My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

Mission Log – Solar Day 302

We have a trailer.

With magic and a little hands-on guidance, it only took about ten minutes to place the remains of the Pony spacecraft on the chassis of Rover 299. But then we spent a total of eleven hours of EVA on solar days 300 and to make sure it was fixed. The three guys squeezed into a gap that was designed to only accommodate one person. They crawled around each other while trying to reach up with socket wrenches equipped with various sockets. There was always a nut that didn't get stuck. The thread fell into the groove we were in, and it took a lot of fumbling to find it... By the way, did I not mention wearing a space suit? think about it. And space suits. Sour and refreshing.

We now have improvised simple brackets or clamps in forty-four different locations, bolted tightly to the rover's chassis components. But we have to do this. Excerpt 5-E of the Sirius tandem rover retrofit plan details that we should reuse or install new "hard points, the more the better," and NASA definitely has a point. We need all of these, and probably more.

Even completely empty, with everything we could remove, and even with nearly half of the hull cut off, the Friendship weighed at least sixteen tons. Every bump in the road, every shake, every tilt of the body puts tremendous pressure on these connection points, and if they hang up along the way, we're screwed. We can no longer reduce the weight of the spacecraft - in fact, every subsequent modification will increase the weight of the spacecraft. So our only option other than welding the spacecraft and rover chassis directly together (which we might actually do if Starlight has this spell and we can find something to use as welding filler) is to reuse small Every pre-existing hole in the bottom of the hull of the horse spaceship was installed, every fastener available was installed, and it was tied to somewhere on the rover chassis.

And we did. Fortunately, the rover's chassis is a large open grid structure, so it's not too troublesome to fix things up. Unfortunately this meant we had to wear spacesuits and twist socket wrenches through the chassis grid, which is why it took us two full solar days to install the forty-four hardpoints.

In comparison, yesterday's task seemed much simpler - complete the connection of the vehicle tow hook assembly and connect all the pipes connecting the No. 2 rover's life support system and the Pony spacecraft. I've drilled holes in the spacecraft's pressure tank hull and installed their vacuum self-sealing valves. So with the help of Starlight Glimmer and Dragonfly, I just had to run a few new lines a few inches between the tow hook and the stern of the ship (don't forget, the ship is mounted on the chassis upside down), and then Go inside the spacecraft and arrange the pipelines from the No. 1 rover's life support system and a bunch of auxiliary lines next to the installation location of the large life support system equipment box. That's it.

But in addition, it requires a little special treatment. The life support system equipment box was originally installed in the machinery bay below. It cracked during landing and is now a pile of scrap metal where we can access the bolts. The air supply lines on the Pony spacecraft will automatically seal if any cabin loses pressure, but we also need to use these lines to make lines between the equipment box and the old life support system of Rover 1. This meant that the two additional holes in the pressure tank shell needed to be patched, two plugs cut precisely and threaded into the bulkhead, and sealed with a sealing ring made of changeling slime.

It's not that difficult to put this plug in. The really hard part was depressurizing the habitable section before we could remove the section of pipe we wanted, so we had to move the hay stored in the ship a third time. Moving hay took twice as long as the other EVA tasks combined.

But we pushed through and now the only work left on the trailer life support system is to install the equipment box into its new home and connect the air supply hose and faucet. We even used the extra EVA time to install light strips, so the spacecraft finally had some real lighting again. The ponies only had one light bulb left in each cabin, and all the spare parts were gone.

The next step is to attach as many solar panels as possible to permanent mounting brackets on top of the spacecraft. This required careful planning because (among many other reasons) the height of the top of the spacecraft from the ground posed a certain hazard - the spacecraft was now mounted much higher than its own rear landing gear. After the car was installed on the chassis, the problem became even more serious than before.

I don't think it's a big problem. There are only two steps left in the trailer conversion plan, and four more for Rover 320 (since I have decided not to take Pathfinder on the road). Even if we take it easy and take our time, we will definitely be able to finish it before Sol 420. And since the test included a step that required us to shut down the cave farm, I planned to wait until at least Sol before doing so. So there's really nothing to rush about now. Time is not an issue.

I especially hope to be able to relax Ting Ting. It's certainly a good thing to see her back, and she looks a little plumper now that she's out of her cocoon. But she still looks like a bug horse who has only had chemotherapy. She was nowhere near as energetic as she had been before she entered the chrysalis, and as hard as she tried to hide it, it was obvious that she tired easily. Her return to health will be a slow and drawn-out process - which is the main reason I don't plan on shutting down the farm just yet.

Tomorrow we will stop at Cave Farm for a while, and then Starlight and I will head east again to find a new place to collect salt. After baking so many homemade chips for the party, our salt shaker is now at the bottom. Then we had a chance to look at what safety measures I could put in place while I was on top of the spacecraft fixing the solar panels. After that, we will spend a day moving the solar panels closer to the habitation module, so that they will be easier to operate.

Oh, by the way, I should also take the time to rebuild the power converter I cobbled together and add an outlet that can plug into the solar panel. I have found another reason not to put my life in the hands of a unicorn that unfortunately often disconnects without warning when using magic. I can't believe I have any concerns about this.

Well, that's the case. We'll take our time. Hopefully Mars will spare us.