Sol 544
“Sorry I’m late,” Teddy said, setting his briefcase down next to his desk. Taking his seat, he looked around the others in the room and said, “Launch day is in one week. Walk me through it.”
“Phoenix will launch just after dawn local time on Sol 551,” Venkat said. “That will be just after Hermes’s closest approach to Mars.”
“After?” Annie asked. “Shouldn’t the rendezvous take place when Hermes is as close to Mars as it can get?”
Venkat shook his head. “Hermes is passing inside and in front of Mars in relation to its orbit. Mars’s gravity will slow Hermes down a bit- not enough to capture it, but enough to put Hermes on a trajectory for the soonest possible Earth intercept. That part of the maneuver is vital. Hermes has enough remaining propellant for its VASIMR engines to adjust trajectory to meet Phoenix and then get back on course for Earth, but only after closest approach. If they deviate from flight plan prior to that point, they don’t get home.”
“Unless they can use the Sparkle Drive,” Mitch grumbled. “And we don’t want to depend on that.”
“No indeed,” Venkat agreed. “Dawn local time at Schiaparelli will be 6:44 PM Houston time. The MAV will launch on a generally westward track on liftoff to counter Mars rotation. We expect to lose about four hundred meters per second of delta-V to that. Our calculations are that, if seven of the fifteen magic boosters fail on liftoff, Phoenix can still make rendezvous. Eight is one too many.
“The magic boosters and the first stage engines will burn for approximately six minutes. The boosters will provide three G’s of acceleration at launch, plus another two G’s once the first stage engines throttle up. The main engines will throttle down during launch to keep maximum G levels at a maximum of eight G. We expect Mark, Dragonfly, and possibly Starlight to black out, but Cherry Berry assures us that she, Spitfire, and probably Fireball can remain conscious and functional under that strain. It costs us a bit more delta-V, but with as many uncertainties about this launch as we have, we’d rather have a conscious crew able to respond to emergencies.”
“Is that delta-V loss factored into your calculations about the magic boosters?” Teddy asked, making a note.
“It is. We can’t be certain about when the magic boosters will cut out. The ponies say they adjusted the booster spell to have the batteries run them for six minutes, but that’s not exact. Once they burn out, they won’t ignite the second stage straight away. Instead the Hermes crew will double-check the trajectory of Phoenix and verify the Phoenix computer’s projection for the second stage burn required to establish an intercept with Hermes. Only after confirmation do they burn. If all goes perfectly, the two ships should be in a position to begin docking maneuvers roughly fifty minutes after Phoenix launches. Any difficulties will, of course, mean a later rendezvous.”
“Or none at all,” Bruce Ng said over the speakerphone. “In the case of a launch failure too significant for any chance of a Hermes rendezvous, the Phoenix crew will engage the Sparkle Drive for a direct Earth abort. If the velocities are good but the trajectory too compromised for a normal intercept, then the Sparkle Drive will be used to move Phoenix so that its carried momentum is shifted to make a Hermes intercept possible.”
“The Earth abort is the last ditch scenario,” Venkat agreed. “We don’t know if the Sparkle Drive is reliable long-term, and we have only a rough estimate of travel time, and putting Phoenix into any useful Earth orbit will be a nightmare. Landing is out of the question. Also, Phoenix will only carry seven days of food for a trip which, under the best conditions, takes us four months normally. Hermes has food for all of them for months and months. So we want them there if at all possible.”
Annie was making her own notes on her phone, fingers flying across the touch-screen. “Tough shit for all the reporters who want to hear a horse say, ‘Warp speed,’” she said. “What happens after docking?”
“Phoenix will dock with the vehicle docking bay on the nose of Hermes,” Venkat said. “Normally a MAV would be dumped after crew transfer, but this time we’ll leave it in place. Hermes can still rotate with a vehicle docked, so we don’t need to transfer the Sparkle Drive. The software for the Drive is adjustable to account for power available and for the mass of the combined ships. We’ll attempt to use the Drive to get Hermes home sooner, taking a trajectory that will always leave Hermes in a viable limp-home trajectory.
“Arrival time depends entirely on the Sparkle Drive. If it fails completely, Hermes continues on the Rich Purnell trajectory and gets home seven months from now. If it’s completely successful, that time gets cut down to about one month or a little longer.”
“Wait a minute,” Annie protested. “Explain again why Phoenix would only need a week to get to Earth, but Hermes needs a month on Sparkle Drive.”
