Once again, Teddy wasn’t late. He sat calmly and alertly at his desk, despite having been back in Houston for less than two hours after a pre-dawn flight back from Washington. Venkat looked him over, but couldn’t find a hair out of place or a wrinkle on his suit.
This time Annie arrived last, bashing through the office door with an elbow as she used both hands to work her phone. “You would not believe the amount of Monday-morning quarterbacking out there,” she said rather than apologize. “Every dickhead with an opinion is chiming in today about why we’re going to get everybody on Mars and Hermes killed. Same fuckers would probably be screaming if we’d announced Rich Purnell publicly and then decided not to do it.”
“About that,” Teddy said quietly. “I have a few words I want to say about whoever sent the ‘April 1970’ email to Commander Lewis.” The email had claimed to be from Lewis’s husband on Earth, who shared her interest in all things 70’s. It had contained a complete account of the Rich Purnell maneuver and the discussion over it- things Robert Lewis had no way of knowing.
Teddy folded his hands on his desk and continued to speak quietly. “It’s true that the failure of Sleipnir and the obstruction by certain Congressmen changed the risk factors in regard to choosing between Rich Purnell and Ares 3B. But the decision had been made. The person who sent that email deliberately undermined the decision making process of NASA. Now, this is not a military organization. Insubordination is tolerated to a degree. But this act put the Hermes crew in jeopardy at a time when it was far from certain that we could resupply them in time. That’s not acceptable.”
Teddy pushed himself to his feet, stepping out from behind his desk. “Now, it’s convenient that Tai Yang Shen was offered to us at precisely the right moment for this. And it’s lucky that the Rich Purnell maneuver put enough pressure on Congress to allow SpaceX to return to work for the other booster we’ll need. But being right after the fact doesn’t justify either the risk or the insubordination. And if whoever sent that email is ever discovered, their career at NASA will be over. I just want to make that clear.” As he said this last sentence, his eyes locked on Mitch, who had returned to his usual slump on the office couch.
Mitch, for his part, was completely unconcerned. “All that’s a given,” he said. “But we have more important things to talk about now. Like how to resupply Hermes and how to modify the MAV to reach Hermes when it arrives.”
Teddy nodded. “The resupply mission is the more urgent priority,” he said. “Bruce, what can you tell me?”
“It’s tight, but it looks like we can do it,” Bruce said over the speakerphone. “One resupply would be enough if we knew for a fact the Sparkle Drive would be compatible with Hermes. But we need two if we assume that Mark has to take the long way home. And that’s two resupply payloads with nothing but food, thrusters and fuel, and a shell to hold it all together. We can’t send spare parts, fresh clothes, or anything beyond a limited supply of sanitary supplies. Food, and nothing but food.”
“We’re assembling the food packs now,” Venkat added. “That will include a small supply of semi-precious gems that Fireball can sprinkle on normal meals as a nutritional supplement. That’s more or less what the ponies did to make his original meal packs.”
“The good news,” Bruce added, “is ditching the tumbler landing system not only buys us extra payload for food, it frees up manpower at JPL for the second resupply probe. That’s vital, since we’re having to rebuild the thrusters from the original Sleipnir 4. Working night and day, we should be ready to load the payload fifteen days from now.”
“That’s good,” Venkat said, “since the resupply probes have to launch twenty-five days from today to intercept Hermes just after its Earth fly-by. We need Sleipnir 4 at KSC and Sleipnir 5 at Jiuquan twenty-one days from now for mounting and abbreviated inspection. There’s no schedule slip this time.”
“I know it,” Bruce said. “We’ll be ready.”
“Mitch, you’re going to head straight to Jiuquan to liaise with the Chinese launch crews,” Teddy said. “Make sure the booster’s compatible with the final Sleipnir 5 probe. Do whatever is necessary to ensure Tai Yang Shen is ready for launch when the time comes.”
“No problem,” Mitch said, nodding.
