When the landing video of the Yinghuo landing module was transmitted back from distant Mars tens of millions of kilometers away, the whole country of China, and even the whole world, was shocked.
Ever since humans learned to look up at the stars, the exploration of this mysterious red planet has never stopped.
Among the eight planets in the solar system, Mars is the closest planet to the Earth except Venus, and is also one of the celestial bodies closest to the Earth.
However, even though the two are extremely close in astronomical units, it is still an extremely long distance for humans. Coupled with the complex environment of Mars, it is not easy for humans to detect fire.
As of the end of June 2025, humans have carried out nearly 50 fire detection activities, of which only 25 were completely successful or partially successful, with an average success rate.
Many probes "died" before reaching Mars, and some reached Mars but ended up sleeping there.
But now, human beings have left their footprints in the starry sky, standing firmly on the desolate yet charming red land.
This is an epic space monument for the entire human civilization.
Especially for the 1.4 billion Chinese people, this is a time worthy of everyone's pride and cheer.
Beijing.
The old man who had already arrived from Jinling had just chaired an internal meeting to discuss some developments in the aerospace field.
Looking at the report documents at the meeting, my eyes fell on the scene of him and the young man being interviewed together two days ago, with a warm smile on his face, very happy.
For China, it has not been easy from the founding of the country in the last century to the present.
Especially in the aerospace field.
From the launch of the first "Dongfanghong" satellite to the Shenzhou series of launch vehicles, to the Chang'e Project and Tianwen fire detection...
In the past few decades, although they have barely caught up with countries such as Misu in the aerospace field.
However, chemical fuel rocket engine technology, especially the technology of high-thrust rockets, has been very slow. Not to mention catching up with the United States, which was the first country in aerospace, it is still far behind the European Union and Tsarist Russia.
However, since that young man entered the aerospace field, everything has changed.
The successful test flight of the first space shuttle Hanhai not only completely reversed their backwardness in aerospace technology.
It even achieved cornering overtaking with more advanced electric propulsion engines, sending Chinese astronauts into space and onto the moon.
Not only that, they are one step ahead of the United States, sending astronauts to the distant Mars where no one has ever set foot.
Looking at the interview on TV, the old man smiled, then seemed to remember something and couldn't help but frown slightly.
"What's wrong? You were so happy just now." Sitting opposite him, another old man from the Elder's House looked over and asked with a smile.
The old man shook his head gently and said: "It's nothing, I'm just thinking about some things in aerospace."
"Isn't the manned mission a success? We are already so far ahead, what else can we worry about?"
The old man smiled and said: "There is nothing to worry about in terms of development. I am just thinking about how to reward this group of outstanding heroes."
The success of the manned mission to Mars is undoubtedly the pinnacle of China's mission and is worthy of commendation and praise.
But this is where he feels a little worried.
For other scholars, scientific researchers or astronauts who participated in the manned mission, the commendation work is actually very easy to do.
Whether it is material rewards or spiritual enrichment, they will be implemented one by one.
The only difficulty lies in the young man's reward.
After all, he has already won all the domestic medals.
Even if it represents the country's highest science and technology award, which represents the highest honor, the other party has already received it.
Opposite the office, another old man from the Presbytery was a little troubled after hearing this. He naturally knew what the other person was thinking about in terms of rewards and commendations.
The commendation meeting for the manned landing project will inevitably involve Xu Chuan, who is in charge of all this. How to commend him is indeed quite worrying.
After all, even the highest medal in the aerospace field is the 'Aerospace First Class Meritorious Service Medal' that countless astronauts have dreamed of throughout their lives. He had received it as early as the manned moon landing.
Nowadays, the country has long since failed to reward that young scholar for his high achievements.
After thinking for a while, the old man shook his head and said, "Whether it's medals or material things, I'm afraid he doesn't care much about it anymore."
"I think instead of making a fuss about these two aspects, we should see if there is anything else we can do to help him in scientific research. He should be more interested in this."
Hearing this, the old man seemed to have remembered something, and said with a smile: "Speaking of this, I brought back a report he wrote from over there. You can take a look."
After a slight pause, he waved to the staff and gave a few instructions.
Immediately, the other party walked out quickly, and after waiting for a few minutes, several freshly prepared documents were distributed to several people in the conference room.
"What is this?" Someone asked curiously after taking the document.
"A document on the terraforming of Mars made by Academician Xu."
The old man smiled, and then said: "Since we said that instead of considering medals, we should consider supporting him more in scientific research, I think everyone can take a look at this report and let's discuss it?"
In the conference room, several people who had received the report documents read through them with great interest.
"I've heard about this before. At first I thought he was joking or setting a goal to get the country to invest more in the aerospace field. I didn't expect that now he has actually completed the transformation report?"
After flipping through the documents in his hand, a middle-aged and elderly man wearing glasses and looking slightly rich said in surprise.
"Can this really be done?"
The old man shook his head and said: "We don't know yet. We need to wait for the follow-up in-depth exploration and investigation of Mars at the Xia Shu Space Base."
"But according to Academician Xu's opinion, there is still some hope."
Hearing this, several people in the meeting were all a little moved.
Transform Mars and terraform it to make it suitable for human habitation.
Not to mention for human beings, or for any civilization that has initially left its home star and is exploring space, the attraction is fatal.
After all, the significance of having one more planet suitable for civilized habitation goes beyond simply doubling the population.
Especially this kind of project that requires the transformation of civilization itself, if it can be done, it will be of extremely important significance for expanding human knowledge, promoting the development of science and technology, looking for the possibility of life, and expanding the living space.
