Mars gets drier
City Speakeasy shut down
URBS VALLIS, Sept. 11 - Claude sent them.
Acting on orders of City (Urbs Vallis) Council President Claude Paddingbury, safety inspectors shut down a surreptitious dining, drinking and dancing club in the unfinished third section of the HabTube late Friday, but the party moved outside.
Called City Speakeasy, the unapproved club offered hot and cold snacks, a variety of alcoholic drinks including pear brandy, potato vodka, beer and ale, and dance music for a teener crowd (10 to 20 annos, or 18 to 36 years).
More than a hundred people were inside the space that is destined to become a future City-run cafeteria, or canteen, when the inspectors cut the lights and power inside, sending everyone out onto the terrace, where many of them kept singing and dancing.
The speakeasy’s six partners, whose names were not released, were referred to Tithonia Superior Court, according to City Safety officials. The group included horticultural, agricultural, environmental and construction specialists.
“This constitutes a serious misuse of City facilities, poses substantial health dangers from homemade alcohol. which is completely prohibited in all City spaces, and risks from overcrowding, Paddingbury wrote in a statement.”‘We take this very seriously and will investigate thoroughly and seek appropriate sanctions.”
Like much of the northern part of the third Habtube section, the future canteen has not officially been completed but had been outfitted with working kitchens and refrigerated storage.
The canteen is located on a lower terrace with a growing bamboo garden overlooking a working aquaculture pond in an area that has become part of a popular walking and running route for residents.
The club entrance was hidden at the end of a hallway that extends under the terrace above. The sign on the door reads simply, ‘Terrace 2 canteen D.”
The club was discovered by City inspectors when one was walking down the popular exercise path through the bamboo grove and watched as a group of “well-dressed” women turned into a closed area marked under construction.
“By the time I got to the hallway, they were gone, but I caught the music,” City Safety Inspector Irwin Mather said. “We checked environmental and utility and got a good idea of what was going on.”
From there, the matter was escalated to the City Council, where Paddingbury made the final decision.
Mather admitted that the inspectors visited the club the week before to assess what was actually happening inside.
The club did not produce alcohol on site, but mostly stored home-brewed beverages for its customers, Mather said.
“Yes,” Mather said. “The drinks were alcoholic.”
Let's dance
Many of the scores of club-goers who moved outside to the terrace by the bamboo grove after the raid weren’t quite ready to go home.
Atmospheric specialist Annis Nannerl took a brief break from dancing to the impromptu music on the terrace to speak to a reporter, but said she was ready to dance for a few more hours as she clapped along with the crowed to a samba rhythm.
The outdoor singing and dancing was led by members of the Samba Marte musical group who put their instruments down and sang a cappella.
“We just come here to have fun and dance,” Nannerl said. “Sure we can sit and watch a threedee at the cinema or sit and listen to City Strings play in a hall, or go to a house party and talk, but, you know, it’s a lot of fun to go out and dance and meet people you don’t already know. We see the same people at work, on our terrace and in our canteen.”
The canteens are the only option residents have for dining outside their habitations as the city has not approved any independent restaurants.
The City also bans public consumption of alcoholic drinks, and the city-run canteens do not serve beer or wine.
That leaves residents to make their own at home, which is not a high hurdle for a population heavy with scientists.
“A lot of people grow fruit in home gardens and family garden plots, and if you have a lot of pears, it’s not that hard to make pear brandy. Same with potatoes and vodka, not that I would ever do that,” said WestHill resident Carlson Viognier, whose companion added, “If you work in environmental or agriculture, you know how to build a home distillery.”
When it comes to entertaining, residents mostly rely on house parties or smaller gatherings on terraces.
“House parties are nice, but you have to be considerate of the neighbors, and sometimes you’d like to do more than sit and talk. We want to move. We want to dance,” said a woman on the terrace outside the club, who declined to give her name because she has not yet finished her transportation contract.
The City Speakeasy name sent the editors back to history books that say a speakeasy was a semi-secret club illegally serving alcoholic drinks at a time when they were banned about 200 Earth years ago.
Often, patrons needed a secret knock or password to get in.
Asked whether the club had a secret password, inspector Mather said, “I just knocked on the door and when they opened, said, “Claude sent us.”
