Chapter 505 - Mars Landing

As soon as Blacklight Biotechnology made the announcement of Ares’ expedition, the ones who had been paying attention to this and concerned about the fate of mankind found reason to finally breathe a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, even the demographic who were not concerned with the latest science and technology developments also learned of the announcement from various media outlets. In an instant, Blacklight Biotechnology once again became one of the most trending topics online, even entering the top ten list of Sino Weibo’s trending topics!

Sina Weibo trending topics:

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Blacklight Biotechnology to set foot on Mars – 1 million hits.

In the Ares Project promotional clip, in addition to the preview of the Ares spacecraft transporting people to Mars, there was also an advertisement for the registration to enlist as colonists placed in the final segment. When the netizens clicked the link attached at the end of the video, they were redirected to the website of Blacklight Biotechnology. The giant tagline was stamped at the heading of the page –

Ares project colonists registration officially opens 1 July 2028!

Based on the information provided, Blacklight Biotechnology will be recruiting ten thousand people as the first inhabitants of the planned colony on Mars. With the Ares’ mounted nuclear fusion engines, it should only take a week to reach Mars.

This travel duration to Mars was worlds ahead of what it was in the past. When mankind first invented space probes to explore the terrain on Mars, it took more than half a year for them to arrive at the atmospheric layer of Mars.

With the nuclear fusion engines, it took at least twenty-five times faster. Furthermore, this was not the extent of what the nuclear fusion engines were capable of. This was merely the infancy stages of its official adoption in spacecraft. Within several decades or centuries, there was the hope of mankind elevating the speed of their spacecraft to subluminal speed.

For now, a week-long journey was as good as it got. It was not much different from a cruise ship trip.

This open registration had garnered the interest of countless people all over the world. In the Western parts of the world, many people were in tune with the spirits of solo traveling so this was treated as a similar endeavor. Meanwhile, while the reception in Eastern regions was not as fervent, there were still a lot of tech-savvy young people submitting their applications.

Furthermore, Blacklight Biotechnology had given their word that the first batch of Martian colonists would be given statues equivalent to Blacklight Biotechnology employees. This meant that each one of the colonists would be paid monthly salaries reaching up to tens of thousands of dollars. In addition, this was just the basic salary before including various bonuses and associated subsidies.

The first group of colonists would also be entitled to a large range of benefits. This included housing on Mars and sufficient food and water. All expenses would be covered by Blacklight Biotechnology unconditionally. If the colonists got married and had children on Mars, their offspring would also be entitled to high-standard education.

This extremely generous benefit was incredibly tempting for countless people. In just one day, millions of people had filled out the registration form.

However, there were certain entry barriers to becoming a colonist. Due to the emergence of XTN robots and cyborgs, the colony did not have much demand for manual labor. There were designated robots to complete tasks such as cleaning, regular plantation work, and factory tasks. Blacklight Biotechnology only needed specific talents with special skill sets.

The list of skills required ranged from mechanical maintenance, software development, engineering experience, designing experience, certain scientific backgrounds, and so on. This meant that most white-collar workers would not be fortunate enough to be selected as the first of colonists.

It was midnight in a room on the outskirts of Zhongzhou District in the Central Continent. A haggard-looking man with dirty stubble was smoking a cigarette, silently staring at the computer screen in front of him.

The immigration application form to Mars was filled out on the computer display –

Name: Wang Wei. Gender: Male, Age: 27. Education Background: Department of Biological Sciences, Haizhou Jiaotong University…

The light was not turned on. The room was drowned in complete darkness save for the bright LED display of the computer that shone harshly on the man’s face.

He stared at the promotional clip on the Blacklight Biotechnology official site. His eyes became dull and hazy as if he was reminiscing on something.

As the steady puff of cigarette smoke filled his vision, he seemed to jog his memory back to approximately seven to eight years ago, during the days of his university life.

After zoning out for some time, he suddenly felt a scorching sensation burning into his lips which snapped him back to reality. He quickly plucked the last of the cigarette away from his scalded lips and jammed it repeatedly into an almost full ashtray.

