You Will Go to Mars

You Will Go to Mars

ABUNDANCE Press · Earth

Mars looks like a small red star. It is a whole world.

Mars is up there, far away.

It looks like a little red star. It is not a star. It is a place.

People have walked on the Moon. No one has walked on Mars yet.

But someone will go there soon.

Some day you may go there, too.

· 1 ·

The people look small. They are the right size. The rocket is big.

This is your rocket.

It is taller than any rocket that has ever flown.

You will ride at the very top, in the part with the windows.

Everything you need is packed below you.

Air. Water. Food. A deck of cards.

· 2 ·

It is easiest to go when the trip will be shortest.

You cannot leave on just any day.

Earth moves fast around the Sun. Mars moves slow.

Once every 26 months, Earth catches up to Mars.

On that day the road to Mars is short.

On that day, you will go.

See: The Launch Window

· 3 ·

In space, nothing spreads the sunlight around. The sky stays black all day.

Up. Up. Up.

The rumble pushes you down into your seat.

In a few minutes the blue sky is gone, and the sky turns black.

Look. The sun is out, and so are the stars. Both at once.

Then the engines stop, and it is quiet, and you are floating.

You are on your way.

· 4 ·

Your pencil floats. Your apple floats. You float.

The trip takes about seven months.

In the ship, nothing weighs anything at all.

You will strap yourself into bed so you do not drift away in your sleep.

Every day you will walk on a machine, so your bones do not forget the ground.<br>The ship has a special room surrounded by water and supplies. It is where you go when the sun’s rays get too strong.

There is a lot of time to read. And to play.

See: The Cruise

· 5 ·

A conversation with a pause in the middle.

Home gets a little farther away every minute. Every hour.

Some days your radio “hello” takes twenty minutes to arrive.

The answer takes twenty minutes to come back.

So you will not call home. You will send messages, and voices, and films.

And every day, home will send them to you.

See: Calling Home

· 6 ·

Too little air to float down. So you ride the fire, and the tower catches you.

Now Mars is big in your window.

The air on Mars is very, very thin. Too thin for a parachute.

So your ship turns around, points its feet at the ground, and fires its engines.

Down, down, slower, slower. The spaceport's tall tower reaches out two great steel arms, and catches your ship right out of the air.

A cloud of red dust rolls away in every direction.

You are there.

· 7 ·

Arrivals, Gate 1. (There is only Gate 1.)

You will not just hop out onto the dirt. Mars runs a spaceport.

The tower sets your ship gently down on its pad, and a covered bridge swings out to meet the door. Just like at the airport.

You walk across in your shirt sleeves, light as a balloon. You are lighter here.

So your first step on Mars is really a little bounce.

And behind the terminal's big window, look. The whole town is waving.

They have been waiting twenty-six months for new faces. Welcome to Mars.

See: Your Weight on Mars

· 8 ·

Look! Do you see that low white hill? That is the Mars house.

Look! Do you see that low white dome?

That is the Mars house.

That is where you will live on Mars.

Its roof gets piled thick with Mars soil, to keep out the space rays.

White tunnels run from dome to dome, so you can walk to breakfast without your suit on.

Inside, the bunks are tucked deep under the soil, where the space rays cannot reach at all.

Your bunk is the deepest one down. It is the safest, coziest spot in town.

· 9 ·

The biggest room on Mars, and the greenest thing for 140 million miles.

Down the tunnel from your bunk is the biggest room on Mars.

Everyone calls it the green room.

Rows and rows of lettuce, and kale, and little tomato plants grow in trays. There is no soil.

The lamps glow pink, because plants drink the red and blue light and leave the green.

Astronauts already garden this way on the space station. They say the lettuce is delicious.

You will do your homework in the green room. It smells like home.

See: The Green Room

· 10 ·

Mars gives you the air, if you bring the machine.

You cannot breathe the air on Mars.

It is almost all carbon dioxide. The gas you breathe out.

So your machines breathe it in, and turn it into oxygen.

A small machine named MOXIE already did this on Mars, in 2021.

It rode there on a rover, and made oxygen sixteen times.

Your machines will be much bigger. They will fill your tanks and your rocket.

See: Making Oxygen

· 11 ·

The ice convoy rolling home from the mine.

On Mars, water goes around, and around, and around again.

Machines catch every drop: the steam from your cocoa, the fog of your breath, even your sweat. Then they clean it all back into drinking water.

When the town needs more, the ice convoy rolls home from the mine. The ice sealed up tight in its trailers, so the thin air cannot steal one drop on...