February 10, 2023 by Corey Lavigne
Five, four, three, two…. The sound of the launch controller’s voice counting down drowned out more and more by the roaring thunder of the 6 Spacify Griffin engines below. With a final bang, the booster ignited and began its protest against gravity. It was as if a volcano was erupting underneath him. The raw power of the upward acceleration was intoxicating. As he felt his weight being lifted higher and higher, the violent crashing and pounding of the metallic engines beneath him began to quiet down. Within seconds he was weightless. That feeling of floating in mid air, so calming but at the same time, with the mesmerizing realization that he was further from Earth than 99% of all of humanity had ever been. Fred was on his way to Mars. He had trained for this moment for a full year. Rigorous procedural and practical exercises every single day to ensure he was as proficient as humanly possible with the inner workings of this latest feat in Spacify tech. He was selected in a lottery by the company as part of their One Mars initiative, a project spearheading the front lines of extraplanetary colonization. It involved sending one person to Mars every 26 months, when the two planets are closest to each other, allowing for a total one way trip length of 260 days.
As Fred looked out the window of his Spacify Leviathan capsule, he was greeted by the immense blue, green, brown and white colors swirling together to form the amazing planet we call Earth. As the launch pad where he took off from zoomed out to reveal Florida as a tiny strip of land at the bottom of North America, he was reminded of what he was leaving behind on this fantastic journey. Fred would be leaving behind Samantha, his girlfriend that he had been dating since high school. She was the corky, girl-next-door type. Someone who always laughed at his jokes even when no one else would. With this endeavor, he would be gone from her for a total of 3 years. Upon his return, he planned to marry her and start the perfect little family they had always dreamed about. Fred had big dreams for his family and for his career. And this journey would help with that. Although the Spacify One Mars program did not offer financial compensation, it covered all expenses, including the full year cosmonaut training that is equivalent in cost to a doctorate degree from an Ivy league school. On top of that, program alumni are usually greeted upon their return with a flock of sponsorship and endorsement deals, companies wanting to hire them and opportunities to go on speaking tours or launch their own business. Basically this program lines up opportunities that will set you up for life. Fred was planning to start his own podcast talking about his experience and those similar to his with guests from various fields and expertise. Fred was now preparing for his eight and a half month journey. There were a series of experiments lined up for him to perform in the weightless environment of the capsule. Additionally, he needed to start compartmentalizing his food and water resources so that he had the appropriate amounts for his outbound travel, his one year and seven month stay on the red planet and his return trip to Earth. As the months went by, Fred’s excitement grew for his eventual arrival, eagerly awaiting the descent as a child might eagerly await Christmas morning or their birthday. What would it feel like to take the first step on the dusty, rocky surface? What would the sky look like? How would the mountain ranges and valleys appear compared to those on Earth? We’ve all seen the pictures but it must be completely different to experience it in person. Fred’s dreams at night often took him there, perhaps as a way for his mind to proactively prepare for his soon to be new found reality. As the final month of his journey arrived, Fred was finally getting used to his routine in the capsule. The ability to float from one spot to another, the artificial lighting that simulated the passing of daily sunlight on Earth, and the overall feeling of being alone in Space. He didn’t like the solidarity at first, but he eventually grew accustomed to it. Even finding a sense of peace in it and the ability to think and be present without the distraction of others. And knowing that this was only going to be for 3 years and not eternity brought him some sense of comfort. The program insisted on single passenger missions as a way to assess the mental burden of being alone in Space, hoping that the research could eventually teach astronauts how to survive if they find themselves separated from their crew. Fred made sure to eat an extra portion of the space food that evening and get a good night’s rest. Tomorrow would be the day that the rocket would break the Martian atmosphere and begin its final descent. But Fred was restless from the excitement and anticipation. He finally managed to fall asleep however after his imagination comforted him with thoughts of his being reunited with Samantha.
