<h4>Chapter 58: Sol Five, The Arm</h4>


    Trantor: CKtalon Editor: CKtalon


    The United Space Station was at a height of 300 kilometers.


    The Eagle was still 2,033 kilometers from the grappling point.


    “Miss Mai Dong! Your vital stats appear abnormal! Can you still hold on?” Tomcat looked at theputer’s warning. A few of Mai Dong’s vital stats were approaching their limits, such as her elerating heartbeat and rising blood pressure.


    “It’s... fine... Mr. Cat, I’m... fine...”


    Mai Dong replied. She opened her eyes slightly, but her eyeballs were flushed red with blood as her vision was darkened.


    The Orion was still shaking violently like a boat thrashing in a storm. A loud creaking sound wasing from somewhere, and it sounded like a particr structure was suffering immense torsional forces as it let out a moan before it buckled.


    Through the window, one could see Mars’s brownish-red surface. The rising sun illuminated everything as mountain valleys, thousands of meters long, appeared like thin, faint lines. The magnificent world was rushing at her that very moment, something Mai Dong enjoyed very much.


    Witnessing this unimaginable scene seemed to make her soul undergo sublimation.


    But she found it difficult to even open her eyes. The intense vibrations made her organs churn. Mai Dong didn’t know how long this state wouldst, and she felt that she would die sooner orter if this continued.


    Mai Dong, hold on! Hold on!


    She told herself silently.


    2,000 kilometers away.


    The Eagle was tumbling along its orbit without any forces acting on it.


    Thender’s buggyputer didn’t seem to know how much trouble it had stirred as it continued receiving the data from its various sensors. Then, it would send it out through the antenna. Even though the Eagle had lost control of its attitude, theputer still believed that it was flying normally—a result of Tomcat shutting down its stabilizer rockets.


    Tomcatpletely cut the Eagleputer’s control over its rockets for it didn’t wish the buggyputer to touch them again. The Eagle had less than 20% of its propents left, and they were critical for the grappling. If theputer went nuts again and turned on the engine for no good reason, the propents would be expended, putting an end to their endeavor.


    There wasn’t any time for a contingent inspection or fixing the bug in the program; therefore, Tomcat decided to just neuter theputer system.


    Ten minutes left.


    “Initiate RD-0172 engine. Commencing attitude adjustment!”


    Tomcat’smand was issued from Kunlun Station, sending the signal from a ry satellite to thender. The rocket engines were initiated as high-speed exhaust exerted a backward force from the direction in which the Eagle was tumbling forward. Coupled with the gyroscope, thender’s tumbling speed was gradually lowered.


    It was thest propents the RD-0172 had, and every bit used meant every bit less.


    Tomcat stared at thender’s solid line trajectory and the predicted path gradually ovep as the status of the propent, depicted on the screen, kept dropping. It went from 19% to 16%, and from 16% to 14% in the next update. Soon, it entered a red warning zone as Tomcat broke out into a sweat figuratively.


    “CONSISTENT PATH!”


    Tomcat hurriedly shut down the engine when the red window blinked! It was time to change direction!


    “Decelerate!” Tomcat roared. The space station was at a height of 290 kilometers, and the Eagle was still 507 kilometers from the grappling point!


    The Eagle and the space station’s rtive speed was as high as 20 m/s. Tomcat had to reduce the speed, and initiate the RD-0172 one final time. This Russian rocket had finallye to the end of its life after all the meritorious services it had rendered. This veteran had shot out its final bullet, expending thest fuel in its reservoir with a mighty boom to give the Eagle that negative thrust!


    “Comrade RD-0172, Hurrah—!” Tomcat roared. “Stop it for me!”


    The Eagle’s rtive speed rapidly dropped.


    The numbers were refreshed as theputer produced the trajectory prediction of the Eagle and the space station.


    Thender’s trajectory was indicated in blue, while the space station’s trajectory was indicated in red.


    The two lines perfectly intersected in the middle of the screen. At the point of intersection, the Eagle’s estimated height would be 284,633 meters, while the United Space Station was estimated to be 284,696 meters.


    There was a gap of 63 meters—the United Space Station was 63 meters higher than thender.


    That also meant that the Eagle would sweep past beneath the space station’s feet, and the two would brush shoulders.


    “Short of 63 meters?” Mai Dong was rmed. “Can the space station’s height be lowered again?”


    “No, it’s already toote to micro-adjust the space station. Rashly lowering its height might cause thender to m right into the space station. The Eagle has already expended all of its propents. We can’t control it.” Tomcat shook its head. “However, this difference was within our expectations.”


    “Then, what do we do now?” the girl asked. “Isn’t it short of over sixty meters? How will the docking work?”


    “We aren’t docking!” Tomcat answered.


    “We aren’t docking?” Mai Dong was stunned.


    “Yes, we have never said that we were going to dock. Thender is uncontroble, and the rtive speed is too high, so a docking will definitely fail,” Tomcat said. “We are going to grapple it!”


    “Grapple? How?” Mai Dong was a nk. She didn’t know what it meant.


    Tang Yue’s voice sounded in thems, as he said with Tomcat in unison, “The arm!”


    ...


    The arm.


    The official name was the Mars Space Station Remote Maniptor System (MSSRMS). It had also been called Canadarm70. This was the longest and biggest robotic arm built in human history. Its senior was the decorated Canadarm2, a robotic arm contributed by Canada for the old International Space Station.


    However, the robotic arm installed on the ISS was 19 meters long, while the Mars United Space Station’s arm was 70 meters long!


    The United Space Station had many robotic arms, but this was the most striking one. It was built by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and it was mainly built of an aluminum and epoxyposite. It had twelve degrees of freedom and was very light and agile. It was installed in the middle of the frame where it was stablest and sturdiest. The tform at the end of the arm could carry a few astronauts for them to carry out maintenance and repairs on the space station or spacecraft.


    It was made so long because the Orion spacecraft were massive. If the robotic arm was too short, it wasn’t able to grapple it, making it inconvenient for the maintenance.


    The CSA had once argued with NASA.


    CSA: Seventy meters!? Seventy meters!? Do you know what seventy meters are? I’m telling you, even if I were to jump out of this window and die outside, I wouldn’t be foolish enough to build something like that!


    NASA: You aren’t doing it? We’ll just source it to the CNSA then.


    CSA: We’ll do it.


    Mai Dong turned her head in a daze as she looked out of the window. She could see the white gigantic robotic arm slowly opening. Its joints and axle bearings were spinning and locking on before slowly leaving the frame. Only then did she realize what Tang Yue and Tomcat were attempting.