So, a privately built and operated space probe became the first US lander to soft-land on the Moon last week- Odysseus.

The problem is, in landing it flopped over on its side, which means two of its antennas ended up pointing at the surface and that its solar panels (hard-mounted to the sides of toe probe) are too low to catch any sunlight after today, meaning its science mission time got cut by more than half and its data cut even more so.

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"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
--- probably not Mark Twain

So, the newest addition by someone to the TVTropes page for The Martian has a reference to the Sol 551 Space Oddity heartsong, and claims Mark told Fireball to "tell Mars just what we think of it," with Fireball flipping off the planet and saying, "It knows!"

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But it's the story I completed with hours to spare for FanOfMostEverything's Imposing Sovereigns IV contest.

And it is part of the CSPverse. (With this being the fifth official story set there, and a sixth to come in December, I guess it's a thing now.)

Counting Noses

Well, it IS the last day if you want the Obligatory Kickstarter T-shirt.

But to make you backers feel extra-special... I shall scribble inside the book and tell you that it's my signature, but ONLY for my Kickstarter backers.

(... and anyone who meets me in person and asks...)

Anyway, 24 hours left to pledge!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wlpcomics/remember-fort-libris-print-edition/

Those of you Maretian readers who thought I didn't make a big enough deal of it being a first-contact story might appreciate this one.

Or not. It's not adventure, it's just a sweet story more or less in the same tone as the original MLP:FiM cartoon.

Enjoy "Methane, She Pinkie."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELKThXwpFps

Well, there's the newest video above.

Also, I have some down time beginning Monday of next week... and, in the past seven days, I've had to spend $1850 on water well repair and $1300 on replacing my washer and dryer. This is on top of about $4000 I had to spend in January on my hot water heater and septic system (and more to come once I can find time to get quotes from contractors).

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... go check it out.

This is one hell of a compliment from readers, especially considering they stuck with it for five years to make this happen.

Well, as I fully expected, nobody voted to say they supported my game or sim-racing videos (or, by extension, the game streams).

So- those are mostly over now. I'm only going to make videos when I have something clearly in mind, or when something unusual happens when sim-racing (I'm not giving that up, on my own time anyway).

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OK, I've seen what I expected to see.

Tonight, 7 PM Central, I'm doing Kerbal Space Program on Twitch... and also making an ANNOUNCEMENT.

https://twitch.tv/redneckgaijin

And in the meantime, the latest sim racing video you're not watching:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INUWDr7HLvQ

A poll to find out what my Patreon supporters, past and present, want of me.

Because it's come to my attention that I have a lot fewer, contributing less, than I had at the top of the year.

Even if you aren't currently a Patreon supporter of mine, if you were a past one, or if you've even thought of it, go answer the poll. It's open to anybody.

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... but I'm trying, honest.

The End of the Beginning

Immediately post-Maretian (mostly- takes place before the "Much Later" chapter).

Wanderer D and I discussed the setting, and I did the bulk of the writing for Cherry and Dragonfly, with Wanderer mostly doing Issekai's lines.

Here it is- enjoy!

I'm going to be in Atlanta, GA working a booth at Anime Weekend Atlanta this weekend.

And since someone PMed me asking for a meet-up, I thought I'd throw it open: anyone in the Atlanta following this interested in doing a thing Saturday night? (That's the only night I won't be busy or tied down.)

... just nailing these down, not that I expect to use them.

(This is for the CSP-Maretian setting, but feel free to use them in any case where Equestria is not on a geocentric model.)

The Equus system is a parallel Sol system, with a G0 sun at its heart and very similar but not identical planets. For all practical purposes, the environment of each world is similar to our own. So:

Mercury = Bellerophon
Venus = Aine
Earth = Equus (satellites: The Moon, the Little Stars inc. Minmus)

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So, for those of you who might not have noticed, Changeling Space Program's print-version Kickstarter has succeeded magnificently:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1869505034/changeling-space-program-print-edition?ref=creator_nav

This makes it much more likely that I will attempt my own Maretian edition in 2022. However, there are some issues of scale to be discussed.

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Hat-tip to Latrans for this one.

You remember that, in The Maretian, Mark Watney had Starlight Glimmer put pyramid-shaped quartz glass on top of the solar cells on the Whinnybago to increase solar power collection during the drive to the Ares IV MAV.

Well... turns out, after a fashion, it works.

And it works using technology from one of the 1980s' biggest fads.

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In The Martian, Andy Weir wrote that the two Ares III rovers each used a heavy, bulky lithium battery that stored 9,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. (That was based off of early-2000s new-generation moon rovers built for testing by NASA.)

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Don't worry, this isn't about me personally.

Michael Collins, the member of Apollo 11 who didn't step on the moon, died last night.

While looking up details of the death, I ran across his Twitter page. Apparently, despite cancer and advanced age, he was a very active user, and enthusiastic about boosting space exploration literally up to his last day on Earth.

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https://www.deviantart.com/riverfox237/art/The-Maretian-Hermes-Crew-Equestrianified-876407151

https://www.deviantart.com/riverfox237/art/Maretian-Sol-18-Colors-by-AstralMelodia-848648462

https://www.deviantart.com/riverfox237/art/Home-Martain-s-Lament-Art-for-The-Maretian-848561713

And, as a reminder, a link to the Derpiboru tag:

https://derpibooru.org/tags/fanfic-colon-the+maretian

Perseverance has tested MOXIE, the first device to create oxygen from local materials on a world other than Earth.

We're one step closer to the MAV fuel plant and the Hab oxygenator.