My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

Music played in Venkat Kapoor's sleeping mind. He turned over on the bed and tried to cover his head with a pillow to block out the sound, but failed to stop his wife from hitting him in the ribs with her elbow. Awakened by the dual stimulation of his wife and the ringtone of his mobile phone, he struggled to crawl out of bed and groped for his mobile phone. "you are?"

"Is Dr. Capol here? I'm Mindy Parker."

"Is it night or morning?" Venkat asked drowsily.

"I don't know. I've been living on Martian time lately," Mindy replied, "around ten in the morning. The latest Martian satellite pictures show that Watney is acting strangely. You'd better come and take a look. "

If it had been twenty years ago, Venkat would have been completely sleepless and refreshed at this time. However, time is not forgiving. For a scientist who still holds a high position in middle age, just resting according to the normal work schedule is tiring enough. "I...will be right over," he yawned, "can you briefly tell me what happened now?"

"He's working over there at the solar array," Mindy replied, "and has spelled out a giant 'M' so far. The alien is helping him collect rocks to make a pile on the north side of the solar array."

No coffee, but the news was refreshing. "Aim all the imaging equipment you have at the residential area," he said. "I'll be there in half an hour."

Teddy looked through the printed images, and the photos he had seen were pulled out of the folder and placed at the end of the file. "Morse code," he said, "that's a good idea." His expression became slightly subtle as he turned to the last page. "Hacker slang? I thought this kind of antique from the last century was already outdated. That stupid thing has always been useless."

"It can indeed save some words," Mindy replied quietly from the side, "Uh... and even if you zoom in to the maximum magnification and the image enhancement is fully turned on, you still have to pile up a lot of rocks to see a message clearly from orbit. .”

"'Currently alive - Sol 32. Hit by antenna. Major accident. Not crew member's fault. Recovering. Food supplies depleted on Sol 307. Five aliens, food depleted on Sol 85, if Share Ares reserves up to solar day 118. Plant more.'" Teddy glanced at it, "Looks like those aliens are pretty miserable."

"Can't he say more?" Anne asked. "We already know this information except the aliens' food situation."

"It took him a full seven hours to spell out this message." Venkat disagreed. "Before, he spent an hour moving the battery panels to spell out the word 'MORSE'. This was still him. There are helpers.”

"Almost all the stones within a two-hundred-meter radius of the residential area have been used up." Mindy added.

"Excuse me," Anne looked impatient, "When will his next message be?"

"Maybe not," Venkat said. "He doesn't know when we will see this message, or even whether we are watching it."

"How could he not know?" Anne asked, "Of course we are watching! Who the hell wouldn't watch carefully at this time?"

"Well, actually," Teddy raised his hand, "Annie, if it weren't for seeing those aliens, we wouldn't have been observing until now. I admit that this was the decision I made at the time, and I'm very happy about it. This decision has not really taken effect. But what Venkat said is true. Watney has no way of knowing whether we are observing or not." He dusted off the information in his hands again, "But I am curious about his last sentence.'Planting More. 'Xiaowen, what do you think?"

Venkat shrugged. "I think he is trying to grow more food," he said in a straightforward tone. "After all, he is a botanist. Before signing up to be an astronaut, he was busy managing the desert environment in Africa. live."

"This is one of the reasons why he was selected." Mitch Henderson, who had previously collapsed in his chair, suddenly said something.

"Do you think he can do it?" Teddy asked.

"Can't tell," Venkat said bluntly, "but it doesn't matter what I think. Watney thinks he can do it."

"What's he going to do?" Teddy asked.

Venkat shrugged anyway. "I can call in a bunch of experts if you want," he said, "but my guess is he'll use every container he can find in the habitat to collect water from the Martian permafrost and create a hydroponic garden."

"Uh," Mindy interrupted, "I don't think so. Remember those EVAs he had with the aliens? We couldn't guess what he was doing then? But they always came out of the airlock. Coming in and out, I guess maybe they were collecting top soil.”

"It's impossible." Venkat shook his head. "The Martian soil is poisonous, and the space in the residential area is not enough for traditional agriculture."

"Call some experts," Teddy said, "and let them analyze both possibilities. For example, does Watney have enough clean water to build a hydroponic garden, and whether there are enough materials in the living area; what if the Martian soil If it can be used for planting, ask Watney what he has to do to meet the requirements, and whether the food grown in the residential area is enough to eat."

