A novel about the first landing on Mars, exploration of the planet, and its eventual settlement. The novel attempts to make reasonable assumptions about the technology available to send humans to Mars in the 2020s, but speeds up the pace of settlement somewhat. It also sets the exploration and settlement of Mars in the context of exploration of the moon, Venus, asteroids, Mercury, and the outer solar system.
Comments are welcome. The author can be reached at rstockman at usbnc dot org.
Volume 1: Columbus 1
Volume 2: Columbus 2
Volume 3: The Settlement
Volume 4: The Commission
Volume 5: Dust and Gold
Robert Stockman has a Masters degree in Planetary Geology from Brown University (1977) and participated in the Viking mission as a graduate student assistant to Dr. Thomas Mutch and the Lander Imaging Flight Team Science Analysis Group (LIFT-SAG). Subsequently he taught geology, oceanography, and astronomy at the Community College of Rhode Island, the University of Massachusetts-Boston, the University of Lowell, and Bentley College (Waltham, Mass.). Switching fields, he completed a Th.D. in the History of Religion in the United States at Harvard University (1990). Currently he teaches Religious Studies part time at DePaul University, Chicago, and is Director of the Institute for Bahá'í Studies, Wilmette, Illinois. He is the author of three books on American Bahá'í history. He lives in South Bend, Indiana, with his wife and two children.