But the four astronauts of the NASA crew are not the only ones with this destination. The privately financed ‘Mars for Everyone’ initiative has also targeted the Red Planet. Twenty men and women have been selected to live there and establish the first extraterrestrial settlement.
Challenges arise even before they reach Mars orbit. The MfE spaceship Santa Maria is damaged along the way. Only the four NASA astronauts can intervene and try to save their lives.
No one anticipates the impending catastrophe that threatens their very existence—not to speak of the daily hurdles that an extended stay on an alien planet sets before them. On Mars, a struggle begins for limited resources, human cooperation, and just plain survival.
3.99 $ – hard-sf.com/links/762824
Mars Nation 2
A woman presumed dead fights her way through the hostile deserts of Mars. With her help, the NASA astronauts orphaned on the Red Planet hope to be able to solve their very worst problem. But their hopes are shattered when an unexpected menace arises and threatens to destroy everything the remnant of humanity has built on the planet. They need a miracle—or a ghost from the past whose true intentions are unknown.
Mars Nation 2 continues the story of the last representatives of Earth, who have found asylum on our neighboring planet, hoping to build a future in this alien world.
3.99 $ – hard-sf.com/links/790047
Mars Nation 3
Does the secret of Mars lurk beneath the surface of its south pole? A lone astronaut searches for clues about the earlier inhabitants of the Red Planet. Meanwhile, Rick Summers, having assumed the office of Mars City's Administrator by deceit and manipulation, tries to unify the people on Mars with the weapons under his control. Then Summers stumbles upon so powerful an evil that even he has no means to overcome it.
3.99 $ – hard-sf.com/links/818245
The Martians
What difficulties await the brave explorers who will land on the Red Planet after a long journey from Earth?
On Mars, the maximum permissible top speed is 10 kilometers per hour (6.2 mph). That is one of the rules that the Mars crew agreed upon even before their landing on February 8th, 2018. An astronaut driving an electric tracked vehicle, like the one just now crossing a small hill made up of sand and stones, would otherwise stir up too much dust, the mortal enemy of any mechanical system. Only later, after the astronaut has taken off the heavy upper part of the suit in the “Ops” building of the Mars base, can this reporter recognize who the sweat-drenched individual is: Stefan Dobrovolny, a paramedic in real life.
The 26-year-old is also a trained astronaut – and hails from Austria, like many in the 25-nation team that has been working here and at the ten-minute-radio-delayed control center in Innsbruck for many months for the big event: the first step onto the surface of our neighboring planet, Mars, a momentous occasion for humanity. But don’t worry – you haven’t missed this turning point in human history yet, and even though Dobrovolny has just completed his second mission in this extreme environment, you won’t find his name on any list of astronauts’ accomplishments. That is because the Austrian is one of the many volunteers who have sacrificed their vacation time to conduct experiments on simulated Mars landings in the desert of southern Oman.
“Amadee-18” is the name of the project organized by the Austrian Space Forum (OEWF). The exact coordinates of the base station are kept secret for security reasons. This SPACE reporter didn’t have to wear a blindfold to visit the base, but he was required to remove all location information from the metadata of my smartphone photos. The official landing date was February 8th; after that was an isolation phase, during which no visitors were allowed and which lasted until the end of February, too late for this article to make it into the previous issue.
Eight men and women trained for several months to become “analog astronauts” – a high hurdle, because everything about this mission is intended to be as realistic as possible. For example, when Dobrovolny bends down in his “Aouda” spacesuit simulator, he has to work against the forces of an exoskeleton on his arms and legs. This is because the air inside a real spacesuit would be pressurized, which would similarly make it more difficult for him to move his joints. “The suit really shows me my limits; it’s rather unforgiving,” says Dobrovolny. “I have to pace myself and think ahead about every hand motion I need to make. And you really can’t let anything fall. If I had to bend over three times in a row to lift up a certain rock, I’d have to exert much too much energy.” The analog astronaut currently on duty is assigned tasks by a geologist back at the command center, who thus has to think of the best procedure when he or she is formulating the orders. It’s also particularly important because communications between Oman and Innsbruck are delayed by ten minutes in each direction – just like it would be for a real Mars mission trying to communicate with Earth.
Like in this example, simulations such as Amadee-18 are trying to figure out everything that would be required for successful planning – including things that no one would think of without actual tests. “We’re grateful for every mistake that we make,” says Dr. Gernot Grömer (42), who, as the “Field Commander,” leads the crew in the desert, “and we’ve gotten good at breaking things under controlled conditions in earlier missions, like on the Kaunertaler glacier in 2015.”
Amadee-18 is also of interest for companies that are not themselves in the business of “space” operations. A part of the, according to Grömer, “mid-six-figure” costs are paid by such industrial partners, with other costs being covered by the European Space Agency (ESA) and other third-party contractors. Not included are the extensive services provided by Omani partners that built the entire habitat from the desert ground up. And, in fact, quite literally: the area on which the inflatable dome and the living containers stand was first made firm with water and cement, so that the entire expedition wouldn’t sink into the sand.
