Mindy Park examined the satellite photo of the Hab’s solar farm. Even with the Pathfinder link and the Morse-code transmission capability of the alien ship’s radio, Watney still occasionally changed the message spelled out by the rocks just north of the Hab complex. Today, it turned out, had been one such day. Watney and either Cherry Berry or Dragonfly- probably Dragonfly- had gone out together to clean the solar panels, and after that was done they’d moved the rocks.
The new message read: SOL 181 – White Sox suck. Cubs will rally and be above .500 by All-Star Break. DF is a Slytherin.
In other words, Mark was bored. Mindy could relate. Her unofficial job was Chief Watney Watcher, but there wasn’t much to watch. Every day two of the aliens would trot the ten kilometers out to Site Epsilon and back to tend their underground garden; Mark would drive out about once a week in Rover 2 for the same task. There was a little EVA activity around the MDV that had been converted to a flight simulator and around the alien ship which mostly served as a hay crib. And, about once every four or five days depending on dust storm activity, Mark swept off the solar farm. And, so far as satellites could see, that was all.
Demand for satellite photos of the Hab had picked up in the last couple of weeks, ever since bandwidth on the improvised data link via Pathfinder had dropped too low to allow both the vital text chat and photo uploads. Unfortunately people had forgotten how happy they’d been to get a photo of Watney a dozen or so pixels wide, taken from directly overhead, before Pathfinder’s revival. Mindy did the best she could, but nothing came back except complaints.
But she still had top priority over anything and everything orbiting Mars, and she used it to her best ability. In addition to the Hab, she scanned everything for a thirty-kilometer radius around it, looking for changes that might affect Watney and his four-legged friends. So far she’d found an exposed vein of permafrost and, just possibly, a chloride deposit, although an EVA on the ground would be required to confirm if it was sodium chloride.
“Hey, Mindy.”
Deborah Kent had strolled over to Mindy’s workstation. Don’t-Call-Me-Debbie was a member of the team that tracked space junk in Earth orbit for Project Muninn. “Hey, Deborah,” Mindy replied.
“So, what do you know about Project Elrond?” Deborah asked.
“Project what?”
“Oh, come on, everybody’s talking about it,” Deborah said. “The top dogs all had a meeting about it today, but nobody knows what it is.”
“And I’m supposed to know about it why?” Mindy asked.
“Come on, Mindy,” Deborah said. “Everybody knows you run with the big dogs these days. Kapoor comes down here to visit you at least once a week. You’ve spoken with Director Sanders. You’ve got the inside track.”
“Not on this,” Mindy said firmly. “You asking me was the first time I’ve heard of Project Elrond.”
“Hey, I know that’s what you’ve got to say,” Deborah said, smirking. “But you can give me a hint, just between us girls.” This statement ignored the workroom of fourteen other desks, almost all occupied, and the open office door of SatNav’s director beyond them.
Mindy rolled her eyes. “Fine, you caught me,” she said. “We’re going to capture an asteroid, fit it with VASIMR engines, and send it to Saturn so we can take its rings and throw them into the Sun. The probe will be named Baggins.”
Deborah pursed her lips. “That’s not fair. Or funny.”
“You don’t like it? Fine. Then please accept that I really don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”
“Well, if that’s the way you want to be about it.”
Deborah walked off, leaving Mindy to her in-depth study of the Hab.
A few minutes later, to her surprise, her email client popped up with a message from Dr. Kapoor.
SUBJECT: Project ELROND – EYES ONLY
Please recommend best overland path from Ares III Hab to Schiaparelli Basin, with priority to shallowest changes in grade and least obstacles for Ares rovers in tow. This task takes priority over all others and MUST be completed by 10:00 AM tomorrow.
Tell absolutely NO ONE of this. Do not ask questions; they will not be answered.
Mindy sighed and typed a quick response:
The time is now 4:12 PM. I’ll have to pull an all-nighter for this. You had better get me overtime.
That done, she pulled up the most recent survey photos of Arabia Terra and set to work finding a shallow way down into Schiaparelli.
AMICITAS FLIGHT THREE – MISSION DAY 182
ARES III SOL 181
[13:36] JPL: Starlight, this is Venkat Kapoor again. You asked about alternatives to using ceramic to seal the cave. Why can’t you use metal?
[13:57] WATNEY: Um… because we didn’t think of it, I guess? I’ll have to ask Twilight. If I had to guess, it’s because metal conducts heat.
