The Martian

“I spent 4 years working on Taiyang Shen,” he said. “So did countless other researchers, scientists, and engineers. Everyone poured their souls in to construction while I waged a constant political battle to maintain funding.

“In the end, we built a beautiful probe. The largest, sturdiest unmanned probe in history. And now it’s sitting in a warehouse. It’ll never fly. The State Council won’t fund another booster like that.”

He turned to Venkat. “It could have been a lasting legacy of scientific research. Now it’s a delivery run. We’ll get a Chinese astronaut on Mars, but what science will he bring back that some other astronaut couldn’t have? This operation is a net loss for mankind’s knowledge.”

“Well,” Venkat said cautiously, “It’s a net gain for Mark Watney.”

“Mmm,” Zhu Tao said.

“Distance 61m, velocity 2.3m/s,” Johanssen said.

“No problem,” Martinez said, his eyes glued to his screens. One showed the camera feed from docking port A, the other a constant feed of the probe’s telemetry.

Lewis floated behind Johanssen and Martinez’s stations.

“Visual contact,” Beck’s voice came over the radio. He stood in Airlock 3 (via magnetic boots), fully suited up with the outer door open. The bulky SAFER Unit on his back would allow him free motion in space should the need arise. An attached tether led to a spool on the wall.

“Vogel,” Lewis said in to her headset. “You in position?”

Vogel stood in the still-pressurized Airlock 2, suited up save his helmet. “Ja, in position and ready,” he replied. He was the emergency EVA if Beck needed rescue.

“All right, Martinez,” Lewis said. “Bring it in.”

“Aye, Commander.”

“Distance 43m, velocity 2.3m/s.” Johanssen called out.

“All stats nominal,” Martinez reported.

“Slight rotation in the probe,” Johanssen said. “Relative rotational velocity is 0.05rps.”

“Anything under 0.3 is fine,” Martinez said. “The capture system can deal with it.”

“Probe is well within manual recovery range,” Beck reported.

“Copy,” Lewis said.

“Distance 22m, velocity 2.3m/s.” Johanssen said. “Angle is good.”

“Slowing her down a little,” Martinez said, sending instructions to the probe.

“Velocity 1.8… 1.3…” Johanssen reported. “0.9… stable at 0.9m/s.”

“Range?” Martinez asked.

“12m,” Johanssen replied. “Velocity steady at 0.9m/s.”

“Angle?”

“Angle is good.”

“Then we’re in line for auto-capture,” Martinez said. “Come to papa.”

The probe drifted gently to the docking port. Its capture boom, a long metal triangle, entered the port’s funnel, scraping slightly along the edge. The port pulled the boom in, aligning and orienting the probe automatically. After several loud clanks echoed through the ship, the computer reported success.

“Docking complete,” Martinez said.

“Seal is tight,” Johanssen said.

“Beck,” Lewis said. “Your services won’t be needed.”

“Roger that, commander,” Beck said. “Closing airlock.”

“Vogel, return to interior,” she ordered.

“Copy, Commander,” he said.

“Airlock pressure to 100%” Beck reported. “Re-entering ship… I’m back in.”

“Also inside,” Vogel said.

Lewis pressed a button on her headset. “Houst- er… Jiuquan, probe docking complete. No complications.”

“Glad to hear it, Hermes,” came Mitch’s voice over the comm. “Report status of all supplies once you get them aboard and inspected.”

“Roger Jiuquan,” Lewis said.

Taking off her headset, she turned to Martinez and Johanssen. “Unload the probe and stow the supplies. I’m going to help Beck and Vogel de-suit.”

Martinez and Johanssen floated down the hall toward docking port A.

“So,” he said, “who would you have eaten first?”

She glared at him.

“Cause I think I’d be tastiest,” he continued, flexing his arm. “Look at that. Good solid muscle there.”

“You’re not funny.”

“I’m free range, you know. Corn-fed.”

She shook her head and accelerated down the hall.

“Come on! I thought you liked Mexican!”

“Not listening,” she called back.

Chapter 20

LOG ENTRY: SOL 376

I’m finally done with the rover modifications!

The hard part was figuring out how to maintain life support. Everything else was just hard work. A lot of hard work.

I haven’t been good at keeping the log up to date, so here’s a recap:

First I had to finish drilling holes with the Pathfinder-murderin' drill. Then I chiseled out a billion little chunks between the holes. Ok, it was 749 but it felt like a billion.

Then I had one big hole in the trailer. I filed down the edges to keep them from being too sharp.  

Remember the pop-tents? I cut the bottom out of one and the remaining canvas was the right size and shape. I used seal-strips to attach it to the inside of the trailer. After pressurizing and sealing up leaks as I found them, I had a nice big balloon bulging out of the trailer. The pressurized area is easily big enough to fit the Oxygenator and Atmospheric Regulator.