Lara sounds like a nice easy name for the Crimsonites's ship's ship and mind Richie and Healani. A new beginning. Please pardon your Felix playing and experimenting with the ship's colours and camouflages as Tempus asked me to pass on. He's no slouch from his bean bag.
This is what Colonel Richard (Richie) Fenworth of the Australian Space Force (retired) hopes Mars will look like. If this is the case then we can expect to find life forms. Our arriving unexpectedly could well create tensions with the native population. So this is something we need to be aware of. What is your take Henri. By the way Helani what are you and your people called. Yes like us you live on Earth but what is your tribe known as?
Colonel, I'm sure you know all this but I will recap for others. Tempus made a yawn with his current hologram of an Easter Bunny. The gravity on Mars is 40% of Earth's so its flora and fauna grows much taller than on Earth. Some trees are 200m tall. Swamp grasses are up to 4m tall. Water on the surface promotes life in its myriad of forms. Seasons too. Seas and mountains, various climate zones too. It has a tilted axis similar to Earth's at 24 degrees. Almost identical to Earth's. Mars' year is 687 Earth days long but its day is just a bit longer than Earth's at 24h 37min. Being further from the Sun Mars is colder than Earth hence its huge Ice caps. Around its Equator the temperature is at best temperate where the giant forests grow. That's also where the giant Apes live, the most sentient of life forms so far found. Higher have been speculated. Robotic and then manned missions to Mars have not revealed much more than this. The Giant skinny Apes we called Roifs are quite aggressive often attacking and smashing remote rovers, and killing 2 humans on one expedition. On the areas between the forests and Ice caps are the cold plains that turn to cold deserts. That's where the few human bases are. I assume you've been to the Australian base there? Felix tells me we can get there in 2 days in our ship Lara. Better than the 2 months record for traditional Earth space ships. What am I thinking? We're 300 years in the past and will be the first humans to visit Mars when we go there. There may well be more sentient life forms we could discover. I remember reading about the giant cave networks under the surface with many boffins speculating about them. Felix, Tempus, Richie, Healani can you add to this description? What do you think Colonel? Scientists say Mars is slowly dying, losing a little of its protective atmosphere every year with all the consequences that entails I guess. Radiation, Atmosphere blowing away, temperature extremes... ?. Might a sentient high tech species invade Earth to survive? I saw a movie about that once. 'War of the Worlds' I think by a HG Wells?
Precisely Henri. Notioned you had forgotten that for a moment. We will likely be the first Earthmen to Mars. True pioneers.
My bad Colonel, I forgot we're 300 years in the past. Did you manage to recruit those 6 warriors of Healani's people for our ship's crew? They have some fierce and skilled warriors, all loyal to Healani. They'll need space suits, like us. Tempus has worked out how the replicator on the ship works, to produce personnel weapons, armoured space suits, ...and some very nice coffee. I helped Felix transport some of the Domes' important vitals to the ship Lara. Healani's warriors helped. Felix then turned all the domes to dust leaving no trace for future generations, except mythical stories. That's good re timelines. It seems to have been a teleportation technique made by the Crimsonite's using their ship's power. Our ship Lara now. So, let's go when you're ready Colonel and Healani. The ship is now fully fueled with the Typhra abundant on this remote Polonesian island in 1754 AD. Suva I think from working with them. Currently Mars is about average distance from Earth which is still easy for the ship Lara to travel to, even on just pulse drive. Once out of our Solar system, we can safely go to warp drive, so Felix said.. So where to land there Colonel? Maybe orbit quietly first seeking radio waves and the like? Your decision as Captain of course. We could also first land on one of Mars' 2 moons, Phobos or Deimos. Just another thought: What if we encounter any sentient Martians? Colonel? I defer to you in such matters. And of course Healani's sacred nature.
I read a book where humans brought water to the surface of Mars. "More than 5 million km3 of ice have been detected at or near the surface of Mars, enough to cover the whole planet to a depth of 35 meters (115 ft).[13] Even more ice is likely to be locked away in the deep subsurface.[14]" They planted plants that could survive there and gradually built an atmosphere on Mars. Eventually they had it so that humans could live there. With our technology, we can move water to the surface and direct it to the canals already there. We can return to Earth and dig up some plants that survive the desert heat and cold. There is a chance that they could survive on Mars. The plants would give off oxygen to help make the atmosphere. After a century or two, we might be able to plant trees. Shall we try it? We can swing back by every few years to check on progress.
Healani that backs up my theory that there may be surface water on Mars. It may mean that there are probable Martian life forms too. Henri also put abundant reserves of Tythra in the ship's hold. Additionally all smaller Tythra weapons as we may need those if the Martians are not welcoming. Healani you still have not told us what you and your people are known by.
5 million km^3 is an awful lot Healani/Shirley. That's way beyond the ship Lara's capability but Craig made the Mars in this story still have water and atmosphere as it did have once hundreds of million years ago. There is, in our story, still huge reserves of water locked into this Mars' icecaps. Unlocking that would be easier than moving all that water to our real Mars. That would also replenish the atmosphere. One hydrogen bomb per cap? I like the idea of trying to green up Mars again. That we could try but introducing Earth flora might be deleterious to the current eco balance?? What if there are sentient Martians though? Maybe not as the eco system seems on the decline??? nb: I did the sum, how many tons is 5 million km^3 of water? 5x1000 000x 1 000 000 000 = 5 000 000 000 000 000 t or kL = 5 quadrillion tons. I guesstimate the hold of our ship Lara is no more than 500t. 10 trillion trips, sorry. I taught Math and used to be a Surveyor.
We need to set up a dome and try to find out if there are sentient beings here. If we send out some kind of universal code, may they will contact us.
Healani, that's a good idea. Felix says the Crimsonites used their domes as a way of Teleporting down to the surface of a planet. Our ship, once theirs, has that ability. It's appartantly the safest way to teleport at Lara's level of technology. We can do the same, and let a dome grow where we want on Mars and see what happens. Even if we don't teleport down, we can still see what's about through the eyes of the dome. I think putting a dome down in the cold grasslands where we can see further than in the giant forest is my preference. We can also transmit and listen to radio, etc, without giving away the position or knowledge of our Star Ship Lara, as you suggested Healani. If needed, we can turn the dome to dust remotely. A Universal code is the language of Mathematics, easy as pi. Ask them if they know the 4 billionth place of pi in base 7. It's 3.
I'm confused. Does the Mars we are storying about have plants? I thought it was a barren wasteland. I'm good either way.
The Mars we are storying about is the Mars that exists in the 1700s. As yet we do not know what the surface looks like until we reach its atmosphere and have Felix run his computings..
Felix says his findings show surface water while the surface temperature is a mild 70 Farenheit. The most pleasing thing is that the air is breathable with 50% oxygen 50% hydrogen.. similar to Earth. My intrepid friends we now have the green lite to land on Mars. Henri prepare Lara for landing................