“Resupplying Hermes is only the first step,” Teddy continued. “We have to modify the MAV to reach Hermes. And we have to get Mark, the aliens, and all the equipment needed for the MAV modifications to Schiaparelli in the first place.”
“Why not just fly the MAV to Watney?” Annie asked.
“The only landing struts are on the landing stage,” Venkat said. “The MAV makes its own fuel, but only for the ascent stages- not the landing stage. Also, the heat shield and drogue parachutes are gone, so the MAV can’t make a second atmospheric re-entry. It would have to make a slow flight over and land completely under power, using the residual fuel in the descent stage and nothing else.” Venkat shook his head. “It’s just not doable, Annie.”
“I agree,” Teddy said. “Moving Mark and his friends is a lot less risky than moving the MAV. Whatever happens to them, at least one will have a way off planet so long as the MAV is intact. If it breaks, none of them leave.”
“We’ll work on plans for moving from the Hab to Schiaparelli here at JSC,” Venkat said. “Working out the modifications to the MAV will be Bruce’s job once JPL recovers from Sleipnir.”
“Don’t expect anything too quick from us on that,” Bruce said through the speakerphone. “We’ll need precise numbers on the alien thrusters- weight, thrust, all of it. That means we’ll need Mark to do some more testing.”
“Understood,” Teddy said. “You’ve done astounding work, Bruce. We all appreciate it. Keep it up.” He turned his attention to Annie. “I want any hint that this wasn’t in our plans quashed,” he said. “Before we were proceeding with direct resupply as a hedge in case the Rich Purnell maneuver didn’t pan out. But it was always our preferred option. Now we’re just kicking that option into high gear.”
“Got it,” Annie said brusquely. “I keep following the line Venk took last night?”
“Yes. The safest thing we can do is get Mark and his friends off Mars as soon as possible. That’s been our policy since we re-established contact with them. This is just a logical extension of that.”
“No problem,” Annie said. “Gotta say, I like this better than the shit we’d be going through if the Purnell maneuver leaked after we shitcanned it.”
“We would make it work.” Teddy leaned on his desk for a moment, then added, “Bruce, one more thing. We’re putting eleven crew in Hermes for the trip home. That’s going to strain life support. Can you make any space in the resupply probes for filters, spare parts, anything? At least a few lightweight things to help with the load.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” Bruce’s voice gave no encouragement on that point.
“Okay, then,” Teddy said. “We’ve all got a lot of work ahead of us. Let’s get started.”
Venkat and Mitch walked out of the office together. “Officially, I have no idea who sent that email,” Venkat said.
“Fine by me,” Mitch replied.
“Unofficially, why did you do it?”
“I didn’t,” Mitch said. “Wanted to. But somebody beat me to it.”
“Mitch, this is just you and me, off the record,” Venkat insisted. “We all know you wanted to give the astronauts the final decision.”
“And if I’d done it, I wouldn’t be particularly ashamed of it,” Mitch said. “I’d still deny it, because I like my job. But if you want to know who did it, my money’s on Sanders.”
“Teddy?” Venkat couldn’t help himself from looking over his shoulder back at the executive office door. “That’s impossible.”
“Think about it,” Mitch said. “Tai Yang Shen being convenient timing? Hogwash. He sent the email after he got the offer from the Chinese. He wasn’t confident about Sleipnir anymore. The material for tumbler air bags wasn’t meeting schedule. Lockheed was stalling on construction reports for the next MAV. Congress had a sudden attack of being Congress. Rich Purnell gave him an option that put pressure on Congress-“
“No, Mitch,” Venkat said, shaking his head. “Still not buying it. Teddy would never put five more people at that level of risk for a small gain.”
“Would he do it to save eight billion?” Mitch asked.
Venkat looked Mitch in the eyes and said, “Explain.”
