Tithonia Council approves new entertainment areas
Closed nightclub to reopen, but without the booze, yet
TITHONIA (URBS VALLIS), Dec. 41 - The Tithonia City Council voted 5-1 Thursday to approve the planning commission’s proposal to repurpose city canteens into restaurants and nightclubs, but wasn’t ready to open the bar just yet.
The measures including re-opening a clandestine nightclub in the HabTube’s third section, but without immediately serving alcohol, which has been officially banned by the City.
“That’s going to take more time to set up and supervise,” Councillor Luca Matteo said. “We haven’t allowed alcohol in the past, and though that hasn’t stopped many residents from making it, we want to be very careful when it comes to safety.”
Council President Claude Paddingbury said he specifically voted against the measure because of the approval of alcohol.
“We live in a very dangerous environment, which is why the City has not approved alcohol,” Paddingbury said. “We all know the saying Mars is always trying to kill you, we should not make that easier.”
The former City Speakeasy nightclub, on a second level terrace near the bamboo gardens in the third HabTube section, will likely reopen very early in the new annos, said Councillor Joshua Asta, who abstained from the vote due to his position as head of the planning commission.
Overall, the City-approved plan lays out a map for more entertainment, dining and shopping options.
“More nightclubs will be a great idea,” said atmospheric specialist Annis Nannerl, a first-section. “It gets hard to meet new people when you’re always at the same canteen and the same work location. A little dancing will make it easier.”
Spreading the fun around
The measure calls for entertainment areas in each of the City’s four sections, the WestHill Terraces and the three sections of the 4.8 km habitational tube.
Initially, City Catering will repurpose canteens for entertainment, including music and dancing in those areas.
The City canteens currently are the only options for residents to eat meals outside their habitations, and all residents are entitled to dine at any canteen.
“Many residents will warmly welcome the direction for the canteens to provide different menus and cuisines,” Councillor Beata Bakken said. “We should give residents a reasons to try different canteens in different sections.”
Longer term, the planning commission will be allowed to approve private restaurants and nightclubs was well as smaller coffee and food shops.
“We grow the coffee now and we roast it,” said Roxanne Yamazaki, who lives with her family in the second section. “It will be very nice to be able to stop in a café for an espresso or two on the way to work in the morning.”
The City will permit micro businesses to open kiosks on larger terraces as well as establish roving weekend markets for arts, crafts and home-grown fruits and vegetables.
The markets will be held at different locations every weekend on a rotating basis.
“That will ensure that different neighborhoods get to host the markets, and also that no one neighborhood will have to endure the market every weekend,” City Councillor Shira Chang said.
The entertainment area would include Hab 1 Terrace 8, where the Council meeting hall is located along with the City Cinema threedee theater and stages for musical performances by Opera Tithonia.
The other two in the Habtube would be near Tithonia Gardens in the second Habtube section on Terrace 4, and on the second-level terrace in section three.
HabTube section four, which is now being enclosed, will be designed to provide the appropriate spaces throughout the section.
The City’s oldest section, the WestHil Terraces will host entertainment areas near Marineris Hall on WestHill Terrace 4 where the City String ensemble hosts concerts and Terrace 12 near the Tithonia Museum.
The established entertainment areas will go a long way to supporting local music and theater, said Nia Lara, singer with the Samba Marte dance group.
“Just like our gardens need space to grow, our music and theater artists need space to perform,” Lara said. “This will go a long way into making our City that much more vibrant.
Shuttle takes a giant hop for City farm
Spectacular views going up and coming down
CANDOR CHASMA, Dec. 39 - In space, the Class 4 shuttles look tiny, on the ground, it’s another story.
The orbital shuttle nearly filled the enclosed landing zone used mostly for smaller Survey Mars craft, and its cavernous cargo hold swallowed a dozen compressors to replace those damaged by a Tithonia power fault that left a 25-hectare farm frozen.
With the machines carefully spaced to ensure their weight was evenly spread and the cargo hold sealed, pilot Oberan Tan prepared to start the engines.
“It’s an orbital shuttle,” said Tan. “We’ll pretty much hop up here and come down at Ares Port.” That hop would take about an hour to span the 1,100 km that separate Candor city and Ares Port instead of the weeks-long overland route.
As the shuttle peeked over the wall enclosing the landing zone here on Tuesday, the rainbow-colored housefronts of Candor’s residential gallery stood out against the dusty red slope of the mountain behind it.
