Tim, Joan, Rob and Mary worked for NASA. Using robotics and with JPL support they made site discovery, developed and then traveled to Mars in Ares rockets. They move into an incomplete habitat on Mars that was built with native resources. They then proceed to expand it into a home. They use marscrete thermite-fused building blocks to line excavated tunnels and domed rooms inside of a meteor impact crater similar to Meteor Crater east of Flagstaff , AZ. They assemble a powerful nuclear power plant and convert the thin Mars atmosphere and subterranean water into breathable air and fuel. They carry seed plants and animals to form a biological environment. Enmeshed in this outline is a dramatic, demanding, adventurous, heart warming, human story of survival in the ultimate harsh environment a hundred million miles from home. The depicted places and place names and topography and environment of Mars are real. All equipment is realistic. The cosmic environment is real. The characters are all fictional. The time is today.
