My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

Recipient: Theodore Sanders ([email protected])

Sender: Venkat Kapoor ([email protected])

Topic: Report on Mark Watney

Attached is a summary of the report you requested, which does not read very well. If you need more details, I can still send them, but I think this summary currently summarizes the important contents.

I have informed all employees involved in compiling these reports that NASA's official strategy is to respond proactively. Mark Watney and the alien visitors will be able to face various crises safely and wait for rescue; we will also launch a spacecraft to take them home. Still, I doubt we can really cover up these situations indefinitely. The truth will eventually come out, and we must be fully prepared for it.

Xiaowen

Recipient: Venkat Kapoor ([email protected])

From: Ethelbert Keller ([email protected])

Topic: Mark Watney’s nutritional needs

The report is attached.

I'm sorry, but at present I can only make preliminary estimates based on guessing the situation of Watney's alien guests. We have to temporarily accept Watney's statement that no matter how long Dragonfly and Fireball have to wait to be finally rescued, they will have an adequate supply of food in the meantime. As for the other three creatures Watney mentioned, they call them ponies. The veterinarian I consulted told me that alfalfa is about as close to an ideal single-crop source of forage as possible for horses. However, this diet still puts them at risk for sodium deficiency (eating food without salt). Symptoms include an extreme craving for salt that leads to licking anything that smells salty; loss of appetite; fluid retention; and in advanced stages, nerve damage. It can be seen that in the days to come, whether Watney himself agrees or not, he will be bathed in the baptism of a group of hungry tongues; after all, he should be the only safe source of sodium chloride supply on the entire Mars.

But Watney's own situation is less interesting. If he had been feeding on potatoes and the vitamin supplements from Ares 3's medical stockpile, he would have developed a severe protein deficiency within thirty solar days of switching from food packets to potatoes. Symptoms include loss of mental acuity, fatigue, metabolic dysfunction, muscle atrophy, heart enlargement, vulnerability to injury and slow recovery, and insulin resistance.

For humans, alfalfa is indeed an edible plant and has a high protein content; however, we can only digest the flowers, leaves, and young rhizomes of this plant. After they grow to a certain stage, the cellulose content in the stems will be so high that we cannot digest it normally. In addition, alfalfa seeds also contain large amounts of special amino acids that may cause metabolic imbalance and loss of thyroid function. And because the human digestive system has not evolved to handle large amounts of cellulose, our ability to absorb useful proteins from it is limited. Unfortunately, once the food parcels ran out, these were Mark's only options.

Please advise Mark to plant as much alfalfa as possible and cook the freshly picked leaves and uppermost rhizomes of the plant at each harvest. Although dry alfalfa is less useful in comparison, even drinking alfalfa tea can help the situation. These measures could slow, but not completely prevent, the loss of protein in his body. The only antidote to this situation is to offer him a high-protein diet as soon as possible. At the same time, in order to minimize protein loss and reduce the risk of injury, I recommended that Mark's workload be limited to activities critical to survival and successful rescue operations.

凯勒

Recipient: Venkat Kapoor ([email protected])

From: Sue Douglas ([email protected])

Topic: Cave Permafrost Insulation

A preliminary report is attached. Long story short: It will last a few more months at most.

Tell Mr. Saunders that he is right and that even if the outside of the igloo is extremely cold (meaning, of course, that coldness on Earth), the inside of the igloo will stay warm. On Earth, ice is a reasonably effective temporary insulation material. By cycling the building materials between partial melting and refreezing, a new igloo becomes more airtight and structurally sound. Yet Mr. Sanders ignores a number of important factors that render the comparison here meaningless.

First of all, we know very little about the properties of the mixture of permafrost and weathered floating soil, especially the specific local soil conditions in Area E. We did previously know that lunar regolith is an extremely effective insulator, but so far we have not studied the Martian regolith under two scenarios: pure water ice interlayers between regoliths or a permafrost mixture of soil and water. has passed any test, and both situations exist on Mars.

Secondly, the air pressure inside the igloo will typically be about the same as the outside environment. This was not the case in the E-zone cave; the aliens had pressurized it to about one bar, while the atmospheric pressure on the surface of Mars was only six millibars.

Thirdly, even if there is a small opening in the wall of an igloo, it will not immediately expand rapidly due to air erosion.

In addition, under normal circumstances, body heat or at most an oil lamp is used as the heat source inside the igloo. Also, igloos with large heating systems often don't last very long. However, the cave located in Area E has comprehensively deployed electric heaters, hot air circulation and liquid circulation floor heating systems as heat sources, so that the internal air and ground temperatures are sufficient to support the growth of plants - this means that the internal temperature will be higher on average than in the Martian summer. The outdoor temperature is over seventy degrees Celsius. In winter, the average temperature difference can even exceed 100 degrees Celsius. That's almost two to three times the extreme temperature difference between inside and outside that most igloos experience.

