Young Writers Society

That was where I would have also gone with the alien idea. Actually, I read an article about a boy (an eleven year old russian, I think he's 17 now) who believed he could remember his past life where he was a martian. Anyway, he said that there were still martians, only they were hiding from us underneath the surface of mars... even if it isn't true, the whole article is very stimulating to the imagination... if anyone is interested in reading ... http://projectcamelot.org/indigo_boy_from_mars.html

Maybe the the first MarsOne team were digging for water, and instead stumbled upon an underground city?

I love the idea of an underground city, it would give our characters the opportunity to explore the planet beyond their base.

Question, do our characters wear spacesuits (picturing astronauts) when venturing out onto the planet or do we have some sort of advanced suit that would allow them to move around more freely.

I imagined something like this:


Opposed to:

I like the first idea more! In reality, MarsOne is going to use older suits, but the top option just looks so much cooler

In training, the non-English speakers get language lessons which I think could be hilarious if anyone wants to play a proud Frenchman

I don't see how that would be hilarious.

Also, I understand it would be easy and safe to go with ideas that have already kind of been messed around with, like an underground society on Mars, but I wonder if we can't come up with something more exciting?
For example, some kind of unexpected interaction with equipment they brought to Mars causes a destructive storm that wipes out their equipment while the team huddle in one of the holes they were digging for water. And even though they were trained to go to Mars for life and start the colony, they suddenly find themselves completely isolated and have to build all the way from the bottom to the top to ever have any hope of getting back home.

Which is also fantastically exciting, because it's something real that might have actually happened -- imagine we sent a team to space and it went badly so the team kept it quiet, but they happen to still be living up there and building the successful colony with the hope of someday sending their future back to Earth, back home. haha. o_o;

Anyways, the second team would come up and have to deal with the fact that the same equipment they brought would evoke another storm and they'd be just as stranded. ?!?

Hi there @Hannah! Thanks for commenting
Sorry if I offended/irritated anyone by saying someone with a different languge would be funny! I was thinking of the sort of communication errors that could occur in the spaceflight environment and how it could impact the psychology of the group. I think in such a high-stress situation a little comic relief is in order!

I really appreciate the post and I agree entirely with your ideas! So, anyone up for Hannah's storm idea? I love it!

Also, I'm sorry to say after I thought about that story so much, but I don't think I'll be actually participating as a character. I loved thinking about the plot, and I wanted to try out a storybook, since I haven't ever done one before, but I don't think I'll have the energy to be consistent.

But you're still free to roll with the storm idea.

You should have faith in yourself! If you change your mind and feel like giving it a shot, let me know!

But thanks for the idea and all

I like the idea

And how would you explain it scientifically? For the equipment to cause something disastrous as a storm, it'd have to have aggressive material prone to radioactive meltdown and drastic chemical change upon touching the molecules of Mars' atmosphere / ground. I don't think first team would be sent with such a hazardous equipment.

Perhaps a big wind storm came before the first team got their equipment entirely set up? Then the equipment would get damaged but they would still probably be able to survive off the wreckage.

Unlikely, wind storms on Mars can be monitored from the orbit, first team wouldn't settle down without enough approx. time to set equipment up.

I feel like there will be more of alike ideas. People, for something as costly as an expedition to Mars with the plan to set up a human settlement wouldn't be done without proper preparations, beforehand very thorough examination of Mars atmosphere and ground, special space structures (at least one!) in the Mars' orbit meant for monitoring anything going on Mars, very careful calculations on where the first team should land, dozens of times checked every factor, and only then would the first team land with enough time to set up their equipment and get ready for Mars' wind storms. You want a fascinating plot idea? Get all the monitoring equipment to malfunction and the many times calculated situation on Mars to change, that would take a work of somebody/something sapient, or(!) a drastic unseen change from Mars' core (from core to underground close to surface).

thewritersdream has opted out, so I took the available spot on first team (partially because I cannot resist the temptation of going to Mars ) and there is just one spot left overall. If any of you want a second character, you are welcome, else we'll leave the spot open.

Of course, @Shinda! MarsOne sends out rovers years before the team get there! *face-palm* There is a rough timeline on their website that says so.
How about a piece of one of Mars' moons splinters off, unforeseen, and crashes into Mars, the shockwave wrecking the delicate monitoring equipment?

Haha, I was thinking something unforseen, like an essential shift in a magnetic field that was previously calculated for, but when thrown off by something strange that shifts just after the team arrives, something they can't identify until after the second teams' arrived?

I guess they wouldn't be stuck without communications if it were a one time, thing, though. I wasn't thinking about rovers and stuff. I feel like the public would pressure the company to send rovers to check on the colonists' status, so maybe something natural and singly-occurring couldn't cause the isolation I was imagining.

At this point, the closest thing to a wide enough disaster would be a meteor hit. They are countless in the galaxy and in our solar system there are thousands and thousands, we do not have any proper equipment to track all their movements, especially when some of them hit each other and change the direction. Also remember, that the speed of meteors ranges from 25,000 miles per hour to 160,000 miles per hour. Big enough meteorite, at that speed, would knock out the whole monitoring equipment in the orbit and make a really massive disaster on Mars itself.