“What’s happening on Mars is a new chapter in humanity’s existence,” Mitch said. “Aliens from another frickin’ universe. An entire new school of physics. We’re on the edge of changes we can’t even imagine. But what happens if those five aliens with Watney die, Venk? The best case scenario is that we never meet another alien again so long as our civilization lasts. You know the odds.”
Venkat nodded.
“So maybe Teddy has second thoughts about his decision,” Mitch said. “Then he gets this offer from China. It eases the margins on the Purnell maneuver. And he looks at the bastard on the House Space subcommittee, piously mouthing talk about safety and responsibility while he’s killing Watney and his friends…” Mitch held his hands palms-up, one higher than the other; he then raised the one and lowered the other. “And the balance of risk shifts. Because eight billion humans are more likely to get a long, fruitful relationship with the ponies and such if Hermes gets to Mars eight months early.”
“It still seems a stretch, Mitch.”
“But the kicker is this. Teddy never chews anyone out in public. Ever. If Teddy didn’t do it, he’d have called me on the carpet to threaten me, maybe demand my resignation. Because everybody knows I’d be the one to spill the beans to Hermes, right? But instead he makes a statement to us, the only people who knew about the decision at all, ending with, 'if the person is discovered his career is over.' Not 'if I find out.' 'If the person is discovered.'” Mitch hit the elevator button and smirked. “And that’s why I think Teddy did it.”
Venkat considered it. “It’s still not enough to go on,” he said.
“Don’t care,” Mitch said. “I really don’t care if the angel Gabriel sent that email. For all we know it was. Magic, y’know.” The elevator door opened. “All I care about is that the Hermes crew got to make the decision, and we’re going to save Watney eight months early. Now we just have to make it happen.”
The elevator doors closed, leaving Venkat on the executive office floor, just him and his thoughts.
8865038 Flying the balloon? It was. I haven't seen the ep, but Peter New posted an animatic of the scene.
I was just about ready last chapter to say there was no chance Teddy sent it. Now... I'm sold.
It does make sense, with even just a little bit of thought, you know?
8865205
But be sad to see no lines from her whatsoever. The most time she has had on screen, and nothing.
So they failed 2/3 launches with a full time to do inspections with. Now they're trying to get 2/2 successful with a third the time to do the inspections with. On top of that they're fitting one of the probes to a completely different booster than they've used in the past which is basically a recipe for mistakes. I can't see both launches succeeding, and I'm not sure why anyone was willing to be all the lives involved on it.
At this point I'm pretty sure at least one launch is going to fail and they're going to need the pony rescue ship to bail out the Hermes astronauts as well as the Martian colonists.
Plus they need modifications to the Ares IV MAV that they don't even know if they can make work yet. What happens if they can't determine a method to make the MAV get to orbit? Before that they need to get all the ponies there with enough food in tow for the trip while leaving behind both the cave and the Hab which are the two safest places on Mars right now. Whereas with the IIIB plan they could have stayed there until they were rescued.
This is such an insanely risky plan compared to the one they had to begin with that I'd have never gone for it. Thing is that this doesn't really reduce risk for the martians. If the Hermes supply missions fail then the Hermes is a tomb, and the martians will have to wait another year or so beyond what they originally expected for it to be remote piloted back to earth and refitted. That might actually be a better result than if their hodgepodge modifications to the MAV should fail though, since if the Hermes is already a tomb they won't risk themselves by flying up to it. Whereas if it does they flyby and they try their jury rigged expanded MAV and miss, they're dead in space. Or possibly exploded on the ground.
This talk about Cherry in the new episode. Forget that. How about a certain magician pony on there that looks like another certain magicIan pony.
I think we just met Trixie's dad. Oh please, let it be her dad. Too many similarities for it not to be.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/4/14/1707523__safe_screencap_big+bucks_jack+pot_trixie_twilight+sparkle_grannies+gone+wild_spoiler-colon-s08e05_alicorn_alternate+hairstyle_earth+pony_eye+c.jpeg
Gabriel would be the Angel for that, wouldn't they. Especially since the message only appeared just after he'd decided to send it despite the consequences. Appropriate for a miracle.
