The next day, afternoon.
28 hours after the successful moon landing.
The new Apollo team has completed the basic deployment of the lunar base. The entire lunar landing plan should be considered more than half done here, and the rest is just a successful return.
But this time they came here. While landing on the moon, they also had another important task, which was to complete the exploration of Longinus.
Inside the lunar base.
"The work went smoothly, even better than we imagined. This is a good thing. I hope it will be the same in the future."
Tony was lying on his back on a soft black chair and said to his companions with a comfortable expression.
In front of him was a monitor, which was playing the footage taken by Lunar Rover 1.
They need to explore the Gun of Longinus, and according to intelligence, the area near it is in a state of magnetic chaos.
Therefore, they must first send out a lunar rover to investigate the situation, and cannot rush there in person.
To this end, the equipment provided by the aviation center has been specially modified.
For example, materials that can shield the interference of strong magnetic fields, expanded oxygen bottles that carry a large amount of oxygen, manual mechanical power devices on the lunar rover, etc.
They are not sure what kind of situation they will encounter here, but it is necessary to be fully prepared.
"Ah, traveling to the moon looks easier than I imagined. I can't bear to leave here. Unfortunately, I will go back in seventy-two hours. I really envy you that you can stay here forever..."
On the side, safety officer John Otto stretched himself and looked at everything around him with a little wistfulness.
"Come on, Otto, do you think it's fun to stay here all the time? I think it's better to go back early. After all, living in this less than 300 square meters for a whole year is really not a good experience. You think so, Alder?"
The speaker was a tall black man, the deputy captain of the operation, Maximilian Hirsch.
The person he was questioning was the engineer in the team, Swaro Alder.
Swaro Alder is a fat white man with a beard, wearing a pair of glasses, and looks a bit naive.
But if anyone really thinks that he is stupid, he is totally wrong.
No one can be selected by the new Apollo program and sent into space. No one is an ordinary person. Each of them is a top talent in the industry. You must not judge people simply by their appearance.
Siwaro was concentrating on debugging an instrument in his hand when he was suddenly asked by the deputy captain. He was slightly stunned and then said:
"Maybe, but I still like it here. Each of these devices can last me a whole year..."
After he finished speaking, he lowered his head and continued tinkering with the things in his hands.
"Tch, boring..."
The vice-captain rolled his eyes, and then continued chatting with safety Osto on the side.
There are currently five people in this base. Apart from the two captains, he and Tony, the remaining ones are an engineer, a safety officer, and a surveyor.
In the end, only three people will be left on the moon for a one-year mission.
Although the black vice-captain kept saying that he was bored here, in fact, how could he not yearn to stay in his heart.
However, Maximilian, as the deputy captain of this operation, will return with the new Apollo 1 together with safety officer Ottos.
A few people were still chatting here, and Tony, who was controlling the lunar rover over there, suddenly sat up straight, looked at the screen in front of him and said:
"Huh? Come and see, what is this?"
His voice immediately attracted the attention of several other people. Everyone put down what they were holding and stood behind the black chair.
"Why is there a deep pit here? I remember there wasn't one when I saw it yesterday."
Tony said pointing at the screen.
On the screen, there was a hole about two meters in diameter right in front of the lunar rover, which was embedded in a raised sand dune.
The entrance to the hole was pitch black, and if you looked at it from the outside, you couldn't tell anything at all.
"Is this car No. 2? Where did you find it?"
Raiden Abbott asked aloud.
Lunar Rover No. 2 is used to perform survey work around the base, and he, the surveyor, is responsible for it.
"Over there, the southeast declination is 18 degrees, about 2.5 kilometers away from us, and less than 50 meters away from the new Apollo."
Tony popped up a bird's eye view showing the location of Lunokhod 2.
"Next to the new Apollo... I have an impression there, but during the survey yesterday, I never found such a big hole..."
Surveyor Rayden Abbott pondered for a moment, and then said:
"Well...but that's an anorthosite area, which is layered. Some areas will be very fragile. It's not impossible for such a situation to occur..."
"In addition, there is too much glass crystal dust on the moon, which can easily cause attachment, so it blocks the entrance of the cave. Now it is affected by our activities, and the entrance of the cave is exposed..."
He explained why things might have happened, and it sounded reasonable.
"Is that so..."
But Tony was always frowning, he always felt that things seemed not as simple as imagined.
After thinking for a while, he suddenly raised his head and said to everyone:
"Well, since it's so close to the spaceship, we'll ask Lei Xi and the others to send two people over to take a look and make sure there's nothing abnormal..."
"However, they do not have the technology or experience to travel on extraterrestrial bodies. Will there be any hidden dangers in letting them out so rashly? Isn't it just a hole? Captain, are you being too cautious?"
Vice-captain Maximilian said.
Tony directly refuted his words and said:
"They are all carefully selected astronauts, and they have absolute mastery of theoretical techniques. This is not a problem. Speaking of experience, did you also have experience in this area before coming here? Everyone needs opportunities, and they also Same."
After he finished speaking, his expression became a little more serious and he continued:
"Besides, don't forget that our mission this time is to explore the Gun of Longinus. The strength of the moon's magnetic field is so low, but it is shockingly terrifying in this area. Don't you think there's something fishy about it? No amount of caution is too much in a location like this.”
"Okay, you're the boss, you have the final say."
The black vice-captain shrugged.
