My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

At the dawn of the seventh solar day, including the days of hard work in space, a full 131 mission days have passed. Just after noon, a Mars Ascension Vehicle (MAV) carrying the five surviving members of the Ares 3 mission docked with Hermes. This spacecraft carries astronauts to Mars and also carries the mission of returning them to Earth.

NASA's regulations regarding the termination of such missions are very strict. During several years of training, the crew members have conducted similar simulations many times: on the second Martian day, about two terrestrial weapons were collected around the landing site and loaded into the MAV. Fifteen kilograms, or one-twentieth of the total load, of rock samples (originally intended to prevent the mission from being unplanned and all the money wasted) will be unloaded. After that, the vehicle will break away from the mothership and enter the geostationary orbit according to the program, serving as another communication relay satellite in orbit. Hermes will then control the engine thrust in a pre-calculated manner to return to Earth as quickly as possible. The sooner Hermes leaves Mars, the less time and energy will be consumed on the long journey back to Earth.

The first to exit the vehicle was Beth Johnson, mission systems operations executive officer and computer specialist. She is responsible for inspecting Hermes - the most expensive spacecraft in human history - and preparing it for flight. Normally, an assistant would assist her in completing the test, but this time the situation changed.

Alex Vogel was the second person to step off the upgraded vehicle on Mars. He is affiliated with ESA and is the chemical researcher and navigator for this operation. The German scientist floated one of two plastic boxes filled with soil and rocks toward the experimental cabin, preparing to store them there. Normally, these samples are not the responsibility of Vogel, but again, that changes.

Next up was Maj. Rick Martinez from the U.S. Air Force, wheeling another box of samples. He served as driver and second-in-command of the operation. He has always been the prankster and jokester of the entire crew. He is usually as cheerful and sunny as a typical pilot, but today he is very serious and focused, as if he is being forced by an unkind training officer. When they were forced to abort the mission, it was he who controlled the aircraft that was nearly overturned in this unprecedented storm. After that, he will also be fully responsible for the orbital maneuvers of Hermes on its return journey.

The last two remaining crew members reluctantly floated out of the aircraft. Commander Melissa Lewis, from the U.S. Navy and the overall commander and geographical expert for the operation, floated through the airlock, followed closely by Chris Baker, the team physician and EVA specialist. Lewis was silent, even when Vogel offered to carry the sample for the commander, he remained silent. In fact, she had barely spoken since giving the order for the vehicle to take off. Bess was therefore very worried about her mental condition and decided to follow her closely, staying close until Hermes completed her change of course. This requires Mars to orbit three times, which corresponds to almost a full day on Earth.

Lewis didn't notice Beth and didn't care. In fact, she had indeed been paying attention to the activities around her, but in the end, she decided not to worry about it.

cheer up! Melissa, she warned herself, you are the commander in chief of the operation, and the other four astronauts are still counting on you whether they can go home or not. Your leadership and encouragement are their pillars. What they need is not that you are at a loss now, they want to see that you have a plan in mind.

right. Of the other four astronauts, only one is missing.

She felt like her heart was scratching her head when she saw the empty sixth seat, which was originally the seat of Mark Watney, the engineer and plant researcher of this operation. Even if Johnson saw with his own eyes that Watney was knocked away by the antenna that pierced him; even if his life monitoring device showed zero vital signs before it failed, these are no excuses. I should have brought all five back, but I only brought four. This is my fault.

No! This was a complete accident! A sudden sandstorm! You have already violated the operational regulations in order to search and rescue him! You have tried your best.

Is it really? Did I really try my best? There must be another way. I could order the operation to be suspended earlier, I could ask everyone to gather closer, and I could also order everyone to fasten their seat belts.

But how could you guess what was going to happen? You had no idea at the time that this could have happened to Johnson, it could have happened to Baker, it could have happened to you, there was no way...

No, there must be a way...

