Stray spaceship Caraval saved
Everyone returning 21 days after missing Mars
MARS CAROUSEL, Aug 3 - More than two weeks behind schedule and seven weeks after its engines first malfunctioned, the fast packet Caraval is expected to return on Friday to its home above Mars, attached to its rescue ship Beansí with “sticky tape and steel rods.”
“Essentially, we’ve put it on a course where Mars will catch up with it and drag it in,” Mission Control Cmdr. Ceres Piazzi said.
Looking out from an observation port on board the Pontus Caelestis orbital above the Valles Marineris, Piazzi smiled and pointed out to space. “We won’t have a visual for a few days, but they’re about there now, just a little to the right of that star.”
The Caraval, which flew past Mars 16 sols ago, was attached to two sections of scaffolding-like metal lattice on the Beansi’s hull by two shipyard welders and the Beansí’s engineer as the ships continued to speed away from Mars.
Tethered to the hulls and lattice, the three spacefarers worked outside to weld attachment points onto the Caraval’s hull and to modify the existing structure on the Beansí to fit the larger ship.
“The outside work was delicate and nerve-racking,” Piazzi said. “They used the built-for-purpose modified extended docking port on the Beansi to go outside. We all exhaled when they got back inside.”
The Beansí added the two strips of exterior lattice, built to connect to attachment points on its sister ship Boudicca before the two scout ships left to explore the asteroid belt 2 annos (3.8 years) ago so that both ships could travel and maneuver together and rescue the other if necessary.
A slow pirouette
While the two nearly identical scouts had traveled and maneuvered jointly a number of times, the larger size of the Caraval required modifications and a lot of caution, Piazzi said.
“Turning the Caraval and the Beansí together was a very delicate process because the two ships aren’t held together with much more than sticky tape and steel rods,” Piazzi said. “It was a very slow pirouette.”
Once the ships were pointed in the right direction, the Beansí gave them a boost toward home.
“Gravity should do most of the rest,” Piazzi said. “The final approach is likely to be a bit tricky, but once they’re in the neighborhood, the shipyard craft can nudge them in.”
The Beansi and Boudicca are captained by Electra and Attracta O’Ceileachair, respectively, while the Caraval is led by experienced spacefarer Capt. Peregrinus Aeolus.
The Caraval was returning from the Astra Earth orbital station with 12 passengers and five crew aboard when it first experienced engine trouble seven weeks ago.
The dozen passengers who had been traveling from the Astra Earth orbital to Mars aboard the Caraval were brought to the Mars Carousel by the Beansí and the Boudicca.
Two crew members from each of the O’Ceileachair ships traded place with passengers to allow them to return to Mars before the repair.
While the Caraval was able to use its stabilizer engines to help slow the errant craft it was not enough to bring it into Mars orbit.
The now-joined ships are working with two-person crews with Aeolus and engineer Generio Curston on board the Caraval and Capt. Electra O’Ceileachair and engineer Alexis Aurora on the Beansí.
The Boudicca is carrying the rest of the crew from all three ships.
Piazzi praised the work done by Aurora along with welders Dominique Martel and Jason Ferrario on the hulls while the two ships sailed through space together.
“They set a new standard for in-flight work. Because of their bravery and skill, everyone is coming back with the ship,” Piazzi said. “That’s a win all around.”
Noctis family to head home after fatal drilling blast
Deaths spur City questions over homesteading
URBS VALLIS, Aug. 3 - A woman who was seriously injured in the drill sled explosion that killed her husband and his brother says she will return to her homestead in Noctis Labyrinthus as soon as possible despite offers of permanent housing in the City.
Juliette Florham underwent surgery for her injuries but credited her surfsuit for taking the brunt of the blast and quick-acting neighbors for putting her in a statis suit after the accident 11 sols earlier on July 42.
Her husband, Sam Bondi, and his brother, Fergus, were killed in the drill sled explosion July 42 during a habitation boring project about 225 km southwest of Ares Port.
Florham’s four children and another woman were unharmed in the explosion as they were in a different part of habitation which sits among a group of homesteads built into the rim of a shallow crater beneath a 4,000m slope.
Florham was airlifted by Survey Mars to the City, which later brought her children, ages 2 to 8 annos, and her husband’s sister. City officials provided temporary housing near the hospital.
“I’m grateful to Survey Mars for getting me here so quickly, and to the hospital,” Florham said. “We’re all grateful to the City and Survey Mars for bringing my children and my sister-in-law here to watch over me and for putting us up.”
At the time of the explosion, Sam and Fergus Bondi were boring a new tunnel from the central living space in the habitation, which is shaped like a hub with residential, environmental and farming tunnels radiating outward.
Neighbors freed the injured Florham from the machinery and debris, administered emergency treatment and placed her in a stasis suit to await the airlift.
While City officials have offered housing and a position for the construction specialist, Florham said she intends to return to Noctis.
