A Mars Valley of empty cities or a garden built to grow?
Urbs and Ius Councillors debate the future of the Valles Marineris
URBS VALLIS, Nov. 3 - Mars could face a future of empty cities if local councils push forward with overly ambitious developments plans, City (Urbs Vallis) Council President Claude Paddingbury argued in a debate with Ius Councillor Brynn Gibby here Saturday ahead of Tuesday’s election.
“Right now, local councils are building what are likely to become empty cities of empty habs,” Paddingbury told hundreds of City residents at the Saturday farmer’s market at the Industrial Tube Terminal here at the western end of Tithonium Chasma. “That’s true at Geryon, and in Shalbatana, a small group is building a city for thousands of people who simply can’t get there.”
In Tuesday’s election, residents will vote on whether to create a Valley-wide council to oversee development in the Valles Marineris, while City residents will decide whether to rename Urbs Vallis. All local council seats are up for vote in the annual election.
“The question facing us is do we want an ordered development of Mars that protects and enhances the Valles Marineris, or do we want a runaway development that leaves vacant, half-built projects,” said Paddingbury, who has been a key driver of City moves to restrain development outside the City in the Valles Marineris and adjacent areas.
“We should remember the vast ghost cities built on Earth that remained empty and crumbled when we were just settling Mars,” said Paddingbury.
Under Paddingbury’s leadership the council called for a halt to a massive habitational expansion at Geryon Montes in Ius Chasma as well as continued industrial development in Candor Chasma.
In August, the City Council ordered a halt to all homesteading in the Valley and Noctis Labyrinthus. Local councils from Noctis to Orson Welles have largely ignored the City’s demands.
Building a Martian garden
Gibby, speaking remotely on video from the Geryon Agora, likened development outside the City to building a garden.
“Gardeners and farmers know that you have to prepare the garden before it can grow,” Gibby said, standing in front of a trellis of red-and-white climbing roses with a dramatic back drop of the north wall of Ius Chasma. “We’re building a city for the future that will provide homes for our growing population and for new arrivals.”
Excluding immigration, growth the rest of the Valley is growing faster than the City, Brynn noted, including a final tally of 301 City residents who went missing from their jobs and habs to relocate to other chasmata, a group called the “Missing Martians.”
The controversy over development heated up in June when the City demanded a halt to an expansion project that would add enough residential space for 10,000 more people at Geryon Montes in addition to the 11,000 people living on the long mountain ridge in the middle of Ius Chasma and the 12,000 in Ius proper in the valley below.
“We’re not building because we just feel like building,” Gibby argued. “We are building to have enough space for our growing families in Ius and for those who choose to move here from other settlements. The City is building another section of the habtube even though they still have room for thousands in other sections. ”
Ius, the second largest city on Mars with about 23,000 residents, expects to add more than a thousand residents this annos alone from natural population growth.
“We’re not building 10,000 habs all at once,” Gibby said. “We are building to a rational plan debated and agreed upon by the Ius Council to ensure that we have enough living space for our future families. We are growing organically like a garden.”
How will the Valley grow?
Urbs Vallis, called simply the City, is not only the first permanent settlement but by far the largest in the Valley with about 58,000 residents as of the summer.
About 15,000 City residents live in the terraced settlements called WestHill and 43,000 the 4.8 km habitational tube, which is being expanded to a fourth section. Each section is built to hold 16,000 residents, but the third section currently holds just 11,000.
The City’s population is expected to grow by about 4,100 people for the whole annos to around 61,000, including 1,983 Earth immigrants arriving on the Nov. 30 supply train.
The City, the first and largest permanent is growing at a slower pace than the newer settlements, with native Martians now outnumbering Earth arrivals for the first time.
The Valley population outside the City is expected to grow to 69,000 by the end of this annos, mostly from natural population growth, but hundreds of City residents move out of Urbs every year. That includes Orson Welles and the new Shalbatana Vallis settlement, which like Noctis Labyrinthus are technically outside the Valles Marineris.
Both candidates addressed the crowd for 20 minutes with 10 minutes allotted to each for response. A toss of an old Earth silver dollar put Paddingbury as first for both.
