My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

Venkat's brain had not yet fully recovered from the jet lag that enveloped him, and the fatigue of traveling half the world made him feel like he was seeing flowers in a fog. However, his duties as Ares project director will not let up. So, just sixteen hours after he was taken care of by his god-given wife who had somehow married him and collapsed on the bed like a puddle of mud, he once again stood in front of the office door, ready to finish his work but failed to join him. There was a backlog of various matters for the trip to China that lasted for several days.

He continued to stand erect in the doorway, staring at the five faces in the room - three men and two women - who had somehow entered his office one step ahead of himself. There was also a stack of information that looked like three or four reams (one ream, five hundred pages) piled neatly on their desk next to them. "Let me guess," he said, breaking the awkward situation, "you've found another Richie Purnell."

"Not really." His familiar voice answered; the woman who spoke was the one who led the discussion of the Sirius Project commando team last time. "Richie Purnell is just one man. And this," she patted the pile. The thick material is "the result of the labor of more than a hundred people day and night."

"It's pretty good." Apparently the large cup of coffee in the morning didn't provide Venkat with enough caffeine to keep him awake. "What's that?"

"This," the woman replied, "is the final plan to help Mark Watney and the aliens get to Schiaparelli. Every step is explained in detail. If there is anything inaccurate about our assumptions about the alien craft For local areas, some corresponding alternatives or workarounds will also be given in the report as a reference."

"And we need to send all this information to him as soon as possible," one of the male engineers next to him added, "the sooner the better."

Venkat sighed. He waved them aside to clear his place at the desk. He put down his briefcase and slumped into his chair, and after a while he said, "Okay, tell me... let's forget it." He turned on his computer and while waiting for the machine to start up on its own, he said, "Now we are only bigger than Mars. It’s almost three hours. You’d better go talk to Watney and the others on how to operate.”

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 219

ARES 3 solar day 217

[07:24] JPL: Good morning everyone! I, Venkat Kapoor, am back from China. The Chinese people extend friendly and sincere greetings to you. How is everyone doing?

[07:52] Watney: Basically good. Berry, Firefly, and Fireball were preparing to visit the cave; in a few days it would be time to harvest hay, and in a few days it would be time to dig potatoes. Starlight and Dragonfly are helping me with residential maintenance work, with the main task being to repair the wastewater tank of the water recycling machine. You guys have been, let me think about it, probably several days without any danger of casualties. How are you doing?

[08:18] JPL: I just got off the flight back from China and I’m really exhausted, but I’m still trying to find a solution to your problems. By the way, Mark, we have a bunch of smart people here who have recently figured out how to actually build your so-called "mobile RV," and I'm going to turn the computer over to them now. First, they will convey to you the general process of the plan, and then we will send you the complete actual operating procedures. Sending the complete proposal document should consume all communications bandwidth for the rest of the day, and possibly into tomorrow, which speaks volumes about how much effort they put into this project.

[08:22] JPL: Good morning Mark. I'm Jennifer Lawrence, a Senior Systems Engineer in the JSC Engineering Department. Joining me are staff from the celestial resources, EVA operations and flight control operations departments. As elected, I would like to speak here on behalf of the Sirius Project Special Operations Group.

[08:25] JPL: Over the past few weeks we have been working on how to modify rovers and alien spacecraft to find the best way to reach Schiaparelli across the Arabian Mesa. What follows is not what we want to tell you, but what we have to tell you. This is the best solution we've culled from many other terrible solutions. So please understand and be prepared to read the following text.

[08:34] JPL: The main problem we face is that you have to leave the residential area for nearly days, and then you have to stay in the MAV for nearly seven days. The cabin space of just two rovers is far from enough. It can accommodate the six of you plus the food you need to consume along the way. Don’t forget that we haven’t counted the various materials, tools, and Shiny engines required for transformation, as well as other indispensable resources that will help you transform the MAV into a vehicle that can take you out of Mars and out of danger.

Therefore, we assumed from the beginning that we would take the technical route of converting rover No. 1 into a trailer, dismantling the pressurized cabin of rover No. 1, and leaving space to fix the front half of the alien spacecraft to the rover chassis. To achieve this effect, the spacecraft will be installed in a nose-to-back orientation, with what you call the habitation module facing Rover 2, and the nose section hanging behind the rover. You also need to fix the remaining two spare rover wheels on the front landing gear of the alien spacecraft to share the load. Dr. Kapol should have told you this when we first started our research.

However, the point is that even according to the best-case scenario we imagine, the trailer, empty and stripped of all useless weight, still weighs more than twenty tons. According to the data obtained by our experimental model here, it is impossible to break your head and think it is lighter. A rover can barely drag this kind of dead weight on a paved highway with a gradient of no more than five degrees. Such luxurious conditions simply do not exist on Mars. This means that all eight wheels on the two rover chassis must be used to provide power. At present, we think that if the two wheels on the landing gear only release the clutch and do not supply power, it will not be a big problem to drive the entire trailer, but other than that, the wheels should not save much power.

