2
Opposition
The next sol, Will was scheduled to spend four hours with Douglas Morgan. It was Friday, Feb. 19, 2027; the sol the Earth and Mars were at opposition and therefore as close to each other as they got in twenty-six months. That particular opposition was the least favorable in seventeen years and the planets were 101.5 million kilometers apart, which meant the round trip time for a communication was 679 seconds, or 11.3 minutes. Clocks in Houston were four and a half hours ahead of the clocks at Aurorae, so when Will met with Morgan in the morning, it was the afternoon in Houston. Complicating matters even further, at the Outpost it was Satursol; in the seven years since human beings had arrived on Mars, 69 fewer of the longer sols had elapsed than days. Next month the shorter Earth days would gain on Mars by one more sol and Monday would fall on Monsol. For a month, the weekdays and weekends would coincide. Then the difference would build up again until about eight months had passed and they would align again.
Just before starting his call with Morgan, Will received a reply from Heather Kimball. “Hi, Will. I’ve made a few inquiries. Everyone says Doug Morgan is a fair man, basically, and accessible. The difficulty arises when he is sure he’s right, and that can happen a lot because he’s bright and he knows it. He doesn’t seem to be someone who holds grudges or writes people off. In fact, most people are very excited that he’s the first Director of the Commission. He’ll probably be easier to work with than Harold Lassen. Lassen was conservative and hard to change. He was a bureaucrat. And you were never sure what deal he was making behind the scenes with someone to get their support for some idea of his. Morgan should be more accessible and is an active listener.
“Now, here’s my suggestion. You need to hire a secretary to work for you full time in the Mars Commission building. Whatever duties you give him or her, the person has to serve as your confidential eyes and ears and tell you what’s going on in the building. I’m sure the person can earn his or her salary as well; there’s plenty of official correspondence that needs to be done on behalf of the Outpost. To put it simply, you need a lobbyist in the Commission whom you trust. I have a few people in mind, too; I can send you the names. You have friends in Houston who can make sure you get the right person for the position. But you’ll need to get the money for the position. Let me know if I can be of further help. Bye.”
He stopped to think about her advice; it was good. But before he could reply, a video message arrived from Morgan. The sol’s discussion had begun.
“Good sol, Will. I’m glad we can spend this time together. By the way, today is my official first day at work; ironic that it’s also opposition!
“I want to start by commenting on your suggestions yesterday. Regarding the sale of land, I think we can begin to move forward on it. With the new treaty, there are no political, legal, or diplomatic problems. Ideally, we should be ready to launch the sales a few days after Columbus 4 arrives. We have to wait until after the crew lands safely, then capitalize on the publicity the landing gives us. But it will be difficult to be ready for the land sales in four months. Down here, we have to set up the software and hire the people, and the lawyers have to get the legal arrangements in place. Up there, you need to obtain the information on the land to be sold. We have excellent aerial surveillance of Aurorae Borough and of all land along the Circumnavigational and Polar Trails, but I’d redo some of the data for the purpose of land sales. That will take time at the Outpost. If we drove a ranger slowly along the road where land is to be sold—for example, through Little Colorado Canyon and the rim of the escarpment—or even flew a Sunwing low over the ground to capture the sideways view, we’d have better visuals for stimulating land sales. So there’s a lot of work that still needs to be done. Can all that be ready in time? I don’t know.
“Regarding your second suggestion, the safety review: I agree another review is timely. I’d get it started in a few months and involve the Columbus 4 people when they arrive.
“Now I have a suggestion. We should initiate a brainstorming about the future shape of Mars exploration. I envision two panels, one on Earth, one on Mars, exchanging their views with about an hour for each side. The Earth panel probably needs to be pretty large; I’d like to involve representatives of several space agencies. We’ve got to get the money people involved as well. Everyone tells me that Columbus 5 will involve four interplanetary transit vehicles, just like Columbus 4. There are no plans to improve the ITVs or develop expanded versions. Consequently I don’t see the number of people flying to Mars every two years increasing for at least two or three oppositions. This must be viewed as an opportunity for the Mars facilities to mature because I will make a strenuous effort to maintain the total cargo mass shipped—at 75 tonnes—and that means we’ll be able to improve and expand your infrastructure considerably. The mass shipped per resident must continue to decline or we will have no surplus for new equipment.
