Timeline

2029-Mars Orbital Mission by SpaceX successfully travels around Mars, enters orbit and then returns to Earth successfully

2030-Mars Landing Mission by SpaceX ends in failure. The ship encountered a micro-meteor shower which caused a rapid loss of pressurization killing all onboard eighteen days into the mission.

2032-Combined NASA, EU, Chinese and Japanese Manned mission to Mars succeeds.

2035-Second mission to Mars results in disaster when an anti-technology terrorists detonate a bomb just as their module was taking off from the launch pad. The module’s abort takeoff procedures worked perfectly but the module itself was damaged and three of the six crew died when its parachute didn’t properly deploy.

2036-The final trial for the anti-technology terrorists is completed. The ring leaders were sentenced to death via firing squad.

2036-Permanent manned base on Luna is established.

2040-The third manned mission to Mars is launched. Evidence of past organic life is discovered in caves near the base.

2043-First generation fusion power plants began going online.

2045-The fourth mission to mars is set to reuse the same base. Focus of the mission is entirely on the cave system nearby. Additional discoveries are made but evidence of intelligent life is not discovered.

Mission to Mars

In February of 2029 SpaceX began launching several cargo missions, but they didn’t go to the space station as expected. They were cargo containers much larger than the normal ones. They were remotely maneuvered and connected to a large rocket they had lifted into orbit as well. The planned mission to bring visitors to the ISS was in fact a ruse and the instead docked with the mothership, which then set off for Mars.

SpaceX beat all nations to the punch. This mission was largely unremarkable for the astronauts aside from the massive amount of traveling they were doing. They completed the first manned orbit of Mars. The subterfuge came as a shock to everyone and annoyed the American regulators as they weren’t entirely truthful surrounding the nature of the mission.

The mission ended in a rousing success though and forced the other nations into action. They brought back a wealth of useful data that the rest of the world needed and greatly appreciated when SpaceX shared it freely to everyone. The United States was already well underway on planning a manned mission alone. But a combination of budget cuts and skyrocketing expenses forced them to look worldwide for assistance.

SpaceX once again beat everyone launching their first manned mission to land on Mars. During the initial orbital mission SpaceX launched two of its cargo containers towards the Martian Surface. The containers landed on the surface successfully and would be used as habitats while its astronauts were on the surface.

Their second mission launched in late February a year later. On March 10th disaster struck. The interplanetary vessel was struck by a micrometeor shower that resulted in explosive depressurization of the main cabin. This was where all the astronauts were located at the time of impact. The astronauts had no hope of survival and were killed near instantly. The ship continued on a ballistic trajectory, the communication system was damaged and could only send information but not receive it. The Martian gravity well flung the ship toward the outer planets. All spacefaring nations agreed to leave the vessel alone and no attempts were made to recover it.

This mission unfortunately shone a light on the risks associated with void travel. This resulted in several inquiries and many calls for testimony in front of the senate and house panels. Ultimately SpaceX was cleared of any wrongdoing as there was no way to have been able to detect the disaster they were flying into. The level of risk associated with traveling between planets was one that all space associations accepted. Despite that, all astronauts were given the right to pull out of the mission if they didn’t feel comfortable with the associated risks. The exact number was never given, but it was rumored that only eight astronauts opted out of the program.

In 2032 Sean Emmanuel was the first man to set foot on Mars. They touched down near the planned SpaceX location. There they built out the first temporary base using the cargo containers from the first orbital mission. The team of six astronauts stayed on Mars for three months.

Plans for the second mission were already well underway before the first had even returned to Earth successfully. Another site near the Martian equator with several cave systems was selected and supplies and housing began to be sent to that location. Three cargo resupply missions had been sent to Mars by the time the first mission was able to return to Earth.

Eco-Terrorism

The astronauts came home to a hero’s welcome. There was however a small group of people that became fanatical in their devotion to Earth and that leaving humanity’s mother world was an act of unforgivable heresy. This group, which they called Homeworld, began to grow, and mild acts of eco-terrorism began to occur throughout the world. Initially they were viewed as kooks or weirdos, akin to the flat earthers of the early 21st century. Their actions grew and they became more vocal and eventually became more annoying than PETA in the eyes of many.

Eventually though they moved from annoying people and began causing damage to personal and business property. The attacks were generally enacted in half assed ways, but it still cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage and lost productivity. Their initial attempts were uncoordinated and sloppy. They came off as hopped-up idiots more than an organized force to be reckoned with. But they learned those lessons and grew to be more of a threat.

