AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 201

ARES 3 solar day 200

As expected, the scope of subsidence expanded today. "Is there any need to say it?" Dragonfly thought to herself, "What else could happen? Ever since the fart in the cave, subsidence has occurred every day."

Fortunately, they didn't immediately restore the water supply after repairing the heating system pipes on Solar Day 197... The same goes for Solar Day 198. Otherwise, the cave will be flooded with water now. But even so, there was still a foul smell everywhere in the cave, and the ground was covered with thick black mud. It’s strange to think about it; the Martian soil should be red-gray, but why does it look like this after being soaked in water?

Seeing that her hard work yesterday would have to be overturned on Solar Day 199, Tingting decided to discuss the current situation with Mark. In the end, the two of them agreed that it was not appropriate to rebury the heating system pipes until the soil returned to a stable state, which meant that the work would likely be delayed for several months. At the same time, they also judged that even if the original heaters were moved back to the cave and put into use again, the cave would soon surrender to Mars without the main heating system; therefore, the water heating system must be restored to operation, but at the same time, the system must be ensured It must be sealed to the outside world, or at least must be maintained in a closed state over a large area... and at least under the current conditions, it is absolutely impossible to lay it below the ground.

So the question is, how do they heat the water? It is impossible to move the habitat water recovery machine; without it, the water supply and drainage system of the habitat will stop directly. (And it went on strike after eating bathwater with a lot of sludge for three consecutive days. The first task after finishing all the messy things at hand is to maintain it.) Light a fire. Don't even think about it; if the only thing they can burn besides food is ignited... the effect may be earth-shattering. At the same time, large amounts of toxic gas by-products are produced. Throwing the electric heater into the water will simply destroy it.

Then Mark remembered that he had something else on hand that could generate heat. Of course, the effect is definitely not as good as boiling water directly pumped from Malaysia, but according to Mark, the heat of 1,500 watts is dispersed to the entire area through metal pipes. No matter how ineffective it is, it should at least be able to "stay in place" and prevent caves. The internal temperature dropped back below freezing.

So this afternoon, the fearful dragonfly began to stare at the "death box" again.

When the object is sealed in the largest transparent plastic sample bag under the almost non-existent environmental pressure on Mars, the effect after entering the cave is almost comparable to vacuum sealing. This plastic bag was submerged in one of Mark's large plastic sampling buckets filled with water, and the top was covered with a transparent lid that had been modified by Dragonfly and added two water pipe connections. In other words, the demon is now confined in a jar in a sealed plastic bag underwater in a box, but these measures do not allow the dragonfly to relax within a mile of it.

She had put off the matter for as long as possible. She and Mark (with the help of Fireball) used the remains of Amicitas' outer skin to assemble the brackets and guide rails used to support the pipeline, lifting the pipeline about half a meter above the currently unleveled soil surface. This took a while, especially considering that CherryBerry and Spitfire were hauling dirt from the back of the cave to fill in the many new sinkholes that had appeared, which meant walking around the pipes and being careful not to step on any surviving plants. And when the harvest begins in three weeks, the pipes will either have to be buried back in the ground or moved out of the way so as not to disrupt the work.

(The only one not working in the cave today is Starlight. Apparently she will have to stay in the habitat today. She is feeling much better now, but she will have to endure another four days without magic until Spitfire checks it out. We'll talk about her situation later. And no matter what, it's better to use her repaired space suit as little as possible. So she spent the whole day browsing text on Mark's computer, while Mark and his people also took advantage of it. Pathfinder sent various books to Mars during its idle time. It won't be long before Harry Potter is finished, but Dr. Capor assured them that he would send another classic next time.)

The piping system was finally assembled (again), with the new support legs in place and the small water pump originally used to drive the Amicitas onboard thermal management system, powered by an array of solar panels outside the cave (to power the system). All equipment inside the cave is powered by a total of ten solar panels appropriated from the living area, and a battery is used to maintain power at night).

The last remaining step is to connect the inlet and outlet pipes to the bucket containing the RTG, and then turn on the entire system.

Tingting felt two ghosts walking around him, the spirit of Cave Farm and the spirit of RTG. Cave Farm whispered, I'm sick. I am cold. Please help me.

RTG muttered, "I don't care." Do whatever you want. You're dead anyway.

Dragonfly shook her head vigorously. "I must be going crazy." She thought to herself, "That inexplicable hunger has returned, and it always makes me hear things that are clearly not there. Staying in the cave has no effect now. Mark Can we take out some of the potatoes and plant them on the edge of the cave? The plants there really don’t get much heat, but we already have enough potatoes to eat anyway, so it doesn’t matter if we have less. As long as there is something alive... "

"Drington," Mark asked softly, "you've been staring at the box for ten minutes. Do you want me to hook you up to the water supply?"

"No, I can handle it." Dingting added after a while, "But thanks for the kindness." She lifted up the two water pipes with her hooves and placed them on the connection. She held the joint and screwed it in. He carved out the threads on the pipes transformed from discarded parts. She then picked up a pipe wrench in her fangs and continued to tighten the pipe joints, making sure that every gasket was tight. This process takes about four minutes in total.

Mark, who was watching from the sidelines, still expressed his admiration as always. He always marveled at the intricate tasks ponies (or changelings) could accomplish with only their hooves and mouths to maneuver. "Okay," he said, "I hope you have good luck next time. (Cross your fingers.)"

