Xanthe Terra survey crew left tractor empty
Survey crew leaves mystery behind
SHALBATANA VALLIS, July 11 - Searchers rappelled down the side of a collapsed cavern deep underground to reach the missing Xanthe Terra survey crew’s tractor, nearly buried under a pile of rubble, only to find the crew missing.
As if that wasn’t mystery enough, some of the rubble had been cleared from around the tractor, which was laying partially on one side, enabling the crew to escape into the cavern about 2,800 km east and north of Urbs Vallis.
“Clearly, they had help, but the question is, who helped them?” Search crew chief Julius Fix told the Chaos Courier as he stood by the partially buried tractor in a surfsuit. “Their comms faulted, and we’re booting that back up. And judging by the tracks, it looks like someone came by with a drill sled, but we have no idea who that might be. Martians?”
The missing crew’s tractor was about 4 km inside the cavern complex and more than 900m below the surface when the cavern floor collapsed, dropping it 30m into another cavern below, Fix said. There were no signs that the crew had suffered injuries.
“They took their ready packs with them, which means they have food and should have mobile comms, but it depends on where they are,” Fix said. “There’s nearly a kilometer of rock over our heads and we’re surrounded by rock.”
Two searchers set out on foot to follow the tracks, but they won’t go beyond comms range, Fix said.
A third local tractor is en route from Orson Welles. When it arrives, the team will winch down their search rover to be able to move more quickly, said Welles team leader Perpetua Heathering, who had rappelled down to the cavern floor to assess where to place place the search rover.
As for the question of who might have assisted the search crew, Heathering said local explorers have investigated the caverns, but there had been no hint of any actually establishing a more permanent base so deep underground.
“Usually, we get some kind of contact when a new settlement is being developed, however small, but we haven’t heard anything from this area yet,” Heathering said.
The missing six-person Survey Mars crew, led by well-known explorer Chief Eustace Saint-Lazare, entered the cavern more than five weeks ago on a mission to evaluate the area for homesteading as well as to assess local resources, including water.
Survey Mars is airlifting two more four-person search crews to assist, but given the equipment already on hand, is not sending more search rovers, Survey Mars Chief Ian Kuyper said.
“We’’ll take it as good news that there were no signs of injuries, and we’ll find them, hopefully very soon,” Kuyper said, adding, “Mars holds many mysteries.”
Fast packet Caraval engine trouble worsens
It’s not just the thrusters--sources say
ARES PORT, July 10 - The fast packet Caraval, with five crew and 12 passengers aboard, is experiencing more widespread engine problems about four weeks ahead of its scheduled arrival at Mars and three weeks ahead of necessary deceleration burn to drop into orbit, two knowledgeable sources told the Chaos Courier.
“It’s not just a couple thrusters,” a source who has been in radio contact with the Caraval said. “There’s a more of a system-wide problem, and they’re trying to figure out whether it’s a mechanical or digital issue.”
The ship’s propulsion system has not been responding to repeated commands, and crew is working to isolate the problem, another source with knowledge of the mission said, adding, “It could be a valve or a stray bit of code. They have plenty of spare parts, but repairs in flight can be difficult and time-consuming.”
Mission Control Cmdr. Ceres Piazzi declined to comment further on the extent of the engine trouble, but reiterated that the danger of the ship missing Mars is very low, and they have been planning different scenarios to make sure the craft can make any needed adjustments.
“The ship is on a ballistic trajectory for the next few weeks. We’ll get it fixed,” Piazzi said Friday.
Caraval Capt. Peregrinus Aeolus is recognized as an accomplished flight commander, and engineer, who has piloted several lunar shuttle and research voyages.
“Perry pretty much knows that ship inside and out and he’s been through some tricky situations, so everyone is confident he and his crew have the skills to make it all work,” Piazzi said.
The fusion-powered fast packet is carrying high value cargo including nano- and quantum processors. Mission Control did not provide the names of the passengers, but such flights generally carry people in mission-critical positions.
Separately, the captain of the explorer scout Boudicca, Attracta O’Ceileachair, radios that she is diverting from Mars toward the Caraval, “Just in case ‘Breezy’ needs a hand.” The Boudicca and its explorer scout companion Bansí were expected to arrive back in Mars this week. Beansí captain Electra O’Ceileachair did not respond to a radio call.