Finally, the permafrost layer above the cave sits on a slope. So the melted ice won't just flow down the cave walls and refreeze; it will flow all the way down, finding the path of least resistance to the lowest point it can reach, eroding any regolith in its path. Given enough time, some of it will eventually reach its source downslope, possibly triggering the kind of landslides we've become familiar with from the Opportunity and Curiosity missions. This type of landslide will inevitably reduce the thickness of the protective regolith and ice above the cave farm, leading to further leaks in the future and eventually an accident.

The good news is that the main cause of igloo collapse is generally heating from an external heat source. This is probably the only problem that won't bother us on Mars.

I am currently looking for resources to synthesize artificial Martian regolith to conduct thermal conduction experiments. Details of these experiments will be on your desk tomorrow. In the meantime, unless the cave is truly fully sealed (regardless of regolith or permafrost), my advice still stands.

Dr. Sue Douglas

Recipient: Venkat Kapoor ([email protected])

From: Michael Bendarek ([email protected])

Topic: Gilligan's Life Raft[1]

I finally calculated the data you asked for. But our four-legged alien friends probably won't be too happy about this. Be careful to be tactful when telling them the truth.

The attachment is only a preliminary report, because I had to ask my analytical man to put it aside temporarily and let him complete the orbit determination of the Sleipnir mission. He always told me that the material was not finished yet, and it took me a while to convince him to stop working on it. At that time, he was analyzing the debris of the alien spacecraft and making an estimate based on the mass that its body could reduce. Finally, I had to promise him that as soon as those orbital data were handed over to me, I would give him time to complete the material.

According to the information given, the thrust-to-weight ratio of this alien spacecraft in its complete state is about two to five. Considering its construction form, this result is really impressive. If there was unlimited fuel, this spacecraft could almost levitate in the air on Mars using its own main thruster alone. If you subtract the mass of the outer skin that was cut off, and include other items removed by a series of previous recycling efforts, now as long as there is sufficient fuel, the spacecraft should be almost ready to take off.

However, the problem lies in this abundant fuel.

According to the aliens, the spacecraft originally converted an energy ("magic") unknown to us into kinetic energy (thrust). This "magic" was stored in a series of batteries, but only two survived the crash. The two batteries are made of an unknown type of crystal that is lightweight and durable. Together with the metal casing and some kind of electrode-like structure, the overall volume is about 27,000 cubic centimeters and the mass is estimated to be about 70 kilograms. . One hundred such batteries would weigh as much as seven tons. According to our estimation, even if all the discardable objects in the wreckage are removed, the extra mass will at least push the spacecraft directly back to the original state where it can barely hover. The original batteries are said to be larger than these two, but we can't confirm this from the pictures we have.

The weight issue isn't the fatal blow, however. The real problem is that so much weight is wasted in exchange for so little energy. According to the aliens, the two batteries that survived the initial accident were only enough to run a full-thrust engine for three seconds. We can therefore estimate that a complete array of a hundred such cells would only be able to sustain power for two minutes and thirty seconds at maximum thrust. And as you know, the operating time of the Ares MAV primary thrusters alone is almost that long. Even if we could use some clever trick to reduce the weight of the spacecraft so that it could enter orbit within two minutes and thirty seconds, the huge acceleration generated during the ascent would kill all the crew members on board.

Using remnants of Ares 3 MAV and MDV aircraft will not help much. The MAV's cabin has flown away, and the MDV's cabin has also been damaged. The thrust-to-weight ratio of the MDV's thrusters is only 1.05 at best, which can only slow down the descent speed of the spacecraft to a level where it can land safely when the drag parachute is no longer effective. Its monopropellant is hydrazine, which can ignite on its own. However, the remaining fuel is completely insufficient, and it cannot be produced on Mars. The MAV's descent stage engine does use hydrazine as propellant, but its fuel generator can only synthesize methane fuel for the MAV's two upper-stage thrusters.

Finally, according to the report, two of the eight maneuvering thruster groups carried by the spacecraft were damaged during the emergency landing. It is indeed possible to achieve a specific control configuration by re-adjusting the positions of the remaining six sets of thrusters and thus fully restore the maneuvering propulsion capability of the spacecraft; however, if this option is chosen, both during assembly and during the actual flight process There will be no room for error.

