A space station blew up. It is now dropping debris on us. This is a Problem, because it is the station that we rendezvous with to get back home.

Well, maybe not: Igloo Station had an explosive decompression event in at least one module.

The base commander is “missing in action”. He was on a separate mission, but the comms blackout is preventing them contact him. Volkova is not willing to send someone to fetch him, because that may put other people at risk: in particular, the base is more resilient to damage than the rovers and similar.

Hatchway Hinge Failure – Agramonte

• More than one of these hatchways needs inspection and repair.
  • Airlock
  • Garage
  • Dormitory
• This may prevent quick egress, so should be addressed.
  • Are stuck closed, grinding when being opened.
• Agramonte dismantles entire hatch to check
  • Seems to be regolith inside the hinge, which is abrading the inside of the hinge. Mixed with lubricant, forming an abrasive paste.
  • Checks for some replacement, but there is not enough of the exact one available.
    • Some that is “good enough” but might need some chemical finagling to get better. Asking Leonid Kadenyuk, one of the chemists, for help.
      • Leonid is working with one leg up, having been injured in the debris fall yesterday. Makes some suggestions to make less clumping and such.
  1. Fully repair each hinge or just apply new lube?
  2. Only apply to damaged hinges or also all the others?
  • Agramonte being Agramonte, will repair/replace the most critical ones.
    • Needs to handle things as quickly as possible. Gets Jean-Jacques to help out a little. Can get lubricant into functioning hinges without dismantling them, so Agramonte is going to “cut corners” by not dismantling them normally.

Base Inspection – Jean-Jacques

• Need to check if there is any smaller damage to anything.
  • Will try and get Toktar “Motherfucker” Aubakirov to do the outside inspection, while Jean-Jacques checks on the inside. Using some anemometors and such to see if there is any airflow that there should not be.
  • Inside:
    • Minor damage found in supply closet/airlock that connects to rover.
      • Some minor spalling and a couple of holes. Probably hit some of the supplies as well - mostly shelf-stable food supplies. Will need to investigate.
    • CO2 excursion in one of the crew modules, one of the science modules is out of power.
      • Each module has standalone auxiliary life support – could be over-writing the central life support. Control panel is flipping between nominal and danger, so probably local.
        • Is an electrical issue of some kind: computer is getting cooked status from the datastream. Will need to investigate the life support controller: the data being sent is doing weird things and throwing out unintelligible status updates. Upper case ASCII character codes in the datastream, which should not be there. Comes out as WATCH THE TAPE, interrupted by failure statuses.
          • Agramonte can see that the aux CO2 scrubber is horrifically compromised: somehow adding CO2 to the atmosphere. Three relays have failed. Will need to replace them, but they seem to be coated in metallic paint.
          • Jean-Jacques can see that the relays have the same sheen as the tape (see below), which is not what relays are meant to look like.
  • Outside:
    • SNAP seems to be fine, although some damage to some of the heat shielding on SW side (couple of small puncture holes).
      • All seems to be nominal here, thank goodness.
    • Batteries and photovoltaic panels also seem to be unimpacted - generally at high risk for future though (large area, unhardened).
    • Explosives storage - someone else has inspected this. Back side was hit, caution tape on the side. Area hit was mostly empty crates, not the actual explosives.
      • No inherent elevated risk right now. Losing the explosives is not mission critical, but might slow things down for burying the base. Can see a camera, which is extra monitoring than usual (should be logs on door access, but not much more)
        • Camera is saving locally, but has a damaged lens. VTR is hidden behind a crate, looks normal tape deck though. Tape looks a little different for some reason - maybe more expensive? Is also somehow modified: spools have been changed to work continuously, so will automatically overwrite after a certain amount of time. Sneaks the VTR into the base, to hide it for looking at it later.
    • Some weirdness getting back inside: voice on radio telling me to watch the tape. Radio is off though…. Tape is playing somehow.

Underground base – Teresa

• Base is being buried, but finishing the underground base might also still help.
• Using MOBEV for latter has been authorised, but on a time-limit
  • Installing floodlights (because underground and night time) while inspecting site to see what corners can be cut.
  • Looking at excavating lava tube to make things easier – if it continues, can get a base module in place instead.
    • Could also use explosives to do this “unsafely”. (Risk of collapse and/or damage to MOBEV)
      • Blast part of the cave-in, to get inside for inspection. Looks like the lava tube is good for getting some stuff in there.
    • Excavation takes a little longer than expected. Fritz and Singer have come over to get the MOBEV back to help with the base covering.
  • Ramp down to tube is quite steep: probably scrape roof when coming in.
• Going to move a crew module from the base.
  • Needs to get some permissions from Volkova to do things fast, but she is asleep under her console with a timer going down.
    • Goes to do some dishes in the meantime, comes back fifteen minutes later, when the timer is supposed to stop.
      • Volkova is her usual over-tired self.
    • Teresa is then able to figure out

Hard-Line between Goddard and DLB-4 – Jan and Sanchez

• Take one of the buggies, loading up the microwave radio repeaters.
  • Take a sensible speed to get out there.
  • Can install and then test from a distance (faster, unless something goes wrong) Other option is to test from closer, but this needs more setting up and dismantling as things go.
    • This goes smoothly.
  • The relays are in place, meaning that it is only the end-points at each base that needs to be done.
    • Jan and Sanchez will do the tie-in at Camp Goddard, while Chemirkin does the DLB-4 one.
      • Will need a MOLAB to do both, but there are no spare. Going to try and jury-rig a buggy to get the extra endurance needed.
        • Can either cannibalise other buggies (or possibly one whole buggy), or take a battery from the base back-up, or from a lander.