MISSION LOG – SOL 77
We found it!
It took a bit longer than I wanted, because our navigation system isn’t perfect and there are a lot of small craters and rocks here in Ares Valles. It’s like we’re driving across the face of an immense acne-ridden teenager.
But we found Twin Peaks this morning and drove towards the hills until we saw the lander. Or, at least, the bits of the lander still above the surface.
Forty years ago when Pathfinder landed, it landed on a mostly flat plain surrounded by small hills and craters. Since then, somehow, it’s picked up and held enough wind-blown dust to create its own sand dune. Only the masts were above the dust level when we arrived, and if the sun hadn’t hit one of those bits at just the right time we might have driven past, or even over, the old space probe. And wouldn't that have been the perfect ending to this trip?
Once we were sure what it was, we parked the rover, got out, and set up the solar cells for charging. Sure, we’d only done about twenty kilometers today, but we’d arrived, so why not get the charge back? Once that was done, Starlight and I began carefully moving the Martian dust off of Pathfinder .
Once we’d got down more or less to the tetrahedron panels, I took a moment to find Sojourner. It was almost right next to the lander, as it turned out. It probably used up its battery life in some sort of contingency mode, continually pinging Pathfinder and wondering why the mama ship wouldn’t answer anymore.
I threw Sojourner in the airlock- it’s less than half the height of a pony and a bit less long than one, so it fits easily. Pathfinder is much larger, and getting it home required some careful consideration.
Starlight brought out her magic battery, which she’s barely touched this whole trip. I knew she was going to try to lift the thing, but I had no clue about the actual mechanics of unicorn telekinesis. I didn’t want to risk her hauling the thing up by the antenna or the imager mast and breaking the most vital bits of the lander off. So I stopped her long enough to explain what we were up against.
Pathfinder and Sojourner together were almost six hundred kilograms of mass at launch. That’s not counting the parachute, heat shield, the landing platform with its retrorockets or winch, or any of the other stuff that got it to the surface. Of all of that, the only things still attached were the balloons that inflated long enough for the lander to bounce and tumble to a stop on the surface. Those balloons stayed attached because there was nothing to cut them off.
Once the lander stopped rolling, it unfolded three triangular petals, all covered with solar cells. That done, it unrolled a little ramp and released Sojourner. And that, aside from its high-gain antenna and stereoscopic imager, was the last time Pathfinder moved… until today.
In an ideal world I’d have carried Pathfinder intact back to the Hab, There are a few devices on the side panels, but they’re totally unimportant to me except for the solar panels. If I could have brought those home, it’s just possible I could use them to at least partially power my new radio.
The problem is, I had a choice: keep the old solar panels, or keep the new ones. There just wasn’t room on top of the rover for both my fourteen Hab panels and a fully intact Pathfinder . And I couldn’t fold Pathfinder up again because its central masts are fully extended, and without power I can’t retract them. If I could close the panels, I’d be risking damage to those masts.
It didn’t take me long to decide that the side panels had to go. So, one careful application of a highly technical mechanical engineering tool (prybar) later, the central panel of Pathfinder had been sundered from the rest. Only then, and only after Starlight assured me she would lift from underneath, did I step back and let Captain Caveyoda take over.
To my surprise, she only lifted it briefly, just enough to move it away from the detached side panels. She set it down resting on a rock cluster (I’ve looked it up: it was Half Dome Rock) so she could point out why she stopped: the ancient tumbler balloons. At the same time wind-blown sand had covered Pathfinder , it had also found tears in the balloons and filled them with dirt.
Starlight wasn’t willing to slice and dice the balloons away in the same manner she’d cut the skin off of her ship with her horn-laser. “I don’t know what I might mess up,” is how she put it. So instead of one quick cut, we worked together, me with a knife and Starlight with very short, careful bursts of light, and in about fifteen minutes we had almost all the balloon material cut away.
Then Starlight lifted the core of Pathfinder up onto the rover roof, onto the back part of the luggage rack where the surface samples bag made a sort of cushion for it. There’s just about enough room left in front of it for the solar cells in the morning.
We weren’t in any hurry to go back into the rover. I mean, we really, really were NOT in ANY hurry to go back. We’ve ended up tangled in one another’s limbs half the nights we’ve been on the road, partly because eleven days on the Martian surface in a billion-dollar buggy really drives home how lonely it is here… but mostly because there’s no place else in our cramped quarters TO be except right on top of each other.
And that’s leaving aside the stench, the muscle cramps, and the absolute and total lack of elbow room in the thing. We wanted an excuse to stay outside, even if it meant using up CO2 filters I could have saved for later.
