Is There Life On Mars? (part four)

Note: This is the fourth part of the story Is There Life on Mars? If you missed the beginning, maybe you should start there (just click on the link.)

 

Day 107

We’re officially halfway to Mars. By the way, I need to find a title for this diary. This could be one: Journey to Mars.

We celebrated, but the mood wasn’t as festive as it should have been. We all know how important morale is on a mission like this.

Keeping your spirits up is crucial when you’re locked up in this confined space, as far away from everything as you can imagine, and you can’t even go outside for some fresh air or a smoke. Well, I quit smoking a few months before I was selected for the mission. No smokers allowed. It’s easy to see why.

But here’s the thing. Despite all the video games, books and movies, the mini gym, the garden and the rest, the inability to communicate directly with Earth has been difficult for some people. Most of us were chosen because we didn’t have strong emotional attachments to Earth, but not having strong attachments is one thing; having no contact at all is quite another.

I’m fine, but Sally has been struggling with this lately. She’s been really frustrated about not being able to talk to her cousin, and she’s been a little cranky because of it. The irony is that they weren’t even that close before we left. They’ve gotten closer in the last three months because she’s her only family left, or at least the only one she speaks to.

Still, we’ve reached the middle of our adventure, and there was a celebration.

We’re now closer to Mars than we are to Earth.

Yay!

 

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Day 112

All is well. Noel has been able to transmit some personal messages to and from Earth. It’s not the same as talking to them directly, but it’s something. It reminds us of our great-grandparents (I think it was their generation) who would write letters to each other. They wrote them by hand on paper. It took them several days to reach their destination. How crazy was that?

Also, now that we’re getting closer, we can talk to people who are already on Mars. Most of us have friends there from training, previous missions to the Moon, and so on.

It’s good to talk to them. They’ve been through what we’re going through.

Originally, it wasn’t the plan – that we would communicate with them on a regular basis – but they are good moral support and Noel understood that. Their previous experience has been helpful, especially with the little day-to-day issues.

The only thing we have more experience with than they do is the ventilation problems. No spacecraft smells good, but I’m pretty sure none has ever smelled like ours.

So yes, the folks at Base X have been supportive and helpful. And they’re going to be our neighbors soon, so it’s a good idea to get to know them a little better beforehand.

 

******

Day 114

In the previous entry, I mentioned our ventilation problems. I think I need to go into a little more detail. For posterity.

The ventilation has been malfunctioning for some time now. As you can imagine, we can’t change the air on board; we’re stuck with the same air until Mars. So recycling and filtering are of the utmost importance. I’m stating the obvious. We have a complex ventilation system that captures and recycles the CO2 we emit. A bit like what they tried to do on Earth, except it works on our tiny scale.

If we want to get technical – since I’ve had some time to learn about it – the CO2 is combined with water and hydrogen (also from water), and there’s a chemical reaction called the “Sabatier reaction” that produces water and methane from them. The water goes into the oxygen generator system where it’s split into hydrogen and oxygen. The methane is somehow turned into fertilizer for the plants. Maybe I’ll ask Sally how that part works. She must know.

The air also goes through a series of filters that regulate temperature, humidity, CO2 levels, odors, and… about a week ago, the “stink filter” broke down, and we haven’t been able to get it working again. Luckily, the air from the “barns” is on a different filtration system, so the animals’ stench is still filtered, but ours isn’t, and well…

We’re getting used to it, but it stinks pretty much everywhere. Sweat, of course, (I told you there was a lot of it, right? Well, it got a little hotter since then) and also human waste. Why use a euphemism? Piss and shit, that’s what it is. They’re mostly recycled, too, but the smell always manages to escape, and with the stink filter broken, it’s been building up. So yeah, it stinks in here, and most of the ship smells like shit now.

The only area that has been somewhat spared is the “gardens”. And when too many people started spending too much time there at every opportunity, the botanists and farmers eventually locked us out. Too much human activity was interfering with both the growth of the plants and some of the experiments they were conducting. Fortunately, thanks to Sally, I can sneak in sometimes.

