My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

"Good evening, viewers, and welcome to the 'Watney & Co.' series. I'm your host, Casey Warner, bringing you live from the Johnson Space Center in Houston."

Seeing Kathy talking to the camera in her usual professional manner, Venkat, who was sitting next to her outside the mirror, seemed a little uncomfortable. Rather than saying it was Annie pulling the strings behind the scenes, it would be better to describe it as a string of ties. The entire CNN camera crew was escorted to the scene in less than twelve hours. This time, it is still Casey who shoulders the burden of reporting, not only because CNN is the only one to have a program dedicated to Mars for one hour a day, five days a week, but also because among many news organizations, CNN is the most likely to give NASA a fair start. Opportunities for dialogue.

This is naturally a good thing, because the top priority of every manager at NASA today is to tell lies to the entire American public, which means they must use all available publicity channels to whitewash it.

"Today we finally learned why a common employee in JSC's Aerospace Dynamics Division named Rich Purnell was so crucial to the future survival of several Mars refugees." Kathy continued her opening remarks, "In Behind the cryptic message that Richie Purnell was 'a tough missile man' was a determined Hermes crew; they went on a long push, canceling their planned return to Earth two months later plan of."

"Their new plan is to accelerate while orbiting the Earth, fly close to the sun and return to Mars at high speed. The expected arrival time is Sol 3 of the Ares 551 mission. If everything goes well, the refugees will arrive exactly one year later Escape from Mars around today - which is nearly eight months earlier than the originally scheduled Ares 3B mission."

Venkat sat with Teddy's speech from earlier that afternoon playing in his ears, while video footage of the speech was fed live through a makeshift studio set up somewhere in one of JSC's many conference rooms.

"Rich Purnell is very interested in and has done a lot of work on the so-called 'escape ship' concept. This plan plans to use the alien spacecraft and other components near the Ares 3 landing site to survive an extremely serious emergency. It can be used to quickly escape from Mars in an emergency." Teddy in the picture is talking, "He was also responsible for drawing the flight trajectory for the Sleipnir mission, and in the process realized that Hermes could be transferred to a special Orbit, can fly past Mars again, and then return safely to Earth. This rescue route has an unprecedented time advantage and can complete the rescue of Mark Watney and the crashed and trapped aliens before all the original rescue plans."

"However, there are still many practical difficulties faced by this plan. Although this flyby plan for Hermes is indeed innovative, in comparison, it can only be regarded as the simplest part of the entire rescue plan. As a responsible NASA employee , Rich specifically took a leave of absence for this purpose and used his own free time to conduct research and explore the feasibility of modifying the Ares 4 MAV aircraft so that it could escape the gravity of Mars and rendezvous with Hermes in orbit. He also calculated during this time Hermes currently has the crew and the amount of supplies needed for the rescue targets, and has even consulted with alien scholars trapped on Mars whether it is possible to use their experimental flash engine to teleport Hermes and the entire crew on board back to Earth, so that they It will arrive at its destination just days after the Mars flyby."

"After the failure of the launch of the Sleipnir 1 mission and the emergency escape of Sleipnir 3 into Earth's orbit, Rich officially proposed this plan to us. His proposal was naturally It is full of risks and uncertainties - neither for the Mars stranded people nor for the Hermes team members - so we have to compare the risks of this plan with Mark Watney and his guests. We will conduct a detailed comparison of the dangers of staying on Mars for another eight months. Because we do not want to prematurely arouse public expectations, we have kept the previous internal evaluation process strictly confidential until we have determined the conclusions before making it public."

“The real final decision was made official late yesterday afternoon when the China National Space Administration contacted me directly and offered to let us use the thrusters they were building for the Helios astronomical observation project. With the thrust they provided Coupled with the SpaceX BFR originally planned to refuel Sleipnir 3, we can ensure that Hermes will be provided with sufficient food supplies to support the entire rescue mission, so that even if the Twinkle engine fails to bring them ahead of schedule It wouldn’t be a big deal to bring it back to Earth.”

Venkat heard a strange voice from the audience - maybe a reporter or something - interjected: "But aren't those aliens stranded on Mars because of that experimental thruster?"

"We have previously communicated with one of the aliens stranded on Mars and one of the engine designers; now I am confident that the design flaw that caused them to be stranded in the first place has been found and fully fixed." Teddy looked confident, "Although the engine may not be able to bring them back to Earth, it will not teleport them to other places. Even if it does break down, Hermes can continue to return according to the original route. Mark and After his friends are rescued, it will take another 211 days to reach Earth."

"You just mentioned the 'Helios' mission," another reporter asked, "In exchange, does NASA provide any benefits to China for this thruster?"

"China only donated this thruster out of the spirit of humanitarian international assistance. They also hope to establish friendly diplomatic relations with the alien intelligent civilization that is the first contact in human history." Teddy replied, "However, I am planning to propose to the National Space Council and the House and Senate Space Exploration Subcommittee that after the alien friends are rescued, full access to China's space program will be opened in return for their excellent technology and willingness to cooperate. In addition, we also request the Chinese side Provide a list of astronaut candidates for the Ares 5 and 6 projects."

As the audio of Venkat's speech gradually faded out, the lights gradually turned on, illuminating the table where he and Casey sat around. "In order to learn more details about NASA's new rescue plan, today we were honored to visit JSC to have in-depth discussions with Ares Project Director Dr. Venkat Kapol. Doctor, thank you for your support of our program despite your busy schedule. support."

"My pleasure, Miss Kathy," Venkat replied.