So we discussed salvaging the side panels for about an hour.
With its masts extended, Pathfinder ’s core is a little too large to fit in the rover airlock. The panels might have been doable, but just barely, and only one at a time. To make it work at all, one of us would have to be inside the rover while the other stayed outside. It would have taken a lot of rotating to find an angle that would let both airlock doors close. But it might have been doable if the need was really urgent.
I decided it wasn’t. Even with all the food we’ve eaten, the rover interior is still pretty damn full. I don’t think we could have stowed two of those panels inside, let alone all three. And once I restore the panels to the Hab’s solar farm, I won’t really be in any need of extra electricity.
So we’re going to leave them here, a last memory of Carl Sagan Memorial Station until the dust covers them up again. Sorry, Carl, but if you were alive I’m sure you’d say that I should do whatever is necessary to survive. Besides, they’ll find something else to name after you.
We’re back inside the hell-hole which is Rover 2’s cabin again. Time to think about the future.
This whole exercise has been about getting a working radio. I won’t know if Pathfinder is even repairable until I get back to the Hab, but there’s nothing obviously broken. I can use air from a pressure tank to blow away dust from components. I have a small supply of lubricant for the rover wheels which ought to help the bearings in the high-gain antenna and imager rotors. And for any electrical mishap short of an actual fried CPU or ROM, I have tools and spare parts. I’m confident that I can fix any purely mechanical or electrical issue.
The thing is, what next? It’s been thirty-five years since anyone’s even attempted to contact Pathfinder. The signal is stronger than anything the Hab can produce anymore, but it’s still weak compared to practically any radio on the ground back on Earth. I can only hope that somebody notices a microwave signal coming from someplace really screwy, gets curious, and tells NASA to get a couple dozen radio telescopes pointed towards it.
But say they do that. What next?
To talk to them I can write things on surface sample label cards. I have a pack of fifty, both sides usable. But how do I receive a message back? Pathfinder doesn’t have any obvious lights or anything, so duplicating the pony telegraph isn’t going to work. That leaves making Pathfinder move something for me to see. There are only three things Pathfinder can control like that: Sojourner, the imager, and the hi-gain antenna.
Pathfinder needs to keep the antenna pointed at Earth or its best guess at the source of its commands, so wiggling that to talk is out. The imager can only rotate on its shaft- full 360 rotation, but on only one axis. I can’t make that work for much more than yes or no.
That’s why, despite space issues, Sojourner is in the cabin with us now, taking up another corner of our constrained universe. If I can get both Pathfinder and Sojourner going, I’ve got as many as six moving parts- Sojourner’s wheels- that could be used. I could work out some kind of semaphore, or maybe write letters and numbers on the wheels and have NASA rotate Sojourner’s wheels to the right characters. It’s still a long way from actual conversation, but it’s better than yes and no only.
I’ve still got a lot to think about, but now isn’t the time. Now it’s time for Agatha Christie. There’s a unicorn here eager to hear more about the homicidal intentions of humans. And tonight one or the other of us will probably sleepwalk looking for a less miserable place to sleep.
But I’ll tell you this right now: if I wake up and find Sojourner cuddled up next to me, I’m throwing that fucking robot back out the airlock. It can hitchhike to Acidalia Planitia if it feels like it.
NASA Successfully activates the robot and Mark carries through on his threat.
That would be hilarious.
Yay Pathfinder! Now we wait for Mark to get back to base and have a conniption when he sees the EMS Hodgepodge deathtrap.
Amusing that they're both snuggling for comfort.
I wonder if anyone is ever going to point out in universe that he could have kept the urine and poop outside and him feel like a total idiot.
A little disappointing that he couldn't get the whole of Pathfinder. Might have made it last longer. Then again the reasons are sensible, size on the roof of the rover hasn't changed at all, and size inside has been reduced.
I suspect that the Pony electronics are about as close to Pathfinder as his own are. Given Pony electronics seem to be from 60s era, while his own are 2030s era and pathfinder is 1990s.
that last line made me laugh XD
Not a microbe expert but wouldn't the lack of water and lack of heat kill of the bacteria he needs for composting?
Watourner is best ship.
We both know that before you could do it Starlight would, Matt. No probe steals her husbando!!
8735583
Depends on what they need from the waste. If they need micronutrients and not bacteria, then maybe it could be kept outside, but the climate is harsh enough that anything that's not metal or rock may not do so well.
But I'm just some guy with an Internet connection, so take that for whatever you feel it's worth.
