1 killed, 3 injured in Ares Port construction accident
Crane drops load on tractor
ARES PORT, Aug. 24 - - One worker died and three others were injured when a construction crane load fell onto a tractor Monday at the site of the new shuttle terminal here, a port official said.
Supervisor Diderot Antonius, who had 10 annos of experience in Martian construction and the equivalent of 3 annos on Earth orbitals, died at the site and was memorialized Friday morning at a public funeral service in the Tithonia Gardens, which he helped build.
“Everyone loved working with Diderot,” construction specialist Isabella Hayes said at the memorial. “He took care of his people. He loved building on Mars, and he particularly loved this beautiful garden.”
Of the three injured workers, one remains in critical condition, while the other two are recovering from serious injuries at city hospital, Ares Port manager Ernesto Bosch said. The names of the three injured workers have not been released.
“The load shifted, tipped and broke free,” Bosch said, adding that a thorough investigation had been initiated into the first fatal injury at the port in 7 annos (13 years).
The load of construction materials dropped from a height of about 50 meters onto the cab of the construction tractor carrying the four workers, killing the driver, Bosch said.
“A bundle of metal rods punched through the roof cage and into the cab,” Bosch said. “We’re reviewing the crane rigging, loading and how it was secured.”
Construction at the site has been stopped until the initial investigation is completed.
While accidents have been rare at the port and in the City, construction remains one of the most dangerous jobs on Mars.
The risks are amplified by the need to work outdoors in hardened protective surf suits that can inhibit movement.
“We have a high degree of automation, but people are still involved and there’s no lack of potential dangers on construction projects,” Bosch said.
Ares Port, which handles all the shuttles to the Mars Carousel (Pontus Caelestis orbital), began construction in late June of the new shuttle terminal, adding to the existing two at the spaceport 50 km west of the City.
The new terminal will be able to accommodate the larger Class 5 shuttles being built in the City shipyard between the City itself and the Port.
The first of the Class 5 shuttles, which can carry roughly twice as much cargo and passengers than the older Class 4 craft, is expected to enter service when the additional docks on the Mars Carousel are completed in January 102.
MarsDevCo quietly sends new supervisor
Top manager rescued from stricken ship
MARS CAROUSEL, Aug. 22 - Mars DevCo has sent a new manager - unannounced - to supervise development in orbit and planet-side including the Pontus Caelestis orbital, the shipyard, Ares Port and its ancillary industrial areas, the Chaos Courier has learned.
Elric Balvicar, whose career includes top management positions on two Earth orbitals, arrived here July 46 aboard the explorer scout Boudicca after being rescued from the fast packet Caraval, which suffered near total engine failure on its approach to Mars.
Balvicar’s appointment was effective on his arrival four weeks ago, Pontus Caelestis Manager Johannes Tycho confirmed, without further comment.
In brief comments to the Chaos Courier, Balvicar said his mission was, “to further align orbital and planetary development with long-term goals including the asteroid belt.”
Balvicar said he would have more to say after meetings with top managers scheduled to take place at Ares Port next week.
While the appointment has not been officially announced, Balvicar was spotted after meeting with Urbs Vallis Council President Claude Paddingbury aboard the Carousel on Thursday.
Paddingbury, who has called for greater City oversight of development in the Valles Marineris, declined to comment on the meeting.
Paddingbury has been the leading proponent of a City proposal to establish a Valley-wide council to oversee growth across the entire length of the Valles Marineris from Noctis Labyrinthus at the western end through Coprates Chasma.
Balvicar was listed among the 12 passengers aboard the Caraval, whose engines began to malfunction in early July, about five weeks ahead of its scheduled arrival in Mars orbit.
The passenger list identified him as a MarsDevCo senior official. The other passengers have taken up posts or residence on the orbital, Ares Port and the City.
Two Boudicca crew members swapped places with Caraval passengers to enable the scout to carry the six remaining passengers to the Carousel. Its sister ship Beansí (Banshee) did the same, bringing six passengers to safety on July 37, and bringing the Caraval back on Aug. 9
Ring City? Coprates lays out plans
Can they build a dome that big?
CORPRATES CHASMA, Aug. 21 - The Coprates Council showed support for a proposal to create a “ring city” along the edge of its 25-km wide home crater, starting with an agricultural corridor that would link to a second dome similar in size to the Chandrasekar Dome.
The proposal calls for seven such domes placed about 11 km apart around the 78 km circumference crater that would be linked by covered agricultural corridors that would include small villages between the farms.
“Yes, it’s ambitious,” Councillor Perseverance Mendez said. “But we’re building a new world. We should be ambitious and it’s an attainable goal.”
The development will provide new farms for Corprates’ growing population, which now stands at 14,000, as well as covered space for features such as walking trails, orchards and gardens, Mendez said.