Eventually three shipping vessels sank which was the first case of their actions taking another’s life. That was the point they were no longer tolerated. They were officially recognized as a terrorist organization across the world within a matter of weeks of the third sinking.

Unfortunately, that would not be their coup de grace. That came during the second mission to Mars. The group had sleeper agents throughout the world, one of which was on the team for assembling the primary stage of the rocket. They placed an explosive device on the rocket.

Twenty-five seconds after ignition an explosive charge detonated. This explosion obviously resulted in the destruction of the rocket. Thankfully the onboard computer detected the abnormal readings and nearly instantaneously activated the emergency abort procedures which sent the capsule hurtling away from the explosion occurring below it. Unfortunately, the capsule didn’t emergence unscathed. Two of the three parachutes were damaged and didn’t deploy. It landed on a road outside of Kennedy Space Center. Three astronauts died on impact with the other three suffering severe injuries.

Each country had already began investigating supporters of Homeworld, but this act sped that process up significantly. Nearly five hundred thousand people were imprisoned for their support or general association with a terror group across the world. Lives and families were gutted and destroyed. The manhunt to round up anyone directly associated with the bombing was widespread, thorough and moving at speeds never seen before. Nearly two years after the attack the last of the known members associated with the bombing of the mission was found guilty. Every last one was found guilty of multiple counts of murder, attempted murder, treason and a slew of other charges.

Two hundred eighteen people were sentenced to death via hanging in the United States. Hanging had previously been ruled an unconstitutional means of ending a condemned person’s life. The public outcry against the condemned pressured congress to pass a new law authorizing it. After all their appeals had been exhausted and fast tracked, they were publicly executed ten at a time. Four groups were executed each day. Six days later all those convicted had met their end.

Years later there would still be debates on whether or not the government was within their rights to charge them with treason, but there was little debate on whether or not the group had deserved the death sentence. The decision to publicly televise another death sentence was restricted to only the most heinous of cases. It wouldn’t be used for decades to come.

In more hopeful news a permanent base had been established on Luna, the official new name of the moon upon its colonization. Most of the base was built within old volcanic tunnels. By the end of 2036 the station had 245 personal. As the base continued to grow. For every square foot of living space that was added, twenty square foot of space was dedicated to increasing the agricultural capabilities of the station. Lunar scientists discovered a way of 3D printing meat using different proteins, carbohydrates, and plant-based fat. While it never tasted quite the same, for those that wanted something besides a vegetarian diet it was a welcome change of pace.

The Find of a Lifetime

By 2040 the third mission to Mars was underway. It launched without issue and the astronauts were able to land successfully and get their base fully setup ahead of schedule. The mission was largely scientific with them digging deeper into the Martian soil. Secondary missions had them explore the cave systems that were a few hundred meters from the base.

Unfortunately for the third mission too much time was spent playing in the dirt and not enough was spent on spelunking. Two days before they were scheduled to depart, they found fossils of what appeared to be invertebrates of some sort. The question of whether or not we were alone in the universe was finally answered. The astronauts returned home with heavy hearts as they didn’t get to really dig into the mystery they uncovered. The next group of astronauts would get to do that.

In 2043 the first generation fusion powerplants began coming online throughout the world. The few coal and natural gas plants that were still online were forced to cease their operations. Third world countries had their fusion reactors subsidized by the richer nations. Their gas and coal plants were shuttered with immediate effect upon the fusion plant going online. Those subsidies came at a cost, exports from those countries into the richer countries were either greatly reduced or came at a much higher expense as a means to recover the expense of the plants.

The fourth mission to Mars launched in 2050 and returned to the location of the third mission. The mission was initially slated to last six months but was extended to nine months. An additional cargo pod was launched and sent to Mars to account for the additional time that would be spent there.

The buildings were still in good shape, but as a safety precaution a new habitat was sent. The original buildings were turned into an onsite laboratory to run scans on any skeletons or organic material they would find in the caves. They would find fossilized remains that confirmed this area was a shallow ocean millions of years ago. There was no evidence that any recent life could exist though.

The theory scientists now had was that Mars was much like Earth in the distant path, albeit a slightly cooler version. The equatorial region likely would’ve been similar to the American and Canadian border throughout the year. Intelligent life was ruled out, but Mars appears to have a very similar ocean to Earth’s. The pattern of evolution was eerily similar. More time needed to be spent here and future missions were planned in this region.