The Attempt (The Martian Manifesto Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

for protection from that solar flare. I’ve gotten used to the extra room we have here in the hab.”
    “We have lots to do still before we even think about leaving,” said the Commander. “The second set of messages was regarding one of  JPL’s satellites in orbit. It detected a meteor which hit in that crater you were planning on sending the rover to. Mission Control wants us to send the rover there immediately and analyze any fresh meteorite fragments that we can find.”
    “Okay, Brad and I are on it,” Charles said. “We were just doing some intermediate drilling and the rover should get there later today.”
    “Good. We also received a few news items from home. It appears that the Defense Department and the National Security Agency are in a tizzy because they’ve detected increased activity at the Chinese Moon base in Shackleton crater. It looks like they are building some sort of launcher, and the spooks are worried that they could be setting up a mass driver to send Moon rocks into orbit. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, has been pushing for the militarization of space for a long time. The Defense Department is looking for more funding for a defensive shield in case our latest tensions with both China and North Korea escalate. Apparently the Chinese just sold another batch of our bonds to finance their Moon base and support their troops in occupied Asia, and the markets have crashed yet again.”
    “I can’t believe they would sell those bonds again,” Charles said. “It would hurt their economy too.”
    “I guess th ey think the national prestige is worth it,” the Commander stated, “and they have enough that they can afford to wait out the downturn.”
    “Do they anticipate another recession?” Brad asked.
    “It looks like it,” Grant said. “We’re lucky we got this Mars mission. The way things are headed, this could be the one and only shot NASA gets if we don’t discover life or something else dramatic. In fact, a buddy of mine told me that the only way the colonists could afford the price of their expedition was because all the private U.S. companies gave them deep discounts in order to keep their people employed. The bottom fell out of the space tourism market and there was no money coming in. They couldn’t even really finish the cycler. As part of the deal, the colonists have to perform some upgrades and maintenance during their trip.”
    “You Americans and we Russians were so dumb,” Sergey interjected. “We let the Chinese and North Korean alliance set up a base in the best spot in the solar system. The Shackleton crater at the south pole of the Moon is the perfect place for a country to dominate space. It has water to drink or to create rocket fuel. It has sunlight on the crater rim for twenty-four hours a day for power. With the Moon’s light gravity, you can cheaply launch fuel to orbit, to Earth, or anywhere else in the solar system. If they ever get a fusion reactor working with the helium-3 that can be found there, it will give them power for ma ny lifetimes. We should have been there first,” he said, slowly shaking his head.
    “Well, we’re here first, and that’s what counts right now,” Grant said. “And I doubt the North Koreans and Chinese will try any more stunts after what they pulled back in ’29 when they invaded all of Southeast Asia.”
    “You seem to forget, my friend, that they claimed good reasons for their invasion, ” Sergey said. “The rising sea levels due to climate change contaminated the groundwater and caused many of the farms of the region to become inundated with salt. The Chinese stated that the resulting famines and coastline devastation required them to take over the whole area in order to help the people survive.”
    “We all know that’s just an excuse, Serge.”
    “That is America’s greatest strength and its greatest weakness. You are always so sure,” said Sergey.
    “In any case, it seems that the Chinese