My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 403

ARES 3 solar day 396

If the fireball's claws weren't originally white, they would have turned into that color permanently due to fear.

Traveling across the rugged terrain of Mars in what's known as the Sirius Tandem Rover, or what Mark calls a "mobile home," is always planned as a team effort. Mark and Starlight were huddled in the No. 2 rover at the head. Mark was responsible for driving the entire vehicle complex, while Starlight was coordinating the actions of the rest. Berry, Feihuo and Dragonfly explore the terrain ahead, select the smoothest driving path, move smaller obstacles to reduce bumps during driving, and alert the driver when encountering obstacles that are too large to move. Hedging. And in the trailer - this strange combination of the No. 1 rover and the wreckage of Amicitas that has been dismantled into an airtight shell - Fireball is sitting in the driver's seat, controlling the adjustment of the nose wheel that has been modified to support the rear end of the entire vehicle. direction.

Even in practice this is a pretty simple solution. However, Sirius V was the first official practical test of the entire four-dimensional spacecraft under load conditions, and the problems discovered were not simple.

The first issue is of course the balance of the vehicle. This simply put together trailer is slightly taller than Rover 2, but its center of gravity is much higher. The suspension system that might have helped keep the load level was overloaded to one and a half times its rated limit, and the end result was that the bulky trailer swayed thrillingly as it passed over no matter how inconspicuous the rocks or potholes were. . Just such a terrifying driving experience scared Fireball to the point where he wanted to escape from the driver's seat immediately, ran into the accommodation section, found a locker, climbed in, and cried until the shaking stopped. Of course, he would never admit that he had such thoughts.

The second problem is limited driving vision. For stability and basic engineering considerations, Amicitas was installed on the No. 1 rover upside down, which means that the porthole in front of the fireball is directly facing the rear of the tandem rover. He was riding a horse and couldn't see anything at all. He could only rely on occasional chatter on the space suit's communication channel to provide guidance or warning, and warnings often did not come in time. Mark is also slowly developing the habit of constantly explaining his operations specifically for the fireball when he is driving.

The last problem is the judgment of direction. The reason why Fireball is required to control the nose wheel is because the large rover wheel installed on the stump of the former Amicitas landing gear cannot rotate on its own. The weight is simply too great and there are too many mechanical devices attached to them, hindering their free movement. However, since the cockpit now faces rearward, the direction of the wheels is also reversed. When Mark turns left, the fireball must turn right, ensuring that the last two wheels turn in the same direction as the other eight wheels. If he makes a mistake in his operation, the nose wheel will be dragged into the soil, and the whole car will shake violently due to the huge resistance during dragging.

Let’s give an example:

"Okay, Fireball, get ready to turn right, three, two, one, turn right."

Fireball, who had not yet completely gotten used to the reversal logic of the new control device in front of him, subconsciously moved his flight control joystick to the right after hearing this.

The nose wheel immediately dug a hole in the ground, the whole car shook like a volcano about to erupt, and the movement of the mobile home came to an abrupt halt.

"Fireball, what the hell are you doing?!" Mark was startled, "I said I was going to turn right."

"Oh. Right. Sorry. It's my fault." Fireball turned the wheel in the opposite direction, "Okay now, keep driving."

"Okay." The rover gradually began to move forward very, very slowly, "Straighten the direction." This was not difficult, but the fireball still went a little too far when it hit the direction, and the tremor produced in the trailer made the fireball He recalled a tense and intense rocket launch experience that he couldn't bear to look back on.

"Alright, Fireball," Mark then ordered, "get ready to turn slightly to the left."

"Turn left. Got it." Fireball vowed that he would not make the same mistake he just made again.

"Slight left, three, two, one."

Fireball held the joystick and turned slightly to the right.

Same routine, mop, tremble, shake, stop.

"Fireball!" Mark roared, "I told you to turn left!"

"I turned!"

"You didn't at all! I was turning right just now, so I told you to turn left, but you turned right instead!"

"You said you were ready to make a slight left turn!"

"That's not what I said!"

"You are!!!"

And so on.

After this conversation lasted for more than an hour, Fireball's mentality completely collapsed. Although he knew clearly in his heart that this pressure capsule, which had withstood the impact of being belly-down on the rock surface at a speed of nearly 300 meters per second, was unharmed, would never be crushed just because the car rolled over. It collapsed, but when the rover pressed over every protrusion on the ground and every pebble, it felt like the whole car would suddenly turn over and flatten the fireball under the car. Two of the three attempts to control the steering of the mobile home resulted in operational errors or communication abnormalities - they have not yet been able to successfully turn two corners in a row - the unlucky dragon was shrouded in confusion and frustration. Feeling dizzy and dizzy.

Moreover, the temperature is extremely high - it is a scorching 15 degrees Celsius above zero outdoors, which is already unbearably hot by Martian standards, and the life support system equipment box inside the cabin is also blowing preheated horse air, mixing Feeling the heat waves emitted by the RTG on the floor of the living module. The temperature fireball didn't care at all, but he was still wondering how the others felt in this environment. Hopefully, I can blame at least some of the frustration, panic, and confusion I experienced today on external factors. Then just push the pot to the hot environment. Perfect.

"Braking." The mobile RV stopped slowly and carefully - this time, it was not accidentally caused by the fireball, causing the ground to shake.

"Okay," Mark concluded calmly, "It won't work at all. We have only run fifteen kilometers now, but we have already used up 40% of the power in the battery. Unless we learn how to drive this car correctly Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to tell whether it consumes so much power because the load is too heavy or because we always go in the wrong direction.”

"Yes." Fireball agreed, "So?"

"I think I figured out a way to control the direction," Mark replied, "but it's going to take a whole day to implement, so we might as well go back to the residential area and charge the car first."

"I have no opinion."

"I think we are now half a kilometer south of the road leading to Area E," Mark said. "We will go north, and when we get to that road, we will drive home." They were slowly driving away from them just now. The three rifts that Tun drove through were different. The path formed by the rover's repeated trips to and from the cave farm had been worn away by the wheels, and the ravines in front and behind had been smoothed out with gentler and smoother slopes. When climbing a certain hill, the nose wheel was almost dug into the ground, while the rear wheel on the chassis of Rover No. 1 was completely off the ground.

"Sounds good," Starlight Glimmer said on the communication channel, "Berry, did you receive it?"

"Copy that, I agree," Cherry Berry replied, "It will take a few more minutes before we can get back to you."