First Landing

For a moment it seemed as if the boy didn't get it, then suddenly there was a light in his eye. "I've got a rover!" he blurted. "I know all the country around here. I could take you for a drive right now."

"That would be very nice," Rachel said.

Brendan gestured for the young doctor to follow and headed for the door. But Gwen stopped him with a restraining hand on his shoulder. "Now wait a minute, son, lunch is almost ready, and there's work..."

"Oh come on, Mom," Brendan pleaded.

McGee saw the stricken expression on his son's face and was reminded of the desperate and joyful hopes of his own youth. "Let him go, Gwen."

She nodded, as if understanding, and let go. In a flash, Brendan was across the galley. Taking Rachel's hand, he was out the door.

Gwen called out after him, "Check the oil, transmission, and battery fluids if you're pla

Already downstairs, Brendan shouted his reply. "I will."

An instant later, the two young people were ru

As they ran, Brendan held Rachel's hand in one of his, while using the other to point things out and make animated gestures. Rachel's eyes were wide.

"And this is my rover," Brendan explained, as they entered an inflatable garage. "It's the original one that landed with the Beagle. Everybody says it's too old for use, but I keep it in shape."

Rachel walked over and touched the machine. "You mean this is the very same vehicle that Mother used when she made her discovery?"

"Yep. And it's also the rover that..." Brendan leaned over and whispered in her ear, provoking a snicker from the girl.

Rachel regarded him coyly. "But if this rover is so old, how do we know we won't get stuck?"

"Yes, that would be awful, wouldn't it?" Brendan deadpa

Rachel gave him a playful shove. "Don't you even think of it, you... you, Martian!"

"Don't worry," Brendan reassured her. "Come on, let's go!"

They hopped into the rover, and Brendan cycled the airlock door and steered their way outside. As he drove, the young man kept talking animatedly with his hands, while Rachel looked at him, her smile alternating between interest and skepticism.

As they rode out, Rachel got a good view of the old Snoopy on the side of the Beagle, and then the emblems and flags on the dozens of other habs co

Then they were out of the base area and onto the planitia, whose endless expanse was begi

McGee and Gwen stood by the window of the Beagle, watching the two drive joyfully across the plain. He squeezed her hand, and she leaned her head on his shoulder. From the depths of his memory came a snatch of a song:

One spark of Reason thy life shall start.

One spark of mind shall make alive thee.

McGee flashed with feeling as he remembered the lyric. The hope had become real. Life, full of play and full of wonder, had come to Mars... and Mars was coming to life.

TECHNICAL APPENDIX:

THE MARS DIRECT PLAN

F IRST L ANDING PRESENTS a humans-to-Mars expedition not as a venture for the far future, but as a mission for our generation. This is entirely realistic. As I explained in detail in my books Entering Space and The Case for Mars, the United States has in hand, today, all the technologies required for undertaking an aggressive, continuing program of human Mars exploration, with the first piloted mission reaching the Red Planet Mars within a decade. We do not need to build giant spaceships embodying futuristic technologies in order to go to Mars. We can reach the Red Planet with relatively small spacecraft launched directly to Mars by boosters embodying the same technology that carried astronauts to the Moon more than thirty years ago. The key to success comes from following a "travel light and live off the land" strategy similar to that which has well-served terrestrial explorers for centuries. The plan to approach the Red Planet in this way is called Mars Direct. This is the plan used by the crew of the Beagle in the present novel.

Here's how the Mars Direct Plan works: At an early launch opportunity—for example, 2009—a single heavy lift booster with a capability equal to that of the Saturn V used during the Apollo program is launched off Cape Canaveral and uses its upper stage to throw a forty-to

The Mars Direct mission sequence. The sequence begins with the launch of an unma