The 222nd Mars Day.

[17:21] jpl: Xuelin, I am Tian Mu, and I am in Wenchang and transit through Pasadena. We have experienced your orbital change plan. Hermes reaches the orbital altitude and speed of Mars. You are too risky this time. From the Asidaria Plain to the Schiaparelli impact crater, the long journey of more than 3,200 kilometers is a big challenge for Watney. In addition, once the MV of the Schiaparelli impact crater is activated by Watney, the Ares IV plan will definitely be postponed for one to two years. At that time, you must stay on Mars alone for at least 1,500 Mars days, and you must be prepared.

[17:36] Housing cabin: When I made this plan, I was mentally prepared. We can't take risks. Even if we planted 50 square meters of tomatoes, our carbon dioxide absorber could only last until the 600th Mars day, and we had no choice. Watney will conduct targeted training next, and we will definitely not joke about our lives.

[17:50] jpl: OK, the Ares Plan Command has recalculated the amount of supplies Hermes needed to carry out this mission. It is expected that half a month later, the Long March 9 carrier rocket will be launched from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center at the Taotie unmanned cargo spacecraft to rendezvous and dock with Hermes. Hermes will enter Mars orbit on the 445th Mars day. We have reserved five tons of supplies for you. Do you have any personal suggestions?

[18:18] Resident cabin: Hermes is not the same as usual. When entering Mars orbit, it is twice as fast as the normal landing state. Can you ensure that these five tons of supplies can be delivered to me without being damaged during landing?

[18:36] jpl: We have transformed the Taotie cargo spacecraft. The supplies we give you will be installed in a flexible compartment consisting of metamaterial aerogel with a diameter of five meters. After Hermes enters Mars orbit, it will release the Taotie cargo spacecraft. The Taotie cargo spacecraft uses the remaining fuel to maneuver orbit, and then conducts a hard landing on the Asidari Plain. At about 10,000 meters above the Mars surface, the flexible compartment will be separated from the Taotie cargo spacecraft. The entire landing process is completed by Ai. It is estimated that the circumference radius of the landing accuracy is about five kilometers. At that time, we will mobilize satellites to help you locate the flexible compartment. You can drive the rover cart to drag the supply cabin back.

[18:48] Resident cabin: I am very happy to hear this news. As for the supply supplies, I personally recommend that food supplies occupy less than one ton. The remaining materials are as follows: at least twenty meters long water circulation system pipelines, high-pressure water pumps, air compressor accessories, communication equipment accessories, oxygenator molecular sieve, nickel-hydrogen batteries, cables, optical cables, various corresponding interfaces, solar cell packs, resident cabin carbon fiber canvas, seals, rover parts, and it is best to bring some single-cell algae and incubator. The most important thing is that the more carbon dioxide absorbers, the better, to prevent the oxygenator from being unable to repair. The above is only my personal opinion. You can decide on the specific types and quantity of resilience materials.

【19:02】jpl: Received, we will refer to your opinions to prepare a list of materials as soon as possible.

...

Perhaps because the previous accidents had exhausted all the bad luck of Pang Xuelin and Watney, things went unexpectedly.

The 240th Mars Day.

The Long March 9 carrier rocket was successfully launched, sending the "Taotie" unmanned cargo spacecraft weighing more than 60 tons to low-Earth orbit.

241 Mars Day.

The unmanned cargo spacecraft "Taotie" has undergone several orbital changes and successfully docked with Hermes. Hermes uses the earth's gravitational slingshot effect to accelerate to Mars.

The 255th Mars Day.

The tomatoes in the living cabin are almost as tall as their knees, green and lukewarm.

The 260th Mars Day.

The latest data shows that just one hour of the habitat carbon dioxide filter is turned on every day, it is enough to maintain the survival of Pang Xuelin and Watney.

So Pang Xuelin and Watney moved their home from the rover back to the perch cabin.

In the middle, they harvested another season of potatoes.

Due to insufficient fertilizer, the number of potatoes in this season is only 200 kilograms, a significant decrease from the first season, but it is still within the acceptable range of Pang Xuelin and Watney.

The food problem has been temporarily alleviated, and the carbon dioxide absorption problem is also not big. This does not mean that Pang Xuelin and Watney can relax, and there is more work waiting for the two of them.

Watney needs to travel 3,200 kilometers to reach the Schiapareli impact crater. The difficulties faced in the middle are extremely great. First of all, they must carry out large-scale transformation of the rover.

For example, the first problem they face is to find a way to install the carbon dioxide absorber in the habitat cabin into the rover.

Currently, there are 1,600 hours left in the small carbon dioxide absorber, and there are 300 hours left in the habitat tank carbon dioxide absorber.

If Watney wants to cross a distance of 3,200 kilometers, it will take at least 30 to 40 days. Considering the redundancy of the task, he has to leave him a 50-day amount.

This means it needs 1200 hours of carbon dioxide absorber.

It takes at least two hundred hours to transform the small carbon dioxide absorber for the rover. After Watney left, he had to leave Pang Xuelin with a margin of 300 hours. In addition, before Watney left Mars, the two of them needed to perform eva tasks due to various accidents, so the small carbon dioxide absorber could only leave at most nine hundred hours for Watney, and the rest was supplemented with the carbon dioxide absorber of the perch tank.

The occupancy carbon dioxide absorber is now available for two people for 300 hours, and Watney will set off on Mars Day 390, with at least 150 hours remaining.

If given to Watney alone, the use time can be doubled, so it is enough for Poinvotney to complete a journey across 3,200 kilometers.

The problem is that the CO2 absorber in the habitat chamber is too large, and after the rover cart installs food and small CO2 absorbers, there is no enough space for the CO2 absorber in the habitat chamber.

So the experts at Ares Project Command opened a big idea. Pang Xuelin and Watney used electric drills to make a big hole on the top of the roaming car, and then used an mdv parachute to create a large balloon on the roof, and placed the carbon dioxide absorber on the perch cabin on it.

It took Pang Xuelin and Watney a full 100 hours to complete the renovation work.

Then, the two began to slowly transfer various supplies to the rover.

Compared with these material problems, the real trouble is navigation.

Watney traveled 3,200 kilometers this time. Unless he carried the Mars Pathfinder landing compartment, it would be difficult to use Phobos (Phobos) to conduct precise navigation. However, once the landing compartment is taken away, Pang Xuelin will lose its communication ability with the earth. For a moment, the two were in a dilemma.
Chapter completed!