Passengers wait to abandon space liner after blast
Escape module with three crew aboard missing
ABOARD THE JOVE, Nov. 18 - Hundreds of passengers were waiting to be ferried off the stricken space liner Wandering Star to other ships in the Earth supply fleet after a second series of explosions tore a ragged gash in the now powerless ship’s hull on Friday.
A search was being conducted for three engineering crew who fled the ship in an escape module but lost radio contact soon after.
After the explosions, the entire propulsion stage was jettisoned to protect the main hull of the liner carrying 274 contract workers, other passengers and crew as part of the 25-ship supply fleet scheduled to arrive in Mars orbit Nov. 30.
The module sent an automatic distress signal shortly after launching from the ship, but the force of the blast knocked the craft off its initial course.
The Space Rescue ship Jove, along with two of the fleet’s five tenders, were continuing to search for the module.
“We had visual on it, but lost it when the propulsion stage separated,” Jove Capt. Hayden Torbay said. “We tracked their expected trajectory, but they’re not on that course, so we’re simulating alternates and searching those. We’ll keep looking, but space is big.”
The explosions blew a jagged tear at the stern of the Wandering Star’s hull, but all passenger spaces were sealed off automatically, Fleet Admiral Ambrosius Coleridge radioed.
The Jove was monitoring the ship as it resumed testing of the maneuver engines, which are arranged in pods of three around the hull on the propulsion stage.
“We saw them firing off the other engines, and then one flared, and another,” Jove co-pilot Electra O’Ceileachair said. “Then a whole engine group exploded and another, and they blew off the propulsion stage and that was even brighter.”
A spreading anomaly
The liner’s propulsion system was experiencing what Wandering Star Capt. Hervé Xenokostas called “a spreading anomaly” and he gave the order to jettison the entire propulsion stage.
All environmental systems are functioning normally, and passengers and crew are safe, Coleridge said.
“We’re organizing the transfer of the passengers to the other space liners over the next few days, and then the rest of the crew,” Coleridge said. “The crew will prep the ship for later recovery, if possible.”
The passengers will be transferred in small groups using fleet tenders, and larger groups by the Jove if it has retrieved the escape module.
Even without the Jove, the tenders will be able to transfer all the passengers and crew before the pre-orbit course adjustment set for Friday Nov. 23, Coleridge said.
On the Mars Carousel, Mission Cmdr. Cerez Piazzi said the Space Tug Juno, which was converted by the ReLaunch ship refitting and breaking yard, had been dispatched to rendezvous with the liner hull along with the explorer scout Boudicca.
“We’ll try at least for an orbital adjustment to bring it into a wider orbit or to recover it later,” Piazzi said. “We want to get it here, but if we can’t we want to get as much of the supplies on board as we can.”
The Juno and Boudicca should be able to provide enough power to reorient the Wandering Star, Piazzi said.
Failing that, the hull would continue on an elliptical orbit around the sun.
Hitching a ride to Mars
Wandering Star Capt. Xenokostas and a maintenance crew will remain aboard the ship as the Jove’s crew finishes installing attachment points to connect with the pairing lattices on the hulls of the Jove and Juno.
“The Jove will push us out of formation, but it doesn’t have enough power on its own to put us into Mars orbit,” Xenokostas radioed. “We’re hoping that either the Juno or the Boudicca will arrive in time to enable us to get back on track.”
The explosions on the Wandering Star came five days after a pod of three maneuver engines blew up during testing Star ahead of the scheduled pre-orbit burn on Friday.
The liners have 33 maneuver engines placed in pods of three around their hulls, which are 314 meters around. The pods sit just forward of the main engines, and the entire propulsion stage can be jettisoned in case of emergency.
The Wandering Star had resumed testing its engines after all of the other 24 ships in the fleet had successfully completed theirs.
The incoming fleet, comprising 10 passenger liners and 15 cargo ships, including four orbital manufacturing modules, is scheduled to arrive in Mars orbit Nov. 30.
The supply fleet is carrying a total of 2,823 passengers and crew in 10 passenger liners, with 2,010 passengers scheduled to move to the surface in December, including 1,983 moving into the worker dormitories.
Four of the supply ships are prefabricated orbital manufacturing units that will self-assemble once in proper orbit.
The remaining 490 passengers and 323 crew will transfer to the Mars Carousel, cargo or shipyards, or orbital manufacturing facilities.
“We’ll need them all. There is a lot of cargo that has to be stored or prepped for transfer to Mars, and that takes a lot of people,” Piazzi said.
The Jove will continue to search for the escape module until further notice, Admiral Coleridge said. “We’ll keep looking until we find them. It’s what we do.”
New Tithonia Council kicks off with a surprise
It's all in the naming
TITHONIA (URBS VALLIS), Nov. 6 - The City Council officially adopted Tithonia as the new name for Mar’s largest city on a 9-0 vote in the new council’s first meeting, and surprised the audience — and at least one council member — with its choice of president.