But I wonder if it isn’t worse than not being able to go at all. In the gardens, I can breathe decent air and even smell pleasant scents for a few hours, if I’m lucky. And then… it’s back to the shit.

Maybe those who are in it 24/7 get so used to it that they don’t really notice it anymore. Whereas every time Sally and I leave the gardens, the stench assaults our nostrils with unspeakable violence, to the point of nausea on a bad day.

 

 

Oh God, last week Helen vomited (she still gets space sickness sometimes) and the smell stayed in our section for three days before it was finally diluted.

I knew space didn’t smell good. Any astronaut who has spent more than a few hours in orbit or beyond will tell you that. But we thought our revolutionary ventilation system had changed that.
We were supposed to be the first people in cabins that didn’t smell. We’re not. We’re just regular astronauts in that respect.

Except we’ve been experiencing it a lot longer than anyone else.

 

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Day 121

We had babies!

Piglets, I mean, not humans. I guess the long-term contraceptives are not as effective as planned. Oops… Marcus explained that the gestation period for pigs is about 115 days. So the sows must have gotten pregnant very early in the trip. It’s possible that the contraceptive they were given before we left Earth didn’t work properly. He confirmed that the booster he gave them afterward was a different type and that it shouldn’t happen again.

Anyway, it was a good reminder for us humans to be extra careful. We have all been given somewhat similar contraceptives (well, for humans, obviously), but we are also trained for redundancy.

The pigs were not trained…

There was some debate about what to do with the piglets. Even the most hardcore animal rights activists on board understand that we can’t just keep them. Some people are not happy, but they understand. More mouths to feed and more lungs to fill with oxygen is just not an option. We had to take some “I told you so” from the vegetarians, but the consensus was that the most humane way to deal with the situation was to put the piglets to sleep in the freezers.

The vets have some “euthanasia drugs” in case any of the cows or adult pigs were badly injured, but they decided it was better to keep those drugs for just such situations, should they arise. Fabian joked that the meat would be tainted with the drugs and that he would like to eat a suckling pig on Mars. Fortunately, I was the only one who heard him.

 

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Day 123

The piglets are now safely stored in the freezer. Let’s not mention them again and let’s hope this situation doesn’t happen again. I’m afraid any future batch of piglets will have to be dealt with by a trip through the hatch.

Marcus doubled the dosage of the contraceptive.

 

******

Day 132

Same old, same old.

They warned us that the second half of the trip would be boring. I just didn’t expect it to be this boring. It’s hot. It stinks. We don’t have much to do. Those of us who don’t have experiments to run or other space stuff to do mostly play board games or use the gym.
We only get to play video games on weekends. Their use is limited during that part of the flight so as not to interfere with power generation and demand.

Weekends are fun.

We have some great Final Victory X3 tournaments. It’s as popular on board as it was on Earth when we left. Yes, it is an old game, but not many great games are made these days. Well, not many games are made anymore, period. And even fewer in space, of course.

So yeah, those who like sports spend their time in the gym, and most of us play games. The few on board with artistic sensibilities try to make art with what they have.

That is what we do.

 

Oh, and sex…

I guess I should mention that.

During orientation, we were doubly advised to be careful and to prefer masturbation or other forms of “safe sex”. There’s plenty of that, but… The shitload of contraceptives in the cargo was there for a reason, right?
And since heterosexual couples are strongly encouraged to make lots of babies once we get to Mars, we don’t want those condoms and pills to go to waste, do we?
Ava, our fertility doctor, has been quite busy and popular. Maybe that would be frowned upon in some circles on Earth, but here she provides us with everything we ask for, as long as no one gets pregnant.

Well, “us”… I’m not sure if I should include myself in that pronoun. Things with Sally are not the best right now.

But most people in relationships have fun.
Sometimes too much fun. You see, I was raised in what some on board would call a “prudish environment. They try to be polite, but I have to agree with them. I don’t judge them. I’m just not as promiscuous as they are.

And some living quarters have now openly become “orgy rooms. Not 24/7, of course, but if you venture there, be warned.

 

(to be continued)

 

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