• Published 2nd Jan 2018
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The Maretian - Kris Overstreet



Mark Watney is stranded- the only human on Mars. But he's not alone- five astronauts from a magical kingdom are shipwrecked with him.

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Sol 104

TO: Theodore Sanders (tsanders_admin@nasa.gov)
FROM: Venkat Kapoor (kapoor@ares.nasa.gov)
SUBJECT: Reports on Mark Watney

Attached find the summaries for the reports on the topics you requested. It makes pretty grim reading. If you need the detailed reports I can send them, but I think this pretty much says all that needs to be said.

I’ve instructed everyone involved with the making of these reports that NASA’s official policy is optimism. Mark Watney and our alien visitors WILL survive. We WILL send a ship to bring them home. Even so, I have my doubts that we can keep these facts under our hat indefinitely. When the lid comes off, we need to be ready.

Venk


TO: Venkat Kapoor (kapoor@ares.nasa.gov)
FROM: Dr. Ethelbert Keller (keller@nasa.gov)
SUBJECT: Nutritional Needs of Mark Watney

Report attached.

I’m sorry I can’t do more than make guesses about Watney’s alien guests. We have to take Watney at his word that Dragonfly and Fireball (Orange Random and Tall Boy) are assured of full rations for however long it takes to be rescued. As for the three creatures Watney refers to as ponies, I am told by the veterinarians I've consulted that alfalfa is as close as can be found to a perfect single-crop grazing diet for equines. The diet would still put them in danger of sodium deficiency (no table salt in their diet). Symptoms include craving for salt to the point of licking anything and everything vaguely salty; loss of appetite; fluid retention; and in advanced cases, nerve damage. Watney should expect a lot of tongue baths whether he likes it or not in his future, as he is probably the only safe source of sodium chloride on Mars.

Watney’s own situation is much less amusing. If he relies on potatoes and the vitamin supplements from the Ares III medical store, he will run into serious protein deficiency within thirty sols of switching from meal packs to potatoes. Symptoms include loss of mental acuity, loss of energy, metabolic dysfunction, muscle loss, enlarged heart, proneness to injury, slow healing, and insulin resistance.

Alfalfa is edible by humans and has a high protein content, but we can only digest flowers, leaves and the younger roots and stems. Beyond a certain point the stems become too fibrous to digest. Alfalfa seeds are high in certain amino acids that cause metabolic imbalances and loss of thyroid function. And since human digestion is not evolved to handle cellulose in large quantities, our ability to extract useful protein from alfalfa is limited. Unfortunately, it’s all Mark has once the food packs run out.

Please advise Mark to plant more alfalfa if possible and to cook and eat the leaves and uppermost stems from each harvest (and flowers if available) while fresh. Dried alfalfa is much less useful, but even drinking alfalfa tea would help a little. This will slow, but not prevent, his protein loss. The only certain remedy is to get him high-protein rations as soon as possible. In the meantime, to reduce protein loss and limit risk of injury I recommend Mark’s physical activity be limited to only that absolutely necessary for his survival and rescue.

Keller


TO: Venkat Kapoor (kapoor@ares.nasa.gov)
FROM: Sue Douglass (douglass517@nasa.gov)
SUBJECT: Cave Permafrost Insulation

Preliminary report attached. Long story short: months at best.

Tell Mr. Sanders that he’s correct that the inside of an igloo can be made warm while the outside is quite cold (for Earth values of cold). Ice on Earth is a reasonably effective insulator in the short term. By a process of partial melting and refreezing a freshly built igloo becomes both more airtight and more structurally sound. But Mr. Sanders overlooks a great many factors that render the comparison inaccurate.

First, we know very little about the properties of permafrost and regolith mixes, particularly as they exist at Site Epsilon. We know that lunar regolith makes a very efficient insulator, but testing on Martian regolith to date has not included either pure layers of water ice between regolith layers or a permafrost mix of soil and water, both of which occur on Mars.

Second, the air pressure inside an igloo is roughly the same as outside. This is not the case with the Site Epsilon cave, which the aliens have pressurized to roughly one bar of pressure as opposed to six millibars on the surface.

Third, if a small hole opens in an igloo it doesn’t immediately grow larger through erosion caused by air flow.

Fourth, igloos are primarily warmed by body heat or at most an oil lantern. Igloos with large heating systems installed inside tend not to last very long. The Site Epsilon cave uses a combination of electric heaters, warm air circulation, and a hydronic ground heating system to make the air and ground warm enough for plants to grow- which means raising the temperature an average of seventy degrees Celsius above the mean outdoor Martian summer temperature. In winter it's well over a hundred degrees Celsius above the mean. That’s almost double to triple the temperature extreme most igloos face.

