Dead on Mars

Chapter 187: Sol Three Hundred and Twenty-Two, The Mathematical Problem in the Aviation Disaster

Translator: CKtalon Editor: CKtalon

Hot-wiring?

Mai Dong frowned. She wasn’t a professional electrical engineer. Upon hearing the word, her first thoughts were scenes of the pressing moment in Hollywood movies where the protagonist would smash open a car dashboard, pull out two thin wires, touching them together to produce a spark, allowing the car’s engine to be started.

This was using the momentary current to jump-start the car’s engine. Could the booting up of the space station’s computer be done in such a simple manner?

“Listen to me! Lass!”

“Got it.”

Tang Yue stared intently at the circuit diagram on the monitor. The two monitors on either side were also displaying the computer system schematic of the United Space Station’s core module. Tomcat had even found the assembly diagram for him. The cat knelt on the desk, peeking its head out from behind a third monitor it was carrying over.

Tang Yue quickly scribbled on a piece of paper, his pen tip producing a rustling sound. His forehead began oozing a cold sweat. Although doing such an analysis was part and parcel of his job, the complexity of the space station’s system far exceeded his imagination. Since he had graduated from university, it had been years since Tang Yue had touched such basic systems. Even during his surface training and daily work, there had been no need for him to dismantle the entire core module.

Kunlun Station didn’t have any EDA software, so he could only use pen and paper.

“IC780… IC780… Amplifier? Triode? Yes, it’s a triode. There are one, two, three, four, five, six—six element circuits. STO5347 oscillator… Is this an open collector or open drain? I need to see if it’s started from an external circuit and that it has nothing to do with the IC internals. Using low-level logic to control high-level… Overall variable-frequency! Variable-frequency! Goddamn variable-frequency!”

Tang Yue felt as though he had returned to his days as a student just before he sat for an exam.

Calm down! Calm down! I’ve seen this before!

Calm down!

His heart raced as the pen in his hand kept trembling.

This was akin to being on a flight that was about to crash. But at that moment, someone threw an advanced math question at you and demanded you to solve it in five minutes to save the plane.

Large beads of sweat rolled down Tang Yue’s cheeks.

Mai Dong was still waiting for his instructions.

Tomcat held its head above the monitor, looking down at Tang Yue.

“TC88604’s pin 13 because it’s a time-varying element,” Tomcat said out of the blue.

Tang Yue was taken aback.

“You know this?”

“Not as well as you.” Tomcat turned its head, lifting the monitor. “I know a little.”

“Alright!” Tang Yue pushed the stack of papers over. “Help me find the method to drive voltage into USP7540! Remember not to violate Kirchhoff’s law.”

Tomcat extended one paw to grab a piece of paper. The paper was filled with messy lines as Tomcat narrowed its eyes slowly.

“Oh… You are leaving the hardest part for me? This is a nonlinear time-varying system. I need to solve a very long nonhomogeneous linear differential equation.”

“Then hurry up!”

“I’m done.” Tomcat stretched its neck and picked up a pen from the table. Unhurriedly, it wrote the answer. “Here.”

“Lass!” Tang Yue threw the pen in his hand and received the final result. “Lass! Lass, can you hear me? Lass?”

The darn half-duplex communications system didn’t allow for both parties to speak at the same time. When one person spoke, the other party could only listen.

“Lass! Lass! Pick up the phone… Pick up the phone…”

After saying that, all Tang Yue could do was wait nervously for a response.

“Tang Yue?”

“OK! Lass, listen carefully. I’ll teach you how to reboot the system!” Tang Yue stared at the paper in his hand. “Under the present conditions, a direct reboot is impossible, or should I say, I haven’t found a way. However, we can indirectly reboot it… By short-circuiting the overload protector.”

“Overload protector?” Mai Dong raised the torch, feeling somewhat confused. She knew nothing about electronics.

“Yes!” Tang Yue said. “The overload protector has the authority to shut down or start modules of the system. When it detects that the current in certain circuits exceeds a threshold, it will shut down the corresponding module to protect the system from melting down. It will then carry out a self-check! During this process, it will reboot the computer system!”

But how do we know if the overload protector is still operational?” Mai Dong looked around as she covered her mouth and nose. It was pitch-black all around her. “I’m completely out of power… Will it still be effective?”

