MARS FRONTIER
Vol. 1
Columbus One
by Robert H. Stockman
Table of Contents
1. Gateway
Will Elliott and David Alaoui join Columbus 1, the first manned vehicle to fly to Mars, which is docked to the L1 Gateway Station located between the Earth and the moon. They meet the other four crew, including one new member (Commander Laura Stillwell; Assistant Commander Sergei Alievitch Landsberg; flight physician Shinji Nagatani; and chief engineer Ethel MacGregor). Heather Kimball, the pilot of their flight from Shackleton (the station at the lunar South Pole), tells her story of being on the first manned flight to return to the moon since Apollo.
Date: August, 21, 2020
2. Flight
Columbus 1 flies past Earth,
fires its engines, and heads to Mars. Will shows Laura his meteorite
collection; she notes pictures of his black father and white mother and is
surprised by his mixed ancestry. A graywater tank bursts, requiring the three
of them on the Ausonia
interplanetary habitat to move out temporarily. Laura chews Sergei out for not
detecting the problem before it happened, even though there was nothing obvious
to detect.
Date: Aug. 28-Sept. 3, 2020
3. 2015AS
Laura is being tough on all of them and appears to be insecure in her position as Commander. Will and Ethel get to know each other a bit better. Sergei’s divorce decree arrives; they all discuss divorces (four out of six on board are divorced). Laura goes to comfort Sergei and seduces him. They fly by a small near-earth asteroid and gather high quality radar and laser data.
Date: Oct., 2020
4. Christmas
Laura comes out of Sergei’s room naked when David happened to be drifting by. She accuses him of spying on her. Everyone finds out she and Sergei are in a relationship and express concern about the lack of friendships among the crew. Ethel talks to Laura about the problem and Laura proposes a Christmas party. But she quickly discovers that she and Ethel are the only Christians on board and David, as a Muslim, is very hesitant to be involved in a Christmas party. She calls a staff meeting and they agree to a small Christmas party for those who want to participate, a New Year’s party, and a series of movie nights.
Date: Late Dec. 2020
5. Arrival
Columbus 1 aerobrakes into orbit around Mars. While they wait for the dust storm in the Marineris Valleys to clear, Will and David try to free a drill on Phobos. But the drill cable breaks instead. The crew plans a side trip to Phobos to fix it.
Date: Feb. 15, 2021
6. Phobos
The Columbus 1 crew convinces Mission Control to allow them to land on Phobos to repair the drill. The Elysium with Sergei, Will, and Ethel lands on Phobos, explores, and affects the necessary repairs.
Date: late Feb. 2021
7. Aureum
The Olympus experiences a partial failure of one of its three parachutes on landing and misses the landing site by twenty-two kilometers. The Elysium makes an emergency landing at the main landing area and Sergei drives over to the Olympus to haul everyone to the main landing area, plus some of their supplies.
Date: Feb. 28, 2021 (landing on Mars)
8. Home
Sergei and the three crew from the Elysium drive to the main landing area. Will and Ethel propose a new location for the Mars outpost, which is unanimously accepted by all six. Sergei and Laura sleep together the night after landing in a van and drive back to the Elysium together for the night, raising concerns about their relationship among Will and Ethel.
Date: early March, 2021
9. Week One
During the first week, the team sets up habitat 1 enough so that they can live in it. Laura and Ethel return to the Olympus to feed the animals and Ethel tries to talk to Laura about the wisdom of the commander and vice commander going off together for the night, leaving everyone else. The conversation is unpleasant and ineffective. Will cooks an excellent meal for everyone and they socialize together.
Early March, 2021
10. Boat Rock
Will and Ethel set up the driller and the solar power unit. They go to the top of Boat Rock to explore it. There, they talk about their attraction to each other and resolve not to get involved romantically. Instead, they agree to build strong social ties among the six of them on Mars.
Date: mid March, 2021
11. Greenhouse
Will and Shinji set up and explore the new greenhouse. They decide that the team would watch Gone with the Wind on movie night the next day. After the movie, Laura thinks David recommended the movie to insult her and Sergei, whom she saw in Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler.
Date: late March, 2021
12. Escarpment
With the initial setup work completed, Laura authorizes a field trip the base of the escarpment. There, David finds a small deposit of copper ore. Will and Laura have a private talk and she agrees to apologize to David for accusing him of recommending Gone with the Wind. He accepts the apology. The next day, three automated cargo landers begin to arrive.
Date: April, 2021
13 Birthday
The crew unloaded the three new automated cargo landers and debated the order that they would set up everything. They decided to start with the chemical synthesis unit, move on to the metal carbonyl unit, and end with the sunwing, an aircraft with solar panels covering its immense wings. Ethel baked a cake for Will’s 35th birthday, surprising him.
Date: May 2021
14 Sunwing
Four team members explore ¾ way up Little Colorado Canyon, using a sunwing to relay communications from the deeper sections. Laura and Sergei have a big fight and break up, rupturing social relations in the Outpost. Sergei moves to Habitat 2. To reduce the appearance of rupture, David moves as well.
Date: late June, 2021
15 Breakthrough
An article in the Washington Post about the social tensions among the Columbus 1 crew forces the crew to discuss their differences in intimate detail. Laura and Sergei patch up some of their differences. David and Laura lessen their tensions somewhat. Ethel confesses she may be in love with Will. The next day when work resumes, Will and David are exploring Gangis Chasma by Prospector telerobotically operated vehicle and spot tiny black spheres in a carbonaceous shale that might be fossils.
Date: early July, 2021
16 Fossil
On the eve of the arrival of a sample from Gangis Chasma (by sunwing) a graduate student on Earth, examining images of samples earlier collected, discovers a fossil in a rock found at the Outpost. Will and David confirmed the discovery. When the sunwing brought the sample from Gangis, the team devoted several days and nights to its analysis. They speculate that a trip to Gangis will be necessary. Will and Ethel talk about their relationship and agree they cannot marry.
Date: mid July, 2021
17 Conjunction
The crew spends conjunction doing relatively little work but planning how they will spend their remaining time on Mars, including their first major expedition across the surface. Ethel’s mother has a heart attack and dies; everyone rallies to support her. Will proposes building an overlook on top of Boat Rock in her mother’s memory.
Date: late Nov. 2021
18 Gangis
Three crew members spend December on a trip to the mouth of Gangis, then January reviewing the samples; February penetrating into Gangis almost to the outcrop of fossiliferous shale; March reviewing their work and analyzing the samples; April driving completely around the lake deposits filling central Gangis. Will returns from the third trip thrilled with his work on Mars. He suggests to Ethel that they get married and stay on Mars. She agrees. She asked Shinji whether he’d like to stay and he agrees. They inform the other three crew members.
Date: Dec. 2021-mid Apr. 2022
19 Decisions
They decide not to tell NASA about the wedding plans and request to stay. The request is scrutinized very closely; then NASA listens to the audiotapes of conversations in the Great Room, finds out about the wedding, and demands to know what is going on. They explain why they want to get married as well. After a week of indecision, NASA approves the plan for Will, Ethel, and Shinji to stay.
Date: late April, 2022.
20 Wedding
Will returned from the chaotic terrain of southern Aurorae and Ethel shows him the apartment she built for them in Habitat 1’s attic. They get married.
Date: early June, 2022
21 Blastoff
The six exchange goodbyes, then Laura, Sergei, and David blast off for Mars orbit, where they rendezvous with an Ihab and head for Earth.
Date: July 8, 2022
Appendix 1: Project Columbus Equipment and Schedule (Available April 15, 2004)
© 2004 Robert H. Stockman