Finally, the permafrost layer above the cave is on a slope. Melted ice will not merely run down the walls and re-freeze. It will seek the lowest available level via the path of least resistance, eroding regolith on its way. Given enough time some of it will find its way to the surface downslope of its origin, possibly causing a landslide of the kind we are already familiar with from Opportunity and Curiosity. Such a landslide would inevitably reduce the layer of regolith and ice protecting the cave farm, leading to further leaks and an eventual breach.

The good news is, the primary cause of igloo collapse is heating from outside. That is practically the only problem Mars isn’t going to throw at us.

I’m currently locating sources of synthesized Martian regolith for heat transfer experiments. Details on those experiments will be on your desk tomorrow. In the meantime, until and unless the cave is rendered truly airtight without regard to regolith or permafrost, my recommendations stand.

Sue Douglass, Ph. D.


TO: Venkat Kapoor (kapoor@ares.nasa.gov)
FROM: Michael Bendarek (mbender33@nasa.gov)
SUBJECT: Gilligan’s Raft

I finally have the numbers for you. Our four-legged alien friends aren’t going to like them much. Break it to them gently.

The attached report is preliminary, but I had to take the man I had working on it off to begin work on finalizing trajectories for Project Sleipnir. It took a while to shake this out of him, because he says it’s not finished. When I stopped him he was analyzing the alien shipwreck and making mass estimates based on how much could be cut off the fuselage. I had to promise him I’d let him finish the job properly once I had the trajectories in hand.

According to the information given, when whole the alien ship had a thrust:weight ratio of about 2:5. Considering its construction, that’s damn impressive. Given infinite fuel, the ship could almost hover on its main thrusters by itself on Mars. With the outer skin ripped off it, plus the other loss of mass due to scavenging, the ship could probably just about lift off right now, given sufficient fuel.

But sufficient fuel is a major problem.

According to the aliens, the ship originally converted a form of energy unknown to us (“magic”) into kinetic energy (thrust). The “magic” was stored in a series of batteries, of which only two survived the crash. Those two are made of a lightweight but durable crystal, type unknown, plus metal and electrodes of some kind, the whole package about 27,000 cubic centimeters in size and massing an estimated seventy kilograms. One hundred such batteries would weigh seven tons. Even with the materials cut off of the wreck, we estimate that extra mass drops the ship back to hovering at best. We are told the original batteries were larger, but we can't verify that from the pictures.

But weight isn’t the killer issue. The issue is the energy you get for that weight. According to the aliens, the two batteries which survived the initial accident were able to power an engine full burn for only three seconds combined. We can therefore estimate that a full array of one hundred such batteries would provide a single burn at full power of two minutes and thirty seconds. As you know, that’s roughly the burn time of an Ares MAV first stage alone. If we could lighten up the ship somehow to get it to orbit in two minutes and thirty seconds, the acceleration would kill any crew inside.

Using what’s left of the Ares III MAV and MDV wouldn’t help. The MAV has no remaining cabin, and the MDV cabin is breached. The MDV thruster thrust:weight ratio is only 1.05 at best, just enough to slow the ship down to a safe landing once the drogues are no longer useful. Its hydrazine monopropellant is hypergolic, but there’s not enough of it and we can’t make more. The MAV descent engines use hydrazine, but its fuel plant produces methane for its two ascent stages.

Finally, two of the ship’s eight maneuvering thruster banks are reported as destroyed in the crash. It might be possible to reposition the remaining six into a configuration that would provide total control, but there would be zero margin for error both in installation and in piloting.

In short, outside some radical alterations to the remains of the alien ship (assuming the engines could be attached to the ship again afterwards), it can’t make orbit without killing the crew. This is going to be a major blow to the aliens, so try to find some way to soften it.

Mike
Astrodynamics


TO: Venkat Kapoor (kapoor@ares.nasa.gov)
FROM: Mark Watney (mwatney@ares.nasa.gov)
SUBJECT: Care to buy a farm?

We’ve looked at the recommendations the geologists sent us. Here’s our responses:

Lowering the air pressure: No go. The pony air supply is a direct link to the atmosphere of their home world. Whatever the pressure is there, it’s going to be here. The only way to lower the pressure on our end is to make a leak somewhere, and doing that will make the air supply shut down. The ponies don’t feel like losing all their atmosphere to Mars, or as I’ve taken to calling it, “Planet Spaceball”.