“Mass,” Venkat said. “Apparently, just because the Drive is magic doesn’t make it exempt from all physical laws. Hermes is bigger, so every micro-jump it makes costs more energy. To compensate, the Drive has to reduce its cycles per second way down, which means a slower trip.”
Both Teddy and Annie made notes at this. “All right,” Teddy said. “I want to backtrack for a moment. All the uses of their booster system, as I understand it, involved improvised switches that were operated by someone on the surface pulling a rope. There’s not going to be anyone outside to pull a rope this time. Have we worked out a way around this?”
“We didn’t have to,” Venkat said. “They did it for themselves three sols ago.”
“How does it work?”
“It was Dragonfly’s idea. Sojourner is staying behind at Schiaparelli. One of the MAV backup radios has been installed in the rover so that Sojourner can take photos of the Schiaparelli site and send them to Earth after Phoenix leaves.”
“So Sojourner pulls the rope?”
“No. Dragonfly didn’t think Sojourner would have the torque, and anyway she didn’t want to permanently tether the robot to the booster system. No, instead they rigged up a teeter-totter using panels from consoles stripped out of Phoenix. Sojourner will crawl up the panel until it tips.” Venkat mimed a see-saw pivoting down. “When the end of the panel hits the ground, it will hit two metal studs connected to wires. That will complete the circuits linking the battery portion of the boosters to the booster parts, all at once. Sojourner has been positioned so it will take the rover precisely two minutes to drive just past the tipping point. That means the first stage will be ignited and ready to throttle up the instant the boost hits.”
“That sounds like a Rube Goldberg machine,” Teddy commented.
“It’s what they have parts to spare for,” Venkat shrugged. “They don’t have a radio-operable switch they could use. They barely have enough wires and cables to make this work.”
“Will this harm Sojourner in any way?”
“Only if it falls off the teeter-totter. Dragonfly covered Sojourner’s wheels in non-conductive goo. That will keep it insulated long enough. And Starlight doesn’t think magic current would harm Sojourner in any case.”
“We’ll leave it at that, then,” Teddy said. “Let’s go down the list. How’s the fuel situation?”
“Fuel tanks are at 98% capacity,” Bruce reported. “Tomorrow’s the last day we’ll have them electrolyze water. The only way we could get more fuel on this ship now would be if we strapped tanks on the outside of the ship.”
“Good. What about the remaining ship systems?”
“We’ll have Mark run full diagnostics on Sol 547,” Bruce said. “If something shows up, that gives us two days to fix it- probably by replacing the bad component with the backup we had them rip out. For now, the ship looks perfectly healthy.”
“Healthy like a man missing a lung and a kidney,” Venkat muttered.
Teddy ignored the comment. “What about the crew? What’s their flight status?”
“According to Martinez, good to fly,” Mitch said. “The last day of flight sims will be Sol 548. After that launch prep takes priority. If I’m reading between the lines of Martinez’s reports correctly, he thinks Cherry Berry is a little sloppier than he is, but a lot more willing to push the envelope- and vastly more experienced. I’m quoting here: ‘It’s like teaching Alan Shepard to fly… and John Glenn… and Neil Armstrong… and Jim Lovell… and John Young… all in the same body.’”
“That’s pretty accurate,” Venkat said. “I read Starlight's reports. Imagine if all the Mercury and half the Gemini flights were flown by one person.”
“That’s it exactly,” Mitch said. “Martinez’s only concerns are that she might be too willing to take an unnecessary risk-“
“- and when was the last time you heard an astronaut say that about another astronaut?” Venkat said.
Mitch nodded. “That, and that she might not trust the flight computer enough. And, also, he says she uses too much fuel. But I think he’s saying that last because he wants to make it clear he’s still the better pilot. It doesn’t sound like a serious critique.”
“But the bottom line,” Teddy said, “is that she’s good to fly? What about her sysop?”
“Spitfire’s English is still spotty,” Mitch said. “But she’s familiar with the controls and has a basic working knowledge of the main computer interface. As a copilot she’s good to go. For anything major we’ll have Johanssen handle the computer side of things remotely.”
“And the Sparkle Drive?” Teddy asked. “How big of a question mark is it?”
