New Mars Forums

Sounds like I prefer option 4. It would certainly result in an authority that would give the Moon an infrastructure and development board which can licence out development ideas.

But it is the principle of such an authority that would prove the most benefit and similar organisations almost like port authorities would be made for other parts of the solar system. Especially Mars, And Port authority type organisations can raise there own funds and can be invested in......

I have to ask but what happens to the Commonwealth should a terran Nation state frankly ignores that the commonwealth owns everything and remains doing its own exploration and possible colonisation. What if this Nationstate was never a member of the cooalition that forms the Commonwealth and has refused to ever join up. Prefering its own way of doing things.

Then without using military force or at least threats the commonwealth will become a very weak and inefectual organisation. And there are countries that will not sign up for anything like a commonwealth and there citizens will not be bound in supplieing the martian settlers who want there freedom.

But there are other means apart from a Gun that rquires to know your fingerprint etc. One option that has been seriously discussed is to have a small micro chip and I mean very small actually in your hand, both of them. The Gun will only fire when it is able to recieve that signal.

Add to the bullets leaving the Gun an electric signature of who fired it and you have a means to police and reduce threat in gun issue.

The problem was that the Italian goverment had not been following what was termed the party line when its citizens had been held for ransom. It may well have paid them off.

But what has the Italians really irate is the belief that the vehicle was deliberatly fired upon. The Base commander knew the Italians where coming along the road and the watch on duty knew it too.

But just before the vehicle was due along the road, fresh soldiers appeared and it was them who fired on the vehicle.

Now the Goverment of Italy has not come out shouting that it was just a tragic accident actually they are being for this country very quiet. Public opinion demanded an immediate return but the withdrawl will be staged from september.

Science Chief Notes, 25th April 2103

Apart from that Early dose of conflict it seems to have gone all quiet again. It may be that our quick armed response has given us the respect that we need to survive here. We also have managed to get in contact with some of the original settlers and they seem willing to coexist and engage in limited trade. This is good especially with our shortages of Earth derived materials beginning to bite. We simply have run out of alcahol, so thank god for Phobos Red.

The base continues to grow in leaps and bounds but energy is the problem we now face we simply cannot generate enough and keep the Diamond lasers fully charged. I have envisaged a modest Hydro electric facility using the flowing Shenadoah river. But another potential power source has also been found.

Digging in at what was the old base discovered what appears to be a large cavern of S##t. It seems the original base staff stole that much of the bases plumbing that all the effluent had to go somewhere and over the years it has slowly fermented. Embarassingly the cavern was under quite a bit of pressure and we have had to flare off the methane regularily. Unfortunatly the flare pipe was located between two prefab oval domes, we have seen the satelite views of our base and it does actually look like a pair of massive bum cheeks and we are lighting our......

I can only hope that the people back on Earth dont take it as an insult....

                                 Dr Gryphon

It is true that we have not got a real good idea of when the egg becomes a Human, and has all the rights that a person should have.

But it comes down to at what time does the egg become people. when it is first fertilised or when it has become a fetus. I would use the rule of thumb if it has a brain then it is Human so in the first 2 weeks this is not the case.

But do we have to manufacture stem cells well not necassarily. They are present in people still assuming you are fertile either male or female. Is it harder to get them. yes, but at least they are already genetically similar to you.

The above arquement only really comes down when we start designer babies either so we can screen them to ensure that a particular gene disease does not get passed down, or to the more controversial making sure that the genes we want are in those children.

Mission Status:Active, Status:Nominal, Power:98%, Location 3.7km NNE of VonBraun Base

Moving across the desolation that is Mars, though now liberally sprinkled with the Greens and Browns the Avenger traveled. It had been sent out to target a Mortar bunker that had been attacking the base at VonBraun one of the attacks that seemed to start when the Diamond lasers had downed a missile that had been launched at VonBraun.
The Avenger now crept under its Chameleon Paint after the Incident with what appeared to be Mutant Rabbits with Steel teeth, They where now carcasses to be returned to the labs at VonBraun and as such where stored in a compartment of the Avenger.
Across a rile came two black armed robots and the Avenger entered combat mode and powered its weapons.

Target:Two Armed Automatic Combatants, Detection Possibility: 23%, Threat Matrix:14.1%, Mission Authorisation:Terminate

Before the Robots could even see the point of fire the Avenger activated its Railgun and both Robots where instantly incapacitated. The Avenger then loped in its speedy run away from the incident. Keeping down low in the rilles and never breaking the skyline the Avenger quickly made good ground. Uploading from memory of a Raptor 2 overflight it decided which way to travel. Crossing a boulder field the Avenger discovered an encampment of humans.

Target:14 Armed combatants, Detection possibility:3%, Threat Matrix:2.1%, Mission Authorisation:Evasion

Engaging Stealth mode the Avenger passed the Humans who seemed to be more engrossed in cleaning there primitive shotguns and silver cutlery. They never knew how close to fate they had come but the Avenger was designed to reduce "collateral" damage as much as possible. It closed with the target when it encountered an active sensor net.

