15
The Commission
Late afternoon sunlight streamed in through the portholes of Habitat 2. Ethel sat on a chair; Will stood next to Marshall, who liked to run across the room, then back to his father. It had taken the boy only a month to go from a few halting steps to rapid running. Near Ethel were Roger, Madhu, and their four-week old baby, Sam, asleep on his mother’s lap. Paul had just come back from the central highlands two sols earlier for a month; Monika sat with him, holding his hand. Eve, Rosa, and Koyo rounded out the group watching the signing ceremony for the Mars Commission treaty.
The administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration completed his welcoming remarks about the importance of space flight for the future of humanity, then sat to warm applause. Dr. David Alaoui, head of France’s Manned Spaceflight program, spoke about what it was like to explore Mars. He was followed by representatives of the European, Russian, and Japanese Space Agencies, who spoke about the importance of international collaboration in space and its contribution to world peace.
Then the audience turned to the television screens on the podium and Will appeared. Marshall sat on his lap; Madhu sat next to him, holding Sam. Will sat up in his chair to see how well the videotape had come out.
“Greetings from Aurorae Outpost, Mars,” he began. “On behalf of the twenty-five human beings resident here, congratulations to the governments and space agencies of the nations of the world for putting together a long-term organization to oversee and coordinate the exploration and development of the Red Planet. The Mars Commission represents a great conceptual leap forward in our thinking about spaceflight. The Commission will focus not just on pure science and the abstract idea of ‘exploration.’ It will consider the question of the long-term human presence on Mars. And as you can see by these two children, the long-term presence of humanity has begun. We can no longer ignore the term ‘resident of Mars.’ We have to allow the word ‘settlement’ to enter our vocabulary. At some point the term ‘colonization’ will become current; perhaps ‘terraform’ will as well. Certainly, the time for ‘commercialization’ has come; that’s one reason the Commission has been established. The sale of Mars will begin.
“The idea of selling Mars is highly controversial. It conjures up images of vulgar capitalists buying thousands of square kilometers of Mars or starry-eyed Mars enthusiasts spending thousands of dollars to own a few rocks. But Mars will never be a perfect utopian world, and its future in inextricably linked to Earth’s. It has families already, and it will have more. It has an outpost and in a few decades that outpost will become a village with an associated group of outposts. It cannot remain totally dependent on terrestrial financing; it must start to make a contribution of its own. It will not be able to pay for itself for decades, if not centuries.
“We have children to educate here, and it’ll cost two hundred million dollars to import a teacher for them. Would we save money by not having children on Mars, thereby forcing people wishing to have children to leave after a few years of work here? What will humanity learn from raising children in a Martian outpost? Perhaps it’ll speed the day when space flight for children will become possible.
“Mars, out of necessity, already represents a different approach to space exploration compared to the moon or Earth orbit. The Mars Commission has been set up in recognition of these facts. It is structured to allow creation of civic authorities on Mars; it will recognize Aurorae Outpost’s. It will set up a Property Owners’ Association once land is sold so that the owners have a voice in the running of Mars. It will set up an agency for the sale of Martian resources, such as water, fossils, and gold, and for commercial of contracts for the same. The result will not be an Oklahoma land rush; it will not be the corruption of Mars by the Earth’s commercial powers; it will not be the beginning of the United States of Mars. But it will be a step toward a larger population here, the development of this world’s resources, and the broader involvement of interested civilians on Earth in this world’s evolution. As such, it will be very important in shaping the lives of these two children.”
Will’s comments were received with loud applause. Ethel turned to him and squeezed his hand. “It was good.”
“You hit the nail on the head,” agreed Paul.
Roger shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Will the Commission really set up a system for land sales?”
Will nodded. “In a few months. They are authorized to sell land anywhere on Mars except within Aurorae Borough. Within our borough, the Aurorae civic authority can decide. I think we should discuss the matter of land sales within the Borough because that land, obviously, is worth more because of its proximity to the Outpost, and providing service to the owners will be easier for us.”
“Route 1 potentially will open up land all the way around the world, too,” said Roger. “We could sell a lot of land.”
“No one knows how much demand there is, though,” exclaimed Will. “If one makes too much land available, one could depress its value. The tentative plan is to sell the land for three hundred dollars per square kilometer and not allow it to be subdivided, but to allow a resale market. If we sell land within Aurorae Borough, we’ll probably want to charge several times as much and allow some subdivision. We’ll charge a property tax of one mil of the value per year, due in five-year installments. We’ll develop a whole suite of services with a range of fees, including detailed aerial photography, surface three-dimensional video, even surface samples. And if we extract resources from the property, such as meteoritic nickel-iron, we’ll pay the owner a small royalty.”
