MARS: Renaissance

by Matthew Ellis

  Kathy added, “It also looks like the volcanic activity is changing the atmospheric content of the planet. I’m detecting sulfur dioxide at nearly four percent of the atmosphere. If we can break the oxygen out of that and the carbon dioxide, then we should be able to breathe the air.”

  Jordan interjected, “I also see some of the water at the poles is melting and flowing into ancient riverbeds. We’ll need to remove the salt from the water, but it should just need to be filtered after that.”

  Scout said, “There’s going to be a lot of work to be done to make this planet our new home. We’ll need to mine for metals like iron, titanium, and aluminum so that we can build ships, cars, and a railroad. When we extract the metals from the surface, we should be releasing oxygen into the atmosphere.”

  Kathy said, “I’m detecting small amounts of oxygen in the air, as well as methane gas.”

  Jordan said, “Those were there when Viking landed and took the first readings over a century ago. They should just be traces of those gases.”

  Kathy said, “I’m actually picking up significant amounts of methane, and more than a trace of oxygen.”

  Scout said, “Let me see that.”

  Scout walked over to Kathy’s workstation. He stared at her screen in disbelief. The scans showed the methane levels at 4% of the atmospheric content. Scout had no idea that the gas had reached such high levels. The methane levels weren’t dangerous, but there shouldn’t be any excess methane gas in the atmosphere without life on the planet. The real shock, however, came when he looked at the oxygen levels. The planet’s atmosphere now contained 11% oxygen. There was no reason for the oxygen content to be so high. The water vapor at the poles accounted for about one third of the oxygen, but the rest of it was free oxygen. No one had any idea how oxygen was floating free in the atmosphere of a world thought to have none available. The crew still couldn’t breathe the air on the planet below; that required the oxygen level to be a minimum of 16%, but the work to make that possible would now be much easier.

  The red planet looked a lot like the old NASA pictures and videos that the crew had seen, but they were the first people who were going to live there. People had visited the planet in the past, but only for exploration missions. All of the governments that sent manned missions to the planet had decided that it would cost too much to colonize the planet. This was the first group of people to defy the odds, and they did it without a government sanction. Now they were terrified as the reality of the mission set in. They were not going to return to Earth unless they were forced to, either by an act of war or by the total failure of the mission. Everyone on the ship gazed at the alien world below, and many thoughts crossed their minds.

  Scout thought, “This is going to be home. It’ll be a brand new society on a brand new world.”

  Kathy thought, “How beautiful. This place is a gorgeous blank canvas. We can build perfection here.”

  Jordan’s thoughts were more about defense, “I see many places to train for the coming war with Earth. We must win our freedom. I’m tired of fighting, but nothing comes easy in this life.”

  Lane had similar thoughts, ‘What an easy place to defend. We’ll have ships in orbit, and we’ll see them coming before they arrive. No water means no naval battles, so everything will be defended on the ground and in the sky. We’ll win the war easily.”

  Leona had troubling thoughts, “Here we are. I thought space was bad. Now that we’re on an alien world, I’m going to have a stream of patients that’ll last throughout eternity.”

  Mark thought, “Finally, I might have some patients. Now that we’re beginning the mission for real, maybe there’ll be some injuries.”

  Shai thought, “We’re almost out of food. We have less food than we need for the amount of time that it’ll take the ship to return to Mars after we unload. I’m going to have to ration the supplies. I wish I had more than fish and chips.”

  Bob was thinking out loud, “Look at the magnificent desolation. It’s beautiful.”

  Bob’s talking bothered his wife. She was lost in her own thoughts and Bob’s speech interrupted her thinking.

  She told her husband, “Will you be quiet! I can’t think with your crazy chatter.”

  Bob said, “Sorry about that. I was just thinking out loud.”

  Cindy said, “Well, think quietly.”

  Cindy’s thoughts were of the work that waited for them. She was ready to get started so the group could enjoy the fruits of their labor.

  She thought, “I can hardly wait to start the colony. I want to be there already so that we can unload this ship and get to work. Then, someday, we can breathe the air and drink the water. We’ll even create Martian foods. Maybe we’ll even create new foods here.”

  John and Becky were together as the ship moved into position to view the planet. They each moved to a window to see the planet below. As they gazed at the planet, they held each other’s hands.

  John thought, “I have a chance to start a brand new life. I have a great girlfriend, and a brand new world to conquer. Together, we’ll be unstoppable.”

  Becky thought, “That is the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen. The man by my side and the crew on our side are awesome. This’ll be the greatest society that the sun has ever seen.”

  Everyone on the ship was thinking of the future on Mars. No one was able to resist the sight of a new planet from space.

  There were small rivers flowing from the north pole, down to about the middle of the great basin area of the northern hemisphere. This area was believed to have once been a great ocean. The northern third of Mars was lower than the southern two thirds of the planet in much the same manner that the continents on Earth are raised from the oceans. This area was not the landing site. The landing site was near the equatorial region of the planet. This area would be the most stable area for developing a civilization.

