9
Week One
The next morning Laura and Sergei arrived from the Olympus an hour after dawn. The two of them went to the Pavonis with the ranger and portahab and loaded nitrogen, argon, and oxygen canisters into the portahab while the others returned to cargo lander 2 with the buggies to load a trailer with life support equipment, furniture, plumbing, and other items for the habitat, which they drove over.
It was a long, hard day of work inside. The geologists each went out for four hours with a companion—Will went with Shinji, David with Laura. Sergei and Ethel alternated in the task of running an air compressor to inflate the habitat’s structural members; the night before Will and Ethel had entered a structure that would have collapsed like a balloon if the air had escaped. The habitat had hundreds of tubes in its interior and exterior walls and floors to fill with compressed Martian air, stiffening the structure permanently. Each tube required separate inflation. Eventually the tubes could be filled with water or self-hardening plastic. They also devoted some time to deployment of solar arrays.
Three worked inside at all times. The interior was cold—about twenty below zero that morning—but pressure suits with gloves, minus the helmets and backpacks, worked well. Right inside the airlock they connected the combined electric heating and atmospheric control and circulation system to the air ducts; there were inflatable air ducts under the floors and air returns built into the ceilings. Outside the habitat they installed the oxygen and nitrogen tanks, which connected to the atmospheric system through valved pipes. Drawing off the peak midday power of the solar panels, the air and heating unit began to improve the interior environment; by noon the pressure rose to 0.33 atmospheres—0.20 atmospheres of oxygen and 0.13 atmospheres of nitrogen—while the air temperature reached the freezing point.
By late morning they were able to turn to the energy storage system, a half-ton unit that contained fuel cells, a sabatier reactor, an electrolysis system, and a methane tank. It was installed near the airlock as well, where its waste heat and water could be routed inside the habitat. Oxygen came to the unit from the oxygen tanks. The unit was ready to be wired and piped into the various systems; the hardest task to accomplish was to fill sand bags and pack them around the structure, both to insulate it and protect it. Sandbags were piled around the oxygen, nitrogen, and methane tanks as well.
After lunch the basic tasks necessary for setting up the electrical, heating, and atmospheric systems were accomplished; later they would test the preinstalled pressure, humidity, oxygen, and temperature sensors throughout the habitat and place valves in the ducts so that the environment could be micromanaged. At 1:30 the team turned to the kitchen and bathroom. Hard plastic sheets were glued down to strengthen the floors and David went into the basement to install hard plastic vertical braces to strengthen the floor’s weight bearing capacity. Before the afternoon ended they were able to bring the stove, refrigerator, kitchen sink and cabinet, bathroom sink, toilet unit, and shower unit inside the habitat and put them in place. After Shinji and David left for the Olympus, Will and Ethel stayed at the habitat plumbing the bathroom fixtures together until 9 p.m.
Sol 4 began early and repeated the pattern of the previous days. Will and David both spent five hours doing geology with someone else, thereby keeping the ground-based geology teams fully engaged in the exploration of Mars. Will and Laura spent the morning at “Snow,” a one-kilometer in diameter crater about ten kilometers from the outpost. They walked back and forth across its ejecta blanket, then descended to its floor; it was about the size of Meteor Crater and thus felt familiar. Since the impact had excavated a hole 150 meters deep, it provided excellent exposures of the strata underlying Aurorae; clearly, they would have to come back and study it in detail.
While they explored, Sergei and Ethel set up three docking units, one at one end of the habitat and two at the other, inflated their structural members, and tested them. The cube-shaped units had four rigid sides three meters long, each with two pressure doors; the doors could be equipped with a special tunnel that could be docked to the back door of a ranger or portahab, allowing personnel to transfer to the Outpost without pressure suits. One docking unit would serve as a pressure suit donning facility where suits could be stored, recharged, and cleaned. Air tubes were run through the docking unit to the habitat’s life support system. Then they attached to two of the doors a pressure suit cleaning unit consisting of a booth the size of a shower stall; a powerful blast of carbon dioxide gas blew all dust and dirt off the suits and exhausted it into a unit that filtered the air, then released it back into the atmosphere. The unit was essential for protecting the habitat’s machinery and seals from the dust, which could corrode surfaces and cause leaks.
