Autumn on Mars
A science fiction novelette by Matthew Crane.
Mika’s Martian Travel Guide, Part 5: Think before you do
When you’re exploring Mars, you might get into trouble.
We are in trouble. A bigger-than-we-should-be amount of trouble.
It all started when we reached Blackshear 57. The map called it a “Desert”. that’s quite funny thinking about where we live. Mars is dry. But it is a lot like Earth deserts because it’s full of sand which explains why the explorer who listed it called it a desert. This sand was the first problem. I don’t know what the second problem is. Trip won’t tell me but it must be something big. Even after deciding just after we started going around the desert that we wouldn’t be going around the desert which was a thing that made her kind of serious and sullen. Even after that she was as serious and sullen as before and maybe in excess. But because I can’t explain the problem as I don’t know what it is here is the problem with the sand:
The Rover was built for driving on mountains so the tyres are made to grip onto rocks. They also dig into the sand because they have a lot of ridges in them which makes it grab the land under it a lot. But Trip says Mountains are covered in rocks and rocks are just big sand. Trip thinks we can work out a way to make the tyres work in a way that’ll be good for sand.
Test 1: So in our first test I stood outside of the Rover and watched while Trip drove the Rover forward a little distance. The sand under it got dug up a lot and it didn’t go very far. Trip didn’t seem to like this result and has spent quite a handful of minutes banging her helmet against things inside the Rover.
Test 2: The Rover did dig into the sand a lot where it started but once it was moving it didn’t dig in as much. This is predicted by science. I told this to Trip and she seemed almost happy about this so we are doing another test. This time Trip will drive the rover off the sand and will be going as fast as possible before driving on the sand.
Success. We didn’t keep going as fast as we were used to but we kept going and didn’t get stuck which is good. Problem Solved. All I need to do now is work out what the second problem is and solve it. To be an explorer you need to be a problem solver.