The good news is that the temporary heating system you set up when you went to find the Pathfinder can just barely replace all the onboard heating equipment. That is to say, under normal circumstances, if all eight wheels of the unloaded tandem rover are powered, The driving range on flat ground with full power is about 70 kilometers. However, our tests on Earth have shown that the rover battery pack can only support a maximum of about 40 kilometers before running out of power. Let me remind you that the condition of our test is that the battery is only responsible for driving the wheel motors, interior lighting, air circulation, control system and on-board computer. (Mars’ gravitational acceleration may indeed be smaller, but the inertia against which a load is moved from complete rest is the same on any planet.)

In short, power supply and load capacity are the two major problems we encountered.

[08:41] JPL: Our limitations on power are obvious: With limited storage capacity that can be carried, how much can be left to charge devices? Your limiting factor is sunlight. When you officially begin your journey, Mars is in autumn, and there are about eleven hours of sunlight a day to power the solar cells.

On the other hand, we also want to lighten your load as much as possible. In addition to dismantling everything that can be dismantled on the rover and the alien spacecraft, the only remaining method we have in this regard is to find ways to shorten the trip time as much as possible and save food as much as possible.

The straight-line distance of the journey is about 3,200 kilometers. In comparison, the more practical actual driving distance is about 3,500 kilometers. If calculated at a speed of forty kilometers per day, it would take eighty-eight solar days, which is much better than our original estimate of one hundred solar days, but this time is still too long. Our expected goal was seventy kilometers per day, which would make the trip fifty days. Compared with our initial estimate of a hundred days of travel, a speed of seventy kilometers per day will allow us to save a total of more than half a ton of food; considering how heavy your total load is, this half a ton is crucial.

So this is our goal - to travel 70 kilometers a day with a minimum constant load and have appropriate charging capabilities. This is what we spent several weeks experimenting on to achieve.

[08:44] Watney: Hello, geniuses! What did you bring me this time? Do you mind if I do other things while you send messages? I hope you can understand that the turnaround time for messages between Earth and Fire is as long as fifty minutes.

[08:45] JPL: Considering the above factors, it is completely impossible to bring the complete life support system of the habitation module to the road. The combined weight of all related equipment exceeds one-third of a ton, not counting storage tanks and various other consumables; and the energy consumption is too high to support six people, making such a mobile platform simply unsustainable. So you can only rely on the alien life-support system; this is crucial to the success or failure of the entire plan, and the alien life-support system must be protected from destruction at all costs.

But as long as we have this system and those few alien space suits, the Sirius tandem rover (we all here object to the term "mobile RV", so we call it the Sirius tandem rover) has zero Unlimited air, water and heat resources for energy expenses. This means that we can safely allocate 90% of the power budget to driving the rover, and reserve the remaining 10% for other uses.

[08:47] Watney: OK, tell me. I'll wait for you to finish.

[08:51] JPL: With this kind of budget, a normal two rover batteries with a capacity of kilowatt hours per solar day can only travel kilometers per day at most. (Our road tests didn't take into account nighttime power consumption.) That number would have to be doubled. In other words, we have to appropriate the remaining hydrogen fuel cells from three residential areas. In order to make enough space for the fuel cell stack, the onboard batteries on the alien spacecraft, which you describe as "looking like U-boat equipment," and the passenger seat of the No. rover need to be removed. Depending on the size and shape of the alien battery (which may be heavier than a fuel cell, but will definitely have less storage capacity), you can decide where to store the oversized battery.

This allows forty-five kilowatt-hours of energy storage per solar day to provide a driving distance of more than eighty kilometers on flat land. This level of energy storage capacity also requires the same level or even more powerful charging capabilities to match it. Based on what you discovered along the way on your Pathfinder journey, plus dusk, fourteen solar panels can recharge the rover with eighteen kilowatt-hours of power every twelve hours per solar day. Each panel of the residential area solar array can output an average of 1.3 watt hours of electricity per hour under good sunlight conditions, and the total production capacity of a single solar day is estimated to be around kilowatt hours. So to meet the requirements, a total of thirty-five solar panels are needed.

The good news is that even after stripping the alien spacecraft from top to bottom, our data still shows that the spacecraft is wide enough up to the front of the pressure chamber to fit two rows of solar panels, and another row can be stuffed along the nose. , can be directly and permanently fixed on the top of the spacecraft. The large number of hardpoints and removed materials exposed after the outer skin of the ship is removed helps to secure the battery panels in place properly, and the set of adapters you used to connect the ship to the residential area's power system can also be used. Let’s plug the solar panels directly into the Sirius tandem rover’s onboard circuitry. That way, we estimate you'll be able to cram twenty-eight solar panels onto the finished trailer alone. For the remaining pieces, or if you feel you still have the energy to bring a few more pieces based on our presets, you can do it the way you did on your last Pathfinder trip, pile it up in a pile and put it on the roof of the rover to explore the way. next to the person. Please refer to the full report for the specific fixed operation process.

