Book Series
As they walked, Sally told them about dust storms. She used words like “polar vortex” and “baroclinic wave”, which the kids did not understand but which made sense to them as she spoke. One of Sally’s teaching tricks was to use words and phrases that the kids did not know in ways that made their meaning obvious.
Air: Generation Mars, Book One
Coming in October
(image: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)
Cas looked out through her visor. All she saw was brown, a moving flow of brown, shades of brown ranging from orange to red to pink to yellow, flowing past her in the wind. That wind was moving 50 kilometers per hour with gusts even higher. But the air was so thin that she could feel only slight tugs on her suit. In the lower right corner of her visor screen was the small map of the surface buildings with the red dot that showed where she was standing.
Air: Generation Mars, Book One
Coming in October
(image: Luis Peres)
You may very well find her notes confusing, possibly even a bit boring. This is to be expected. The details they cover are not relevant to your day-to-day life here on Earth. You can take the physics of gasses for granted and assume conditions will always be just right for the ongoing function of your body. But for young Martians growing up in an entirely synthetic environment, these details are critical. An understanding of them can, quite literally, mean the difference between life and death.
Air: Generation Mars, Book One
Coming in October
While the older children walked through the dust storm, Ori and the younger children were spending the day in the ObsDome. The name was short for “observation dome”. This was one of the newer surface buildings of the colony. It was constructed primarily of ice. Water, in any form, was an effective shield against the various types of radiation that reached the surface of Mars. With thick ice between supportive layers above and clear ice for windows all around, the ObsDome provided a safe place to view the surface around the colony. Nina often brought the younger children here when the third graders were at Surface Training.
Air: Generation Mars, Book One
Coming in October
(image: crop from Scratching the Surface, Luis Peres)
Cas stepped into the airlock with her classmates and Sally. The inner door closed behind them. She heard a distinct hissing as the air was pumped out, which faded to silence as the air pressure dropped too low to support the transfer of sound. She felt a vibration through the floor as the outer door shifted away from its seal and began to open. A puff of dust blew in through the widening crack, and she felt a thrill of anticipation.
Air: Generation Mars, Book One
Coming in October
(image: composite of images from Luis Peres)
There had been much debate among the colonists regarding when children should be allowed on the surface. Ultimately, for reasons unimportant to this story, they had settled on the age of four, in Martian-years, as the appropriate time to introduce children to the world outside. And so, Cas and the other third graders had become the first human children to walk on the surface of another planet.
Air: Generation Mars, Book One
Coming in October
(image: from Scratching the Surface, Luis Peres)
The ARCs (advance review copies) for the next Generation Mars book have arrived!
Now, in the ObsDome near the airlock, Cas felt the familiar calm that always came to her once a worrisome task got under way. She and the other third graders were squirming into their surface suits. This was a slow process. The wire mesh that provided compression would not squeeze until the suit was turned on. But, even when off, the suit fit tightly and took some effort to get into. Outside the windows of the ObsDome, she could see nothing but a dim brown.
Air: Generation Mars, Book One
Coming in October
(image: Luis Peres)
Ladies and Gentlemen, the cover of the next book in the Generation Mars series.
Air: Generation Mars, Book One
Coming in October
(images in montage: Luis Peres)
Acidalia Planitia is a broad, flat, lowland area in the northern hemisphere of Mars. As the ancient oceans of Mars receded, Acidalia Planitia held one of the last shallow seas. That water is long gone now and Acidalia is a windswept plain. On this plain, the thin wind of Mars dances and plays with the dust of the ancient sea, as it has for billions of years.
Air: Generation Mars, Book One
Coming in October
(image: Luis Peres)