After he ensured that he had filled out the form in its entirety, he scrolled to the bottom of the page and moved his cursor to the “Submit” button. However, something was stopping him from clicking his mouse and submitting the form.

It was right around this mark when he started to hear footsteps approaching him from somewhere in the house.

The man quickly hid the registration form and put the computer desktop on the display.

As soon as he completed this stealthy maneuver, the door was rudely flung open. A woman dressed in pajamas and wielded a sullen expression on her face appeared behind the door.

The moment the woman stepped into the room, her nose was invaded by the thick, musty smell of cigarettes. This only served to further sour her temper. “All you do is smoke and smoke. That’s all you do every day, smoke and smoke, and smoke. When’s the last time you got promoted? You bring home a measly several thousand each month. What can I do with this money? Bring your son with me to the corner store?”

The man slowly turned around and slurred his sentences as he spoke, “I know, I…”

Before he could finish, the sudden intruder stepped in front of the computer and took hold of the mouse. She promptly dragged it to the bottom bar on the desktop and selected the browser, which revealed the Blacklight Biotechnology official site.

“What are you doing?”

The man frowned unintentionally.

“Hehe, you’re looking at this news again, what happened to overtime at work?”

She sneered. “God must’ve put a curse on me and made me end up with someone like you. You have as much money as you have ambition. I remember you bragging about staying in the same dormitory as the founder of Blacklight Biotechnology, that you two got along so well you were pretty much brothers. What happens now? He’s got more money than some countries and can hardly remember someone like you ever existing. You have his number but you won’t contact him. You could at least find some decent gig in Blacklight Biotechnology. At least your son and I would’ve something to show for, no?”

“Are you done?”

The man took a deep breath and did his best to suppress his boiling rage.

“What, too sour to admit that what I said is true?”

The woman pushed further with a heartless scoff. “You should be thankful that I’m sticking with you out of pity since your mother fell seriously ill last year and made you clean out your bank and fall into debt. You should be thankful I haven’t asked for a divorce and here you are with the audacity to complain?”

The burning rage in the man’s heart immediately died out as soon as he heard this. The sheer mention of this subject was his weakness.

“I even have to borrow money to buy money for powdered milk for our son!”

The woman continued. “We have no idea how we’re going to pay for his kindergarten next year but that’s alright because you still get to buy your precious cigarettes! All you do is smoke and smoke your worries away!”

After a barrage of verbal abuse, the woman finally had enough when she saw her husband had his head tapered to the ground at this point. She turned and left.

When the man heard the winding footsteps down the hall, he lost his mind and chuckled like a mad man. The final ounce of hesitation had left him as he once again pulled to the bottom section of the page and hammered the “Submit” button!

“Click!”

With the soft click of the mouse, a pop-up immediately appeared on the screen with the message: “Your submission is successful”.

“Little Chen, I’m leaving my life in your capable hands from here on!”

A heavy gloom swept over his eyes as he mumbled the sentence softly.

…

Following the announcement issued by Blacklight Biotechnology, more than 10 million people had filled out the application form in just one day. Although the vast majority of them were regular office workers, there were a healthy number of high-value candidates as well. Even some well-known members of the scientific circles also filled out the registration forms and publicly declared their desire to become one among the first batch of colonists, and contribute to the progress of mankind while etching their mark in history.

Besides, Blacklight Biotechnology had never stated that one could never return to Earth after becoming a colonist on Mars. Blacklight Biotechnology kept promises that the colonists would still retain the citizenship of their respective continents on Earth. After the colony was properly established, a proper flight route would be established between the two planets so that sometime in the future, travel between Earth and Mars would become as commonplace as taking a flight and traveling to some countries on Earth. The colonists could submit their resignation letter and return to Earth at any time.

With the announcement of the Mars colonization project, the trading market of resources and land on Earth that had been getting increasingly tense for a while finally eased a little. Everything was slowly restoring to its natural state.