Roger frowned. “And who will do the work?”
“We’ll do some of it. The sunwings have already been photographing the surface at a ten-centimeter resolution for years. Someone can be hired on Earth to write software to sell the data to a landowner in an attractive format. As for the three-d video, Columbus 3 will bring two Prospector-500s able to harrow the reg to extract magnetic particles for our iron making, and it’ll have a stereo camera pair. We can let it drive automatically across a line of property owners’ lots extracting the iron and making a three dimensional video. That won’t take much of our attention. It could even stop and sample each lot if we want. Maybe it’ll take a minute or two of someone’s time to direct the sample arm. The Prospector will collect all sorts of magnetic and gravity data and will have a meteorology station. Basically, we will be paid to do detailed automatic reconnaissance of the Martian surface. Wherever there are areas we want to study with the Prospector, we’ll sell some or all of the land.”
“That’s clever,” said Eve. “I assume we’ll be importing someone to provide service to the property owners, then?”
Will nodded. “That’s the plan for Columbus 4. What we don’t know is whether most of the land will be bought by individuals a square kilometer at a time, or whether a few companies will review the orbital data—which is incredibly detailed—and request to purchase specific blocks of a thousand or ten thousand square kilometers. They may not be able to exploit the resources for a few decades, but they may feel it is worth it to invest thirty million and purchase 100,000 square kilometers of the planet.”
“Is there any update on the question of sending a teacher and child care provider?” asked Ethel.
“I’ll ask again. They were in negotiations with the wife of one of the astronauts already scheduled to fly here. She has a Master’s in Early Childhood Education. The problem is that the two of them didn’t want to stay on Mars more than eighteen months. We’ll see.”
“What about the Chinese?” asked Roger. He sounded worried.
“They’ll probably send someone on Columbus 4. They’re considering purchase of two ITVs so that they can fly four here each opposition.”
“Really?” exclaimed Monika. “So, there may be more Chinese here than Russians, pretty soon?”
Will shrugged. “They have the world’s second largest economy, and by the end of the century it may be the largest.”
“Their presence on the moon is surging,” noted Paul. “What did I hear the other sol? Shackleton now has forty personnel, and twelve are Chinese! There are only ten Americans there. They’re doing a lot of good research and are considering a Uranus probe.”
“Not to mention the nuclear thermal engine they’ve almost developed,” added Roger. “It may be flight tested before the American engine.”
“Columbus 6 might fly here using a nuclear engine,” agreed Will. “It may be able to stay a month and fly straight back. We won’t need to keep ITVs here any more, except to provide emergency shelter. Times are changing.”
“So, will our population be growing a lot?” asked Eve. “I thought the Commission has pledged to fly four ITVs for the next three oppositions.”
“They have,” agreed Will. “But if the Chinese buy ITVs it’ll be five per opposition instead, and if the nuclear engine comes on line ten will be possible. They say the engine will decrease the cost of flying cargo here as well, though I’m skeptical. We could have forty people arriving every two years, in five or seven years. That would probably push our resident population to about two hundred, plus fifty children. I think we’ll be here to see some pretty amazing changes, if the commitment remains strong.”
“That’s amazing,” said Ethel. “But then, this isn’t Apollo. The technology has been developed step by step, we now have cheap access to low earth orbit, and the political and cultural support for the mission was developed as well.”
“We’re here to stay,” agreed Madhu. She rubbed her sleeping son.
“He’s a sweet looking little boy,” said Paul, leaning over.
“Thanks. He’s coming along quite well. He’s even beginning to let us sleep at night.”
Paul chuckled. “Yes, my sister has been complaining to me about her baby.” He looked at Monika. “They can be quite cute and precious, you see.”
“Yes, dear. But just one.”
Will was surprised Monika had even conceded that much. “It sounds like there has been some change of approach, here,” he said carefully.
Monika smiled. “Perhaps. You all are really having a lot of fun, so I suppose Paul and I should join in. Especially since Érico and Carmen plan to start a family here, now.”
That was not news to Ethel and Will, though it was to the others. “I guess I can expect more business, then,” commented Eve.
“It really has been rewarding to have children the same time as a close friend,” agreed Madhu, looking at Ethel. “I’m having fun being an ‘allomother’ to Marshall, also.”
“I think we will all be mothers, fathers, allomothers, or allofathers pretty soon,” agreed Eve. “The Outpost seems destined to become very family oriented.”
“Come and join us, Eve,” said Will, with a smile. “The more people involved in the great experiment, the better.”
“I’m already involved professionally, as the physician to the mothers and children; but I suspect I will become personally involved pretty soon as well,” Eve replied.
“And the Strogers may join the movement as well,” commented Rosa. “If we have to import a teacher, might as well keep her properly busy.”
