LOG ENTRY: SOL 439 (Jan. 29, 2037) Before I risk my life with this contraption, I need to test it. And not the little tests I’ve been doing so far. Sure, I’ve tested power generation, life support, the trailer bubble, and the bedroom. But I need to test all aspects of it working together. I’m going to load it up for the long trip, and drive in circles. I won’t ever be more than 500 meters from the Hab, so…

Jan. 27, 2037 (Sol 437) Mitch took his seat in the conference room. The usual gang was there: Teddy, Venkat, Mitch, and Annie. But this time there was also Mindy Park as well as a man Mitch had never seen before. “What’s up, Venk?” Mitch asked. “Why the sudden meeting?” “We’ve got some developments,” Venkat said. “Mindy, why don’t you bring them up to date.” “Uh, yeah,” Mindy said. “Looks like Watney finished the balloon addition to the trailer. It…

LOG ENTRY: SOL 436 (Jan. 26, 2037) I’m out of caffeine pills. No more Martian Coffee for me. So it took a little longer for me to wake up this morning, and I spent most of the day with a headache. One nice thing about living in a multi-billion dollar mansion on Mars: Access to pure oxygen. For some reason, a high concentration of O2 will kill most headaches. Don’t know why. Don’t care. The important thing is I don’t…

LOG ENTRY: SOL 435 (Jan. 25, 2037) Last night was weird. I knew logically that nothing bad would happen in just one night, but it was a little unnerving to know I had no life support other than heaters. My life depended on some math I did earlier. If I dropped a sign or added two numbers wrong, I might never wake up. But I did wake up, and the main computer showed the slight rise in CO2 I had…

LOG ENTRY: SOL 434 (Jan. 24, 2037) The time has come to test this shit out. This presents a problem. Unlike my Pathfinder trip, I have to take vital life support elements out of the Hab. When you take the Atmospheric Regulator and Oxygenator out of the Hab, you’re left with…a tent. A big round tent that can’t support life. It’s not as risky as it seems. As always, the dangerous part about life support is managing carbon dioxide. When…

Jan. 23, 2037 (Sol 433) “How’s Watney doing?” Venkat asked. Mindy looked up from her computer with a start. “Dr. Kapoor?” “I hear you caught a pic of him during an EVA?” “Uh, yeah,” Mindy said, typing on her keyboard. “I noticed things would always change around 9am local time. People usually keep the same patterns so I figured he likes to start work around then. I did some minor realignment to get seventeen pics between 9:00 and 9:10. He…

Chapter 21 LOG ENTRY: SOL 431 (Jan. 21, 2037) I’m working out how to pack. It’s harder than it sounds. I have two pressure vessels: The rover and the trailer. They’re connected by hoses, but they’re also not stupid. If one loses pressure, the other will instantly seal off the shared lines. There’s a grim logic to this: If the rover breaches I’m dead. No point in planning around that. But if the trailer breaches, I’ll be fine. That means…

LOG ENTRY: SOL 390 (Dec. 10, 2036) I have to face facts. I’m done with the rover. I don’t “feel” like I’m done. But it’s ready to go: Food: 1,692 potatoes. Vitamin pills. Water: 620L. Shelter: Rover, trailer, bedroom. Air: Rover and trailer combined storage: 14L liquid O2, 14L liquid N2. Life Support: Oxygenator and Atmospheric Regulator. 418 hours of use-and-discard CO2 filters for emergencies. Power: 36kwh of storage. Carrying capacity for 29 solar cells. Heat: 1400W RTG. Homemade reservoir…

LOG ENTRY: SOL 389 (Dec. 9, 2036) What the fuck is in those sleeping pills!? It’s the middle of the day. After two cups of Martian Coffee, I woke up a little. I won’t be taking another one of those pills. It’s not like I have to go to work in the morning. Anyway, as you can tell from how not dead I am, the Hab stayed sealed overnight. The seal is solid. Ugly as hell, but solid. Today’s task…

LOG ENTRY: SOL 388 (Dec. 8, 2036) I started the day with a potato. I washed it down with some Martian Coffee. That’s my name for “hot water with a caffeine pill dissolved in it.” I ran out of real coffee months ago. My first order of business was a careful inventory of the Hab. I needed to root out anything that would have a problem with losing atmospheric pressure. Of course, everything in the Hab had a crash course…