City mulls new hab-tube section
Fourth section build out could start immediately
URBS VALLIS, June 42 - A proposal to extend the Tithonium Chasma Habitational Tube by a fourth 1.6 km section received a mixed reception Thursday from City councillors whose suggestions ranged from beginning the project immediately to scrapping it altogether.
The extension would bring the length of the enclosed 800m high tube to 6.4 km and provide enough space for up to 16,000 additional people to live, work and move around in an open air environment without coverups and helmets.
The existing tube, called the 'tin can' by City Slope residents, was built to house up to 48,000 residents, though the current population is around 43,000. An estimated 15,000 live in terraced settlements on the adjacent slope, which runs north into the chasma.
“More immigrants will be arriving later this year,” Councillor Luca Matteo said. “At the same time, our Mars-born population keeps growing. We can provide more and better living space, and better living environment for arrivals and existing residents with the extended cover.”
The new section needs to be started now if it is to be complete by the time the new living and farming space is needed, Matteo argued, saying, “If we delay, we’ll be too late.”
The project is too ambitious and too costly, Councillor Tiberia Hernandez argued.
“Let’s focus on completing the third section and further developing the canyon walls first with inside habitats and covered outdoor terraces, like we did at the start, before we spend so much labor, water and oxygen,” said Hernandez, who was the lone vote against. “A little at a time is better.”
Council President Claude Paddingbury said that the extended habtube is crucial to ensure continued growth of the City and keep it competitive with other Valley communities, which are growing quickly.
“The habitational tube provides a far superior living environment than the WestHill dwellings, essentially offering open air living, with amenities including family farm plots, gardens, stands of trees, including the growing redwood grove, along with water features such as ponds and meeting places,” Paddingbury said.
Hernandez suggested the city could at least follow the example set by Ius, which provides the living space, but lets the residents supply their own furniture and housewares.
“We could build out the residences and let them furnish it. That would save time,” Hernandez said.
Paddingbury countered that the fully furnished habtube residences offer attractive advantages over other settlements, including Ius and Coprates, since new residents can move in straight from shared living quarters and dormitories without the expense of furnishing their living quarters themselves.
“We face growing competition for labor from other Valley communities and this is a key advantage for us,” Paddingbury said. “People want to live here. They want to raise their families here. It’s a better environment than anywhere else on Mars. We make it easy. In Ius, they just get bare walls.”
As for timing, construction could start as soon as the Council authorizes it, City Engineer Shigeru Kashira said.
“A lot of the preparation is done,” Kashira said.”The chasma floor runs downhill, and the uphill sections required more excavation. We put that material to good use. The fourth section, and fifth, if there is one, will be easier.”
The ground has already been prepared under the first kilometer for the proposed fourth section, and only spot excavation and fill is required for remainder, Kashira said. Much of the printer stock for the support rings is already on hand.
“We can start as soon as the printers are supplied and warmed up for the ring supports, walls and skylights,,” Kashira said.
Searchers hunt for missing Xanthe Terra survey crew.
No distress signal from missing crew
ORSON WELLES, June 43 - A search crew has been flown here from Ares Port to locate a missing Xantha Terra survey team which entered a deep cavern along the Shalbatana Vallis north of Orson Welles Crater more than three weeks ago (24 days).
The four-person search crew has entered the cavern in a search rover, and reports that the locator signal indicates the missing crew’s tractor is more than 1 km inside the cavern complex and several hundred meters underground, Survey Mars Chief Ian Kuyper said Friday.
So far, the survey team has not sent a distress signal nor any report on the reasons for the delay, Kuyper said, adding that the search crew expects at least one of its two robot rovers to reach the locator beacon by Sunday morning.
“It’s slow going. The tunnels have some obstructions, and collapses are always a possibility,” Kuyper said. “At this point, we expect that they experienced some kind of mechanical problem.”
The survey crew is very experienced at cavern exploration and are led by Chief Eustace Saint-Lazare, who has led exploration teams in the Tharsis, Corprates and Margaritifer Sinus quadrangles.
The Shalbatana caverns, about 2,800 km NE of the city are being assessed for future homesteads as well as resources as the Mars population grows.
Orson Welles residents are ready to offer any assistance that may be needed, Orson Welles Council President Sylvana Phison said. “We’re an explorer-based community. We have a lot of equipment to offer and a lot of knowledge of the area. We can be there very quickly.”
For now, Survey Mars has said there’s no need to bring in extra help as the searchers are well equipped to find the tractor and its crew. Given the unfamiliar and often difficult terrain, it’s not unusual for survey crews to run well behind schedule, Kuyper said.