That afternoon, the ranger was devoted to pushing loose regolith to the edge of the habitat, where someone with a shovel pushed it into the hole under the inflated structure. The excavation had intentionally been a bit large for the habitat, and now had to be backfilled very carefully.
Meanwhile, inside, the kitchen and bathroom were completely set up so that they were usable. This involved installation of a gray water processing unit about the size of a refrigerator; once a greenhouse was set up, the partially treated water would be routed out a pipe to the plants. Meanwhile, its capacity was inadequate to handle the wash water of six people. Hard plastic sheets were placed over part of the floor of the Great Room so that it could be used easily. The habitat had numerous electrical outlets, and hard plastic boxes with plugs were installed.
That night, Will and David went to the Olympus to maintain the plants and feed the animals. Sol 5 included a second visit to Snow Crater, this time by Will and Sergei. Hard “wallpaper” panels were added to the walls of the Great Room to protect them from damage, make them more fire resistant, and to brighten them up. Flooring was installed in the rest of the Great Room, the Geo-bio lab, and four bedrooms. All the furniture from the Olympus and Pavonis was brought over and installed, making the place almost livable.
At their hasty supper Laura said she would go to the Olympus that night and before Sergei could volunteer, Ethel spoke up. “Oh, I want to go as well.”
Laura frowned. “Really?”
“Yes. I haven’t been back yet. So let’s go.”
Laura opened her mouth, then closed it. The matter was settled. The two women suited up and headed for the ranger.
They drove to the Olympus in the darkness; the track was now cleared of rocks and widened by the repeat trips and was in excellent condition. They were there in a bit less than an hour.
“Say, do you want to try on clothes?” asked Ethel, after they had checked the plants and fed the animals.
“When have you had any time to download fashions?”
“Last night I spent half an hour scanning several Paris websites; I found a couple of nice outfits.”
“You have a funny way of relaxing in the midst of outpost setup! I prefer sleeping!”
“I had only a little bit of time.”
Laura shrugged. “Well, I guess we can spend a little time, too.”
They sat in front of the large screen in the shuttle’s great room and loaded their personal information into the software. It was strange and fun to watch oneself walk down the runway and model a Paris fashion. But Laura was pleased by several of Ethel’s choices. “This one looks great on both of us, I think,” she exclaimed after they projected a particular piece onto both of them.
“I agree. Hard to believe, too; we have very different complexions.”
“The outfit has enough colors in it; some of them are bound to flatter almost anyone.”
“What would Sergei say?”
Laura frowned. “Last time we looked at fashions, we talked about Sergei also, if I recall.”
“Well, maybe next time I’ll come up with another excuse.” Ethel looked at the screen a moment. “Laura, I don’t want to pry into your personal life.”
“Well, I appreciate that!”
“But don’t you think that when there are only six people on Mars, we have to be careful to build a team, and we can’t build a team if there are favorites or if someone’s romantic feelings are shattered.”
“Favorites? Do you think we all like each other the same amount? Aren’t you sweet on Will?”
“That’s not what I mean. We all have friendships, but romance is different—”
“Who says we have romance?”
“Oh, come on.”
“Friendship and sex are not the same thing as romance, Ethel. What are you saying? Are you afraid I might have to choose between Sergei and someone else in a life and death situation? What are the chances of something like that happening? And again, I ask you, can you choose equally among everyone here?”
“Laura, the Commander and Vice Commander are responsible for the mission. How appropriate is for the two of them to go off together for the night?”
“Well, I didn’t hear from Mission Control about this,” replied Laura, lying. “I’m Commander. Don’t mind my business.”
Ethel shrugged and said nothing.
“I think you’re jealous.”
“I beg your pardon! I was never motivated like that!”
“Okay.” Laura stood up. “I’m going to bed. Good night.”
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The next morning—sol 6—the women drove back to the outpost in an awkward silence. But they soon plunged to work with the others. Outside, crewmembers installed plastic hoods around the windows to keep regolith away from them, then began to blow dust and sand over the habitat to protect it from the wind, insulate it from temperature extremes, and shield it from radiation. It wasn’t a windy day so the dust mostly stayed put, although the suits required a careful cleaning before going inside.
