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Description
Mars, our rapidly-changing new home in space.

After Luna, Mars was the second body on the list of scientific interest. Ideas of a dying alien civilization living on the planet were taken semi-seriously throughout the scientific community, and many were anxious to make the first contact with our celestial neighbors. However, the fly-by of the planet by the Mariner 5 probe in 1965 dissuaded any notion of an alien society on Mars. While this was a disheartening discovery, this didn't dissuade national space programs from exploring the planet. Between 1965 and 2000, nearly 50 missions were sent by 6 nations to the Red Planet, each making valuable discoveries. While the exploration of Mars (and much of deep space) slumped during the Lunar Return of the 1990s and early 2000s, that didn't stop any missions from being launched. In 2001 and 2009 the United States launched two sets of twin rovers (Spirit/Opportunity and Curiosity/Intrepid) to various locations on Mars, measuring Martian geology, hydrology, and even astrobiology. Eurasia sent a series of missions to Mars during the Mars 2000 campaign, sending two orbiters, a rover, and a lander all at once. Europe and Japan both sent their first missions in 2005, and Canada & Africa sent their first missions in 2007. Following the establishment of the Horizon & Korolev Lunar Bases in 2005 and 2007, interest in a manned Mars program began to increase, viewing Mars as the natural next step in human space exploration.

The Houston Conference in July 2010 jump-started these efforts when the meeting of the world's largest national space programs and private aerospace companies set a deadline of landing astronauts on the surface of the Red Planet by 2020. Progress on the newly-started Ares program was quick. The UNS-Odysseus, the large, starbound ship meant to ferry astronauts to and from Mars, began its design and construction in orbit in March 2011 and was officially completed in mid-2017. After Lophoron Crater was selected as the first landing site in 2014, the pieces to the first Martian Crew Habitat (MCH) were launched from Kennedy & Guiana Space Center, as well as Baikonur Cosmodrome and Uchinoura Space Center (multiple launch sites were used to decrease the time between launches, shortening the total time needed to launch all the supplies) in March 2016. Finally, the 6-person crew of Ares 1 launched out of Kennedy Space Center on April 22nd, 2018 to rendezvous with the UNS-Odysseus, leaving for Mars a week later. Ares 1 arrived on Mars on January 19, 2019, less than a year before the previously-set deadline. Ares 1 would spend nearly 600 days on Mars and leave in April 2020, being followed by Ares 2 in 2022. The Ares program would continue for nearly two more decades and 8 more missions, culminating with the establishment of Tharsistown, the first permanent settlement on Mars, in 2032 by the crew of Ares 7 in 2034.

Tharsistown would quickly expand following its establishment. While the Second Cold War had sapped the program of Eurasian support in its early years, the base would still be operated and tended to by the United States, EU, Japan, and Africa. Between 2034 and 2054, the population of the base expanded from just 8 to nearly 250. Building off techniques adapted from early lunar bases and later the larger civilian lunar colonies, Tharsistown was able to rapidly expand in size by building its own modules out of repurposed Martian regolith. To supply food and water the base used deep underground wells (discovered by the ESA's MHO spacecraft in 2015). Any water that wasn't used immediately for drinking was used to sustain massive algae farms with provided both food and oxygen. Tharsistown would be followed by Spirit and Opportunity Bases in 2046 and 2048. The production of starbound freighters made it much easier for new colonies to be founded and existing ones like Tharsistown to be expanded, as well as allowed Mars to have a more secure tie to Earth. As the years went on and Mars' human presence expanded, calls to begin the full colonization of the planet only grew louder.

In October 2050 at a meeting of the United Nations, the parties who committed to the Ares Program, along with some new parties such as Bharat and the USAN, signed into being the Ares Concordat. The Concordat, a modified version of the 2020 Luna Accords, stated that Mars would remain demilitarized in the face of growing human presence and that any nation who expressed interest in Martian colonization must follow the terms of the Concordat. The issue of terraforming Mars was also a big part of the Concordat. First seriously suggested in 2030 at a meeting of the International Astronautical Congress by Ares 1 Uchūnaut Norishige Kanai, the Mars-2100 program called for the Red planet to undergo huge environmental and geophysical changes as a result of human input, with the first visible changes appearing around the end of the 21st century. The program was met with challenges worldwide with the "Keep Mars Red" campaign emerging as the most prominent anti-terraforming group. However, the pro-terraforming camp drew much support from industry and part of the scientific community, particularly the RGB Foundation. The terraforming aspect of the Ares Concordat was hotly debated at the United Nations before just passing during a vote. As per the Concordat, any nation that wishes to colonize Mars must take part in terraforming efforts in some way.

Terraforming efforts began surprisingly quickly. The United States, who had already been working on rudimentary architecture to begin terraforming, sent the first prefabricated facilities aboard the USS-Odysseus in 2052, establishing the first terraforming base on Xanthe Terra in 2053. Other nations and corporations arrived throughout the rest of the 2050s, and by the end of the decade, nearly a dozen bases existed all over the planet. One of the first problems to be tackled was that of Mars' lack of magnetic field. The Aegis program, taken on by the ESA and CNSA, created an artificial magnetic field that was so effective that by the mid-2070s new facilities didn't require being covered in Martian soil to help protect themselves from radiation. By the start of the 2060s, it appeared that would be called the greatest project in human history was well underway.