[14:19] JPL: Try aluminum. Lightweight, malleable and elastic. It's conductive and reactive (you did clear out the perchlorates from around the cave, right?), but a thin layer of aluminum oxide on the outsides of the layer will mitigate both problems, like the glaze on porcelain. Is there any magic problem with it?
[14:43] WATNEY: Not that I know of. Transmutation is a tricky high-energy spell, but if you can do it at all the energy and effort is mostly the same for one thing as for another. The difficulty is in making the thing stay changed, but I can handle that with enough power.
[14:46] WATNEY: I should add that our experts still insist that changing anything about the cave poses a danger. Our staff geologist says the system should be stable so long as air pressure and current temperatures are maintained.
[15:07] JPL: Our experts disagree, Starlight. How good is your geologist?
[15:30] WATNEY: Hold on, I need to work out the translation…
[15:42] WATNEY: Depressiona Daisy Pie, graduate Pony-land Institute of Rockology, with molten lava honors, 1007. Her rocktoral thesis was on the effects of magic on metamorphic rocks and crystal deposits.
[16:03] JPL: Do you mean geology, magna cum laude, doctoral?
[16:26] WATNEY: Possibly to the first. Definitely not to the second and third. “Rocktorate” is a literal translation of a portmanteau in our language for “rock doctorate.”
[16:49] JPL: Starlight, I mean no insult to you or your species or your experts, but it’s going to be hard for me to tell my chief geologist that she’s been overruled by a pony with a rocktorate.
[17:12] WATNEY: Would it help if I told you Rr. Pie is also very good at flying kites?
[17:53] WATNEY: I guess not, huh?
It sounds like they're being way too literal about rocktorate -- "geology, magna cum laude, doctoral" sounds like a pretty accurate equivalent, it's just the Pony terms are cutesy-literal.
Funny chapter, always appreciate Watney's sense of humor.
I'm sincerely wondering which group is reight-human geologist or pony rocktologist (probably not their name, but why not). Both are damn knowledgeable about their fields, and pony land is a system with giant crystals routinely everywhere while on earth that's significantly rarer. It just makes me think that one side doesn't have full knowledge or that its knowledge might not be applicable.
8847126 Actually... I should donate as much as I can. It's one of the few ways for me to get rid of the excess fat.
I may have to invent a CrispR delivery system myself so I can target and deactivate the mutant gene overproducing lipids.
8847595 Ya done goofed, Marvin.
What a maroon!
Gotta love the milf ad at the end of the chapter.
8847705
"Depressiona Daisy Pie"? Ah, as in maudlin. Neato.
Can't say I don't sympathise
And how can the they keep the temperatures the same when seasons change? And heat gets added by hot water teleportation? That permafrost is heating, doctorate or rocktorate.
That’d be “Magma cum laude”, right?
I don’t know if I should applaud or throw over-ripe vegetation...
Well, since their top wizards and mages just got schooled by Rich Purnell, it's only fair that the ponies toss back something in return.
Though, Rich Purnell had the math to back it up. Maud hasn't.
Great to see what Mindy Park has been up to since the communication became more direct. Better Project Elrond than Project Bilbo at least - it's one thing to drive all the way to schapperelli, it's quite another to go there and back again.
And of course Dragonfly is a Slytherin
Oh god. If there is any minute traces of perchlorates still left in the cave that survived the Fireball explosion (because as far as I know, Starlight didn't use magic to re-gather everything back into one pile), then that won't end well, since it would immediately react to the aluminum, wouldn't it? Im not sure how much of a reaction occurs when trace amounts of perchlorate reacts with massive amounts of aluminum, but enough to cause micro-breaches, perhaps? Depends on how thick the aluminum is, I would imagine.
Dude... Mindy's got this down on lock! Just one question: Mindy is an hourly employee, right? Because salaried employees aren't eligible for overtime; they CAN get bonuses, though
"MindyPark examined the satellite"
"Mindy Park examined the satellite"?
"Hab to SchiaparelliBasin, with priority"
"Hab to Schiaparelli Basin, with priority"?
Don't give Discord any ideas.
8847728
A rocktologist at one end, a geologist at the other. But they're on Mars, they need an areologist!
Um... Aluminum is actually an excellent conductor of heat, and a pretty good conductor of electricity as well. They make both radiators/heat exchangers and electrical wires from it. Copper is better in both respects, but it’s substantially more expensive (and heavier, too).
Ceramic could be added as a thermal insulation overcoat, however...
