Glory on Mars (35 page)

The basin sits at antipode
To enormous shield volcanoes
That rise upon the Tharsis Bulge,
Punched right through the globe.

Dust emerges from its depths,
Storm after storm a’ chasing,
Enveloping and planet wide,
It should be called Hell’s Basin.

The Smell of Life

Methane can be made by life
Or hydrothermal systems,
By microbes in the regolith
Or from the rocks, if not them.

Methane doesn’t last for long
Floating in the atmosphere.
Tens of decades, then it’s gone,
Reacting in the sunlight there.

What Curiosity has found,
Unexpected and delighted,
A whiff arising from the ground
Has scientists excited.

It doesn’t mean that there is life
Or that there was in past
It means we have a lot to learn
Before we’ll know at last.

What difference would it make to us?
Bugs aren’t likely to converse.
Even if they share our Sun,
Are we better off or worse?

I for one would thrill to know,
To find conclusive data.
Even if it pays no gold,
Life will always matter.

Back to Story

Olympus
Mons

Back to Story

There's a nice pull back from a painting of a Martian
shield volcano at:
youtube.com
, 1 minute 28 seconds.
This url links to a
picture of Olympus Mons but any large shield volcano look like
this. If the link is broken, try searching on Mars Olympus Mons for
something else interesting.

Back to Story

Breeding a Colony

Back to Story

Sheila's phone hummed softly.

Drat, she thought, and hurried to her next assignment
at Colony Mars headquarters. Today was the demographics lecture for
Mission Five candidates. Finalists would be selected later in the
week. This was no time to be late.

She paused as she entered the room, noting a buffet
lunch on tables along the back. Mission candidates were seated at
four round tables. Doctor De Smet stood near the door and gestured
her to an empty seat.

She joined three candidates seated there, each one
looking eager and nervous. Settlers would be selected from sixteen
candidates roughly four years in advance of their launch date.
Planners, engineers, and candidates for other missions often joined
Sheila's group briefings. But today's topic was touchy and only
Mission Five was invited.

Also unusual, only women were mission candidates
today. Mission Five was the Kinderen Mission, the first settlers
planned to become mothers on Mars - all women to give the colony a
jump on growing its population.

Candidates were young, generally early twenties,
though one girl was fourteen and present with written consent from
her parents. Medical experts wanted families on Mars to be
completed by the time a mother was thirty. Unlike on Earth,
technologies to assist with later births would be limited.

Sheila was the last candidate to sit down. De Smet
immediately joined Doctor Martin at the front of the room and
called the meeting to order.

"Demographics," she said, projecting an image on the
front wall.

"The quantifiable statistics of a population." Martin
completed the thought. She and De Smet alternated like an endless
relay race.

"Of course, the reproductive rights of all Mars
settlers are completely protected."

"We're here to tell you about the choices you'll
have."

"How different actions by you and your fellow
settlers may influence the colony's success."

Martin tapped her pad, bringing up a list of the
courses Colony Mars would provide Mission Five settlers over the
next four years - pediatrics and obstetrics, child development and
education, gardening and life-support maintenance. Next some
word-charts describing how families would be structured around
pairs of breeding women...

Sheila flinched at the academic jargon...

Elderly colonists (once some became available) would
share child care and each child would have a father assigned.

"Colony Mars demographers have estimated that, to
achieve a self-sustaining population able to survive
mishaps..."

Sheila pressed her lips tightly together. There
would, of course, be mishaps...

"The colony needs to establish a minimum of three
independent habitats with two thousand settlers in total," De Smet
said.

"Of course there is still debate. Some say there must
be ten thousand humans living on Mars before the colony is truly
established," Martin said. "But for either goal, the approach is
the same."

"We believe the colony can succeed, even if Mission
Five is the last mission to Mars." They both smiled with
satisfaction.

"Is Colony Mars disbanding after our mission?" a
worried voice called out.

"Heavens, no. We'll keep sending missions every
twenty-six months for as long as possible."

"Forever."

"Well, as long as the money holds out."

Another candidate raised her hand.

"Won't the colony be awfully inbred?"

"Ah! You lead me to my next point." A map of the
world popped up on the screen.

"In addition to four more settlers, Mission Five will
carry three thousand cryo-preserved embryos in the blastocyst
stage, donated by people originating from every continent, from
every culture and ethnic group. Also a similar number of vials of
cryo-preserved sperm. A deep genetic pool is available to the
colony's women."

"And, of course, there are male settlers available.
Less genetic range, but at least you can examine their
phenotype."

A few of the candidates giggled.

"So I'll be able to choose my babies?" Any shyness
among the candidates was evaporating.

"Well, no." De Smet frowned here.

"You'll have full access to the genetic database, and
all donations were rigorously screened for genetic disease. But any
identifying data has been stripped away from individual
donations."

"To ensure no discrimination, even subconsciously,
against any ethnicity."

"To ensure the full range of genetics is
utilized."

The room was quiet for a moment.

"Genetics are very important," Martin said, anxious
to explain the wisdom of offering embryos with no individual
data.

