LOG ENTRY: SOL 200 (May 29, 2036)
I hauled rocks today.
I needed to know what kind of power efficiency the rover/trailer will get. On the way to Pathfinder, I got 80km from 18kwh. This time, the load will be a lot heavier. I’ll be towing the trailer and all the other shit.
I backed the rover up to the trailer and attached the tow clamps. Easy enough.
The trailer has been depressurized for some time now (there’s a couple of hundred little holes in it, after all), so I opened both airlock doors to have a straight shot at the interior. Then I threw a bunch of rocks in.
I had to guess at the weight. The heaviest thing I’ll bring with me is the water. 620kg worth. My freeze-dried potatoes will add another 200kg. I’ll probably have more solar cells than before, and maybe a battery from the Hab. Plus the Atmospheric Regulator and Oxygenator, of course. Rather than weigh all that shit, I took a guess and called it 1200kg.
Half a cubic meter of basalt weighs about that much (more or less). After two hours of brutal labor, during which I whined a lot, I got it all loaded in.
Then, with both batteries fully charged, I drove circles around the Hab until I drained them both.
With a blistering top speed of 25kph, it’s not an action-packed thrill ride. But I was impressed it could maintain that speed with all the extra weight. The rover has spectacular torque.
But physical law is a pushy little shit, and it exacted revenge for the additional weight. I only got 57km before I was out of juice.
That was 57km on level ground, without having to power the regulator (which won’t take much with the heater off). Call it 50km per day to be safe. At that rate it would take 65 days to get to Schiaparelli.
But that’s just the travel time.
Every now and then, I’ll need to break for a day and let the Oxygenator use all the power. How often? After a bunch of math I worked out that my 18pn budget can power the Oxygenator enough to make 2.5 sols of O2. I’d have to stop every two to three sols to reclaim oxygen. My 65 sol trip would become 91!
That’s too fucking long. I’ll tear my own head off if I have to live in the rover that long.
Anyway, I’m exhausted from lifting rocks and whining about lifting rocks. I think I pulled something in my back. Gonna take it easy the rest of today.
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