So... Dr. Kapoor... if a Woodchuck could chuck wood, how much wood would a Woodchuck chuck, if he was stuck on Mars? 🤔
8847792
I suspect it depends on whether or not the aluminum will get the opportunity to form a passivation layer before some kind of runaway reaction gets going. It also depends on how much perchlorate is hanging around and how thick the bulk aluminum layer is.
Mark's mind was already blown by the similarities of their language...wait till he realizes that translating it produces puns THAT DON'T WORK IN EQUESTRIAN. Magma Cum Laude...
Erm... Aluminium is a good thermal conductor though ...
8847865
Dragonfly might be able to find that out.
Maud's probably right about rocks, but I'm less confident with permafrost being in the mix.
Rockology makes perfect sense, Geology means Study of Earth. Which Maud is not on to study, and it differentiates the study of the formation of rocks & stones from the study of a particular planet. We wont go into the fact that she grew up on a Rock farm that literally grew rocks.
8847728
My guess is it's going to fail via a method neither expected singly, but completely obvious in hindsight once both fields of knowledge are put together.
8847865 You're right, argh. I'll fix that later.
8847867 The answer to the second question is "not much". It mostly got dumped down the slope, and what didn't went half-foomp, half-splat.
A thin skin of aluminum would be an excellent choice. It would be totally impermeable to gas, and its thermal conductivity would be irrelevant because it would be a thin skin; thin layers of anything easily transmit heat across the layer and poorly transverse to it. Furthermore, it would reflect infrared and visible light reasonably well, and consequently somewhat reduce heat transfer from the cave interior, improving the durability of the permafrost, which is unfortunately still going to be their structural element whatever they do. Pipe insulation often has inward-facing aluminum foil for this reason.
For bonus points, behind the aluminum put a polymer precursor in an organic solvent which is highly viscous at the relevant temperature, but also about as volatile as water. If ever the aluminum springs a leak, the solvent evaporates into the cave around the site of the leak, re-sealing the leak. If the solvent were smelly, it would even leave behind an indicator that something had happened...
Anyway, NASA has boatloads of engineers and technicians who understand very well how to seal things under whatever challenging circumstances. This isn't outside their expertise, if they know what the martian crew has to work with.
8847927
Technically the ponies have a word for ground. Which translated into English would be earth. So whatever they call the study of the ground, could be literally translated to geology.
8847849
That was such a beautiful lie on Mindy's part, I almost wish it were true.
I know aluminum is used in a lot of heat shielding. Made me assume it was a poor heat conductor.
Surprised to learn its actually good at conducting heat. Not sure if the shielding is made of an aluminum alloy, or if they just incorporate air bubbles or other materials into the metal to make it work as a heat shield.
From personal experience aluminum foam is great at not conducting heat, but in hindsight its probably because its a foam.
Missed a perfect opportunity to say 'magma cum laude'.
8848046
Its a common missconception, pure aluminium is a pretty good heat conductor, around a bit lower in heat conductivity than steel. But, special alloy compositions can drop that conductivity rating down drastically.
But all that essentially pales against aluminium oxide. As aluminium is very reactive with oxygen, a thin passivation layer of aluminium oxide forms on any untreated aluminium, its conductivity is still high compared to most ceramtics but much lower than any metal. Thats also why aluminium foam is a good insulator, all those bubbles formed with oxigen on purpose create a lot of aluminium oxide. Also funny note, most cheap crappy aluminium heatsinks are pretty bad at their job because they were not surface treated, leaving the aluminium to slowly form an aluminium oxide layer accross the whole surface.
So all in all, since there is oxygen in the cave, this could work, but the first days it would be dropping the caves temperature significantly, 237 measured in "W·m−1·K−1" is very high compared to most rocks and crystals being at rating of 0,5 to 3 or lower. But after a thick enough layer of aluminium oxide (rating of 30) formed in the caves inside, it would be managable again.
There are many options and magic is really the only limiting factor. Even using wood as the insulator would work in short-term if you really needed something. It also could and maybe even should be layered so that one material holds the heat while other provides the pressure shielding.
It really depends what would come naturally to Starlight, list of materials which would "Do" are limitless and could be choosing the "Best" should be done after the initial solution is implemented as the outermost layer.
I mean would ponies be able to reach for Alloys too? I bet that RTG would have examples of a lot of good alloys from which you could build a bunker which truly would stand the test of time. Then again maybe prodding and poking it with magic would be a bad idea?