Man, it's going to be INTERESTING once they get to Earth, with it's ambient magic and can start asking questions about whose Gods are real and what scale they operate at.
Damn. That's a Wham Line if I ever see one.
Doesnt matter how many resources appear to be available, its never enough in the right place to do it easily, because that doesnt make the largest profits, only a much greater security.
Could be worse, could be a Mass Drivre Captain.
Is the new episode balloon a different design, burner etc than origionally, or is the burner a new addition, it was never drawn in before because it wasnt needed? Spike acted as the burner before at one point or was that a fanfic?
That Venkat - Mitch conversation was a blast to read. It still leaves the door open for other options, but not by much.
I usually prefer reading about the maretians more than what's happening in equestria and earth, but this chapter turned that upside-down.
Thanks for writing and for a double dose today.
8865226
8865241
There is no "playing it safe" in this situation, there never was. There's just different kinds of risks. They don't know the exact numbers to make the MAV space-worthy, they might not even know for sure if they can, but they do know that the alternative is to leave Watney and the aliens stranded on Mars for years and even with the cave sealed off the chances of that going well are nearly nonexistent. Even without the Rich Purnell maneuver they would still have to use the MAV, they'd still have to get there and they'd have to survive eight more months on Mars before they could take that at least calculable risk (at least that's how I understood it).
As for the shortened time constraints... Well, they're steely eyed missile men now. Ponies have had more launches in three years than they've done in decades, so maybe there's something to it aside from those launches having been in magic rainbow pony world.
P.S.: Personally, I still think the ponies will get to them before Hermes does, considering they actually got a signal from the right universe now and with that the start to pinpointing that universe. Then again, that would take away the climax of this story so chances are something will happen to screw those plans over again.
Well. That changes things a bit. Though I do have to echo the concerns of another commenter: I am not optimistic about the Rich Purnell maneuver going off without a hitch. I'm willing to bet Equestria will be essential to the eventual rescue of the Maretians. But, seeing as we're only on sol 190, that's still a good ways away—plenty of time for more stuff to go wrong.
Aaaand congress needs to be hit with friendship lasers when the ponies do skip in from the ponyverse.
Just a question, what is the capacity of the life support atmosphere transfer that had it able to fill that large a cave? is it recycled back to Equestria or just vented? Why couldn't Amicitas life support be re-purposed to provide continuous thrust, however small, if the fail-safe shut off can be defeated?
8865310
No, I said that the existence of teleportation spells that work in Equus's atmosphere proves that there are no inherent complications to teleporting in an atmosphere that dense. You brought up the micro meteorid that the craft jumped to avoid as the basis for assuming that the craft couldn't switch with the space it teleported to at all.
So, I said the only reason they would need to enter orbit would be to dock with the space station, and you're saying that they once entered orbit to dock with the space station. The two statements do not contradict each other.
Why would weight be an issue? They're literally teleporting dozens and dozens of tons of spaceship; the weight of another drive crystal would get lost in the rounding.
As for computer power, do unicorns need to know the exact density and chemical composition of the space they teleport into? If not, why should the computer?
Err... ...
... ... ...
... ... ...
... I can buy it. Teddy does have the means AND the motive, after all... especially since they revealed how Rich sent the equations directly to Starlight to him in an earlier chapter, he knows how to spoof the system... fascinating...
8865173 That last line is almost what CSP-Chryssy would say: "You brought WHAT into my hive? Where MY subjects can possibly get to it?? What were you THINKING??"
8865310 To clarify the point, provided you don't need a precise orbital trajectory (or worse yet, orbital position), teleporting your way into orbit or off-planet entirely is relatively easy. But you still want thrusters of some kind for fine maneuvering. And having a non-teleport propulsion system is often going to be simpler than shuffling around with various teleport schemes. "I can spend two days doing precise teleport jags to build up free momentum for where I want to go... or I can do one ten percent burn for thirty seconds now, another one when I get where I'm going, and play pinochle with the co-pilot in the meantime."