She thought about it over and over in her mind, numbly letting Baker guide her towards the bridge. When she got there, she saw her workbench; Baker really knew her well and helped her sit down and fasten her seat belt. The indicator light of unread messages on the terminal was flashing. It must be from NASA. After all, NASA has been monitoring their communications since they aborted their mission and launched back to the ship, even though they were 4 light minutes away. Real-time assistance is not possible. Apparently, they have received the news about Watney's accident and have any feedback on it.

She did not wait for Johnson (responsible for information downloading) to operate, but directly operated the terminal to start playing the information.

The screen showed Mitch Henderson's square-jawed, angular face. He is the ground manager for this mission and the immediate boss of the Ares 1, 2 and 3 mission control centers. How is this going? Lewis thought to himself, this completely violates the mission agreement. Where is our usual liaison?

"Hermes, this is Mitch Henderson," he said. "We have learned about the situation. I understand that Mark Watney's misfortune has hit you hard. He is a great man and a brave astronaut." He will be deeply remembered and cherished by everyone involved in the operation."

After hearing this, Baker let out a sigh of relief. Lewis ignored him and continued to breathe normally. No matter what kind of stimulation you experience, as a commander, you cannot relax at all.

"Normally, what we have to do is do our best to ensure that the crew members return to Earth safely." Michie continued, "But Dr. Kapol, the leader of the Ares project, Venkat Kapol, wanted to hand over A new mission for you." He paused and looked down at the stack of documents in his hand. "We got scans of all the satellite photos, which were taken before and after the mission was aborted. There is someone who operates the satellite system. Comrade, she..." Mitch glanced at the file sideways, "Her name is Mindy Parker... He found something strange in the photos taken by two of the satellites. I will send you the high-resolution photo files later, now. If so, this is the first photo.”

Miche's face on the screen turned into a full-color satellite photo. The background is still Mars, but it is completely different from the Ashidaria Plain area where the Ares 3 mission is located. It is a completely new area.

And in the most obvious position of the photo, where there should have been nothing, there is something pink. Not only is it pink, but based on a few pixels, it can be judged that it is two pointy things, definitely not anything known to humans. Small celestial bodies or meteorites. The unusually soft colors on this unknown object appear unusually abrupt on Mars, as if the pitted surface of Mars suddenly glows with fresh and healthy skin.

"The second photo is not very high quality," Mitch said. "It's not shown in the video anymore, but it captured an aircraft-sized object descending into a sandstorm, just seven minutes before you aborted the operation. Parks believes , based on the time when these two photos were taken, we can roughly infer the trajectory of this object. It should have landed on the surface of Mars ten kilometers northeast of the Mars base two minutes before the action was terminated. The error range is about thirty kilometers. .Obviously things did not develop in the expected direction.

Lewis stared closely at the little pink thing in the photo. Even when the scene cuts back to Mitch Henderson, it's still there, lingering in her eyes.

"To be honest, we don't know for sure what it is, let alone make any guesses," Mitch continued, "but Dr. Capol has convinced NASA President Teddy Sanders. He said that even the worst-case scenario Next, we may also be lucky enough to observe the effect of meteorites impacting the surface of Mars. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Remember, any other point of view,” added Mitch, his lips pressed tightly together, and it was obvious that he was not interested in this. Disagree, "It's all groundless."

Groundless news? Lewis thought to himself, it is obvious that this is not a fragment left by a celestial body at all. The most likely fragment with this color is from the Kuiper Belt, but if so, we should have been able to observe it a few months ago. The comet is trailing, not to mention that it cannot persist for so long, until now. So, if this thing doesn't exist naturally, what could it be?

"I want to emphasize here," Mitchell continued, "this is not a joke. No NASA member would do such a thing without losing his colleagues. These photo attachments are original and have not been Any modifications. The satellite shots were sent directly to us. So they are absolutely authentic and very important.

"This matter is very important, so we can't let you return to Earth yet." Mitchell picked up a page of documents and looked at it. "This message comes with a series of orbit calibrations for you to choose from. Of course, It depends on how quickly you can complete the Hermes pre-flight checklist. Then we will send you to the lowest orbit Hermes can reach. Hermes carries more powerful lenses than any satellite. And when you get close to the edge of the Martian atmosphere At this time, Hermes' ion engine can minimize the risk of your deorbiting, and it can last for at least a week. This is also the time we want to extend this operation.

