Dead on Mars

Chapter 59 - Sol Five, Seventy-Meter-Long Surgical Knife
Mai Dong stumbled through the narrow passageway as she entered the Orion’s airlock. She then hurriedly donned the heavy EVA suit.

“Quick! Quick! Quick! Quiiiicccck! Lady, be quicker! A little bit quicker!” Tomcat stared at the time on the screen as it controlled the arm to open.

The Eagle was approaching the United Space Station, and time waited for no man. Mai Dong only had one chance, and if she missed it, they had no other means of grappling the lander.

Mai Dong latched the safety tether to her body. This was the longest nylon safety tether in the space station, with a length of 500 meters that could withstand fifteen tonnes of tension. She then twisted open the airlock’s outer hatch as she shouted, panting, “Mr. Cat! Mr. Cat… I’m out!”

“OK!”

The arm was already waiting for her outside the airlock. Mai Dong gently nudged the airlock’s wall as she clumsily floated out. Her feet touched the end of the robotic arm’s repair platform as she locked herself in.

“Stand tight, lady!” Tomcat said in the tone of an excavator who graduated from Lanxiang 1 “I’m going to send you over!”

The arm began moving and its folds began to open segment at a time. It carried Mai Dong to a spot where the Eagle was predicted to pass. Together with the United Space Station, it adjusted its attitude as it slowly tumbled. From afar, it did look like the space station had extended a strange, long arm to intercept the passing Eagle.

Although the claim was that they were going to grapple the Eagle, the arm wasn’t a crab’s claw. It wasn’t able to directly catch the lander that was hurtling past at high speeds. On the contrary, as the arm was, in fact, a rather weak structure, there was no way it could withstand the force from the impact. Therefore, not only was it unable to stop the Eagle, it had to maintain a distance. It couldn’t make any physical contact with the lander to prevent any accidents.

Therefore, the one who was truly burdened with the grappling mission was Mai Dong.

She carried with her a handheld laser range finder and by her chest was a nylon safety tether.

Mai Dong stood on the arm and through her transparent visor, she could see the brownish-red Martian surface beneath her feet. The water vapor from her breathing condensed on the glass as her eyes reflected a resplendent light.

This wasn’t her first time doing a spacewalk. When Commander Old Wang went out into space to do maintenance, Mai Dong had requested to be taken along. She was often excited and nervous when floating in space. She had always said that living in space for her entire life would be a wonderful thing.

Old Wang was left rather exasperated about that. He was a man with a wife and children. How could he spend his entire life in space?

People who lived their lives in space also had another great title… Martyrs .

“Miss Mai Dong!” Tomcat’s voice sounded in the earpiece. “Repeat the gist of the procedure again!”

“Alright… The procedure’s gist… 5 seconds!”

“Yes, 5 seconds!” Tomcat nodded.

Five seconds was the amount of time Tomcat had won for Mai Dong. The arm’s maximum length was 70 meters, and the lander’s trajectory when flying past the space station had a straight-line distance of 60 meters.

Based on a simple calculation, with 70 meters as the radius of a circle, a 60-meter-long line segment from the center of the circle made it possible to make contact with the Eagle. This line segment’s length was 60 meters, and the lander’s relative speed was 6 m/s. Therefore, the Eagle would pass by the arm’s grappling range for about 10 seconds.

However, the arm wasn’t a straight line, and its speed whilst moving would be unable to keep up with the flying Eagle. Therefore, Mai Dong only had 5 seconds to make contact with the lander.

In these 5 seconds, Tomcat would remotely control the arm to move in the same direction as the Eagle, doing its best to reduce the relative speed between the two, to create the conditions needed for Mai Dong’s operations.

Mai Dong had to grapple the Eagle in 5 seconds.

“Safety tether!”

“Yes, safety tether.” Tomcat nodded. Mai Dong needed to buckle the safety tether to the Eagle. The safety tether with high tensile strength could withstand more than ten tonnes of tension, so it had the ability to make the Eagle stop.

However, the lander’s surface was smooth, so there were few places where the safety tether could latch on to it. The command module’s emergency escape hatch had a handle, and there were two such hatches on both sides of the spacecraft. As long as Mai Dong latched the safety tether to any one of the handles, they would be able to stop the Eagle. The high-tensile safety tether was 500 meters long, so once the connection was confirmed, Tomcat would gradually pull in the rope, giving the Eagle 500 meters to decelerate until it reached zero speed.

“Listen up, Miss Mai Dong. I’ll be under your command,” Tomcat said. “The laser range finder is with you, right?”

“Yes.” The girl pulled out the laser range finder from the tool bag in front of her chest. The handheld laser range finder was shaped like a digital video camera. It was small in size, but extremely accurate. In previous rendezvous missions, astronauts would often use this gizmo to aid them with the docking.

Mai Dong could already see the Eagle from afar. It was a tiny point that reflected white light, appearing very striking in the pitch-black background.

She raised the laser range finder.

“A distance of 1202.44 meters… Mr. Cat, move left 0.52 meters.”

“Roger that.”

Tomcat controlled the arm and slowly moved it.

“There’s another 6.2° difference… Mr. Cat.”

“Roger that.”

The Eagle could no longer be controlled, so Tomcat and Mai Dong could only adjust their own attitude to align with the lander’s state. Without a doubt, it was highly risky doing so. Mai Dong had to approach the Eagle from inches away. She wasn’t able to grapple onto it if it was too far, but being too close made a collision possible.

This was akin to Mai Dong holding a rope by the roadside with a huge eight-wheeler, weighing more than ten tonnes, zooming by. She had to latch the rope onto the vehicle’s side mirror at the instant it passed by. If there was any problem with her positioning, the rope would either not latch on, or she would latch on together with the rope.

This was a precise operation that resembled surgery. Tomcat, who was 300 kilometers away had to remotely control a 70-meter-long robotic arm doing precise adjustments of just centimeters. But no surgeon in this world could use a 70-meter-long scalpel for surgery.

“Distance of 1031.74 meters. Mr. Cat, move right 0.30 meters.” The girl’s voice was light as she noticed that the Eagle was gradually becoming bigger. Now, she could see the paint and logos on the lander.

“Roger that!”

“Adjust the elevation angle by 3°.”

“Roger that.”

Tomcat’s response was succinct and forceful.

“Lock up.” Mai Dong put away the laser range finder and stuffed it into the tool bag by her chest.

“Locked up!” Tomcat pressed a button as the arm’s internal motors and bearings locked up!

Mai Dong held the nylon safety tether in her hand as she took a deep breath.

“Miss Mai Dong! Miss Mai Dong! I notice that your EVA suit’s pressure is dropping!” Tomcat warned.

“Yes.” The girl nodded. “I’m lowering the pressure; otherwise, I’ll be too bulky and won’t be able to bend my limbs. It would affect my mobility.”

Mai Dong stood alone in deep space as she looked at the distant lander. She suddenly calmed down as the Eagle approached silently. The painted eagle on its body was large and striking.