Chapter 802: A Little Trouble

Starlight was sailing in the deep dark space, and it slowly approached the silver “docking port”.

A pair of long “landing gears” slowly extended out of Starlight. With the landing gears pointed toward the space station docking port, Starlight slowly approached the space station.

Johnson was sitting inside the cabin, and he watched the space station through his porthole. His heart was beating a million miles a minute, and his palms began to sweat.

Spacecraft docking was one of the most difficult areas of aerospace technology.

It required accurate industrial cameras, strong spacecraft materials, and sophisticated engine control technology. It also required a series of software requirements such as computer imaging and vision measurement.

It had especially tough requirements for the orbital altitude and the speed of the spacecraft. The engine control had to be accurate to within a second, a one-second mistake could result in a docking failure.

When the United States Project Gemini first came out, they had the goal of docking Gemini 6 with Gemini 7. The two spacecrafts were able to maintain a distance of 30 centimeters for 20 minutes, but they failed to eventually dock. It wasn’t until the following year when the United States finally conquered the technology by docking Gemini 8 with an unmanned spacecraft.

The docking of manned spacecraft didn’t happen until the seventies. This was when the United States and the Soviet Union finally shook hands and made peace, putting their efforts into aerospace together.

One of the main reasons why the Apollo program didn’t launch their components in stages and docked in space was because of the technical difficulties. It was much easier to use a high-thrust rocket and launch all of the components together.

Compared to Travis and Julia, Johnson had been in NASA for much longer, so he knew how difficult docking was.

However, in the blink of an eye, the Starlight landing gears were inserted into the Moon Palace docking bay.

Starlight successfully connected its landing with the space station. The landing gear contracted into Starlight, which pulled Starlight toward the space station.

Finally, the two aerospace spacecrafts were connected.

Then…

It was over.

The docking process wasn’t intense at all. It was surprisingly smooth.

“WTF?”

When Johnson looked out the porthole, it was almost like he just saw a ghost.

As a NASA trained astronaut, he knew that spacecraft docking was supposed to be much more difficult!

The correct way of docking spacecraft was to fly the spacecraft in front of the space station, then decelerate the spacecraft, thus allowing the space station to catch up.

He had never seen a spacecraft using landing gears to “pull” itself into a space station!

The cabin signal light turned on.

All of their cabin doors were unlocked. Travis floated out of his room and stretched his limbs. He saw Johnson, who seemed a little fazed.

“Hey man, what’s wrong?”

Johnson looked at him.

“Did you see what happened? Did you see how the Chinese docked their spacecraft?”

Travis looked at his captain and scratched his head. He frowned and replied, “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Johnson sighed.

“Never mind then…”

Johnson knew he shouldn’t have asked Travis this complex question.

The three Mars colonists floated around the cabin common area. The cabin main door slowly opened, and Liu Biao appeared in a spacesuit.

“Starlight has successfully docked with Moon Palace space station. We will examine your physical condition in half an hour and disinfect the entire spacecraft.”

When Liu Biao suddenly noticed that Johnson looked like he just saw a ghost, he asked, “Are you good?”

“I’m… great.” Johnson couldn’t help but ask, “How did you guys do it?”

Liu Biao was at a loss. “Do what?”

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Johnson opened his mouth and didn’t know what to say.

Should I ask him how they were able to dock the spacecraft that way?

Maybe for them, spacecraft docking is a piece of cake.

However, Johnson didn’t want to believe how advanced China’s aerospace technology was.

Johnson smiled at the Chinese astronaut and replied, “Nothing… Pretend I didn’t say anything.”

However, deep down in his heart, he still wanted to find out…

After Starlight and Moon Palace successfully docked, Liu Biao led the three colonists to the airlock chamber.

When the spacecraft was undocked, this was a buffer zone for astronauts to enter in and out of the space station. This was where astronauts put on their spacesuits, checked their equipment, and adjusted to the air pressure…

However, now that the spacecraft was docked, the airlock chamber turned into a checkpoint.

“Wait here, a professional doctor will examine your body. After your examination, we might give you a tour of the Moon Palace.”

Johnson looked at Liu Biao and asked, “What do we do now?”

Liu Biao smiled and said, “Eat something, drink something, then… The medical team from the United Nations might need you to provide feces and urine samples.”

Julia turned red and asked, “Right here?”

“Not here.” Liu Biao pointed toward the metal alloy door and said, “There’s a toilet over there.”

The colonists didn’t have to wait for long.

With the help of two Moon Palace staff members, Johnson and the other two colonists quickly finished their physical examinations. Metabolite samples were also collected from the three people, which were then sent to a special experiment cabin.

Professor Leslie from the Institute of Microbiology at Health Center Clinique Lémana in Switzerland was responsible for the analysis of these samples. Researcher Zhao Shuxuan from the Institute of Biomedicine of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was also involved in the sample analysis.

Both of these scholars were big names in the field of biology, and they had published many theses. Even though they weren’t the best scholars, they were still top-tier.

Most importantly, both of them were under 45 years old, which meant they were relatively young and in good health conditions. A lot of big names wanted the opportunity to work on the Moon Palace, but the weightlessness environment was too much for their old bodies.

Time quickly passed by.

Everyone inside and outside of the experiment cabin was waiting nervously for the test results.

Professor Leslie, who was sitting in front of an electron microscope, suddenly whispered to herself. Her eyes were filled with surprise.

“Jesus, f*ck…”

“What happened?” Zhao Shuxuan walked to the microscope and looked at the computer screen. He said, “What is this?”

“A strange anaerobic bacterium with thick cell walls and cell membranes… Wait, no, it’s a spore! No wonder it was able to survive on Mars.” Professor Leslie adjusted the microscope magnification and said excitedly, “Jesus… This is incredible.”

As Zhao Shuxuan stared at the image on the screen, his eyes flashed with excitement as well, but he quickly became serious.

“We might be in trouble.”

Leslie looked at Zhao Shuxuan and adjusted her glasses.

“True, but this is still exciting, right?”

The colonists waited quietly in the airlock chamber.

Johnson and the others started to get a little impatient, but fortunately, the hatch opened shortly after. A man who they had never met before appeared at the door.

Johnson remembered that he saw this man before on Starlight. If he recalled correctly, this man was the captain of Starlight.

Before he could ask what happened, Travis spoke.

“What happened? Why is it taking so long? When can we go home?”

“Sorry, my friends.”

Xu Zhenghong had a dignified look on his face as he spoke with a heavy voice.

“Our trip back home is going to be delayed.”