Mars Day 2.

After spending a whole day, Pang Xuelin and Watney cleared the supplies cabin. They moved all the daily necessities, experimental equipment, medical supplies, etc. to the living compartment. The originally spacious living compartment was suddenly filled with a lot of stuff.

In order to save food, the original three meals a day were changed to two meals a day.

Fortunately, the aerospace-grade peptide protein powder and vitamins are very sufficient, so the two of them will not suffer from malnutrition due to food reduction.

In addition, the gravity acceleration on the surface of Mars is only half that of the Earth. The heavy physical labor they consume a lot less calories than when they were on Earth.

On the third day, Pang Xuelin and Watney recycled the main umbrella in the mdv (Mars landing vehicle), cut it into appropriate shapes with knives, and lay it on the inner wall of the material compartment, including the floor, wall and ceiling.

Water vapor condenses when it encounters a film, so doing can prevent moisture loss as much as possible.

"Pang, we have to find a way to compose. Although the soil on Mars has various trace elements required for plant growth, if it lacks bacterial activity and the specific nutrients provided in the daily life of animals, even if the Martian soil is transplanted into the earth's environment, it will be impossible to plant it. Next we have to do some dirty work!"

Pang Xuelin recalled the scene of Mark Watney preparing soil in the movie, which was a little disgusting, but he still said: "Watney, you are a botanist, just tell me what you need!"

Watney laughed: "The excrement in our perch cabin will be packaged and thrown outside after being air-dried in vacuum. I need you to do an eva and collect these things back. The microorganisms inside probably have died in the atmospheric environment of Mars, but all kinds of proteins, sugars, and fat are still there. We need to add water to stir and ferment the bacteria in the perch cabin will soon grow on it again. But we may have to endure it. The more smelly this thing, the better, so you'd better get a few more noses."

"No problem, but Watney, can you not say this during dinner in the future? To be honest, it's really hard to swallow while listening to you while eating these lumps of aerospace food!"

Watney couldn't help but be stunned: "I'll try my best!"

"Ha ha ha ha……"

The two of them looked at each other and laughed. In such an environment, it was rare to have fun in pain.

After laughing, Pang Xuelin said again:

"Watney, I think there is another problem we need to pay attention to."

“What’s the problem?”

Pang Xuelin said: "After the material compartment is changed to a planting compartment, this will become the foundation for our survival on Mars. We must ensure that the planting compartment can operate normally in the next few years. Therefore, I want to close the airlock chamber on one side of the planting compartment. In addition, the electrical control gate between the living compartment and the planting compartment is also changed to a mechanical gate. In addition, we test the air pressure, temperature, humidity, gas composition, etc. of the planting compartment every day and register it just in case."

In the movie, Watney could have survived on Mars for a longer time, but it was the airlock that accidentally exploded, destroying all the potatoes he planted, and he almost couldn't wait for rescue in the end.

Watney pondered for a moment and said, "What you said makes sense. Leave this to me. In the next few days, our focus will be on the preparation of soil and water!"

...

Mars Day 5.

It took three days for Pang Xuelin and Watney to complete the composting work. In addition, the two also transported more than 20 cubic meters of Martian soil into the planting room and evenly spread it in the planting cabin.

The composting process is hard to describe. Anyway, the smell is something that both of them will never be willing to smell again in their lifetime.

Next, the most dangerous water production work will be started.

Use hydrazine to prepare water. Under normal circumstances, just burn hydrazine.

However, gyromycobide is a highly toxic chemical that can strongly erode people's skin and eyes, and may cause liver damage after inhalation.

Direct combustion can easily cause volatile ammonia, which is too dangerous.

The two thought of a solution, first dropping liquid hydrazine into a metal iridium bowl. Iridium can catalyze hydrazine, decomposing it into nitrogen and hydrogen, and then burning the hydrogen to obtain water.

Of course, the operational difficulty and risk of this process are not much less difficult.

Pang Xuelin and Watney spent another two days using some discarded materials and experimental equipment originally carried by the material compartment to create a simple chemical reaction experimental device.

Pang Xuelin did not have a fake Watney hand in theoretical calculations. In the movie, this guy just calculated the slight disturbance caused by his breathing to the experiment. He was directly blown away by hydrogen when he made water for the first time.

After considering everything, Pang Xuelin asked Watney to help check it out and confirmed that there was no problem. The two of them put on the bulky eva space suits and started their first water-making journey.

"Let's start!"

Pang Xuelin gently unscrewed the valve of the ionic ammonia, and the ionic ammonia slowly dripped into the iridium bowl along a slender glass pipe. Then, bubbles quickly emerged and released heat.

