Helios Aerospace

## Wordmark

**Helios Aerospace** is a multi-national aerospace company and space manufacturer headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company was founded by Dev Ayesa and his partner Richard Hilliard who initially rose to prominence through a breakthrough in nuclear fusionW.

## History

On April 16, 1987, Helios won a contract with NASA to mine Helium-3 from the Moon. The availability of clean nuclear energy led to an apparent curb in global warming.

In 1992, Helios purchased the orbital hotel Polaris to be a major component in their spacecraft *Phoenix*, with which it would challenge the United States and the Soviet Union, to see who will land first on Mars. The Polaris shuttles were also purchased to be used in the construction of said craft.

In 1994, the *Phoenix* launched for its Mars mission within 2 weeks of the American *Sojourner 1* and the Soviet *Mars-94*. From this, a three-way race for Mars was established. Ultimately, *Phoenix* successfully landed crew on Mars and deployed the Helios Mars base, but failed to be the first manned mission to reach Mars. After landing, the Helios mission deployed their 'Big Ass Drill' in the hope of discovering water beneath the surface of Mars. However, this led to the Gagarin Ridge drilling disaster due to the negligence of one member of the crew, which subsequently destroyed much of the Helios base, and disabled the MSAM vehicle used to ascend and descend between the *Phoenix* in orbit.

After the disaster, the Helios crew were forced to live in NASA's Happy Valley base along with the Soviet crew, who had been sharing with NASA after the destruction of the Mars-94 spacecraft. Due to the subsequent destruction of Sojourner-1, MSAM was left as the sole method of reaching orbit, and Phoenix as the sole vehicle capable of returning to Earth. As such, several months were spent recovering, repairing, and refuelling the MSAM. However, the plans to return home were interrupted when NASA astronaut Kelly Baldwin became pregnant, thereby requiring the MSAM to launch sooner in order to avoid giving birth in the low gravity Martian environment. After this mission, the MSAM was left inoperable, leaving the three crews in Happy Valley until the *Sojourner-2* Mission retrieved them.

Following the landings on Mars, Helios was given a contract making it the sole provider of hardware for Happy Valley, which included construction of the *Unity* transport vehicle. Additionally, the *Phoenix* Spacecraft, which had not left Martian orbit, was converted into a space station from which various missions and transfers could occur.

In late 2003, Dev Ayesa partnered with Kelly Baldwin and Aleida Rosales for a hostile takeover of the company, which succeeded after convincing some of the shareholders.

## Infrastructure

### Spacecraft

* Polaris Shuttle (purchased from Polaris Space Tours)
* *Phoenix* (spacecraft, former)
* Mars Surface Access Module (MSAM)
* *Unity*
* Hopper

### Surface outposts

* Lunar helium-3 refinery
* Helios Mars base (destroyed)

#### Proposed Infastructure

* *Calypso*
* *Phoenix T-1* space station
* Expanded Helios colony

## Galleries

Dev Ayesa & Richard Hillard: Nuclear fusion breakthroughHelios winning NASA mining contractHeadquarters, 1992LobbyMars Mission Control CenterMars Mission Control CenterHelios flag on Mars, 1995Helios' new engine, 1997CEO Richard Hillard, 1997Helios' *Unity*: New speed record, 1999Headquarters, 2003
### Vehicles

*Phoenix* in Earth's orbit*Phoenix* spacecraftMSAM landing craftHAB rover - mobile mabitatHAB rover inside landing podAsteroid towing craft *Ranger-1*Mars spaceship *Unity**Phoenix* stationOrbital Mars shuttle *Hopper*Mars shuttle rover
### Helios job ads

Moon job flyerMoon career posterMars job placard

## Trivia

* Helios Aerospace's logo resembles a Helium atom, as Helios first rose to prominence via using the Helium-3 isotope to develop clean nuclear fusion.
* Helios Aerospace is loosely based off of a mixture of real world companies, like SpaceXW, GoogleW, and AppleW.

## See also

* Dev Ayesa
* Richard Hilliard
* Helios Mars mission
* *Phoenix*
* Helios Mars Colony (concept)
* Kuragin

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 3, Episode 1: "Polaris"
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 AppleTV+ Bonus Video: Another Giant Leap: 1984-1992: Clean Nuclear Energy (1987)
3. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 3, Episode 2: "Game Changer"
4. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 3, Episode 3: "All In"
5. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 4, Episode 3: "The Bear Hug"