Mars orbital to triple permanent housing
Space workforce grows; DevCo eyes space factories
MARS CAROUSEL, Sept. 9 - The Pontus Caelestis orbital is tripling the number of permanent housing slots aboard the 25 km circumference station, as demand for workers in the orbital cargo and shipyards grows, Pontus Caelestis Manager Johannes Tycho said on Wednesday.
“We’ve had about 200 long-term or permanent residents, but that number has grown and we really need to upgrade the living quarters for our workforce,” Tycho said. “It’s getting crowded. People are doubling up or sleeping in common areas.”
Currently about 250 people live aboard the station, which is built out of modified half-kilometer space liner and cargo sections, but more than twice as many will be needed in the coming months to meet workforce demand.
In addition, Mars DevCo is well advanced in plans to build more orbital manufacturing facilities, Tycho said.
Mars Carousel staff is also working to prepare the orbital for the Nov. 30 arrival of the cargo and supply train that’s carrying roughly 2,500 new workers, some with families.
“They all have to spend a little time on the Carousel before dropping down, and we want to make their stay as enjoyable as possible,” Tycho said. “They’ve been cramped up for a few hundred sols (days) and we can open up a bit more room for them.”
In addition to DevCo workers, the O’Ceileachair Exploration Group plans a growing ship repair and refurbishing facility adjacent to the orbital shipyard, including interior work and housing space in four unused space liner sections.
The group, majority-owned by private space captains Attracta and Electra O’Ceileachair is refurbishing the Caraval fast packet that experienced engine failure on its Mars approach earlier this year and refitting the Jove scout to become the first ship of the new Space Rescue squad.
On board the Mars Carousel, management plans to provide more single- and double-occupancy cabins for workers who have been living in crew dormitories.
“We have the empty space, and when we fill it up, we’ll build another wheel on top of the existing one,” Tycho said.
Noctis approves all homestead claims
Move follows City demand for more control
LABYRINTHIA, Sept. 8 - The Noctis Labyrinthus Council has officially approved all homestead claims that were submitted and accepted by Survey Mars prior to the City (Urbs Vallis) Council’s vote last week to demand that all homesteads submit to their approval or risk having their claims rejected.
That includes claims for habitations that have been completed, are under construction or planned, according to the measure approved unanimously by the Noctis Council on Wednesday.
“We keep track of all claims in this area. We have the data and the Survey Mars approvals, and we have now officially approved them,” Noctis Councillor Francesco Pereira said. “This provides official documentation of the claims for our homesteaders.”
On Sept. 4, The City Council voted 4-3 to require all homesteads in the Valles Marineris to submit to City approval or risk having their settlement claims, which serve as title for the land, revoked or rejected.
In passing the measure, the City Council said that it could revoke approved settlement claims for homesteads and communities that do not comply.
“We’re not in the City. We don’t answer to them and we’re not listening to them,” Noctis Councillor Catarina Morelli said. “Our homesteads have met the requirements to be registered by Survey Mars. That’s all they have to do.”
The City measure demands that all new and existing homesteaders obtain its approval for their homesteads and that they provide geological and hydrological site data and that only City-approved housing units be used for living quarters.
Currently, the only exterior habitats approved by the City are the balloon habs used on a temporary basis by survey crews, scientists and homesteaders as they build permanent housing.
“No one who’s built a homestead is moving back into a balloon hab,” Noctis Grange Hall manager Asterios Lyra said. “No one uses them if they can avoid it by sharing a hab while they build their own. That’s how most of our villages are being built. “
Going forward, the Noctis Council said it will record and approve new settlement claims itself based on the pre-existing rules and provide the information to Survey Mars.
“The people of Noctis won’t stand for retroactive regulation and won’t abide by ill-advised City edicts,” Morelli said. “(City Council President Claude) Paddingbury should focus on the City and leave the rest of us alone, and maybe think about why more people are moving out here from the City.”
Sylvana Phison, president of the council in Orson Welles crater, said Survey Mars was tasked with recording habitation and community settlement claims and not with acting as a building inspector.
“Neither they nor the City can tell us how to build and how to live,” Phison said. “We’re not even in their valley,” Phison said. “It’s not clear what the City and DevCo are up to, but they have no say here.”
Survey Mars wants a look at underground Shalbatana community
Inspectors fly in to assess settlement
ORSON WELLES, Sept. 12 - Survey Mars has sent a crew of inspectors to review a community being developed by famed Mars builder Jeremiah Volcan in deep underground caverns in the Shalbatana Vallis northeast of here.