“Enormous,” Venkat admitted. “Starlight says they corrected the problems that caused them to come here in the first place. We have to take their word for that. We’re using a Hab laptop with special software prepared by JPL to operate the Drive using an interface we had them make from electrical repair kit parts. But that software was written based on their specifications, which again we have to take their word for.”
He smiled and added, “We did catch one issue, though. The original interface was mouse-only, using a slider bar to control the frequency of jumps. But it turned out that the slider bar in simulation mode was precisely the opposite orientation as the slider bar in normal operations mode. Apparently the programmer changed the interface partway through writing and forgot to make the changes to both modes. A low setting in sims would produce a dangerously high setting on launch day. That got fixed two weeks ago, and to make it safer the slider is now only a backup. The jump rate is now set by keyboard instruction- type in the number and hit enter. They've been using it that way in at least two sims per sol for three weeks now.”
“Good. But I gather your bottom line is that we don’t want to have to touch it until docking with Hermes is complete.”
“Right,” Venkat said. “We’re treating it as almost completely untested, and we don’t want to operate it outside of fail-safe conditions.”
“I agree,” Teddy said. “Dr. Shields, Dr. Keller, your medical opinion?”
Dr. Shields and Dr. Keller, the Ares psychologist and chief flight surgeon, stood side by side near the office door. “Mentally, they’re as good as can be expected,” Shields said. “I was afraid the tight quarters in the Whinnybago would have them at each other’s throats, but they’re coming together in adversity.”
“Physically, it’s not so good,” Keller said. “Dragonfly has been deteriorating over the past month, in particular, likely due to magic deficiency. The others aren’t certain whether they show any symptoms themselves, but they all show noticeable muscle atrophy due to long-term exposure to low gravity. We don’t know about bone mass. Watney’s been taking supplements, and alfalfa hay helps build bones in animals on Earth, so that’s been mitigated as much as can be expected.”
“Would you qualify them to take an active role in the launch?” Teddy asked.
“Watney, no,” Keller said, shaking his head. “Not at eight G’s with only minimal training to resist blackout. And based on reports, not Dragonfly either. But remember, everyone except Watney is an alien. Even with the papers Starlight Glimmer translated, I just don’t know enough to make a confirmable diagnosis. All I can say is, I can’t find a reason to disqualify them.”
“And let me point out,” Venkat added quickly, “this is not a question of whether they launch or not. There’s no alternative.”
Teddy made notes, then said, “Launch weather. How much will the dust storm affect them?”
“Not greatly,” Randall Carter, the Mars meteorologist, said. “The current dust storm is building up absolutely normally. Its only real movement is in growth of area affected. The leading edge of the storm is predicted to reach the launch site on Sol 549, with a minimal reduction in solar panel efficiency on Sol 550. The only effect is to put enough particles in the air above the site that even emergency use of the Sparkle Drive becomes too unsafe to consider. Given the fine nature of the dust, some of it might get as high as sixty kilometers. We recommend a minimum safe altitude of two hundred kilometers before engaging the Sparkle Drive, with a minimum emergency altitude of one hundred.”
“Bruce, does that line up with your recommendations?” Teddy asked.
“I’ll accept it,” Bruce said. “I’d prefer the Drive be left alone completely.”
“Tracking.” Teddy looked at Mindy Park. “What will we see?”
“Everything we have orbiting Mars that can monitor the flight in any useful way will be,” Mindy said. “We’re adjusting orbits of three satellites to put them close enough for direct video observation of the launch, but we won’t see that video for hours after the fact. The satellite high-gain antennas can’t point at Earth while the sats are tracking Phoenix with their cameras. But everything else with the capacity will track trajectory by radio and relay that data through Hermes and Sleipnir 2 to Earth. We’ll know exactly where they went… twelve minutes ago.”
“Good work.” Teddy paused, tapping his notepad with his pen. “Venkat, what about the trajectory teams?”
“Astrodynamics has been running hundreds of thousands of flight variants through the supercomputers for the past month,” Venkat said. “And you know absolutely everyone who can get through the gate will be on-site on launch day. If we need a course correction, then so long as there’s fuel in the second ascent stage or power for the Sparkle Drive, we have a chance. Remember, Phoenix has unlimited air and water and seven days of food. We can take a little time to get it right. We won’t have to pull a seat-of-the-pants maneuver at the last minute.”
“Your lips to God’s ears,” Bruce Ng muttered over the speakerphone.
“Mission control?” Teddy asked.