Inside the habitat, the rest of the floors were covered with hard panels. They could now walk around without having the stretched fabric of the floor sink ever so slightly under their feet. Bedroom walls were decorated with wallpaper panels; the astronauts had chosen their colors and patterns before departure. Cargo lander 2 had brought furniture: desks, chests of drawers, and small closets. The bunk beds in the Pavonis were dismantled and brought to serve as beds in the habitat. The tables, chairs, pots, pans, dishes, and kitchenware, the dishwasher, and the clothes washers and driers were brought from the Pavonis and the Olympus and put in their places.
“I’m sleeping here tonight,” announced Will, as sunset approached. “There’s no reason not to test the place out.”
“It’d be good to have someone with you though,” said Laura. She looked around. “Ethel?”
Ethel shook her head. David leaned forward. “I’ll stay here as well. We’ll have a slumber party, Moon Man.”
Will smiled. Ethel looked at him, then Laura. “Tomorrow’s Saturday; or maybe I should say Satursol. The NASA geologists and engineers will be at home that day. Will’s scheduled to cook, so I was wondering whether we could prevail on him to cook something special here for dinner.”
“Great idea!” exclaimed Laura. “What do you say?”
Will shrugged. “Sure, I can whip something up, but I’ll need to start at 3 p.m.”
“Earlier; it’s time to sacrifice a rabbit,” said Sergei.
“I agree,” added Shinji, the keeper of the rabbits.
“And I’ll help,” added Ethel. “In fact, Will, I wouldn’t mind it if we permanently served as a kitchen team. Whenever either name comes up on the schedule, you cook and I’ll wash.”
“Really? Sure, I can do that. I like cooking a lot more than cleaning up afterwards; though I’m not sure how to kill and prepare a rabbit.”
“Well, I’m the other way around; I’ll clean up over cooking any time. And I don’t know how to prepare a rabbit either.”
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The next morning Will and Ethel went to the Pavonis, where the rabbits and chickens from the Olympus had been moved the day before. Each shuttle had started with a single breeding pair of rabbits; three months into the voyage the pair on the Olympus had given birth to a litter of eight, which were now mature. They selected two cute, fluffy ones—a male and a female—decapitated them, then spent almost two hours cleaning them. Recipes appropriate to their circumstances were abundant on a mission website, which had proved popular to mission fans as well.
When the hardest, messiest work was over, Ethel said “This will be easier next time!”
“Yes, we know what to do, or not do.” Will looked around. “We may want to use the Pavonis exclusively for killing and preparing animals. The smell will circulate a few days.”
“And the filters won’t have anything else to deal with,” agreed Ethel. “I guess after tomorrow, when David and Shinji move the plants, we won’t be visiting the Elysium at all.”
“Just routine maintenance once a month. Say, did you ever talk to Laura?”
“Yes. God, was that a disaster.”
“What happened?”
“I tried to explain that a romance between her and Sergei was not good for the team, but she wouldn’t buy it.”
“Did you remind her it’s against NASA regs; not to mention the regulations of all the other space agencies.”
“No; she knows that. I did express concern that the Commander and Vice Commander had deserted their posts together—well, I didn’t put it that way—and she said NASA hadn’t said anything to her about it.”
“Really? I’m surprised. They know where all of us are at all times.”
“And most of the time they’re monitoring our heart and respiration rates; though I suppose Laura and Sergei remove their ear pieces before climbing into bed.”
“Most people take them out; I take out mine because it’s uncomfortable to sleep on. But there are always the microphones, which theoretically are only being recorded in case of a disaster.”
“Anyway, I made a mess of it, and now she won’t want to talk to me.”
“I was wondering. Maybe a second attempt with—”
“No way! I’m not raising the matter with her again!”
Will nodded and kept thinking. “Then there’s another approach. You could apologize for hurting her feelings.”
“I don’t want to apologize about something when I’m right.”
“I didn’t say apologize for raising the topic. Apologize for upsetting her. There’s a difference for you, and one that will repair the breach without changing positions.”
“You sound like my Presbyterian grandmother!”
“Well, is that such a bad thing?”
Ethel thought a moment, then nodded. “You’re right. That might work, especially if she’s in a good mood.”
