Encyclopaedia of the Galactic Echo
Page 5
Life on Mars
Population in 2298: 4 billion
Collective term for someone born on Mars: Marsian
Capital City: Arcadia Planitia
The project to make Mars safe to live on for humans took sixty years, and in that time the near neighbour to Earth has seen its population grow to over 4 billion at the end of the 23rd century.
Early life on Mars, after it had been terraformed, was chaotic, with very little law and order. As Mars was built on and developed as ordered by the government of the time, the building areas were safe and well protected, but outside of these areas it was pretty much under the control of localised gangs. There were widespread reports of mafia-type organisations who kept control of their areas by rule of gun. With the government many millions of miles away on Earth, and their building programmes on target, no one seemed to care. The government were getting their projects done, and what happened outside of this was seemingly of no concern to anyone, indeed many murders went unsolved. Many people were reported missing and never found. Women routinely suffered rape and other terrible crimes, but prosecutions were virtually unheard of; it was simply swept under the carpet and forgotten about. In particular, the long distance freight pilots who transported goods from Earth to Mars, who earned huge amounts of money for these dangerous journeys, liked to play hard. The gangs living on Mars were aware of this, and had a ready supply of prostitutes for these travellers. As a result of this, there were many unwanted pregnancies, and with healthcare virtually non-existent, babies would be routinely disposed of by the gang owners. Life was hard during the early years of the human colonisation of Mars. As more and more humans began to live there, however, things calmed down a bit, although there are rumours that there are still mafia organisations existing on Mars at the present day.
The capital of Mars, Arcadia Planitia, is in the north west of the planet and that is where the main government and administration buildings are located. Marsians enjoy a more ‘natural’ lifestyle than Moonions, where the population live under ‘domes’ and an artificial atmosphere; on Mars the air is breathable and the gravity of the planet, despite being less than Earth, would be comfortable for an Earthite to live. With the terraforming project, Mars has an atmosphere safe for humans to live in, so they can walk about outside just as on Earth. Mars does have areas with artificial gravity in specific locations, which are installed underground, so that these areas feature the same gravitational strength as Earth.
Mars has a number of significant areas, none more so than Olympus Mons, the largest known mountain in the solar system, which is a protected site of special natural interest.
Every year, Marsians celebrate the commemoration of the landing of Sergy Abramov on 5th October 2037, which was the first successful manned mission to Mars. They also hold remembrance events across the planet on the date of March 15th, when the scientific spaceship Moonbase 3 exploded in Mars orbit in 2274, killing all 1,215 people on board.
Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, but unlike the Earth's moon, these moons are not habitable. This is due to them being too small and the atmosphere being too harsh for humans to live on them, although there are isolated areas on these moons that are occupied by scientists undertaking research on them.
Life on a Spacestation