Rising higher, the shuttle seemed to fly up the mountainside, and soon the nearly 6 km walls of Candor Chasma came into view, and beyond that the isolated Hebes Chasma to the northwest with the great Hebes Montes rising 5 km off the valley floor.
As the sky blackened above, the long trench of Tithonia Chasma stretched out 800 km to the west and around it, the Great Valley revealed itself below, a giant set of canyons stretched across the high plains of Mars.
“This never gets old,” said Tan, who’s flown shuttles from Ares Port into orbit for nearly 5 annos, but has spent the last eight weeks unloading and ferrying cargo in orbit.
“This is not so much a flight as a great big hop arcing a thousand kilometers to the west,” Tan said on the Tuesday morning flight.
Tan’s shuttle was dropped down from orbit to Candor, about midway through the Valles Marineris, to ferry 12 compressors to replace those lost in a power fault two weeks ago that froze a farm terrace in Tithonia at the western end of the Valley.
Mars DevCo approved the temporary use of orbital shuttles to bring replacement equipment from Candor to the City to expedite the repair of the 25 hectare km farm terrace at the foot of the WestHill section of Tithonia.
Getting bouncy
For Melas-born Angela Catamarca, one of the three technicians sent to oversee the installation of the compressors, the flight marked her first.
“I’ve only seen the Valley from the surface or up on slopes on supply trains,” said Catamarca, who grew up in Geryon and moved to Candor when she was 11 annos old (21 years old). “I’m a Martian, but I’ve never seen it like this. Everyone’s going to want to fly as soon as we can get more shuttles going.”
The hour-long flight compares to the 50-sol overland journey.
From Candor, the overland supply trains travel east through Candor Chaos and then south over the Melas Labes, before turning west for the long journey past Melas city and through Ius Chasma and up the eastern border of Noctis Labyrinthus.
As the shuttle soared into the Martian sky, Tan said, “We go up fast, but we come down nice and slow.”
Nice and slow doesn’t mean nice and easy.
The shuttle seemed to pause at the top of its arc and Tan and his passengers enjoyed the weightless moment and the incredible vista of the Valles Marineris and the great volcanos to the west.
Then the craft began to bounce, the metal protesting noisily as Tan kept it on target for Ares Port.
The view grew smaller and smaller until the City itself came into view with it’s 4.8 km habitational tube and the spreading industrial areas around Ares Port.
The buildings rose around the craft, which hovered for a moment and gently kissed the ground.
“That was a lot of fun,” Catamarca said as the shuttle’s engines wound down.
On the landing zone, the shuttle once again looked small with two of the larger, new Class 5 craft parked nearby.
“None of the other Valley cities has a landing zone big enough for those,” Tan said. “And that’s my good fortune.”
Survey Mars explorers back off the cliff in Eos
EOS CHASMA, Dec. 41 - A stranded Survey Mars explorer tractor was pulled back from the edge of the 2,500m cliff where the six-person crew has been stranded for nearly a week.
A rescue tractor that was airlifted in from Ares Port winched the explorer’s empty vehicle slowly away from the edge.
The explorer’s vehicle was tilted about 30 degrees to the left where the ground had slumped about 20 m from the edge of an ancient mega-waterfall.
The tractor looked like it might roll over as it was winched out of the slump, but settled nearly evenly to the ground as it was pulled out of the slump.
The tractor became stuck near the edge when the ground shifted as they were exploring an ancient outflow channel and mega-waterfall at the southeast side of Eos Mensa, about 1,300 km east of Corprates and nearly 750 m south southeast of Orson Welles Crater.
“We were creeping closer and closer, taking our time, when we suddenly shifted sideways,” Explorer Chief Julius Fix told a Chaos Courier reporter inside the rescue tractor. “It’s Mars, and we should expect things to get interesting, but we didn’t really have a hint that anything was amiss until the ground slumped.”
The two tractors will continue to explore the area jointly, according to Survey Mars.
“It’s a very interesting area,” Fix said. “Unimaginable floods poured through here on their way out to the ancient seas. With two tractors, we can back each other up and work our way back to Coprates over time.”
—Mei Aonio, Ares Port Correspondent.
Learn about the ancient mega-waterfall in Eos Chasma
Mars DevCo stock under pressure, bonds too
Downgrade, cost-cutting ahead for DevCo?