Elsewhere across the Valley, the new councils for Ius, Melas, Candor and Coprates chasmata limited their first meeting to officially swearing in the continuing and new councillors.
In Tithonia, Claude Paddingbury, whose current term as Council president expired as of last week’s election, gaveled in the new name.
“The people of the City have spoken and chosen Tithonia. We will honor their wishes,” said Paddingbury, who placed fourth in last week’s election in his weakest showing to date.
“This brings into session the first formal meeting of the Tithonia Council,” Paddingbury said to cheers from the audience as well as an impromptu chorus of “Tithonia,” a song that so far consists only of the City’s new name.
When the room had quieted, Paddingbury hesistated a moment before announcing, “The next item of business is to choose a Council president for the new term and as the inaugural Tithonia Council President. The Councillors are free to put forth motions.”
Returning Councillor Luca Matteo, who placed first in the Nov. 6 election, looked around at the other council members.
“We have had an election that many viewed as crucial to the future of the Valles Marineris, and City and Valley residents have spoken clearly about how they view that future,” Matteo said.
“And yet, the future is not disconnected from the past, and we should not casually dismiss the advice of those who have built this City out of the rocks, dust and ice of Mars,” Matteo said. “I nominate Claude Paddingbury for Council President.”
“Seconded,” said returning Councillor Tiberia Hernandez, who placed second in the City Council vote.
More than gavel banging
The Council quickly voted 6-0 to approve, with a clearly surprised Paddingbury abstaining.
Paddingbury looked at each of the Council members in turn with the slightest of smiles.
“I’ll accept the challenge, and the honor,” Paddingbury said. “We’ll disagree frequently, and perhaps stridently. I’ll offer my advice freely, and I will do more than just bang a gavel.”
Paddingbury had championed the losing ballot measure calling for a Valley-wide council to oversee development over more than 3,000 km from Noctis Labyrinthus to Orson Welles and the Shalbatana Vallis. That measure lost by a nearly 3-to-1 margin across the Valley.
New Councillor Shira Chang said Paddingbury had earned a lot of respect among those opposed to the Valley council measure by debating Ius Councillor Brynn Gibby about the future of the Valles Marineris.
“He stepped up and put his arguments out there, and defended them in front of the people of the City and really the whole Valley,’ said Chang, a nutrionist. “That counted for a lot.”
In its last action of the new session, the Council voted to name Council newcomer Joshua Asta as president of the City Planning Commission to replace Marcus Wu, whose term on the commission ended when he lost his seat on the City Council.
“I look forward to helping the City grow in a way that best meets the needs of its current and new residents,” said Asta, a structural engineer.
That might include considering more latitude for small businesses in the third habtube section, which is slated to be completed in early January.
A bit over 200 residences remain to be completed for the third section, which is designed to provide habitation for 15,000 residents, City engineer Shigeru Kashira said Thursday.
“Voters have told us they want more choice in how they live, and I intend to take that seriously,” Asta said.
“As will I,” Paddingbury said before gaveling the meeting to an early close.
Orbital facilities ready for Earth fleet arrival
More living space in space
MARS CAROUSEL, Nov. 14 - The orbital cargo yard is now ready to bring in the supplies from the 15 cargo ships in the approaching Earth supply fleet, Pontus Caelestis Manager Johannes Tycho told the Chaos Courier aboard the orbital that floats above the Valles Marineris.
“The arrival is a complex dance that has to be very well choreographed,” Tycho said. “Everything has to be perfectly synchronized as they approach the orbitals.”
The ships have to be moored in the right order, giving priority to the 10 passenger liners, which are carrying about 2,700 passengers and crew, and then high value cargo, destined both for the surface and the orbital.
“We try to get the people onto the Carousel as quickly as we can,” Tycho said. “After a couple hundred sols in transit, they’re really ready to move off the ship and take one step closer to their final destination.”
New arrivals will be shuttled from their ships to the docks on the wheel-shaped orbital’s hub extension, where they board the cars that take them through the ‘spokes’ to the welcome area on the orbital’s rim.
“We focus on the people first, then we can get the cargo out of the cans (cargo ships).”
The orbital has been working to triple (Issue 20) the number of permanent housing slots aboard the 25 km circumference station to 750.
“We’ve got 500 long-term or permanent housing slots available now,” Tycho said. “We’ll slot the families arriving on the fleet into those temporarily, and we have enough shared quarters to house nearly all of the arrivals slated to go to the Valley.”
Carousel management has also upgraded the shared quarters.
“It’s still fairly tight, but we have better sleeping berths and better facilities. It’s not quite as spartan as it was,” Tycho said.
Faster unloading
As for the cargo, the yard now has the capability to unload two ships at a time and sort the cargo in terms of scheduled delivery to Ares Port.