“Our first topic today is naturally related to the recent new developments in the rescue plan: why NASA suddenly decided to abandon the Ares 3B mission that was waiting for eight months and instead chose this mission that at first glance looks like the final Hail Mary. A new rescue plan for the Earth[1]? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the two in terms of risk?" Casey changed to the topic, "And in view of the recent news that aliens are still attacking them in order to prevent cave collapse or explosive loss of pressure. The underground farms have been specifically reinforced, what were the reasons that led to this final choice?”

“The main thing is to compare the known and unknown risks.” Venkat replied, “We already understand the risks of modifying the MAV to make it capable of escaping from Mars’ gravity, and we also understand the negative effects of extending the duration of the Hermes mission. But as revealed by the previous accidents of the Sleipnir project, as well as the earlier Sol 6 dust storm and Sol 88 habitation module explosion, Mark and his friends continued to stay on Mars and relied on supplies from the Earth. The risks that keep us alive are unknowable. We cannot predict when the next accident will come, but if we can understand and anticipate certain risks, we can prepare for them in advance. In contrast The unknown will not give us this opportunity. This is indeed very counter-intuitive: in order to reduce risks, the best way is to take risks proactively.”

"One of these risks includes the specially planned orbit of Hermes in this mission, which will make it closer to the sun than any manned spacecraft launched in history." Casey took over the conversation. , "In fact, as far as I know, NASA has had strict regulations on this in the past, prohibiting any manned or unmanned aircraft from flying inside the orbit of Venus. So why did you decide to ignore this regulation this time?"

"Hermes has deployed multiple thermal management and radiation protection systems with redundant capabilities." Venkat replied unhurriedly, "Originally it was only a peripheral protection facility designed for the airborne reactor used to drive the ion thruster. It can also protect astronauts from the harmful effects of solar flares during regular missions lasting about a year. These unique protection systems are unprecedented in their capabilities and are designed to allow the aircraft to adapt to the harsh conditions that may be encountered during flight. environment—precisely to deal with unexpected situations similar to this mission.”

These are of course nonsense, and not ordinary nonsense. The flight trajectory of Hermes in this rescue plan will push the safety margin of the airborne electromagnetic protection system to the limit. They were designed to withstand the rigors of the mission, not because NASA had the foresight to do so: they would never have dreamed of flying an aircraft so close to the sun; it's just because extreme safety belongs to NASA. It's just a fine tradition in designing long-term space vehicles.

"And Hermes won't enter Mars orbit this time," Casey added.

"That's right," Venkat replied, "the speed is too fast and the aircraft cannot brake and slow down in time. And if it really wants to enter orbit, Hermes will also lose the speed needed to return to the earth, basically it can only stop at Waiting for the next Hohmann transfer window in Mars orbit."

"But if Hermes can only fly by Mars, this means that Mark Watney and his friends will only have one chance to rendezvous with the rescue vehicle." Casey went on to say.

"That's true." Venkat had already prepared for this. "But considering that the MAV system is very robust, there is not much difficulty in practice; and we have also checked the transformation plan proposed by Rich Purnell, and the data There is no problem with the match." Big lie. Only part of the inspection of the renovation plan has been completed, and the data results are extremely vague. What Purnell actually proposed can be roughly described in two sentences: "Save some weight" and "Install all the Pony spacecraft thrusters onto the MAV first stage." There is not much specific content. And Bruce Wu has been extremely busy recently. First, he had to rush to build Sleipnir 4, and now in order to rebuild Sleipnir 4/5, he had to dismantle it into an empty shell with only the propeller. Thoughts on issues related to MAV transformation.

"But what if Mark and his friends miss the rendezvous?"

"The MAV will be equipped with a Shining engine." Venkat replied. "Normally, each Ares mission will carry 500 kilograms of rock samples back on the MAV, and the space freed up is completely sufficient. If for some reason the MAV If the docking opportunity is missed, they can also use the Shining Engine as a backup, either to try to rendezvous again or to slowly teleport back to Earth. However, we still hope that this unexpected situation does not happen." Finally, there is a truth. The MAV's onboard battery is only designed to last up to seven days of continuous use, and Starlight Glimmer's previous report showed that in their parallel world, even at the closest distance, their spaceship using the Shining Engine would take one day. It takes half the time to teleport from the main planet to their "Mars". When the MAV is launched, the ground-fire distance will be very far away, and returning to the earth along a straight trajectory will bring the MAV, which has almost no protective measures, too close to the sun, posing a serious threat to the health of everyone on board.

"Then what will happen if not only the rendezvous fails, but the Shining engine also fails?" It seems that Casey does not intend to show mercy.

Rich Purnell once estimated that unless the MAV lost a lot of weight in some magical way, successful docking would only be possible if the Shining engine was operating normally. In the end, he tactfully avoided the issue: "We will do everything we can in the next year to ensure that this does not happen."

"The time is almost up. One last question," Casey finally decided to stop. "In view of the recent emergency situation in Congress, some tough-minded members have been unwilling to compromise. It seems that the time to implement and announce this plan is right. It is suspected of opening the door for NASA. Is there any connection between the SpaceX shutdown and your decision to carry out a rescue mission that requires two supply launches within three weeks?"

"We believe that once Congress understands that taxpayer funds were used most effectively in the rescue of Mark Watney and the alien visitors, they will understand our current situation." Venkat responded, "In implementation, The decision on the Chipnell rescue plan was made entirely based on our comparative analysis of the probability of success, and political considerations never had any influence."

For Venkat, the only reason his last answer didn't win the title of "biggest lie of the interview" is that lying means knowing the truth behind the lie. Maybe someone would know the answer; he certainly didn't.

[Note:]

1. Hail Mary pass in the fourth quarter: See Wiki - Hail Mary pass for details, which can be understood as a "leap of faith".