“For what it’s worth, we’ll be ready,” Mitch said. “I’ve shuffled schedules so that the prime team will be at the consoles beginning at 4 PM our time. I’ll have my deputy controllers to use as runners or aides as needed, and I’m sure every controller will be on hand for this, on or off shift.” He shook his head. “But aside from tracking and trajectory, there’s dick-all they can do. We’re twenty-four minutes out of the action, and that’s all there is to it!”
“You never know,” Teddy said. “Your people are all highly trained engineers, Mitch. If a contingency arises that gives us those twenty-four minutes, I want anyone who might have a useful idea available to give it. If we can do something to help, I want us to be able to.” He closed his notebook and said, “Annie, I have to report to the president in person, but after I get back I’ll be at your disposal for any press events you think are beneficial.”
“I’ll see what I can line up,” Annie muttered. “But unless you get off the plane with four hooves and pastel fur, don’t count on much.”
A chuckle went round the room as the meeting broke up.
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It's happening. After so long, the nightmare is drawing to a close.
I'm just surprised Starlight's little blurb about "Celestia raised the Sun" hasn't turned any heads, though.
So they can lose seven batteries on launch and still be within launch parameters. A spaceship designed by NASA would only be able to survive the loss of one battery, and then only in certain specific flight modes.
CSP - Spaceships and astromares made of iron.
You and me (and every other reader here) both.
Also I'm so happy Sojourner gets to help and then look at even more rocks. That's gonna be some happy robot!
I, too, am eager to get to the launch!
Basic summary of this chapter: "Alright everyone, listen up. Give me the go-nogo for launch."
Great. Now I have the Apollo 13 soundtrack in my head again.
But magic surges do affect inorganic things in odd ways.
I have a vision of Ares IV finally getting to Mars for their mission to find Sojourner and a small swarm of Soujourner-lings swarming about and collecting data to send home.
9216640 Wrong probe, but still relevant.
I wonder, does Teddy ever sit back and think about just how absurd this all sounds? About the fact that they arn't only taking magic seriously but using it as part of a launch system? The fact throwing around the word magic in a top level NASA meeting is not only normal but now necessary and that it all sounds completely crazy to anyone living just a year and a half ago.
9216658
The way I figure it, Teddy is a politician, if talking about magic is what makes for a successful mission and, by extension, more funding from Congress for future missions, then he'll talk about magic with all the gravitas he can muster.
At least in this telling of the story, Teddy's not making poor decisions on what risks to take or not to take, then getting scared and deciding to take no risks at all.
Sojournaer rides the Teetertotter, so camera changes angle, but its right at the non blast focal point of the largest magical pulse to hit the entire planet, seeprated from electrical connection by material made in a dense saturation magical enviroment, thats been magically drained and just ready to soak up everything heading its way.
As for the sim slider and the system slider being the wrong way round. I suspect the new patched software wont be the software run from cold start when the laptops and system computers glitch and have to be forced through a full reboot. Seen it happen too many times.
Then again, one of the most spectacular computer tricks I ever heard about was a small music group playing at a computer demo scene meeting with a large crowd in a tropical enviroment. They had three machines running identical MIDI software and music track files simultaneously, so that as one failed due to shorting out with humidity, the others would keep working while that one was rebooted. This is music. Each sample has to be played extremely accurately to a small fraction of a milisecond or the music weirds out. These machines didnt try and fix a problem intelligently, there wasnt time. They just killed the misbehaving system and started a new one. In seconds. Because they were multitasking, it was also possible for the display to freeze as the GPU locked up and the IO chip to keep DMA the data to the ports. I seem to remember a few occasions where it was possible to get a full lock up of the system except for IO and you could see it coming from about 30 seconds ahead if you were watching closely. Just enough time to hard cold boot a replacement. Curiosity on landing on Mars took 12 seconds to reboot at one time because of a glitch, but given it has two computers, I dont know if the backup was running and took over during that time?
Any spare solar panels or layered sheet might be placed between the launch crystals, so when one explodes under the stress, the sheets will try and mitigate the shrapnel as best as possible to try and reduce cascade collapse? Would Sojourna bee too close, or would such sheets be too close and be affected by forces? Like what happened witht eh Mulberry harbour in the D Day langdings? The harbours were massive concrete structures, but the Admiralty demanded steel protective sheeting on the outer surface. the mounting points couldnt handle the rough weather so the sheets came loose and impacted the concrete as wave driven hammers.
