LOG ENTRY: SOL 208 (Jun. 6, 2036)
Today, it was time to experiment with the panels.
First, I put the Hab on low power mode: No internal lights, all nonessential systems offline, all internal heating suspended. I’d be outside most of the day anyway.
I detached 28 panels from the solar farm and dragged them to the rover. I spent four hours stacking them this way and that. The poor rover looked like the Beverly Hillbillies truck. Nothing I did worked.
The only way to get all 28 on the roof was to make stacks so high they’d fall off the first time I turned. If I lashed them together, they’d fall off as a unit. If I found a way to attach them perfectly to the rover, the rover would tip. I didn’t even bother to test. It was obvious by looking and I didn’t want to break shit.
I haven’t removed the chunk of hull from the trailer yet. Half the holes are drilled, but I’m not committed to anything. If I left it in place, I could have four stacks of seven cells. That would work fine; it’s just two rovers worth of what I did for the trip to Pathfinder.
Problem is, I need that opening. The regulator has to be in the pressurized area and it’s too big to fit in the rover. Plus which, the Oxygenator needs to be in a pressurized area while operating. I’ll only need it every 5 sols, but what would I do on that sol? No, the hole has to be there.
As it is, I’ll be able to stow 21 panels. I need homes for the other seven. There’s only one place they can go: The sides of the rover and trailer.
One of my earlier modifications was “saddlebags” draped over the rover. One side held the extra battery (stolen from what is now the trailer) while the other side was full of rocks as counterweight.
I won’t need them this time around. I can return the second battery to the trailer whence it came. In fact, it’ll save me the hassle of the mid- drive EVA I had to do every day to swap cables. When the rovers are linked up, they share resources including electricity.
I went ahead and reinstalled the trailer’s battery. It took me two hours but it’s out of the way now. I removed the saddlebags and set them aside. They may be handy down the line. If I’ve learned one thing from my stay at Club Mars, it’s that everything can be useful.
I had liberated the sides of the rover and trailer. After staring at them for a while, I had my solution.
I’ll make L-brackets that stick out from the undercarriages, with the hooks facing up. Two brackets per side to make a shelf. I could set panels on the shelves and lean them against the rover. Then I’d lash them to the hull with homemade rope.
There’ll be four “shelves” total; two on the rover and two on the trailer. If the brackets stick out far enough to accommodate two panels, I could store 8 additional panels that way. That would give me one more panel than I’d even planned for.
I’ll make those brackets and install them tomorrow. I would have done it today, but it got dark and I got lazy.
Leave a Reply