The Martian

Between Panel A and the workbench were the Mylar balloons Pathfinder had used to tumble-land. I had shredded many of them to transport it. Still, a lot of material remained; enough to reach around Panel A and be in contact with the hull. I should mention that Mylar is conductive.

At 13:30, I leaned the drill against the workbench. The drill’s cowling was off to make room for the power line. The workbench is metal. If the drill leaned against the workbench just right, it could make a metal-to-metal connection.

And that’s exactly what happened.

Power traveled from the drill line’s positive, through the workbench, through the Mylar, through Pathfinder’s hull, through a bunch of extremely sensitive and irreplaceable electronics, and out the negative lead of Pathfinder’s power line.

Pathfinder operates on 50 milliamps. It got nine thousand milliamps, which plowed through the delicate electronics, frying everything along the way. The breakers tripped, but it was too late.

Pathfinder’s dead. I’ve lost the ability to contact Earth.

I’m on my own.

 

Chapter 18

LOG ENTRY: SOL 197

Sigh…

Just once I’d like something to go to plan, ya know?

Mars keeps trying to kill me.

Well… Mars didn’t electrocute Pathfinder. So I’ll amend that:

Mars and my stupidity keep trying to kill me.

Ok, enough self-pity. I’m not doomed. Things will be just be harder than planned. I have all I need to survive. And Hermes is still on the way.

I spelled out a Morse Code message using rocks. “PATHFINDER FRIED WITH 9AMPS. DEAD FOREVER. PLAN UNCHANGED. WILL GET TO MAV.”

If I can get to the Ares-4 MAV, I’ll be set. But having lost contact with NASA, I have to design my own Great Martian Winnebago.

For the time being, I’ve stopped all work on it. I don’t want to continue without a plan. I’m sure NASA had all kinds of ideas, but now I have to come up with one on my own.

As I mentioned, the Big Three (Atmospheric Regulator, Oxygenator, and Water Reclaimer) are critical components. I worked around them for my trip to Pathfinder. I used CO2 filters to regulate the atmosphere, and brought enough oxygen and water for the whole trip. That won’t work this time. I need the Big Three.

Problem is, they soak up a lot of power, and have to run all day long. The rover batteries have 18kwh of juice. The Oxygenator alone uses 44.1kwh per sol. See my problem?

You know what? “Kilowatt-hours per sol” is a pain in the ass to say. I’m gonna invent a new scientific unit name. One kilowatt-hour per sol is… it can be anything… um… I suck at this… oh fuck it. I’ll call it a “pirate-ninja.”

All told, the Big Three need 69.2pn, most of that going to the Oxygenator and Atmospheric Regulator. (The Water Reclaimer only needs 3.6 of that.)

There’ll be cutbacks.

The easiest one is the Water Reclaimer. I have 620L of water (I had a lot more before the Hab blew up). I only need three liters of water per sol, so my supply will last 206 sols. There’s only 100 sols after I leave and before I’m picked up (or die in the attempt).

Conclusion: I don’t need the Water Reclaimer at all. I’ll drink as needed, and dump my waste outdoors. Yeah, that’s right Mars, I’m gonna piss and shit on you. That’s what you get for trying to kill me all the time.

There. I saved myself 3.6 pirate-ninjas.

LOG ENTRY: SOL 198

I’ve had a breakthrough with the Oxygenator!

I spent most of the day looking at the specs. It heats CO2 to 900C, then passes it over a zirconia electrolysis cell to yank the carbon atoms off. Heating the gas is what takes most of the energy. Why is that important? Because I’m just one guy and the Oxygenator was made for six. 1/6^th the quantity of CO2 means 1/6^th the energy to heat it.

The spec said 44.1pn, but all this time it’s only been using 7.35 because of the reduced load. Now we’re getting somewhere!

Then there’s the matter of the Atmospheric Regulator. The regulator samples the air, figures out what’s wrong with it, and corrects the problem. Too much CO2? Take it out. Not enough O2? Add some. Without it, the Oxygenator is worthless. The CO2 needs to be separated in order to be processed.

The regulator analyzes the air with spectroscopy, then separates the gasses by supercooling them. Different elements turn to liquid at different temperatures. On Earth, supercooling this much air would take ridiculous amounts of energy. But (as I’m acutely aware) this isn’t Earth.

Supercooling is done by pumping air to a component outside the Hab. The air quickly cools to the outdoor temperature, which ranges from -150C to 0C. When it’s warm, additional refrigeration is used, but cold days can turn air to liquid for free. The real energy cost comes from heating it back up. If it came back to the Hab unheated, I’d freeze to death.

“But wait!” You’re thinking, “Mars’s atmosphere isn’t liquid. Why does the Hab’s air condense?”