MISSION LOG – SOL 302
We have a trailer.
It took all of about ten minutes, using magic and a bit of hands-on fine guidance, to put what remains of the pony ship onto the Rover 1 chassis. It then took a total of eleven hours of EVA over Sols 299 and 300 to make sure it stayed there. Three people crawling over each other in a trench made to hold maybe one, reaching up with socket wrenches with every extension attached, fumbling around every time a nut failed to thread and fell down in the trench with us… oh, and did I mention the spacesuits? Yeah. Spacesuits.
There are now forty-four separate places where we’ve improvised a bracket or clamp and bolted it down tight around a member of the rover chassis. But we had to do it. The details on Sirius Tandem Rover Procedure 5-E say that we should reuse or install fresh “as many mounting points as possible,” and NASA is absolutely right when they say that. We need them all and probably more.
Even empty, with everything we can strip out of it yanked, and even with close to half the ship cut off, Friendship weighs at least sixteen tons. Every bump, every wobble, every tilt of the chassis is going to put stress on those attachment points, and if they fail on the trip, we’re fucked. We can’t make it lighter- in fact, every step from here on adds more weight to it. So our only choice, short of welding the two together (which we might do, if Starlight has the spell and we can find something for filler), is recycling every fastener for which a hole already exists on the bottom of the pony ship’s hull and looping it around bits of the rover chassis.
Which we did. Fortunately the rover chassis is a big open mesh frame, which makes it easy to fasten things to. Unfortunately that requires threading socket wrenches through the frame while wearing spacesuits, which is why it took two sols to install forty-four mounting points.
By comparison, yesterday’s chore was dirt simple- finishing the connections that unite the towhook assembly, with all the linkages to Rover 2’s life support, and the pony ship. I’d already installed the mounts in the ship’s pressure vessel, complete with their self-sealing-in-vacuum valves. So all I had to do, with Starlight Glimmer’s and Dragonfly’s help, was rig a few new hoses for the few inches between the towhook and the rear of the ship (the ship being mounted backwards on the chassis, remember), then going into the ship to connect the life support system from Rover 1 plus auxiliary lines to the place where the big life support box will be mounted.
That required a bit of tinkering. The life support box’s original home was in the engineering compartment, which breached on landing and which now is so much scrap metal awaiting our need for more bolts. The air lines on the pony ship automatically seal if any one compartment loses pressure, but we needed to salvage those lines to make the linkages between the box and Rover 1’s old life support. That meant patching two more holes in the pressure vessel, which required precision-cutting and threading two plugs and screwing them into place, with changeling goo as a thread gasket.
Putting in the plugs was the easy part. The hard part was moving the hay we’re storing in the ship for the third time so we could depressurize the habitat compartment and remove the pipe sections we wanted. Moving the hay took twice as long as all the other EVA tasks combined.
But we got it done, and now the only thing left to do with the trailer life support is to put the box in its new mount and connect the air hoses plus a water faucet. We even had EVA time remaining to install the lighting strips and get some real light in the ship again. The ponies were down to one bulb per compartment and no spares left.
The next step is moving as many solar panels as possible onto permanent mounts on top of the ship. That takes planning, because (among other reasons) it’s a long way down from the top of the ship- even more than before, since the rover chassis stands a lot taller than the old rear landing gear.
That’s fine by me. There are only two action points left on the procedure for the trailer, and then four for Rover 2 (since I already decided Pathfinder isn’t coming along). We could be finished by Sol 320 even if we take it easy. And since the tests require steps that commit us to shutting down the cave farm, I don’t want to do them until at least Sol 420. So there really isn’t a hurry. We can take it easy.
I especially want Dragonfly to take it easy. It’s nice to see her around, and she’s filling out a bit now that she’s out of that cocoon. But she still looks like a bug-pony chemotherapy patient. She’s nowhere near as energetic as she was pre-cocoon, and as much as she tries to hide it, she gets tired easily. Recovery for her is going to be a long, slow process- which is the main reason I’m in no hurry to decommission the farm.