"Your mission is to search for the area where the object is expected to land, including twice the cone error area. Once you find it, take as many photos of it as possible and send them to us." Mi Qie made it clear. Clearing his throat and looking embarrassed, he continued, "Of course, this area also includes the Mars base. Considering that there are supplies reserved for future mission operations here, and it will be put into use again in the future, the doctor hopes that you can take a photo A photo of the Mars base. But after all, you just lost Mark Watney. If you feel very sorry, you can choose not to perform this mission, and we can also use satellites to take pictures."

"And," Mitchell raised his voice and said word by word, "You can't, I repeat, you can't let the vehicle break away now. We will let Hermes take it to another orbit and let it go. It may pass over the search area. We are still gradually carrying out this work, and we will return control to you as soon as we are ready."

"Once again, we would like to express our deep condolences to Mark Watney. If there is anything NASA can do to help you on the ground, you can ask me anything through the spacecraft communication in the next few days. Henderson communication is completed."

The video ended, and Lewis shook his head with mixed feelings in his heart. This is probably the message that all the crew members are looking forward to. But...but! !

"Commander, do you need me to gather the others?" Baker asked quietly, "They must also want to see this."

Lewis nodded, "Go, go now." She suppressed her sobs, took a few deep breaths, pressed a few buttons, and transferred the two photos to her screen. The small pointed object in the first photo, vaguely light pink, was flying towards the edge of the spreading sandstorm against a huge shock wave.

Why, she thought, was the greatest discovery in the history of space always accompanied by such tragedy?

Ares 3 Mission Log: Solar Day 07

How could I be so lucky? I, Mark Watney, have become the first human being to see intelligent alien life. I am truly blessed. But the problem is, even if I and the alien life are long gone, no one will know about it.

I am writing in my journal while having brunch with them. No one knows whether they can eat earth food, but I think there is no other choice. Anyway, what happened was that five of my colleagues had just set out for Hermes, and like magic, the five of them appeared and just filled the empty seats on the table.

I know what you are worried about. I want to save food rations for as long as I can. How can I just share it with alien refugees? You're right, but if I understand what they drew right, we are all trapped on Mars now, so I think if we cooperate, our chances of survival will be greater.

What's more, if the situation gets worse, I can still use them as food rations, right?

Well, I just looked at their cute big eyes, so endearing and sincere, and I regretted making this stupid joke. No, I won't eat anyone here, not even if they die of natural causes. (Including deaths from NASA food, which is really hard to say, but so far no one has shown signs of choking or getting something stuck in their throat.)

It was obvious that we didn't speak the same language. Their language sounds a bit Welsh, well, at least that's what I imagine it to be. Anyway, I've never heard such language. This alien language is full of high-pitched nasal sounds and gargling accents, and the only consonant is L.

So we could only communicate by drawing on a whiteboard, a bit like playing Draw and Guess at a party, except we were all on the same team and we were playing this game to survive.

Did I mention that four of the five of them can only hold markers in their mouths? I wonder how many brain cells they consume to draw a picture.

I can probably guess their experiences. They set off from a certain planet in a spaceship. This planet is very similar to the earth except that the continental plates are completely different. Their destination after setting off is another planet in the galaxy, just like the purpose of our Hermes ride.

But the spacecraft was damaged for unknown reasons. The aliens who drew the picture only drew black smoke coming from behind their small rocket boosters. Another alien had a fierce argument with her. I guess she wanted to point out Smoke shouldn't look like this in space, and the alien who painted it just wanted to keep it simple. To me, if in their culture black smoke means "the ship is damaged" like in ours, then they must have a lot in common with us.

I'm curious about what other things our cultures have in common.

And should I clear my web browsing history?

In short, something broke on their spacecraft, causing the spacecraft to deviate from its destination, arrive at Mars, and then crash-land on the Martian continent with a loud bang.

