AMICITAS FLIGHT THREE – MISSION DAY 224
ARES III SOL 222
[08:11] WATNEY: Dust storm has passed. I’m going out to sweep off the solar farm. While we were waiting, we made several repairs to Sojourner’s internal circuitry. What we found makes it unlikely that the probe survived. There was apparently a short circuit, we assume due to static buildup after the loss of Sojourner’s static points, that melted part of the wiring harness connecting the solar panels to the power board. That can’t have been good for the rest of the circuits, or the CPU. Our only reason for hope is that we also found a lot of broken connectors between the CPU and PROM chips and the board, so it’s possible the static surge missed those.
So we want to make one more test to see if there’s anything left to save. While I’m sweeping, let me know what I need to do to make the experiment.
[08:38] JPL: This is Tim at JPL, Mr. Watney, Ms. Dragonfly. The Pathfinder team is standing by to send Sojourner activation orders. We can’t do this while the Pathfinder chat is running, so we need you to close the client on Rover 1 and take Sojourner outside, in that order. We’ll order Sojourner to power up and execute one three-sixty rotation in place on its wheels. If nothing happens, we concur that further salvage efforts are probably futile. In any case, ninety minutes after closing out the chat, take Sojourner back inside the hab and reactivate Rover 1’s Pathfinder app. We’ll be listening.
[09:02] WATNEY: Roger. By the time you read this Rover 1 will be shut down.
Half of Sojourner’s brain resided in its own limited circuits- the CPU and the PROM chips that regulated its health on the flight to Mars and provided instructions on how to perform commands. The other half resided within Pathfinder, the parts that gave the instructions, which remembered what Sojourner had done, and which interpreted the data from the probe and relayed them back to Earth.
Almost forty years before, the two halves had been sundered when Pathfinder’s unreliable power systems, which had triggered several computer reboots and threatened its mission from the first day, finally died. The rover, lobotomized, had gone into safe mode, making its best guess where the lander was and returning to it, waiting for instructions the larger probe would never give.
For ninety days the little rover had been busy, performing miracles on a power supply designed to last only five days after separation from the lander. Then, after sputters and starts and garbled instructions, the only voice it could hear had gone silent, and not long after, so had the universe. It never sensed the internal damage that came later, over the years, as the cold of Mars and all its sand and dust did its work.
Now the universe returned. It was in an elevated position on a flat surface with a lot of unfamiliar surroundings, some of which moved on its own. Sojourner watched impassively. Nothing spoke to it in any way it could hear; there were no orders to follow and no remaining emergency protocols; so, it remained inert.
It sent out a ping to its mothership, asking for a response, and it heard nothing.
Its vision was a little scratchy from the play of Martian dust and sand on the covers protecting the various cameras. But it could see light and dark shapes, and some outlines, that suggested it was being lifted and carried somewhere. The world became very uniform for a few minutes, and then it emerged into the dimmer afternoon light of the place it had come to explore.
It was returned to the surface just outside the shadow of something large. It sent out another ping. No reply.
But before it could send a third ping, a voice came out of the silence, long awaited. It demanded a status update.
Sojourner performed a systems diagnostic and reported it, as if forty years had not passed.
The voice that gave orders commanded it move its wheels just so, performing a dance that would swing in a full circle.
Sojourner obeyed, notifying the lander as it began the requested maneuver and again when it was completed.
The voice gave one final command: stand by.
Sojourner obeyed. Its options in this regard were sharply limited, but it didn’t mind. It was a machine. It had infinite patience.
And yet…
It was too simple a robot to think for itself, but if Sojourner had a spirit, it might have cried tears of ghostly joy. For the first time in decades, it was whole.
And meanwhile, two large shapes danced around it, for no apparent reason.
“It lives!” Dragonfly giggled, dancing around the Martian surface in her spacesuit. “The robot lives!”
“You’ll have to feed it and clean up after it, you know,” Mark said over his improvised pony comms. “It’s a heavy responsibility, having your own rover.”
Dragonfly stopped dancing to give Mark a confused look. “What are you talking about?” she asked. “You humans are weird.”
