Third book in the Mars Exile series released

The third and final book in the Mars Exile series has been released and can be purchased directly from Lulu.com before it reaches Amazon and other major book stores. It is available in paperback and ebook formats with hardback to follow. 

"Seven years on from the rebirth of the City of Opportunity, David Brennan’s nephew, Nathan, is drawn to Mars in a time of trouble. Coerced in to leaving Earth for good, Nathan must discover the truth about his uncle and help his new-found friends by retrieving a lost document for the mysterious GAP organisation.

"A new faction, calling themselves Benimars, is rising up against the government of the City of Opportunity. Nathan finds help from a young woman whose desire is to see wounds healed on her world. It drives her to enter an unlikely alliance with this new migrant. Together they must stem the anger and find a solution before there is bloodshed."

Released with this final book is the "The Mars Exile" Complete series in paperback only. It includes previously released short stories as bonus material. This too can be purchased from Lulu.com before it is available on general release.

"Can one man make a difference? Plucked from his home on false charges and exiled to a barren world with little chance of survival, David Brennan and the people he meets on Mars must overcome all the challenges Mars can send them, and a few more sent from Earth.


"This trilogy tracks the lives of the early pioneers and their children on Mars as they face their fears, overcome the challenges and ultimately establish a new society."

One way trip to Mars capturing the imagination, says the BBC

With reference to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22360228

While the BBC are responsible for a great deal of fanciful imaginings, this story is not about fiction. The idea that we could actually go to Mars, and that it would be a one way trip that establishes a working colony on Mars, is in fact gaining ground and volunteers.

Mars One, a Dutch organisation, is seeking volunteers for such an attempt. And how are they going to pay for the costs? By making it a TV show and getting corporate sponsorship. Now, come to think of it, there are probably a few people that would get quite a few votes by the public to be sent to Mars. Whether this venture succeeds or not, the conversation is out there.

There was a time when we had not stepped foot on the Moon and there were some people who thought that would be impossible. We went there in the sixties and seventies. We can still use the experiments they placed on the Moon, and lunar orbiting satellites have photographed the Apollo equipment still sitting on the moon.

One day, we will be standing on the surface of Mars and looking with their own eyes on Opportunity and Spirit and saying to ourselves "Do you remember when we could only send robots to other planets?"

(Go on - buy the book, and do not be afraid to dream big.)

What if you could mine the moon?

"We're becoming a multi-world species. That will happen. The first footprints on Mars by human beings will happen in our lifetime in the next 10 to 20 years," [Bob Richards of Moon Express] says.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21685995

Going to Mars is not an isolated goal. The real goal is to get man moving through space. Mars is just a small but significant jump. Imagine, on Mars the gravity is one third of what it is on Earth. That means a much smaller cost to orbit. Once in orbit, Mars is further from the sun, so it there is less cost in getting to the asteroids and to the outer planets.

Earth make a very fine home, but is very hard to get away from. This is why people keep saying that the Moon and Mars is our stepping stone to the rest of the Solar System and indeed beyond.

Avoiding Meteorites on Mars

How likely is it to be hit by a meteorite while walking on the surface of Mars? Is it safe to go there and take a stroll on the surface?

Rocks fall out of the sky all the time.

The calculated odds are that in an area the size of Britain alone, one person every 7,000 years might get squashed by a meteorite. However, in history the actual number of deaths by meteorite squashings is in fact lower even than the odds. The only person known to have been hurt by a meteorite in recent memory is one lady in Alabama in 1954. The 3.6kg rock crashed through her roof and injured her shoulder. So not even a real squashing! In 2002, a british schoolgirl had a meteorite fragment land on her shoe. As far as it is possible to know, no one in living memory has ever been killed by a meteorite.

Is it possible to be hit by a meteorite? Yes it is. You do have better odds of winning the lottery though. On Earth, a lot of these rocks burn up in the atmosphere. There is a lot of atmosphere on Earth, but not so much on Mars. Consequently, more rock reaches the surface of Mars. That explains why there are so many more craters on Mars than on Earth. Still, that only increases what is a very minute chance.

If you are worried about it, get out the barbecue and tell you boss where to go; you have a better chance of winning this week's lottery. Honest! If you do not feel your odds are good for the lottery, then you can put aside your fears for death by "rock falling from the sky."

Talking of Lottery, the latest Short Story from the Mars Exile series is now available. David Brennan and Dr Mark Well go in search of a wayared rover.

You can download this short story in PDF format from here.

I wonder if you can already guess what heppens to it?

The legalities of exile

Is it possible for governments to exile a person as punishment for their crimes? Most people will recognise the name Botany Bay for it's historical context. Botany Bay was the destination for prisoners bound for the Penal Colony established by the British in Australia. What most people do not know is that Botany Bay was not the first nor the largest. For most of the eighteenth century Britain exiled nearly 50,000 convicts to colonial America. The American revolution put an end to that and Botany Bay was established, along with penal colonies on Norfolk Island, Tasmania and in New South Wales.

Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes the provision that arbitrary exile illegal. So this does not stop a nation state choosing exile as a punishment after due process. Of course, who wants a penal colony on their doorstep? This is why you do not see many people suffering exile as a punishment anymore. So what happens if the realm of the whole Solar System opens up. There will then be plenty of space for people to be exiled to who without stepping on the toes of neighbours. A penal colony on a planet without atmosphere would be very difficult to escape from.

So when we actually do go into space and start colonising Mars and other worlds will we see the return of the exile?

In the Mars Exile series of books, David Brennan was one such person sent to Mars as an exile under something called the Eaglewing Project. To avoid public discontent, government agencies involved offered this exile as an alternative to more severe punishment. David would have otherwise faced the death penalty for his alleged crime. The Eaglewing team, led by Edward Jones, sought out people who would otherwise have not received real justice, and gave them a second chance.

Will real world politics allow the same grace? Somehow I doubt it, but we can always hope that somewhere there will be an Opportunity that allows these people to show the very best of themselves.

Elon Musk charging $500,000 for trip to Mars

According to Elon Musk, the number of people going to Mars each year in the Mars Exile series is extremely conservative. In a speech to the Royal Aeronautical Society in London, he suggested that 80,000 (Yes that is eighty thousand) people could go to Mars each year. In his grand vision for Mars, he would be using recyclable spaceships. It is this that allows him to set the half million dollor price tag!

Presumably, he is not talking about sticking them in a plastic bag and putting them outside the front door for the Council to collect.

Current rocket technology is hideously expensive because in almost every launch, you have to throw away bits, which usually end up getting destroyed in various wonderful ways or worse: taken apart and refurbished. Even the Space Shuttle did this. The Orbiter had to be re-tiled after every landing!

So SpaceX's vision of reusable rockets is on the right lines to bring down costs. People landing on Mars is probably not as distant as some think. There are, believe it or not, more vexing questions to this interplanetary hop than the cost of the spacecraft. We wait with bated breath as Elon and his team dream up solutions to those problems.

Original eBook now available for FREE

A short story about the characters from Mars Exile is now avilable for download for free.

Click here to get your copy

Three astronauts on their way to Mars are concerned about the one thing they cannot control: The Sun!