And no, teleporting straight up will not instantly put you in a geostationary orbit. The Earth rotates at, very rough numbers, about one thousand miles per hour at the equator, at a rough average of 4500 miles from the axis of rotation. An object in geostationary orbit is (guess from memory) 17,500 miles above the surface, or roughly 22,000 miles from the axis of rotation... and a little simple geometry will tell you that to keep pace it has to travel an unholy fuckload faster than 1,000 miles per hour to maintain relative position. That's lateral momentum you won't get from a simple vertical teleport.
This line spoke to me on a spiritual level.
8865425
Why would you need to spend two days? My math says a combination of the Sparkle Drive and magic propulsion should get you into orbit in about 40 minutes. And it should be pretty easy to pick a fairly precise orbital path while doing so.
8865361 The air system cycles air, thus preventing CO2 from building up to lethal levels. I'm not sure how much thrust it could produce if the failsafes were cut off, but based on my armchair reading it'd be somewhere in the range of the weight of the air being lost moving at the speed of sound at the other end. (The speed of sound is the point at which air is no longer compressible, which means it can't move any faster without, shall we say, encouragement.)
Long story short, it'd be only a bit bigger than the acceleration produced by Apollo 13's oxygen tank A bleeding into space after oxygen tank B exploded. Enough to require course corrections, but nowhere near enough to go anyplace anytime soon. You'd need a bigger hole on the other end of the connection, and Twilight Sparkle and Chrysalis neither one would sign off on that, because neither one wants to see a whole building get sucked into the system by the force of air flow, which is the kind of forces you'd be looking at if you built a transdimensional atmophere siphon powerful enough to be viable as propulsion for a manned craft in orbit.
So no, the Spaceballs Drive isn't a thing.
8865435 The question was about going from surface to orbit with ONLY the Sparkle Drive, and no other propulsion.
8865447
Ah, okay. I thought you were talking about me, since mine is the reply he quoted.
So...why does the ESA still use chemical rockets if the Sparkle Drive/magic-thruster combo is an option?
8865458 (1) Twilight still wants to get magic thrusters powerful enough to replace chem rockets. They're not there yet. Amicitas's main engines, based on rough calculation, produce about four meters per second squared acceleration at full clip, which is less than the 9.8 meters per second squared gravitational acceleration on Equus/Earth's surface. (2) It's a bad idea to have a fully automatic enchanted artifact teleport while in contact with the ground, because unlike a pony the artifact is unlikely to be certain where the thing to be teleported ends and the rest of the planet begins. (3) Amicitas Flight Three was a testing flight for the Drive. If the Drive failed in space at orbital speeds or higher, there would be time to do things. The Drive failing at suborbital velocity close to the surface... is a Bad Day.
8865472
1) That's not happening any time soon. Considering how far their space program has come over 5 years, and the fact that during that time Twilight has taken her Magic Boosters from .25g to .40g, it will probaly be a few...decades before they're capable of replacing chem rockets.
2) Yeesh. I'd point out the different ways to get around that, but at this point I don't think I'd want that anywhere near my planet either if it can so easily go that catastrophically wrong. Then again, it was designed by TS...
3) I would think it'd only be a problem if it failed within the first thousandth of a second. Any longer than that and they should have enough time to engage the magical boosters and pop the chute, I'd think.
8865440
reminds me of a Superman novel, where Lex Luthor was trying to figure out how to handle air on his one-person spaceship. he invented a way to separate the carbon and oxygen, but had nowhere for the Carbon to go. he considered simply ejecting it, but was worried about Carbon gunk building up on the outside of the ship and messing up the solar panels...
then one of his people read "space cadet" by Robert Heinlein, and made a note of his idea of simply having Plants on board.