"Got it." Venkat was taking notes.

Teddy then asked into the loudspeaker, "Bruce, how long will the supply mission for Mark take?"

"No sooner." Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director Bruce Wu replied, "We have roughly analyzed all possible launch scenarios from today to the next Hohmann transfer window in 21 months. Right now it is to carry a payload to Mars. At its worst, a launch from Earth orbit to Mars would require four times the speed increment, and anything launched in the next four to five months would have to wait until at least about 570 Sol to arrive.”

"Explain it." Teddy didn't give up.

"The Earth's orbit around the sun is now ahead of Mars," Bruce said. "In addition to the acceleration required to reach Mars, the direct flight path also requires the aircraft to offset the orbital momentum attached to the Earth and compensate for the impact of the sun's gravity. These. At present, no human creation can meet the requirements. So in fact, the things we launch will be thrown into the orbit of Mars like mortar shells, and then wait for Mars to slowly catch up. The aircraft will move towards the perihelion of Mars. Landing in the process."

"What would happen if we did that?" Teddy asked.

"It's still not great, but at least it can be done." Bruce replied, "As I mentioned before, if it were launched today, it would require more than four times the usual speed increase, and the heavy-lift launch vehicle with the highest thrust we have is The booster of the Hawkeye 300 probe. In this way, the weight that can be carried to Mars can reach about 300 kilograms." The loudspeaker was suddenly silent for a while, and Bruce stopped to take a breath and continued, "Pay attention here. kilograms is not a full amount of food, it also has to include the aircraft carrying the food and the landing system to ensure that the aircraft is delivered intact and accurately."

"And in the coming days, as the sun's gravity has to be offset during orbit, the need for incremental speed will decrease day by day. When we can actually prepare something to launch - just think of it as a After a hundred days - the payload weight will rise to 900 kilograms. I emphasize again," Bruce emphasized, "the weight mentioned here includes the aircraft in addition to the food."

"But the real problem," Bruce continued, "is that the final arrival dates for all available orbits are between 570 and 610 solar days, and no matter what adjustments we make, it won't speed up the process."

"Keep thinking of a way." Teddy replied, "You can plan two supply missions if necessary. We should be able to get another booster from somewhere else. All in all, we have to find a way to send it to him as soon as possible. As much food as possible.”

"It might be useful if I could know how much supplies to send." Bruce emphasized.

"Speaking of which, there's one thing I didn't understand about Watney's news," Venkat interjected. "He said his food would last for three hundred days. And we previously knew that if he was alone and carried out Food rationing can last until solar day 400. But he also mentioned that the aliens will run out of food on solar day 85, and said that "sharing Ares reserves can last until solar day 118." This is mathematically correct There’s a problem. For some reason, with the same food, the aliens can only last until 118 solar days, but Watney can last until 300 solar days.”

"Maybe the aliens have food allergies." Annie joked casually.

"That's a good idea," Teddy said.

"Not bad for your size!" Annie replied, "I was joking just now!"

"I'm serious." Teddy said, "Maybe they can only eat a few types of Earth foods. Xiaowen, let the nutritionists of the Ares Project check the surface supplement list of the Ares 3 Project and follow the known allergens and Categorize the food packages by common food types. Ask them to find out what makes three-quarters of Project Ares food packages unfit for alien consumption."

Venkat silently took another note. He had originally planned to do this, but it was always a good thing to have the support of a big boss behind him. It would be better if, as things develop slowly, the boss can treat the idea as his own.

"We continue to discuss," Teddy said, "Regarding food, the best we can deduce from the photos taken previously in orbit is that Watney's guests should be similar in weight to humans. So we can assume that their food requirements are similar. . In this way, there are six people, and there must be enough food to last until the supplies arrive during the next normal Mars launch window."

"That is solar day 856." Bruce said, "I don't care about the specifics. Anyway, we assume that the aircraft will arrive on solar day 556. The bottom line for six people is a limited food ration of three hundred and fifty days, one kilogram per day, the total is Two thousand one hundred kilograms." The JPL director on the other end of the phone secretly gasped, "The Delta rocket used for the Hawkeye mission cannot do it. How long will it take for SpaceX to prepare a Red Falcon Heavy launch vehicle? ?”

