My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 96

ARES 3 solar day 97

[07:49] JPL: Good morning Mark and friends. This is Venkatkapol. JPL is relaying my message from Houston.

First of all, regarding the message that Tingting sent at the end of the window yesterday: Theodore Sanders, NASA Chief Administrative Officer, let me tell you that he has completely understood your message. As for me, I have a few words to add: hello to you too, Princess Twilight Sparkle. We hope to meet your people soon, and we hope to have the opportunity to meet with you soon.

Mark, in your email you can find a detailed procedure for mounting a spacesuit antenna to a communications tower, including the modifications needed to reduce the transmitter power to a safe level. We estimate that these operations will take an EVA of about two hours, but only if the electronic components have been assembled in the habitat in advance. Once this is complete, we hope you will be able to compile a complete report on your farming practices.

Upgrades to the rover's communications applications should be complete. Please install and reply as soon as the rover computer restarts. If the restart process fails, please leave a message in the ASCII array around Pathfinder. If we are unable to contact you via rover chat, we will have Pathfinder take a panoramic photo at exactly 10:00 your local time.

Assuming that the upgrade goes smoothly, please prepare up to six images that need to be transmitted to the Earth this afternoon. The size of each image is limited to 200KB. What we want today are photos of the current condition of your agricultural facility to accompany your written report.

Our primary concern at this time is to accurately estimate how long your food supply will last. The earliest we can get supplies to you is Sol 500. The relative positions of Earth and Mars and the limited number of thrusters we have on hand make any earlier supply delivery date impossible; our preferred date would be no earlier than 580 Sol so that the weight of supplies would be worthwhile. emission. Additionally, we only have one booster available now, with two more expected to come into production in seventy solar days.

We've been preparing the supply craft since we learned you were alive, but the actual assembly has just begun. One reason for delays is preparing food and other supplies for your guests. With this in mind, we plan to leave the rest of the morning communication time to Ting Ting or any of the guests present. Please let us know as soon as you have completed installing the software update.

[08:09] Watney: Why don’t you just say hello? How's it going? Did you sleep well? How are things going with your wife and children? Oh my gosh, the weather has been really weird lately, hasn't it?

I have copied the basic contents of the operation process you sent on the whiteboard to facilitate my assembly of the transformer. I think this can all be done by noon today; it's all common sense and neat. Once it's completed and tested, I plan to test it to see if you can pick up the radio signals emitted by the alien spacecraft. If possible, we would have a parallel or backup communication channel that can be used in the event of a Pathfinder data transfer or failure.

As I mentioned before, I am not very willing to give precise numerical estimates, but I would expect a harvest every fifty-five to sixty solar days. Each harvest at Cave Farm should produce about three hundred kilograms of alfalfa (roughly enough for the ponies for one hundred days) and/or one thousand eight hundred average-sized potatoes (enough for me for one hundred and thirty days). ). The plan to rehabilitate the settlement farm, after replanting, will produce fifteen kilograms of alfalfa (enough for a pony for five days) and 720 average-sized potatoes (enough for me for fifty days). The main purpose of alfalfa grown on residential farms is to fix nitrogen; the soil we accumulate in residential areas is too shallow for alfalfa to develop healthy root systems.

Residential farms are not sustainable in the long term - there is not enough soil to support crop rotation. It's too early to judge the long-term sustainability of larger cave farms. I'll go into more detail in the report.

Now it's time to start the software update and reboot. Once I verify that the update is working properly, I will call Tingting over to talk to you, and then I will continue with the radio-related workflow.

[08:23] Watney: Hello! Here is Dragonfly! Before we begin talking, our supervisor has another piece of news for you. This one is not as strange as the previous one. It’s also short enough that I can remember them all.

"Greetings again from (don't know how to say the name of our world in English). Here are Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friends; and Cocoon, the Bug Queen. Thank you for your willingness to look after our people. We are very happy We're sorry we can't come to the rescue at the moment, but we're working on it. Please continue to be their friend. If we can work together, we can accomplish great things."

They also want to know how long it will take for you to come to our rescue. They want to know the whole story.

Okay, I’ve finished what I need to say. What do you want to know?

[08:42] JPL: Dragonfly, hello. Please thank your supervisor on our behalf. We will try to establish direct contact on a free day. I have two things to ask you today. The first of these is: When will your side arrive for rescue? Judging from the content of the message just now, it doesn't seem like they will arrive soon.

[08:55] Watney: We don't know when help will come. I'll ask Starlight to contact them so I can give more answers.

[09:07] JPL: How did you get in touch there? Mark said that you come from some parallel dimension - a different universe.

[09:21] Watney: Our air and water are sent directly from our world. They are all magically connected. We follow a certain code to open and close the water valve and get a response by observing the water spray. It's slow and makes a mess inside the hab. We tried many other things, but nothing worked.

[09:33] JPL: Are you saying that your air and water are brought from your world? Are there any limits on the amount of air or water you can get?

[09:59] Watney: Inside every life support system are two crystals - one that carries air and one that carries water. The crystals themselves carry magic that connects them to a larger crystal in our world - allowing them to merge as one crystal. Water is pumped from a reservoir; air is continuously exchanged with the atmosphere of our world. If the air pressure on our end drops too low too quickly, or if the water supply is left on for too long, the crystal on the other end shuts off and must be reactivated by a pony from our world. Exception: The main life support system of the spacecraft is set to always open water supply as needed. Danger: If life support is magically shut down, our suits will no longer work. We also can't get new space suits.