“What priorities do you see for the Mars mission? Let’s exchange views about that matter. Bye.”
Will had scribbled notes while Morgan spoke. He reviewed them quickly and added a few points he had to make, then recorded his reply.
“Good sol, Douglas. If I may suggest this, let’s talk on a first name basis. I’d prefer the informality.
“Regarding land sales, we can rearrange our work schedule here to free up the time we need to run sunwings and rangers to gather the visuals that are needed. The sunwings have excellent hazard avoidance software; they can be programmed in Houston and all we need to do is monitor them. The rangers are a bit more difficult, but it sounds like we’re talking about a week’s’ work.
“Regarding the safety review, I don’t have anything to add. I think we’ve covered the topic fairly well.
“Regarding a symposium about the future of Mars exploration, it sounds like you’re talking about discussing a time frame of six or eight years. I’d favor a planning horizon of that length. It needs to be convened right away while the planets are relatively close together. We really need a scientific symposium as well involving all the scientists who are doing research on Mars, but that can’t be organized quickly. In the future such a scientific symposium needs to be scheduled for every opposition. With the short transmission times we could even include geology field trips via video link.
“Regarding the future of Mars exploration, we need to devote about six months of the next eighteen going around the Circumnavigational Trail again. I’d send out at least six vehicles and they’d split into two or three mini-expeditions that would range as much as five hundred to a thousand kilometers off the trail to investigate sites of interest. We should make a priority of completing the Polar Trail to the South Pole and building a Tharsis Trail that would run from Arsia Mons to Pavonis and Ascreus, then on down to Uranius Patera and maybe as far north as Tempe Fossae.
“The other trails that have been proposed are on the various exploration websites. The so-called ‘Virgo Trail’ is named for the Tropic of Virgo, Mars’s equivalent of the Tropic of Cancer. It would not follow the 25th parallel closely, though. It’d run from the Polar Trail up Kasei Vallis, across Tharsis to Olympus Mons, thence to Elysium Mons, then would head north and west to run along the highland-lowland dichotomy and back to the Polar Trail. It would be about 16,000 kilometers long. The southern equivalent is the so-called Pisces Trail, which would depart from the Polar Trail near Nirgal Vallis, move westward and then along the Thaumasia Mountain range, cross Thaumasia and continue on to Daedalia and Cimmeria, then to Hesperia; then it would bend southwestward across Hellas, farther southwestward across Noachis, then would bend northwestward back to Nirgal. It would also be about 16,000 kilometers. We can complete all four trails in five or six years, at which point we’d have about 75,000 kilometers of dirt tracks cleared across Mars! At that point exploration and scientific study would shift to greater use of aircraft, assuming we can get aircraft that function better here, and use of large, movable, ‘Mobile Lab’ or ‘Mobile Hab’ habitats. We’re already looking at places to base Mobilabs.
“So those are the exploration priorities. We also need more sophisticated drills so we can drill more deeply into Mars, a lot more automated exploration equipment, and a more advanced system of satellites. There are a lot of plans for expanding the Outpost; I favor the use of more large domes imported from Earth, because we badly need large open spaces up here, filled with greenery and possibly containing swimming pools and basketball courts.
“I also wanted to raise a rather simple and mundane matter with you; I need a secretary in Houston who can help me with correspondence. I’d like to oversee the hiring of the person, so I know what sort of secretary I’m getting. If the person is someone I can trust, I can even have him or her make calls on my behalf in circumstances when the time delay is a serious barrier to communication. As you can imagine, such an assistant could be immensely helpful to me.
“Those are a few comments for you to chew on. Bye.”
Will then had twelve minutes before Morgan could reply, so he turned to his email and other tasks. Morgan’s responses, when they came, were positive; he was in favor of the eventual clearing of the trails, the drilling, the Mobilabs, and the increased supply of automated probes; he had no objections to the secretary, but had some questions; and he raised the issue of expanding the biological research facilities. Will added a few comments about important side trips that had to be made, clarified the sort of work he needed a secretary to do, and added ideas about the biological research facility. To the latter he added the idea that a low-pressure greenhouse was needed to study agriculture in conditions more closely approximating Mars’s atmosphere, for it would simplify the domes. Morgan was positive about the idea and suggested that creating such a greenhouse be put on the Outpost’s construction schedule, assuming the budget would accommodate it. He also raised the question of whether the water supply reservoir should be thawed and seeded with microorganisms and fish; the eight thousand tonne block of ice was now forty meters long, twenty wide, and an average of ten deep, and the top two meters of ice would be sufficient to protect the rest from ultraviolet and cold.
