Lowell 47, 53
Dear Friend-to-be:
For the past 14 days, a dust storm has raged ceaslessly, with winds roaring at over 300 kilometers per hour. Because of this, I have been stuck in our quonset hut at the construction site, without anyone to play with or talk to. Actually, I never DO have anyone to play with or talk to, except the navvies on the job site, so I am looking for a pen pal.
Perhaps I should tell you a bit about myself first. My mom and dad are engineers here in Nirgal Vallis, helping the giant offworld company JCN Congomerates search for the underground caves that created this valley. Among the first wave of settlers here on Mars, my parents were the first colonists to have a child here (me!), which I guess makes me special, but also makes me lonely. There are a few more children now, but the oldest is only 4 years old (that's 7 Earth years), and I am 7 (that's 13 on Earth), and he doesn't like the same things I do, anyway. I have a baby brother, Garnet, but he doesn't even talk yet!
Oh, I forgot! My name is Carnelian (my parents, in case you hadn't guessed, are mining engineers!).
Usually, I live with my family in a wonderful house on the cliffs overlooking the magnificent Hebes Chasma. The village of Hebes is nearby, all ranged along the same cliffs. The Chasma (or 'chasm' as it's called on Earth), is similar to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, but a whole lot bigger (everything is bigger on Mars, except the planet itself). The view from our livingroom window is breathtaking. On the plain, I can see right to the horizon, about 8 km. away (the distance we can see is less than on Earth, because Mars, being smaller, curves more sharply away). The beautiful red sand is coloured by rust, and the sky is pink due to dust particles. It's really different from Earth's sky (which Mom tells me is as blue as my eyes, but all over), because, even though it's pink, as soon as you look straight up, it turns almost black because we don't have much atmosphere here (about one/one-thousanth of what they have on Earth). This means that when I play outside, I have to wear a 're-breather' that recirculates the air I breathe in order to purify it and make the most of what oxygen is in it. I also have to wear 'environmental' clothes, which protect me from cold temperatures (sometimes as low as 90 degrees below zero Celsius) and the constant presence of ultra-violet radiation. It sounds pretty fierce, but it's home to me!
When I venture near the edge of the cliff, I can look into the wonderful world of the Chasma. It was caused millions of years ago by the surface of the planet collapsing, and where we live it's almost three kilometers deep! Every once in a while, we're really lucky to see what little water there is on Mars accumulate as ground mist in the Chasma. When this happens, the valley is filled with a magical sea of fog, which bubbles and churns and swirls as if alive. It really is most beautiful.
Don't think that it's only pretty here during the days, though, because in a way, it's prettier at night. Dad says Earth people have one big, shiney, silver moon which takes an Earth month to change from a little sliver on the right side to a little sliver on the left side, having been very big and round in between (I think that's how he described it). Here on Mars, we have TWO moons, and they don't seem to behave the same as Earth's moon. One of our moons, Deimos, is the smallest moon in the solar system (12 km. across), and it is 24,000 km. away, so it looks just like another star to me. It moves only a little faster in our sky than Mars rotates, so it takes nearly six days to go around the sky. The other moon, Phobos, is bigger than Deimos (21 km. across), but still won't win any prizes for size! But it's much closer to the planet (only about 9,000 km. away), so it appears to be a dot in the sky. Through a telescope, you can see it as new, full, and old, but not with ordinary eyes. It moves so slowly that Mars rotates faster than the moon circles the planet, and so it rises in the West and sets in the East, nearly always twice a day. Silly moon!
Phobos is important, though, for all its funny ways, because it is our 'Statue of Liberty' ... all the colonists land there first, to be checked out by doctors and scientists for diseases before being allowed to live on Mars. Mom and Dad remember the station there as a place of many emotions -- hope, fear, excitement, regret, loneliness -- all rolled into one. They don't know when, or if, they will ever get back to Earth; I for one would like to see it someday, because it sounds so beautiful and vibrant, with things like birds and animals and plants, and all the colours. What is green like?
As you can well imagine, the time I am allowed to spend outside is limited by the hostile environment (try to picture yourself running wearing a big snowsuit and a gas mask!), so I spend a lot of my time in front of my computer or in school or the gym. My favourite hobbies are music and astronomy -- I sing in the school choir and am studying the violin (I'm awful, though!), and I am a junior member of the Hebes Amateur Astronomers. Through the work of the adults mostly, but with some help from a few of us kids, light pollution is a thing of the past. Even at the work camps, only the most essential lights are left on at night, so we can see the stars. And what a sight it is! The starlight is so bright that it casts shadows, something which Dad tells me his great-great grandfather remembers seeing only in the most northern reaches of Canada when he was a boy in Temagami. Maybe some day I can see some of the places in my family's past.
Oh! The wind has dropped! Mom has just come in to tell me that the weather report for tomorrow is good, with a heat wave expected that might bring the temperature up to 15 degrees Celsius. That means that I can go out and play with only my 're-breather' and a gauze sunshade! Alright!
Anyway, please write me and tell me about your home and your interests! I promise I'll check my Internet account every day, no matter what the weather!
Live long and prosper,
Carnelian Peebles