Osama al Busaidi (29), deputy chairman of the Oman Astronomical Society, is thus also one of the most important participants in the experiment: he takes care of equipment stuck in customs, he communicates with the Omani military that provides safety and security forces for the expedition, and he drives his own off-road pickup truck to the store. Because at least in this respect, the simulation is unrealistic: there are very detailed meal plans, but if there’s something missing, the crew can still place a different order – which a real Mars crew would not be able to do.
Another difference is the safety crew that accompanies the analog astronauts during each of their up-to-six-hour-long outside missions. And if they happen to break the autonomous robot – there is somewhere there with them, carrying a fire extinguisher. Gerald Steinbauer, a computer scientist from the Technical University of Graz, is responsible for this robot, which is called “Husky.” Its first task is to map the terrain around the base station by itself. The greatest challenge here is not the sandy subsurface: “On Mars, there’s no system of GPS satellites,” explains Steinbauer. “Therefore, Husky has to orient itself using a 3D map it generates itself with its laser scanner. But here in the desert, there are no orientation markers for it to generate a map.” Husky’s supervisor, Steinbauer, is also afraid of dust storms: “If the lens were to get scratched, that could cause big problems.” This is because the robot is supposed to assist the astronauts with fetch and retrieve operations, and if it weren’t able to perform those tasks, the astronauts would have to exert a lot more energy than planned, which could set off a whole chain of events that could prove to be fatal on Mars. “A big dust storm wouldn’t kill a real Mars explorer,” says Field Commander Grömer, “but a clogged filter in his or her air-recirculation pump could.”
Waiting for the crew now is a mountain of work. Scientists like Steinbauer submitted proposals detailing their space experiments in advance. The researcher from Graz will hand Husky over to the analog astronauts on February 10th, and then he’ll only be able to watch remotely how his experiment, classified as a “five-year prelimina
ry work study,” progresses. To make it easier for the astronauts to work with, Husky has only four buttons. And if Husky does fail, there are extensive descriptions to try and get it back up and running. “For every kilogram of material, there is probably ten times the amount of documentation,” estimates Grömer.
The experiment that the crew is most excited for was “Hortextreme” from the Italian Space Agency. The analog astronauts were hoping that its result – self-cultivated watercress – would be edible before the end of the mission. A real Mars expedition would also need to not rely solely on freeze-dried meals. All the important vitamins and trace elements can indeed be supplied in tablet form – but the human psyche is also an important element to consider. For example, the University of Witten/Herdecke developed an experiment called “SIT-AS” to study the situational awareness of the astronauts in Oman, and “TEAM” from the Western University in California was a personality study intended to evaluate team performance in groups. At least for the period of time before the isolation phase, this reporter can attest to a very good atmosphere among the crew – even for the dreary task of washing dishes, there were volunteers every day.
Simulations like these in Oman are taking place all over the world. Recently, two women and four men left their habitat as part of the “HI-SEAS” project (Hawai’i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) on the slopes of the volcano Mauna Loa in Hawaii in September. Amadee-18 is the twelfth analog mission conducted by the OEWF. Why is Austria so active in this area? Space research, explains Grömer has become very international these days; the days where single nations could reach noble goals by themselves are over. “It became clear to us that we had to find ourselves a niche where we could do some good. In 2003 we started the development of our spacesuit simulators, and in order to test them, we had to get outside and play in the dirt.”
The nights are cold, the days are hot, and a slight wind constantly blows sand down from the hills, getting grit everywhere, even between your teeth, and covering every exposed surface with a thin coating of dust. That is probably the part of the simulation that comes closest to matching reality. The inflatable dome, in contrast, is mostly just for looks. The working and living spaces are all in shipping containers. “We don’t have any problems with power, like we would on Mars,” says analog astronaut Dobrovolny, “and certainly no more than six people would be sent on the long journey.”
On top of that, “basic things are still unsolved: how do you land 70 tons of equipment safely on a foreign planet? Nobody’s ever done that before,” says Grömer. “But more than anything else, the requirements for robustness are greater than anything mankind has ever done before. Even the ISS gets regular visits with resupplies and spare parts. The Mars crew would be on its own for many months.”
Dobrovolny, the young paramedic, also hesitates when asked whether he would go on a Mars mission himself if he was offered a spot today. “I just finished college in 2016, so my life is in a lot of flux right now, but I still think it would be rather reckless of me to say ‘yes’ right now. Even if everything works as planned, I’d still increase my risk of cancer significantly by the long period of time in space – and I don’t know if I want to do that to myself.”
