tense. "There it is!" Morgan exclaimed. "It's gone through the clouds." "Distance two to five. Course cannot be recovered. Landing site will be three kilometers off target."

"Leave it alone!" cried Morgan. "Land anywhere!" "Okay, try your best. Two holes away. The wind continues to strengthen. The hammer has lost its stability." "Release the brake! Let the line come down!" Morgan ordered decisively. "It has been done." The tone of the speech is completely serene and tranquil.If Maxine Duvall hadn't known in advance that an experienced space transportation dispatcher was invited to participate in the experiment, she might have thought it was a robot talking. "The thread can't be released. The probe hammer is rotating. Five revolutions per second. Probably the thread is entangled. The tension is 18 percent, 19 holes, 2 holes. The distance is 15. The tension is 20 holes, Two or two holes, two or three holes."

"It won't be long," thought Duval. "There's only about ten kilometers to go, and that nasty thread gets tangled up in the spinning hammer." "Tension hole." It's over, the thread is broken, and then it swims like a snake, and slowly flies back to the stars.No doubt the people on the Ashoka space station will put it all away, but even Maxina understands how time-consuming and complicated it is.As for the sounding hammer, it must have landed somewhere near here—in the fields of Taborobani or in the tropical jungle.But, as Morgan said, the experiment has been more than 95 percent successful.Until the next time there is no wind...

"Look at it!" someone yelled. A star lit up from beneath the clouds; it looked like a shooting star.As if to mock the creators of the hammer, it was illuminated with beacons for control on the final stretch.Well, it could come in handy anyway.It's much easier to find where it landed... The cameraman pans the camera slowly so Maxina can see how the bright stars fly by and disappear in the east.Probably, the sounding hammer will fall about five kilometers away from Sri Konda. "Connect to Dr. Morgan's line." Maxina was going to say a few words of praise to Morgan—loud enough that the Martian minister could hear her, expressing her confidence in the absolute success of the next landing.As Duvall silently worked out her tribute in her mind, suddenly, her mind went blank.After the incident, she recalled countless times the various events that happened in the thirty seconds after that, to the extent that she could memorize them fluently, but she was never completely sure whether she was aware of these events or not. Really have a thorough understanding.