I was hoping it was Teddy who did it. But we shall not know for sure eh? Unless at the end of the story or somewhere along the way we get the confession by Teddy. I do love how you worked that though. Oh what a twist it would be if teddy ordered Rich to do it. Lmao. Oh that'd be great!
Kris you are a steeley eye missle man!
I live for your twists and turns on this story.
Remmeber there were some short sections of watneys journal in the book so if you need to you can post one to three sentence long chapters if you need to. It would suck to get one but when you get busy I think we can all agree that you can post something rather than nothing. Matter of fact I think we're over due for that by this point in the story. Lol
Sorry tired and babbeling now.
Good chapter.
Thanks for the second one today.
Looking forward to more!
They haven't told Earth yet that the alien suits have integrated magical unlimited life support? Why is Earth worrying about life support on the Hermes?
Oh-hooooo I wondered if you'd have it be Teddy who did it! It just seemed like the most interesting choice. Nicely worded there. :D Also, "Congress had a sudden attack of being Congress" made me laugh. XD
8865622 Pretty sure they do know about the alien suits, but they still need to be ready for the possibility of those suits failing later on. It would be an awful tragedy if they successfully picked up everyone, only to have them all die on the trip home.
8865650
If the suits fail during the trip, the alien dies anyway because it means they don't have a working suit and can't get off the ship. The ponies designed their entire system, everything from suits to ship, to be as reliant on ground support as possible with minimal fail-safes (fail safe for excessive fluid flow, including water, is "immediately assume the astronaut is dead and render the suit unusable")
8865669
Not sure what you mean here. Are you saying that they can't get off the Hermes without a suit? Or are you referring to Amicitas or the MAV?
I'm referring to the possibility of the suits failing while they're on the Hermes, on the trip back to Earth. If that happens, I imagine that the strain on life support is going to affect everyone, not just the aliens.
Even if the alien suits' life support fail before they're rescued, Mark and gang may still find a way to get them onto the Hermes without dying. Once on board, they'd still have the problem of additional strain on Hermes' life support.
Either way, it's better for NASA to have backup systems in place than to assume that additional aliens on board automatically come with additional life support.
8865248
Yeah, that'd be nice. Then again, we thought we saw Rainbow Dash's father (and maybe mother) in "Games Ponies Play," and then Various Artists changed that around so that guy was her coach and somepony else was her dad.
Oh, and Kris? I'll say it again: don't kill yourself.
I mean, for one thing, I just so happened to get to bed early last night, so I just so happened to miss your delay. For another, your double-post on... February 9th, apparently, gave you some slack already. You didn't really need to make it up immediately... though if it's making you feel better, I can't complain.
Canon: CB is into stand-up comedy
i.imgur.com/DV33Qnj.jpg
8865279
TVTropes link? Damn it, I was going to be productive today.
8865622 The spacesuits (and the Amicitas box) provide unlimited air and water. They don't provide water purification, particulate filtration (cleaning crud off the crystals is a suit maintenance chore), or temperature regulation, among other things. Filtration and temperature are going to be the biggest problems if Hermes has to take the long way home with almost a double crew complement.
8866000
But apparently her and the rest of the ponies there don't have a sense of humor.
By the way:
Something not quite right with this picture. I can't put my finger on it......
derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/4/14/1707778__safe_screencap_prince+hardhat_grannies+gone+wild_spoiler-colon-s08e05_alicorn_animation+error_background+pony_glowing+horn_hard+hat_magic_male.png
TS: Celestia, you got some explaining to do!
Celestia: Well, I was lonely one night, and it was during my visit to Las Pegasus. I always heard what happens in Las Pegasus stays in Las Pegasus. I noticed how expertly he handled those sticks and wondered if he handled another one just as well ..... And one thing led to another.. Well, I had to reward him somehow for scratching that 'itch' I had...
Starlight: Soooo... Twilight, can I see you in your bedroom and see about 'earning' my own wings?
8865425
Too bad they don't have a portal gun for some momentum shenanigans. That'd solve the needed velocity for orbit problem.