MARS CAROUSEL, Dec. 43 - Mars DevCo stock remained under heavy pressure on the Luna Orbital Exchange going into the end of the company’s first quarter (on Earth), with analysts expecting another decline in earnings and lowered guidance going forward.
“It’s very likely that they’ll announce some kind of restructuring,” space industry analyst Camilla Fortuna told the Chaos Courier on Friday. “They keep having equipment issues, and that’s pressuring their financial returns. Their latest supply fleet to Mars is a case in point but the problems don’t end there.”
Fortuna cited the explosions aboard the spaceliner Wandering Star that forced the evacuation of 250 passengers and a dozen crew as well as the failure of a prefabricated factory unit to properly self deploy when it arrived in Mars orbit.
In addition, the fast packet Caraval suffered a total engine failure on its approach to Mars in June of the Martian year.
“It’s apparent that there are problems with management, and unfortunately they’re manifesting in the equipment and that’s costly,” Fortuna said. “Luckily they haven’t lost anyone, but that’s just good luck. They need more than that.
Aboard the Mars Carousel orbital, company executives, including Planetary Manager Elric Balvicar declined comment.
DevCo stock is down 31 percent over the last year, and its bonds have been selling off lately on concerns that the company may lose its investment grade rating.
“They need to do something to rein in costs without causing more problems down the line,” Fortuna said. “They built a reputation for innovation and quality, but they’ve been coasting on that for too long.”
Calendar
Join the Cubby party
City Residence will host another weekend welcome party outside the Cubbies, or contract worker dormitories Friday, Dec. 49, featuring two of the city’s most popular, and danceable bands - Rhumba Cats and City Samba. The party starts on the Cubby Terrace at 21:00. All resident are welcome.
City Guides Arrivals Week 5 recap
Meeting for City Guide volunteers helping the new arrivals. Week 6 debrief and planning for Arrivals Week 7. You can still volunteer. Refreshments. Monday Hab 1 Terrace 8 outside Council Hall. 19:00
City Strings "Coming Home Concert"
Ensemble performs selections from Dvorak's "New World Symphony." " Refreshments. Mariners Hall. WestHill Terrace 4. Friday-Sunday 16:00
“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 Chasma Hab. 1 Terrace 8. Stage 3. Dec. 48-53, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00
Samba Marte Dancing and Music.
Hab3 Terrace 2 by the bamboo grove. Saturday 19:00. Sunday Family dance 14:00. The kids can play percussion.
City Social
Mix and mingle with new arrivals and old hands. Acoustic music by acoustic duo Harris and Fitz. Start here and head to the Cubby party.. Hab 2. Terrace 4, by Tithonia Gardens. Friday 17:00
Las Panteras de Marte
Singer Monique Solis, guitarist Hernando Senatobia and accordionist Ignacio Beck, play Mars-style Norteño music. You’ll dance. You'll love it! Ius Forum. Saturday 19:00
Marsball
Kind of like basketball, with really high baskets. Rules and regulations are evolving. They'll take it easy if you're just finding your feet. Hab 3 Terrace 1 Gymnasium area Saturday 08:00
Volleyball
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
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.
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
- Merry Grace, lifestyle correspondent
Classified Ads
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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
BARVOOM POWERPAX Light it up. Sized for small community and extended-family dwellings. OWELLES 317-76527
CARGO HANDLERS. Space experience required. Contract exemptions considered. PONTUS 100 419
WELDERS. Experienced welders seeking space yard qualification. Ex-contract only. PONTUS 100 639
PLASMA SPINMASTER Compact fusion designs. CANDOR 286 25120
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
APPRENTICES Aquaculture. 8 annos and up. URBS 62128
APPRENTICES Environmental systems. URBS 269 81447
APPRENTICES Construction. Interior. GERYON 278 65689
APPRENTICES Recycling systems. 8 annos and up. IUS 278 98559
APPRENTICES Metal smith, forging, casting, 8 annos (14 years) and up. URBS 269-37728
SPACE CAMP. Get ready for orbital work. All ages. ARES PORT 268 00910
BALLROOM DANCING Let's Rumba! URBS 269 49144
BALLET Poise, strength, balance, beauty. Très grands jetés URBS 269 62577
RAAS / GARBA Dance performers for existing troupe. COPRATES 295 45788
MARTIAL ARTS. Conditioning and confidence. Weighted and natural. GERYON 278 71435
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