In his rebuttal, Paddingbury called for residents across the Valley to err on the side of prudence when it comes to the development of the Valley and adjoining areas.
“We have a precious gift here,” Paddingbury said. “We have a one-time chance to develop a new world in the way that makes best use of its natural resources and unique geography for the benefit of all the current and future people of Mars. Let us vote to carefully tend our growing garden from Noctis to Shalbatana.”
A number of questions remain about the proposed Valley council, which is support by Mars DevCo.
Those include the exact powers the council would hold, how the seats would be apportioned and whether it would be empowered to overrule the decisions of local councils. Gibby said.
Given those questions, the council could be likened to an unopened box, Gibby said.
“Really, we don’t know what is inside,” Gibby said, and urged City voters to keep their own futures in mind.
“City voters hold the key to the decision on whether we create a new Council to oversee the others,” Gibby said. “If you want to one day live outside of the City, or work for a few annos, you should keep your options open. If there are no available homes and no homesteading, you won’t have any place else to go.”
Election rallies draw crowds across the Valles Marineris
Noctis puts its support behind homesteaders
LABYRINTHIA, Nov. 4 - Local council candidates made their final pitch for votes for themselves from Noctis to Corprates on Saturday and Sunday, and overwhelmingly, against the City-pushed proposal for a Valley-wide council.
Election rallies were held in Noctis and the other chasmata over the weekend before the traditional Sunday night halt to campaigning ahead of the Tuesday election.
Noctis candidates and residents alike focused on homesteading and local control at the rally and community festival at the new Grange Hall, popularly known as the Mars Truck Stop.
Noctis Councillor Francesco Pereira called for more cooperative support for homesteaders to facilitate growth and in face of the City’s demand that all homesteads submit to City approval.
“As a community, we can do more to provide technical support and equipment to new homesteaders,” Pereira told the crowd of more than a hundred residents and a small group of family cargo haulers who met up at the Grange Hall this week. “And we need to let them know, that we won’t let the City dictate how they build and live.”
The Noctis Council officially rejected in September a City demand for approval over Labyrinthia homestead and that homesteaders use only City-approved habitations.
Given the labyrinthine nature of the region that stretches for hundreds of kilometers, Pereira was asked how the council could do more to help homesteaders.
“Almost everyone comes to the Truck Stop first, and we are building a fairly comprehensive supply depot here. We can also set up some other depots near the larger settlements, so people can swap out used equipment and make sure its in good shape before they start boring,” Pereira said.
The region is home to a variety of smaller scattered settlements that account for most of Labyrinthia’s roughly 6,000 residents.
Asked how the Labyrinth will respond if the City ramps up pressure on the smaller settlements, Councillor Catarina Morelli said determination and distance were in homesteaders’ favor.
“Already, the Council has certified all the Noctis homestead claims for settlements that are finished, under way or planned,” Morelli said. “We have rejected their demand that we submit to City design approval, which would bring homesteading to a halt, and we will overcome any new roadblocks they try to put in our way. As Labyrinthias, we’re not people to let anyone get in our way.”
Melas seeks to secure water, other resources
A thousand kilometers to the east, Melas residents were more focused on how their community could continue to grow and prosper if the City or MarsDevCo remained opposed to their efforts to secure more water.
Melas has begun a test water mining project about 70 km southwest of the community in one of the lowest areas of Mars that sits about 9 km below the surrounding plateau. Survey data suggest the area holds substantial deposits of water ice.
“We’ve had positive results already from the test drilling,” said Supply Chief Vita Rivenhill, who is running for a spot on the council that manages the community of 12,000 residents that spread out across the chasma floor. “It’s not just Melas that depends on water, the entire Valley does. If we can provide substantially more water, than it’s to the benefit of all communities.”
The Melas Council has and will remain adamant about the community’s right to secure the water it needs to support its future growth, Councillor Bryce Margate told the crowd at the rally in the Bottom of the Sea cantina, which adjoins an aquarium connected to a main aquaculture pond.
“We intend to continue the water project, to finish it and to build the pipelines we need to bring it to our homes and farms, and should there be as much as we suspect, to export it to other chasmata,” Margate said.
Melas has grown rapidly over the last 10 annos (19 years) and water development has not kept pace with the growth of its population and farms.
