My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

It was raining outside the office window, and thousands of lights at the Johnson Space Center and surrounding areas were shrouded in mist. Another long and busy day.

"Okay," Teddy threw his briefcase aside on the floor as soon as he came in, and slumped directly into the chair, "Give me a report on the current situation. First of all, how is Sleipnir Three? ?”

Venkat cleared his throat. In the days since the Sleipnir 1 aircraft had an accident less than a minute after launch, he had been in no mood to talk to others, even though he still had a lot of things to communicate. "The Sleipnir 3 spacecraft has now safely entered the Earth's parking orbit." He said, "The solar array was deployed smoothly, but the remaining propellant in the second stage is far less than the amount required to enter the Mars transfer orbit. I consulted SpaceX is looking to see if they can use BFR to launch a refueling vehicle, and they are still waiting for a response." At this time, his frown tightened, "But since they started immediately after completing today's launch mission, With the work suspended for investigation, I estimate that the follow-up work will have to be postponed for a while.”

"Yes, but then again," Teddy muttered, looking at Mitch who was sitting on the edge of the cushion, contrary to the normal situation of the sofa, and asked, "What's the reason this time?"

"The situation this time is not as mysterious as Sleipnir 1." Mitch replied. "Telemetry data shows that the oxidizer flow rate in the second stage of the thruster's first stage has suddenly increased. The onboard computer detected This situation immediately entered the emergency abort mode, shut down the main engine, and separated from the second stage of the thruster. At this time, the second stage chose to escape into orbit, while the first stage successfully survived on the ocean surface before the oxidizer was exhausted. A reverse-thrust low-impact splashdown was performed. The search operation to recover the first stage is ongoing. Since SpaceX is busy investigating the accident of the Sleipnir 1 aircraft, they handed over the investigation task to us. .”

"Report to me at any time if there is any progress." Teddy said, "What is the status of the aircraft itself?"

On the other end of the phone line, Bruce Wu in Pasadena replied: "Sleipnir 2 and 3 aircraft are operating normally. Sleipnir 2's heading is accurate and no correction is needed at the moment. Sleipnir No. 3 is on standby before advancing to the Mars transfer orbit."

"That's right, keep it up." Teddy sighed and turned to Annie, "Although I can already guess almost 10%, I still have to ask, how is the reaction from the media?"

"It's actually better than expected," Anne said. "At least it's good for us. SpaceX has been sprayed by the media. Some experts pointed out that the failure was caused by the system components manufactured by SpaceX, and NASA and JPL were responsible. The system is all fine."

"In the short term, this is not entirely a good thing." Venkat muttered, "They have to launch at least one more time for us before Sleipnir 3 can resume operation and continue planning its trip. The more pressure they are under from public opinion. The bigger it is, the longer it takes to prepare for launch.”

"They asked for it." Annie shot back, "This kind of mission shouldn't have any accidents from the beginning. But the only thing that has a negative impact on us is when someone starts to discuss those mythical Martian monster theories again. One idiot even said in front of the camera, 'I guess God didn't want Mark Watney to get the new radio system.' I get annoyed every time I hear this kind of irresponsible nonsense. Get a batch.”

Teddy nodded and waved his hand to signal Annie to stop interrupting. "To get to the point," he said quietly, "how will these circumstances affect Mark Watney?"

"There will be no significant changes in food for the time being." Venkat said, "The amount of food we are currently delivering is enough for four people to eat for almost three hundred days. As long as we can complete Sleipnir within about three months, With the refueling of No. 667, he no longer has to worry about not having enough to eat in the last two hundred solar days before waiting for rescue. But Sleipnir III needs to arrive at Mars at least before solar day 4, so that if he needs A trek to the Ares MAV in Schiaparelli will carry these supplies. Extra time will need to be allowed for travel and any modifications to the MAV components that may be required upon arrival."

"The main impact is that he lacks a reliable radio system in the near future. We did send him two, but one of them has just been recovered from the Atlantic with the wreckage of Sleipnir 1, and the other He can only stay in Earth orbit until we complete refueling, and during this period he can still only use the Morse code transmission method on the pathfinder or alien spacecraft to communicate with us."

