Camping out on Mars
Youth Rangers pass the first survival test
MELAS CHASMA, Sept. 44 - Half of the dozen Mars Youth Rangers in the survey tractor laughed at a silly joke. The other half rolled their eyes and groaned.
“Boy humor,” one of the 10-annos-old (18-year-old) girls called out. The six boys started to laugh again, until an alarm shrieked.
All 12 surfsuit-clad rangers looked toward their supervisor, former Survey Mars Explorer Nate Mangala, who shrugged his shoulders and said, “It’s your test and your show.”
The test came in late afternoon of the third day of the group’s scheduled week-long resource survey beneath Melas Chasma’s northern rim.
The alarm still shrieking, the rangers all looked from one to another, until one girl said firmly in a soprano voice, “Pressure fault. Helmets on.”
“Helmets on, Rodanthe, uh, Crew Chief,” a boy replied as everyone pulled their soft helmets over their heads and closed their visors, including Mangala and a reporter accompanying the team.
“Durstan…Safety Monitor, check helmets,” Rodanthe said on radio.
Ten seconds later came the reply, “All helmets nominal, Rodanthe, oh, Chief.”
“Check suits,” Rodanthe replied, the confidence growing in her voice.
Another ten seconds passed. “All suits nominal,” Durstan replied.
A red light began flashing at the driver’s console.
“Neave…Engineer report,” Rodanthe ordered.
“Engines overheating,” Neave said. Another alarm sounded. “Badly. Time to exit?”
“Deploy supply sleds, Shiv. Open hatch Emergency packs on.” The six-wheeled tractor bounced a little as the three sleds dropped to the surface.
“Supply sleds deployed and moving away,” Shiv said.
“Evacuate!”
Going outdoors in a hurry
“Aye,” the rangers said in unison, looping their arms through the straps of their bulky emergency packs and heading to the hatch.
Rodanthe stood at the hatch and counted off as 11 rangers climbed out and slid down the 2-meter ladder to the surface. She slid down last out onto the dusty, rocky surface, leaving Mangala and the reporter behind.
“It’s their test,” Mangala said by way of explanation. “We’ll monitor comms, visuals and vitals.”
A red light flashed form inside the hatch and on the top of the crawler, signaling another emergency. A new alarm sounded over the radio.
“Get behind the dune,” Rodanthe ordered. “Set sleds to follow.”
The rangers took four loping steps up a 4-meter dune and dropped to ground on the far side, the sleds following. Just as the sleds crested the dune, a bright light flashed.
“Engineer report,” Rodanthe said from behind the dune.
“Tractor damage critical,” Neave said.
“Oooo-kay,” Rodanthe said. “So this is our test.”
The young rangers were on their own at the edge of a massive dune field in a place where no people had ever been before. The temperature was a relatively balmy minus 20C but would be drop to more than 50 degrees colder than that overnight.
To the east, the sky was clouded from the massive dust storm that had covered the eastern part of Melas Chasma and all of Coprates. To the west the sun was moving down toward the horizon above Ius Chasma, while to the north loomed the north wall of Melas Chasma soaring nearly 6 km high from one of the lowest places in the Valles Marineris.
Rodanthe stood. “Options, Gabe, Pathfinder?”
Everyone sat up and watched as Gabe studied the display on the inside of his helmet, his gloved hands and fingers moving in the air as he entered commands on the virtual screen.
“We’re 58 km from Melas and 12 (km) from the water drilling site. I’ve sent an alert to both places, test status noted,” Gabe said. “We could walk to the drill site in four hours, but it will be dark, and a lot colder by then. No margin for error. Deploy the hab?”
“Shiv, report status of the supply sleds.”
“Sled power nominal for seven sols, Chief.” That meant the supply sleds had enough energy and air, among other necessities, to keep the hab habitable for a week, with judicious use.
Rodanthe was still deciding, when Gabe said, “The drill site acknowledges. Says they don’t have a tractor big enough to fit us all, but can have supplies to us midday tomorrow if we need them. Melas can get to us in two days.”