“We have enough water to support the most optimistic growth estimates for the next five annos,” said Councillor Nate Mangala, who is also a supervisor of Mars Youth Rangers. “It’s not just the water mining project, our surveys show there’s more water close at hand here under our feet at the base of the north wall. We can build bigger aquariums right now.”
- Alade Jama, Melas Chasma Correspondent
Innovation takes the spotlight at Candor rally.
City opposition to continued industrial development in Candor Chasma emerged as the main issue for residents at an election rally held in front of the brightly colored habitations in the main residential gallery.
“Candor has been the engine of growth, literally, for the Valley outside of the City and Tithonium Chasma,” Councillor Sabrina Argo told hundreds of residents at the rally here Saturday at the settlement that holds most of Candor’s 8,000 residents. “We don’t intend to shut that engine off and we won’t let the City do it either.”
Candor’s inventor’s sandbox has nurtured technology such as the BarVoom compact fusion units that have transformed development of the entire Valles Marineris, enabling smaller settlements and long-distance overland cargo and passenger transport.
In addition, the rocket technology improvements driven by Candor natives Attracta and Electra O’Ceileachair also have their roots here, Argo said.
The City has strongly opposed the expansion of Candor’s existing industrial plant and increased support for its inventor’s sandbox that was unanimously approved by the Candor Council in July.
“The City simply doesn’t like anything that’s outside of their control,” Councillor Griffin D’Armagnac said. “They started as a very controlled scientific outpost, and they don’t want to let go. But Mars has moved beyond that now. Our technology, that we developed here, has made all the difference.”
The City depends on its two standard fusion plants, which can supply enough power for far more people and industrial development than currently, but building such big units is beyond the capabilities of most other settlements,” D’Armagnac said. “We could build one here, but we don’t need to. We solved that problem our own way.”
Council Candidate and inventor Artemis Tungolwys stressed the importance of nurturing innovation for Candor and all of Mars.
“In the City, they know what works now and they like to do it their way,” said Tungolwys, a former City environmental engineer who has created a portable, high efficiency dust removal system for cargo cabs and residential habs since moving to Candor nearly two annos ago.
“Candor gave me the opportunity to solve a problem that has bedeviled Martians since we set foot on our new planet,” Tungolwys said. “Who knows what we can do if we provide support and put our minds to it.”
- Icario Manus, Candor Chasma Correspondent
Coprates residents want more greenery
Coprates residents were firmly focused on local issues at the election rally for Mars’ third largest settlement, some 1,600 km from the City at the western end of the Valles Marineris.
“I think we’re all agreed that we won’t subject ourselves to City control, and we urge everyone here to vote against their Valley Council proposal, which is a terrible idea,” Councillor Angus Raju told the rally at Schiapparelli Hall on Saturday. “Shall we move on from that?”
With a very vocal approval from the hundreds of residents gathered in the hall, councillors and candidates addressed issues from the Ring City plan for the settlements built inside the rim of a chasma-floor crater to increased farming and measures to improve environmental conditions in community areas.
In August, the Coprates Council voted 6-1 to begin an initial 10 km section of its long-term plan to build a ring-shaped city around the rim of its home crater on the chasma floor for the community of 14,000 people.
The plan includes villages spaced at roughly 2 km intervals between farms and orchards and aquaculture ponds
“We’ve made a good start to the Ring City,” Raju said. “We’ve finished the first kilometer, putting up a sandglass gallery against the crater rim, bringing some habs inside and providing ports for existing greenhouses. We’ll finish about a kilometer of existing habitats under the sand glass gallery by January and start building the first village.”
In response to a question, Councillor Perseverance Mendez said the project was already helping to ease strains on community environmental systems with the planting of fast-growing trees and shrubs and by connecting with existing green houses.
“We’re combining the capabilities of the environmental systems in place, without jeopardizing their fail-safe aspects,” Mendez said. “And with help from our farmers, we have been able to begin planting a lot more trees and shrubs than we thought, and that will help ease the strain on our scrubbers and give us all better air.”
Answering a question about the impact of the Ring City plan on local farms, Candidate Raj Parekh, who is construction manager for the project, said the project was already helping out existing farms.
