Mars
Star System: Sol
Type: Desert
Satellites: two (uninhabited)
Inhabitable: Yes
Population: 70,000
Government: Human (various)
Date of Establishment: October 17, 2414
Mars is the fourth planet from the sun in the Sol system. A barren, desert planet, Mars would ordinarily be considered little more than another rock in space. However, relatively tame atmospheric conditions meant that Mars is remembered as the first extraterrestrial Human settlement, and the centre of Human inhabitation off of Earth until the establishment of Persephone.
Although Mars was landed on as early as the twenty-first century, had a permenant station early in the twenty-second, and had its first modern colony over three hundred years ago, habitation on Mars has never reached a high level. An extensive network of highly controlled greenhouses provide some local food production but, calorie for calorie, food on Mars is more expensive to produce than anywhere on Earth or even Persephone. Low on mineral wealth as well as poor agriculturally, Mars has always depended on imports from Earth just for day-to-day survival.
Unlike Persephone, the colonisation of Mars was not a multinational effort but was in fact marked by a variety of spacefaring countries of the era establishing their own bases throughout the twenty-fifth century. Rather than one unified colony, Mars is therefore populated by six colonies scattered on the surface, mostly near the north pole. A further seven colonies that were once open have since been abandoned. The population of all thirteen colonies was once as high as 200,000, mostly due to nationalist pressures leading to an expensive immigration drive. With the establishment of Persephone Mars has declined in importance and the population has declined accordingly.
Ironically, the depopulation has arguably left Mars stronger than ever. An infrastructure that was unable to support 200,000 colonists without great support has a relatively easy time with 70,000. The various colonial administrations have been pursuing a policy of slow growth, and it is estimated that within two decades Mars may be entirely self-sufficient.
Colonies of Mars
- Plateau Station?, American? founded on October 17, 2414, now primarily administered by the European Union. Population 22,000.
- Yang Liwei Polar Station?, at the Martian north pole. Founded by the Republic of China on December 25, 2414, after a frantic race to beat the Americans. Population 7,500.
- Olympus Colony?, founded by the Russians on October 7, 2448 as part of a large-scale population effort. Its location near Olympus Mons was impressive but impractical, and the colony struggled until it was abandoned in 2651.
- Santa Anna?, a Mexican colony less than two hundred kilometres from Plateau. The unexpected and successful Mexican mission heralded the true race for Mars colonies. Founded on January 6, 2455, current population 26,000.
- Armstrong-Aldrin Colony?, an American? colony hastily built in response to the Mexicans. Set down near Plateau Station in 2458, it spent most of its existence siphoning resources from Plateau and was shut down in 2514, although it is used for auxilary purposes by Plateau personnel to this day.
- Cosmograd?, the Russian north polar colony. Its founding on June 2, 2461 was widely taken as an admission of Olympus Colony's poor placement, and though the two were run simultaneously for two hundred years Cosmograd immediately became the main Russian colony. Population 11,000.
- Mexico Station?, a south polar colony established on August 22, 2461. The Mexican colony was founded as an attempt to stake the south polar part of the planet for Mexico after the success of Santa Anna. It limped along until it was abandoned in 2738, during which time its population had fallen to only a couple of hundred and the colony was almost unmaintained.
- Wolfe-Montcalm Colony?, an ill-advised effort by the nations of Canada? and Quebec? to stake a claim in the space race. Largely unsupported from its beginning on July 1, 2468, the colony was taken under European Union control starting in 2511 and abandoned by 2600.
- Korolyov Colony?, the third Russian colony on Mars, founded on December 16, 2471. Relatively unambitious, Korolyov's founding marked the end of the race for Martian colonies and survived as a small research station until 2738, when it was closed as part of the cutbacks preparing for Persephone.
- Archimedes?, an attempt by the European Union in 2628 to found a colony without a space mission by using colonists from Plateau Station, a few items manufactured at Plateau, and the remains of Wolfe-Montcalm. Intended to be a cheap and self-sufficient Martian colony, high fabrication costs at Plateau sent the cost rocketing and the colony never achieved much more than bleeding off the others. It was sold to the Russians for one euro in 2631, who used it as a scientific post before closing it in 2650.
- three others
Mars's thin atmosphere makes conventional aircraft useless, so the only options for transport on Mars are ground and spacecraft. Mars's low gravity means that service via spacecraft has been adopted as the most economic means of travel between the colonies for light cargo and passengers. For heavier freight, the massive Martian Highway, a crude right-of-way carved from the Martian rock suitable for tracked vehicles, services the north polar colonies.