Im thinking with the laptops, the only port left they could use for direct mechanical signaling, with a hack, is shorting the microphone leads momentarily with a pencil lead for resistance. too much vibration and noise to use the mic itself. All othre ports are data packet run these days? Othersw would be to abuse the chassis intrusion switch or reset switch, or even the fan speed sensor wire? But thats a Pulse sensor so could be a backup for detecting Sparkle Drive fluctuations apart from the microphone?
Im starting to think Sojourner might have to pull off a Titan AE.
"overlap the launch side on Sol"
"overlap the launch site on Sol"?
"Also, I'm feeling very eager to get to the launch now."
You're not the only one. :D
9216617
It's so easy to assume things are metaphor and hyperbole.
So everything is...about as good as can be expected. This is scaring me. Just what the tart is that damn planet up to? Psychic attack at the pilots during launch maybe? I STILL want to see the power of friendship buck Mars in the face in a much more tangible manner than we've already seen.
Our calculations are that, if seven of the fifteen magic boosters fail on liftoff, Phoenix can still make rendezvous. Eight is one too many.
Well, thanks for telling us that eight boosters will fail.
“The last day of flight sims will be Sol 448. (dont you mean 548?)
9216542
I fully agree on that. With the original book, I would have liked an expanded "where are they now?" rather than a full sequel. With the Maretian, however, we have both First Contact plus, assuming all of CSP is canon, Queen Chrysalis's desire to beat the ponies to the moon. Who can say what her reaction to Earth will be when this all calms down?
9216621
reminds me of something weird that happened once while playing KSP:
i had designed a ship with one of those "1-3 adapters" (one small object on top, three below), attached 3 small rockets below it, then 3 detachers, then 3 large rockets below.
this design caused some of the components below the detachers to OVERLAP, that is, to occupy the same space!
surprisingly, everything worked normally, with no problems at all...until i activated the detachers, THEN several of the overlapping components exploded, and a piece of debris broke one of the small engines!
but i still managed to complete the mission, partly by manually moving fuel from the tank above the broken engine to the other tanks!
There is a part of me that wants to hear the briefing going on back in Equestria.
9216705
I know it will send Doctor Who ice warriors after them
Talk about waving a red cape in front of a bull, you lot are lucky there's no magic field for Ananke to work with. Off-hand comments like that attract all sorts of trouble.
Make it happen!
Could you imagine if NASA had used the Mercury 7 for all of Gemini? Apparently the Ponys and Changelings did. It's both scary and a awesome concept. The sheer amount of experience each would have accrued.
I'm really hoping we get a Equestria section soon. Sort of how in the film we saw scenes from around the world, it would be good to get a scene as they launched with the Changelings and Ponys wishing the crew a good 'God Speed'.
9216785 Moral: Don't taunt the Kraken.
Calling it now, emergency use of the Sparkle Drive will be required, and then, BAM!, Mark Watney is in Equestria. Cue laugh track.
9216827
I blame Discord. It's traditional.
LAUNCH! LAUNCH! LAUNCH!
9216830 It's an interesting thought, but bear in mind the reasons for the Seven flying or not flying. Deke Slayton's heart murmur grounded him until he finally pulled enough strings to get himself on the very last opportunity he could have- Apollo-Soyuz. (I wonder if Deke still holds the record for "oldest rookie astronaut"?) Alan Shepard's inner ear did the same to him until his surgery let him snag a moon mission (which, incidentally, bumped fellow Mercury astronaut Gordo Cooper out of the slot and effectively out of NASA). John Glenn was grounded by NASA because JFK and then LBJ refused to allow the first American to orbit Earth to risk his heroic hide on a second flight. Scott Carpenter screwed around so much on his Mercury flight that the NASA brass permanently scratched him from all future flights. Of the seven, only Wally Schirra and Gus Grissom were formally assigned to three missions, having the best combination of work ethic, pilot skill, and exemplary health.
Now, if NASA had been launching rockets at the same rate as CSP, things might have been different...
I've got a bad feeling about this
Let's hope the dust doesn't mess up the teetertotter
9216803
Just so that he can meet the Empress of Mars and be disappointed at their not being Deja Thoris?
Anyone else get reminded of the game Mousetrap?
9216848 It is a device powered by Equestrian magic, therefore if it does 'skip' somewhere, it would be only natural for it to return to its Zero Energy State.