"Let me explain why three thousand is the right
number of embryos." De Smet smiled proudly. "We discovered a
natural experiment on human population dynamics."

"The volcanic Toba catastrophe destroyed most of our
ancestors only a few tens of thousand years ago, putting the human
race through a population bottleneck."

"The smallest population was probably less than two
thousand individuals." Martin emphasized the number.

Sheila nodded. She'd scanned the mandatory background
reading before coming.

"Of course, colonists will make their own decisions,
freely."

Laws defending reproductive rights were very strict
and Colony Mars wanted to stay out of court, but the touchy subject
of reproduction was vital to a successful human presence on Mars. A
Kinderen Mission obviously needed to discuss children.

"Our estimates for the colony assume women have a
baby every two or three years between the ages of twenty and
thirty-five."

Birthing half a dozen children in a lifetime had
become rare on Earth. The candidates, however, murmured their
enthusiasm. They would spend their days surrounded by children,
obsessing over them. They'd been chosen for this.

"How long will it take? For a viable population?"
Sheila called out the question, hoping to hurry the doctors
along.

"Numbers." De Smet waved her hand vaguely. "It all
depends on the assumptions you make."

"The computer model is available to you all... You
can enter your own guesses about life expectancy, fertility rates,
the viability of embryos after decades of storage..."

"With the technology you'll carry to Mars, your
success rate, if you choose an embryo, should be eighty-three
percent. A huge improvement over rates just a decade ago."

"Yes, but you have an estimate?" Sheila
persisted.

"Between five and eight generations."

"A hundred to a hundred and fifty years."

"Of course, we can't say how you, the women of Mars,
or your daughters will feel about our assumptions." She reeled off
on another endorsement of reproductive rights.

Sheila ignored the litany. She and the other
candidates made their decisions long ago, but apparently they were
unusual. There must have been little evolutionary pressure favoring
a desire for children because, before the modern age, women
couldn't do much about it. Now technology gave them control over
their own fertility. Since the late twentieth century, the average
number of children per woman had been dropping, first in advanced
countries like Singapore, Japan, and Italy, and later worldwide.
Immigration masked the decline in some countries - North America
didn't feel the effects for decades.

Doomsayers calculated that the human race would go
extinct before the turn of the next millennium, "not with a bang,
but a whimper." But birth rates leveled off. Unexplained bursts of
fertility in various countries from time to time helped maintain
the global population. Colony Mars needed to create one of those
bursts and Mission Five candidates were selected for their
exceptional interest in children.

"If a growing population is so important, why send
any men to Mars at all?" the precocious fourteen year-old
asked.

"Psychologists have demonstrated the value of fathers
in society. Not that every child needs a father, and of course you
may structure families as you wish."

"But, societies where the male-to-female ratio is out
of balance are negatively affected. We've studied China's one-child
policy that led to excess men, or Russia after World War Two with
excess women."

"Nature gave us near-equal numbers of men and women
during our reproductive years. It seems best to follow her
lead."

"And there is more to consider than babies." Martin
tapped her pad and a pair of graphs with multiple lines zigzagging
upwards popped up on the wall.

"As you can see, mixed-gender teams have higher
workplace productivity and better emotional stability than either
all-male or all-female teams. That's been demonstrated since early
isolation studies. Once cross cultural differences in male to
female relationships are adjusted for, of course."

"We think you'll find mixed-gender teams ease the
tension that builds up in close quarters. Having men around will
reduce your stress."

Based on the universal tittering, Sheila knew what
sort of stress everyone was thinking about. They were all healthy
young women, after all.

"Why not use artificial wombs to birth loads of
babies?" The fourteen year-old called out again. She was interested
in cutting edge technologies.

"Artificial wombs require too much support
equipment," De Smet said, shaking her head. "Besides, someone has
to raise those babies."

"Experts think a group of four to six children born
within a year or two of each other will be optimum initially,"
Martin said with a smile. "A good match to the colony's food
production and recreation space."

"And would provide a sufficient play and education
group."

"Of course..."

Yes, yes, Sheila thought, while respecting everyone's
reproductive rights. In a few minutes the doctors would leave the
room. Sheila and the other candidates would mill about, grazing on
the buffet and talking about populating Mars.

Back to Story

Learn More

Lots of people want to explore Mars. Visit some of
these organizations:

http://www.mars-one.com/

http://www.exploremars.org/

http://www.marssociety.org/

http://www.planetary.org/

http://www.inspirationmars.org/

http://www.marsinitiative.org/

http://mars-sim.sourceforge.net/

http://solseed.org/

http://www.fit.edu/
and the
recently established Buzz Aldrin Space Institute at Florida
Institute of Technology.

http://www.fit.edu/research/centers.php

Also enjoy

NASA's
ask-an-astrobiologist

and, of course,
mars.nasa.gov

Dunes of the Tharsis Plain were inspired by
White Sands National
Monument
. Those dunes are bright white gypsum, not
orange sand like Mars, but still inspirational.

About Kate Rauner