“It’s typical O’Ceileachair,” Piazzi said. “The Boudicca can’t reach the Caraval in time to make any difference whatsoever. It’s just not that fast. That’s the physics of it.”
Corrects Caraval designation to 'fast packet' from 'supply ship.' (July 17)
Candor Chasma sets industrial expansion; City objects
Inventors get a bigger sandbox
CANDOR CHASMA, July 9 - The Candor Chasma Council voted unanimously Thursday to approve an expansion of its existing industrial plant and to provide additional support for its inventors’ “sandbox” that has nurtured projects such as the BarVoom compact fusion units.
“We may be small compared to the City (Urbs Vallis) and Ius in population, but we’re big when it comes to invention,” Councillor Sabrina Argo said at Thursday’s monthly council meeting. “The technology we’ve fostered and our culture of innovation have sparked growth not only in Candor but all along the Valley.”
Argo said the City Planning Commission had expressed strong reservations about the planned industrial expansion that would nearly double Candor’s metal working and manufacturing capacity and provide more space, along with power and resources, for inventors.
“The City has enough power from its two standard fusion plants to double or triple in population and to greatly expand its own industrial output,” Argo said. “That doesn’t help us here a thousand kilometers away. That’s why the BarVoom power units have made such a difference.”
The compact fusion units have sparked decentralized growth in the Valley to the west of the City all the way to Orson Welles, north and east of the Valley itself, Candor Councillor Griffin D’Armagnac said.
“That’s why they object. They want to control all development, whether it be housing in Geryon, or farming in Coprates and manufacturing in Candor,” D’Armagnac said. “But we’re going ahead.”
The City’s main concern is that Candor’s industrial expansion would simply duplicate projects underway around Ares Port east of the City where industrial development has been focused as part of the wider planning for the Valley, City Planning Commission President and Councilor Marcus Wu wrote in a reply.
In addition, Mars DevCo is planning to build out orbital manufacturing facilities that could more easily shuttle goods and equipment to the surface without requiring extensive construction of transportation infrastructure, Wu wrote.
“First of all, it’s unnecessary and counterproductive. Second, they lack adequate transportation infrastructure. Third, they lack adequate environmental controls at the site,” Wu wrote.
Argo noted that Candor-based BarVoom has been able to transport its power units all over the Valley using established supply train routes, even through difficult terrain.
“On top of that, the Candor industrial plant is a closed, underground system,” Argo said. “Everything that is not turned into equipment and gear is recycled. We have excellent environmental controls already in place and highly successful resource recycling.”
D’Armagnac said the City, which has nearly 60,000 residents compared to just 8,000 for Candor, had long been the focus of Valley development and wants to retain its dominance over development in the other chasmata going forward.
“They’re worried about being left behind,” D’Armagnac said. “It’s about control, full stop,”
Coprates Tractor Swap drags in a load of fun
Tractor parade and Rover draw big crowds
COPRATES CHASMA, July 11 - If you didn’t have fun at the Tractor Swap this week, you weren’t there.
Thousands of Corprates residents lined up for the opening tractor parade which featured working models of the first robot rovers and the tractors used by the earliest explorers as well as the latest in supply train and survey tractors.
“My younger son loves the big supply tractors,” Corporates resident Ana Mehta said. “Today, he wants to drive one of them all the way to Melas and Ius and the City. His older brother is training as a surveyor right now.”
The Swap had the feel of an old time fair with rides, contests such as the rock-tossing “meteor throw,” cook-offs, bake-offs and awards for the best home-grown fruits and vegetables. The Friday barn dance was a big hit with acoustic bands featuring guitars and banjos and standup basses.
“The whole community came out to get together and have fun,” long-time organizer Marcia Charettier said. “And we did it.”
And let’s not forget the crowd favorite robot rover rally, which saw the winner cross the line Saturday afternoon.
The Curious Cat piloted by Portia Mendez won the 25 km robot rover rally across the crater floor with a time of 56 hours and 27 minutes, two minutes under the previous record for the hand-built rovers.
The Persistence rover won second coming in just 8 minutes behind Curious Cat. The battery- and solar-powered rovers, whose drivers are 16 annos and under, are limited to traveling in daylight hours and have to wait for the official start each morning.
