<h4>Chapter 68: Sol Ny-Nine, Saving the World with a Shovel</h4>


    Trantor: 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 tallnder’s Descent Vehicle. Even though the Ascent Vehicle had beenunched, the Eagle remained the tallest and most striking object around Kunlun Station.


    Tang Yue circled thender a few times. The, originally white, paint had been scorched ck by the rocket engine, and beneath his feet was ayer 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, and any seismic activity had died down ages ago. These ancient rocks had been formed 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 drivingpartment.


    Tang Yue gently knocked on thender’s hard shell. “How much propent is there left in here?”


    “There should be some left. There’s redundancy for the propent 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 methane and liquid oxygen as a propent. And even middle school students knew that methane and oxygen burned to produce carbon dioxide and water. One mole of methane 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 n—obtain fresh water by mixing the propent in thender.


    OId Cat returned to Kunlun Station and brought back a toolbox.


    The Descent Vehicle didn’t have an amodationdder, so Tomcat could only use the Mars Wanderer as adder. It climbed on top of the Mars Wanderer and came close to the Eagle’s outer shell while wrenches and screwdrivers hung from it.


    Even though it sounded simple, obtaining the methane and liquid oxygen from the propent reservoir wasn’t an easy task. They couldn’t smash open the reservoir to release the fuel as methane and liquid oxygen wouldpletely leak out in a short span of time. The only way was to create a conduit with a dpression valve. The methane and oxygen, that were in a liquid state inside the reservoir, were constantly evaporating so without the dpression valve the reservoir’s pressure would reach dangerous levels.


    In order to sessfully use thender’s fuel, the methane and oxygen needed to be channeled slowly and safely to a reservoir before they were burned.


    This was a veryplicated task for Tomcat and Tang Yue. Firstly, they needed to remove thender’s fairing.


    Such intricate work was difficult for the Radiant Armor-d Tang Yue, so he could only leave it to Tomcat.


    Tomcat held a screwdriver in its mouth as it opened thender’s service ess. It narrowed its eyes before finding the pressure gauge.


    “How is it?” Tang Yue asked from below. “How much propent is left?”


    “Hmm... Slightly lower than I expected. It might be because the propent is constantly evaporating. We still have about 200 kilograms of methane.” Tomcat frowned. “This much methane will at most produce 400–500 kilograms of water. However, this much water should be sufficient to nt 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 n on collecting this water? Thebustion of methane and liquid oxygen is steam.”


    “Don’t worry. Leave the collection to me.”


    Tang Yue was confident.


    At two in the afternoon, Tomcat removed thender’s fairing, exposing the entire propent reservoir and the rocket engine. Immediately following that, they began preparing the modification ns. Tang Yue got two rubber tubings and a Y-shaped ss tube from the Kunlun Station. These items were used in experiments previously by the research team and had already been stored away by Tang Yue.


    Tomcat attached the rubber tubing to the propent reservoir’s dpression valve—one for the methane 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 ss tube, before fastening them with iron wiring. In time, the methane and oxygen would burn within the ss tube, producing carbon dioxide and steam.


    Tang Yue felt as if he was back in high school doing chemistry experiments.


    “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 methane and two moles of oxygen to react. To prevent any wastage, and to ensure that the methane burned uppletely, Tomcat had to carefully control the flow of methane 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 ss tube. With a spattering sound, he lit the methane.


    A small yellow me flickered at the end of the ss tube as high-temperature steam met the cold weather outside, immediately condensing to form small liquid droplets and white mist. Through the thick ss visor, he observed the burning methane and exhaled.


    They had obtained their source of water.


    “Tomcat! We seeded!”


    ...


    Tomcat and Tang Yue stood on the sand, their heads looking down at the ss tube.


    After many experiments, they had finally determined that the methane in thender could be safelybusted—it wouldn’t suddenly st them to kingdome.


    The next problem was to efficiently gather the resulting steam from thebustion.


    “You said you have a method to collect the steam,” Tomcat said. “What’s the method? I have to warn you ahead of time that we don’t have condensate tubes. All therge experimental apparatus have either been damaged or taken away. We can’t even find a long enough ss 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 ss tube to collect four hundred kilograms of water will take us a year.”


    Tang Yue really didn’t n on using the usual condensate tube to collect the water. Such a method wasmon in aboratory, but it wasn’t convenient doing so on Mars with sand blowing everywhere. ss was too brittle, and a long ss 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 method do you n on using?” Tomcat asked.


    Tang Yue turned to return to the garage. A few minutester, he returned with a long shovel.


    Tang Yue threw a shovel to Tomcat.


    Tomcat held it and looked at it nkly.


    “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!”