My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

Mission Log – Solar Day 24

Well, the Cave Farm project has encountered a problem recently. In fact, it is not appropriate to use the word "problem" to describe it, because in NASA's logic, "problem" refers to a difficulty that can be solved. The current situation is more like an "accident," which generally means the only thing left to do is to clear the wreckage and begin an investigation.

In fact, the soil doubling went quite smoothly. The ponies used their spacesuits to water the soil regularly, twice a day. I poured two-thirds of the stored water into the soil - a total of 200 liters - but the water level in the water collector's tank continued to rise due to air humidity. If this continues we will eventually have moist nutrient soil and a full tank of water at the same time.

There have been a lot of extravehicular activities recently, and I have been busy dealing with caves and dismantling the pony spacecraft, so today I plan to stay in the living area. After all, I still have soil samples from the cave to analyze, and then I have to figure out how we're going to convert the cave into a farm.

What I'm most worried about right now is actually the air issue. That cave is a giant geode, and geodes are all permeable—nonsense, otherwise the geodes wouldn’t be formed if water couldn’t seep in. The good news is that it's not a Swiss cheese-like situation here, and much of the cave is still buried under several feet of dense sand and permafrost. But if there are a billion microscopic holes, the effect of air leakage is not much different from that of one big hole, and I haven't figured out a solution for that.

But subsequent soil test results changed my mind. Air is no longer a major issue. To be more specific, the most serious problem I'm facing right now is 2.3% perchlorate. To be more precise, there are 1.5% potassium perchlorate and 0.8% magnesium perchlorate in the two deepest soil samples, and the total concentration in the shallower soil layers will drop to about 1.2%.

The truth is still very fucked up.

The reason why perchlorate-loving bacteria previously derived from Earth's soil can reduce the perchlorate content of the Martian soil that we transport to the habitation module is mainly because the soil depth is very shallow (so that oxygen can fully penetrate) and it is high in chlorine. The concentration of acid salts is relatively low. In this case, before the bacteria penetrate deep enough to completely eliminate the perchlorate below thirty centimeters, the ponies' food packets will be exhausted, and they may also consume all the vegetarian food in my food storage. part. We can't wait that long.

“But Mark,” you might be saying, “shouldn’t you just use topsoil?” That’s true for potatoes; their root systems are quite shallow. But the situation is very different for alfalfa. The root system of a mature alfalfa plant can reach an average depth of five meters, and can reach twice as deep if it is necessary to search for underground water sources. If we were in the pod, I could counter this with lots of watering; but in the cave we don't have a floor to limit their growth like we do in the pod. That means their roots reach as deep as our heat can reach, absorbing everything in their path—including those poisonous perchlorates.

So at this point in time, the idea of ​​a cave farm doesn’t sound so enticing. I now have to sit down and think about the remaining options for farming without using caves.

The floor of the living cabin is currently covered with soil. I wasn't planning on borrowing the space inside the airlock, as it might be used as a safe storage room in an emergency. The air lines of the airlock are equipped with automatic shut-off valves, so if a leak occurs in the habitation module, the air inside can still be retained. If I modify the bed and workbench, I can save more or less two square meters of space each, but it won't be very friendly to ponies, and no matter what, I want to leave a clean bed for myself. and workbench.

For the next four years I have to make sure there is at least one working rover that can take me to the location of the upgraded vehicle on Ares 4; and for safety reasons, both vehicles must remain intact. There may be a component damage on one of the cars, and the only spare parts I have on hand are the two wheels with drive motors. Don't even think about the rover farm. After all, the space inside is about the same size as a large van - each one must not exceed three square meters.

However, each rover carries an inflatable tent for emergency use. The tent is designed to deploy automatically in one second through the rover's airlock, using the rover's air source for inflating. Once unfolded, the interior space of the tent is much wider than that of the rover - the floor area is almost exactly ten square meters. In this way, we have another 20 square meters of farmland.