But the next part was more difficult to understand. All of them drew two or three pictures and tried to explain it to me, but I couldn't understand it. I guess the most likely scenario is that the spacecraft hit the ground and knocked out their life support systems. Either there was a hole in the hull, or their oxygen tank was cracked, I'm not sure. But then, they showed me what the inside of their space suits looked like. First, there was a navigation ball exactly like the one during the Apollo moon landing, with a flashing bright spot painted on it. Then they drew a few hasty strokes of the Mars base, and finally drew themselves walking in a row toward the base.

It is obvious that the base beacon is still working normally. Perhaps this is the only communication device left that can still function normally. No radio can hear nothing but noise. It’s not surprising, after all, I was pierced by a broken antenna at that time. When I returned to the base yesterday, I knew that the dish antenna was broken. The beacon, on the other hand, has its own internal antenna, so that's all that's left to work. But its signal range is only about 25 kilometers, and it can only send signals in one direction, because, alas (forget it, I won’t explain)...

Then I guess they are also trapped on Mars, and they should stay with me during this period of time. The last time anyone came to sleep with me was when I was a freshman at the University of Chicago. The downside is that there is no privacy at all when my non-existent Martian girlfriend comes to visit me from where I live in Canada. The advantage is that you no longer have to worry about finding someone to play Dungeons and Dragons with.

Gan! If I had known, I would have come with the dice.

What? Who is my new roommate, you ask? Well... I don't know their names yet, but I can describe their appearance to you, and then you will be able to recognize who I am talking about when you look at the photos I took.

Four of them are four-legged creatures, to be precise, ungulates - yes, they have no hands, they have four hooves, and the hooves are not divided - they have horse-like hooves, but their hooves are Not glossy black, but the same color as their fur. Speaking of which, three of them have fur colors that are far from normal animals. But they are alien life after all, how can I explain it?

Oh my God, I saw them take off their zippered and zippered spacesuits, which were three yards long, and none of the designs were as advanced as mine, and by the way, they didn't need my or anyone else's help at all. You can take off your spacesuit without a thumb or index finger, and the whole process is effortless. I'm still confused about how they do it. I don't know what method they use to grab the cable with their hooves and pull it off. Maybe it's because they are alien creatures.

I have a feeling I'm going to say "because they're aliens" countless times later.

The first of these alien creatures is pink, just like the beauty princess dress-up dollhouse that my little sister usually plays in. It has a fluffy golden mane and ponytail. The friendliest of them all and almost always responsible for communicating with me through drawings. Every time they discussed or argued, she was always the one who had the final say. I guess she's the leader of them all, similar to Commander Louise. There was something similar to a logo on her lower waist. I didn't dare to look closer, lest I get involved in an interstellar sexual harassment lawsuit. despite this. From a distance it looks a bit like a bunch of cherries.

"But Mark," I know what you are going to say, "this is an alien creature. The biological environment on its planet must be completely different from that of the earth! How could it print a cherry logo on PP?" I want to say this. Said: This mark does look like a cherry, so I call her Sakura.

The second one among them is the one who has been struggling with how to draw the black smoke coming out of the spaceship. She had a unicorn horn and I guessed she belonged to another race. I'm not sure about this. Maybe their antlers can fall off seasonally like deer antlers, or maybe she has one that has been genetically modified..., or maybe it's because she had surgery to install it on herself for some reason. sex toys on. But I still insist that this is a unicorn horn, because her mark is not a cherry, but a very abstract and magical star with wavy patterns. I'll just call her Xiaomo for now.

In short, including the unicorn, Xiao Mo's whole body is a very light purple color that cannot be named scientifically. She has a dark purple mane and ponytail with turquoise or cyan stripes. For some reason, she always looked tired, and her companions were worried about her appearance. Hopefully she didn't suffer any internal injuries during the crash.

One more thing is about Xiao Mo. When they get to me and take off their spacesuits, the first thing they do is look for a bathroom. (I can’t blame them, the last time they were convenient was in another galaxy) But after that, the little devil found me and counted with me with his hooves, first the prime numbers, then the square numbers, then the cubic numbers, and then, She counted the Fibonacci numbers - all by stomping her hooves. Obviously this means one thing, she is an avid science fiction fan and has read all the classic science fiction stories of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Maybe the tricks in these stories really are universal.