“Either way, we’re staying here tonight," Rodanthe said. "Environmental, deploy the hab.”
Under the stars
Four rangers said, “Aye” and stood, walking to the trough between the two dunes and toward the south where the space between the dunes widened near a break in the dune field.
The rangers found a level area where ripples of sand ran across the ground like some ancient seabed.
The three supply sleds followed them on woven, barrel-shaped wheels. coming to a stop in a line.
The rangers connected the three sleds, and moments later, a heavy bundle like a thick tarp rolled out six meters and began began opening up as the support struts inflated into an airtight geodesic dome, complete with air lock entrance and access panels to two of the supply sleds.
“Environmental first. Everyone else follow,” Rodanthe said, once again entering last as the sky grew darker, stars starting shining to the west.
Coming inside, she sat down among her peers as Shiv said over the radio, “Air and temperature nominal. It’s a little chilly and a bit crowded. We can’t have a hot meal but we’re camping out on Mars, and we can open helmets on your say-so Chief.”
“I’ll go first, then wait a minute,” Rodanthe opened her helmet. “We’re the first people to ever set foot here, to stay here.”
The others opened their visors and cheered.
“So, what’s next Chief?” Gabe asked.
“We eat a cold meal, sleep in our suits, break it down tomorrow.”
“We going for the pick-up or the hike?” Neave asked.
“The hike?” Rodanthe asked, and the 11 other rangers nodded their heads, smiles all around. “Let the drill site know we’re coming in. Radio when we’re leaving. Let’s eat.”
“And celebrate,” Mangala said over the radio. “You passed the first half of the test.”
Mars City workers happier about habs than jobs
City job satisfaction trends lower
URBS VALLIS, Sept. 46 - City folk love where they live, but aren’t as happy about their work, the annual Labor Council survey of working residents shows.
The annual survey shows a significant improvement in how workers view their living quarters, but notable declines on the job.
More than four out of five workers, or 82%, say they are satisfied with their assigned living quarters, a bump up from 77% last annos (Martian year).
“This reflects the opening of newer and larger habs in the third section of the HabTube and to some extent the move out of the worker dormitories,” Labor Council statistician Horace Lederberg said. “Residents for the most part like the City environment with its gardens and farms and aquaculture ponds, and they get a great view of Mars.”
At the same time, work satisfaction declined 3 percentage points to 51%, for a total decline of 5 percentage points over the last two annos.
The survey comes as job satisfaction has become a growing issue in the City and Ares Port, with several hundred residents having left their jobs and moved to other chasmata, and as the Council investigates some 60 contract workers who have left the City and breached their transportation contracts.
“We have several initiatives aimed at improving job satisfaction that we expect will show improvement over the next one to two annos, “ Lederburg said. “Still, we are limited to some extent by our location. We live on a harsh planet, and making our City not only habitable but enjoyable demands certain jobs be done.”
More troubling for the Labor Council is that nearly a third of workers, or 32%, say they would leave their jobs if they could, up 3 percentage points from last annos.
Only 37% agree that their jobs make best use of their skills, and 42% say their jobs match their qualifications, both unchanged from the prior survey.
Fewer than half of workers, or 46%, are satisfied with their career opportunities, down 2 percentage points. Some 57% of workers say they are overstressed at work, which was up 4 percentage points.
“We want residents to be happy in their homes and their work assignments,” City Council President Claude Paddingbury said. “Still, we are a pioneer outpost on a new world. Supporting and maintaining our City is a difficult and demanding task, and we look to best match the talents our new Martians bring to those tasks. Every job is essential, and we want our workers to know that we know that and will provide all the support we can.”
Declining workplace satisfaction was highlighted this month in the trial of an industrial staff manager on charges of helping workers leave the City to breach their transportation contracts.
Most new workers come to Mars on 3-annos (5-1/2 year) contracts to pay for their transport, before a half-annos credit for the transit time. More than 7,000 City residents are still working under those contracts and about half will finish their contract terms in February 102, and the rest in March 103.