“It’s a bit like the City’s habitation tube, but we’re skipping the multi-layer terraces and covering more ground,” Mendez said.
The overall vision would be to develop and cover the entire crater, which covers nearly 500 square km, Councillor Angus Raju said.
“We can proceed in steps, building the farm corridor to the first village, and go from there around the crater rim,” Raju said. “From there, we shall see. We don’t have the skills and technology yet to cover the entire crater, but I have no doubt we will.”
Raju noted that the Chandrasekar Dome was built into a 1.6 km diameter depression which remains from an ancient crater near the southwestern side of the crater.
“This would be a much larger, mega-version of our dome,” Raju said.
While the ring city proposal would cover a lot of ground, it would, in essence, be a long corridor that could provoke feelings of claustrophobia, Councillor Rhian Llewellyn said.
“They avoid that in the City because the tube is so high, but we’re talking about a much lower ceiling and a 78 km hallway,” Llewellyn said. “People will be very aware of the enclosure.”
Llewellyn suggested that the council consider a smaller circle to start and enclose that with a higher dome.
That approach would require much more ground preparation for the portion of the circle off the crater rim, said construction engineer Raj Perekh, who is among the group supporting the concept.
Given that the crater wall stands several hundred meters tall, and varies by hundreds of meters, Llewellyn suggested building one- or two-level terrace sections, with a taller, quarter round covering from the side of the wall to its foot.
“That would provide more variety. We could build habitats into the wall and under the terrace with the farmland on the flat section,” Llewellyn said. “We could then vary the road so that it wouldn’t feel so much like a hallway.”
That approach could prove more challenging than leveling and covering farmland at the foot of the crater wall, but would not jeopardize the longer-term goal, Parekh said.
Raju noted that the walls of the larger crater were highly variable, forming a nearly 700 meter cliff near the Dome, but a more gentle, irregular rise on the northwestern and northern rim.
“If we took that approach, we could still build the supporting structure for the mega-dome as we proceed around the crater rim,” Raju said. “We could vary the villages, depending on the individual sites and the farm land and terraces as well.”
That would slow the pace of development, but lead to a more aesthetically pleasing result, Mendez argued.
“We can still get started sooner rather than later and adjust as we go,” Mendez said.
The Council set a hearing date of Aug. 35 to vote on the proposed first step, which would be the 10 km agricultural corridor heading west away from Chandresekar Dome, and enclosing some of the existing habitats in the area.
Shalbatana Martians greening the underground
The river of Babylon
SHALBATANA VALLIS, Aug. 21 - - The two explorers sat in a rover beside a little stream amid a field of short grass in a high-ceilinged cavern sharing cups of hot coffee from a thermal bottle with legendary Mars builder Jeremiah Volcan.
“By the river of Babylon,” Volcan said, smiling as he took a sip of coffee. “We’re doing two things here, We’re building the internal atmosphere with plants and we’re hardening the plants in a weaker atmosphere.”
Sitting next to famed Mars explorer Eustace Saint-Lazare and former Survey Mars explorer Perpetua Heathering, Volcan outlined the plan to plant the grasses and mosses in very low atmosphere caverns, with an eye to eventually growing them in unpressurized tunnels sealed to prevent water loss.
“We’ve grown plants for the whole spectrum of atmospheric conditions in the caverns here, and we’re using the plants to retain moisture and improve the soil and the air, so we can sit hear and breathe normally, even if it’s a little thin,” Volcan said.
The Shalbatana community plans what Volcan calls a vertical city rising up the sides of a 900 m deep, partially enclosed pit crater. The city would consist of galleries facing out onto the crater and making use of the extensive network of tube caverns surrounding it.
As part of that goal, the community has built at least two intensely gardened habitats in caverns nearly a kilometer underground near an ancient outflow channel that fed into the Shalbatana Vallis.
One of the habitats is almost jungle-like, crowded with trees and vines around a stream of water that showers a pond below that feeds aquaculture ponds where fish swim.
The second habitat that Volcan showed his visitors is more conventionally, but still intensively, farmed with miniature fruit trees and coffee shrubs mixed with an extensive variety of food and flowering plants.
The cavern with the little stream and grasses provides another glimpse of the overall settlement, although Volcan’s guests were hosted in a guest habitat and not the residential quarters.
Volcan declined to say when the growing settlement started, and it was only found by happenstance when Saint-Lazare’s six person survey crew was trapped for six weeks in the cavern network by a cave-in about 900 m below the surface.
The Survey Mars crew was initially rescued by Volcan’s fellow residents and later brought back to Orson Welles by Heathering, a former Survey Mars explorer who now lives in Welles.
Volcan calls the habitat ‘Surtshellir’ after the cave of the fire giant on the island of Iceland in Earth’s northern seas.