Let’s talk about the third alien creature. Do you remember that I said that the first one was a bit like Lewis in temperament, and this one is very similar to Lewis in words and deeds. She was the only one who never had a smile on her face from beginning to end, and always looked prepared. I don’t know what the four-legged creature looks like when she’s serious, but that’s probably how she usually looks. The only flaw on her body is her eyelids, which are always half drooped. Even if aliens don't think she is naturally cold, they still think she is listless.

This one doesn't have a horn, but has a pair of wings. You heard that right, including wings, she has three pairs of limbs. Yesterday, she wanted to fly in the base for no reason. She kept flapping her wings like a chicken, but she still couldn't fly. Those wings are simply too small to support flight. Her fur is light orange, and her mane is bright orange at the roots and dark orange at the tips. Her symbol is a fireball. I'll just call her Fireball.

Next is the fourth one. Everyone has seen a movie about aliens at least once, right? Imagine a creature that is a cross between an alien and Sakura, a little devil, or a fireball, and you can roughly guess what it looks like. It has large light blue insect eyes, which are faintly glowing, but they are not compound eyes. The eyes don't have irises and pupils like other alien creatures. Except for the blue eyes, everything else is black from head to toe, and there is a pair of insect wings on its back (even weaker than the wings of the fireball. When it wants to fly here, the sound of the wings vibrating is almost overtaken. It still couldn't fly despite the roar of the outboard engine.) And, strangely, its limbs were covered with holes, as if it had Swiss cheese genes in its body.

Chongchong (I temporarily gave her this name) has to study everything. She first found the bathroom and taught everyone how to use it, but she didn't use it herself. What's even weirder is that she didn't eat any food last night or today, although she did sneak a sip of my coffee. I've only politely directed it elsewhere a few times, including twice while I'm writing this, to save her from seeing something more sensitive.

Then came the last one. The only thing it had in common with the others was the language. First, I inferred from his voice, which was two octaves lower, that he was a male. Secondly, it is not a four-legged creature with hooves, but a bipedal reptilian creature that can stand on its two longer hind legs. It's almost a human being, except for some small differences, such as the claws on the feet, the scales on the body, the legs with toe walking characteristics, you know, there are not many differences. Other aliens occasionally stand on their hind legs to fetch objects or stumble around, but he can always stand or walk on two legs. He has a spiked tail that is half as long as his legs. He also has a section of space on his space suit specifically for his long tail.

He's a little taller than me. It would therefore be a head and a half taller than Johnson and other alien creatures would stand. Although he was very tall, he was very slender, like a snake with four limbs and a dragon head. Most of his body is white, with a neat red stripe running along both sides of his body and forming a V around his neck. The ridge on the back of the head is dark yellow, like a fattened Godzilla. The broad front ridge protrudes toward the forehead, as if he had a stubby hair. I haven't decided yet whether to call him Dragon or Puff.

Several of the other aliens are ungulates, so I've been thinking of them as herbivores, which isn't quite the case. I've been preparing a vegetarian diet for them, and I have a quarter of my bagged food stash. Contains no meat but plant-based protein. In this way, they can be stored longer and save costs. NASA's move really kills two birds with one stone. But the last one is an omnivore. When I say omnivorous, I mean that he chews the bagged food without opening it or heating it. Although to be honest, this may be a bit of a show off, but the tough guy temperament in him is really hard to hide.

Okay, I've been rambling for more than half an hour, so I'll stop here. I had to make sure everything was in place so that all six of us could survive. That means cleaning out the solar panels and making sure they survive the sandstorm. Then check all key equipment, including oxygen generators, air conditioners and water recovery devices.

I still have to pack up a rover. If the inspection of the Mars base can be completed, tomorrow I will ask my new friends to take me to their spacecraft to see what can be recovered. Especially the food, this is definitely a must visit. I hope that the landing point of their spacecraft will be within the 10 kilometers specified in the mission regulations. If the Mars rover runs out of power halfway, we will not know what year or month it will be until the towing service company comes over.