Despite the rain, I've been outside a lot. It's not just because I find the outdoors more calming than my increasingly claustrophobic hab. It lets me shut systems down in strategic patterns, and test my fuel cell model. Since I had no test data for comparison I needed to create my own baseline. Each piece of equipment, alone and in combination, gives me a new load level and thermal resistive datapoint. My model and my measurements, after endless refinement, are finally starting to fall into line.
As usual the results are more complex than expected.
The cells are clearly underpowered. The curves cross somewhere around 75%, the membranes overheat and efficiency drops so low I'm basically getting nothing more. I suppose, if I didn't run the AC or the crapper, I could get along OK with those levels. But I need the crapper; I'd have to spend the whole day gathering nuts if it couldn't produce the food oils I need to live. The AC I suppose I could live without (although it would make food refrigeration more energy hungry), but the new demands for long cooking times of the native planets are another story. Again, something I need to do to live. So what's left? The science. I have to ration power to my field gear.
The tricky part is what to do about it. Both cells are identical. This is awkward since I had been expecting one cell to be clearly weaker, which would indicate malfunction and would make it obvious I need a replacement. Since they are the same it's not clear that replacing even both of them would make any difference. What I need is a third cell to bring up the total capacity, and that's a somewhat more difficult case to make.
I could go to Maija. She would probably see the negative affect on the science and PI's are about nothing if not results. On the other hand she's busy and this is a minor issue that can be handled by the support staff. She would tell me to go to Bea. Bea li-Edregis is -- let's just say -- not my biggest fan. I've spoken with her about this before, and she scoffed at my request. Everybody always wants more power, she told me, and put my complaint at the bottom of the queue.
Our Mission Support chief was sponsored by Pi. My fuel cell models would not impress her.
I feel hollow. Building the model seemed frustratingly futile, and yet I hoped it would turn up something. Now I have nothing to do, and no sympathetic ear to turn to. The science is suffering -- I'm falling more behind every day -- and there's nothing I can do about it.
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