Soon, the spacecraft received the order, and two astronauts took the equipment out of the cabin and went to the target area for detection.
About ten minutes passed before and after Tony and the others received a reply from the other party's communication channel.
"Captain, this hole seems to be very deep. We have extended the detection equipment to a maximum of thirty meters, but we still cannot touch the bottom line. If we need to continue exploring, we may need to return to the spacecraft to marry the detection robot."
"What? So deep!?"
On the side, surveyor Rayden Abbott looked shocked.
He originally thought it was just an ordinary small hole, but he didn't expect it to be more than thirty meters deep, which was a bit beyond people's expectations.
"Is it possible that there is actually a huge cave down here?"
Abbott began to get excited.
As a geologist who studies celestial bodies, he is very obsessed with these extraordinary discoveries.
"Use the detection robot..."
On the side, Tony also fell into deep thought after learning the outcome of the matter.
The detection robot has a very strong anti-interference ability, and each one is extremely precious. They originally planned to keep it to explore the Gun of Longinus.
Moreover, due to the harsh environment and technology of the moon, these robots will basically become consumables after being used. Even if you use one, you will lose one.
Now if he was asked to take out too much of this hole directly, Tony couldn't help but hesitate.
However, when he was in doubt, he asked the headquarters. Tony immediately reported back the intelligence here and left it to the Aerospace Center to make a decision.
Luen has not left the command center for the past two days. He received Tony's report immediately and took the matter seriously.
Logically speaking, it is just a naturally formed cave, and there should be nothing worth fighting for.
But it would be different if it were the place on the moon.
The Gun of Longinus may contain the secret of the far side of the moon. This secret is so important that Rune is unwilling to give up any possibility.
"Perhaps, this is the place we are looking for..."
Rune muttered to himself.
He recalled a quote from the philosopher Ointo Standing.
"Any inconspicuous corner that you ignore may be your entrance to the truth."
"Tell them to investigate there immediately. The information this time is very valuable. I hope they will continue to maintain such a cautious attitude!"
Soon, the order from the aviation command center was conveyed.
Tony was relieved when he saw the order. Due to some intuition in his heart, he still hoped to investigate that area.
It took some time to explore the robot. It took everyone about an hour to set the relevant parameters, and another hour to move the robot from the base to the entrance of the cave. The preparations were completed.
This time the person who sent the robot was the black deputy captain Maximilian. He will also provide on-site guidance for the next work, with the other two astronauts cooperating.
In fact, when it comes to on-site work, there is not much that requires manpower to complete, but some of the exploration tasks are still left to the engineering expert Swaro Alder who controls the robot from behind.
The only thing the black vice-captain needs to do is to expand the entrance of the cave so that the robot can enter it smoothly.
But having said that, when the environment is changed to the moon, this seemingly simple excavation work will become very difficult.
Fortunately, the Aerospace Center has considered this possibility in advance and equipped them with special equipment.
This allowed Maximilan to wear a heavy space suit and dig holes on the moon, where the gravity is only one-sixth of Aquamarine.
The work is progressing much more difficult and slower than expected.
Even in the weakest part, it's anorthosite, which is difficult to excavate effectively in such space conditions.
In the end, the three people spent more than two hours and changed their spacesuits six times before successfully expanding the hole by half, enough to allow a detection robot to pass through.
This is a spider-like robot with a body width of 2.5 meters. It has four pairs of mechanical legs and a built-in balance and stability structure, allowing it to move freely on a 70-degree cliff.
After the three people installed the spider robot, they returned to the spacecraft. Safety officer Osto originally planned to follow them.
However, because Lunokhod 3 carried the spider robot and deputy captain Maximilian, there was no place for him to sit, so he stayed here temporarily.
In the base, through the screen, Tony and others were observing the spider robot moving downwards.
Under the illumination of the light, you can see that there is a diagonally downward passage around it, which seems to have no bottom and can extend directly to the ground.
The spider robot moves very slowly, especially in such a dangerous environment, so it is even more necessary to move forward with caution.
Fortunately, along the way, the width of the channel showed no sign of narrowing, which allowed the robot to move downward smoothly.
"How long have we been walking? Why is this passage so deep? Is there really something down there...?"
Osto looked at the still-advancing scene on the screen and couldn't help but ask.
He felt that the spider robot had been walking in this invisible passage for more than ten minutes, but the scene in front of him was still the same, with no change at all, as if it had been in the same place and never moved.
"We walked for eight minutes, covering a total distance of more than 60 meters, but it seems that we haven't reached the end yet."
said the fat engineering expert Alder.
Unlike his calmness, the surveyor
"It shouldn't... it shouldn't be... why is there such a long passage here..."
"Theoretically speaking, although areas with layered terrain may have fragile areas on the outside, they are still very strong on the inside. Unless it is a change caused by the earth's crust, such a situation will not happen..."
"But this is the moon. Shouldn't the interior of the moon have almost cooled down a long time ago? Where can there be crustal movement... Could it be that it was left behind a long time ago? Or maybe our speculations are all wrong...? "
The professor, who was nearly fifty years old, was talking to himself in disbelief, seeming to have fallen into deep self-doubt.
In the cave, the spider robot continued to move downwards with steady steps.
Eighty meters.
One hundred meters.
Two hundred meters.
…
At the back, even Alder, an engineering expert, began to lose his composure. No one expected that the seemingly inconspicuous cave entrance would extend to such a depth without even reaching the bottom.
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