LOG ENTRY: SOL 64 (Jan. 10, 2036)
Sometimes things are easy, and sometimes they’re not. Getting the battery out of Rover 1 was easy. I removed two clamps on the undercarriage and it dropped right out. The cabling is easy to detach, too. It’s just a couple of complicated plugs.
Attaching it to Rover 2, however, is another story. There’s nowhere to put it!
The things is huge. I was barely able to drag it. And that’s in Mars gravity.
It’s just too big. There’s no room in the undercarriage for a second one. There’s no room on the roof, either. That’s where the solar cells will go. There’s no room inside the cabin, and it wouldn’t fit through the airlock anyway.
But fear not, I found a solution.
For emergencies completely unrelated to this one, NASA provided 6 square meters of Hab canvas, and some really impressive resin. The same kind of resin, in fact, that saved my life on Sol 6 (the patch kit I used on the hole in my suit).
In the event of a Hab breach, everyone would run to the airlocks. Procedure was to let it pop rather than die trying to prevent it. Then, we’d suit up and assess the damage. Once we found the breach, we’d seal it with the spare Hab canvas and resin. Then re-inflate and we’re good as new.
The 6 square meters of spare canvas was a convenient 1×6 meters. I cut 10cm wide strips, then used them to make a sort of harness. I used the resin and straps to make two 10m circumference loops. Then I put a big patch of canvas on each end. I now had poor-man’s saddlebags for my rover.
This is getting more and more “Wagon Train” every day. The resin sets almost instantly. But it gets stronger if you wait an hour. So I did. Then I suited up and headed out to the rover. I dragged the battery to the side of the rover and looped one end of the harness around it. Then I threw the other end over the roof. On the other side, I filled it with rocks. When the two weights were roughly equal, I was able to pull the rocks down and bring the battery up. Yay!
Unplugging Rover 2’s battery, I plugged in Rover 1’s. Then I went through the airlock to the rover and checked all systems. Everything was a-ok.
I drove the rover around a bit to make sure the harness was secure. I found a few large-ish rocks to drive over, just to shake things up. The
harness held. Hell yeah.
For a short time, I wondered how to splice the second battery’s leads into the main power supply. My conclusion was “Fuck it.” There’s no need to have a continuous power supply. When Battery 1 runs out, I can get out, unplug Battery 1 and plug in Battery 2. Why not? It’s a 10 minute EVA, once per day. I’d have to swap batteries again when charging, but again: so what?
I spent the rest of the day sweeping off the solar cell farm. Soon, I shall be looting it.
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