My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

Venkat sat in front of Teddy's desk. The table was quite nice, and the chairs were the same style as Venkat's, but that wasn't what he was thinking about right now. He was staring at the computer in front of him, waiting for Pathfinder's restart diagnostic report to complete transmission. The fact that the Deep Space Antenna Array can still receive signals from Pathfinder—or rather, Pathfinder still has the ability to send signals—is the biggest piece of good news so far today.

Teddy, just as eager as he was, but better at hiding it, stood behind him to discuss the situation with the others. "Are there any long-term effects of the dust storm?" he asked. "Do we need to prepare for a second attack in two weeks?"

"Where are the dust storms?" Randall and Mindy, who had their own daily work to do, were urgently dragged to this summit meeting. "From what we observed, the dust storm almost disappeared after it passed through the residential area. It immediately lost the momentum of destruction; yesterday morning it had shrunk to half of its original size, and by this morning it had simply disappeared. The actual situation was exactly the opposite of what was supposed to happen, but everyone in this dust storm's life cycle This style of painting has always been in the stage, so there’s nothing unusual about it.”

"Well, I considered one possible cause," Mindy continued. "Based on the conclusions of our previous work, I did some in-depth dust storm path backtracking. The earliest meteorological activity that may have triggered this dust storm was the sun. A low-intensity circulation on Crisis Planum on Sun 234 blew dust into the Martian stratospheric atmosphere. The prevailing winds in that area at the time were blowing directly from the habitation area."

"So it's the residential area that caused the dust storm?" Teddy asked.

"Well. The engine thrust test was conducted on Sol 233," Mindy explained, "And according to the trajectory deduction we have done, the intensity of the dust storm on Sol 6 started within a few minutes after the alien spacecraft entered the Martian atmosphere. A significant increase."

"That is to say, it's not a residential area," Teddy corrected himself, "but a magic engine."

Sitting on the sofa, Mitch couldn't help laughing, "They used magic," he complained, "and in addition to a unicorn, there was also a pegasus, a dragon, and a shape-shifting creature in the team. So why is it so surprising that they’re going to use an engine powered by a butterfly wing?”

Venkat, who was looking at the computer, subconsciously raised his head and explained to Annie, "This joke refers to chaos..."

"Venkat, I understand this," Anne was as fiery as ever, "Damn, even though I'm just a talkative publicist, I'm not a 100% waste. Ninety-five percent is pretty much the same. .”

"How sure are you about this conclusion?" Teddy was obviously not in the mood to chat.

"This is not a conclusion yet," Mindy said, still a little cautious, "Well, I hope you understand. But considering that we don't know anything about this, and users have told us that this technology is not even useful for them. This is a cutting-edge, experimental field, and this is still a possibility. I think we should prepare for the worst until we get more detailed data."

"Agreed," said Bruce Wu, who was on the other end of the speaker in California. "We can live without engine testing from now on. Tell them not to start the engine again until Sol 551. This way the potential danger is eliminated."

"What should we do on Sol 551?" Teddy asked again, "Is there any possibility of this effect endangering the launch of the aircraft?"

"Yes, but the possibility is very small." Bruce replied, "The speed of sound on the surface of Mars is two hundred and sixty meters per second. As long as they exceed this speed, any thrust effect will be far behind them."

"Okay." Teddy concluded, "Randall, go and collect evidence to support or refute this hypothesis. Don't make any noise. This conclusion cannot be known outside this room." Then he turned to Anne and added, "If someone outside NASA makes similar remarks, they will respond by saying that we currently have insufficient evidence to verify this conclusion."

"If things really get to that point, they will start to question safety," Annie said angrily, "asking me if I am willing to sit on that thing and go to heaven! Then how the hell am I going to reply? Say I am right Are you allergic to horse hair?!”

"Then tell them that there is another way," Mitchell was not in the mood to respond to Annie's complaints, "which is to have the team members wait in the habitation module, hoping that a passing alien spacecraft will be kind enough to give them a lift. "

"Okay, the restart diagnostic log has been sent back," Bruce changed the subject. "The imager drive motor is cold, or the entire imager may be gone. However, the antenna and radio system are still normal."

"It may be caused by sand and dust." Randall said, "Because the dust storm hits the target area at night, it is difficult to determine the specific situation, but the lightning activities we detected seem to be concentrated near the E area. Yes. Definitely no lightning occurred west of the Hab."

"And even if lightning strikes the habitation module, there will be no obvious traces of hitting the metal from the outside." Venkat added a few words, "Scorch marks will only occur in the presence of oxygen. There are no traces on Mars. Such conditions. Only when the target melts can you tell it has been struck by thunder."

"Anyway, the communication connection has been restored," Bruce said. "You should be able to send messages now."

Venkat started tapping on the keyboard.

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 253

ARES 3 solar day 250

[10:28] JPL: Message testing. Mark, please reply immediately after seeing this message.

[10:57] Watney: The stars are aligned here. Mark does maintenance on the water recovery machine. Can I reply?

[11:25] JPL: Okay. We mostly just want to see a response. The dust storm did some damage, or maybe it was the discharge we asked you to trigger: the rotation motor of the stereo imager on Pathfinder is damaged. It could be a short circuit, or it could just be stuck in the dust, but either way Pathfinder's internal testing reports that the motor doesn't work. Considering that this part of Pathfinder is dispensable to us, this means it takes a very fatal bullet for us. Anyway, at least the communication link is still functioning normally, which is good news.

[11:54] Watney: Speaking of which - I've been thinking about it lately; once we get into the RV and start moving, we won't be able to use this data link at all. As soon as we arrive at Schiaparelli, we can communicate via the communication system on the MAV. How about we modify our plan and leave the Pathfinder here when we leave, okay? By the way, Mark here now.

[12:22] JPL: We’ll talk about that. We are currently opposed to it. The radio transmission on the Friendship was slow and unreliable, and we wished to keep it only as a backup.

[12:49] Watney: A whole four hundred kilograms. I just wanted to highlight that. You can travel kilometers without carrying an extra kilograms of weight that may not be useful. It can save watts of precious electricity. Then you can save nine and a half kilowatt hours per solar day...MD, I still need to think of a better unit name.

[13:20] JPL: Mark, we’ll think about it.

[13:48] Watney: Just call it Pirate Ninja. Ok, deal. One kilowatt-hour per solar day is counted as one Pirate Ninja.

[14:16] JPL: Mark, if this continues, I will revoke your naming permission.