As It Is On Mars, 3 Volume Set

The story begins in February 2038, the year of an attractive window for a manned mission to Mars.The first manned missions have landed--a large American/European NASA mission, and a small Japanese mission. NASA's mission has landed in Kasei Valley, the largest outflow valley on Mars. The Japanese have landed in Ares Valley, 1700 miles to the east. Both missions have gone wrong, ultimately due to a shortage of funds and competition for prestige.The small two-man Japanese mission arrived first, in September 2037. Although the short-term mission has been a success, the long-term mission is crippled by the loss of a shuttle carrying its farm building. As well, one of the two men has died of a stroke. The other, Dr. Ichiro Sato, who is not only a scientist, but a Zen master, is now alone, and faced with starvation in a few weeks, and no chance of a rescue.The large thirteen-member NASA mission landed later, in December 2037. There were originally fourteen, but one was lost on the journey. Except for this, the mission is a success initially. The mission involves seven landing craft, one of which is yet to arrive.On the day the story opens, on the morning of February 02, 2038, without warning, a catastrophe strikes the NASA mission. The base is nearly obliterated, and eleven astronauts at the site are killed instantly.That same morning, two mission members, an American engineer, Dr. John Erway, and a Frenchwoman, Dr. Denise Lavoisier, medical doctor and DNA expert, are away on a rover expedition. Chapter One relates the shock and horror these two experience when they return late in the afternoon. Later that evening, Mission Control in Houston finally finds out what happened.A hearing on the disaster takes place in Washington next day, related in Chapter Two. It turns out that the stranded pair have food for only two weeks. The mission's seventh lander is due to arrive in ten days, however, carrying enough food to keep the pair alive for three years.There is shock in government when the NASA chief reveals that rescuing the two survivors would cost about as much as the original mission. A government conspiracy is hatched, without NASA's knowledge, and the CIA sabotages the seventh lander's antenna. NASA loses control of the spacecraft and can't send it commands to prevent it from burning up in the Martian atmosphere.There is now no hope for the stranded pair. They break off contact with Earth, as has Dr. Sato before them, and prepare to die in private. However, John Erway, an expert in assessing risk, has figured out the CIA plot, so that the two do realize they are being murdered, to conserve funds for social programs.They are not prepared to endure a death of slow starvation though, and prefer an easier way. John goes first. He takes sleeping pills, and gets in his grave, intending to die in his sleep when the air in his suit runs out. As Denise sits nearby in the dark, waiting for him to die, sobbing, and cursing those responsible, an event takes place that nobody could have expected, except perhaps an obscure engineer in India.This surprising event triggers the story in the book, converting the initial tragic drama to a great tale of heroic deeds, and a true Martian saga.The story in this Revised Second Edition is the same as in the First Edition of "As It Is On Mars". The major difference lies in the way the story is narrated in the beginning chapters.In the First Edition, Chapter One gives an account of a Washington Congressional Hearing on the disaster, as the NASA chief relates second hand what has happened to the two survivors in the immediate aftermath of the explosion. Only in a later chapter does the narrative finally return to Mars, to continue first hand with the saga of the two survivors. In contrast, in the Revised Second Edition, there is a completely new Chapter One that relates events on Mars directly, as they happen, at both the time of the explosion at the landing site and in the immediate aftermath. We get to meet two of the main characters of the novel in the first page of the new fast-paced Chapter One. We also get to experience first hand the emotional trauma these two go through as they cope with the shock of the disaster and try to find a way to get through to Mission Control with the awful news.The new Chapter One is followed by a new, short Chapter Two that covers only a vital part of the Congressional Hearing--the part that reveals the political maneuvering that led to the current predicaments for both the NASA and Japanese missions.From then on, the remaining fourteen chapters are the same in both editions, except for correction of a few minor errors in the First Edition, occasional improvement in narration, and very occasionally, updating of scientific facts about Mars in the clearer light of the latest NASA and ESA Mars missions.The Revised Edition also has four maps, compared to one map in the First Edition. The Revised Edition retains an Appendix description of the simplest possible Martian calendar used in the First Edition of "As It Is On Mars", as well as in the following novels of the series: "Give Us This Mars" and "Glory Be To Mars".