PS:
I mean it can be literally anything, for example Bismuth has the lowest head conductivity, and that is even before you go into the shapes of the shell. With magic you could do some hollowed out design so air can act as insulator within the walls. And could be Ponies have done this since time immemorial since you SHOULD be able to do that kind of designs EASILY with magic no?
8847765
And, as other mentioned, Maud also lacks of visual records or any data from the cave. She only has a general description from Starlight (who isn't a geologist herself and doesn't know where to look at) via morse. Following her advice may be a bad idea after all.
If I were said chief geologist I'd be very interested in what a rocktorate degree entails to actually warrant making it a separate degree from geology.
8848247
Anyone who's selected parts to build their own computer probably knows that it's a question of how you use aluminum.
The choices for heat sinks are aluminum or copper, with aluminum being standard and copper being more effective, but also heavier and more expensive. (to the point where some large copper heat sinks' packaging say to remove the heat sink before transport to avoid the risk of damaging the motherboard.)
8848022
8848173
The problem is, the pony equivalent of "magna cum laude" or "magma cum laude" would be old Unification-era Equestrian, and "geo", being a Greek root, would in the CSP universe be from old Minotauran. The ponies haven't worked on human equivalents for most of either source of words yet. It's a wonder that Starlight's vocabulary has got so far as "portmanteau" in English.
8847792
Someone at NASA would hopefully remember that aluminum in the real world isn't a flaming hazard like elemental sodium because it gets a sheathe of AlO instantaneously. Creating it ex nihilo in a shock sensitive evironment sounds like a recipe for a nasty explosion or fire.
8847728
I’d go with the group from the same universe that the problem is from. Maud is awesome don’t get me wrong, but she lives in a universe with magic which makes most knowledgeable from Equestria circumspect.
8848417
I'll take your word for it; I liked chemistry in college, but the math was beyond me after the second semester. That being said, any microscopic traces of the perchlorates will have been in direct contact with the various surfaces of the cave, and if those surfaces suddenly change into aluminum...
8847800
She’s a Federal employee. GS-whatever. They get a salary, but if they are non exempt, they get overtime for over 40 hours per week. The higher levels probably don’t though. Ted for sure, maybe Vince are SES.
(An former Fed)
Um, so she's not limited by walls and ceiling composition like at all? Why not transfigure that cave into monocrystalline diamond then? (aluminium actually yields pretty easily (~10MPa), age-hardened aluminium alloys are tough)
8848861
The look on your parent's face when you should up for a holiday when you should be hundreds of miles away is priceless. Good for your sister.
8848247
Why does it matter? As long as only a few nches of Aluminum get transformed, there's still meters and mters of insulation from the rest of the rock.
8848905 Diamond is brittle as hell. If you're going that route, the ideal material in theory would be layered fullerene sheets, which in theory would be strong and flexible. Of course, fullerene on the macro scale is only theoretical even for humans, and ponies wouldn't have a clue.
Also, I kept trying to look up the properties of quartz crystals, and I kept getting back "all natural rock is porous", which doesn't seem right, but I don't have sources to the contrary. Ideally a slight expansion of the bases of the crystals to seal the cracks/joints between them would make it all a non-issue.
8848995
Is whatever hab canvas is made of an option?
8848917
The rock wouldnt be an insolation anymore, it wasnt to begin with technically, it was always a just matter trying to equalize heat.
Right now the heat in the air would have one slow transfere into the rock/soil/whatever, slowly spreeding out thru the rock. Now the aluminium would equalize with the air much faster, nearing a heat equilibrium much faster than the rock surface would, which would result in a much more conductive material being in direct contact with the rock, essentially the aluminium would be a heat dump.
I dont know how to explain it instead of going into some lecture mode, but heat transfere depends on many factors, rock being a bad conductor means it will equalize, or so to speak "soak up heat" slowly in normal conditions, as well as release/spread heat dumped into it slowly. That doesnt mean it has some magical fixed transfere value now matter what his exchange partner is.
8848247 ...As someone who likes heat sinks which are cheap and plentiful, but also would quite appreciate if they worked as well as possible, and suggestions on what to treat a cheap aluminium heat sink with to avoid the oxidisation problem? Spray paint or something?
8848378
I only choose that example because well made pure aluminium heatsinks are anodized with a mixture made to keep the aluminium oxide layer as thin as possible, cheap heatsinks often dont go thru that process, which results in them forming a much thicker regular oxide layer with time. This thicker oxide layer will reduce the heatsinks performance compared to one with a thinner layer. So i never compared an aluminium heatsink to a copper one, as that wasnt the point of the example.