Starlight just contacted our end. They are now building a large rescue craft. It's twice as big as ours. They're also testing a new engine that can jump from world to world like we did when we came here before. The first test robot ship failed to return. They are also working on a signal that could help the spacecraft find its way home. But even if the new engine works, they still won't be able to rescue us because they don't know where we are. They need to know very, very clearly where we are now, otherwise they will enter the wrong world and may never return home. There is no rescue until they can find us.

[10:15] JPL: I understand your reply. We never thought it would be possible to jump between worlds like you did before. We understand that intentionally crossing safely while remaining safe requires extensive testing. Please let your end know and if we can be of any help we will do our best. It will be hundreds of solar days (a day on Mars) before we can launch our own rescue craft. If you can rescue Mark early, of course we will be very happy.

[10:18] Watney: We would also be very happy if we could save Mark. We don't know if we can bring him directly to Earth. There is no magic in your world's space, so staying in your world for too long can be dangerous. We are studying this over there.

[10:30] JPL: Got it. Next is my second question. We are preparing to ship you more food and other supplies in case anything goes wrong with the farm plan. What foods do you usually eat? Mark mentioned alfalfa. Have you ever eaten food from other earths? What can you eat and what can't you eat? Can you eat meat? Or can we only eat plants?

[10:56] Watney: I don’t know all the words. Mark tells us that all of our food is the same as the earth's food that he knows. But I'll try my best.

CherryBerry, Starlight Glimmer and Spitfire are ponies. Spitfire says they can eat meat if necessary, but the thought of it makes most ponies sick. Plants are better. Spitfire says she also eats milk and eggs, but these are not plants.

Fireball is a dragon. Dragons can eat almost anything. Of course you can eat meat, but it is generally considered wrong to eat intelligent creatures that can talk. Can eat some plants, but hay is of little use to dragons. You need to eat at least a little bit of gems and gold to stay healthy. Fireball only eats the gems in the cave; there are enough gems in the cave for him to eat for a long, long time.

I don't know what to call it, so I just think of it as Chong Chong Ma. Chongchong horses generally do not need food, but sometimes they will eat very little. Can create mucus, cysts, and other things from food. We get energy from positive emotions, especially love. Also drink water.

If you want to send food, just give it to Mark and the three ponies. Fireball has plenty of food, but I don't need food. Also, please be careful not to have so many beans in the food you deliver. Berry hasn't complained much yet (I only learned this word after asking Starlight), but Starlight and Spitfire have long been tired of eating beans every day. Spitfire even wanted to try eating meat; as long as it didn't taste like beans and didn't come from someone she knew. (No kidding. That’s what she said.) But Mark worries that eating meat might be bad for us, or make us angry.

[11:08] JPL: You just said you feed on emotion?

[11:19] Watney: Yeah, that’s what I said.

[11:30] JPL: Please wait a moment. I need to talk to one of our people here.

[11:41] Watney: No problem!

[11:46] JPL: Can you feel the emotions you ingest? How do you feel? What's Mark's mood like in particular?

[11:59] Watney: It’s not a good thing to talk about emotions when you don’t have to. Everyone will be angry. I can't handle being angry.

[12:11] JPL: I understand, but Mark is on me. I need to know so that I can think of ways to keep him in a happy, relaxed, and quick-thinking state of mind.

[12:23] Watney: The antenna installation process is complete. Venkat, Mark Watney used to be very happy, relaxed, and quick-thinking; but now I'm a little angry with you. What did Dr. Shields say when you asked her about this?

[12:35] JPL: Mark, I apologize. Dr. Shields disagreed, but I overruled her. We are all very concerned about your situation. You've been completely out of human contact for almost three months, and that's going to take its toll. Our resources are indeed limited, but we at least need to know what went wrong so we can respond effectively.

[12:48] Watney: Yeah, I understand. But this is still very offensive, and involving a third party in such an incident is completely out of bounds. I would have been angrier, but Dragonfly calmed my mood a bit. By the way, it would be best if this chat was not broadcast live to the rest of the world, okay? Because you and Dr. Shields are the same thing; but I don't want my emotional state to be published in the National Enquirer or something, and I'm sure Pony and the others wouldn't want to either.

[13:00] JPL: I cut off the public feed of the conversation just now when the rover software was updated. All conversations with Dragonfly are currently confidential, and any information about your emotional state will remain confidential forever. Teddy Sanders and I vouch for you.

[13:11] Watney: That’s great. I just talked to Tingting, and I allowed her to discuss my true situation with you. I have to go calm down for a while. I'll contact you again tomorrow. Dragonfly will arrive later.

[13:26] Watney: Okay. Mark was still quite frustrated. He was really excited to talk to you before. He also likes us very much. He thinks we're cute. He also hopes to get rescue as soon as possible.

Mark always feels better when he's making something. He also likes to make plans. He likes things to go well. He doesn't like having nothing to do. He hates disco music, but listens to it anyway because it makes him feel less like he's doing nothing.

I originally wrote some things about my team members, but later I felt too bad and deleted them. I don't have the permission of a few of the other guys and they'd be mad if I did that. I have to talk to Berry before I do it. You're responsible for Mark, but she's responsible for us.

[13:38] JPL: Understood. Please tell Mark again that I'm sorry. I will not proactively ask about your friends again, but you can let us know if you feel it is necessary. Thank you for your help. Please clear the conversation content in this channel and let Mark start the data upload. Kapol finished the call.

[13:49] Watney: Okay. Tingting finished the call.