He awoke to the sound of his alarm. He could see the red planet with incredible clarity this morning out the window of the cockpit, with the Sun’s rays illuminating the various hues of red and copper on the surface below. It was so odd to take in this planet with no oceans or lakes, greenery, animals or buildings. So awesome, so foreign. With a pop, the thrusters kicked in to counteract the pull of gravity and balance out the ship. The red planet engulfed Fred’s view until the edge of the darkness of Space was no longer visible. Suddenly mountain ridges were coming into view. Peaks and valleys and some serious looking craters where no doubt some colossal meteor impacts must’ve taken place in the distant past. After what only felt like a minute, the ship touched down with a surprisingly soft thud. Fred was pretty sure he had experienced more turbulent landings on commercial planes back home. Fred was in awe, but he remembered he had a job to do. He began to unpack. The ship came with a small self-constructing pod that would serve as his lab, kitchen and sleeping quarters for the remainder of his stay. In order to access it, he had to open the doors on the outside of the ship at the bottom where the cargo bay was. He was so excited because he knew this meant the first time that he would step foot on the planet. He was reminded of Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon. Although in this case, it wouldn’t be the first time for mankind since four other participants had gone through the program before him. But it was the first time for Fred and he felt the excitement of a child and a big dumb grin starting to form on his face as he began to suit up. The suit was cool looking and futuristic. Kind of like the commander suit from Halo but painted white and orange. His visor was tinted to protect from the harsh rays of the Sun and the sand storms that were notorious here. As he twisted the helmet into place, he was finally ready to breach the door and make his grand entrance. He lifted the latch to open the side door where he would have to climb down the retractable ladder. He began to make his way down, making sure to take frequent breaks to take in the beauty of the Martian sunrise. He was more than half way down the ladder now and was preparing to take in the last view before bee-lining it to the bottom. As he gazed over the horizon, a massive flash of light engulfed his vision, blinding him temporarily. He lost his footing on the ladder and to his horror, he was falling, crashing down to the foreign ground. He braced for impact in that split moment, realizing that he may not have working limbs coming out of this. He hit the ground with a thud. To his disbelief, he was fine aside from the feeling of having the wind knocked out of him. He started laughing as he picked himself off the ground, wiping and brushing the dust off from his suit. Mars’ gravity was only 37% as strong as Earth’s so although it hurt, it wasn’t fatal. At most he would have a few bruises the next day. He hugged the side of the rocket in appreciation for not completely dooming his mission within the first minutes of his arrival.
He took a moment to take in the scenery of his new environment. It was eerie, grandiose and beautiful all at once. It was one big desolate landscape with a blanket of copper colored dust covering the surface as far as the eye could see. The mountains and bluffs in the distance were impressively large. The sky had a slightly opaque reddish hue to it and he could feel a slight Martian breeze pushing against his suit. Awesome. After one last deep breath, Fred turned to face his rocket. It was time to unload the living pod. The cargo doors were accessible via a touchpad that read the markings on Fred’s gloves. Fred pressed his right hand against the reader. The unit was supposed to beep twice and flash green. But there was nothing. Fred tried again, still nothing. He tried with his left hand, still no luck. What was going on? Fred had practiced this protocol hundreds of times back on Earth. This was supposed to be the easy part. But Fred remembered not to panic. “Focus on your breath”, he told himself. He recalled that there was an emergency access latch on the other side of the rocket. He made his way around, located the red painted, chrome latch handle and proceeded to rotate it. It wouldn’t budge. Fred tried with two hands. It felt stuck. He yanked at it with his entire body weight, but it literally felt like it was fused in place. Fred’s mind was starting to race. What was happening? How could none of these basic features of the ship work? It just didn’t make sense. He could feel beads of sweat starting to form on his forehead. He decided he would climb back up to the cockpit and collect his thoughts. But when he turned the corner to where the ladder was supposed to be, to his horror he realized it had retracted back up to its source slot all the way at the top of the 390-foot rocket. Fred went cold. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest. Here he was 35 million miles away from home, on another planet. He had no food and no water. The only shelter separating him from the certainly fatal elements of his environment was the suit on his back. But the most daunting realization of all was that he was alone. Completely alone.