“It’s our home, now. We built it. Our extended family lives there,” Florham said. “Once we’ve built out the individual habitats, we’ll connect them as they’ve done in WestHill, Geryon and Coprates. It’s a growing community that I want to be part of, that I want my children to be part of.”
That return will have to wait at least until the end of August for health reasons, Florham said.
“We’ll have a family and community memorial when we return, and then get back to work,” she said.
The explosion was likely due to a fault in the drill sled’s propulsion unit, though the unit had been recently refurbished, Labyrinthia Supply Capt. Icario Fletcher said.
An emergency crew sent from the Noctis Grange Hall, about 75 km northeast of the site, arrived the following day and re-sealed the habitation. The land route is difficult as it includes a traverse across a steep 1,800 meter slope formed by an ancient landslide.
City calls for greater oversight
City Council President Claude Paddingbury said the accident highlights the need for closer supervision of homesteading and with more stringent regulations.
“This is part of why we believe there should be a Valley-wide council to more closely regulate safety as well as development,” Paddingbury said. “We appreciate the value of individual initiative, but people are taking unnecessary chances that cost lives.”
Paddingbury said the City Council is consulting with Survey Mars over measures that could be instituted more quickly to reduce the risks of homesteading.
Noctis Councillor Catarina Morelli acknowledged the danger involved in building independent homesteads, but noted that is a choice willingly made by people moving to areas such as the Labyrinth and Orson Welles.
“Yes, it’s dangerous. It’s dangerous just going outside,” Morelli said. “It’s dangerous to come to Mars, and dangerous to live here. It’s not safe to settle a new planet. That’s why we take every precaution and encourage everyone to do so.”
City Council raises question of Valley-wide Council
Other chasmata cautious
URBS VALLIS, Aug. 1 - City Council President Claude Paddingbury raised the question of whether the election should include a proposal to establish a formal Valley-wide council instead of the current informal meetings among the various chasmata councils.
“It’s time for a more organized, planned development of the Valles Marineris,” Paddingbury said at the regular Thursday Council meeting. “We’ve seen both Ius and Candor launch development projects of dubious utility and Melas launch a claim to water rights beyond their own needs with their drilling project,” Paddingbury said.
The City has objected officially to a variety of projects announced by other chasmata. Those include the Ius Chasma development project that could nearly double the population of Geryon Montes from 11,000 currently, including a significant expansion of the Geryon Agora.
In July, Candor announced plans to expand its existing industrial plant, which the City has said only duplicates its own efforts. Melas has approved a deep water mining project which may lead to exporting water to Ius.
Ius Councillor Seamus Mitsutomi, who has been a strong opponent of City oversight, welcomed the idea of regular consultation but wrote that the chasma would not subject its future to City control.
“We intend to control our own destiny. That’s why we came to Mars and moved out of the City in the first place,” Mitsutomi wrote.
Candor Councillor Griffin D’Armagnac wrote that the proposal was “simply an attempt by the City Council to take control."
While agreeing that a formal structure for consultation could be beneficial, City Councillor Eugenia Velazquez said a more laissez-faire approach is best.
“Mars will develop organically through the efforts of the people who chose to live in areas outside the City,” Velazquez said. “A one-size-fits-all approach will by self-defeating. In Tithonium Chasma, the City has chosen the path that best fits its needs. We should let the other chasmata do the same.”
Shalbatana Martians sketch out ambitious plan
A vertical city?
ARES PORT, Aug. 2 - The mystery Martians of the Shalbatana Vallis have filed an official claim for their habitation site about 2,800 km northeast of the City and sent a rough copy of the plans for their homestead and its development, Survey Mars Chief Ian Kuyper said Wednesday.
“We will wait for more detailed plans, but they document that they have established a self-sustaining settlement with sufficient resources for future growth, and lay out a plan for a rather ambitious settlement,” Kuyper said. “There being no competing claims for the site, they’re entitled to proceed, though we retain oversight for the use and development of resources beyond their own needs.”
Kuyper said the plans called for a vertical habitat making use of various natural tunnels to depths of nearly 1 km, with an eventual opening at the surface. The habitation would be located about 4 km from the edge of an ancient outflow channel leading into the Shalbatana Vallis.
“The geology they describe is a surprise, but Mars is full of surprises,” Kuyper said.
The plans were signed by Engineer Jeremiah Volcan, who Kuyper said helped create the original WestHill habitats before moving from the City.
“We heard he had moved to Welles, but we didn’t hear anything from him after that,” Kuyper said.
Explorer Chief Eustace Saint-Lazare, who was trapped with his crew in the deep caverns in the area, accidentally discovered the unknown habitation in late June after a cavern floor collapsed into a tunnel below.
Saint-Lazare has traveled back to the habitat at the request of the habitants, with former Survey Mars explorer Perpetua Heathering and Chaos Courier Orson Welles correspondent Jenna Maris. The only message they have sent so far is, “We’re here.”