In January, a survey crew was stranded for three weeks further north in the Shalbatana Vallis. Another crew was rescued after a month stranded on the lower slopes of Mons Olympus.
“It may take time, but they have sufficient supplies,” Kuyper said.
City demands halt to Geryon Montes project
Ius declines
URBS VALLIS, June 42 - The City Council has demanded that Ius Chasma call a halt to the expansion project that would nearly double the available housing at Geryon Montes.
“We have authority over all development in the Valles Marineris,” City President Claude Paddingbury said Thursday. “They don’t have approval for a project of this size. They should stop today.”
Ius Councillor Seamus Mitsutomi suggested the City was exceeding its authority.
“In their dreams,” Mitsutomi wrote. “We’re placing no burden on the City—no water, no food, no oxygen, no power. We’re self-sufficient and bearing all the costs. As such, we clearly have the right to proceed as planned under the Mars Charter.”
The expansion project, which includes terraced farms and housing built into the north wall of Geryon Montes, requires no support whatsoever from the City, Mitsutomi said.
The Geryon Montes project would provide living space for up to 10,000 people in addition to the 11,000 already living here and more than adequate farming space to support them. Around 12,000 people live in habitations stretching along the bottom of the slope and out across the chasma floor, about two-thirds of which is covered, allowing free movement for residents.
“We expect to also provide significant improvements to the City food supply,” Mitsutomi wrote. "We want to put tomatoes, zucchini, peaches, plums on their tables. A slice of tomato would surely make those biscuits contract workers live on taste better.”
Contract worker found guilty of tractor theft in city trial
URBS VALLIS, June 43 - A City contract worker was found guilty on Friday in Tithonia Superior Court of stealing and attempting to sell a supply tractor that was badly damaged when it went off track in difficult terrain in Noctis Labyrinthia.
Yves Cerberon, who was sentenced to an additional three-annos (5-1/2 year) contract extension, sparked laughter among jurors and spectators during the trial when he asserted that he had photographic evidence of a bill of sale for the tractor written out in his name.
His city-appointed attorney presented the photograph to the court, saying his client had insisted, but admitted that he was well aware that photographic and video images are inadmissible because they are so easily manipulated.
Cerberon, an environmental staff worker, went missing from his City environmental post midway through the second annos of his three-annos contract, and was living at an unspecificed location in Labyrinthia and working as a casual laborer.
He was arrested by Noctis authorities after being rescued by a Noctis supply train from the tractor about about 100km south of Ares Port after straying from the established track, and sliding a couple hundred meters down an extensive landslide.
The tractor tipped over onto its side, and settled close enough to the edge of the landslide to be dragged up, Labyrinthia Supply Capt. Icario Fletcher testified.
“Any further, and the tractor would have been lost, and most likely the driver with it,” Fletcher testified, adding. “It was criminally incompetent in my opinion.” The court admonished him to keep his opinions out of his testimony.
Cerberon was found to have attempted to sell the damaged tractor to the repair service, which notified Noctis authorities, who returned both Cerberon and the tractor to Ares Port, which is under City jurisdiction
Having admitted to breach of contract, Cerberon was sentenced to serve out the final 1-1/2 annos (2 years and 8 months) of the original contract as well as the three-annos contract extension and to pay for the cost of repairs to the supply tractor.
Lone rambler rescued on Labyrinth border near Ares Port
"Went for a walk"
LABYRINTHIA, June 45 - A lone man wearing a surface suit was found unconscious beside a supply route in the northeastern edges of the Labyrinth, about 40 km from Areas Port, local officials said early Sunday.
The man, who was taken to a City hospital, had been traveling on foot in the fully functioning surface suit, a City official said.
The official said that when the man was asked at the hospital what he was doing, he replied, “"Went for a walk."
City officials would not comment further.
A Noctis official who declined to be identified said the man had recently moved from the City to the Labyrinth and was working as a casual laborer.
Eds note - the original story in the Sunday June 45 edition cited the location where the man was found as on the northwestern boundary of the Labyrinth. Read "northeastern" instead. We regret the editing error.
Contract Chaos - Close Quarters
URBS VALLIS, June 43 - The City Labor Council rejected a request for a contract termination due to a housing complaint.
Aibheen Pottle argued that her three-annos (5.5-year) contract should be terminated because she has already spent more than two years in the cubbies, or dormitory sleeping pods, and that her repeated requests for a shared two-person apartment had been turned down.
