My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

"Wait a moment."

When the two SpaceX aircraft inspectors heard this sentence, they suddenly became angry and looked at the third colleague beside them with eyes that were like killing a thousand cuts. “Damn it, Mickey,” one of them yelled, “what the f–k did you find out again?”

Michael Hong hated his nickname. The large, striking ears on either side of his head have always been noticeable since he was a child, so his classmates started calling him Mickey. When he was about to go to college, he suddenly chose an in-state school. As a result, before the end of the first semester, his high school classmates had successfully made "Mickey" famous. Since then, this title has established an unshakable supremacy; whether it is his favorite professor or his immediate boss, the first words everyone mentions about him are: "Michael Hong? Oh, you mean Mickey, right?" "So the name has been passed down.

However, this is not the main reason why he is lonely and neglected in his daily work. During his two years as a camera operator at SpaceX, he discovered that his new nickname, "that picky bastard," was heard more often than "Mickey," and he got out of hand.

Fortunately, no one has mentioned his new nickname to his face: "The Picky Rat."

And if he works more carefully and carefully, launches will become safer; isn't this the best response to those little kids who always gave him cheese and asked him for Donald Duck's autograph? The six-year-old urchin in him also jumped with the pleasure of revenge.

"Look at the No. 2 oxygen storage tank." Lao Hong operated the camera and pointed it at the target location. At this time, the camera lens has snaked into the depths of the first stage thruster of a red Falcon Heavy rocket scheduled to provide launch services for the Sleipnir III Mars supply mission. Faint illumination reflected on various internal components, illuminating a manifold connection in the center of the frame that connected the main oxidizer tank to several thruster engines below.

"I've looked at it," his colleague replied. "No problem. No damage found."

"But there's a spot right above the joint that's not the right color. Did you see it?" Lao Hong didn't intend to let it go.

The third inspector couldn't help it. "Old Hong," he begged in an almost pleading tone, "Mark Watney and his group of alien companions have now reached the point where they have to farm the land with their own cocks in order to survive, and there is nothing but potatoes and hay. Other options. You don’t know about this, do you?”

"Yes, but..."

"With this supply mission, they can survive until the day Ares 3B arrives on Mars for rescue." The third colleague still held out a glimmer of hope that he could convince Lao Hong, "Ideally, they should have gotten it yesterday, and The number will be at least double what it is now.”

"And every extra day we delay here," the second person chimed in, "Watney and his friends have to wait an extra day to get this 'takeout.' Mickey, do you understand? ?”

"It's better to be late than not to arrive at all." Lao Hong was still stubborn.

"Lao Hong, even counting today, we only have ten days left to hand over the assembled booster and second-stage thruster to NASA for inspection and final assembly." The third inspector continued. "And so far we have discovered four issues that will take a full six days to resolve," he said.

SpaceX has achieved many amazing achievements in recent years that exceeded expectations. However, their ambition to maintain the regular turnaround time of the recyclable first-stage thruster within 24 hours has been repeatedly hit by ruthless reality and hit the wall repeatedly. After all, there are very limited excellent engineering designs and excellent materials that can withstand the test of extreme conditions such as propeller exhaust heat, atmospheric shock waves and resistance, extreme acceleration, severe vibration, etc.; and the world-famous Red Hunter The Eagle Heavy rocket, that engineering masterpiece nicknamed the "Bullet Rocket" (BFR), is indeed the most complex SpaceX creation after the Hermes residential module. There are too many possibilities for errors.

"But...well, it shouldn't look like this here." Lao Hong was still very determined, "Have you ever discovered similar situations during inspections before?"

"No," the second person blurted out without thinking, "I've never seen this before, even during training. It's not a leak or a material defect on the pipe or tank, so it's definitely not a problem."

"Don't forget that this thing is on the oxidizer storage tank." Lao Hong still didn't mean to let go. "No matter what, it is at least related to the main delivery pipe. This is completely different from the fuel storage tank. If RP- 1 leaks. If you are unlucky, it may catch fire, but sometimes it may not. But if the high-pressure liquid oxygen leaks, it will be completely dead. The oxidizer storage tank must be taken seriously, and you must know that this sentence makes sense. of!"

"Then think about it," said the third inspector, "if we had to disassemble the rocket body again and replace the delivery pipe and manifold joints..."

“…if it was to be more thorough maybe replace the manifold itself…” the second inspector added.

"... How long will it take to reassemble the thruster?"

Lao Hong didn't care about this. "Nine days," he replied, "but other repairs can be done simultaneously, and we can save another three days."

"Even so, we will still be two full days behind schedule." The second inspector complained, gradually getting more serious. "And that's assuming we don't find any other problems next. If something really goes wrong, It’s unimaginable.”

"And now NASA, from top to bottom, including Teddy Sanders and ordinary staff, are like debt collectors watching us every day." The third inspector continued, "They all think Watney His farm may suddenly explode, or some other weird accident may cause his food to run out early, so there is no room for any delay in this mission. Lao Hong, I feel like maybe they are right this time."

"Well, Mitch," the second inspector interjected, trying to be reasonable and conceding, "if you could tell us what's wrong with that discolored patch and what it might be. If the mission fails in some way, we will flag it for rework; otherwise, we will ignore it and continue to inspect it. What do you think?"

At this point, they paused, waiting for Lao Hong's reply. Their idea is indeed reasonable - the delivery of the thruster for the previous Sleipnir 4 mission has been delayed, and this time NASA wants to receive the thruster on time. Moreover - Lao Hong had to reflect on himself at this time - the thruster did not show any clear signs of leakage, nor could any hidden damage be found. The anomaly could be nothing more than contamination from some pre-assembly process, or it could be the line lubricant used to fasten the connections. He was also responsible for inspecting the booster during the previous Ares MAV transport mission. The three suspicious points discovered at that time were much more suspicious than now, and the launch was still successful.

But again... don't forget, this is the central oxidizer storage tank.

Lao Hong didn't insist on being a stumbling block, but he also had no intention of letting it pass. There was always something wrong.

But...but the other two were right. No matter what, he couldn't find any known flaws that would make the number correct. All he could say was, "That piece of metal is the wrong color." But the color didn't correspond to any known signs of oxidation or any other kind of problem.

So Lao Hong shrugged and said, "I just don't feel right."

“It’s not enough just that something feels wrong,” said a third inspector. “We feel like it’s okay, and that doesn’t explain the problem at all.”

Lao Hong sighed and finally gave in. "Okay, if that's what you say," he said, "then go ahead."

The other two inspectors breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this good news, and were glad that they finally succeeded in convincing the picky rat and were able to continue the work at hand. They were thinking in unison at this moment. To be honest, if they didn't say anything about this stupid weird thing, at first glance, they would have thought they were from NASA.