My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 105

ARES 3 solar day 106

[07:48] JPL: Mark, Venkat says hello again. Thanks to your friends for sending test emails. We've had hundreds and hundreds of emails sent to them here. Similar to what we do with your inbox, we'll only send you mission-critical messages and the most interesting of the rest. No one of you will receive more than ten emails in the same day. It's not that we think reading email is a waste of your time, it's just that we simply don't have enough transmission bandwidth.

We are currently using Hermes to relay signals at a peak speed of 12.6KB/S. If you want to transmit signals directly to the earth, the speed will plummet to about 1.5KB/S. When Hermes starts to brake to enter the earth's orbit, it will further drop to about 0.8KB/S. Even within the three-week blackout period brought about by the conjunction of Mars and the Sun (solar day 328), in the worst case, the transmission speed will drop to only about 0.4KB/S - which can barely sustain us. Now with this chat conversation function, the minimum reply interval for each message will also increase to about one hour. The premise of all this is that there will be no accidents during this period. Until you receive spare parts for your radio systems with your supply missions, our communications bandwidth situation will only gradually deteriorate, so we need to prioritize receiving the data you send.

In light of this, we would like you to request that Starlight Glimmer and another of your guests transmit all previously unsent materials from their onboard libraries. In addition, we also need you to take photos of scenes involving stars (and dragonflies if possible) using magic. As you might expect, we have our share of skeptics here; and documentation of any kind can help. Unfortunately, those videos you captured may not be of much use until we provide you with radio equipment and a connection via a Mars-orbiting communications satellite.

I use the word "request" because we know you are currently preparing for cave harvests, and that is a critical priority right now. Our experts are already impressed with you; they have no idea how to improve your existing farming methods, and they are shocked by the results you see in the pictures you sent earlier. But they would be happier if Cherry Berry could provide a further explanation for Earth pony magic other than "There's no easy explanation."

Finally, our media department has a special request for your guests. While Hermes is still within radio voice range, we wanted to take some time at the end of the daily transmission window to conduct an interview. Of course, even in the current situation where the one-way light speed delay of Hermes is only slightly more than six minutes, it is completely unfeasible to conduct real-time interviews. Therefore, we will prepare a set of written questions for you in advance and have your friends read their answers to each question over the radio so that Hermes can record their voices.

We do understand that they don't speak English very well and have strange accents, but the main purpose of this is to make their voices heard around the world. We believe that the public needs to see beyond the appearance of their extremely cute faces that they are actually flesh-and-blood beings with real feelings, so that people will more strongly support our efforts to bring everyone home safely. .

Almost everything that needs to be said has been said. Please let us know if you need help and we will do our best.

[08:28] 沃特尼：话已经替你们传达到了。在我为作物收获工作组装工具的时候，火球会去拿相机拍照——对指赛高！具体计划已经确定下来了：太阳日109——在洞穴里进行土豆种植；太阳日110至111期间会进行干草收割；而在太阳日112则是以九成土豆的种植比例复垦居住区农场。

In addition, we will also try to plant another 50 square meters of alfalfa seeds on the ground downstream of the outlet of the Xiaoma water circulation heating system. We don’t know what the final effect will be, but we agree that the protein deficiency problem raised by Dr. Keller does exist. I tried some alfalfa leaves yesterday: it's not too bad, but I have serious doubts about how this plant would be palatable to non-tetrapods. However, I have to get used to this taste as soon as possible.

Their reactions to the interview were quite different. Berry's attitude was tepid, Feihuo's was disdainful; Starlight was quite interested, and Dragonfly's eagerness and desire for this matter even started to scare me a little. I remember the last time I saw that smile was on Martinez's face when you were about to call us in over the public safety video. However, the only alien who truly disliked this idea was Fireball, whether because he thought it was extremely stupid or because he found it too embarrassing. His English skills are the worst we have here.

No matter what, you'd better send your questions first. Even if all five of them do not agree, no matter what happens, you will have at least two interviewees who are willing to cooperate. If the situation is good, there may be four.

Finally... yes, now it's finally your turn to help me. Please send me some music. I want a lot of music. Anything is acceptable, country, bluegrass, opera, Himalayan monk chants, anything but god forbid disco! There is nothing here except a fucking disco! Let me put it here first: You are taking it too lightly. Beatles music cannot be used as an antidote to disco. You just said that the communication bandwidth in the future will never be as good as it is now; so I beg you, just send me some low-fidelity, high-compression music files, any content is fine... but disco must not be allowed have. OK? Many thanks.