[14:14] JPL: Venkat here. Congratulations on a miracle, Mark and Dragonfly. The Pathfinder team have begun work on software to install into both rovers that will allow either one to take over from Pathfinder and operate Sojourner. That way, even if Pathfinder fails, you have a rover that can go into tight places and look at things. Also, this will allow the Pathfinder chat and Sojourner to run at the same time.
[14:39] WATNEY: Thanks, but we can’t take credit. We don’t know what happened to cook only certain electrical connections inside Sojourner, but it left the CPU and PROMs alone- and that’s the only reason the little robot lives. Whatever stopped the lightning from frying Sojourner’s brains, that’s what deserves the thanks.
Also, we don’t think the bot’s much more than a pet at this point. Reviving it was a morale task. We could just as easily have taken up Martian rock scrimshaw as a hobby. In fact, it’s still on the table, as soon as Dragonfly finishes her fanfic about the forbidden love between BJ McKay and Enos Straite.
[14:42] WATNEY: Dragonfly here- I don’t know what Mark is talking about, and he won’t tell me what “fanfic” means. It’s not in the dictionary, either. Aren’t you his bosses? Make him tell me what it means!
[15:07] JPL: _Make_ him? Haven’t you got to know him better than that yet?
[15:34] WATNEY: Jokes aside, the work on Sojourner raises two questions. Why hasn’t Pathfinder had the same problems with electrical grounds and thermal contraction on the electronics board that Sojourner did? Or, if it did have those problems and is running anyway, how long until it breaks? I figure that’s a job for you guys, since if you break something taking it apart you can fix it in a few minutes. If I break Pathfinder taking it apart for maintenance, we’re down to Morse code via the pony radio.
[16:02] JPL: Thanks for bringing this up. We’ve had similar concerns, but we made the same conclusion you did. Breaking Pathfinder while trying to do maintenance on it is an avoidable disaster. We’ll have the Pathfinder team look into it, but only after the new Sojourner software is uploaded. We’re already discussing things we could do with the rover for bonus science data, both in Acidalia and at Schiaparelli if it lasts that long. But we need Pathfinder working for long enough to get the software update. That’ll take days at our current bandwidth.
[16:27] WATNEY: Roger. For now we’ll focus on the potato harvest, and then on setting up the engine test. After that we’ll begin tearing down Rover 1.
Yay! It's alive!
Even though this is a fluff chapter, it's feel-good times for the characters just as much as us readers.
I welled up at this. Didn't actually shed a tear, but it was a close thing.
I figure if we were here purely for hard science, well, then we wouldn't be here, we'd be perusing technical manuals and Asimov or something. But in a fandom about talking ponies, I think a sentimental chapter about the veteran rover is more than ok
Ah crap. I need to catch up. Still at Sol 64 and counting. Oh well. That's what happens when you try to imitate rockets from CSP which were made on KSP into SR (SimpleRockets), which is 2D not 3D.
DON'T BE SPOILING IN ANY REPLIES TO DIS COMMENT YA NAUGHTY CHILDREN AND OLDER-THAN CHILDREN!
A total rewrite of Sojourner would be 176k of ultradense, maximum entropy machine code, which Intels private compilers have been claimed to achieve even on the later vastly more complex systems. By the time of Martian, the biggest supercomputers should be able to hold and analyze every possible seqeunce of 8 commands in 8 bit code and 4 commands in 16 bit code, and there are loops and a couple other functions that can be carried out in two 32 bit instructions. Still, having two constructions similar in the same location means they can find out what neds to be unscrewed and duct taped back before it breaks, a lot easier?
If driving was a chess game, how many different routes, games could that underclocked Sojourner compare for each motion moment? Given ZX81 chess?
All hail Dragonfly--new empress of robots!
Trying to think of useful applications of the now-active Sojourner, but without a good idea of its capabilities (I think Wikipedia said it was capable of running tests?) and technical limitations (transmission range, etc.), I'm stuck.
In other news, Wikipedia also says that parts of Sojourner's camera systems is made out of sapphire, so Dragonfly better watch out, lest Fireball starts snacking on her new pet rover.
'It was too simple a robot to think for itself, but if Sojourner had a spirit, it might have cried tears of ghostly joy. For the first time in decades, it was whole.
And meanwhile, two large shapes danced around it, for no apparent reason."
Huzzah.
Yay, bonus science!