"Hey!" The voice of Rainbow Dash coming through the radio was so loud the speakers rattled. "I thought we were supposed to go rescue you! And what is that weird thing you're flying, Cherry?"
Now that we are getting close to the end, I have to bring this up.
Remember Mark's Iron man jump from the MAV?
I wonder what the equivalent will be.
9216827 Be that as it may, that's not what NASA heard. They heard "Celestia raised the Sun" and nothing more.
She doesn't THINK the magic current will affect Soujourner.
A magic current passing through a computerized robot that has been anthropomorphicized by countless people fascinated by space travel.
A magic current in a universe not exactly like their own, with at least one expression of chaotic results present.
A magic current through something that may or may not have been developing a rudimentary (friendly) personality for the past several months.
And, a few years later, the new astronauts arrive, to find they now have a self-aware pet. :D
9216902 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_machine
Scott Carpenter did suffer several failures in the capsule and eventually overshot by 200 miles after even more. But yes, Kraft disliked how Carpenter didnt follow ground controls instructions. But it wasnt until after he broke his arm that he was permanently grounded.
Gordo Cooper was a whole other ball of wax I understand. He was lax on training during Gemini and it hurt him badly for the Apollo missions. I think he got put on 10 only because they didnt have anyone else more qualified. Still, I will say this. He had the Right Stuff to be Spam in a Can when he was on his Mercury flight with its failures.
And if you look, Early NASA had a very quick turn around for its flights. Not quite what you show in CSP, but they were launching every few months at certain points.
9216978
I'm well aware of them (I loved when Mythbusters did a massive holiday one), it's just that the teeter totter specifically reminded me of the game.
LAUNCH LAUNCH LAUNCH LAUNCH LAUNCH!!!!!
9216811
Its worth noting that Earth should have a magical field. Not a very strong one, but if all life generates a little magic, the combined effect of all the life on earth will be a weak field.
Its just not as strong as the Background Magical Field in Equestria.
This does lead to something very interesting though. If humans are particularly weak generators of Magic, even by Earth standards, this actually explains why Supernatural phenomenon is almost always in the country and has become rarer as time goes on.
After all, we have tended to purge unnecessary life from farmland (lowering the magical field in the area) and our cities have typically far fewer stray animals then they did in the past (again, lowering the magical field in the area.)
In fact, this could also explain why Crop Circles are actually a thing (If you want to assume they aren't all fake). The plant life density is high in a grain field, and usually has a lot of small animals in the undergrowth. This would leadup to a buildup in the Magical field that isn't natural to the area, and as such it discharges in the form of complex geometric shapes.
And it leads to this really interesting situation where Jungle tribes could actually have real shamans that actually do magic due to the high amount of plants and animals that live in the region.
Everyone seems to be expecting some kind of failure, and for the pony additions to underperform. What if the 'failure' is that they don't fail and work better than expected? Especially if the failure is a runaway engine or engines?
Let's see what the last curve ball Mars is gonna throw at them is.
Quick,
Somebody send them a download of Magic Carpet Ride.
I really enjoy these little side chapters. They add context.
9217079
9217036
And mystics in the desert are finding somewhere quiet enough to commune with the universe where everything isn't drowned out by the noise. Just like Dragonfly has learned to hear on Mars.
Note Dr. Shields uses the term “Whinybago” right in front of the Director of NASA and other high level executives and no one bats an eye? I think they threw up their hands on this, and figure it makes good PR?
Oh, and how many “Pirate Cherry” memes have made it to the Internet so far?
We're not far now from the exit of Mars, are we? Although I expect Mars to do something like throw Phobos or Deimos... or both at them as they try to leave.
What happens once they get off Mars? The story doesn't end as soon as they break Mars orbit, does it?
9217110
One week in-story. Two-ish more chapters before launch day, based on the author's note in the previous chapter ("I currently have at least three more scenes worth writing about before Sol 551.").
9217104
Yes
9216640
And now I'm imagining a scene in which a tiny drone runs into an astronaut and excitedly relays "This is not a rock!" to Queen Sojourner.
9216827
I do have to wonder though: why do they still need to actually rotate the planet?
If they can get the planet spinning fast enough to be noticeable from the ground, why not just spin up the planet and let conservation of momentum do the job for them?
There has to be a reason for them not to do that, or a reason why it wouldn't work. I can think of a few, but I'm not sure which, if any, would be the correct one(s).