“Barsoom” Princess shines in Museum show
Kids fascinated by cowboys and horses
URBS VALLIS, Aug. 3 - Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, cut an enviable figure that naturally turned heads, especially among adults, but it was Old West adventurer John Carter who really captured the children’s imagination at the final weekend of the Tithonia Museum’s exhibit of paper books from Earth.
Thoris’ costume certainly drew attention while leaving far more to the imagination than the description in the books, but she looked every inch the brave and daring science fiction princess from Earth book covers.
Both Thoris and Carter were played by volunteers who kept in character the whole time without revealing their real identities, despite persistent questioning. “Today, I’m Dejah Thoris,” the actress said patiently more than a few times.
The theatrical presentation wrapped up the month-long exhibit “Books our parents brought from Earth” that showcased the hundreds of paper volumes that immigrants have brought hundreds of millions of miles from home, said museum director and environmental specialist Aeron Rhys.
“Some of them could only bring a kilo of personal effects, so it was a hard choice,”Rhys said. “Often that meant a few printed photos and a prized book.”
It’s not surprising that many of those books were written by the early stars of science fiction.
“We have lots of Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Le Guin, Heinlein and Herbert and Hoyt and HG Wells,” Rhys said.
But on Saturday and Sunday, the author of the “Barsoom” series of books, Edgar Rice Burroughs, took center stage.
The books tell the exciting tale of Carter’s mysterious journey to Mars from the desert Western wilderness of North America about 140 annos ago (260 years) and his adventures with the brave and beautiful Martian Princess Thoris.
The reading and acting brought to life old-style science fiction, but for the dozens of real Martian children sitting in a library with a view of a 4km deep chasma, fiction meant Earth, rather than the stunning landscape of their home planet.
Thoris’ vivid description of a Martian landscape covered in yellow moss drew skeptical looks, but the children decided to accept it as the price of entry to the story along with the towering, talking, six-limbed olive-green Tharks.
The children intuitively understood the dry and dusty Arizona landscape Burroughs described for it seemed much as their own home with its much taller mesas and deeper valleys.
They also readily understood the huge leaps Carter made, having grown up with the lighter Martian gravity and spent many hours in exercising to keep up their Earthly strength—and learning to keep their own Martian lopes under control at home.
But the idea of men roaming freely in the outdoors on the backs of large four-legged animals felt more far-fetched than space travel.
Carter’s tale of his wild ride on a horse through a camp of hostile natives under the huge Earth moon in the desert state of Arizona kept the children spellbound
The horse took a great deal of description as the actors let the children rely on their own imaginations rather than using pictures. Carter’s pantomime of a man riding a horse drew the biggest laughs, including from the princess herself.
“My son and daughter both want cowboy hats now,” said WestHill resident Tine Rios, “and she wants a princess costume to go with the hat.”
Calendar
Ius, Candor, Melas, Coprates to discuss Valley council
Council members from Ius, Candor, Melas and Coprates will meet remotely Aug. 7 to discuss a so-far unofficial proposal by the Urbs Vallis City Council to establish an official Valley-wide Council. Local council channels 17:00.
Redwood Walk
Learn all about the tallest trees on Mars. Get the guided tour of the City’s growing Redwood Grove and sit beside a running stream. Hab 1. Terrace 1. Saturday-Sunday Aug.10-11
Geryon Stuff Swap
Find your stuff a new home. Get new stuff for your home. Two items per person. Pot luck food and beverage swap too. Geryon Agora. Saturday Aug. 10. 13:00-15:00.
"Moments Like This" A romantic weeper threedee. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll cry some more. Stage 3. Hab 1. Terrace 8. Aug. 8-Aug. 14, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00
Coprates Swing Session Kick up your heels at Schiapparelli Hall. Friday Aug. 9 18:00
City Strings . Selections from the Schubert reportoire. Musical beauty and drama. WestHill Terrace 4 Friday-Sunday Aug. 9-11 19:00
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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FUSION PLASMA SPECIALIST Compact designs. CANDOR 286 25120
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ENGINEER. Exterior construction projects. Long term. Ex-contract only NOCTIS 260 82658
APPRENTICES Aquaculture. 8 annos and up. URBS 269 62128
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APPRENTICES Construction. Interior. GERYON 278 65689
APPRENTICES Machining. 8 annos (14 years) and up. CANDOR 286 53480
APPRENTICES Tractor repair 8 annos (14 years) and up. NOCTIS 260 22098
DANCING. All styles for adults. Hab 3 Rec Center. URBS 269 10311
MARTIAL ARTS Multi-style Strength and conditioning. WestHill Terrace 2 URBS 269 14420
STRENGTH Training for trainers. COPRATES 295 04716
BALLET Poise, strength, balance, beauty. Très grands jetés URBS 269 62577
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