  The crew gazed at the mountains. They were mostly volcanoes, but there were also large rocky areas similar to those on Earth. They had been unchanged for the duration of human history, but now this new society was going to change the surface of Mars for their own benefit. The mountains contained valuable minerals that the colony would need to make shelters, transportation systems, and other necessities of a 21st century society.

  The atmosphere of Mars looked red, but it was not as red everyone thought it would be. The color of the air was actually closer to butterscotch, but there was a lot of red from the dust that was trapped in the atmosphere. The air would not be breathable, but it did look familiar. There were clouds in the air. The ones at the poles were water vapor clouds, but the ones nearer to the equator were carbon dioxide clouds. They dissipated quickly and assimilated into the air, but they were clearly visible from space. The water clouds seemed to flow to positions near the poles, and then they dumped their contents onto the ground below. This formed the small rivers leading back to the poles.

  The ground was covered in rocks. There were a few smooth surfaces on the planet, but it was mostly full of small rocks strewn about as if someone had thrown them from above in an angry fit of rage.

  Scout thought, “How appropriate that this planet is named for the Roman god of war. It looks like the losing side in a war that lasted for millennia.”

  The rocks were mostly small, but there were also large rocks and boulders on the ground. The crew could clearly see these rocks on the surface from the telescopes on the ship. There were rocks that looked as though they had only recently broken off of from the mountains. There were also rocks that looked like they had been broken down for centuries. Some of the rocks were smooth, and some of the rocks were jagged. It looked like the New Mexico desert on an alien world.

  There were still three days until the ship would land. The ship had to approach the planet, and then take an orbit until the landing site became visible. Then the ship could land safely on the planet below.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Landing

  The Renaissance landed on
Mars at 1400 local time. The sun was high in the sky, but the air was very chilly. It was winter on Mars, so the temperature at the spaceport was –5° C. The air was cold but not unbearable. There was no one on the surface to greet the crew of the ship except for the robots. Scout had called them to assist the crew with the unloading of the ship.

  The landing was not as smooth as Scout and Kathy had hoped it would be. The ship had been damaged in the battle with General Rich and his goons back on Earth, so there were some unexpected problems that the ship encountered while landing. First, the ship overheated during the initial entry into the Martian atmosphere. The repair crew had attempted to seal the damage in zero gravity with a spray liner, and it was not as successful as they had hoped it would be. They needed to fix the problem once they landed at the spaceport. The ship heated up to 125% of its tolerance. This did not cause any further damage because the heating only lasted a few minutes, but extended exposure to the high temperatures would cause grave damage to the spacecraft.

  The next challenge that the ship’s crew had to overcome was a change in the gravity and magnetism of Mars. During the android’s first few missions to Mars, the magnetosphere was in its initial stages of formation, so it had not yet reached its full strength. The gravity also rose by 4%, which is not a huge amount but is sufficient to cause a deviation from the course when combined with an increased magnetic field. The ship was knocked off course by 1°, but this was easily fixed. Heath manually overrode the controls and adjusted the course to allow the ship to land at the spaceport.

  Heath had not advised the crew about the extremely cold temperatures that the ship would experience after the intense heat of the initial entry into the atmosphere. The ship’s climate control systems could not cope with the extreme cold, so the passengers on the ship were very cold for about twelve seconds. The temperature fell rapidly, and then rose back up to –5° as they neared the ground. Fortunately, the crew all had cold weather gear.

  The ship reached a point where the crew could see the spaceport at the edge of the town. Heath maneuvered the ship into position and landed squarely on the landing strip. He slowed the ship, and then lined up a perfect landing. Heath positioned the craft so that the full length of the runway could be used to land the ship. The back tires touched the ground and bounced four times. Then the nose of the ship slowly came down until the front tires also touched the ground. The engines turned off, so the ship was decelerating quickly. Finally, Heath activated the anti-lock brake system and the ship slowed to a crawl in mere seconds. The ship had one hundred meters of runway remaining when it came to a stop.

  Then Scout activated the engines and moved the ship just outside the hangar. The robots opened the hangar doors, and the Renaissance entered. The robots closed the doors and activated the hangar’s life support system, which was linked to the ship’s systems. The crew would later install a permanent, fail-safe life support system in the hangar, as well as many other buildings in the colony.

  Section III:

  MARS

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Unpacking

  As the crew disembarked from the ship and unloaded the cargo into the hangar, they felt a strange sense of fear. The reality that they were no longer on Earth had set into their minds. They were on their own, hundreds of millions of kilometers away from home. If anything went wrong, no one could rescue them. Even the support crew on Earth could not help them in emergency because it took months to reach this barren place. They were truly pioneers.

  The crew opened the cargo bays and began to unload the ship. They needed to work quickly, because the ship needed to return to Earth. The support crew already had a full load for the ship, and they wanted to have it return before the planets moved out of quick transport range.

  Scout instructed, “Let’s get everything out of the ship. We’ll worry about where things belong once they’re in the hangar. We have a huge space, so there’s plenty of room. Just make sure to leave the refrigerators and life support systems turned on.”