8735515
Would be funny if Starlight puts it on him. Little prank to lighten the mood.
8735625 Expanding Watney Martian Harem idea to encompass Starlight, Dragonfly and Sojourner.
Depending on the design of the drive electronics and motors, there is an abusive method that looks maybe possible.
Instead of sending Start and Stop commands to the wheel drive controllers, you send RAW PWM drive control signals instead.
Audio modulated raw PWM.
Servo motors use a standard 1 kHz pulse train, I thought was similar to the poll rate of USB, and SPI uses plain serial binary in byte chunks. SCSI commands and Hayes set will get you far as apparently NASA is just starting to implement Zmodem communication protocols. But, noone remembers it because its dialup.
Also a method of vibrating the machine when on a slope to shake the dust off panels.
Lets see how much Hab is left when they get back, if the positive feedback loop of magic enhanced plant growth generating magic field in the cave has got out of hoof.
8735646
Poor Spitfire and Cherry Berry. The dead Mars rover gets a spot before they do.
8735652 I figured both of them would rather be alone than have to share. Maybe they'll find love in each others' hooves.
Then it'll just be Fireball
8735591
SoWatney*
Let's face it, even Mark could get behind that shipping name.
8735664
You are forgeting bug horse.
8735671
It has been established that Bug horse is part of Watney's harem with Starlight and Sojourner. Spitfire and Cherry Berry have each other. And Fireball is shipped with his right hand I guess.
media.tenor.com/images/064960879725f85131df7ffcc4c47d4d/tenor.gif
8735625
Matt's name is Mark in this movie.
Incidentally I thought you could have SG shrink the pathfinder for transportation... with 'Mark' saying something from "Downsizing."
8735714
All jokes aside. Marklight is the OTP.
8735737
Yes.
8735749
As I remember (with my shippers brain) what happened in that chapter was Mark poking Starlight with his probe.
Sounds like somebody is getting used to cuddling with the cute alien pony. One small step for the man. Before the one Giant leap.
I think this link is appropriate for this situation.
https://youtu.be/HCt1BwWE2gA
8735718
Actually I think she could actually do that. In the comic, she grew herself, Spike, and Owlicious to Giant Man type proportions. So she has size spells.
The biggest difficulty change can see with this cross over involves NASA finding out he's alive a day or two after, not two months. This means that by the time that hab airlock blows they would be much further along planing the resupply mission, giving them more flex time and a chance to go through all the safety checks that got skipped. With the cave the blowout wouldn't be the huge hit to the food supply that the loss hab failure was.
If you think about it, those two things are a big enough game changer to make it better to stay put instead of head to the other MAV. Now as Mark's luck is never that good something new is going to have to go wrong to balance it out.
8735801
I hope they can stay until ARES IV. The only thing that I didn't like about the original book is that I didn't get another 3 years of Mark sciencing the shit out of things.
8735812
IIRC Earth already decided to move the timetable up. As soon as the Hermes gets back they're going to start refitting it for a rescue mission ASAP.
But that's still like two years instead of four.
8735824
Oh yeah. I forgot.
Something else that might occur to him if he can get the probes up.
He's got a CAMERA.
Also, obligatory....
*Blowing martian wind and silence... *
*Sound climbs as rover goes by, other direction...*
*Sound fades back to martian wind and silence...*
EDIT: And now I want to see the crew react to weird al tracks. Because that would be hilarious.
welp if he can get the internet to work he can download pong for himself
8735583
8735626
No, at this point he's already seeded all of the soil they're using with bacteria, so just mixing the dried dead feces into it would let the bacteria in the soil break it down.
The toilet at the Hab Watney refers to as the "Toilet of Doom" because it dehydrates, vacuum seals individually, and ejects to the martian surface. Which kills basically all known bacteria. Watney goes out and gets these packets and uses them anyway. It doesn't have live bacteria anymore, but it still has all the nutrients, and he could repopulate the bacteria in it.
8735801
The currently cultivated area in the cave by itself will produce roughly 2x the food they need, and they could more than double the area under cultivation if it gets warm enough. Though that assumes they can get a crop to harvest before they run out of food. Alfalfa is more variably harvestable than potatoes though, so with the extra area they're growing they could eat some of it early to reach the full first crop. Food resupply isn't nearly as critical. I'd worry more about Mars bitchslapping them.