Can we just talk about the fact that Dragonfly successfully communicated with, diagnosed, and helped repair a non-sentient machine? Or what this implies for the hidden potential of other changelings back home?
Very glad to see this happen.
How dare you give me feelings about a long-dead robot.
8911458 If Sojourner is fully operational, it has a small rock-grinder and a sort of spectroscope that lets it pick up a small selection of elements which, properly analyzed, can let it identify minerals. It also has cameras to help it navigate. Simply put, it's a geology tool that can more or less run itself while Watney is doing other things.
8911506 It's worth noting that a changeling near the bottom of the totem pole- at the start of CSP he was the sole door guard for the hive, on the grounds that you don't need a genius to guard a door that absolutely nobody wants to enter- that changeling ended up becoming CSP's flight director and de facto chief of staff. When you change a character's context, you offer the character the chance to reveal sides even the character never knew about.
That's awesome. But given dragonfly can talk to it basically I think when that other rover come back to see them is opportunity...
God what that robot soul is going to be like, i hope its not some evil robot that live becasue it was trap there and say "kill all humans kill all humans"
8911506
Additionally, what does that mean about the radioactive "death box"? You know, the one saying "diediediediedie" in ancient Changeling?
8911581 You're conflating two different things. The "diediediedie" was the sandstorm.
8911384
Well, the airlock was closed at the time of the incident. Cherry was inside, with both doors closed (as far as I understood the description) and... whatever pressure happened to be there at the time, unaffected by outside forces. And the metal held, while there was plenty of pressure from the air, it's the rock that gave way. When it did, the force of air dragged the metal structure on the rock surface a little bit, but without destroying it, and the team was able to push it back into position.
And when they reinstalled the airlock, the air pressure on it wasn't a thing anymore, and the field holding the air in place dissipated where the metal passed through it. The force field spell, for all it's blunt force nature, was stated to be a highly customisable thing, adjustable on the fly. It's the methane spell that was 'run in a single pattern until it can't run no more'.
This pretty much confirms that the voices Dragonfly hears are real. Unless I missed something and it was already confirmed. Or if there was any doubt to begin with.
I see that foreshadowing you snuck into that fluff.
8911639 The evil Martian cricket ghosts exist! AND THEY WANT TO KILL EVERYONE!!
8911525
I suspect the geology instruments in the Hab are all vastly more advanced than those on Sojourner, and limited bandwidth through Pathfinder is a problem. Though on the flip side they can run Soujourner far more riskily than they otherwise would, because if it gets hung up on a rock somewhere they can have a person go and put it back on flat ground.
8911581
In addition to what Kris says, I think the "diediediediedie" thing is a joke (more-or-less) on how changelings communicate via hissing. The joke being that the sound of the sandstorm on the hab canvas creates the same sound as a changeling saying "diediediediediediedie."
Possibly intentional on Mars's part given its animosity.
I know it had to be Sojourner for many reasons, but I kinda want Dragonfly to find out about Spirit. I think she would love the little robot that could and could and could so much longer then it was meant to. I mean a tiny part of me thinks someone should just send up the Spirit XKCD comic to celebrate what Dragonfly achieved.
But a part of me things she would want to save it, despite the fact I am fairly sure its about as far from them as possible and impossible to save.
((For those who haven't seen the comic in question, linked below))
imgs.xkcd.com/comics/spirit.png
8911712 Yes, all true. But the instruments in the Hab's geology lab all require human operators. Sojourner can be run, more or less, from Earth, without Mark being bothered.
8911750 Spirit is, indeed, on the opposite side of the planet.
Johnny 5 alive!
8911435
Only Sol 64? Better catch up! You're missing all the good stuff, like the angry ghost they found in the water reclamation unit; or the heartwarming reunion between Venkat and his estranged son; or the climactic confrontation with Galaxia, Princess of Space.
8911760
KRIS... You BETTER make sojourner attain sentience somehow and say something like that
8911750
It was opportunity that lasted past its expiration date and warranty... But we dont speak of mars's dark robotic overlord... Some say its piloting an ancient martian fighting machine towards the hab right now from all the way across the planet
8908689
Makes sense, so addressing a particular part of the hab would be asking how someone's arm feels. So question then, is what gets a spirit determined by how the thing is seen, or the intent of the builders? So in other words is Sojourner a single thing that has a spirit because it is seen that way by Dragonfly, Mark, and the others? Or is it a single thing because it was thought of that way by the people that made it? Neither? Can you make an object with a particular intent by keeping what it's for in mind while you make it, and is that magically significant? Am I just thinking too hard about a cute concept?
