My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 447

ARES 3 solar day 439

[09:50] JPL: Mark, just to let you know, the dust storm on the Arabian Mesa has not changed significantly yet. It is now moving westward at a speed of about meters per hour, and there is no real sign of strengthening. If it continues this way, a brief detour of about a hundred kilometers should be enough to keep you out of the dust devil's danger zone.

[10:44] JPL: Mark, is everything okay over there? Pathfinder shows that the communication link is completely normal, but we have not received a reply from you.

[11:31] JPL: Ares 3 residential area, JPL call, communication check, please respond when received, completed.

[11:53] Watney: Sorry for not replying in time. We're quite busy this morning. The main reason was that we suddenly realized that there were no decontamination showers in Ponyship's existing facilities. The ponies had always relied on wet wipes for cleaning, but now they have all been used up. So this morning we lined up in a long line to take a shower one by one, and then we were still discussing whether to get a bathtub out, because this should be our last chance to maintain our most basic hygiene in the next hundred or so days.

[12:04] HERMES: More than a hundred days? NASA, do you have any instructions for making gas masks from existing supplies on the ship? Our place will come in handy when Solar Day 551 comes...

[12:15] Watney: You guys really know how to joke. By the way, in order to reply to your message, my place in the queue for the second shower was taken away. You can't imagine how long Tingting will spend in the shower if she is left alone. I guess she wants every hole in her legs to be picked clean.

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 451

ARES 3 solar day 443

Dragonfly came closer and looked at one arm of the Fireball space suit. "Look at the right elbow," she continued. "The outer layer has been worn and broken. Pass the endoscope to me."

The endoscope is a simple exploration tool they pieced together in a flash of inspiration. It is actually just an arm-mounted camera removed from a certain Ares spare space suit and a small flashlight from the Tingting tool box. Even so, it is still more difficult to use than holding a space suit open to observe the light source. In some cases, you even have to dig inside the space suit and turn it completely inside out (depending on the specific parts to be treated and the difficulty of execution) Usually (ranging from difficult to even thinking about) is much more convenient. With just a glance at the main projector screen of the living cabin showing the video output of the endoscope, Tingting realized that her worries were indeed true. "It's even worse inside," she replied. "The middle layer may be damaged too. I'll have to patch this one from the inside out."

Starlight Glimmer resolutely kept her bottom line, and the team members' requests to use magic were ruthlessly rejected. This one arduous mission was a crucial exception; in short, this was Dragonfly's last chance to repair and repair the ponies' dilapidated and badly worn spacesuits. This task also requires extra food and enough magic for the changelings to produce the quick-drying, rubbery goop used as the raw material for spacesuit patches.

However, in order to save the magic energy in the battery, this time Dragonfly needs to first check all space suits carefully and thoroughly, and make a detailed list of all required maintenance items (of course, all crew members, without exception, must be forced to be in space). Wear enough boots and replace them with new soles). With the list in hand, she can then come up with a clear maintenance plan and complete the maintenance work in as little time and effort as possible with the power of two magic batteries. (In order to further save time and energy, Starlight decided to repair and smooth the scratches on their spacesuit helmets and masks while Tingting was working.)

"I've been thinking recently," Starlight asked casually, "How difficult would it be to install the kind of radios in Mark's spacesuits into our spacesuits?"

Dingting stopped his inspection work and thought carefully for a while. "It would be difficult," she continued. "For the radio to continue working we would need to wear batteries inside the suit to power the radio. It would not be a good idea to cut holes in our suits to set up control interfaces, so we It’s also impossible to turn the radio on and off or switch communication channels at any time. Is there any reason for this?”

"First of all, CherryBerry will definitely need one for launch," Starlight replied, "Of course, that's assuming she is finally authorized to fly the spacecraft. Being able to use Mark's radio means we don't have to activate the Presence Charm, so that can Reduce the consumption of magic energy. I also think it would be a good thing to have a communication system that does not need to compete with my body for energy every minute."

"Let's put it this way, based on my previous impression, there are a total of five space suits that Mark can use." Ding Ting thought for a while, "There are two that he can't wear, but they can be dismantled into spare parts. There are still two that can be used. The space suit he is using will have to be taken on the road. This leaves only three sets of spare radios. Please tell us how to divide these three sets among the five of us."

"Spike still has difficulty speaking English," Starlight explained, "and with such a big patch on my space suit, I won't be able to go exploring with you on the road." She patted the table on the table as she spoke. Dingting was inspecting her own suit under the spacesuit, "Unless something goes terribly wrong, neither of us will assume any key responsibilities during the launch. Those who need to use radios are either during the trip or during the flight." There is an important mission during the flight; now the only three left are you, Fireball, and Berry."

Dingting still looked at the starlight with some hesitation, "And we also need to test the communication distance," she continued, "Don't forget that the antenna must be installed somewhere in the space suit. It cannot be placed in the helmet yet. ——It’s very crowded inside. And I don’t know where to put the microphone. Not to mention that we are talking so much now, but we are actually assuming that the radios that come with these space suits can really be removed. I saw it before Everything feels very complicated, including the entire helmet and backpack components..."

A small black cube clattered onto the workbench. After a while, another cable appeared on the block, as well as a small radio antenna.

"Each space suit only takes three minutes," Mark replied simply. "They all have built-in batteries that can continue to operate for four hours when the main power supply of the space suit is exhausted. But you need to find some connectors. The antenna and antenna cable are connected together. The microphone needs to be hung on the body - usually directly through the helmet. In short, it is not a big problem to operate."

Starlight and Dragonfly watched as Mark walked to the spacesuit rack in the habitation module and continued to remove the next set of radios from the unused spacesuit straps.

"Am I overthinking it," Xingguang couldn't help complaining, "or is it that the closer we get to departure, the more his smug look deserves a beating?"

"I feel the same way." Dragonfly muttered.

Mission Log – Solar Day 443

The ponies have been maintaining their spacesuits all day today. We also took advantage of the opportunity when the space suits were out of service for maintenance and disassembled three of the space suits' built-in radios from the few space suits we would not take away (Johnson's, Lewis's, and Vogel's) and assembled a A harness that allows ponies to wear radios inside their own spacesuits. This is actually Xingguang's idea, and it's quite a good one. The space suit's built-in radio is very power-saving, and it also has a built-in emergency battery that can last four hours, so the energy consumption of plugging it into the mobile home's power supply system to charge them is almost a fraction of our power budget.