The problem is: I don’t know who invented the obsessive-compulsive disorder again, causing the airlocks of the rover and inflatable tent to be incompatible with the airlocks of the residential areas. But this should be a good thing - after all, the tent is only for emergencies and is only supposed to be used once. Maybe it’s NASA’s paranoid nature exposed, or maybe it’s a mixture of extreme genius and extreme stupidity on the part of the contractor, but the inflatable tent comes with its own independent airlock, but either way I’m very relieved. The tent airlock looks like a cheap thing at first glance - it's just two doors and a few manual valves pieced together, and its operating efficiency is surprisingly low - but at least this allows the tent to be used for food production.

Better things are yet to come. They also have independent air valves, and the interface with the external air pipeline of the habitation module is common, thanks to NASA's insistence on standardizing the design of all pipeline cables. This means that the inflatable tent can be heated through the living area - thus saving a lot of auxiliary heating equipment. The interior lighting isn't great, but I think it's adequate. No matter what, it's better than nothing.

Other than that, all I have left is the landing vehicle. The previous storm destroyed it with debris flying from the antenna array. One of the landing gear was broken, and four large holes were left in the skin. However, the interior space is not that big. It was built using the lightest materials available to humans. It can barely have enough space to carry six humans to safely land in orbit around Mars. It also comes with 72 hours of life-sustaining resources to prepare for temporary encounters during the construction of residential areas and upgrades before launch. Used when there is a problem. I can indeed use half of the spare cabin canvas (a total of six square meters, only for emergency repairs) to reseal the aircraft, but I don't have suitable heating and air supply equipment, and the internal space is so small. So it's not cost-effective.

Then it was the ponies' turn to fly their spaceships. There is a large hole in the deck of the engineering section that cannot be repaired without removing an entire section of outer skin. Even so, it may still explode at any time in the future, so the only options left are the cockpit and the middle compartment. Although we have to wait for accurate measurements before we can get the results, I visually estimated that the area is about 40 square meters. The lighting inside consisted of incandescent bulbs and several windows. The spacecraft cannot be connected to the air supply and heating system in the living area, and I don't know if there is a heater that can be used when the main life support system of the spacecraft is shut down. But after all, food supply is a matter of life and death, so no matter how bad the conditions are, we have to work hard to find ways to improve them.

So - if the ponies' spaceship can be converted into a second greenhouse, our total available farming area will be about 152 square meters. The question is: is there enough space? If it's not enough, how long can it delay us? These will be left for further study tomorrow.

Tonight's entertainment is again watching the Patchridge family. Last night Starlight asked me through the magic spell where the group of people who kept laughing from time to time were, and I could only tell her that I didn't know. She then asked why they kept laughing, and again I had to admit that I didn't know.

Mission Log – Solar Day 25

Transcript: Mark Watney's conversation with Starlight Glimmer:

Starlight: Morning~ OK, Mark! (Note: The translation spell has not yet been activated at this time - this sentence was said by Starlight in English! She knows a lot more words! And her pronunciation is quite good!)

Watney (trying to say "good morning" in pony language): 夓~屾~蔔~ah!

Starlight (rubbing her forehead with her hoof, then standing up on her hind legs and covering my mouth with that hoof): Don't do this. (Note: Still in English this time.)

Watney: Is it that bad?

Starlight: Yeah, it's that bad. What happened this morning?

Watney: The plan to convert the cave into a farm goes terribly wrong. I'm now considering the feasibility of a solution without the use of caves. (Note: This sentence was too long for Starlight. She finally activated the translation spell. I repeated the sentence just now.)

Starlight (translator): What's the problem? Can I help?

Watney: No, not unless you can remove tons of perchlorate from the soil.

Starlight: Please say that word again. (spell off)

Watney: High~chlorine~acid~salt.

