Chapter 69: Core Area
The footage from the high-resolution lunar exploration satellite replaced the previous footage from Lunar Rover No. 2.
Thus, Jiang Yang saw once again the Lunar Rover Suit, which was about the size of a car, crashing into the lunar surface at extremely high speed, kicking up large amounts of moon dust and rock debris.
Failed again?
This…
Jiang Yang suddenly noticed a number.
When Lunar Rover No. 1 disconnected from their side, the altitude was 1706 meters. And at this moment, the altitude at which Lunar Rover No. 2 disconnected was 1689 meters.
Only a difference of 17 meters.
If one also factors in the lunar rover’s descent speed of over 200 meters per second, as well as altitude error, and the minor differences caused by multiple signal relays and transmission processes, exploration and filming processes, then a height difference of only 17 meters can completely be regarded as the same height.
Both lunar rovers disconnected from Earth at this height? Then…
It wasn’t that the lunar rovers malfunctioned, but that something existed there that influenced them, causing the signal disconnection!
Jiang Yang suddenly said, “Change the landing location of Lunar Rover No. 3 to 10 kilometers—no, 11 kilometers—away from the neutrino detection coordinates as the center!”
No one raised any objections to Jiang Yang’s order. Obviously, he wasn’t the only one who had realized this.
Professor Li Jiaming quickly typed on the keyboard again, and soon, a brand new landing program was uploaded to the Lunar Rover Suit No. 3.
At over 100 kilometers above the moon, Lunar Rover No. 3, which was orbiting the moon and undergoing intense gas jetting to reduce its speed, suddenly stopped jetting at this moment.
Thus, on its parabolic orbit, its landing point deviated from the original predetermined landing point by about 11 kilometers.
After a series of orbital adjustments, its altitude dropped back to about 3000 meters, then it began free fall in the lunar gravitational field.
More than thirty seconds later, its altitude became 2000 meters. In a few more seconds, it would reach the “life-and-death line” at about 1000 meters.
The altitude number changed rapidly, decreasing. Jiang Yang merely blinked, and the altitude number became 1650 meters, then 1489 meters afterward.
“Activate retro-thrust!”
At the four corners of the square, tablet-like retro-thruster, blazing flames suddenly jetted out, abruptly halting the rapidly descending Lunar Rover Suit, and the speed of the altitude number’s change suddenly slowed.
The breath Jiang Yang had been holding due to tension suddenly exhaled.
No disconnection! Signal everything normal!
Indeed, indeed!
At this moment, although formal detection had not yet begun, one fact had already been confirmed.
This area indeed has anomalies!
Before this, the only proof that this area had anomalies was the detection data from the neutrino telescope that Jiang Yang brought back from his previous life.
But don’t forget, neither the pre-existing lunar detection satellites nor the high-resolution exploration satellite, gravity and geological detection satellite, and radiation measurement satellite that had just entered orbit and begun detection not long ago had detected any anomalies in this area.
This had planted a bit of doubt in people’s minds.
Was such an utterly ordinary place, no matter from where it was viewed, really the culprit behind the apocalypse of the human world?
And now, at the cost of two lunar rovers crashing, people had truly found direct intelligence proving this matter.
The anomaly is right here, no mistake!
This was major intelligence comparable to Jiang Yang’s “apocalypse prophecy”!
Suppressing the solemnity and excitement in their hearts, people’s attention refocused on the footage.
Under the retro-thruster’s retro-thrust, after consuming tens of seconds more, the Lunar Rover Suit finally came to a steady stop, hovering just two meters from the lunar surface.
Surface inspection confirmed no issues, landing conditions met, the retro-thruster separated from the lunar rover and directly dropped it down.
Like an object slowly sinking in water, the lunar rover slowly landed on the lunar surface, stirring up large amounts of moon dust.
As if there were air, the moon dust was stirred up and then slowly fell back down. Meanwhile, the retro-thruster suddenly increased its retro-thrust power a bit, propelling itself hundreds of meters away, also crashing onto the lunar surface.
Its mission was complete, no longer useful.
The lightweight metal buffer layer slowly opened like lotus petals, building a “platform” on the moon.
On the lunar rover inside, the top camera slowly rose, surveying the surroundings. Thus, the most primitive lunar scene in static state entered people’s view.
The sun was now hanging at the edge of the lunar horizon, showing only its head.
But just this one corner of the sun was so bright and dazzling it was impossible to look at directly, completely different from on Earth.
It cast long shadows across the moon’s desolate and dead land. Jiang Yang noticed that the boundary between those shadows and the sunlit areas was extremely clear, without any of the fuzziness on Earth.
The gray-black rocks ahead had sharp edges, like they had just broken apart, with no traces of wind or water erosion at all. The moon dust underfoot appeared thick and rounded, but upon closer inspection, the dust particles all had distinct edges, identical to the rocks.
“Head to the predetermined area.”
“Yes.”
After self-inspection completed and everything confirmed normal, this lunar rover didn’t “dawdle” around the landing point like previous scientific research lunar rovers, but directly drove down from the buffer layer platform, via autonomous navigation system and ground remote control, heading straight toward that 10-kilometer radius area without looking back.
In the extreme case, the lunar rover’s forward speed could reach about 4 kilometers per hour. Adding some safety redundancy, it was 3 kilometers per hour.
And at this moment, its landing location was 1 kilometer in straight-line distance from the edge of that area.
The lunar exploration satellite had already planned a path for it using previously filmed footage, total length 1.9 kilometers.
At this speed, it would only take about 38 minutes to reach the edge of that area.
Handing the control task of this lunar rover to a team, Jiang Yang and the others refocused their attention on Lunar Rover No. 4.
This time’s chosen landing location was on the other side of that special area determined by the previous life’s neutrino telescope measurements, also 11 kilometers from the core.
But this landing did not succeed. At about 1692 meters from the surface, it lost contact with Earth again.
“Expand Lunar Rover No. 5’s landing location to 15 kilometers!”
This time, Lunar Rover No. 5 landed successfully.
Through the same program, it too unhesitatingly began heading toward the special area.
The remaining lunar rovers each landed at distances from the core ranging from 11 to 15 kilometers, with a total of 10 successes and 5 failures.
These 10 lunar rovers vaguely formed a circle, surrounding that special area, then advanced toward the core together.