Teddy thought about this for a while. "As far as the current situation is concerned, we have just lost our redundancy capability." He finally said, "This is not actually a problem, because the purpose of preparing redundancy is to prepare for various unexpected situations. But if something happens again next If other problems arise, Mark will once again have to rely on his own original resources to survive."

Venkat nodded. "I think so too. However, the Aerospace Materials Department is still urging me to let Mark and his friends take measures as soon as possible to ensure the airtightness of their cave. I guess I will have to talk to them again now."

"Why haven't they solved this problem yet?"

"They have to consider resource priorities. The so-called alien magic is the only effective tool they have at hand to accomplish this task. It is almost as difficult as climbing to the sky to cover the inner walls and top of the cave with sealant, and it is almost impossible to reach the sky above the ground inside the cave. Using a sealing method similar to a water-ice mixture at the location will only cause corrosion and increase the risk of leakage. They are now using the magic reserves to make new batteries and also use them to harvest crops." Venkat shrugged and added Dao, "And according to their superiors, changing the current state inside the cave is more dangerous than keeping it the same. I have some external consultants here who also hold the same opinion."

"Well..." Teddy fiddled with the notepad on the table, "That farm, as well as the crops Mark currently grows in the living cabin, represent his only remaining safety margin."

"That's not all." Venkat said, "Don't forget that even if he just wants to wait until Sleipnir 2 arrives on Mars, he still has to successfully harvest at least one more crop."

"Talk to Mark. No, wait - immediately request them to establish direct contact with the alien leaders." Teddy said, "We must convey our attitude in place and emphasize the importance of protecting the safety of the cave. Contact SpaceX later, Let's see how long it takes to launch two more rockets. Bruce, have your team start work on the Sleipnir IV supply project immediately. I want to take back the redundancy that belongs to us."

"Let's do our best." Bruce's exhausted reply came from the speaker.

"Let's continue our discussion," Teddy said. "There are still two months until Hermes starts braking. How are the team members doing?"

"They are still very worried about the safety of their colleagues." Mitchell got straight to the point, "They all voluntarily signed up to participate in the Ares 3B mission. The people I initially selected include Martinez, Baker and Johnson. If there is no room to fit in, The fourth person, I would also consider sending Lewis back.”

"Mitch, we have already discussed this issue." Teddy said, "The Ares 3 mission has been in space for nearly a year. Even if they live in a simulated Martian gravity environment and their eating is strictly supervised, still The possibility of serious health problems is inevitable. It is too dangerous and unacceptable to send them to space for another year once they return. It is better to use your alternative candidates."

"They're not that good," Mitch said. "I picked them as backups just because they might be next on the Ares 4 or 5 mission, and I didn't want to dampen their enthusiasm."

"I beg to differ," Teddy said. "This mission needs to be assigned the best pilots, doctors, and operations control personnel we have available. Have you ever recruited voluntary candidates?"

"Basically our entire astronaut team has signed up," Mitchell replied, "Even Ares 4 has signed up. Of course they will all voluntarily participate, after all, they are all astronauts."

"They are indeed all astronauts." Teddy said noncommittally, "Give me the revised list of Ares 3B team members and alternative teams within a week."

Mi Qie muttered something softly, but couldn't hear clearly what was said.

“One last question,” Teddy said, “Did anything new come out of the Watney Prize call for proposals?”

"Still not much has been gained," Venkat said. "The only useful proposal we have received so far is to use the existing MAV simulator to speed up the assembly of the Ares 3B lander. We are still studying how much time this option can save, but The current situation does not look very promising, and we are not even sure whether we will be able to build a specially designed MAV in time by the time the 3B mission is officially launched. Other suggestions are either unrealistic or completely unreasonable."

Teddy sighed, "So, it seems there is no hope of arriving before Sol 768?"

Venkat shook his head: "There is little hope."

Recipient: Starlight Glimmer ([email protected])

From: Rich Purnell ([email protected])

Topic: Magical Laws - Formula Check

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