In fact, the Rosy Glow arrived 79 hours earlier than Lu Zhou had estimated.
After 41 days and 2 hours of flight, the fiery red planet had risen into view beyond the Rosy Glow's cabin window.
Squinting through the window at the brilliant sunlight slowly rising over that fiery red outline, and at the surging waves of sand rolling like a sea of flames, Liu Biao, seated in the copilot's chair, clicked his tongue.
"It's an absolute mess... but the view is still pretty beautiful."
"Yes." Xu Zhenghong nodded. He was not much of a talker. Pressing a hand to his helmet, he reported steadily, "This is the Rosy Glow. We have entered Mars's gravitational system and successfully entered A-11 orbit."
They waited quietly for about five minutes.
Amid noisy static, an unstable transmission came from Earth tens of millions of kilometers away.
"This is Ground Command. Congratulations on successfully completing your mission... Now initiate active braking procedures and prepare to approach Mars. Orbital transfer navigation will be handled by the onboard computer. Good luck."
"Received!"
Over a distance of tens of millions of kilometers, it was clearly impossible to direct a spacecraft's orbital transfer through real-time communication.
The transfer plan had already been written into a preset program. With the assistance of the onboard computer, the pilots would switch orbits based on their own judgment.
Of course, while it sounded complicated, the actual operation was not that troublesome.
The Rosy Glow was highly automated. Unless something unusual happened, the pilots generally only needed to keep an eye on the speed and distance gauges and make sure the spacecraft had not strayed from its orbit.
Liu Biao said, "Are we going straight down, or waiting for them to come up?"
Xu Zhenghong said, "New Virginia's Life-Support Unit has a return