The last few hundred workers in the dormitories in the first HabTube section have moved into single and shared apartments, ahead of the arrival of nearly 2,000 new workers in November, leaving the Cubbies empty for the first time.
The contracts guarantee jobs in certain specialties, such as environmental and construction, but not specific positions. The Labor Council has rejected a number of contract reduction requests based on claims of mismatched assignments.
Among measures to improve satisfaction and retain workers who would otherwise move to other chasmata, the City Council is considering a proposal to turn two older exploration stations into training and rest facilities so that contract workers can spend some time off work outside the City.
“Essential workers are choosing to leave the City because they see more opportunities in the other chasmata, that’s for work and living,” City Councillor Luca Matteo said. “We should be providing the same kinds of opportunities here. We should be rewarding individual initiative and creativity, but we tend to squash it instead.”
(Corrects contract termination date in Issue 24 to February 102)
"Missing Martian' seeks outlet for creativity
Variety spices up work life for fabric designer
GERYON MONTES, Sept. 42 - Sitting among yellow and orange bird of paradise flowers, deep green philodendron leaves and miniature lemon and orange trees on her patio garden, Leonie Baxter told of how her move from the City (Urbs Vallis) in January has changed her life.
“I’m still surprised to find myself here,” Baxter said. “I’m still surprised that I just left. But every time I come out here with my morning coffee, I’m happy about my decision.”
“It wasn’t a bad job, and I had a decent hab, second section, but there’s not a lot of room for creativity at work,” Baxter stared into her coffee for a moment and took a sip.
Baxter, who came off contract in December of last year, had been working in textiles, manufacturing fabrics for clothes, household linens and furniture.
Among the hundreds of “missing Martians,” workers who left their City jobs to work in other chasmata, such as Melas, Candor, Baxter chose Geryon for her new home.
The estimated 500 City workers who have left their posts and habitations were called the ‘missing Martians” earlier this annos by City Councillor Councillor Karina Hermetta, who declined to provide a precise number.
“Everything is standardized in the City. It makes sense,” Baxter said. “You come here with your clothes and a couple of other things, keepsakes, printed pictures, a book. Everyone needs everything when they come off the ship.”
She ticked off the items.
The welcome clothing package includes daily and work coveralls, some pants and shirts. Linens are supplied to the worker dormitories, or Cubbies, where most new arrivals will spend at least one annos.
“You can pretty much tell when someone arrived by the style of their coveralls. There are subtle differences if you didn’t know,” Baxter said.
The habs (apartments) come supplied with linens for cooking and personal use.
“So, let’s say a half dozen patterns at most for any fabric item. I got interested in fabric designs. I’d do them in my spare time. I tried making some,” Baxter said.
She noted that many residents alter their own coveralls or clothes or household linens, to try to give them a different look, but the underlying designs are limiting.
Not standard issue
Those limits, Baxter said, are imposed not by the equipment, but by management.
“We can produce lots of different designs,” Baxter said, pointing to the floral pattern of her calf-length dress, echoed by brightly colored seat cushions. “We can give people lots of choices. I understand we’re not going to make big floral patterns with bird-of-paradise prints for environmental coveralls, but there’s no need to be so standardized.”
The fabric machinery is capable of producing designs-on-demand, with a coding change. “Even if we only stuck to a few colors, we could have created a lot more variety. I wanted that.”
Baxter stopped for a few moments, poured more coffee into her cup from a carafe.
“It turns out, after all, that I’m not a standard issue person,” Baxter said. She had learned from a friend who had moved to Geryon that habs didn’t come furnished and there was good demand for fabrics for clothing, furniture, linens and drapes.
“So, I was bored at work, a relationship crashed, and I started looking,” Baxter said.
That led her to inquiries about travel both surface and shuttle.
“But after nearly five years, or four annos, in the City, I was ready to see a bit of Mars,” Baxter said.
Because the City ships fabrics around to other chasmata, she was able to find a passenger spot on a cargo land train from Ares Port through Noctis to Ius, and took it.
