to bring sheets? I mean, on a follow up
flight?" Roberts demanded. He was afraid they were throwing too
much at the first ship and crew as it was.
Luigi
shook his head. "If we can make it on Mars, we save weight. We
have the ethylene remember? So if we can process it into a sheet..."
Zubrin
nodded. "Or a sprayer. Spray the walls inside and out with a
binary polypropylene plastic resin. We could even look into a spray
on insulator."
Roberts
sat down suddenly. "Talk about thinking big. But why? I mean,
we're going to get a couple missions, maybe three if we are lucky,
then the public will lose interest!" He looked from one man to
the next.
Luigi
shrugged but he couldn't quite hide a slight smile. "Just being
thorough." He wrote the ideas down on his Iphone then looked up
to see Zubrin hiding his own smile.
Mario
turned the little disk around in his hand. It was about the size of
his hand. One side was rounded with a three digit LCD embedded in the
center. He flipped it over to find a small finger sized cylinder.
"Compressed CO two or Nitrogen?" he asked. He looked up to
the tech.
She
adjusted her glasses. "Liquid Nitrogen. CO two isn't cold
enough," she replied, looking down at her notes. "Five
contacts?"
He
looked up. "For redundancy in case dust fouls one or more of
them."
She
nodded. "They are easy to use; you just plug it into a piece of
equipment, or a suit."
She
picked up a belt from the table. "That looks like batman's
utility belt actually," Mario said with a laugh.
She
smiled. "Yeah, we get that a lot. It is a bit like it." She
strapped it around her waist over her.
"On
each hip we have a battery port. We can also store one on the back
here and here." She pointed the positions out. "We've added
clips for the safety harness, and for hanging tools. The computer
module is here." She pointed to a box the size of a pack of
cigarettes. "Each superconductor battery can give a suit enough
power for heating, life support, electronics, and lights for two
hours. You'll have to swap them when they get low." She showed
him how the battery unclips. "Now, we added a port here, on the
left hip so you can plug in manually as you specified. We even added
a power cable that can retract."
She
pulled the plug out, then pushed a button on the belt and it
retracted. "Neat. Good, so two hours per, and we have two
plugged in so, say four hours before we need a charge? And we can
have what about two more batteries with us?" Mario asked. He
looked over to the tech then to Dr. Roberts.
"Yeah,
that's about it, but we haven't had time to fully test it,"
Roberts cautioned. He wasn't happy about that, the simulated tests
were all fine but they needed field time to do a real test.
Mario
raised a hand. "Not to worry Doc, we know no time estimate
survived real world conditions," he said and then smiled. It was
something every good engineer learned, that there was a big
difference between the bench and the real world. A bench was clean
and neat, the real world was messy with a lot of additional variables
you just overlooked on the bench.
The
tech tentatively smiled as well. "This is amazing, a little
dollar coin sized superconductor..." She shook her head. "The
refrigeration, insulation, and electronics for it weigh more!"
She shook her head as she held up the disk.
"Yeah,
but now we have a couple questions, battery life, and how many can
you make before we launch?" Luigi asked. Luigi came in and sat
down on a stool.
"Mornin
little bro, decided to wake up?" Mario teased as he handed him a
cup of coffee.
"For
your information, I had a late night. I crashed...." He looked
up at the clock. "Three hours ago," he replied dryly. He
shook his head.
Mario
sighed. "Yeah, been there done that. Dr. Roberts and Mrs.
Johnston were telling me about the battery life... It is about the
same as the O two re-breather. So when we change the breather, swap
the batteries too," he explained.
Luigi
yawned as he nodded. "Sorry. Yeah, I got the memo. Good
flight?" Roberts demanded. He was afraid they were throwing too
much at the first ship and crew as it was.
Luigi
shook his head. "If we can make it on Mars, we save weight. We
have the ethylene remember? So if we can process it into a sheet..."
Zubrin
nodded. "Or a sprayer. Spray the walls inside and out with a
binary polypropylene plastic resin. We could even look into a spray
on insulator."
Roberts
sat down suddenly. "Talk about thinking big. But why? I mean,
we're going to get a couple missions, maybe three if we are lucky,
then the public will lose interest!" He looked from one man to
the next.
Luigi
shrugged but he couldn't quite hide a slight smile. "Just being
thorough." He wrote the ideas down on his Iphone then looked up
to see Zubrin hiding his own smile.
Mario
turned the little disk around in his hand. It was about the size of
his hand. One side was rounded with a three digit LCD embedded in the
center. He flipped it over to find a small finger sized cylinder.
"Compressed CO two or Nitrogen?" he asked. He looked up to
the tech.
She
adjusted her glasses. "Liquid Nitrogen. CO two isn't cold
enough," she replied, looking down at her notes. "Five
contacts?"
He
looked up. "For redundancy in case dust fouls one or more of
them."
She
nodded. "They are easy to use; you just plug it into a piece of
equipment, or a suit."
She
picked up a belt from the table. "That looks like batman's
utility belt actually," Mario said with a laugh.
She
smiled. "Yeah, we get that a lot. It is a bit like it." She
strapped it around her waist over her.
"On
each hip we have a battery port. We can also store one on the back
here and here." She pointed the positions out. "We've added
clips for the safety harness, and for hanging tools. The computer
module is here." She pointed to a box the size of a pack of
cigarettes. "Each superconductor battery can give a suit enough
power for heating, life support, electronics, and lights for two
hours. You'll have to swap them when they get low." She showed
him how the battery unclips. "Now, we added a port here, on the
left hip so you can plug in manually as you specified. We even added
a power cable that can retract."
She
pulled the plug out, then pushed a button on the belt and it
retracted. "Neat. Good, so two hours per, and we have two
plugged in so, say four hours before we need a charge? And we can
have what about two more batteries with us?" Mario asked. He
looked over to the tech then to Dr. Roberts.
"Yeah,
that's about it, but we haven't had time to fully test it,"
Roberts cautioned. He wasn't happy about that, the simulated tests
were all fine but they needed field time to do a real test.
Mario
raised a hand. "Not to worry Doc, we know no time estimate
survived real world conditions," he said and then smiled. It was
something every good engineer learned, that there was a big
difference between the bench and the real world. A bench was clean
and neat, the real world was messy with a lot of additional variables
you just overlooked on the bench.
The
tech tentatively smiled as well. "This is amazing, a little
dollar coin sized superconductor..." She shook her head. "The
refrigeration, insulation, and electronics for it weigh more!"
She shook her head as she held up the disk.
"Yeah,
but now we have a couple questions, battery life, and how many can
you make before we launch?" Luigi asked. Luigi came in and sat
down on a stool.
"Mornin
little bro, decided to wake up?" Mario teased as he handed him a
cup of coffee.
"For
your information, I had a late night. I crashed...." He looked
up at the clock. "Three hours ago," he replied dryly. He
shook his head.
Mario
sighed. "Yeah, been there done that. Dr. Roberts and Mrs.
Johnston were telling me about the battery life... It is about the
same as the O two re-breather. So when we change the breather, swap
the batteries too," he explained.
Luigi
yawned as he nodded. "Sorry. Yeah, I got the memo. Good
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