“We can handle twice as much cargo and we can handle it faster than before,” Tycho said.
The fleet includes 11 cargo ships and four manufacturing modules that will self-deploy near the other orbital factories.
“We just have to get those into the right spot and they’ll open themselves up,” Tycho said.
High-priority cargo containers can be offloaded and taken directly to Ares Port on the surface, while the rest is stored according to delivery schedules. Long-term cargo can be stored in the orbital depot until needed.
The cargo yard has been expanded by Mars DevCo with the help of the O’Ceileachair group, whose growing orbital shipyard and other facilities are aimed at increasing the pace of exploration and development of the Asteroid Belt.
The O’Ceileachairs have brought the three Class IV orbital shuttles they purchased from DevCo into orbit from Ares Port.
Those shuttles, which are being replaced by the larger Class V shuttles, are being used to support the expansion of the orbital cargo yard.
“That’s allowed us to move at a faster pace,” Tycho said. “We’ve got almost all of the work done, so now we just have to wait for the fleet.
City Council president drops to fourth place
Youth Chorus adds merriment to Tithonia Garden
TITHONIA, Nov. 16 - Young voices sang the ancient songs known as carols amid the display of miniature pine, fir and spruce trees in Tithonia Gardens on Saturday in celebration of Earth Christmas on Friday evening.
The songs, which stirred memories of home for immigrants, included “Silent Night,” “Adeste Fidelis” in the original Latin, and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.”
Attendees brought cookies shaped in the design known as snowflakes, others in the shape of fir trees or hearts.
Children listened somewhat skeptically as older residents told tales of white crystals of frozen water falling from the sky and covering the ground in “snow” that turned the world around them white.
“It’s been ages,” said Annunciata di Ruffa, who said she’s been living in the WestHill Terraces section of the City “practically since they were built.”
“I still remember the snow and singing when I was a child on Earth in a little mountain village, and it’s always been one of my dearest memories,” Di Ruffa said. “Their voices bring me back over all the years and millions of miles.”
The concert marked the feast that was celebrated Thursday on Earth, which is now nearly 190 million km away.
The Youth Chorus was organized and led by Tithonia Opera mezzo soprano Lydia Tenerife.
“The children worked so hard on these songs, and you can hear it in their voices,” said Tenerife, who co-starred in the Opera’s debut of “Carmen.” “I can almost see the snow falling around us when they sing.”
The Chorus finished their performance with a beautiful rendition of “Joy to the World.”
That left everyone feeling just a bit merrier.
- Merry Grace, Lifestyle Correspondent
Calendar
Meet up at the Labyrinthia Truck Stop
Noctis Council initial meeting Saturday Nov. 24 (every first and fourth Saturday) at the Grange Hall
New Council for Xanthe Terra
Combined Orson Welles/Shalbatana Vallis Council, Welles Dome, Saturday Nov. 24 1400 (Meets every fourth Saturday)
Earth New Year celebrations
For those still keeping track, Earth year 2145 starts Thursday Nov. 22 about 187 million km away. Even if you want to celebrate Earth New Year’s Eve at home on Wednesday, it’s more fun with more people. Join the City celebration Friday evening on the terrace outside the Hab 1, Terrace 8 stages at 1900. Meet up at the Geryon Agora, where they’re always ready to celebrate, at 20:00. In Melas, check out the Bottom of the Sea cantina after 19:00; for Coprates, the Friday dance will include a New Year’s theme. In Candor, come to the main gallery after dinner and see what happens.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Tithonia Youth Chorus sings carols and other holiday songs again this weekend at the Tithonia Gardens display of miniature pine, fir and spruce trees to mark the celebration of Earth Christmas and New Year, Friday Nov. 23. 1800 Tithonia Gardens Hab 2 Terrace 4
A city flower by any other name?
Celebrate the City’s new name at the Tithonia Gardens display of bright yellow, orange and red blossoms at its display of Tithonia flowers. 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 Mozart's "Night Music." WestHill Terrace 4 Friday-Saturday 19:00
“Miracle Moon”
Sci-Fi adventure. Things go very wrong in a lunar crater. Can the crew save themselves and their station? Great lunar landscapes and escapes. Stage 3 Hab 1 Terrace 8 Nov. 22-28, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00
The Opera Tithonia
Open rehearsal for the Strauss opera Der Fledermaus. They’re just practicing, but well worth a listen. Stage 1 on Terrace 8 (HabTube 1). Sunday noon
Cha-cha-one-two-three-cha-cha
It’s time to put a little rhumba in your step, and some cha-cha, at Coprates Schiapparelli Hall Friday 20:00
Acoustic Song Share
Everyone gets a song Cafe du Mont. Geryon Agora Saturday 16:00
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
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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)
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Photomosaic: Viking Orbiter: NASA/JPL-Caltech