Tomorrow, after a stop at the cave farm, Starlight and I will go a bit further east for a new salt-gathering site. We’re scraping the box now, after using so much on the homemade baked chips we had for the party. Then we’ll see what we can do about safety gear for me being on top of the ship bolting solar panels onto the roof. After that, we’ll spend a day just moving the panels close enough to the Hab to make it easy.
Actually, come to think of it, I need to rebuild the power converter I cobbled together so it can include a socket to plug the solar panels into. There’s another reason to postpone trusting my life to the skill of a unicorn whose magic has this unfortunate habit of flickering out without warning. I can’t possibly imagine why I’d have misgivings about that.
So, yeah. We’re going to take it easy. While Mars lets us.
Shame they can't bring one of the weather stations (or some of its components) along; might help them detect any dust storms (including the dust storm) earlier than they could have otherwise.
8998024
Especially since we know the dust storm, this time, will not just be potentially lethal but just as actively malicious as the last storm.
You mean "filler", not "solder" and not all welding uses it because welding, by definition, generates enough heat to melt the base metal. That's actually a key part of the distinction between welding and its lower-temperature cousins, brazing and soldering.
(Solder specifically refers to the purpose-designed alloys used in soldering (A.K.A. soft soldering) and brazing (A.K.A. hard soldering).)
The only thing I can think of is that given enough time for growth and Stump magic infusion feeding back into Cherry tree growth due to battery creation and tracking charges, that the Cave Farm will have enough internal recirculating energy, given the solar lights, that it can become a Vivarium, but that would need the irrigation sump, well, moving so that the tree roots can reach it in order to transpire the water back into teh cave atmosphere for the other plants?
I dont think it should be Pournelle class of Surviving With Style, but someone should have the thought, what with leaving the poor robot behind in the space greenhouse.
Project Silent Running.
8998024 That would require that they be able to send it about a hundred kilometers ahead of them to be of any use. The weather stations report conditions where they are; they don't forecast.
8998050 I'll take your word for it. Dad worked construction and had his own welding gear, but he kept me the hell away from it. He trusted me with no tools whatever, least of all an oxyacetylene torch. I still have trouble with the word solder, because I grew up always and invariably hearing it pronounced "sauter".
8998024
They can still bring along the pony-made radio (Probably)
And NASA will have its best mars-weather satellites monitoring the situation.
Honestly, that line terrifies me more than the repeated "Hermes drew closer" line ever did. That is more or less directly tempting Mars to do nasty things to them.
Cuddle her! Seriously, Mark, spend a whole afternoon cuddled up sitting on the bunks with her while reading. You could all use the human/pony contact.
8998084
I figured it would have the ability to determine solar efficiency among the various meteorological systems the stations would have; the weather stations are powered by something, probably by either a mini-RTG, or a small solar farm. Either way, it's not connected directly to Hab power; the stations are too far away. Being able to determine light levels might not help in remote forecasting, but for its local programming, I imagine it would be essential in order to keep the stations running.
8995872 The show suffers from pacing issues so severe they don't allow any time to properly flesh out anything.
The Season 7 finale was basically a bullet-points summary of a story.
8998121 Mars just said, "Hold my space beer..."
8998121
Well, let's think about the risks they face from now until the drive:
Heat, Food, Water, Air: Fine
Lots of EVA time? sounds doable. Unlimited air, and a cobbler/tailor to keep all gear, and more importantly, the whole team in working order.
The better question is did they learn the important lessons from the engine incident. They seemed to busy dealing with the fallout to do a proper postmortem. Gonna go with probably yes, off screen.
Hab Status? it has probably seen more wear than it ever did in the martian. Maintenance. Should still be fine though. Id have the wizard cast mend a few times preventively anyways. One airlock blew up remember.
Morale? Potato, hay and cherry leaf tea on special occasion. weak changeling, practically no hygiene. Definitely not high. But at least they are not shoveling shit. They have a plan. And disco. Probably not a major problem.