They continued back and forth until lunchtime, when Will had to pause for lunch. Morgan had scheduled a meeting at the time, so they signed off for an hour. Will was about to head for lunch in the Renfrew Building—so named for the late Paul Renfrew, their dear friend and colleague who had died in an accident while exploring Mars just six months earlier—when he got a call from Eve Gilmartin. “Will, can you come by the sick bay real quick?”
“Sure; a problem?”
“I’ll leave that to you to decide. Just stop by.”
“Okay, I’m on my way.” Puzzled, Will headed for habitat 2. When he arrived, he was surprised to see Ethel.
“Don’t worry, daddy,” replied Eve.
“Daddy?”
Ethel nodded and smiled. “That’s right. I’m pregnant again.”
“Really!” He smiled and kissed her. She kissed him back, pleased. “What good news.”
“Of course, it means I can’t work outside more than an hour every three sols because of the higher radiation exposure,” exclaimed Ethel.
“Hum, that’s true.” Will thought. “We’ll have to do a lot rearranging of the construction schedule, and it’ll slip more.”
“More than you think,” added Eve. “As the outpost’s physician for women, I can tell you something that is not publicly known: Ethel is not the only woman here expecting a child.”
“Oh?” said Will.
“I’ll ask the affected party to let you know right away. Furthermore, I can add that those two women are not the only ones hoping to have children soon, so there may be another surprise in store for your work schedule. Just warning you.”
“Thank you. I’ll have to consider the matter; could you suggest that the other party or parties also let me know about the possibility?”
“I’ll mention it, but it’s hard to plan for a possibility.” Eve sighed. “Everyone is healthy, thank God. Let’s hope the Martian environment doesn’t have surprises in store for all of us.”
“I hope so,” agreed Ethel. She turned to her husband. He took her by the arm and they walked together to the cafeteria.
“How did you know?” asked Will.
“I wasn’t sure, but my period was late and I was feeling a bit off, so I came in for lunch a half hour early and found Eve.”
“It didn’t take long; five months.”
“No. It’ll be interesting to see what Marshall’s reaction is.”
“How do you feel about this?”
She shrugged. “It’s the right thing to do. I want Marshall to have a brother or sister. It’ll be a lot of work, but we have a good support system here.”
“A very good support system.”
They walked the rest of the way to the cafeteria in silence. Their son was already there, eating with Sam Anderson and Érico Lopes, who had been watching both boys that morning. They brought Marshall to their table and lavished attention on him to distract themselves from the news they didn’t feel ready to share with everyone else. Ethel was just a month into her pregnancy; it was too early for an announcement.
“Will, how’s the discussion going with Morgan?” asked Roger.
“Pretty well, I think. So far, he seems to be on our side.”
“Does he favor science, family, commercialization, or what?” asked Neal.
“He favors a balance among five priorities: science, exploration, family, exports, and land sales. But of course no one knows what ‘balance’ means.”
“How much influence does he have?” asked Rosa Stroger. “NASA still calls the shots. They can veto almost anything on the grounds of safety.”
“All those details still have to be worked out,” replied Will. “And we’ll have to see what results. The Mars Commission’s only a week or two old. It has an international governing council that sets priorities, but NASA allocates a lot of the resources and the United States Congress still provides almost half the funding.”
“This beastie may not be better than the old arrangement,” exclaimed Roger.
“Everyone should start working on a memo about the priorities they think we should set for the next columbiad and for the next four columbiads,” said Will, changing the subject. A “columbiad” was the term they used for the twenty-six month cycle between the arrival of the Columbus spacecraft, which coincided with planetary opposition between Earth and Mars. “We need a medium-term plan. No one dares try to create a long-term plan, which I’m defining as five columbiads or more. It’s just too uncertain.”
“Any changes to the work we have to do between now and Columbus 4’s arrival?” asked Érico.
“We’ll probably have to support land sales in this borough, which means we have to call a town meeting and make some decisions. Other than that, we may have to reallocate some human resources for health reasons.”
“Health?” asked Shinji, surprised.
Will nodded and did not elaborate.
© 2004 Robert H. Stockman