Mission Priority:Engage,

The Avenger went to maximum speed and with the fire coming from strong points all across the front that the BioRobot had to cross it engaged its Jump Jets surprising the Yu Knights whose base this was. Activating its weapons the Avenger Used the Diamond laser set in its right fore finger to target individual Yu Knights and the Rail gun to take out the Hard points. Getting close to the Bunker the Avenger launched 2 Smart missiles to destroy the Target. With mission accomplished the Avenger turned to evasion mode leaving one more bunker on Mars.
It carried on away from VonBraun to confuse the enemy Yu Knights and traveled for 12 hours until the evasion programme was assured of success. On the Horizon a well repaired structure appeared. Activating telescopic mode the Avenger noted writing above the airlock enterance...The TempleBar, closer to the structure the Cyborg approached and through inbuilt vibration and motion detectors the Avenger noted and filed that there where many raised voices and loud music. A quick link in to the structures computer allowed the Avenger to enter the Airlock.
As the Air cycled, The Bar, conversation stilled, as the patrons, shocked at the appearance of the Avenger stepped back.

Target:32 Assorted Humans, Power:41%, Activating Speech Mode

You will not believe the Day I have been having, Do you have Beer and I dont suppose salted peanuts?

What happens is people get sloppy or are too lazy to pass on information like this which is critical. But what also has to be mentioned is that a prisoner in a cell has a lot of time to think about places to hide things or to make something and a guard may only have a few minutes at best to check that person.

I can honestly say that I have found things hidden that would very much surprise the general public. Frankly it is mostly drugs they try to hide but sometimes weapons or the new favourite Mobile phones. I could give examples galore.

The Dot got larger and larger until with a blast of VTOL Jets the Raptor UAV slowed to hover over the newly rebuilt Von Braun base. Some joker probably Meadows a die hard trek fan had painted the underside of the unarmed UAV with a bird of prey. As it landed, Damage could be seen to the wings and frame of the Biobot Raptor.

Science Chiefs Notes, 17th April, 2103.

Colonel Barkley believes we have landed in a Hornets nest and frankly I can only but agree. With Meadows basically working day and night we have managed to get the base up and running. And we have dug in for any siege we may get ourselves into. We are being watched but by whom we dont know. Two of our survey robots went up the valley and where destroyed by a sniper, so we know they are hostile. We have turned the Raptors which where atmospheric research into our eyes and ears and they tell us that there appear to be large armies moving around. We are safe here with the Diamond lasers able to destroy instantly anything that comes over the Horizon, but we are failing in our mission of research into Mars as long as we are stuck here.

To give ourselves a chance it has been decided by the scientific community at Colonels Barkleys request to develop a new set of Bio Robots to give us a chance, amazing what fear does to peoples principles. Bio Robots take the advantages that robots have and add the advantages that biology has, Real Frankenstien monsters as Dr Fields calls them. Still we have taken to arm the Raptors and develop more effective fighting Cyber units.

                                             Dr Gryphon

Luckily we are finding that we can access stems cells reasonably easily just by having access to the birth cord after a child is born. But as much as people are creating clones of animals they have yet to officially create a human clone. (some strange religous groups claims to the side).

But with genetics we are at the beginning of the path and the possibilities are pretty endless. Still until someone creates a fully functional artificial womb there will be no hordes of clones being made. But it is not that far in the future before these are made. A Japanese scientist managed to have a deer raised from fetus to birth in such a machine though the deer did have real problems in development and later life.

But it is not just cloning that could concern us, as an example, What can be done is to sort and remove genetic defects from fertilised eggs, in fact we do this now. The morality becomes when we then use genetherapy to actually put in specific genes that interest us. Genes for strength, Intelligence, Blond hair, Blue eyes, get the idea.

Still a nuclear power plant would require constant vigilance and heavy equipment from Earth where as the power for solar can be created using lunar materials. And we can increase power capacity just by adding mirrors.

Still a nuclear power plant is a likely necessity for a first base as it will provide power until we can create a solar power system. And though we can send a "solar" power station from Earth it will be just to add to the power grid that a nuclear option could give us.

And GCN you have forgotten that in all likehood we will be going to the poles first as the high possibility of hydrogen type ice there combined with the peaks which are almost completely in sunlight provide a prime first base site. And the ESA smart probe could well provide the best site.

What could be worse is that we have different species of Humans just on this planet with people who can afford it buying certain genetic improvements to there prodginy. Using science fiction as an example look at Gattica a film where you had to be "upgraded" just to get a job. It makes sense when an employer knows he can get an employee who will be ill a lot less and is of higher intelligence. What becomes a problem is if you can also input into the genome personality too.

We are very close to the former and have since the genetic code of humans was fully explored found certain gene compounds that give advantages to the host. An example is if you have seen how many africans have Aids, a tragedy being played out on National television and how quick it seems to spread amongst the popualtion. Apart from the improved education and information given to westerners why has it not done as much damage and spread as fast amongst western population bases. Well there is a genetic reason. It is that a good 10% of the western population are very very resistant to the HIV virus and in certain subgroups like scandinavians this increases to 20%+. There is a gene called CCR5-delta 32 a mutation that when the Black death scoured across the world killed of so many people that this gene increased in frquency in the population. It works by stopping HIV from entering an infected persons cells so killing the HIV strain off. African people do not have as much of this gene as they never had as much contact with the Black death.

We have also found a gene that seems to influence mood and understanding of others emotions. It is commen in sociopaths and is extremely commen in soldiers who make the best snipers and soldiers.

Still it really will come down to where we allow it to go. And that is something I believe we will see as we will allow people to create new and "improved" humans. And if a person can be created that has big advantages over another in an enviroment then it is likely that that specific "improved" human will become the most common and Mars is an example of such a place this could happen.