Happy Valley (1995)

*This article is about the old Mars base from 1995. For the new base, see Happy Valley. For the episode of season 3, see Happy Valley (episode).*

## General Information

### Operator

Together with:* Roscosmos
* Helios Aerospace

### Location

Melas Chasma
Valles Marineris
Mars

## Station Details

### Purpose

Exploration
Research station

### Facilities

* Crew quarters
* Research facilities
* Hydroponic module
* Solar plant
* 3 rovers

Later:

* 1 HAB rover (Helios)
* 1 MSAM (Helios)

## Station Flags

The **Happy Valley base** was NASA's first base on Mars in 1995. It was located in the canyon Melas Chasma in the Valles Marineris canyon system, close to the former Helios Mars base.

After the formation of the Mars-7 Alliance in 1997, the initial base transitioned into an international colony, with over 100 inhabitants.

## History

The base was put together from several modules and with the help of 3 rovers, which was all sent to the planet's surface by a support mission launched in 1993.

The base was initially designed to accomodate 6 astronauts. However, after the Americans had to rescue the crew of the Soviet spacecraft *Mars-94*, which had to be abandoned after technical issues halfway into the Race to Mars and led to the death of two astronauts from the Sojourner mission, NASA's *Sojourner 1* landed on Mars with 8 people on board, 4 Americans and 4 Soviets. This led to the rationing of provisions, even more as some of the pre-supply was lost due to a damaged landing module.

After the disastrous landslide on Gagarin Ridge that destroyed Helios' base, and the recovery of all still usable tech like the buried MSAM, all remaining crew members of the 3 missions headed over to Happy Valley. This made it the only remaining real base currently on Mars, beside the remotely crashed North Korean capsule.

## Components

The base is made of 3 cylindrical modules connected to a central hub. One of the modules serves as hydroponic garden, the other contain laboratories and crew quarters. Beside the base, an array of solar panels was installed. The pre-supply containers contained also 3 rovers, two 4-wheel vehicles and a crawler type rover. Beside the solar power plant, the base has also a nuclear power generator, stationed aloof the base. The container that carried the rovers is used as storage.

After all Martian crews headed to Happy Valley, the one still intact Helios HAB-rover was docked to the base and is now part it, building one connected pressurized system.

## Crew

After the landing on Mars in February 1995, the base was first crewed by 8 persons, 4 Americans and 4 Soviets, albeit it was actually designed for 6 only.

About 8 months later, after 3 people had died in the landslide, Kelly Baldwin was successfully sent to *Phoenix*, and Danny Stevens was exiled in the North Korean capsule, the crew of the base consisted of the remaining 9 persons: 3 NASA and 3 Helios astronauts, 2 Roscosmos cosmonauts, and the rescued North Korean cosmonaut.

### NASA

* Danielle Poole (NASA mission commander)
* William Tyler
* Rolan Baranov

### Roscosmos

* Grigory Kuznetsov (Roscosmos mission commander)
* Dr. Dimitri Mayakovsky

### Helios

* Ed Baldwin (Helios mission commander)
* Louisa Mueller
* Lars Hagstrom

### Former crew

* Kelly Baldwin (currently on *Phoenix*)
* Danny Stevens (currently exiled in the North Korea capsule)
* Isabel Castillo †
* Alexei Poletov †

## Gallery

Astronauts & cosmonauts on MarsNASA pre-delivered support modulesAssembling the habitat modulesLocation on MarsLocation on MarsThe base after constructionAerial view of the baseMSAM about to land at Happy ValleyHelios' MSAM landing at the Happy Valley BaseThe base in late 1995
## See also

* Happy Valley (new base in the 2000s)
* Helios Mars base
* Sojourner-1 mission
* Helios Mars mission
* Mars

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 3, Episode 10: "Stranger in a Strange Land"
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 3, Episode 4: "Happy Valley"
3. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 4, Episode 1: "Glasnost"
4. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 3, Episode 3: "All In"
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 3, Episode 6: "New Eden"