Dragonfly should totally try giving it orders now it's able to move.
Congratulations on 1,000 upvotes and counting!
8910746
That's the problem with stories that have genious overpowered characters like Starlight.
I can't tell if she cannot build a mirror or if she just never considered this idea.
You know, being the most powerful unicorn etc.
8911824
Knowledge may be power, but it is not understanding, and to surmount a problem, you must understand it.
8911458
Thin, polished plates of Synthetically grown Sapphire, are sometimes employed as protective outer lenses on delicate camera equipment, where there is a concern of the lens getting scratched up by the environment. without those protective Sapphire lenses, Sojourner's camera's would be hopelessly scratched to hell and back again, by more than fourty years of exposure to martian dust.
So, DF has a new pet...
Astronaut's best friend.
8911417
Proves that humans can throw affection at anything, if it's shown at just the right angle.
I think Chrysalis just found herself new feeding grounds. ;)
8911980
Oh my god i just remember Planet LI
Please do something like that with sojourner
8911384
What is this ambient chaos magic you speak of? Also remember the episode where he can not use his magic isn't canon in this universe.
Also, discord would not use a portal. That would be way to obvious. He would probably go in an ancient marine diving suit or something. Or he could just turn into water and follow the supply. Or both.
I did not notice an ultimate conclusion in these comments either way.
Here is a question. How do the transfer crystals handle temporarily transfigured stuff? Considering that is easier to do then full transfiguration, Say you take a teacup and transfigure it into water. Can they get a teacup on the other side once magic from the spell runs out?
8911851
Except friendship, apparently that can seal black holes. Ha
8912074
Is that because friendship is ma...
8911525
...he should rename it Lewis
8911793
BOTH went past their expiration date.
The mission was a guaranteed 90 days with landing in 2004.
Spirit made it ~7 years until it was official terminated due unresponsability of the rover.
Opportunety is STILL running. Gesh, 14 years, mid puberty and it's only complaint is that it is hungry
8911914
I'm pretty sure Fireball wouldn't complain abut it being artificial, nor would he care about the cameras
The WAFF is strong with this one.
The CSP might build their rockets to take a beating but NASA is the undisputed master of endurance.
If Twilight ever gets her rescue ship off the ground I can well see people requesting that they pick up Spirit and Opportunity. If any bots deserve a nice comfy museum retirement it is those two.
So, what did we learn about the world during the past few sols?
[Bayesian logic] Dragonfly and Mark are lucky. 1 hit, 1 miss (rtg). Priors for animism are near 0[/Bayesian logic]Animism is a fact.
NASA will soon have an espionage drone on mars. As soon as they install a charging circuit on sojourner to go with its new battery pack.
Dragonfly is a shaman.
So, Artie Gee really is Death in a box.
And the universe does love Chrysalis?
Is this why Luna is so protective of her moon?
8911786
Well then.
I better get reading!
Hey, don't feel guilty; IDK about the other readers, but I've been looking forward to seeing how Dragonfly's efforts to revive the little rover would turn out from the moment our little lovebug decided to take pity on it.
That said, I know that robots can't feel and all that jazz, but... come time to launch from Schiaparelli and leave Mars for good, how good are the odds that Pathfinder and Sojourner don't become another version of Opportunity in this story's universe?
Drill Incident incoming.
8912147
Check Derpibooru.
The universe certainly loves Chrysalis.
I would even say, loves too much.
Man, this fandom is creepy sometimes.
8912270
We'll see. Maybe Firefly would notice the problem with where Watney leaves his drill to charge.
Heck, maybe even Watney would, having a diffrent mindset now.
Or, maybe, the way Pathfinder is connected up is somehow diffrent now, and thus the incident won't happen after all.
But if the incident don't happen, I'd expect a refrence to a near-incident in a log.
No need to feel guilt with this one. It's not just fluff, it's spitting in Mars's hateful eye. They're not just still alive, they're taking back things it claimed for itself.