LOG ENTRY: SOL 449 (Feb. 9, 2037)
Today’s the big day. I’m leaving for Schiaparelli.
The rover and trailer are all packed. They’ve been mostly packed since the test run. But now I even have the water aboard.
I spent the last several days running full diagnostics on everything. The Regulator, Oxygenator, RTG, AREC, batteries, rover life support (in case I need a backup), solar cells, rover computer, airlocks, and everything else with a moving part or electronic component. I even checked each of the motors. Eight in all, one for each wheel, four on the rover, four on the trailer. The trailer’s motors won’t be powered, but it’s nice to have backups.
It’s all good to go. No problems that I can see.
The Hab is a shell of its former self. I’ve robbed it of all critical components and a big chunk of its canvas. I’ve looted that poor Hab for everything it could give me, and in return it’s kept me alive for a year and a half. It’s like The Giving Tree.
I performed the final shutdown today. The heaters, lighting, main computer, etc. All the components I didn’t steal for the trip to Schiaparelli.
I could have left them on. It’s not like anyone would care. But the original procedure for Sol 31 (which was supposed to be the last day of the surface mission) was to completely shut down the Hab and deflate it. NASA didn’t want a big tent full of combustible oxygen next to the MAV when it launched, so they added the shutdown process to the mission.
I guess I did it as an homage to the mission Ares 3 could have been. A small piece of the Sol 31 I never got to have.
Once I shut everything down, an eerie silence was all that remained. I’ve spent 449 sols listening to the heaters, vents, and fans. But now it was dead quiet. It’s a creepy, eerie kind of quiet that’s hard to describe. I’ve been away from the Hab before, but always in the rover or an EVA suit. There’s always some kind of machinery in operation.
But now there was nothing. I never realized how utterly silent Mars is. It’s a desert world with practically no atmosphere to convey sound. I could hear my own heartbeat.
Anyway, enough waxing philosophical.
I’m in the rover right now. (That should be obvious, with the Hab main computer offline forever.) I’ve got 2 full batteries, all systems are go and I’ve got 45 sols of driving ahead of me.
Schiaparelli or bust!
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