On the rover with his visitors, Volcan twisted a blade of short grass.
“It’s very hardy and with enough light and heat, it grows well in lower atmosphere conditions, like here,” Volcan said. “As we open up new gardens, it’s the first thing we plant. After that, we can get more creative.”
Asked about how he chose the site, Volcan said it is close to a thick layer of buried ice, that the depth provides a warmer and less volatile temperature and it’s deep underground.
“Away from prying eyes and meddling,’ Volcan said.
Told that Survey Mars was holding the habitation site claim he filed for further review, Volcan smiled. “Read it.”
The announcement reads, “Survey Mars retains oversight for use and development of resources beyond the immediate and foreseeable needs of specific homestead sites. We are holding for further review the claim filed by Jeremiah Volcan for development of a habitation site in the Shalbatana Vallis.”
Survey Mars would not comment further and confirmed earlier this week that they continue to hold the claim for review.
“We’ve been building—and living—here for years,” Volcan said. “The claim satisfies all conditions. I know, I helped write them. We are well outside the Valles Marineris and any authority they think they might have. They’re 2,800 km away. While Ian (Survey Mars Chief Ian Kuyper) reviews it, we’ll keep building and planting and growing,”
Tithonium HabTube extension back on track
Printer jam cleared
URBS VALLIS, Aug. 22 - - Construction of the fourth section of the Tithonium habitation tube is expected to resume on Wednesday after a printer jam was cleared, City Engineer Shigeru Kashira told the City Council at its regular Thursday meeting.
The printers building the first two 800 m diameter section ring supports have been tested and aligned with those building the connecting lattice that supports the overall structure, Kashira said.
The next step is to restart the printers and make sure that they are all working together correctly.
A supply feed jam last week stopped one of the larger ring printers, shutting down all the others working on the 1.6 km HabTube extension, Kashira said Aug. 15. Work on the fourth section began July 48 after the City approved it July 16.
Supply, balance, sequencing and alignment problems are still possible, Kashira replied to a question by Councilor Marcus Wu, who was presiding in the absence of Council President Claude Paddingbury.
“The printers have been idle sine the third section exterior was completed in January 98 so we should expect some stumbles,” Kashira said. “They’d do better if we kept them going straight into a fifth sectoin when this one is complete.”
The fourth section is designed to provide housing for an additional 16,000 residents in addition to the 43,000 that currently live in the first three sections. About 15,000 City residents live in the WestHill Terraces, bringing the total population to about 58,000.
- Susmita O'Reilly
Calendar
Wildflower Meadow
Walk through a wildflower meadow at the Tithonia Gardens and soak up the beauty and tranquility. Learn all about the Mars-adapted wildflowers on the docent tours on the even hours in the afternoon on Saturday. Through August. Habtube 2, Terrace 4
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.31-32
Dance of the spheres
The Tithonia Museum is hosting an exhibition of an exquisitely detailed orrery with spheres that mimic the view from orbit of each of the planets. The distances and size aren’t to scale, since Jupiter, Saturn and the outer planets wouldn’t fit, but the detail is amazing. Through early September. East Terrace 12
“Jezero!” Stage 3. Hab 1. Terrace 8. Adventure threedee of exploration on the shores of an ancient sea. Aug. 29-Aug. 35, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00 Meet at the future site of brew pub coop, Rick’s. Geryon Agora Saturday 1700
Geryon pub stand Meet at the future site of brew pub coop, Rick’s. Bring your home brews to sip and swap. Geryon Agora Saturday 1700
Song Share Acoustic players swap songs. Geryon Agora. Two sessions. Saturday Aug. 31 16:00, 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.
Classified Ads
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BORING HEADS Diamond durable. Get the job done. CANDOR 286 49762
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WALL GARDENS. Custom seeded and sized. Illuminate, water, grow, eat. IUS 278-14275
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ROCKET ENGINEER Engine upgrade project, Ex-contract only. PONTUS 100 637
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PLASMA SPINMASTER Compact fusion designs. CANDOR 286 25120
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PRINTING Design and fabrication. Non-mechanical. Ex-contract only. IUS 278 70887
BIOENGINEER - Specialist in hardy, low atmosphere grasses. COPRATES 295 67284
APPRENTICES Recycling systems. 8 annos and up. IUS 278 98559
APPRENTICES Metal smith, forging, casting, 8 annos (14 years) and up. URBS 269-37728
APPRENTICES Aquaculture. 8 annos and up. URBS 269 62128
APPRENTICES Environmental systems. URBS 269 81447
APPRENTICES Construction. Interior. GERYON 278 65689
SPACE CAMP. Get ready for orbital work. All ages. ARES PORT 268 00910
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
CRICKET Mars style. Assembling two teams. COPRATES 295 21508
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