If Aman failed in his task and Ceres Mining Operations proved unable to avert the impending disaster, the Martian Government would be seeking monetary compensation - the company would be forced to pay trillions. That fact was not lost on the executive board, nor on Roma. The priority would be to make sure that a collision between the asteroid and Mars would not happen - leaving Aman's life up for grabs.

Still, it might be a life that he'd be willing to sacrifice for the greater good if it ever came down to it, though... Ceres Mining Operations had things they could leverage to... encourage... Aman to do what was right, even if it cost him everything.

"You want me to die out here?!"

"The other AI and our handlers agreed that this was our best option. From all those at Ceres Mining Operations, we are truly sorry. Upon your death, your spouse, kin, and family will receive your life insurance voucher of five million seven hundred thousand tw-"

"Damn you stupid AIs! You can pilot ships, set up shipping and mining routes, but you don't know what to say to a dead man!" Aman snapped, cutting the AI off mid sentence.

"We are truly sorry, Aman."

"Like hell you are. If you were really sorry, you'd have given me my two additional weeks of vacation that I was promised last year! If I ever get off this godforsaken rock, I QUIT!"

"Noted. Like it or not, Aman, we need you. You're our only hope of avoiding this calamity - not just for us, but for your wife and daughter."

Aman growled audibly at that, before snarling a reply, "That's low and you know it." The response was met with silence from Roma, her hologram simply staring impassively at Aman.

Still, whether he liked it or not, Aman knew that the AI was right - he recognized that his grievances wouldn't improve his situation, and more importantly, wouldn't save his wife and daughter. Decision made, he snapped out an aggravated response "Fine. If I make it through this, you guys owe me a lot more than just a vacation." before slamming his hand on the communication's disconnect button, silencing the AI before any reply could be given.

'Where do I even begin?' Aman pondered, dropping back into a chair and running his hands through his disheveled hair. Shaking his head with a sigh, Aman pulled up his holopad and got to work.

Logically speaking, he knew that as the components of the sail grew larger, the probability and amount of micrometeoroid impacts would increase, and almost certainly cause failure. This was something Aman was desperate to avoid, yet seemingly, the only way to guard against such failure was to make the solar sail fairly sizable nonetheless. Additionally, the size of the meteorite he was on would require the sail to cover a large area to ensure that it was capable of moving the asteroid in the desired trajectory.

The probability of the sail failing due to too many micrometeoroid hits needed to be made as reasonably low as possible. Aman took that into account alongside the various tradeoffs of force, momentum, velocity, maneuverability, and time, along with the other variables of orbital mechanics, strength of the solar wind, and the theoretical maximum manufacturing rate, and came up with the calculations. Two minutes later, Roma called in with a similar (and more precise) set of parameters and values for the variables. With the confidence of the AI, its handlers and his own calculations, Aman got to work.

To construct the solar sail, he would need to set up the three small-scale mining robots that were included in his pod, and activate those for the platinum, gold, and other lustrous metals - 72 cubic meters worth to be exact.

Once these materials were acquired, construction of a mineral purifier would commence, to remove any undesired impurities from the metals. With the minerals obtained, Aman could begin fabrication using his ten 3D printers. Each printer would print five thousand sheets of foil-like material, which would then be cold-welded into ten long strips by the machines. Finally, Aman and three other mining bots he would repurpose would cold-weld together the ten pieces to form the 16 square kilometer sail.

Given roughly two to two and a half days to assemble the sail in sizes that would have a notable impact on the velocity of the asteroid, a sheet would have to be printed out roughly every thirty seconds. Fortunately for Aman, the sail would only have to be a few microns thick to be effective, which would save considerable time.

It wasn't lost on Aman that he was, in essence, trying to create the largest solar sail ever made, in the shortest possible time frame. If he made it through this alive, he'd be a world record holder by quite some distance. After all, who before him had attempted to create a sail for something over a kilometer in radius?

Suffice to say, Aman had his work cut out for him.

Relieved that something was finally going his way, Aman suited up once more and immediately set to work.