Starlight (reactivating the spell): What's that thing called "green salt"? Do you want to use it? (Note: Starlight's word "perchlorate" was in English, but the spell was translated anyway, so I heard it as "green salt.")

Watney: Don't want to. I'm going to get rid of that stuff. They are toxic chemicals. is harmful.

Starlight: Chemicals? (She stopped her spell, found a whiteboard and a marker, and then drew the chemical formula of sucrose--well, I only saw "so-and-so"-12, "so-and-so"-11, "so-and-so"- 22 type of symbols, so it is guessed to be sucrose - there is also a water molecule model, and the organic molecular configuration of butane and ethanol) draw it! (Note: This is Starlight’s favorite English word so far.)

Watney (gesturing to Starlight, waiting for her to activate the spell): Do you know the periodic table of elements?

Starlight: (Turns off the spell, takes a moment to talk to himself, and looks very happy after understanding what I want to express) Of course! (I quickly drew an outline on the whiteboard that roughly matched the normal periodic table, but did not add details)

Watney: (Opened the reference software on the computer, found a picture of the periodic table of elements for starlight comparison, then wrote "K Cl O4", and drew a molecular structure diagram of potassium perchlorate. The potassium ion is hanging On the side of perchlorate; later: "Mg (ClO4)*2", magnesium ions are sandwiched on the side of two perchlorates)

Starlight: (Looking at the periodic table, staring at my drawing for a while, and then making some drafts in pony text at the bottom of the whiteboard) No problem, done! (Note: Still no translation spell this time.)

Watney: You mean you can solve this problem?

Starlight: Speak slowly. (This is another word commonly used by Starlight in recent days)

Watney (word by word): Can you do it?

Starlight: It can be done. That's right.

Watney: Can you extract all the perchlorate in dozens of tons of soil?

Starlight (activating the spell again): I have an idea. It takes some time to research. No problem, don’t worry!

(Xingguang looked very tired at this time, so I signaled the end of the conversation.)

I should have asked her about the air supply just now. To be honest, that issue is actually quite urgent. I have to find a way to fill a certain tank with air, move it to the cave to release it, and then release some of the Martian atmosphere into the habitation module so that the oxygenator and air conditioner can make it breathable.

I came up with a plan for this. The ascent vehicle has been operating diligently on the surface of Mars for several years, producing its own thruster fuel by mixing hydrogen brought from Earth with carbon contained in the Martian atmosphere. The fuel generation device was located inside the landing stage, so the crew launched the aircraft and dumped it on Mars. It was lucky that it was not damaged in the storm. This means I have a machine that can compress the Martian atmosphere into liquid form and store it in a tank. If I wanted to collect oxygen, I would have to release the gas into the habitat and wait for the oxygen synthesizer to slowly process it, but at least it is a method. The real problem was that the solution was too slow; and if the cave leaked faster than we could inflate it, the plan would be ruined.

But it's clear that Starlight now has a magic idea in her little head. I have noticed that every time Starlight wants to solve a major problem, her first reaction is to immediately take out her shiny magic box. And even now I can still recall the day when she accidentally shot a stone as a bullet, which almost shot through the canvas of the habitation cabin within twenty degrees. I have no idea what kind of "scientific" experiment she was conducting, but at least I'm glad she didn't dare try it a second time.

It was obvious that their team members were well aware of her magical obsession. Much of their first few arguments made more sense in retrospect. The battery meter reading didn't go up much overnight, but dropped sharply as soon as it was used, as we all saw. Apparently they wanted her to save some of her magical energy for things that really mattered.

"Yeah, but the other unicorns in Equestria can always use great magic!" "We're not in Equestria now, are we? Finish the porridge and continue playing with the mud. !" "Disgusting! Can't you just let me play for a while..."

I know that what I just said is somewhat inconsistent with the image you have come to expect from Mark Watney, the fearless interstellar explorer who is usually astute. I'm actually in a bad mood right now. I just ran some numbers and the situation is worse than I thought.

