Mars

Terraformed Mars. Mars is now a "Garden World".

**Location:** Milky Way Galaxy/Local Cavity/Solar System

**World Category:** Garden World (Terraformed), Desolate World (Former)

**Mars** is the fourth planet from Sol and the third-largest terrestrial planet in the Solar System after Earth and Venus, being only larger than Mercury. In English, Mars carries the name of the Roman god of war and was formerly referred to as the "**Red Planet**" due to its former reddish look, But after its successful Terraformation, some even call it "Earth 2.0". Mars is a terrestrial planet with a completely Terraformed atmosphere, with surface features reminiscent of the impact craters of the Moon and the valleys, deserts and polar ice caps of Earth and on top of all, that Humans discovered that life have existed beyond Earth.

Mars was the capital of Mavors Imperium and the current seat of the Autonomous Government of Mars.

## Planetary Properties

Mars is approximately half the radius of Earth and is less dense, having about 15% of Earth's volume and 11% of Earth's mass, resulting in about 38% of Earth's surface gravity.

### Geology

Mars is a terrestrial planet that consists of minerals containing silicon and oxygen, metals, and other elements that typically make up rock. Much of the surface used to be deeply covered by finely grained iron oxide dust, but terraformation of the planet removed most of it and only some remnants of these Iron Oxides remains.

### Atmosphere

Mars lost its magnetosphere 4 billion years ago, because of numerous asteroid strikes, so the Solar wind used to interacts directly with the Martian ionosphere, lowering the atmospheric density by stripping away atoms from the outer layer. Both former Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Express had detected ionized atmospheric particles trailing off into space behind Mars, and this atmospheric loss was studied by the MAVEN orbiter. Mars used to have a light ionized atmosphere before 2150 with a pressure of only 0.006 atm and consisting mostly Carbon Dioxide, but after a large scale terraformation project conducted by the Mavors Imperium and later EUSI, Martian atmospheric pressure has increased by a considerable amount to 0.832 atm and Carbon Dioxide decreased from 96% of atmosphere composition to less than 0.1% while Oxygen has increased to 25.0.1%. temperature also raised from -138 °C to -12 °C.

### Natural Satellites

* *Main Article: **Phobos, Deimos***

Mars has two relatively small natural moons, Phobos (11,2 km (7 mi) in radius) and Deimos (6.2 km(7.5 mi) in radius), which orbit close to the planet. Asteroid capture is a long-favored theory, but their origin remains uncertain. Both satellites were discovered in 1877 by Asaph Hall; they are named after the characters Phobos and Deimos, who, in Greek mythology, accompanied their father Ares, god of war, into battle. Mars was the Roman counterpart of Ares. In modern Greek, the planet retains its ancient name *Ares.* Both of these moons have lumps of Iron, Titanium and other valuable metals which makes their mining easy and cost effective. There is also a shipyard in synchronous rotation with Phobos.

## Discovery of Life

* *Main Article: **Life on Mars***

Life on Mars began more than 4 billion years ago, 500 million years earlier than Earth. During this genesis of life, Mars was under an asteroid invasion that destroyed Mars's magnetosphere. In the next 1 billion year, Mars slowly lost its atmosphere, causing liquid surface waters to freeze. The last remnants of water-based microbial life ceased to exist around 2.99 billion years ago when the last bodies of liquid water turned into ice.

Humanity discovered fossils of these microorganisms in 2029, when samples gathered by the Perseverance rover where brought back to Earth. This event answered an important question, that Humanity may not be alone in the universe after all.

## Colonization of Mars

### Early History

The dream to colonize Mars began way back in 20th century during the first space age. With the development of new powerful rockets and backing of Earth's private companies this dream began to take shape in 2020s and beyond. First humans arrived on Mars in 2032 and established a permanent science colony which expanded into a dome city in just several decades. It was obvious then that a new era has began for Humanity.

### The Colonial Rush of Early 22nd Century

During the the three final decades of 21st century, a heavy space race was ongoing between US and China. China, trying to get ahead of mining and colonization of outer space, put heavy investment on colonizing Titan. This eventually ended in China's economical depression of late 21st and early 22nd century and finally the collapse of the entire economy of Earth, all while Mars was still fairly untouched by the problems on Earth. This put Mars in the center of desperate people efforts to find a better future. More than 50 million people immigrated to Mars in only 2 decades from 2100 to 2120, many called this era the largest colonial rush of the entire Human history.

### The Colonial War and Mavors Imperium

* *Main Article: **Mavors Imperium***

The colonial rush had put a lot of economical pressure on Martian economy during 2120s, which finally ended in a Martian economical depression as well. This eventually led to massive riots and finally a civil war on Mars between the paramilitary group known as the Colonial Defense Alliance and Earth and the establishment of an independent state on Mars named Mavors Imperium. Mars saw major developments and massive terraformation during the reign of the Imperium and its population increased ten fold in less than 100 years. Imperium finally surrendered to Earth during the Solar System Interplanetary War of early 23rd century.

### Autonomous Government of Mars

* *Main Article: **Autonomous Government of Mars***

Autonomous Government of Mars was created by EUSI after the fall of the Imperium to better administrate the planet and also giving more independent to Mars to prevent another Imperium rising up. Today, Autonomous Government of Mars rules over 3 billion people and is a member of the Federation of the Solar System Planets.

### Future

Mars is the second most populous planet of Humanity after Earth and has become a major economical power, having a GDP of 38 trillion USD, third highest among Humanity planets. Authorities of Mars predict constant development of Mars in the next several decades.

## Terraformation of Mars

Terraformation of Mars began in 2160 by Mavors Imperium to allow better development of Mars, making it more hospitable to life. The heaviest investment ever put on a planet in Humanity history as of yet were put into Mars. Although the terraformation was still ongoing when the Imperium surrendered, EUSI continued the project. Terraformation of Mars was completed in 2236. Today, anybody standing on the surface of Mars can barely know what planet he or she is standing on if the of gravity both planets were the same. Mars today is covered by jungles, plains and oceans, and many of the animals of Earth can be seen in the man-made Martian wilderness as well.

## See Also

* **Life on Mars**
* **New Ark**
* **New Babylon**