“And, I just left. I’d just got off shift and went home, picked up my duffel full of standard issue coveralls and my keepsakes from Earth, and hopped in. And I’m here.”
After arrival, Baxter found a position with a new fabric business that has turned into a partnership and jointly launched lines of home linens and fabrics,
“We’ll get into clothes next, but with all the building, there’s a lot of demand for home fabrics and we’re just keeping up with that.”
Baxter admits she did spend some time sleeping on friends’ couches before being able to get her own hab.
“As a newcomer, I had to wait awhile, but this is fabulous. It’s small but I’ve got my own little patio garden that inspires me, and I’ve got a great view of the chasma," she smiled as she looked at her coffee. "
"There’s that little café in the Geryon Agora. There’s a lot of good social energy here. I’m not looking back to the City.”
About Ius Chasma and Geryon Montes
Mars Xanthe Terra dust storm shimmies West
Dust starting to settle
ORSON WELLES CRATER, Sept. 46 - The Xanthe Terra dust storm has shifted a bit to the west, covering more of Melas Chasma as well as the city of Melas itself, Survey Mars geographer Stella Regina said Friday.
“It’s now covering more than 4 million sq. km, but it’s starting to wane,” Regina said. “It’s weakening in the east, and we expect it to start clearing over the next week or two.”
The storm started in Lunae Planum north of Candor Chasma three weeks ago and has put all of Coprates and Ganges chasmata under a cloud of dust along with the Orson Welles Crater and the Shalbatana Vallis.
Regina said there was no status update on a Survey crew on an inspection tour has been sitting out the storm in a deep Shalbatana cavern.
- Jenna Maris, Orson Welles Correspondent
Contract Chaos - Watching Compost
URBS VALLIS, Sept. 46 - The City Labor Council rejected a request for a contract termination due to a complaint about a work assignment
Agricultural specialist Delfino Brightling, whose contract runs through February 102, had argued for an immediate contract termination because he has been assigned to resource recovery since his arrival in July 99.
“I have trained intensively in growing food plants but I have been solely and punitively assigned to composting since my arrival,” Brightling told the Council. “I’m just watching stuff rot.”
The council denied the request, noting that resource recovery is critical in a closed environmental system and citing the “and other duties” clause that is standard in all transportation and labor contracts.
- Mirihi Merced
Calendar
This will send you into orbit
The Tithonia Museum has added a spectacular threedee of the planets to their exhibition of a mechanical orrery with spheres that mimic the view from orbit of each of the planets. You can watch the old-fashioned gears turn the spheres and get ready for a close up view of everything from Mercury to Neptune. Through October. East Terrace 12
15 seconds to save a life
Last call to become a safety trainer. Ares Port and City Safety are offering four-week coursea in surfsuit for safety trainers ahead of the November arrival of new workers on the supply train from Earth obrit. Get certified. Saturday afternoons. Ares Port Shuttle Terminal 1. Register through City Safety.
Fall flowers
After you soak up the greenery and humid air in Tithonia Gardens new fern forest house, wander over to the chrysanthemum display. It's a rainbow of great big masses of flowers. Through end October. Habtube 2, Terrace 4
City farmers' market
Going green with veggie envy? Get to the City farmer's market. Stalls available by appointment. Industrial Tube Terminal. Saturday 0900-1500
Jump ball!
Get ready to jump without worrying about the ceiling. Learn to play volleyball at the new Hab3 beach. Saturday, Sunday sessions 08:00, 10:00, 12:00. North Beach Hab3 Terrace 1
“High Seas”
Pirates plague the ancient northern sea of Mars. Adventure threedee with sea dragons, well really big plesiosaurs at least, and pirates. Sail into Capri. Stage 3. Hab 1. Terrace 8 Sept. 45-Oct. 5, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00
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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APPRENTICES Aquaculture. 8 annos and up. URBS 62128
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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)
The Candor Chaos Courier, Candor Chaos, Valles Marineris, Mars
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Copyright © 2025, M. Fitzpatrick, all rights reserved
Photomosaic: Viking Orbiter: NASA/JPL-Caltech