Tag: mars colony

Map of the Hellas-Dao Colony – With Novel Excerpts!

Map of the Hellas-Dao colony from my upcoming novel, Red Soil Through Our Fingers.
Map of the Hellas-Dao colony from my upcoming novel, Red Soil Through Our Fingers.

During the world-building process for Red Soil Through Our Fingers, I spent a lot of time on Google Mars exploring the surface of the red planet for possible settings. I settled (no pun intended) on a region just northeast of the Hellas Planitia, a large depression in the southern hemisphere. Hellas is the lowest altitude point on Mars’ surface, and hence the highest ambient pressure and temperature. It is one of the areas with the highest probability of liquid or near-liquid water on the planet.

Below are some excepts from the novel, currently approaching Draft Alpha (first complete revision).

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The Mars One Debate

I saw on the Mars Society’s webpage that the Mars One colonization program will debate their MIT critics at the society’s upcoming convention next month. I have a triple interest in the debate. My novel-in-progress, Red Soil Through Our Fingers, a Mars colonization novel. Secondly, as a former aerospace engineer, I have experience and a huge personal stake in the design and outcome of space exploration missions. And further, one of the listed critics of Mars One, Andrew Owens, is a friend and writing group member!

Needless to say, I have a few thoughts on the matter.

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