And being able to transform one means they can transform the second one.
For them, who have always liked ‘farming’, this is simply inexplicable.
After chatting for a while, someone frowned slightly and said: "If the plan to transform Mars is feasible, I am afraid that our country's capabilities alone will not be enough for this project."
"Moreover, we cannot complete this kind of super project alone and monopolize Mars."
The old man nodded and said: "This kind of project is not comparable to the lunar biosphere project and the lunar base. In the lunar biosphere project we can unite Europe and Tsarist Russia to isolate the United States."
"But for Mars terraforming, I'm afraid we can't isolate other countries from the outside, and we can't do it."
"If we really want to do this, the best way is to unite the power of all countries in the world to complete and distribute it together."
The value of a planet is a concept that cannot be measured with money for current humans.
Even if they want to own and control Mars alone, it is impossible under the current situation.
If they really want to do this, they will force all countries to unite against them.
In the conference room, someone nodded and said, "This is the best way to unite other countries to jointly develop and transform Mars."
"but....."
After a slight pause, he smiled and said: "If we really want to do it, not all countries will be qualified to participate."
Hearing this, several other people in the conference room were stunned for a moment.
Being able to sit here and have a meeting, I naturally know exactly what this companion means.
Although the path they have been taking is not in this direction, I have to admit that this proposal is indeed touching.
After all, although the cake of Mars is very, very big, if one country loses its share, they can get more, right?
For a planet-based resource, any less is a huge resource.
For a moment, the breathing in the conference room became a little heavy.
After a while, the old man who was sitting at the head of the meeting and presiding over the meeting was the first to come back from his thoughts and said with a smile: "We will talk about this later, but no matter what, we must have the absolute leading power in the entire project.
"
Someone nodded with a smile and added: "We must also occupy the main share!"
...
At the same time, on the other side, Mars is tens of millions of kilometers away.
Riding on the Mars rover, the tires rolled over the gravel and made a "plop" and "plop" sound.
Under the constant erosion of Martian storms, many of the fist-sized stones in the Corinto Crater have become very fragile. When the Mars rover crushed them, they directly turned into pieces, leaving a shallow
of ravines.
Of course, there are also a lot of hard rocks, and the bumpy rover is shaking up and down.
Sitting on the Mars rover, Jiang Xinlin controlled the vehicle towards the southwest.
In the desolate Gobi Desert, he had already seen his goal.
It was a cylindrical life support unit, equipment dropped by another first-generation aircraft that set out together with the Hanhai space shuttle to perform the landing project.
On Mars, they will conduct a three-day, strictly speaking, two-and-a-half-day, sixty-hour exploration activity.
To get through these two and a half "long" days, the materials and equipment that can be carried by the two Yinghuo landing cabins are far from enough.
So for this manned mission, they also prepared a temporary life support unit, which can also be said to be a life support capsule.
This life support unit, jointly developed by the Xinghai Research Institute and the Aerospace Research Institute and the Aerospace Group, contains enough oxygen resources, water resources, food, sleeping bags and other materials and equipment for four astronauts for five days.
.
And for the four astronauts who boarded the fire, this was actually "spare supplies."
Yes, strictly speaking, this life support unit is a backup.
What really provided the four people with these two and a half days was the Hanhai space shuttle!
After completing the delivery of all materials and scientific research equipment, and docking the first-generation aircraft and transferring Gui Haichao and Tang Shengjie who were staying on it, the Hanhai space shuttle will make a test landing on the surface of Mars under the control of AI intelligence.
After all, at the time of design, a second-generation aircraft equipped with six small aerospace engines was theoretically capable of taking off and landing on Mars.
If the landing of Hanhai goes well, then it will be the real "colony module" for the four astronauts!
But before that, they still had to check and deploy this small life support unit in case of any unexpected situations.
Driving to the Mars rover, Jiang Xinlin arrived at the backup life support unit.
After getting out of the car, he walked over calmly. He first walked around to check whether the structure was damaged. After confirming that there was no problem, he opened the protective cover and exposed the switch inside.
After reaching out and pressing the red button inside, Jiang Xinlin slowly pushed back two steps.
The protective cover on the upper half of the colonization module that shrank into a cylindrical shape fell off piece by piece, revealing the folded Mars habitation module inside.
The current living cabin looks like a folded semi-circular pancake, which is white in color and has a curved support structure.
This is a Mars residential module designed by the Aerospace Group. When air is injected, it can quickly inflate and turn into a tent-like structure, with enough space for four people to rest at the same time.
After dragging out the folded Mars habitation module with some effort, Jiang Xinlin quickly inflated and unfolded it.
The small air compressor carried in the colony module is used to collect thin air directly from Mars and fill it into the habitation module.
Although this process is very slow, the living cabin is still expanding at a speed visible to the naked eye.
While paying attention to the inflation of the living cabin, Jiang Xinlin dismantled other removable materials in the colony cabin.
It is worth mentioning that although the gravity on Mars is much lower than that on Earth, it does not have much impact on activities on it while wearing a spacesuit.
Especially when the space suit increases the weight of its own activities, it will not be possible to fly directly to the sky just by running around on the moon.
Compared with the moon and space, this environment with lower gravity but which does not affect astronauts' activities is much more comfortable.
Even not long after landing on Mars, Jiang Xinlin felt that some of the physical fatigue and problems he had accumulated from long-term navigation in space had been greatly relieved.