[08:37] JPL: I'll figure it out. But I can't guarantee that it will work.

[10:49] HERMES: Yo! Look who's here? What infidel dares to disparage the pinnacle of Baby Boomer culture? It won't be long before you start claiming that house music symbolizes the coming of the devil.

[10:57] Watney: Ha, it’s Martinez. After all, you guys have other music to choose from, but other than this thing here, there is only silence.

[11:04] HERMES: Wrong guess, this is Lewis. Besides, don't even think about dissing disco music in front of me.

[11:11] Watney: When I looked at the situation before, I realized that we are about million miles apart, so now I can finally speak my mind freely. Disco is purely a hypocritical, depraved and commercialized spiritual pollution. Listening to this music is a complete insult to the ears. If this can be considered good music, then Red Baron can also be considered a good pizza place.

[11:18] HERMES: Guess which kind person came into your room before and packed and inventoried your personal belongings? By the way, as a reminder, your personal data storage disk is also in her hands now.

[11:25] Watney: Lewis, are you trying to intimidate me? Cheap tricks like this are not your style. In addition, I am not afraid even if all the contents on that storage disk are lost.

[11:32] HERMES: Then let’s take a closer look...Minecraft, Orbiter, Cosmic Sandbox 4...and the complete electronic version of Discworld...Okay, next is the music part. "The Best Science Fiction Themes of All Time." “John Williams conducts the Boston Pops Orchestra” also appears dozens of times. There are also about a hundred video game soundtracks.

[11:39] Watney: It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. John Williams is the most influential American composer of the th century.

[11:46] HERMES: What about this “Weird Al” Yankovic’s Penultimate Sanatorium Collection?

[11:53] Watney: Fifty years of priceless treasures of pop culture.

[12:00] HERMES: Also here is a folder called "Tom Lehrer." I've heard all of this, Mark, and I bet your sweet, innocent friends probably have no idea what's inside.

[12:06] Watney: Don’t you have any other important tasks to be busy with right now?

[12:13] HERMES: Take back the nonsense you just said, or you will have to explain to your friends what the lyrics behind "Spring afternoon, the sun is just right" mean.

[12:21] Watney: Damn... well, you win this time. There are a few disco songs in your collection that aren't exactly badass. “I Will Survive”/“Hot Stuff”/“Stayin’ Alive”. Now these songs sound quite inspiring.

[12:28] HERMES: Mark, this couldn’t be more obvious. But I suspect you haven't really listened to the lyrics to "I Will Survive" at all.

[12:35] Watney: Commander, you are pushing your limits!

[12:42] HERMES: “He gives the kids free samples because he knows full well…”

[12:49] Watney: OK, OK, you’re cruel! I'll change to "The Hustle". It'll work now, right? There are no lyrics, the music style is concise and decent, and the popular appearance actually hides a bit of beauty. There is still a good quality disco song in this world. Are you satisfied?

[12:55] HERMES: There are three. Weird Al’s “Gotta Boogie” and Frank Zappa’s “Dancin’ Fool” are on your drive. So now you have to admit that there are three great disco songs.

[13:02] Watney: Has anyone told you recently that you are so ulterior motives that you don’t have kittens in your breakfast just because NASA hasn’t given you the operating procedures yet?

[13:08] HERMES: It won’t take long. Mark, we all miss you.

[13:14] Watney: Boss, I miss you too. Miss you all. Think about it every day.

[13:15] JPL: We’re also working on protocols for kitten egg rolls. We thought we were done, but one of the engineers accidentally let the kitten escape. You don't want to know what we did with that engineer.

[13:18] JPL: This is Capol. Those words just now were not from me! It looks like someone is causing trouble in Pasadena, but don't let me find out who did it!

[13:26] HERMES: If you can find that person, please tell me his name. We'll have to buy them a drink when we get back.

[13:33] Watney: It’ll take two drinks.

[13:40] HERMES: No matter what my day is like, I always have something to do. Mark, my music is not all disco, there is also some progressive rock in it.

[13:48] Watney: Got it. Maybe I'll forgive you for that "Dark Side of the Moon" song in the future. The artistic conception of this piece is extremely grand, but it was interrupted by a piece of content they wrote related to "money". I was happy and relaxed at first, and was about to start focusing on my work, but suddenly my mood suddenly collapsed.

[13:54] HERMES: You deserve it, you music fan. Commander Hermes' communication ends.