“The overload protector doesn’t use power.”

Mai Dong was surprised. “It doesn’t?”

“Yes. An overload protector is just an air switch or fuse. It doesn’t rely on electric circuits. It uses the physical characteristics of what it’s made of! The overload protector uses the Hall effect. As long as the current exceeds the threshold, the protector will generate a potential difference,” Tang Yue explained. “This weak potential difference will trigger the reset switch of the computer system. It’s as simple as the reaction of a rubber ball’s bounce. It’s very reliable!”

“Got it,” Mai Dong said.

“First, we need to confirm that the system is connected to the power source,” Tang Yue instructed.

No matter what method was used to reboot the system, they needed to ensure that it was powered. There couldn’t be any disconnection with the batteries. When the United Space Station was hit by Orion II, the solar panels were pretty much destroyed. Even if there were parts of them left, there was no way they could still be used. Thankfully, the core module hadn’t suffered any destruction. This meant that there was a high chance for the physical computer and batteries to have survived the collision.

“Mai Dong, is the subpanel still around?”

Mai Dong turned her head. “It’s still there… But it’s a little slanted from the tremors.”

“Alright, listen to me. The switch on the subpanel’s second row has a label ‘PIN-B.’ There are a total of three black switches. Push them all to 2.”

Mai Dong executed the instructions, pushing them all up.

“The third row has a ‘PIN-C’ switch. Push them all to 2.”

Mai Dong pushed each switch up.

“Tang Yue, there’s a green light.”

“Very good. It means that the batteries still have power in them!” Tang Yue clenched his fists. “I’ve designed four hot-wiring reboot methods. Let’s try each one of them.”

Mai Dong nodded. She held the torch in her mouth as she began tidying up the wires that were exposed after the main control panel was damaged. Every hole had two to three wires of different colors protruding out. They were originally connected to different switches or valves, but now, they were bundled together.

“Find the white conducting wire with the label ‘H.D.’ It should be on the leftmost side of the first row.”

Mai Dong leaned in close to do a careful search. The cables here were only one to two millimeters thick. In the smoke-filled core module, Mai Dong found it difficult to read the words.

“The white one?” Mai Dong coughed again as she spoke. “Tang… Tang Yue?”

“Yes, white.”

“I found it,” Mai Dong replied. “A white H.D. conducting wire.”

“Find a red conducting wire labeled ‘P’ it’s on the second row.”

“P… P… Red wire…” Mai Dong kept coughing, nearly loosening her grip on the torch. Tang Yue’s heart was in his mouth when he heard the violent coughing and gasping over the comms.

“Lass? Are you okay?”

“I’m… fine.” The girl shook her head. “I’ve found the wire.”

“Short circuit the two wires together.”

Mai Dong cocked her head to hold down the torch, using her teeth to peel off the plastic on the outer layer of the conducting wire. Then, she coiled the two wires together.

“Tang Yue… There’s a green light on the subpanel.”

“Well done…” Tang Yue stared at the circuit diagram on the piece of paper. “Lady, well done. Next, find the red conducting wire with the label ‘H.D.’ Make sure not to find the wrong one. It’s red!”

“It’s beside the white wire. I see it.”

“Now, move the switch in the middle of the subpanel’s second row to 1. Then, short-circuit the white and red wires labeled H.D.”

This was the most effective method of rebooting the computer he could come up with. By manually producing a short circuit, it would trigger the overload protector. The latter would then activate the Reset switch for the computer.

Mai Dong pressed the two wires together.

“Anything?” Tang Yue felt his heart in his mouth.

“Nothing happened.” Mai Dong turned her head to look around. The space station remained pitch-black and there wasn’t a single stir.

Tang Yue’s heart sank.

“Try it again. Separate the two conducting wires and short-circuit them… Try it again.”

Mai Dong held one wire with each hand before touching them gently. The instant contact was made, the wire produced a tiny spark.

Following that, Mai Dong heard a whirring sound. Something had started up. The sound grew louder and soon she was surrounded by it. The girl looked up and saw the lights come on one by one. The monitors that weren’t damaged lit up as well. The core module lit up section by section as the Crystal module started working once again.