Cave? Cherries. The promise of cherries in the future. Fruit! Magic! Crystals! Stump!
Lots of magic released there though. Unforeseen consequences await. <- Put me down for 20 bits on that not being a rock.
Sparkle drive? Probably gonna take time. They have that.
Batteries? Dunno, haven't done the math lately. But NASA and the ponies don't seem worried about it.so that's probably fine.
So, Any other failure points?
Hermes near the sun is still dangerous.
NASA, esa, SpaceX The chinese, The russians. Who knows. Next hoffman transfer window is 18 - 7 2037 Also known as after the Hermes mars flyby. So nothing too big. Nothing timely. Wheels should have been set in motion a long time ago, and they probably did. Nukes in case the aliens ended up hostile? Probably almost there. Silently diverted, we will never hear of them. Unless that is what Dragonfly was foreshadowing? Probably not.
SpaceX running out of rockets might have something to do with that too. (Did you see how many BFRs they are building now IRL?)
TS / mane 6 Could do something stupid and/or smart.
Luna/Celestia Should know better then do something stupid.
That one special unicorn that got mentioned twice, and everyone forgot about a long time ago. If they even noticed. Celestia knows. I don't. Wildcard.
So, that leaves politics and other politics
And the ANGEL programm
Slow progress.
Mars is in no hurry. But could act.
Presence? Another wildcard. Probably positive. Or a few little bugs. Either way i'm fine with it.
Martian murder attempt incoming.
Hmm well theres plenty of time for dark magic crystals to become an issue! Or Fireball to grow out of his EVA suit! Or shrink out of it! Or for them to discover a mysterious black monolith! But that last one would probably just get weird.
8998224
The dark magic crystals crumbled to dust and blew away within a couple of days. That shouldn't be a problem.
Could they use the naturally occuring iron from Mars as filler for welding? There is a lot of it to go around, and with some minor processing they could get some pig iron with ease.
8998265 I think turning hematite- that's iron oxide, or put another way, rust- into even pig iron would require a bit more equipment and preparation than the ponies and Mark are likely to have. Unless they get another cave somewhere, that is.
8998270 For launch of the Whinnybago, maybe. For launching the Ares IV MAV, that's still a ways off.
8998126
Or he could just her
Cuddles for the cuddle bug!
... Stop tempting Mars, Mark!
8998221
"Luna/Celestia should know better than to do something stupid"
*looks at everything they've done in the show*
🤔
8998269
I'm not a smith, but I'm fairly certain getting iron from soil in any usable quantity would require a furnace and fuel. A furnace would require clay bricks, a possibility from martian soil, or similarly heat-resistant material, a possibility from ceramics present in the Hab or Amicitas.
Using the furnace would require charcoal or fuel safe enough for use in an enclosed space. This rules out anything currently on Mars. Even if they somehow had charcoal, they would need to extract smoke from their forge, also a practical impossibility on Mars outside the hab, being inside which which precludes use of a furnace entirely.
Even if Starlight could gather iron oxide with her spell the same way she does sodium chloride and perchlorates, I don't think she can break molecular bonds without inducing oxidation, and the first use case involving iron oxide that comes to mind is iron oxide and aluminum, which I'm sure they don't want near their space suits. Or hides. Or anything supplied by NASA.
I think it's safe to say definitively that accquiring usable quantities of iron on Mars won't happen unless they have a veritable cavern in which to conduct prospective mining operations, not a wee cave.
8998088
For North Americans, pronouncing solder as 'sauder' is perfectly valid. Etymologically speaking, like in many examples, the American pronunciation is reflective of the older pronunciation of the word, which was soudur in Middle English. The Brits 'Latinized' a considerable portion of their vocabulary in spelling reforms that never carried over to American English, and several of those Latinizations turned silent letters into vocalized ones. There are two equally valid ways to say solder, just as there are two valid spellings/pronunciations of aluminum/aluminium. It all depends on where you live/learned to speak English.