After all, the space had unlimited resources and space. With the prospect of space travel announced, the four major continents no longer saw it fit to scramble over the very limited resources on Earth. Instead, they shifted their focus to further developing their nuclear fusion reactors and to the galaxies above and beyond.

As the saying goes: Our goal is to the infinity and beyond!

With an eager crowd beholding the procession, the spacecraft Ares officially took off into space on the first of August 2028. The symbol of the hope of mankind soared into the atmosphere, powered by the ignited dreams of mankind as it bound for the distant Mars.

Each of the four major continents had three representatives each in the investigation team for the current expedition. The twelve of the representatives with another additional four members of Blacklight Biotechnology made up the crew of the investigation team.

The Ares spacecraft also carried with it 200 tons of building materials, common supplies, a hundred XTN engineering robots of various types, 50 cyborgs, and several special-purpose drones.

The air density on Mars was extremely low reaching up to one percent of that of Earth while its gravity was only two-fifths of Earth’s. Based on scientists’ calculations, a drone manufactured with modern material and powered with the latest battery technology should still manage to take flight.

To obtain detailed data, the scientists of Blacklight Biotechnology specifically put together a testing device which was essentially a space simulator.

To simulate an environment as close to the Martian environment as possible, scientists first created a vacuum space inside the device. After that, a small amount of carbon dioxide was injected to achieve the same air composition as the Martian atmosphere.

Meanwhile, the scientists used a cable to direct upward directional force to “reduce weight” and simulate the appropriate gravity conditions.

The Ares with nuclear fusion engines only took a week before they arrived in the proximity of Mars. By the seventh day, the outline of a giant amber-red colored planet appeared outside the cabin window. It was so large that it took up the entire view outside.

The crew of scientists inside the cabin started to feel a faint gravitational force pulling them in. All objects inside the cabin were similarly affected by this faint thrusting force.

As time went on, this gravitational pull started to grow stronger.

As the group of scientists took in the view of the enormous planet before them, their breathing started to become erratic. If there was someone logging statistics for the Guinness World Record, this group would have shattered the record for longest distance traversed since they were more than a hundred million kilometers away from Earth.

This was a completely foreign territory never before explored by humans…

“Everyone, there’s no need to worry. With the AI system, we’ll be able to land effortlessly just like how it went when we departed Earth.”

The Captain of Ares who was also a scientist of Blacklight Biotechnology suddenly said jokingly, “Dear passengers, we’ll now be landing in Ultimi Scopuli, the southern pole of Mars. The only difference is that it’s much colder than the South Pole on Earth. The temperature hovers from negative 70 degrees to negative 139 degrees. Don’t worry, nothing that several extra layers of clothing can’t solve.

“Sorry, that’s not what we’re concerned about.”

Another European scientist somewhere in his forties shrugged. “Are you sure there’s enough water on the South Pole of Mars for each of us to shower? I can’t tell you how dirty I have got over the last seven days…”

“Ha ha ha!”

They laughed merrily.

“Don’t worry, the polar cap of Mars is composed of ice and solid carbon dioxide. Many previous observations have confirmed that there’s a large amount of water under the ice cover. Even if there’s no water, we can melt the ice for us to use.”

Although he knew it was a joke, the captain still addressed this brought up concern. “So, you don’t need to worry about not getting to take a hot bath.”

As they mingled with one another, the voice of the spacecraft’s artificial intelligence broadcast interrupted them. “All crew members are advised to begin preparations. Ares has entered the gravitational range of Mars and will be merging into Mars’ low-Earth orbit over the next twelve hours. Our destination is the Ultimi Scopuli located in the South Pole.

“To prevent any unwanted accidents, all crew members are advised to put on their spacesuits and enter the ejection capsule following the end of this announcement. Thank you for your cooperation!”

After the Ares artificial intelligence broadcast ended, the crew bumped fists with each other one last time. “See you on Mars”, they said as they left the main cabin and went to the ejection capsules.