Martian Rainbow by Robert L. Forward

Author:Robert L. Forward [Forward, Robert L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780345347121
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 1991-06-18T05:00:00+00:00

FROM HELLAS Basin, Chris and Gus took off in a hypersonic single-stage-to-orbit vehicle to visit the bases on the two moons about Mars, Phobos and Deimos. The orbiter had an engine that scooped in the relatively thick air at the bottom of the basin, heated it to high temperature in an antimatter-powered heat exchanger, and exhausted it at high speed to accelerate the vehicle up to almost orbital speed before switching to rocket mode for the last portion of the climb. It was nerve-racking to zoom at hypersonic speeds low across the cratered terrain, but the air there was like the air at thirty kilometers altitude on Earth.

Chris and Gus spent a great deal of time talking with everyone on the two moons of Mars. These people, isolated from the social contacts enjoyed in the larger bases on Mars, lived and worked under difficult and dangerous conditions. Yet they were essential to the long-term survival of the Territory of Mars. Their last get-together was with the entire contingent of the base on Deimos. They met in Asaph Hall, the small communal dining area and meeting room of the base.

"I want to let you all know how much we appreciate your work here," Gus said to the small group of forty men and eight women crowded into the small room. "To survive, the Territory of Mars must import its medicines, its antimatter, its electronics, its precision machinery, and the other things that we need to keep alive. A nation cannot import forever, it must export something to balance those imports. The only thing exportable from the surface of Mars that is light enough to justify the cost of shipping it back to the Earth's surface is knowledge. Scientific knowledge." He paused to shake his head, then continued.

"Until recently, we had a customer for that knowledge, the United States. Now that customer has become aberrated and no longer desires knowledge. We have found other customers for scientific knowledge, but they in total do not provide sufficient imports to keep us going. We must have something other than knowledge to export. That's where you and your Independence Task come in." Gus patted the shoulder of a man sitting next to him.

"Your director, Tom—oops!" Gus had patted Tom too hard and now found himself floating upward in the low gravity. Tom, legs twisted around the rungs of his floor-fixed chair, pulled him back down to titters from the amused crowd.

Gus, embarrassed, fixed himself firmly to a table and continued. "As I was saying before my oratory took me to such great heights," he joked, "your director, Tom Manley, took me out on a visit to your materials separation facility today. It is marvelous what you have done, using electrostatic and diamagnetic forces to separate out the different elements and compounds. He tells me you should have your first shipment ready to go in a few weeks. A cluster of graphite fiber storage tanks containing hundreds of tons of water, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen fertilizers destined for the gardens of the EEC Eurospace Hotel at L-5.

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