8997043
It was Sol 105 that had the fan art.
They have all the bits that they cut off of the Amicitas for filler if they need it.
8998137
More like a single solar panel (it’s not like it has to move), storage batteries, and one or two 238PuO2 radioisotope heaters inside the hot box to keep the batteries and electronics warm at night and during the winter. The combination has served Opportunity quite well for the last 5122 sols (and still counting, we hope).
Speaking of fan art, I made a spreadsheet that, among other purposes, documents all of the parts of this story people said there ought to be art for. I'll show you a small section of it.
i.imgur.com/AAmU21B.png
As for what the rest of the spreadsheet is, that's a secret!
8996886
8996878
Thank you for your help!
If I remember correctly, they have lots of scrap metal from the same ship around.
Pony tool box contains dies and taps, but doesn't contain socket extensions?
Wonder if the equestrian side could transmute something and send it via the air. Would probably take a lot of energy to convert it back though.
8998445
Yeah, thermite can ruin your whole day. Even worse, thermite should work even outside the Hab since the aluminum is ripping the oxygen off the iron oxide, and not pulling it from the atmosphere. On the plus side, it’s dandy for welding large chunks of iron or steel together!
You need welding filler you say? As in a long, thin length of conductive metal? That’s broken up into convinently short pieces? Yeah, you know where I’m going with this.
Space welding?
We need Jazz Bashara here.
8998720
That certainly would produce something.
Like, a first mushroom cloud on Mars.
8998764 There are any number of reasons why attempting to culture yeast from the body in anything less than a proper laboratory environment is a bad idea.
8998755
Ooh, you read that one too?
Do you suppose the Moon hates life as much as Mars does?
I mean, if you're in a bind because Weir skipped 150 sols you could just, you know, skip some days too. Trying to force them filled is just going to drag the pacing down even more.
Don't worry, Mark. I'm sure Mars will find some way to occupy you in the interim.
8998795
Hmmm… Tough question. The most widely accepted theory is that the Moon was formed from the debris left over after a giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body (Theia). So on one hand, yes, the Moon hates life as much as Mars does because Earth wound up “getting all the good stuff” in the collision and it’s jealous. On the other hand, the Moon as it is today wouldn’t exist without that impact, so it might be somewhat neutral. And on the gripping hand, it might be a tad schizophrenic and suffer from identity disorder because it’s a bit of what used to be Earth and a bit of what used to be Theia.
8998795
Considering the tides might have been helping life develop on earth, I'd put the moon more like earth's little brother, helping, but being too small to take care of life by itself.
8998221
That one special unicorn? I did apparently forget about that. Who do you mean?
Personally, i think a blast furnace is well within reach, it would take a few weeks to build. They have the fuel (Methane, oxygen), They have the housing (undamaged Friendship engine bell), And a unicorn to manipulate it all magically from a safe distance.
What do they need that isn't mentioned yet?
Coke. Replace with hydrogen, produced by methane fuel plant.
Limestone. Magic away most of the impurities in your ore instead.
And this could all be done outside in martian atmosphere. (But id do it in the cave somewhere anyway)
That said, a better question would be: Why?
Iron is heavy. And they would still have to cast it into useful shapes.
They are better served with scavenging ponytium and steel/magnesium/aluminium...
8998221
I'm most concerned about batteries right now. I forget how much leeway they had for that and they just lost a lot of time to make them.
8998959
It seems i was wrong and he got mentioned twice. not once, my mistake.
8999001
I suspect that gases could be pretty reluctant to take part in chemical reactions efficiently under pressure that low. That could be a problem even if they had coal: if I remember correctly, intermediate reactions involve CO gas.
8999131
...Donut Joe?
8999158
Make it a closed system. But yes, somewhere in the cave is better. I actually changed my mind and edited my post before this reply.
8999162
Was it that obvious?
time to for some r & r
best to enjoy it while you can.