the
rust-colored dirt off to the side of the black asphalt. He could
see lava rocks protruding from the layer of fine-grained Martian
sand. He looked up to the rim of the crater. With a quick
360-degree examination, he could see that he was in the center of
the crater with steeply-sloped walls that rose hundreds of feet
above the ground. With only one exception, the camp was completely
surrounded by cliffs. After vast deliberation and somewhat heated
arguments at NASA headquarters, it was the exception which Garrison
was now observing that compelled NASA to select this crater as the
site of the camp.
Camp Mars was located in a
crater that was very similar to most of the impact craters
originally. However, a lava flow from Arsia Mons surrounded this
particular crater and eventually broke through one of its walls,
flooding it with lava. As a result, this crater was an extremely
desirable location. At three-miles wide, it was just the right
size. It had walls to protect the camp from high winds and dust
storms. It had a natural opening that gave easy access into and out
of the crater. And unlike most craters which are significantly deep
because of the impact, this crater had been filled in, such that it
was at the same exact elevation on the inside of the crater as it
was on the outside of it.
High up on one cliff, he
saw large American and Russian flags perched next to each other,
but noticed the discoloration caused by the Martian atmosphere. The
American flag appeared to have brown and yellow stripes and yellow
stars set on a background of purple waved in a gentle breeze while
a smaller-than-expected sun shown in the tawny sky above. Garrison
and Dmitri remained quiet as they allowed the surrealistic nature
of O’Ryan’s new home to settle in.
Due to the electric engine
and smooth suspension of the MTV, Garrison didn’t realize that they
had just made their first stop. He was still enraptured with his
new surroundings.
“ Garrison,” Ayman stated
in grandiose fashion. “This is the SAR pad.”
Garrison snapped out of
his amazement and returned to the task at hand. He saw a huge
building about a half-mile long and five stories tall. It was by
far the largest and most dominating of any building in the crater.
However, its design was similar to the other buildings around camp,
so there was nothing particularly aesthetic about it. Four concrete
walls and a flat steel-reinforced concrete ceiling did not give
Garrison anything to write home about. However, this building, he
knew to be one of the most significant and well-used facilities on
the premises. Indeed, the SAR pad was absolutely essential to life
on Mars.
…
Sub-atomic replication was
an earth-shattering invention that occurred just before Garrison
was born. A team of physicists under contract with the U.S.
government worked on a project so secretive that it rivaled the
efforts of the Manhattan Project which brought the world into the
nuclear age way back in the twentieth century. Their efforts landed
themselves a Nobel Prize in physics for their invention.
The concept of sub-atomic
replication is simple enough. Everything that has mass is made up
of atoms. These atoms have sub-atomic building blocks—neutrons,
protons, and electrons. The theory for years had been that if you
could take an atom and reconfigure the number and relationship of
these sub-atomic particles then you could literally turn any atom
into a completely different atom. For this reason, the project was
dubbed the Midas Project, with the thought in mind that if the
project succeeded, then it would literally be possible that
anything could be turned to gold.
Once the physicists were
able to demonstrate the successful reconfiguration of an atom, they
could then turn their alchemistic efforts to the molecular level.
The problem which hampered the scientists for so long was how they
could reconfigure an object of significant complexity. The
usefulness of the solution was very limiting, because
rust-colored dirt off to the side of the black asphalt. He could
see lava rocks protruding from the layer of fine-grained Martian
sand. He looked up to the rim of the crater. With a quick
360-degree examination, he could see that he was in the center of
the crater with steeply-sloped walls that rose hundreds of feet
above the ground. With only one exception, the camp was completely
surrounded by cliffs. After vast deliberation and somewhat heated
arguments at NASA headquarters, it was the exception which Garrison
was now observing that compelled NASA to select this crater as the
site of the camp.
Camp Mars was located in a
crater that was very similar to most of the impact craters
originally. However, a lava flow from Arsia Mons surrounded this
particular crater and eventually broke through one of its walls,
flooding it with lava. As a result, this crater was an extremely
desirable location. At three-miles wide, it was just the right
size. It had walls to protect the camp from high winds and dust
storms. It had a natural opening that gave easy access into and out
of the crater. And unlike most craters which are significantly deep
because of the impact, this crater had been filled in, such that it
was at the same exact elevation on the inside of the crater as it
was on the outside of it.
High up on one cliff, he
saw large American and Russian flags perched next to each other,
but noticed the discoloration caused by the Martian atmosphere. The
American flag appeared to have brown and yellow stripes and yellow
stars set on a background of purple waved in a gentle breeze while
a smaller-than-expected sun shown in the tawny sky above. Garrison
and Dmitri remained quiet as they allowed the surrealistic nature
of O’Ryan’s new home to settle in.
Due to the electric engine
and smooth suspension of the MTV, Garrison didn’t realize that they
had just made their first stop. He was still enraptured with his
new surroundings.
“ Garrison,” Ayman stated
in grandiose fashion. “This is the SAR pad.”
Garrison snapped out of
his amazement and returned to the task at hand. He saw a huge
building about a half-mile long and five stories tall. It was by
far the largest and most dominating of any building in the crater.
However, its design was similar to the other buildings around camp,
so there was nothing particularly aesthetic about it. Four concrete
walls and a flat steel-reinforced concrete ceiling did not give
Garrison anything to write home about. However, this building, he
knew to be one of the most significant and well-used facilities on
the premises. Indeed, the SAR pad was absolutely essential to life
on Mars.
…
Sub-atomic replication was
an earth-shattering invention that occurred just before Garrison
was born. A team of physicists under contract with the U.S.
government worked on a project so secretive that it rivaled the
efforts of the Manhattan Project which brought the world into the
nuclear age way back in the twentieth century. Their efforts landed
themselves a Nobel Prize in physics for their invention.
The concept of sub-atomic
replication is simple enough. Everything that has mass is made up
of atoms. These atoms have sub-atomic building blocks—neutrons,
protons, and electrons. The theory for years had been that if you
could take an atom and reconfigure the number and relationship of
these sub-atomic particles then you could literally turn any atom
into a completely different atom. For this reason, the project was
dubbed the Midas Project, with the thought in mind that if the
project succeeded, then it would literally be possible that
anything could be turned to gold.
Once the physicists were
able to demonstrate the successful reconfiguration of an atom, they
could then turn their alchemistic efforts to the molecular level.
The problem which hampered the scientists for so long was how they
could reconfigure an object of significant complexity. The
usefulness of the solution was very limiting, because
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