Dead on Mars

Chapter 97 - Sol Hundred and Nine, 100,000 Pictures
Chapter 97: Sol Hundred and Nine, 100,000 Pictures

To get the orbiting United Space Station to find Tomcat via camera was a solution that Tang Yue came up with due to his anxiety. It was his final straw to clutch at. In fact, the United Space Station wasn’t suited for such work since it wasn’t a spy satellite. It didn’t have any high-precision optical observation equipment. To identify a vehicle of fewer than ten meters on the Martian surface, from a height of three to four hundred kilometers, would require American National Reconnaissance Office Keyhole satellites.

The United Space Station was once tasked with a Martian remote sensing and observation mission. It was equipped with a spectrum scanner and a synthetic-aperture radar, but this equipment was mainly used to sense and construct large swaths of geological landmarks. It wasn’t capable of precisely determining a vehicle’s location. The only high-precision camera onboard the United Space Station was inside the Dawn module and was likely damaged along with the module.

Mai Dong tried finding telescopes and cameras in the other modules, hoping that she could find something of use. She remembered that there was another set of optical observation equipment in the Discovery module which had previously been used to aid in the rendezvous with spacecraft. It was able to discover the approaching Orion from two hundred kilometers away, so it was a viable tool in finding the Mars Wanderer.

Tang Yue opened the map and labeled Kunlun Station on it. “This is Kunlun Station’s location: 12° 54′ N and 87° E. It’s Tomcat’s origin.”

Mai Dong nodded.

Tang Yue then labeled the Chelomey probe’s location on the map. “This is the Chelomey, the destination for Tomcat’s mission.”

He then drew a clear red line to connect both nodes, and the computer quickly gave the straight line distance between the two: 95.23 kilometers.

“It’s best we scan every inch of ground that Tomcat might cover. We mustn’t miss any corner.” Tang Yue turned the map as he drew two two-kilometer-long lines perpendicular to the ends of the red line. Then, with the two lines as the foundation, he added two more lines to complete a long and narrow rectangle.

Tang Yue labeled the area of the rectangle with red.

“This is where Mr. Cat might be?” Mai Dong looked at the map.

“After Tomcat found Chelomey, it immediately returned; therefore, it’s location must be somewhere in between Kunlun Station and the Chelomey, which is 95 kilometers,” Tang Yue explained. “We have expanded this line by a kilometer on both sides… Then, this 95-kilometer-long and 2-kilometer-long corridor is Tomcat’s activity region. It’s unlikely for it to exceed this range.”

Mai Dong carefully analyzed the map. Tang Yue’s red, giant rectangle was extremely striking. Tang Yue’s surmise was very reasonable. He had left enough room since Tomcat’s trajectory was unlikely to be a straight line; however, it was unlikely to take a detour that brought it out of the two kilometers range.

As long as they carefully searched this region, they would find Tomcat.

However, this region’s area was 190 square kilometers.

“Alright… Let me prepare. Once the space station flies over you, I’ll begin snapping pictures.” Mai Dong immediately put words into action, but her tone was filled with worry. “But the area is too large. The resolving power of the cameras I have on hand is very low… If we scan every inch, the picture data we receive might be a huge number.”

This was common knowledge. When it came to optical observation, the closer the image, the smaller the area observed. To find the Mars Wanderer, Mai Dong had no choice but to raise the magnification of the observation equipment to their highest, but this correspondingly led to the maximal shrinking of the area she could observe.

“The resolving power of the optical tracker on the space station is at best five meters, but this will make its field of view about 2,000 square meters.” Mai Dong did the math. “If a picture covers 2,000 square meters, to fully scan through the corridor, it will need 95,000 pictures.”

This number was staggeringly huge. In the event that Mai Dong snapped every picture seamlessly and covered every region, it would take 95,000 pictures to cover the entire corridor, but it was definitely not the case in practice. The final number of pictures would probably exceed 100,000.

And Tang Yue and Mai Dong were just two humans. They weren’t capable of automatic scanning, automatic photo-taking, or automatic identification. They needed to rely on their eyes and hands for everything. Ignoring the identification of the photos, just the task of photo-taking was an immense endeavor.

Furthermore, the photo-taking had to be done by Mai Dong alone. Tang Yue wasn’t able to help.

Tang Yue thought and said, “If you find it too tiring and troublesome, we can reduce the workload…”

“No, no, no, no. I don’t feel tired, nor do I find it troublesome.” Mai Dong hurriedly shook her head. “I’m just saying that you won’t be able to handle that many pictures. Besides, it’s prone to error, so I’ll share the burden with you. We can cross-check, so we don’t miss any clues.”

Tang Yue was momentarily taken aback before he nodded.

“Alright, we shall cross-check… That will reduce any errors and should be faster.”

“Isn’t that so?” Mai Dong winked as her light brown eyes sparkled with a playful hint.

“How much longer before you arrive above the Isidis Planitia?”

“Hmm…” Mai Dong looked at the time and then the trajectory orbit of the space station on the screen. “About forty minutes.”

“Then start preparing. I’ll go move the solar panels.” Tang Yue got up and began donning the Radiant Armor. After he had secured the life support system and switched on the power, he asked, “Roughly how many photos will you snap when passing over us?”

“It’s hard to tell… The system inside Discovery isn’t meant for surface photo-taking. It’s a little difficult operating it, but thankfully, it supports continual tracking and photo-taking.” Mai Dong did a rough estimate. “The amount of time I have to observe is roughly fifteen minutes. After locking on an intended trajectory, it will be able to take two photos every second.”

Fifteen minutes with two photos taken every minute meant a total of 1,800 photos.

“Remember to begin the scan and photo taking from the Chelomey’s landing spot.”

“I got it.”

Tang Yue exhaled as he adjusted the Radiant Armor before standing inside the Hab for a few minutes, his mind adrift for a moment.

He swept his gaze across the empty seat beside the desk and then the area around him before landing on the ground.

“I’ll be heading out.”

“Yeah, yeah.” The girl waved her hand. “Come back soon. Be safe.”

Tang Yue opened the hatch to the airlock and was about to bend down to enter when he suddenly paused. He turned around and looked at Mai Dong.

“Thank you, Mai Dong… I’ll thank you on Tomcat’s behalf as well.”

“You don’t have to.” The girl giggled as her eyes turned away, feeling somewhat bashful. In her hand, she was squeezing the Shiba Inu doll.

Tang Yue entered the airlock as the hatch behind him closed heavily.