“And that’s the last signature; the signature of the United States!” exclaimed Roger, pointing at the television. Everyone had forgotten about the news event they had assembled to watch. They turned toward the screen in time to see the NASA administrator signing the treaty on behalf of the U.S. He turned toward the audience and it applauded.
“The treaty’s signed,” said Paul. “Mars now belongs to an international commission.”
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Will reviewed the memo one last time. There had been a total of twenty attempts to hard dock Lifter 1 on Phobos. None had succeeded. Lifter 2, once it was full of methane and oxygen propellant, had taken off and Lifter 1 had been directed to Lifter 2’s docking pad. After ten attempts, a hard dock had not been achieved. Finally, Lifter 1 had tried to dock to Lifter 2 six times, all unsuccessfully. Lifter 2’s cameras had revealed damage to the docking clamps linking the methane lines together that required a person to make repairs.
The Alba could easily fly to Phobos with two people, execute the repairs in probably two sols, then fly back down. It was fueled and in excellent shape. Of course, the work afterward to prepare it for another flight would take two people a month; the shuttles were not aircraft that just needed fuel and a little routine maintenance. With all the advancement of technology, space flight was hardly routine.
And the latest critical analysis indicated the shuttles had a two percent chance of failure per flight. Rick Page hotly disputed the claim on the grounds that the Mars shuttle had more reliable engines than the old space shuttle, and none of that vehicle’s other flaws. Yet others argued the calculations could be optimistic. The two shuttles being prepared for flight to Mars with Columbus 4 had several crucial redesigns. The safety of the shuttles using ethylene fuel in particular had been criticized and they had no plans to try it.
Will wondered how to weigh the pros and cons. Lifters 2 and 3 did have enough fuel for Columbus 3’s departure, but it would reduce their exports somewhat, and they had no redundancy if there was trouble with either vehicle. They could solve the problem in September by flying up a third shuttle with fuel or cargo; but they could also fly up one now shuttle and two later.
Finally he pulled his attaché forward and punched Érico’s number. The expedition was almost three thousand kilometers and three time zones east of the Outpost, so Érico certainly was awake.
“Good morning, Commander,” Érico replied a moment later. There was no video feed, just audio.
“Are you driving right now?”
“Yes, so I can’t be looking at a picture. This is a rough stretch, too.”
“How’s the progress this sol?”
“We’ve been managing six kilometers per hour and the road quality isn’t bad. Setting the blade lower guarantees a clean path and leaves enough displaced reg to fill most low spots; but boy, does it consume fuel!”
“The conestoga will use less, though.”
“True, but overall, we use fifty percent more fuel per hour. We have to conserve energy to do it. Even so, we’re slowly pulling down our total surplus.”
“The sunwing is making another delivery on Wednesol.”
“We’re going to have to slow down pretty soon; we won’t be able to sustain this rate of advance. Do we have clearance to install the Stirling cycle engine on the nuke yet?”
“I’m still working on it. The engineers are being very conservative, naturally. Say, did you review the final memorandum about the proposed flight to Phobos to fix Lifter 1?”
There was a pause. “Yes, before breakfast. Do you want my frank opinion?”
“Yes, of course.” Will’s heart sank.
“Refueling the shuttles with the two Lifters, we can push to Earth most of the cargo we want to send. The limitation is the heat shield of the shuttle to aerobake cargo into Earth orbit, not fuel. So I would advise that we not send a mission to Phobos. When Columbus 4 arrives, Lifters 2 and 3 will be refueled and will have plenty of fuel for a visit to Phobos and the landing at Aurorae. Lifter 1 can be fixed then.”
“You’re right, we can achieve enough without Lifter 1. And the safety issue is more serious than expected.”
“Even though Rick disagrees, I concur; we can’t ignore the study. The Mars Shuttles are remarkable pieces of equipment, but every two years we get better ones. It isn’t easy to design something to work about once a year for four years in an extremely cold, dusty environment. I know Rick is very concerned about the dust getting into the pumps. This isn’t the time for a flight, Will.”
“I concur. Okay, thanks, Érico. We won’t be flying to Phobos. We’ll just accumulate more cargo for later exportation. Good luck on the work this sol.”
“Thanks. Jerry’s pleased; lately we’ve moved forward sixty-five kilometers per sol.”
“It’s amazing. The extra power from the nuke really helps. I’ve got to run, Érico. Thanks for the advice. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Will closed the connection and stared out the window of his
office, frustrated. A flight to Phobos could have done more than fix the
Lifter; it could have flown up equipment to enhance their ability to export
more methane to Earth. But it was a risk, and this wasn’t the time to take
risks. The opportunity would be missed.