The team of six inspectors flew into Orson Welles Crater on two air shuttles early Friday, and left Saturday morning on a survey tractor for the two-day land trip to the site, being built near an ancient outflow channel.
The move comes two weeks after Survey Mars rejected the settlement claim filed by Volcan, who has so far built two intensively gardened habitats in caverns nearly a kilometer deep and adjacent to a deep pit crater.
Survey Mars has declined further comment on the matter and has not responded to questions about the reasons for the rejection.
Volcan, who led the building of the WestHill Terrace in Urbs Vallis, the first significant permanent habitations in the Valles Marineris, could not be immediately reached for comment.
Last month, however, Volcan welcomed a small group including legendary Survey Mars explorer Chief Eustace Saint-Lazare to tour the habitat.
Saint-Lazare, who has been staying in Orson Welles, did not accompany the inspectors, and also declined to comment, saying only, “I’ll let Jeremiah speak for himself.”
The rejection is a rare move by Survey Mars, which acts as a register for settlement claims filed by individual homesteaders and communities.
Claims may only be rejected if they involve claims on resources beyond which the homesteader or community can feasibly develop and use for current and future growth.
The underground Shalbatana settlement was being built in secret until it was accidentally discovered by a Survey Mars crew that was trapped in an adjacent deep cavern for six weeks and rescued by Volcan’s group.
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.
Volcan calls the habitat ‘Surtshellir’ after the cave of the fire giant on the island of Iceland in Earth’s northern seas.
Faulty cable led to fatal construction accident
Work resumes at new orbital shuttle terminal
ARES PORT, Sept. 8 - A fraying cable has been identified as the cause of a fatal crane accident that killed a popular construction supervisor here five weeks ago, a port official said.
Construction Supervisor Diderot Antonius, who had 10 annos of experience in Martian construction, died in the accident at the site of the new shuttle terminal here, Ares Port manager Ernesto Bosch said.
A crane load of materials fell from a height of about 50 meters, including a bundle of metal rods that struck the cab of the construction tractor that Antonius was driving.
“One of the cables was fraying and snapped,” Bosch said. “The load shifted and part of it fell. We’re reinforcing our inspection, rigging and loading protocols to avoid future accidents.”
The accident injured three other workers, two of whom have returned to work and one who continues to recover from critical injuries, Bosch said.
The incident was the first fatal accident at the port in 7 annos (13 years).
While construction remains one of the most dangerous jobs on Mars, Bosch said safety is the top priority.
“There are a lot of risks, particularly outside, and we want all of our workers to stay safe,” Bosch said, adding that Antonius had been a critical part of some of the biggest projects at the port.
“Antonius was very well respected and very well liked,” Bosch said.
Construction at the site of the new terminal resumed last week, Bosch said. The third terminal at the port is designed to accommodate the larger Class 5 shuttles that are expected to enter service when the additional docks on the Mars Carousel are completed in January 102.
- Mei Aonio
Calendar
Mars master plan off the agenda
The City (Urbs Vallis) Council has canceled a presentation by new Mars DevCo manager Elric Balvicar who was to speak about a new master plan for Mars. The Council is slated to address the closure of an unapproved dance club in an unfinished portion of Habtube 3. Council Meeting Hall. 18:00 Sept. 17
Keep the newcomers safe
Ares Port and City Safety are offering a four-week course in surfsuit for safety trainers. Get certified ahead of the supply train arrival from Earth. Saturday afternoons. Starting Sept. 19. Ares Port Shuttle Terminal 1. Register through City Safety.
Close up of the Great Red Spot
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. Ends 27 September East Terrace 12
“A Different Shade of Blue” Romance comedy threedee. Girl meets boy. Boy gets silly. Boy comes to his senses. Stage 3. Hab 1. Terrace 8 Sept. 17-Sept. 23, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00
City farmers' market Bring your greens. Get your greens. Stalls available by appointment. Industrial Tube Terminal. Saturday 0900-1500
Lawn bowling Learn how to play the lawn bowling game of bocce (bot-chee). WestHill Terrace 2 by the terrace edge. 10 am. Message City Parks for information.
Song share Acoustic players swap songs. Geryon Agora. Two sessions. Saturday Sept. 19 16:00, 20:00
City Social Mix and mingle with new arrivals and old hands. Acoustic duo Harris and Fitz mixes strings with sweet harmonica and vocals. 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