"I'll ask, but don't expect it to happen." Teddy said. "The last time I met with their people, they were still dragging out preparations for the Ares 4 pre-supply mission." He paused. After a pause, the information in my hand turned to the last page. He sorted the order of the materials, refolded the folders, and placed them neatly in the corner of the notepad on the table, "By the way, mentioning Ares 4, the mission plan has changed. The president decided that we cannot wait until the Ares 4 mission starts to rescue Markwater. Nigeria. If the rescue plan on the alien side cannot be implemented smoothly in the near future, this opportunity to establish formal diplomatic relations with extraterrestrial intelligent civilization will put the rescue mission on the top of the schedule."

"Did I hear you correctly?" Bruce Wu asked, "Does Mr. President think we can drive directly to Mars?"

"In fact, he wants us to use Hermes again." Teddy put his hands on the table and leaned forward slightly. "Hermes will dock with the space station within seven months for maintenance and supplies. And the next launch window for Hermes That's 21 months later, so we have 14 months of maintenance to figure out how to make the Hermes carry three more passengers than the six it was originally designed for."

"So how does he think Watney and his friends are going to get to Hermes?" Venkat asked, "The Ares III upgrade is now relaying satellite signals four hundred kilometers above his head."

"If you consider the worst case scenario, he may go to Schiaparelli and use the Ares IV upgrade," Teddy said. "The Ares III-A can change the original plan of transporting the descent and transport an upgrade. Or, if we can contact Watney, maybe he can use the upgraded fuel device on Ares III to generate enough fuel for an upgraded vehicle to land at the Ares III project site and replenish the fuel immediately. Then take off.”

"I will find someone to check whether this method is possible." Bruce was skeptical.

"But we can't be distracted now. The focus is still on transporting supplies to Watney first, and then the rescue plan." Teddy turned to Mitch Henderson, who had been unnaturally silent before, "Mitch, pick a threesome A manned crew on Ares III-A mission. They don't have to land, so there are enough people. One pilot, one doctor, one biologist. These are our most diplomatic astronauts - after all, they have to talk to intelligence. Dealing with alien life.”

"What they're dealing with," muttered Mitch, "is a group of intelligent alien beings that have been living with Mark Watney for over two years."

"It makes sense," Venkat said. "It seems that biologists are going to be replaced by psychologists."

Everyone burst into laughter, but Teddy just silently wrote a few words on his notepad.

Venkat sighed and scribbled on his notes, "The design life of Hermes can support at least five missions." He said, "According to normal maintenance standards, it can be used for about thirty years. The adaptation range of the life support system is also It’s pretty wide, so nine occupants is no big deal other than being a little cramped. At least it’s doable.”

"Why can't we just let the Ares III crew go?" Henderson asked. "At least Lewis, Martinez and Baker. They are desperate to get Watney home safely."

Teddy shook his head, "By the time they come back they have been in space for a year." He said, "They will need time to recuperate after landing, not to mention additional training for the new mission. It's best to Change the crew. Besides," he put his arms on the table again, "every astronaut in the world now wants to bring Watney home."

When it came to the last sentence, everyone unanimously agreed.

Transcript – Hydraulic Telegraph Switch – ESA Maltimore Center ＜-＞ ESA Spacecraft AMICITAS – AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 29

AMICITAS: Amicitas calls Maltimore, over.

AMICITAS: Amicitas calls Maltimore, over.

AMICITAS: Amicitas calls Maltimore, over.

ESA: Maltimore calls Amicitas. You're early this time, it's over.

AMICITAS: Get ready for lots of water, over.

ESA: Detailed description of the transmission flight and landing process. Along with any conclusions you have considered drawing. complete.

AMICITAS: Starlight – The flight was normal until the next morning. The system shut down due to fault protection, and all main engine power supply crystals were damaged. Only two emergency backup batteries remain available. All systems driven by local magic shut down due to lack of environmental magic. Forty minutes later a controlled emergency landing was carried out using the remaining capacity of the emergency and thruster batteries. Current conclusion: Accidentally teleported to a parallel world lacking a parity magic field. complete.

ESA: Repeat – confirmed there is no parity magic field? complete.

AMICITAS: Starlight – Confirmed. Here the life force field is the only source of magic power. The only life on the planet is the Amicitas crew, an alien and a few plants. complete.

ESA: Got it. local time? complete.

AMICITAS: Dragonfly – 11 a.m. local time. Planet days are longer than normal world days. complete.

ESA: Copied. Be prepared to receive long message content tomorrow 21 hours from now. complete.

AMICITAS: The dragonflies – will make buckets of water for you. Communication ends.