Chapter 68: Sol Ninety-Nine, Saving the World with a Shovel
Translator: CKtalon Editor: CKtalon
The next day at dawn, Tomcat drove the Mars Wanderer out and stopped by the side of the Eagle.
Donning the Radiant Armor, Tang Yue stood on the sand and looked up at the tall lander’s Descent Vehicle. Even though the Ascent Vehicle had been launched, the Eagle remained the tallest and most striking object around Kunlun Station.
Tang Yue circled the lander a few tis. The, originally white, paint had been scorched black by the rocket engine, and beneath his feet was a layer of sand that was orange-red in color—a signal that they were rich in hematite. Beneath the sand was hard basalt. Mars was a nearly-dead planet, and any seismic activity had died down ages ago. These ancient rocks had been ford three billion years ago. Under the years of weathering, they had turned to sand followed by dust.
Tomcat pushed open the rover’s door and jumped down from the driving compartnt.
Tang Yue gently knocked on the lander’s hard shell. “How much propellant is there left in here?”
“There should be so left. There’s redundancy for the propellant in the Descent Vehicle’s engine, so it’s unlikely all of that was burned up.” Tomcat stood akimbo as it looked to size up the Eagle. “However, we will need to open it up to know exactly how much is left.”
The Eagle’s Descent Vehicle had Raptor 3C rocket engines. They used thane and liquid oxygen as a propellant. And even middle school students knew that thane and oxygen burned to produce carbon dioxide and water. One mole of thane and two moles of oxygen reacted to form one mole of carbon dioxide and two moles of water. It was an excellent source of fresh water.
This was Tang Yue’s plan—obtain fresh water by mixing the propellant in the lander.
OId Cat returned to Kunlun Station and brought back a toolbox.
The Descent Vehicle didn’t have an accommodation ladder, so Tomcat could only use the Mars Wanderer as a ladder. It climbed on top of the Mars Wanderer and ca close to the Eagle’s outer shell while wrenches and screwdrivers hung from it.
Even though it sounded simple, obtaining the thane and liquid oxygen from the propellant reservoir wasn’t an easy task. They couldn’t smash open the reservoir to release the fuel as thane and liquid oxygen would completely leak out in a short span of ti. The only way was to create a conduit with a decompression valve. The thane and oxygen, that were in a liquid state inside the reservoir, were constantly evaporating so without the decompression valve the reservoir’s pressure would reach dangerous levels.
In order to successfully use the lander’s fuel, the thane and oxygen needed to be channeled slowly and safely to a reservoir before they were burned.
This was a very complicated task for Tomcat and Tang Yue. Firstly, they needed to remove the lander’s fairing.
Such intricate work was difficult for the Radiant Armor-clad Tang Yue, so he could only leave it to Tomcat.
Tomcat held a screwdriver in its mouth as it opened the lander’s service access. It narrowed its eyes before finding the pressure gauge.
“How is it?” Tang Yue asked from below. “How much propellant is left?”
“Hmm... Slightly lower than I expected. It might be because the propellant is constantly evaporating. We still have about 200 kilograms of thane.” Tomcat frowned. “This much thane will at most produce 400–500 kilograms of water. However, this much water should be sufficient to plant tomatoes and carrots.”
“Can this water be added to the water tank?” Tang Yue asked.
“No.” Tomcat shook its head. “This water isn’t potable before it’s processed and purified... However, how do you plan on collecting this water? The combustion of thane and liquid oxygen is steam.”
“Don’t worry. Leave the collection to .”
Tang Yue was confident.
At two in the afternoon, Tomcat removed the lander’s fairing, exposing the entire propellant reservoir and the rocket engine. Imdiately following that, they began preparing the modification plans. Tang Yue got two rubber tubings and a Y-shaped glass tube from the Kunlun Station. These items were used in experints previously by the research team and had already been stored away by Tang Yue.
Tomcat attached the rubber tubing to the propellant reservoir’s decompression valve—one for the thane and one for the oxygen. Iron wires were used to tie them tight to prevent any leaks.
“OK!” Tomcat stood on the Mars Wanderer and waved its paw.
Tang Yue stood below, picked up the two rubber tubings and connected them to the two ends of the Y-shaped glass tube, before fastening them with iron wiring. In ti, the thane and oxygen would burn within the glass tube, producing carbon dioxide and steam.
Tang Yue felt as if he was back in high school doing chemistry experints.
“OK!” Tang Yue signaled by raising his hand. “Tomcat, you can give it a try!”
Tomcat nodded. Using a wrench, it slowly twisted the valve, allowing one mole of thane and two moles of oxygen to react. To prevent any wastage, and to ensure that the thane burned up completely, Tomcat had to carefully control the flow of thane and oxygen. It stared at the pressure gauge with a serious expression.
“Watch it—!” Tomcat warned. “I’m about to turn the valve!”
Tang Yue took out an electric arc igniter and moved it close to the glass tube. With a spattering sound, he lit the thane.
A small yellow fla flickered at the end of the glass tube as high-temperature steam t the cold weather outside, imdiately condensing to form small liquid droplets and white mist. Through the thick glass visor, he observed the burning thane and exhaled.
They had obtained their source of water.
“Tomcat! We succeeded!”
...
Tomcat and Tang Yue stood on the sand, their heads looking down at the glass tube.
After many experints, they had finally determined that the thane in the lander could be safely combusted—it wouldn’t suddenly blast them to kingdom co.
The next problem was to efficiently gather the resulting steam from the combustion.
“You said you have a thod to collect the steam,” Tomcat said. “What’s the thod? I have to warn you ahead of ti that we don’t have condensate tubes. All the large experintal apparatus have either been damaged or taken away. We can’t even find a long enough glass tube to use as a condensate tube.”
“We don’t need a condensate tube. It’s too slow.” Tang Yue shook his head. “Using such a thin glass tube to collect four hundred kilograms of water will take us a year.”
Tang Yue really didn’t plan on using the usual condensate tube to collect the water. Such a thod was common in a laboratory, but it wasn’t convenient doing so on Mars with sand blowing everywhere. Glass was too brittle, and a long glass tube was even worse. Furthermore, a condensate tube’s collection speed was too slow. If they tried to speed it up, it would easily create waste.
“Then, what thod do you plan on using?” Tomcat asked.
Tang Yue turned to return to the garage. A few minutes later, he returned with a long shovel.
Tang Yue threw a shovel to Tomcat.
Tomcat held it and looked at it blankly.
“Shovel?”
Using a shovel to collect water?
“That’s right!” Tang Yue nodded. He waved the shovel in his hand. “We will use shovels to collect water!”
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