The Chronicles of Local Space

A fictional exploration of nearby star systems

Mars

Contents

  1. Key Data
  2. Description
    1. Economy
    2. Colonial Life
    3. Punishment of Criminals
  3. Settlements
    1. Verne
    2. Arboria
    3. Wells
  4. Timekeeping
    1. Time
    2. Calendar
    3. Design Rules for the Calendar

Key Data

Solar day24 hours 39 minutes 35.24409 seconds
Mean Tropical year (solar days)668.5921 local solar days

Description

Mars is a world that supports several small mining colonies. Mars has a population of about 1,250,000 people. Because Mars has not been terraformed, all colonists live underground in artificial environments.

Economy

Mars has a planned economy. Colonial life on Mars is harsh and many kinds of resources are scarce. Central planning is necessary to ensure that resources are not squandered.

The central planning uses a system of permits to allow people to manufacture goods or to grow crops. All production of goods for sale requires a permit. Permits are not required when the production is for personal use. The length of time required to grant a permit depends on the nature of the goods produced. The granting of permits is usually quick for goods such as common agricultural crops or basic household items if the product is in short supply. Permits for items of a more speculative nature may take a long time to grant or may be refused. Utility and demand must be demonstrated for a permit to be granted.

The penalties for producing manufactured goods without a permit or selling such goods can be severe.

Mining is the primary economic activity on Mars. Mining on Mars is not as important as it is in the asteroid belt, but sufficient reserves of exploitable minerals exist to make mining on Mars a profitable venture. Offplanet mining corporations own the majority of the mining leases. In addition to the mining of metals, water and other materials required for life are also mined.

Mars supports a manufacturing industry that meets the needs of the colonists. Unlike Earth, Mars only manufactures necessities because of the planned economy. Most products are designed for a long lifetime, because reliability is an important consideration.

Agriculture is important on Mars because the colonies of Mars must be self-sufficient. All agriculture takes place in domed greenhouses. Most Martian agriculture is hydroponic. The majority of Martian agriculture is food crops. Raw materials for manufacturing are also grown. Industrial hemp is especially popular because of its versatility.

Colonial Life

The centrally planned economy makes the habitats of Mars a rather drab and utilitarian place. A thriving art movement recycles everyday objects that have reached the end of their useful life into sculptures, and these sculptures are a common sight in Martian homes and public places. For example, the four-metre statue of the first person on Mars that stands in the Parliament building is made entirely from cogs, gears, sprockets and other old mechanical parts. Small hydroponic gardens are also popular. Although the cultivation of plants with no useful function is technically illegal, nobody is ever prosecuted for breaching this law. There is increasing speculation that the law that prohibits the cultivation of ornamental plants will soon be repealed or relaxed.

Wood is almost unknown on Mars because the Martian conditions are not well suited to the growth of trees. Dwarf varieties of wood-yielding trees adapted to the Martian conditions have only recently been introduced to Martian agriculture. Outside of the agricultural plantations, only fourteen trees grow on Mars.

Punishment of Criminals

Criminal sentences are usually in the form of fines, often combined with various forms of community service. Rich people can afford the fines, but the fines often take the form of property forfeiture at reduced value. People who cannot pay the fines must work off their debt to society through community service.

Community service can be in one of three forms.

Level 1 community service is basic work for the good of the community. This takes the form of light work, such as maintenance tasks, working with the elderly and other light duties. All level 1 community work takes place within the Martian habitats. The only penalty that such work imposes is a loss of personal time.

Level 2 community service is more difficult work than level 1 community service. It usually involves unpleasant tasks of various kinds, such as processing human wastes, heavy lifting, or other onerous tasks. Most level 2 community work takes place within the habitats, but some may be performed outside the habitats if it is not especially dangerous.

Level 3 community service is the toughest form of community service. This work is usually performed outside the habitats. The harsh environment of Mars causes all the work outside the habitats to be dangerous to varying degrees. Some of the dangers include cosmic rays, solar flares, rock falls in the mines and the like. Working in such an environment inevitably has a high death toll, both on the job and afterward due to the health effects of being exposed to the cosmic radiation. Few would work there willingly, so convicted criminals are used as a labour pool. This is why Mars requires no prisons.

Settlements

Mars has 32 settlements scattered over the planet. Most settlements are in the vicinity of various natural resources. Many of the settlements are named for famous science fiction writers who wrote well-known stories about Mars.

Verne

The oldest and largest settlement on Mars is Verne, which houses 112,000 people. Verne was founded near the equator in the vicinity of important mineral resources. The mineral resources are now depleted.

Verne is an agricultural, industrial and administrative centre. The settlement produces food and manufactured goods that are exported to colonies all over Mars.

The only university on Mars is located in Verne. Verne is also home to the Martian parliament.

Arboria

Arboria is an agricultural settlement with a population of 34,000 people. Arboria produces high-grade industrial hemp, which is used for many purposes all over Mars. Some hemp products are even exported to Earth.

Arboria is famous all over Mars for the trees that grow in the settlement. Central Park in Arboria is home to ten specimen trees of ten different varieties, two from each continent on Earth.

Wells

Wells is a small colony near the Martian north pole with a population of 2,200. The colony is named for H.G.Wells, author of War of the Worlds. The major industry for Wells is water-mining, thus the name is appropriate. Large Aquarius-class water tankers transport water mined at Wells to various colonies on Mars.

Timekeeping

Time

Martian days are also called “sols”. Mars uses decimal time.

The Point is roughly equal to 14.8 minutes, making it suitable for use in appointments and the like.

Calendar

Like Earth, the Martian calendar is designed to follow the tropical year because following the seasons is very important for the Martian colonists. The length of the mean tropical year is about 668.5921 Martian days. The mean tropical year is employed because its length is less prone to fluctuations and no equinox or solstice is more important than any other.

The Martian calendar called the Martian Business Calendar, and is designed primarily for business use. It is a leap-week calendar: the intercalation inserts an entire week instead of a single day.

There are 24 months in the Martian calendar. All months have 28 days, except the 24th month in deficient years which only has 21 days. The months do not have names, only numbers. Individual months are named using ordinal numbers, such as “First Month”.

The intercalation employs an algorithm that uses an assumed mean length for the tropical year of 668 4576 days or 95 3976 weeks. This fractional approximation is very close to 668.5921. The algorithm yields alternating pairs of “complete” years with 672 days, and “deficient” years with 665 days. Twice every 76 years, the omission of a deficient year breaks the cycle of alternating years.

Year Y is a complete year with 672 days when (39 × Y) mod 76 < 39.

The rule for determining the intercalation is somewhat more complex to calculate for short periods such as during the span of a human lifetime. Over spans of many thousands of years the rule for determining a leap year in any period may be determined by looking up the values in a table and computing using the common algorithm. The formula is (R × Y + E) mod C < R, where R is the numerator of the fractional approximation, Y is the year number, E is an offset and C is the denominator of the fractional approximation.

The epoch of the Martian calendar (Day 1, Month 1, Year 0) is reckoned from the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere of Mars that occured on the Gregorian date March 11, 1609 at 18:40:34.

Design Rules for the Calendar

The design rules for the calendar are as follows:

  1. The length of each year must be a whole number of days.
  2. Follow the seasons as accurately as possible. This is necessary because Mars has seasons like Earth.
  3. Preserve the sequence of the seven days of the week. This is necessary for religious reasons (Fourth commandment: Exodus 20:8–11).
  4. The rules for any intercalation must be as concise as possible. This facilitates the adoption of the calendar by new settlers.
  5. The calendar must be perpetual. This minimises wasted resources.

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