He began to assess his situation. There was approximately 10 hours of sunlight left. The temperatures on Mars at night could hit as low as -146° F. His suit could withstand these conditions and provide his body with enough heat to survive but it would be a serious drain on the suit’s energy reserves. And without access to the ship, there would be no way to recharge the batteries. Regardless of how long the batteries would last in these conditions, biologically he would only be able to survive about 2 more days if he didn’t get any water. And although there was frozen water on Mars, it was nearly impossible to differentiate it from the frozen carbon dioxide that was many times more plentiful on the planet. And even if he could find water, removing his helmet would expose him to the extremely thin air mostly made of carbon dioxide and cause him to suffocate. He would lose consciousness in about 30 seconds after which his body would permanently shut down after approximately 4 minutes. Fred sat down on the Martian soil. He suddenly felt a sense of calm come over him. He was completely humbled. Humbled by the fact that we as humans are so fragile and vulnerable to the elements around us. That without technology and innovation, there would be no way that we as a species would have made it this far. Even on Earth, there are many locations where one would not be able to survive for very long on their own. It spoke to the tremendous effort of working as a team. How as a collective, we were so much greater than the sum of our parts. As individuals, it was our job to attempt to be as noble and humble as possible. Try our best to be of use to each other and to not take for granted everything that we had, even our own existence. Here on this foreign planet, Mars didn’t owe Fred anything. He was just a simple visitor on a planet that long since existed before he did and would continue to exist a long time after he was gone. The Sun was starting to set on the Martian landscape. It was so beautiful. He wished he could share the view with his girlfriend Samantha. He thought about her and the plans he had for the future in his life back home. How he wished he could be with her now. Even if it was only for a moment. He would trade anything for that right now. He would give anything just to hear her voice one last time. He began to feel tired. It was a very eventful day. He leaned back, closed his eyes and fell asleep for the first time on another planet.
He awoke the next morning with back pain. The Martian surface was not exactly a California King Bed. The Sun was already out in full force which illuminated the rocket ship and its cargo door area. Fred figured he would try to access it again. He started with the touchpad. Again, no signs of life from the screen. He made another attempt at the emergency latch, but it still refused to budge. He was starting to feel dizzy and light-headed. He hadn’t had even a sip of water for over 24 hours now. His suit’s energy level indicator was showing 30%. It must’ve been a very cold night last night. Unfortunately that meant his suit would likely lose all power before nightfall and Fred would likely not survive the temperatures. He was starting to feel restless and manic now. The realization of his impending death was not sitting well with him. He was still so young and had so much more he wanted to accomplish in life. He decided he would go for a walk to calm his nerves. He began to walk in a straight line away from the rocket but always ensuring that it was in view with frequent checks over his shoulder. After making it about a quarter mile, he took one more glance over his shoulder but in doing so, his right foot hid something solid sticking out from the surface. It completely knocked his balance and he fell over. He looked back at what caused him to trip, assuming it would be a rock of some sort. To his amazement, it was metallic and shiny and appeared to have a curve to it. It almost looked like a handle. But this couldn’t be. The dehydration must be causing him to imagine things. He shook his head and blinked hard several times but the object remained in focus. He crawled over to it and began to brush off the dust from around it. To his disbelief, it was in fact a handle. And Fred’s brushing of the dust had revealed that it was attached to what appeared to be a metallic square shaped hatch. He wasn’t sure if he should feel excitement or terror. Whatever this thing was, there was no way it was natural. It was certainly made by some intelligent life form. What could be down there? Could there actually be life on Mars? For a moment Fred considered not opening it due to fear and instead running straight back to his ship. But what did he have left to lose? He would be dead by nightfall anyway. He decided he would open it. With the last of his energy, he picked himself up, placed both hands on the handle and pulled upwards. The hatch was extremely heavy, and it lifted with a creak. He looked down into the hole and immediately shuddered. Looking back at him were three humans, each equipped with oxygen masks around their mouths. They motioned for him to come inside. Fred instantly felt weak. His knees buckled and he passed out.
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