Rob Neutron, wakes up groggy after a night of restless sleep. His throat is parched and he gets up to get a glass of water. He takes a sip, just a sip. Water is an expensive resource, here on Mars, and is used sparingly. He turns on the light in his underground bedroom and sees through a monitor to the outside world. Mars is yet again covered in one of its colossal dust storms.” What a dreary day”, he comments dryly. He sets out through his hallway and reaches his living room where his robot housekeeper greets him with the daily news. “The Martian Dust storm will last till 0900 hours” “Also the annual flight to Earth for water has failed to reach Mars as it burned up on descent” Rob spun around, disbelievingly. He felt his head throbbing and his stomach lurching. His thoughts spiralled to mass death and dehydration. Without the annual supply of water life on Mars will surely perish.
Rob was so lost in his misery that he didn’t hear the phone ringing. He picked it up, after the tenth ring, only to hear his boss, Higgs Boson yelling at him, “Robert Neutron, it is an EMERGENCY, I NEED YOU IN MY OFFICE ASAP! Oh, and bring the bonehead Maximus too.” “Yes Sir,” Rob mumbled, but all he heard was the dial tone. Rob quickly got dressed and walked out of his house. On the way, he called Maximus Quark, his friend and junior and told him about his instructions. The duo walked to their office, Survival On Mars. Rob was the head of the research team which found new ways to survive on Mars. On entering his boss’s cabin, he found him pacing nervously.”Ah, you’re here! Listen carefully, the president has instructed us to find a source of water on mars that can support our population for a year. Any ideas?” All Rob could muster was, “Ummmm, no?” Higgs was impatient, he put Rob in charge of finding a source and gave him a deadline of 2 weeks to find and extract water from a source.
Later that evening, Rob assigns Max to assemble a team. Max then came up with a team of engineers, construction workers and various scientists. In Rob’s house, a team of 6 directors(including Max) was formed. Over the night they talked about various places they could get water or make it. They thought about producing water through electrolysis, making another rocket to take them to Earth, or dig deeper in the futile search of water underneath the martian crust. Finally, they had to accept a solution they were previously avoiding- extracting water ice from the polar ice caps. This solution was perilous since the cap was covered by a thick layer of Carbon-Dioxide, and Martian weather on the surface was unpredictable, with freezing temperatures and no atmosphere. The next morning Rob presented his idea to Higgs Boson. Higgs Boson unwillingly agreed to the idea and funded a large sum for the execution of the plan.
Robert, Max and their team set out north to the larger Polar Ice Cap, and embarked on a perilous journey to the surface. When they reached there, their first job was to drill a hole to the surface, this also allowed them to jump back underground if the weather worsens or if they need a refill of Oxygen for their suits. The second job was to find a way to destroy the layer of Carbon-Dioxide and release it safely into the atmosphere. They managed to do this by slow-heating the ice cap’s surface using kilometres of thermal lights which helped melt the Carbon Dioxide slowly so that it was safe. Finally to extract the water-ice Rob and the team used ice picks and worked day and night to loosen up the ice so that it could be excavated later on. The ice finally was deposited underground, into a water filtering system which heated it to boiling point and mineralised it. To make sure water kept flowing into the system, canals were dug and thermal lamps kept heating the water to melt it into the canals.
Rob and his team were awarded multiple prizes for their resourcefulness and hard work. Rob finally got the raise from Higgs he was looking for. Life on Mars, however difficult, would flourish another year and, hopefully by then a rocket would be made to get water from Earth. Sitting at home, after a job well done, Rob remembers a story his grandfather told him when he lived in a place called Ohio, on Earth. Rob only hoped that humans don't trash Mars like they did on Earth which forced them to live underground in an unpleasant life.
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