ARES I (27 gen 2055 anni – 5 dic 2057 anni)

Descrizione:

The crew of 8 brave men and women and 1 intelligent quantum computer reached a stable Martian orbit on January 26th, 2040, where AMI and the crew would begin the pre-planned modifications to the craft's main body that would turn it into the Ares Martian Gateway once the landing module detached to take the mission's 6 ground crew down to the surface.

The following solar day, after orbiting the red planet long enough to attain a good descent angle to the planned landing site, the Ares landing module would depart with all 12 ground crew on board, touching down on the robotically assembled landing pad on the 27th of January 2055. The live footage of the landing would be relayed for broadcast via the Ares Lunar gateway, and after 17.5 minutes of signal delay humans all around the earth celebrated this momentous occasion.

The team leader, Elya Valentine, was designated by the crew as the person who should be the one to experience first footfall on the red planet. After some safety checks and debriefings within the landing craft, Elya opened up the airlock and clumsily made their way down the ladder before coming to land on a soft patch of Lunar sand.

"I take this step on behalf of all nations and peoples of humankind. I take this first step on alien sands and under alien skies as the first of many. I take this step in the hopes that one day my children and my children's children, will spread out across this alien landscape and then continue to spread to all the other landscapes that lie in wait beyond the stars."
Bending down to pick up the nearest sizeable rock, Elya went on to conclude:
Hello Mars. We come in peace."

The crew would then go on to unload their lander's supplies into the habitat that was assembled by rovers remotely in the years leading up to this landing. Five years of freeze dried food, water, and other supplies already lay in wait in the tunneled storage pods delivered earlier, with more to be sent down from earth as the mission progressed.

Unlike the fiascos that befell the Luna-C mission which still remained fresh in people's minds, the Ares mission progressed perfectly toward the I.S.A.'s greatest expectations. The crew on the ground remained physically and mentally fit, as did the two station crew and one A.I. inhabiting the Ares Martian gateway above.

Experiments and exploration filled up most of the time of the Ares crew. Crops were grown, sediments were examined, tests were done, and landscapes were explored.

After a long and successful mission, the Ares ground crew launched to rendezvous with the Ares Martian Gateway, then departed in an awaiting shuttle that took them back to earth where they were hailed as heroes, touching back down in the oceans of Earth in 2043.

The Ares I Ground base, while a masterwork of engineering, was only ever expected to be a temporary measure. Its lightweight but flexible materials were perfect for this mission, but in future missions, more and more permanent and durable structures would be created using a mixture of materials shipped from earth and materials gathered on site.

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