[08:56] JPL: This solves our power supply problem. Another problem is the load. The trailer itself is already ridiculously heavy, so we have to limit the weight of what we can load onto it. Ensuring load balancing on the two rover chassis can also increase operating efficiency. Therefore, the space of the trailer can be used for living, storing items that cannot be exposed to the vacuum environment, and the core of the Shining Engine. Other than these, other things must be stuffed into the rover as much as possible, or piled on the roof of the rover. In other words, you have to recycle those emergency inflatable tents and use canvas to expand and strengthen your saddle bag system to evenly distribute the extra weight of food, tools and other materials to the outer surface of the rover's pressure chamber, preventing the vehicle structure from damaged.

The heaviest objects to be carried are those alien thrusters. They can only be fixed on both sides of the rover, and a basket is needed to install the alien battery and thruster components. We also have corresponding plans for how to deal with it specifically. While the effect isn't very aesthetically pleasing, at least it won't affect the pressure chamber - it will be fixed as close to the chassis as possible.

[09:01] JPL: One final reminder: the center of gravity of the Sirius tandem rover will be very high, especially in the trailer part. To put it bluntly, it is extremely unstable and easy to flip over. Moreover, the suspension system of the rover far exceeds the rated load, especially the dynamic load pressure seriously exceeds the standard. A rough estimate shows that the entire set, stuffed with various supplies, food and passengers, weighs thirty-eight tons, of which twenty-four tons are the mass of the trailer. Rover manufacturers are reluctant to evaluate payloads of this magnitude. And there’s also the issue of brakes, so I shouldn’t need to say more, right?

Driving carefully is the key to success or failure in this mission. Hitting a pothole or rock while traveling at high speed could cause the tandem rover to roll over or tear certain suspension components. If the aliens are willing to do this, we recommend that they use EVA to clear the path in front of the rover when driving, and clear any stones on the line that are 20 to 60 centimeters high. Rocks higher than sixty centimeters should be avoided at all costs. If this method is not feasible, we recommend that the number of passengers on the No. 2 rover should not exceed two, and the remaining personnel should get off the vehicle to conduct road condition exploration or travel on a trailer.

These are program highlights. Have any questions?

[09:29] Watney: Thirty-six tons, right? Okay, at least I won't be stopped by the Mars police for overloading.

“How many kilowatt-hours per solar day” is a mouthful to say. Didn't you give this unit a name before?

How do I connect the alien spacecraft to the rover's life support system? And what about the electrical system?

Also, did you mention putting food in the saddlebags outside the rover? Just to confirm again, do you want us to transform the rover into a mobile food stall for those arrogant Mars Internet celebrity food experts to patronize? Did the plan mention a store sign saying "Watney's Homemade Ecological Potatoes and Alfalfa Seedlings"?

Finally, I would like to say that the name "Mobile RV" is quite good. "Tandem rovers" just sounds boring. If you act like this, the "Houston Astros" will be renamed "the Houstonians who can barely hit the ball with a stick."

[09:58] JPL: If the Martian traffic police pull you over, we'll cover the ticket.

"How many kilowatt-hours per solar day" doesn't sound wrong. If you don't like it, give it a nicer name.

Go check with the alien engineers to see if the power supply interface on the outside of the spacecraft is sufficient to withstand the full forty-five kilowatt power load. It shouldn't be a big problem. If this is indeed the case, pull a few cables from the tow hook on the No. 1 rover chassis to the charging port. A few parts from Rover 1's pressure chamber and a few cables borrowed from the solar array should be enough. Connecting the air supply system is indeed a bit more troublesome, but in the final analysis, it is to drill two holes in the pressure chamber of the alien spacecraft, extend the air communication pipeline into it and seal it, and connect the other side to the air circulation of the onboard environmental control of the No. 1 rover. The system is finished.

The Sirius tandem rover has not registered an industrial and commercial retail license with any Martian judicial authority, so it does not need to display a merchant logo according to law. Still, we have to warn you about Martian bears, especially the ones wearing hats and/or ties.

And I personally am not very fond of ball games. What other people want to call the Houston Astros is up to them, but we here decided to call the thing you're going to build the Sirius Tandem Rover.

[10:23] Watney: She is actually a female engineer who understands humor. marry me.

[10:48] JPL: I'm twelve years older than you. Wait until the aliens give you a time machine before you discuss it with me. But you have to be careful not to let my ex-husband get caught.

[10:50] JPL: Venkat here. I think now we should be able to start sending out instructions. Mark, hope there is good news for the upcoming harvest. Good luck.