My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

Mission Log – Solar Day 475

Today’s news from Hermes:

"Good morning Mark. I hope your trip is going well today. It may not be obvious from where you are, but you are officially entering dust devil territory today. You will only observe a small decrease in efficiency over the next day or two. . I hope the impact on you is limited to this."

"You're basically still on the right track. If you see any craters across the horizon, go around on the east side. That way you'll be away from some of the worst terrain in Timiamata."

"Good luck and safety first."

She was right. Looking outside at this moment, the weather looks as clear and clear as usual. However, the power generated by the solar cells has dropped slightly - only by about half a percent.

We've been firing on all cylinders these past few days, trying desperately to squeeze in a few extra kilometers on each trip. After all, we all know that the few kilometers accumulated may be the difference between life and death.

Today we had cold food. The ponies have decided to temporarily switch to an all-alfalfa diet, as their aversion to cold potatoes is second only to my undying hatred of tuber vegetables of any kind and temperature. Sorry, Mom, I won't taste your potato salad next time we celebrate Thanksgiving together. Besides, the condiments you prepared are much more delicious than that thing.

Compared with the triangle formed by several giant craters in the upper reaches of Maworth Valley, the cluster of craters at Timia Mata is much smaller. Having said that, they are still at least ten kilometers wide, and some of them can even reach twenty kilometers. The horizon on Mars is really too close. If we navigate accurately to them, any crater wall can cover the entire horizon. Fortunately, the crater walls we saw were far apart...and yes, we bypassed these craters from the east.

Although this area has a name, many of its landmarks are nameless. So I named them based on the crater outlines I saw from the mobile home as we drove by. So far, there are Tombstone Crater, Monument Crater, Tomb Crater, Sarcophagus Crater and Duck-Duck Crater.

For some reason I have a feeling that astronomers will not be very happy with my naming proposal.

Earth-shaking footsteps were heard on the carpet in the Star Control office. Mindy raised her head when she heard the sound and saw Randall Carter rushing towards her work station. "Are these pictures real?" he asked hurriedly, waving a few printouts clutched in one hand.

“You get raw data coming in every time a probe flies over the Arabian Mesa,” Mindy asked. “What went wrong?”

"There's a big problem," Carter ordered. "Bring up the images taken by every satellite that can cover the Arabian Platform and show them to me day by day. Today's too."

Mindy immediately went through the list in her mind of which orbiters passed over the Arabian Platform during the local daytime every day. "Is it a close-up view or a wide-area view?"

"It won't be as wide as the whole world, but it will cover the dust storm as completely as possible."

"Okay." She thought of a certain orbiter that met the requirements. Then she called up the image archive, selected the daily Arabian Terrace target view from three days ago until today, and displayed it on the screen in front of her. "That's it."

"Then go down one by one in chronological order." Carter continued.

"Okay." Mindy stacked the windows in order on her screen, and then clicked down one by one. Picture 1 to Picture 2; the dust devil moves slightly. From the second to the third picture; there is still only a slight movement. And the third to fourth pictures...

Wow.

"Is this reasonable?"

"No," Carter said gloomily, "A high-altitude Martian dust storm like this will not suddenly double its speed and become significantly stronger at the same time. Did Pony and the others recently conduct another thruster test?"

"There is no such arrangement," Mindy replied, "but they are not broadcasting on the channel now, and even if they were broadcasting, they would not be able to upload their activity logs. So I can't be sure about that."

Carter growled in frustration and tossed the information in his hands aside. "Print these sheets," he said at last, "and follow me. We have to go find Dr. Kapol."

"This," Teddy clutched the blotting paper on the table with both hands, "is our nightmare scenario coming true."

"We can't draw a conclusion yet," Venkat replied. "Yes, the dust storm is indeed thickening and intensifying, and the area it covers is getting larger and larger. But its diameter is still only about a thousand kilometers, and its current moving speed It is eight kilometers per hour. Assuming that the dust storm stops expanding at this time and keeps moving at the same speed, the mobile home will survive the dust storm safely in five days. In this way, the danger is eliminated."

"Then are you confident that the dust storm will stop expanding and continue to move at its original speed?"

"Not at all," Venkat replied, "You said it yourself. This is a nightmare scenario. Just like the Kobayashi Maru."

"Please can you speak human language when I'm in the room?" Annie scolded, "What the hell is that Lin or something?"

The conversation between Teddy and Venkat stopped, and the two stared blankly at the media operations director. Mitch Henderson on the sofa nearby had the same reaction, as did Randall Carter and Mindy Parker, who were standing behind Venkat and dragged to this emergency meeting. Finally, it was Teddy who took the initiative to break the awkward situation, "You have watched Star Trek after all."

"I've seen it," Anne said impatiently, "just once. I'm not like some people who regard it as a masterpiece."

“The Kobayashi Maru refers to a certain losing situation,” Venkat explains. “In the story, it’s a simulated situation with a set-up, and no matter how you act, every conceivable way will lead you to it. Wrong direction. No matter what you do, you're going to die in the end."

"The difference is that we are not facing a simulator now," Teddy changed the topic and continued, "Venkat, is there any way we can help now?"

"We send them a radio message every day via Hermes with updates and guidance," Venkat replied. "That's all we can do. Mark's only option is to keep trying to avoid the worst parts of the dust storm. , otherwise he would stay on the spot to take shelter from the wind and pray that the dust storm would pass as soon as possible. At present, his only options are to turn back north or head south. Going west will bring him into the broken terrain of the Pearl Mesa, while going east He would also be required to overcome numerous obstacles in the Timiamata moors. Each of which would significantly slow down his progress, and the westward route would take him directly away from Schiaparelli's destination."

"What I want to know is," Anne asked again, "if this is a set up, then who is doing the behind-the-scenes operation?"

"Mars," replied Mitch, who was sitting on the sofa, "this planet doesn't even bother to cover up its murderous intentions with chance, natural phenomena or human errors. It doesn't matter who discovers it now, it just wants to be They are absolutely dead.”

"This statement," Teddy immediately turned to Anne, "is something that NASA must never mention, either explicitly or covertly. Anne, firmly deny any suggestion or inference that Mars is deliberately targeting Watney and the others."

"What's wrong? Let me tell you, at this point it sounds like it's basically the truth." Annie commented.

"It doesn't matter how true it is," Teddy replied. "It's unscientific. There's no way to prove it. And no matter what our mission is, NASA is fundamentally a scientific agency. If we can't If it is verified, we will not discuss it.”

"Even we believe it ourselves?"

Venkat replied, "Especially when we ourselves believe it."