“Persistence, was well, persistent—very persistent,” Mendez said as she accepted the gold-plated model of the original Perseverance rover. “T.T. (Tyler Terregrine) is a great driver. I took a gamble on a slightly different route on the final morning, and it paid off. Otherwise, I’d be congratulating T.T. right now.”
That detour had the crowd cheering at the screen in the control room as they watched the two rovers race over the final few hours. Mendez will have her name displayed on the model of the Perseverance rover in the fairgrounds office until next annos. Both drivers are qualified to return next annos.
The Swap wound up Saturday night with the Raas and Garba folk dancers, with the Rocket Raas team the crowd favorite for its space-western themed performance.
“They were amazing,” said resident Raj Parekh. “That was a whole spaceship full of fun,”
A family’s journey into the night sky
Book tells the story of an interplanetary trek
URBS VALLIS, July 8 - Fusion engineer S. Lucius Simon holds up the leather-bound book his father brought from Earth that tells the story of his family’s journey over seven generations from rural Africa to the moon and Mars.
Cradling the very well traveled book in his hands, Simon opened it very carefully to the page where his ancestors signed their names in longhand script with the place and date.
“This first entry was a Martian century ago, more than 180 years on Earth,” Simon said as he underlined the name with his finger, and read, “W. Lucius Simon, Gabarone, Botswana, 1966.”
Simon pointed through the window of the Tithonia Museum on WestHill Terrace 12, where the “Books Our Parents Brought from Home” exhibit is being held, out to the stark, majestic vista of the steep-walled chasma beyond.
“I wonder if Wayfarer, as he was called, looked up into the star-filled sky and saw the red dot of Mars,” Simon said. “Could he even imagine such as place as this vast, spectacular canyon.”
As a boy, Simon said, Wayfarer walked dozens of miles from his farming village to study in a mission schools, where he was awarded what became the Simon family bible for excellent work.
“He took it with him to the new capital of independent Botswana to study at the new university, where he later became a professor,” Simon said.
“His son Lucius took it took Oxford, England, where he studied astrophysics, and his daughter Lucia to New York in North America. From there, my family moved to California, then Texas, where my grandparents worked building the first generation of Mars-capable rockets. My parents brought the book to the early moon settlements and the L5 habitats, where I was born. And now it’s here with me — on Mars.”
Simon said he was the first of his family to have never set foot on Earth. He arrived on Mars 7 annos ago as a fusion specialist, and is raising three children in the City with his wife Alexa Kimkora, an astrophysicist.
“I wonder where our family will take this little book next, maybe the Belts, and from there to the lights in the firmament of the heavens.”
Asked what the S. stands for in his name, Simon smiles broadly. “Spacefarer.”
The "Books our Parents Brought to Mars" exhibit runs through end-July at the Tithonia Museum. WestHill Terrace 12.
Contract Choas - Cold Storage
URBS VALLIS, June 10 - The City Labor Council denied a request for a contract transfer from a shuttle port logistics specialist seeking to move from Ares Port to a similar position in the City habtube.
Petrus Seraphim, who has 1 annos left on his original contract, said he had applied for a similar position inside Habtube 3 after handling cargo and supplies in either an exterior mobile lift or in a surfsuit outside at shuttle port since his arrival.
Seraphim said he wanted to move to an interior lodging from his housing at the port, which he likened to the ‘cubbies’ or dormitories where new contract arrivals are housed in the City.
In its ruling, the Council cited the current plans to build a third shuttle terminal at Areas Port, about 50 km west of the City, and noted that transportation contracts stipulate that management has discretion over housing and work assignments.
- Mirihi Merced
Calendar
City sets vote on habtube extension
The City council will vote Thursday July 16 on a proposal to extend the Tithonium Chasma Habitational Tube by a fourth 1.6 km section, which 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 three sections of the tube were 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, called WestHill, which runs north into the chasma.
Go green!
The Tithonia Gardens is showing off a massive bed of big-leafed hostas across a gamut of greens, from soft and mellow to dark. They won’t flower for a couple weeks yet, but while the blue flowers are nice, the green will soothe your spirit. Through July. Habtube 2, Terrace 4
Sail Away Fun scifi threedee about solar-powered ships sailing the future far heavens. Stage 3. Hab 1. Terrace 8 July 15-21, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00
It's electric! The Rayguns kick up the electric music at the Ius Forum. Saturday 20:00
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.
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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