A mature alfalfa plant maintained according to normal standards can produce less than three and a half tons of fodder per acre at harvest time. The four ponies here are much smaller than their Earth relatives, requiring only about two pounds of food per day. (Even though Dragonfly almost never eats, I still include her in it. How come she didn’t starve to death? She still looks as healthy as when they first arrived here. I must ask Starlight one day .) I did a simple calculation and found that if no safety margin was considered at all, the food output of 220 square meters of cultivated land would be enough for the four of them to last until the next harvest.

Note that I just used the word "them", I am not included. I can't eat alfalfa. Oh, I forgot, I can still eat the leaves, but not the stems. My digestive system can't process the fiber. And I just assumed they were okay, after all, they haven't let me down when it comes to food so far. For me, once the food package is gone, there are only endless potatoes waiting for me.

But, remember the data we mentioned yesterday? Even if we count all the places that can preserve soil and store gas except beds, workbench, airlock and rover, we only have about 152 square meters. Even if Dragonfly is really a magical insect that can survive purely by being hugged by sunlight, this little space is not enough. And if that were to happen, the total land area left for me to grow potatoes would approach zero.

So what if we change our thinking, completely abandon the alfalfa plan, and switch entirely to potatoes? Of course, the non-root parts of this plant are poisonous, but I've seen these ponies eat the gravy mixed with mashed potatoes from my food bag before without hesitation, so I guess it's not a big problem. (I haven't told them how the gravy is made.) I presume the tubers are edible to them.

After careful calculation, the situation is getting worse. Although I can plant another layer on top of a layer of potatoes, stacking the layers until there are more potatoes than soil - in this way, the soil will be completely scrapped after a few harvests, but it has no effect on me. But even so, according to my calculations, under the most optimistic conditions, there are only about 2200 potatoes every sixty to seventy days. If the soil nutrition can keep up, approximately 5500 calories can be consumed per day between harvests. It's okay if it's just me, but it's barely manageable if there are three of us, assuming we stay tied to the bed all day.

But 1100 calories per person (horse) is completely insufficient. We will be so undernourished that we won't even have the energy left to take care of the plants after a week. This plan simply doesn't work.

Having said that, I would like to remind you that all the above data estimates are based on the output under the most ideal situation. I ignored any possible insect infestations or plant diseases and kept up with the daily care of the plants. If I couldn't get the alfalfa to grow properly in the shallow soil, or if the potatoes refused to grow tubers because the soil was overcrowded, or if there were errors in the data or any number of other factors, all the estimated production values ​​I just threw out would just be reduced. increase.

In fact, our whole purpose is to produce food faster than we consume it, so that if the food reserves are exhausted, or something big happens, or maybe even the soil loses its fertility completely, we will still have food left. Next point is emergency stockpiling. And this is the most serious problem from a long-term perspective. Alfalfa may help fix nitrogen in the soil, but at the same time it will also consume large amounts of potassium and phosphorus. Although the soil around the residential area is full of volcanic ash accumulated over billions of years, both elements are abundant, but they are limited after all. Even if the bacterial activity in the deep soil can bring up mineral elements from the lower layer as a supplement, the soil layer in residential areas will not go much deeper. When all the nutrients in the cultivated land are exhausted, we must have enough food reserves to last until rescue arrives.

Habitat pods alone are not a long-term solution. Whether there is perchlorate in it or not, the cave has to be put to use.

I just noticed something: dragonflies can do magic. I just saw her levitate a marker like Starlight does sometimes. However, the color of her magic is green, which is different from Starlight's bright blue. It's really strange.

They now occupied the area next to the privacy curtain of the compost bin, drawing many schematics on it, looking like they were studying how to remove the cargo airlock from the spacecraft. Apparently they thought there was a way to completely seal the cave. Starlight doesn't even seem to take the perchlorate issue seriously.

I just hope their ideas work.