Lowering the heat: We’re removing two of the space heaters. That’s about all we can do. Again, the air is straight from the pony world’s atmosphere, and we need to keep warming the farm soil to allow the alfalfa roots to penetrate as deeply as possible.

Don’t mess with the support pillars: Duh.

Don’t twist off the crystals from the walls: What, do you think Bruce Banner turned up along with the ponies? Listen, if I had the Hulk here I wouldn't have him picking rocks like fruit. We’d just all load up in the alien ship and have him kick us off Mars! Stupid planet deserves a green gamma-powered kick in the ass anyway.

The crystals are cut by magic laser. Starlight's horn is the only tool we have that can cut them. No torque of any kind involved. The only danger is that removing the weight from the walls might cause a release of tension. There’s nothing we can do about that.

Seal the cave: That’s going to be a long-term project. Starlight’s spell (according to her) was designed to close up existing holes that can be seen. She’s doubtful she can use it on walls where she hasn’t stripped off the crystal layer completely. Also she doesn’t have the energy to do it all at one whack.

But we have a long-term plan that might work. Sol 109 is three weeks from the day the Hab blew out and Starlight broke her arm. It’s also the day we’re due to dig up the cave’s seed potatoes, cut them, and replant them for a full crop in the cave and the Hab. After that we get our first alfalfa harvest. Those things can’t be put off, and we need Starlight’s magic to help with both. The harvest will probably deplete the magic batteries, and after that we need to cut more gems for Fireball’s meals. But after that we can get started on making new magic batteries.

According to Starlight, making magic batteries is one of the easiest spells ever. Practically any magic object is at least part battery, she says. The main difficulty is finding and cutting crystals of the right size, without flaws, for the purpose. Apparently there are places on her homeworld that make the cave farm look dowdy. She was surprised when I told her that the quartz here was gigantic by comparison with Earth crystals.

The more batteries we have, the more magic we potentially have. And beyond a point we’ll have enough magic to seal the cave properly. I don’t know what that point is or how long it’ll take, but it seems like the surest and safest course. In the meantime Starlight's going to work on a better spell for sealing the cave away from the pre-existing holes.

Tell Astromaterials that if they come up with something we can actually do, we’re willing to give it a shot.

Watney


TO: Venkat Kapoor (kapoor@ares.nasa.gov)
FROM: Beth Johannsen (johannsen@ares.nasa.gov)
SUBJECT: Radio test

On Ares III Mission Day 230 Hermes made successful contact with alien spaceship Friendship on all five preset wavebands. 108.4 megahertz produced the clearest signal, but not sufficiently to distinguish it. All signals were faint and with static, but voices were audible and understandable. Full details of all tests, including audio recordings of all transmissions and receptions, attached.

As Hermes approaches Earth the signal from Friendship will grow fainter due to losses from transmission distance. We are currently near the edge of voice communications range. If diagrams of the alien radio wiring are available, I recommend creating a procedure for Mark to build a telegraph key for the radio. I’ve already written a program to allow Hermes to transmit an audio tone that can be used for Morse code. The crew will need drill on identifying and using Morse code for this to be workable.

Beth Johannsen
Ares III systems operator

Author's Note:

Buffer is back to two, and I have a little thing which will let me do a number of short installments very quickly, covering this weekend's convention time.

I may have said this before, but the book doesn't make any mention of the effect of not having protein for well over a hundred sols, except for five meal packs held back for special occasions. That is liable to be a problem. The salt is almost as serious, and not in a "God I want salt, Lord please send me salt, also ketchup" way. Yes, probes have found chloride deposits on Mars, but they're mixed up with those perchlorates I mentioned. Salt mining is not something you want to do on Mars without being more careful than Mark has the equipment for.

One wonders if anyone has told Sue Douglass about pykrete.

Rich Purnell's boss is never given a last name in the book. I give him one here. (On the other hand, the Ares III flight surgeon is never given a FIRST name... so I gave him one here, too.)

If you're wondering what good 2:5 thrusters are when it's not even close to liftoff thrust from Earth/Equus ground level... once you're in orbit, you don't need a lot of thrust at once to do things. A little thrust over a long time will work well. That's the principle Hermes works on, and Amicitas's main engines produce a lot more actual acceleration than a VASIMR rig, weight for weight...

... that is, they produce that much thrust in a magic-rich environment. Unfortunately they've been brought to the wrong universe.

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