8735812
Heh you mean Ares III-A in roughly 2 years or so. They're coming back before Ares IV. But yeah I have always found the idea of things going just a bit better and Watney spending 4 years conducting experiments on Mars with data transmitted back to Earth using an intact radio sent for him interesting.
or download any video game made in the 70s becasue the rom size of the atari and ever elery 8 bit games only use 2kb of rom
8734522
She needs DWK's Twinkles Glitters Flickers & Flashes: A guide to gay-ass light-related phenomena.
See link below. (This is probably my favorite moment in all of Totally Legit Recap)
https://youtu.be/sP_aOEZ6YzA?t=199
“ you can not change the laws of physics. “
“ then it’s a good thing we are not using physics “ hehe just s joke o thought of cause magic.
If we compare the rate of pony rocket science to their AI development... we might just have a talking robot mascot.
8736070
😂😂😂😂😂😂'I'm going to kill Sunset.'
i like to add how you show that magic is not everything and to be all.
also, i would like to add to this story that way it took so long to get to mars and to the moon like government paper work, wars, and so many other factors in the mix and also beside the "i don't want to die in a rocket of death" thinking
8735443
Yeah, read children books. Simple repetative lexicon, yet the dictionary is quite broad. I personally recommend Leonid Filatov and Victor Dragunsky, they're fairly modern.
If you want to get better at grammar, try exercises for exams like ЕМТ and ЕГЭ, you'll find a lot of easy tests. Also, try searching for any taskbooks for foreign students in Russia, good example would be "Road to Russia" by Vasily Bessonoff, available on ebay and amazon.
И это будет непросто, но без труда не вытянешь и рыбку из пруда. Удачи :)
Mission complete! Now they just need to get back to the hab and hopefully not find everything dead.
8736448
Not dead, just super stoned from O2 saturation... With the added danger of Apollo 1 fire... Downwind from a bunch of 100% perchlorate sand... and in the living space of a fire breathing dragon. Okay so... maybe just a little dead.
8736573
They got better
They should be careful of not running into Opportunity:
https://xkcd.com/1504/
8735722
Another sleep-cuddling incident once they get back to the Hab would be hilarious.
8734035 Start with 'characters' and create compartmentalized segments within your consciousness. You do this by having conversations with them, and allowing them to begin 'responding' without your own conscious effort.
Of course, this usually causes you to go completely insane after a while if you're unable to perform regular self-assessment; by which you 'remove yourself from yourself' and study your mental processes for flaws and dysfunction in a purely mechanical and analytical modality.
It's also inadvisable if you have very lucid fantasy-style dreams. This indicates the mind is not as solidly connected to 'reality' as is required for this method to avoid mental instability. My dreams are mostly very boring affairs, often involving me driving somewhere or examining landscapes. Very mundane, and often partially under my control.
It helps if you can learn to shut down emotion first and foremost. That alone prevents most of the problems. Bad decisions and irrational impulses are virtually always emotion-driven. Pure sociopaths are actually quite rare, and for the majority of them even, there is an emotional drive behind their seemingly cold, unfeeling acts. Most often it's a hidden rage.
I'm loving all the humour!!!
:'^(
So, continuing Yoda joke, her horn is pretty much a lightsaber
Also I wonder how it works with a helmet. Does she cast air bubble spell, remove helmet and then cut?
8737157
Probably goes through anything transparent
Your italics go higgledy-piggledy here.
8737528
Fixed, thanks.
8737167
Considering the show's propensity for bouncing beam/blob-spam spells off reflective surfaces (Ex: Twilight in the Canterlot crystal caverns vs Chrysalis, Flurry Heart in that scene when she zapped and broke the Crystal Heart), it's reasonable to apply some of light's properties to unicorn magic.
rs1119.pbsrc.com/albums/k626/DeAtHmArE/A%20Canterlot%20Wedding/Twilight-43.gif?w=480&h=480&fit=clip
Electromagnetic radiation penetrates material better at longer wavelengths. A unicorn's EVA helmet could have a normal shield around the horn that is magic-permeable, but protects against ionizing radiation.
The most concerning problem that I see is the release of waste heat.
See below:
rs1119.pbsrc.com/albums/k626/DeAtHmArE/Too%20Many%20Pinkie%20Pies/Twilight-8.gif?w=480&h=480&fit=clip
This is mostly a visual gag, but releasing magic energy is of course a conversion of energy and therefore is not 100% efficient, unlike the electric radiators discussed in a previous chapter's comments.
The EVA suit must, by necessity, battle entropy. To prevent waste heat from a unicorn's horn from causing problems, the horn could be sealed outside the helmet pressure vessel, but remain contained in a protective, shielded cover that stops ionizing radiation, but also acts as a tiny radiator.
The result, of course, would be a tinfoil horn cap.