  Kathy said, “So it doesn’t matter where we plop stuff?”

  Scout said, “No, we just need to unload the ship as quickly as possible. Then send it back for supplies.”

  Jordan said, “I need someone to help me couple the tractor to the trailers.”

  Lane said, “I can do that.”

  Jordan and Lane then quickly ran to the tractor. Jordan drove it to the first trailer. He met Lane at the hitch. They coupled the tractor to the trailer. They both got into the truck and drove it down the ramp. Jordan drove the trailer to the corner of the hangar and parked it. Lane and Jordan got out of the tractor and uncoupled the trailer. Then they checked the life support and refrigeration systems.

  While the trailers were being moved into the hangar, the rest of the crew were driving their cars out of the ship. They all parked their cars near the doors so that they could leave in them as they headed to their new homes at the end of the unloading process.

  After the cars and trailers were off the ship, the rest of the supplies had to be unloaded. The crew only had a forklift and a tractor to move the rest of the supplies off of the ship, so it took a long time to remove everything.

  The crew moved the life support system from the ship to the inside of the hangar. It was cold, but the crew all had heavy jackets that they wore while they unloaded the ship.

  Scout said, “Okay, we’re going to lose some of our life support gases while the ship exits. Let’s try to open and close the doors as quickly as possible so that we don’t lose too much. Heath will be gone before we go home tonight.”

  Jordan then said, “Robots, open the door.”

  The huge hangar doors opened, and there was a wind that pulled some oxygen into the planet’s atmosphere. The ship backed onto the runway and the robots closed the door behind it. The crew could hear the ship’s engines roar as Heath Goodbar took off and headed back to Earth.

  Scout said, “We’re here now. I know that some of you are wondering what to do. I think that we’ll continue our routine from the ship. That’ll help us to preserve our mental health. There’ll be downtime to explore and think, so feel free to visit Leona and Mark in case any issues arise. I don’t want to have any member of my crew succumb to mental illness, depression, or think of suicide. You’re all too important to the success of the mission.”

  Jordan added, “We’ll have lots of work to do, and not all the preparations are ready. The robots aren’t quite finished with the biodome yet, so there will be a bit of a delay in growing our own food.”

  Shai asked, “Does that mean that there will be no way for me to cook anything for the crew?”

  Jordan said, “You know how much food you have on hand, so you can answer that question best.”

  Shai said, “I have more fish and chips, but not six months’ worth. It’ll take about that long for the ship to return, right?”

  Scout answered her question, “It’ll actually take about nine months, because the planets are farther apart now. We timed our own arrival for the shortest journey possible."

  Shai said, “Well, I only have enough food in storage for about five months. We’ll have to ration it to make it last nine months.”

  Scout said, “Then we’ll ration it. There’s going to be many sacrifices in this leg of the mission. There’ll also be a lot of challenges.”

  Kathy said, “You mean all the terraforming?”

  Scout said, “The terraforming is one challenge, but there are some challenges that are going to be unpredictable.”

  Jordan said, “Then there’s still a group trying to sabotage us.”

  Scout said, “That too. I told you before that this would be difficult. It’ll be a struggle, but if there wasn’t a struggle, it wouldn’t be worth anything. The greatest challenges provide the greatest opportunities for improvement. Without improvement, there’s no point to our experiment.”

  Lane said, “We’ll be working long days with very little reward, but it’ll be worth it once
the colony gets going.”

  Scout said, “With a struggle also comes an appreciation of what you have. Once you struggle to achieve something, you hold it more dearly than you would if it was handed to you. The struggle we now face will make us hold on to our new society with a fierce tenacity once we achieve our goal. We have to get started tomorrow. Meet here at 0800.”

  Jack said, “Is that Mars time, ship time, or Earth time?”

  Kathy said, “Ship’s time and Mars time are exactly the same?”

  John asked, “How does it work?”

  Scout said, “Okay, there are 25 hours in a day. Each hour has 58 minutes, and every minute has 58 seconds.”

  Jane said, “That is so similar to Earth that we’ll barley notice the difference.”

  Becky said, “Except that there are 25 hours, so it’ll seem like we have more time to do things here.”

  Scout said, “That’s because you do. You have 39 extra minutes compared to an Earth day. You also have nearly twice as long in a year. Every year will be divided into 23 months with 29 days each. There’s 667 days in a Martian year, so it comes out even. You actually do have much more time here than you did on Earth.”

  Kathy said, “That sounds as close to heaven as we can get.”

  Shai asked, “So does that mean that we have enough food for five Earth months, or do we only have enough for five Martian months?”

  Scout said, “We’ve been on Mars time since we left Earth, so you have enough for five Mars months.”

  Shai said, “I was afraid that I was going to have to impose a mandatory fast day at least once a week.”

  Lane said, “I’m glad that won’t be necessary.”

  Scout said, “Okay, everyone take a life support suit and put it on. Once you’re in your quarters, you’ll need to install your own life support system. They all have instructions, and they’re not too hard to install.”