You know, it feels like amidst all the hullabaloo surrounding the Purnell Maneuver everyone has forgotten to ask the one group who actually get the final call on the mission - the stranded maretians themselves. Mitch can drone on all he wants about how the Hermes crew got to make the decision as a good thing, but they aren't the ones who get to make the actual final call - Mark & co are. And there is a distinct chance that the answer would be along the lines of "Are you sure you haven't gotten into the cider cellar?" when introduced to that Frankenstein of a plan people simply expect them to follow without consulting them first about their kitbashing capabilities and willingness to go through with it.
On another note, I don't really buy that Teddy was the one who leaked the email. It simply makes no sense for him to do so - he is the top man, he calls the shots and it depends solely on his say-so whether NASA goes through with the Purnell maneuver or any other kind of maneuver. If he said so, or had a change of heart about it, NASA would go with it up-front. There is no reason for him to engage in any kind of shenanigans, especially ones that place Hermes resupply in danger by catching NASA off-guard, when he could have simply said "You know, we are going through with it after all - get to it".
8865361
Based on my back of the envelope calculations from a while ago, the big water transport crystal could produce 2.7 mm / s2 on hermes. (Way more on a smaller ship)
I had not considered the other life support crystals.
While this would more than double the thrust hermes has, that won't be of much use if they don't heavily modify the purnell maneuver to take advantage of it. I would think of it as a backup engine.
That said, it could be used to mach speed and location with hermes if they install it on the mav. Thus reducing the required escape velocity.
8866411 The truth: I leaked the email.
(WHAT A TWIST!)
8866411
Yeah, it kind of bothered me too that they didn't ask the Mars crew. Especially since their plan volunteers pretty much all of the equestrian resources without even asking them. From the equestrian perspective it might be even worse, because they'll spend more time in transit that could have been spent getting them home.
As for Teddy, it doesn't make a lot of sense for him to have done it this way, but I don't know who else it could have been. The only other people in-the-know who had access were Bruce and Annie; the former really doesn't have a strong enough characterization, and the latter isn't really technical enough.
8865226
The odds are really terrible if you ignore plot armor.
I know we're following the book in order to have a story but I would have seriously expected governments on Earth to assign a higher priority to rescuing/capturing an alien crew than what they've been shown doing so far.
8866969 In the book Russia's space agency is never mentioned, and I'm assuming that it's either moribund or limited to Earth orbit. The Chinese space agency has a solar observatory and not a lot else. And the ESA has pretty much always hitchhiked on either American or Russian boosters. So who else is there?
8865330
You've made a critical mistake in what the original plan was. They weren't going to use the Ares IV MAV in the original plan. They were going to send a new vehicle built on Earth along for the ride with Ares IIIB. They would have had around a year to build and test it. It would have landed where the Ponies currently are and thus they wouldn't have had to travel away from the cave at all.
This would have been massively safer than trying to take enough food for the trip thousands of kilometers across Mars, likely only possible with both rovers and the Amicitas (which based on past travel time would take them somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 days travel time on mostly flat terrain), then juryrigging addons to the Ares IV MAV that they don't even know are possible yet.
8867083
you should have mentioned that earlier and wtf did my phone do to my comment i thought the browser input lagged like normal?!
Enjoying this so much. Makes me think where are Picard and Ryker when you need them. Lol!
A chinese rocket at the same time as the email? Looks to me lije we're seeing the first visible signs if countries jockeying and posturing for control of valuable assets. Eventually there's going to be people trying to sabotage attemots for certain countries to have access, and demands the aliens be remanded to certain countries' control.
8875544
The rocket from the Chimesse comes from the original story, in what I would call my favorite moment in fact. "The politicians won't go for it." "Then don't ask the politicians."
Since we didn't see it, I'd assume that same scene took place. So no politics involved, no. Not that politicians won't try to use it. Just not part of the motivation.