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Glossary of Acronyms
ALFD – Alternate FLight path Data
AI – Artificial Intelligence
BCI – Brain-Computer Interface
BFR – (SpaceX’s) Big Falcon Rocket
EVA – ExtraVehicular Activity
FM – Flight Manager
GPR – Ground-Penetrating Radar
HUT – Hard Upper Torso
KRUSTY – Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling TechnologY
LD – Launch Data
LM – Launch Motor
LO – Launch Operations
MfE – Mars for Everyone
NASA – National Space and Aeronautics Administration
NLM – NASA Launch Manager
OD – Operations Director
RC – Radio Communications
Metric to English Conversions
It is assumed that by the time the events of this novel take place, the United States will have joined the rest of the world and will be using the International System of Units, the modern form of the metric system.
Length:
centimeter = 0.39 inches
meter = 1.09 yards, or 3.28 feet
kilometer = 1093.61 yards, or 0.62 miles
Area:
square centimeter = 0.16 square inches
square meter = 1.20 square yards
square kilometer = 0.39 square miles
Weight:
gram = 0.04 ounces
kilogram = 35.27 ounces, or 2.20 pounds
Volume:
liter = 1.06 quarts, or 0.26 gallons
cubic meter = 35.31 cubic feet, or 1.31 cubic yards
Temperature:
To convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 1.8 and then add 32
To convert Kelvin to Celsius, subtract 273.15
Excerpt: Mars Nation 3
Sol 314, MfE Base
“Push!” Theo called.
The triangle created from two panes of glass slowly moved toward him. He let it slide into his gloved hands. The structure was surprisingly heavy. He took a slow step backward and got a firm grip on it right before it slipped off the rover’s cargo area.
“I need you over here,” he said.
“Okay,” he heard Rebecca reply over the helmet radio.
She leaped elegantly off the cargo bed and reached for the end of the structure. The base, a thick plastic panel about three meters long and just as wide, could be carried easily with two hands. Two glass panes were leaning against each other on top of it, forming a wedge. Glass side walls had also been attached to the right and left.
“Do you see the set-up area?” Theo asked.
“Yes, I do.”
They had leveled the area yesterday. It was located on the summit of the hillside that towered over their small settlement. The glass prism was going to sit up there like a little crown.
“And heave!” he commanded.
In perfect unison, they set the structure down on the surface. Theo took a step back. Rebecca waved. She presumably saw someone below them. The presence of the settlement was only obvious at second glance, since the majority of it was located underground.
“I’ll bring the first canister,” Theo declared.
This was the weakest part of his plan. Inside the heated rover, they had brought over several containers full of water. They had to fill the glass structure with the water before it froze. Considering the air temperature was minus forty, they didn’t have much time to do this.
“I’ll open the valve,” Rebecca said.
This was what they had discussed. Theo walked over to the rover and removed the first canister from the cargo area. He then ran over to the glass wedge, opening the seal en route, and poured the liquid into the structure.
“It worked,” Rebecca declared. “Congratulations!”
“Thanks.”
The contents of the first canister covered the bottom of the structure, but he had carefully calculated ahead of time how much water they needed. He ran back and forth to the rover eight more times. The water level increased steadily with each pour since the structure tapered as it rose to the top. However, he wasn’t fast enough with the last canister. The water froze before he could pour it out.
“That should be alright,” Rebecca said. “Look, we’re only missing a couple of centimeters at the top.”
“True,” he replied, glancing up at the sun. It was early afternoon, but its position was already fairly low. “Let’s drive back down,” he urged.
He was excited. Nothing depended on this structure, neither their survival
nor the fate of humanity. And this was what was so special about it. It was pure luxury.
They jumped back on the rover. Since she reached the vehicle first, Rebecca took the driver’s seat. They sped down the hillside. They had to take a long detour since the crater wall was too steep for a straight route. Theo held tight to Rebecca from the back to keep from being hurled from the bucking rover. It was a lot of fun being out and about with Rebecca.
She was also the inspiration behind his idea for the water-filled glass wedge. She had recently spoken wistfully about the fact that they would probably never see a rainbow again. The wedge should change that.
They reached the base of the crater.
“Please stop,” Theo said.
Rebecca brought the rover to a standstill. Theo leaned forward and tapped the map screen beside the control panel.
“It should be about here,” he said.
Rebecca restarted the engine. She drove slowly to the spot that Theo had marked on the map.
“This must be it,” she said.
Theo checked the time. “Twenty minutes to go,” he said.
They stood next to each other, their upper arms brushing against each other. It was impossible for them to feel each other’s warmth through the thick fabric of their spacesuits, but it felt to Theo as if he could. They watched the edge of the crater wall.
“Now,” Theo said.
The sun was on the verge of disappearing behind the crater wall. This was the moment that its rays reached the glass wedge, which, functioning like a prism, split the light into its various components. A rainbow appeared. It was small, of course, but clearly visible. The sun’s light was much weaker here than on Earth, but as the area sank into twilight, the rainbow was all the more distinct.
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