“It’s additive,” Parekh said. “By linking more of the larger greenhouses with the community itself, we’ve seen a general improvement in environmental conditions for both our farmers and our city residents. If you walk down the new gallery and breathe in deeply, you’ll smell tomatoes and basil and you’re definitely going to feel better.”
- Sorcha Kaisei, Coprates Chasma Correspondent
Space Rescue’s Jove nears Earth supply train
ABOARD THE JOVE, Nov. 4 - The Space Rescue ship Jove should rendezvous with the supply fleet from Earth by late Monday, Capt. Hayden Torbay said.
“We’re taking just a wee bit longer as we had to take a wider turn on our great big loop, but the new engines are definitely up to the task,” Torbay said.
The Jove is positioning itself to come up behind the fleet before they begin their deceleration burns to make sure that all the ships successfully complete the maneuver.
The incoming fleet comprises 10 passenger liners and 15 cargo ships, including four orbital manufacturing modules, and is scheduled to arrive in Mars orbit Nov. 30.
The mission is also serving as a shakedown cruise for the Jove, which was repurposed into a rescue ship from an explorer scout by the new Space Rescue group based out of the Mars Carousel.
- Alfwinna Webster, Mars Carousel Correspondent
Calendar
A flower by any other name
While the Tithonia Gardens isn’t officially taking a position on a possible new name for Urbs Vallis, it does want residents to come admire the bright yellow, orange and red blossoms of its latest display of Mexican Sunflowers, also known as Tithonia. 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
City Strings Quartet
Quartet performs selections from Dvorak’s American Quartet. WestHill Terrace 4 Friday-Saturday 19:00
“La Bandita - The Thief of Hearts”
The thief of hearts meets her match, lighting a fiery romance. This will definitely take your mind off the election. Stage 3 Hab 1 Terrace 8 Nov. 8-14, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00
You know you want to dance
Geryon Samba will get your feet moving. Geryon Agora in front of the Cafe du Mont and Rick’s. Saturday 19:00
Melas Karaoke
Brush up on all your favorite songs and get ready to sing solo, in groups or just hum to yourself at the Bottom of the Sea cantina. Friday 20:00. Melas.
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
Classified Ads
JUMP START. Tractor Repair. Mobile unit available. If we can reach it, we can fix it. NOCTIS 260-22098
DUST MAGNET. Won’t let the dust get past the airlock. CANDOR 286 87919
FURNITURE Printer Stock. And cushions for a comfy seat IUS 278 58897
WALL PRINTERS All shapes and contours. MELAS 285 45672
SURFSUIT Refurbishing. Fabric and boot repair, seal replacement, visor refurbishing, comms upgrades. COPRATES 297-14210
ROCKET SCIENTIST. Engine upgrade project, Ex-contract only. PONTUS 100 637
SHUTTLE MECHANICS. Experienced preferred, but we’ll train you if you have the skills. Ex-contract only. PONTUS 100 635
CONSTRUCTION All specialties. Some outside. Ex-contract only. GERYON 278 68034
AG ENGINEERS Hydroponics, aeroponics. Ex-contract only. IUS 278-71892
DRILLING specialists, supervisors and crew. Ex-contract only MELAS 285 13941
APPRENTICES Environmental systems. URBS 269 81447
APPRENTICES Applied electrostatics CANDOR 286 22460
APPRENTICES Construction. Interior. GERYON 278 65689
APPRENTICES Fabrics production, design. 8 annos and up. URBS 269-98523
APPRENTICES Ceramics. 8 annos and up. URBS 269-98523
SPACE CAMP. Get ready for orbital work. All ages. ARES PORT 268 00910
RAAS / GARBA Dance performers for existing troupe. COPRATES 295 45788
BALLROOM DANCING Cha-cha, cha-cha-cha! URBS 269 49144
GUITARISTS Rumba, flamenco, mariachi GERYON 278 48190
YOUTH CHORUS. Want to sing? URBS 269 13930
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
The Chaos Courier gets you over the rough spots
Future News from Small Town Mars
Copyright © 2025, M. Fitzpatrick, all rights reserved
Photomosaic: Viking Orbiter: NASA/JPL-Caltech