This reaction is semi-enclosed in an ultra-high molecular weight polyvinyl chloride film, and ethylene ammonia is decomposed into nitrogen and hydrogen under the catalysis of iridium.

The density of nitrogen is slightly lighter than air and can be left in the film. The hydrogen is discharged along a slender glass conduit above and into the gas collecting cylinder. Water is added to the gas collecting cylinder, short pipes are in and long pipes are out. As long as all the water in the gas collecting cylinder is discharged, the drain outlet of the long pipe is ignited.

The water vapor produced by hydrogen combustion passes through the water circulation system and a condensation water collector made by two people

Soon, all the water in the gas collecting cylinder was discharged by hydrogen. Watney created an electric spark at the drain, and a light blue flame began to burn. Watney laughed and said, "It's great, we succeeded!"

Pang Xuelin also breathed a sigh of relief.

The compression pump of the mav base is used to compress carbon dioxide, and then the oxygenator converts carbon dioxide into oxygen. Finally, oxygen and hydrogen are burned to obtain the most precious moisture. This process is easy to say, but it is too difficult to do.

A small mistake in any link may lead to the failure of the experiment.

A day later, a can of 50 liters of hydrazine was burned, and the condenser contributed nearly 50 liters of water to them, and the water circulation system also collected 25 liters.

"Pang, we have a full six hundred liters of hydrazine. In two weeks, we can collect 1.2 tons of water."

Watney said excitedly.

With so much water, he can even partially transform the living compartment. In this way, not only can the calorie problem be solved, but he can even grow some vegetables to try it out.

Pang Xuelin did not respond, and frowned at the water in the bucket.

Watney said strangely: "Pang, what's wrong with you?"

Pang Xuelin shook his head and said, "Don't you find it strange? 50 liters of hydrazine should be able to produce 100 liters of water, but we only collected 75 liters."

Watney laughed and said, "I thought you were worried about something? Didn't you notice it? There were a lot of water droplets condensed on the bulkheads and domes of the planting cabins, and the soil absorbed part, it would be normal to have such an error?"

Pang Xuelin said: "Do you think the water combined has 25 liters?"

Watney frowned and said, "What do you mean?"

Pang Xuelin said: "You go check the No. 1 oxygen storage tank to see if the oxygen storage capacity is too high or less."

"good!"

Watney checked the reserves in the oxygen storage tank and quickly returned to the planting compartment, saying, "Pang, it's strange that the liquid oxygen content in our oxygen storage tank has increased by nearly seven liters."

Pang Xuelin said: "That's right! Watney, you see, we used the compression pump left by Mav to create 50 liters of liquid carbon dioxide today, and then converted these carbon dioxide into oxygen using an oxygenator. Logically, if all the oxygen reacts with hydrogen, the oxygen content in the oxygen storage tank should be basically the same as before. But now, the liquid oxygen content has increased, which means that some hydrogen has not reacted with oxygen, and the hydrogen in our hydrazine tank is empty. What does this mean?"

Watney also reacted at this time, with a look of horror on his face: "What do you mean? Some hydrogen escaped through the flames... What is the limit of hydrogen explosion?"

Pang Xuelin said: "4.0%~75.6%, we are roaming the car with an atmospheric analyzer, and we take the gas in the cabin out for analysis."

After doing what he said, Pang Xuelin immediately found a self-sealed bag, and then went out of the residence cabin with Watney in his eva space suit and entered the roaming car.

Soon, the test results came out.

The gas ratio in the sample is: 54% nitrogen, 9% oxygen, and 37% hydrogen.

The two of them couldn't help but look at each other. The planting cabin they were waiting for just now was a super bomb.

Pang Xuelin breathed a long sigh and said, "We should feel glad that hydrogen was burning in the condenser before, and the hydrogen content in the condenser did not reach the explosion limit, so we escaped. But now, just a tiny static electricity in the planting compartment may cause a big explosion."

Watney frowned and said, "What should we do next?"

In this case, let alone making water, even returning to the living compartment will make people frightened.

Pang Xuelin smiled bitterly and said, "Stay in the roaming car first, there will definitely be a solution."

There is no such scene in the movie. When Watney made water, it was easily completed except for a small explosion caused by a calculation error at the beginning. But now, it has become different!

Pang Xuelin couldn't help but frowned.

That night, Pang Xuelin and Watney were not sleeping soundly in the roaming car.

The CO2 filters in the roaming vehicle and the CO2 filters in the eva spacesuit can last up to two days, and they must return to the perch cabin.
Chapter completed!