“Then tell you what. I’ll make the best meal I’ve ever prepared in space. If that doesn’t prepare the ground, I don’t know what will.”
“Oh, it will help; she loves your cooking.”
“It’s about the only thing I do that she likes!”
“Yes, she’s hard to please. In many ways, she and Sergei are a good match; they’re both from a particular place, they aren’t cosmopolitan people, and they’re emotional people.”
“Yes, that’s true.” There was silence for a minute. “How are your parents?” Will asked.
“Thank you for asking. They’re fine and remain incredibly proud that their daughter was the fifth person to step onto Mars. But their health is not good. I kind of wish I hadn’t come; I’m worried about their health.”
“How old?”
“Mom’s 69, but she has diabetes; dad’s 71 and has heart trouble.”
“That’s not good. My mom’s 67 and in very good health.”
“And your dad; he’s passed on, right?”
“Yes, three years ago. That was rough, especially since it coincided with separation from my wife; or my ex-wife, I should say. Thank God I wasn’t on the moon at the time; it happened to fall between assignments.” He shook his head and for a moment he had nothing more to say. “I got a video mail from my mom and sister this morning. They’re incredibly proud of me, too.”
“Oh, yes. Now I thought your mother lived in Connecticut and your sister in Bolivia?”
“Yes, my sister teaches at a university there, in Santa Cruz. But her son—my nephew—needs a minor medical procedure, so they’re in Connecticut for a few weeks for that. And a Bahá'í holiday period called Intercalary Days just ended, so they are with her for that.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, it’s a bit complicated to explain. The intercalary days are four or five days long, longer in a leap year; it’s a time of gift giving, family get togethers, charitable deeds, and—this seems particularly important to most Bahá'ís—parties. We have lots of them, usually one every night. It’s sort of Christmas and Thanksgiving with a bit of Mardigras thrown in.”
“Sounds fun.”
He nodded. “It’s followed by the Fast; no eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset, March 2 through March 20. Of course, there are exemptions for various people, including those performing heavy labor, and it seems to me that being one of the first people on Mars the week after arrival constitutes heavy labor!”
“I agree. That’s practical.” Ethel paused. “I’m not sure what my Presbyterian grandmother would have thought of fasting.”
“Did she observe Lent?”
“In some ways, yes. Of course, Catholics are lot bigger with Lent than Protestants.”
“Well, this is a little like Lent.” Will frowned. “Your Presbyterian grandmother’s pretty important to you, isn’t she?”
“Yes, in some ways. She was immensely impressive and a bit awesome, to a ten year old child; that’s the year I got to know her best. After that we moved back to Canada for five years, and she died when I was twelve. She’s sort of my moral and ethical compass, you might say.”
“But not religious?”
Ethel shook her head. “No, not particularly.”
They finished cleaning the rabbits, then put them in one bag. The parts humans wouldn’t eat were put in another bag and some were fed immediately to the chickens, who ate them enthusiastically. Will put the skins in a third bag, because he suspected he could do something with them eventually. After they had killed twenty rabbits, they’d have enough fur for a bedspread, coat, or something else warm and attractive. The three bags went into an airtight carrying case.
The two of them suited up and jumped onto the two buggies. They stopped at the Elysium to feed more rabbit offal to the chickens there, then put the rest in the Shuttle’s refrigerator. They headed to the habitat, where Will got to work cooking. Everyone else was busy installing floor and wall panels; outside, David set up more solar arrays. The day before they had run a power line to the habitat from the landing zone, so it was plugged into the “Mars electric grid.”
Soon the cooking smells had permeated the entire habitat, causing both positive comments—they were mouth watering—and negative, because it suggested the air filtration system still was not adjusted correctly. After another load of furniture arrived from the Pavonis—they were stripping it of stuff as well, since it would need its furniture only when they left in eighteen months—they set it up, then went to wash up. David came to help Will. At 6:30, everyone sat down to an impressive meal.
Laura took one bite of the rabbit and smiled. “Oh, Will, this is good! You have an instinct for cooking!”
“Oh, no. If I had gone by instincts I would have ruined this meal. You can’t rely on instincts when cooking in a third of an atmosphere of pressure; you have to go by the book and cook everything long enough to ruin it on Earth!”