In short, unless the wreckage of the alien spacecraft is completely torn down and rebuilt (assuming that the engine can be reconnected to the spacecraft after all this trouble), it is completely impossible to send the crew into the spacecraft while ensuring the safety of their lives. track. This is a big blow to the aliens, so be sure to choose your words carefully when mentioning this to them.

Mike

Aerospace Dynamics Department

Recipient: Venkat Kapoor ([email protected])

From: Mark Watney ([email protected])

Topic: Farm for sale, buy now!

We have studied the suggestions that the group of geologists sent us. Here we respond as follows:

Reduce air pressure: No way. The pony ship's air supply system is directly connected to the atmosphere of their home world. So how much air pressure there is, how much air pressure we get here. On our end, the only way to reduce the air pressure is to deliberately create a leak somewhere, but doing so will directly shut down the air supply system. And the ponies don't want to dump their world's atmosphere directly onto Mars (or as I call it, the "little broken ball").

Reduce heating: We will remove two of the heaters. But that’s probably all we can do. Again, the air supply is taken directly from the pony atmosphere, and we also need to continuously warm the farm land so that the alfalfa roots can grow as deep into the soil as possible.

Don't mess with the support columns: bullshit.

Don't twist the crystal directly from the cave wall: What the hell, did you think Bruce Banner (Hulk) came with the pony? Look, if we had a Hulk here, I wouldn't let him mine ore like fruit; we'd all board an alien spaceship and let him kick us back to Earth! In any case, Mars, a smart planet, must be repaired by a green brother with a gamma ray bonus.

These crystals are cut directly using magic lasers. The horns of the stars are the only tools with which we can cut them. No torsional moments of any kind are generated during operation. The only danger is that the process of removing weight from the cave walls could trigger a release of internal tensions, but there is nothing we can do about this.

Sealing the cave: This has to be a long-term project. According to Starlight, her spell was designed to only seal existing pores visible to the naked eye. She doubted that her method would really work on cave walls where the crystal layer had not yet been completely removed. Besides, she doesn't have enough energy to finish all the work in one go.

But we do have a long-term plan that might work. Solar Day 109 was exactly three weeks away from the day the habitation module exploded and Starlight broke her leg. This was also the day we planned to dig out the potato seeds that had been planted in the caves, cut them open, and completely reseed the caves and settlement farm. Once this work is done, we will have our first alfalfa harvest. These production arrangements cannot be postponed and require the assistance of astral magic. Harvesting may drain the battery, and we'll have to chop up some more gems later to feed the fireballs. However, after all this work is completed, we can start making a new magic battery.

According to Starlight, the spell used to create the magic battery is one of the simplest spells ever created. She mentioned that almost any magical object is at least partly a battery. The main difficulty in the process therefore lies in finding and cutting crystals of suitable size and without defects for this purpose. Apparently there are some wonders in her homeland that would dwarf the cave farms here; she was surprised when I told her that the quartz here was huge compared to the crystals on Earth.

The more batteries we make, the more mana we potentially have. After accumulating to a certain level, we will have enough magic energy to properly seal the cave. I don’t know yet how far it will accumulate, nor how long it will take to complete; but judging from the current situation, this seems to be the most reliable and safe path. At the same time, Starlight will work hard to develop an improved version of the spell that can further seal the cave while repairing the existing damage.

Let's talk to the guys in the astromaterials department and if they can come up with something practical, we'll be happy to try it.

Watney

Recipient: Venkat Kapoor ([email protected])

From: Beth Johnson ([email protected])

Topic: Radio Testing

On the 3th day of the Ares 108.4 mission, Hermes successfully communicated with the Friendship alien spacecraft on all five preset radio frequency bands. Among them, the signal at MHz is the clearest, but the difference from other frequency bands is not large enough. Signals at all frequencies were weak and noisy, but speech was still audible and calls could be understood. Full details of all testing, including audio recordings of all radio messages sent and received, can be found in the accompanying report.

As Hermes continues to approach the Earth, the signal from Friendship will become weaker and weaker due to losses during the transmission process. We are now almost at the edge of the signal range where voice communication is possible. If there are circuit diagrams for the alien radio system for reference, I suggest designing a specific modification process for Mark to add telegraph functionality to that radio. I have written a program that allows Hermes to send a single tone audio signal, which can be used to transmit Morse code. However, in order to make this solution feasible, the team members need further training in recognizing and using Morse code.

Beth Johnson

Ares 3 System Operator

[Note:]

1. Gilligan’s Raft: “Gilligan’s” here should refer to the American TV series “Gilligan’s Island”. The plot is mainly related to survival on a desert island.