Adrian Hayer

**Adrian Michael Hayer** (June 3, 1995 - October 31, 2144) was an American explorer, businessman, and political leader who was instrumental in the founding of the Interplanetary Trade Commission. He engineered the hostile takeover of the Mars Corporation and the political accommodation with the US government on Earth to maintain colonial unity and autonomy. He would go onto serve as the first Chairman of the ITC, serving from 2086 to 2095.

Hayer was born in Missoula, Montana; his father was a logging supervisor of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and his mother was an administrative assistant of Blackfoot and German ancestry. After moving to California, he joined a "small-sat" startup in San Jose where he would work until June 2023 before joining Lunar Energy Ltd. and earning his astronaut's certification. During the White Tide Hayer was involved in the fighting in the San Jose police riots, after the Bay Area riots were suppressed, Hayer volunteered for one of the last launches of 2029 to aid in maintaining Earth's satellite network from the Moon. After the end of the conflict, Hayer left for Mars aboard LE's first mission, and would remain there for the next 5 years. In 2038, Hayer left Mars and LE, cashing out most of his sizable shares in the company. Rather than return to Earth, Hayer founded Galileo Development with several other former LE employees and left for the Jovian system where Hayer would remain before founding the ITC.

After the creation of the ITC, Hayer became a key figure in system politics and was elected as the first Chairman of the Commission. He supported the colonies full admission into the Union and after his term was up in 2095 became a Resident Commissioner to the US Congress to lobby on the colonies' behalf. However, Hayer grew disaffected over Washington's refusal to take colonial integration seriously, and left politics after the completion of his terms in 2109. Hayer died shortly after the end of the Third Mexican War and the Colonies were admitted into the Union in 2144.

Hayer' name has been honored in numerous ways. He is the namesake of the city of Hayer, Ganymede's most populous city and the second most populous city in the Jovian system. Other things named for Adrian Hayer include a memorial museum, the USSS Adrian Hayer Space Force Vessel, Fort Adrian Hayer, an ocean-life preserve on Europa, Adrian Hayer University on Callisto, a prominent monument outside of Bradbury's Great Dome, and major streets across the Jovian system and Mars.

## Early Life

Hayer would work in Silicon valley until June 2023 when it was acquired by Orbital Sciences. Hayer left Silicon Valley for Texas to join a new startup, Lunar Energy Ltd. as a spaceflight technician, and eventually earned his astronaut's certification. On July 4, 2025, Hayer left Earth on his first mission to the Moon aboard an Ares-class lander. Over the next two years Hayer would ferry cargo and crew to and from the Lunar surface, Earth and the various asteroids LE often traded employees with.

## Galileo Development

In his 4 years working for Lunar Energy Ltd. Hayer had risen to claim ownership of a sizable portion of the company's stock and had become a respected astronaut within the company. In his autobiography, Hayer revealed that he knew that despite all his work for LE, he'd never receive more than a small personal track of land on Mars, and believed his prospects would be better in the Outer Planets. While away at Mars, Hayer and several other well vested friends approached LE's CEO about leaving to form their own corporation that, rather than compete with LE, would seek new prospects in the outer planets. LE's CEO at the time supported Hayer and offered that LE build the ship at cost at the Tycho shipyards in exchange for early equity in the company. Hayer and others would later discover that LE were using the construction of the Galileo II as a cover to expand Tycho's shipyards and move materials and personnel to eventually build the Orbital Command Stations.

Hayer formed Galileo Development Corporation in the spring of 2027 to much fanfair and one of the largest valuations before the Market Crash of 2027, at 12.4 Billion-USD before the Galileo II was even launched. After the crash Hayer would later write of his suspicion towards all of the support he was continuing to receive despite the market troubles on Earth, and that he wasn't surprised when the cover was revealed. Regardless, the Galileo II launched for the Jovian system in the winter of 2030, and reached orbit around Callisto in early 2032. Hayer's was one of the first companies to adopt the Quantum Economic Model for intra-company activities, primarily to maintain his employees after the company valuation had fallen to just the value of its assets under the Price Administration's reforms.