Laura laughed. “Well, even that’s an instinct. This is really good.”
“It is,” echoed David.
“This is a fine inauguration of our new house,” said Laura. “For all we know, people may be living in this habitat fifty years from now.”
“Children may be born in it,” added Ethel. “I wonder how many people will be living on Mars by then.”
“If you assume an immigration rate of four every other year, about one hundred,” said Will. “And that seems like a reasonable guess to me. We won’t start with that many, but the rate will accelerate over time.”
“It could be even more,” added Sergei. “Or if humanity loses its nerve, this habitat could be standing here abandoned in fifty years!”
“We won’t let that happen,” replied Laura. “Humanity, that is. That’s why the Columbus Project went with reusable vehicles instead of expendables. Every interplanetary habitat can be refurbished and used again and again; our shuttles have five uses and then must be refurbished; the habitats are rated for fifteen years with minimum maintenance.”
“The foresight is uncharacteristic!” agreed Sergei, and they all laughed. “Of course, that’s one reason it was so expensive,” he added.
“We’ll get our money’s worth out of this place, that’s for sure,” said Shinji. He looked around the great room in admiration. “This is going to be a very comfortable place.”
“Yes,” agreed Will. “Wait until the second inflatable arrives, too.”
“It’s going to make an excellent base of operations,” agreed Laura. “By the way, since we’ve worked so hard and gotten slightly ahead of schedule, tomorrow we rest; no work on sol 8. We’ve got how much work left on this thing; two weeks?”
“That’s about right,” agreed Sergei. “But starting next week, the solar power system, drill, and then the greenhouse become priorities as well, followed by the chemical synthesizing equipment and the metal separation and fabrication systems. So we’ll finish this place in about a month.”
“And then the cargo landers arrive from Earth with even more stuff,” said David.
“Exploration is the focus of the second half of our mission,” noted Laura. “The first half has to focus on base setup, determining whether we can get water out of the ground, making sure the greenhouses work, testing all sorts of fabrication and synthesis equipment, developing the sunwings, etc.”
“Actually, we’ll be doing exploration all along,” added Will. “Two team members explore while four do everything else. I don’t think David was complaining; by the time we leave this place, we’ll have done a fair amount of exploring!”
“Oh, I agree!” said David. “And we’re laying the foundation for exploration of this entire planet. Fifty years from now, I think it’ll be hard to find a spot where people haven’t explored.”
“Say, Laura, I hate to change the subject, but that bottle of champagne is getting mighty tempting,” said Sergei. He looked at the counter, where his bottle sat chilling in an ice bucket.
“Okay,” agreed Laura. “Maybe it is time for a drink.” She rose and walked to the counter, where she pulled out a corkscrew and began to work on the cork. It took a few minutes before it popped with great flourish; they all applauded. She carried it to the table and began to fill glasses.
Sergei and Ethel both accepted a glass. David hesitated, then accepted as well. Shinji nodded appreciatively as Laura filled his glass. When she got to Will, he shook his head. “I’ve got carbonated water.”
“So; won’t you toast with us?”
“Yes, with the water.”
“Suit yourself.” Laura was irritated. She poured herself a glass, then put down the bottle. “I had planned to do this toast when we finished eating, but Sergei couldn’t wait. But that’s fine. To Mars, and a bright future for this world and this outpost. Let us build this planet’s future as well as we can.”
“Here, here!” the others said. Then they all drank.
They went back to eating. After coffee and tea, Will surprised everyone with homemade ice cream for dessert. Of course, it had required some special effort; all they had on board was dehydrated milk. But it was a great success.
They lingered over the ice cream and hot drinks talking about anything and everything. Then David pulled out his guitar and Laura her keyboard—she was a pretty good pianist—and they played songs. It was the best time together as a team that they had experienced; no one wanted to end it. Finally, people began to trickle out, heading for their rooms. As Laura headed for her room, Ethel hurried to catch up. “Laura!” she exclaimed quietly, trying to avoid being noticed by everyone else. Laura turned.
“What is it?”
“Laura, I just wanted to apologize for upsetting you the other night.”
Laura hesitated, as if she was uncertain what incident Ethel referred to. “Oh, that’s okay; forget it,” she replied, then she resumed her walk to her room.