“There are plenty of apartments, so it makes no sense to force people to stay in the cubbies, said Pottle, who arrived more than two annos ago and has been quartered in the dormitories since. “In addition, I am only one of two women in a dormitory with 22 men, and we would gladly share an apartment.”
The council rejected the request on the basis that the transportation and labor contract only specified that “adequate housing” would be provided.
- Mirihi Merced
Arrivals
Vroom! The Race is On. Private scout-class explorers Boudicca and Beansí (Banshee), captained by Candor Chasma-born Attracta and Electra O’Ceileachair, respectively, radio that they expect to arrive the first week of July.
The two ships are returning from a 2-annos trek through the asteroid belt, and both have promised to get here before the other. The refurbished craft have upgraded their rockets, inter alia.
Electra radios, “Beansí’s got a Hemi” - a reference to a high-powered combustion engine for 20th Century Earth "muscle cars."
Calendar
Coprates Tractor Swap opens Saturday July 4
Start your engines and check your treads, the Corprates Chasma Tractor Swap gets into gear Saturday, July 4, in the fair grounds under the Chandrasekar dome. The swap features all the gear you might need, or crave, from surface suits to tractors. And don’t miss the finale of the famed robot rover rally, a race across the 24 km crater.
The Urb Revolution?
The City Council will discuss a name change from Urbs Vallis to Tithonia at its regular Thursday meeting on June 49. For residents, it’s either that or “the City.” Let your voice be heard.
Books our parents brought from home
The Tithonia Museum is hosting an exhibition of some of the many hundreds of paper books that immigrants to Mars brought on their 500 million km journey to their new home. A few donors will tell the stories that the books tell about their family journeys Saturday June 51 at noon. Bring the children. The exhibit runs through end-July. WestHill Terrace 12
Lilies!
The lilies are beginning to bloom at Tithonia Gardens, but there’s still time to catch the tulips of all colors, as well as drifts of irises and daffodils and the bluebells. Habtube 2, Terrace 4
City StringsClassical quartet. Hello Cello. Mariners Hall. WestHill Terrace 4. Friday-Sunday 20:00 June 50-52
“Trouble Man,” There’s a new sheriff in space. Action three-dee. Stage 3. Hab 1. Terrace 8 June 49-54, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00
Corprates Samba Soiree. Rumba, salsa and swing too. Enjoy and learn all the dances. Schiapparelli Hall. Friday June 50 18:00
City Social. Mix and mingle with new arrivals and old hands. Hab 2. Terrace 4, by Tithonia Gardens. Every Friday 17:00
- Merry Grace, lifestyle correspondent
The Chaos Courier helps you over the rough spots.
Classified Ads
JUMP START. Tractor Repair. Mobile unit available. If we can reach it, we can fix it. NOCTIS 260-22098
BARVOOM POWERPAX Light it up. Sized for small community and extended-family dwellings. OWELLES 317-76527
WALL GARDENS. Custom seeded and sized. Illuminate, water, grow, eat. IUS 278-14275
PLANT AIR MAT. Get cleaner air, ease scrubber wear. GERYON 278-72903
DUST BUNNIES. Turn dust into dirt. Best for plants. MELAS 285-78329
APPRENTICES Recycling systems. 8 annos (14 years) and up. IUS 278 98559
APPRENTICES Machining. 8 annos (14 years) and up. CANDOR 286 53480
APPRENTICES Aquaculture. 8 annos and up. COPRATES 295 59953
APPRENTICES Metal smith, forging, casting, 8 annos (14 years) and up. URBS 269-37728
APPRENTICES Fabrics production, design. 8 annos and up. URBS 269-98523
PLASMA Specialist. Compact fusion. ex-contract only. CANDOR 286 44561
GEOLOGIST. Ex-contract only. MELAS 285 24455
DRILLING specialists, supervisors and crew. Ex-contract only. MELAS 285 13941
AG ENGINEERS Hydroponics, aeroponics. Ex-contract only. IUS 278-71892
TUTORS. All subjects for all ages, part-time. Must travel. NOCTIS 260 10610
SPACE CAMP. Get ready for orbital work. 8 annos and up. ARES PORT 268 00910
BALLET Poise, strength, balance, beauty. Très grands jetés URBS 269 62577
BALLROOM DANCING Let's Rumba! URBS 269 49144
MARTIAL ARTS. Conditioning and confidence. Weighted and natural. GERYON 278 71435
YOGA. Get the kinks out. IUS 278-43256
The header photo is the iconic mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars from 2,500 km above the surface taken by the Viking Orbiter. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
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Photomosaic: Viking Orbiter: NASA/JPL-Caltech