Hearing this, Dragonfly once again had the urge to use her metamorphosis ability, turning her front hooves into the shape of a gryphon's paw, so that she could truly act according to the literal meaning of Mark's words. But she eventually gave up on the idea and headed toward the life support equipment box; she flipped the valve, turning on the system's main water supply for the first time since the subsidence first occurred.

After a while, the temperature of the pipe began to rise, reaching a level that could not be touched directly. There are no leaks at any pipe connection points. "Very good," Tingting thought, "I'll get it done in one go."

She installed a valve removed from Amicitas at the highest point of the pipeline near the life support system equipment box to discharge the remaining air inside the pipeline system. Seeing the steaming water gush out from the nozzle, she spent a little of her magic power - just a small amount but it made her feel like her body had been drained of all energy - to close the valve. Another water outlet is located at the lowest point of the pipe, so that they can be drained if the system temperature is too low and the water needs to be changed, or it can be used for irrigation later when the crops are finally dry enough to add soil moisture.

Mark reached over and flipped the circuit breaker on the simple cable that powered the pump; the pump sputtered to life and water began to circulate through the piping system.

"Okay!" Mark's face showed the first smile that had been absent for the past few days, "It's done!"

Dragonfly did not listen to his inner fear and ran towards the airlock or the back of the cave. She put away her wrenches and various other tools and put them back in the Amicitas tool box, preparing to move them back to the rover and take them back to the living area. After that, she returned to the group and carried the sample boxes filled with water from the "well" at the back of the cave to the airlock, where they were dumped on the slope outside the cave, allowing the water to freeze and gradually sublimate. After all, they still have two hours of available EVA time before they have to return to the residential cabin; during these two hours, they must make every effort to save their food resources and magic supply.

At the same time, Dragonfly also had to stay near a metal can full of cooling fins for two more hours, listening to a voice that only he could hear repeatedly saying: Go to hell. Go to hell. Go to hell.

"My queen, please come and take me away," she thought quietly, "I want to go home."

Cocoon was floating in the void in a space suit, standing twenty meters away from the work site, observing two engineers carefully inspecting the numerous fasteners and brackets that connected the last component of CSP Concordia to the rest of the spacecraft.

Her attitude towards the two engineers... was not entirely contemptuous, but a kind of arrogance with a special meaning. Among them is a yak wearing an orange CSP space suit, and the other is a griffon wearing ESA's iconic white space suit. Both of them are new recruits going to space for the first time. This mission is under the direct jurisdiction of Cocoon.

"This situation is really strange to them now," she thought to herself. "They are not part of the space race. They have not experienced it and will never understand what it was like at the beginning. They always It’s thinking that this is a great exploration of space, but never experiencing the real exploration itself, touching the sharp edges of the flight envelope, feeling the knowing knowledge that you know nothing.”

Today we are confident in what we are doing and hope that this confidence can fool the entire universe.

Scattered all around her in front of and behind her, the kind of cocoon that can usually be felt in space—and is even more inevitable to be encountered in EVA—is smiling happily. For a moment, Cocoon thought it would speak - sometimes this would happen - but in the end she only felt a sense of relief, as if someone silently patted her shoulder to show understanding.

Cocoon Cocoon sighed and turned her attention from the recruits to the new module of the spaceship in front of her - in fact, this so-called spaceship is a space station with a thruster. She had personally traveled to Friendship Point to inspect its construction, and Twilight Sparkle once again pushed her limits; this single module weighed more than the rest of the ship's components combined. There is no other way, because it contains a new flash engine with adjustable modes, and an unimaginable number of magic battery clusters. Operating in one mode, the flight speed may reach several times the speed of light; operating in a completely different setting, it may be possible to travel to another universe and return normally with the crew... I hope so.

Since Cocoon still couldn't hide her true nature, a part of her brain was currently coveting the large amount of magical energy contained in these batteries: so many batteries at maximum power output could make any pony or phantom with the ability to cast spells Spirit goes head-to-head with Celestia and will most likely win, but only if Celestia shows mercy and stays within a hundred yards of an extra-long freight train hauling a bunch of magic batteries. But it’s not impossible…

Stop it. The revenge plan will be discussed another day. At present, rescuing my people and my number one pilot is the top priority, and it seems that the others must also be brought back together. If only they could be found now.

A few days ago Twilight's magic tracking system detected a signal that was barely strong enough to cover up the background noise. Since it failed to analyze any meaningful results, Angel 9 will continue to explore the world and continue its mission according to Angel 8's original small film schedule after its launch.

If only Angel 8 hadn't suddenly disappeared without a trace during its third teleport to another universe just an inch and a half away. Cocoon also began to question the effectiveness of the detector plan like Twilight, but even the current method of spending a lot of money and throwing detectors into the infinite universe is still better than having no clue at all.

The rescue is ready, no matter the cost. Where are they?

Seven figures gathered around the unknown charred black metal object that had just fallen from a high altitude and almost destroyed Xiaodie's entire backyard.

Yuhui caught a glimpse of a line of markings on the side of the smoky detector:

ESA Angel 8 CSP

She grabbed the handle through the hem of her jacket and pulled open a relatively intact hatch that seemed to be connected to the storage area. A large number of shimmering sharp gem fragments rolled out immediately, and a wire crackled and kept sparking.

"Okay," she said to everyone, "we must not let the authorities find this kind of thing. Can you borrow someone's basement to hide it?"

Twilight Sparkle—Sunset still subconsciously called her "Science Twilight"—jumped up and down with excitement. Even under the dim street lighting before dawn, everyone could still see the joy radiating from her face...

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