Hayer would spend the next two decades in the Jovian system trying to build GDC into a major player in the Solar system economy. In the early years GDC struggled to find a reliable source of income beyond tourists and scientific station leases to NASA. Jovian hydrogen wasn't worth much to the rest of the solar system as ships from Earth and Mars were too small to need much beyond what was harvested in the asteroids, and Titan Corp.'s huge tankers moved in lazy arcs that always returned to the limitless sources of methane around Titan. Hayer eventually found a partner in the Venus Group and began exporting Hydrogen down system to aid in terraforming. But Hayer's most lucrative deal came from Beltway Aerospace, the produces of the first O'Neil ships; Hayer struck a deal whereby Beltway would have exclusive rights to build ships in the Jovian system and GDC would provide their sources of fuel.

## Founding ITC

In the 2070s the unemployment crisis on Earth was driving support for a radical reversal in US immigration policy, with many Presidential candidates going so far as to suggest closing the country off to immigrants all together. This would have been disastrous to the Mars Corporation, who's entire long-term existence was predicated on profits generated from incoming colonists. At the time, MarsCorp was generating record low profits as Martian companies and individuals continued to press for an end of their "profit-sharing," policies by going on Business Strikes that sold company apparatuses to temporary trusts in the Jovian system outside of MarsCorps control. In 2078, the New Richmond Delegation even went so far as to stage a massive sit in around the base of the New Richmond Elevator, grinding the Martian economy to a halt. On Earth this action, in concert with speculator concerns about the political climate sent MarsCorp stocks plummeting. The crash of the space economy reverberated across the system and to Earth, indirectly causing the Collapse of 2079, and dooming the Fadel Administration's chances in the election of 2080.

As then CEO of Galileo Development, Adrian Hayer approached the leaders of the other great conglomerates of the outer colonies to seize the opportunity that was now presenting itself to the colonies. Its important to note that the outer colonies seldom benefited from US immigration policies, but Hayer believed that the present political climate presented an opportunity to the colonies that had never previously been available. At a meeting between the heads of Galileo Development, Trident Industries, Titan Corp, and the Venusian Working Group a plan was orchestrated to take control of the Mars Corporation and separate the colonial economy from dependence on Earth. The heads of these companies, Adrian Hayer, Lionel Halvidar, Arya Kanzaki, and Liza Maheswaran respectively, all agreed to organize massive hostile takeover of MarsCorp, with their interests controlling 35%, if Lunar Energy Ltd, a high ranking member company of MarsCorp, would agree to the plan. LE was open to the idea ONLY if the government on Earth would not close immigration to the colonies, thus guaranteeing their investments in Mars. Hayer and Halvidar brokered a deal with the incoming administration which assured that Mars would be open for colonization regardless of the government's policies on Earth, and that Helium-3 from Neptune and Uranus would reach Earth at a reasonable price. MarsCorp's stocks were already plummeting with the crisis on Earth and the Mars Revolution's protests against the regime. With a controlling interest established over MarsCorp, the company was dissolved and the Interplanetary Trade Commission was formed to assure that the economy of the colonies would become a truly post-scarcity regime. The heads of the founding companies of this coup formed the first executive council of the ITC, and Hayer became the first Commissioner. In 2081, the new Lachman Administration signed an immigration reform bill that included the historic Rosiland Amendment, which exempted the colonies from any limits on immigration.

## Chairmanship of the ITC (2086-2095)

At the age of 91, Hayer was appointed by the President as the first Chairman of the ITC, taking a small appointment ceremony in Washington DC before returning to Bradbury for the appointment celebrations. Hayer was aware that everything he did set a the de-facto leader of the Colonies, and he established many precedents for the chairmanship. These included annual addresses to the ITC Council chambers, and the consolidation of the various colonial militias under the Planetary Guard.