Until the Fossil Crisis.

In 2063, an excavation team at Chryse Planitia uncovered a series of rocks that contained solid evidence towards the past existence of basic organisms native to Mars. When the news of the discovery reached Earth, it caused a massive global backlash from groups who had opposed large-scale colonization or the end of terraforming efforts altogether. An emergency meeting of the United Nations General Assembly and the UNSA immediately suspended all colonization and terraforming efforts on the planet. While colonization was allowed to continue in the following months, the suspension of terraforming activities was halted while a planet-wide astrobiological survey was conducted, searching every environment from the top of Mount Olympus to the bottom of Hellas Planitia for signs of past of present life. The survey took 8 years and with no signs of present life on Mars, the prohibition on terraforming was lifted in July 2071.

After the end of the Fossil Crisis and the reinstatement of terraforming activities, the progress of terraforming began to speed up. The first naturally-accumulating bodies of water appeared in 2066 at the bottom of Hellas Planitia, and the first parts of the Borealis Sea, the body of water which would serve as Mars' primary ocean, appeared in 2072. Other milestones include the average temperature of the planet reaching above 0 degrees Celsius in 2083 and the sighting of the first upper-atmosphere water-vapor clouds in 2090. Mars' population continued to skyrocket during this time too. Going from 1.269 million in 2075 to over 4 million in 2110. Ths population explosion is expected to keep up until near the end of the 22nd century, at which point Mars is projected to have a population of nearly 30 million.

As of 2110, Mars is a flourishing world. In the coming decades, it will become one of the most important bodies in the solar system, rivaling Luna for the number two spot behind Earth.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Updates:

11/14/2019 - New map & description. Original versions of both can be found here .
7/6/2020 - New map. Previous version found here .
11/15/2020 - Slight changes to map.
5/13/2022 - Added Mangal.

Description
Mars, our rapidly-changing new home in space.

After Luna, Mars was the second body on the list of scientific interest. Ideas of a dying alien civilization living on the planet were taken semi-seriously throughout the scientific community, and many were anxious to make the first contact with our celestial neighbors. However, the fly-by of the planet by the Mariner 5 probe in 1965 dissuaded any notion of an alien society on Mars. While this was a disheartening discovery, this didn't dissuade national space programs from exploring the planet. Between 1965 and 2000, nearly 50 missions were sent by 6 nations to the Red Planet, each making valuable discoveries. While the exploration of Mars (and much of deep space) slumped during the Lunar Return of the 1990s and early 2000s, that didn't stop any missions from being launched. In 2001 and 2009 the United States launched two sets of twin rovers (Spirit/Opportunity and Curiosity/Intrepid) to various locations on Mars, measuring Martian geology, hydrology, and even astrobiology. Eurasia sent a series of missions to Mars during the Mars 2000 campaign, sending two orbiters, a rover, and a lander all at once. Europe and Japan both sent their first missions in 2005, and Canada & Africa sent their first missions in 2007. Following the establishment of the Horizon & Korolev Lunar Bases in 2005 and 2007, interest in a manned Mars program began to increase, viewing Mars as the natural next step in human space exploration.

The Houston Conference in July 2010 jump-started these efforts when the meeting of the world's largest national space programs and private aerospace companies set a deadline of landing astronauts on the surface of the Red Planet by 2020. Progress on the newly-started Ares program was quick. The UNS-Odysseus, the large, starbound ship meant to ferry astronauts to and from Mars, began its design and construction in orbit in March 2011 and was officially completed in mid-2017. After Lophoron Crater was selected as the first landing site in 2014, the pieces to the first Martian Crew Habitat (MCH) were launched from Kennedy & Guiana Space Center, as well as Baikonur Cosmodrome and Uchinoura Space Center (multiple launch sites were used to decrease the time between launches, shortening the total time needed to launch all the supplies) in March 2016. Finally, the 6-person crew of Ares 1 launched out of Kennedy Space Center on April 22nd, 2018 to rendezvous with the UNS-Odysseus, leaving for Mars a week later. Ares 1 arrived on Mars on January 19, 2019, less than a year before the previously-set deadline. Ares 1 would spend nearly 600 days on Mars and leave in April 2020, being followed by Ares 2 in 2022. The Ares program would continue for nearly two more decades and 8 more missions, culminating with the establishment of Tharsistown, the first permanent settlement on Mars, in 2032 by the crew of Ares 7 in 2034.

Tharsistown would quickly expand following its establishment. While the Second Cold War had sapped the program of Eurasian support in its early years, the base would still be operated and tended to by the United States, EU, Japan, and Africa. Between 2034 and 2054, the population of the base expanded from just 8 to nearly 250. Building off techniques adapted from early lunar bases and later the larger civilian lunar colonies, Tharsistown was able to rapidly expand in size by building its own modules out of repurposed Martian regolith. To supply food and water the base used deep underground wells (discovered by the ESA's MHO spacecraft in 2015). Any water that wasn't used immediately for drinking was used to sustain massive algae farms with provided both food and oxygen. Tharsistown would be followed by Spirit and Opportunity Bases in 2046 and 2048. The production of starbound freighters made it much easier for new colonies to be founded and existing ones like Tharsistown to be expanded, as well as allowed Mars to have a more secure tie to Earth. As the years went on and Mars' human presence expanded, calls to begin the full colonization of the planet only grew louder.

In October 2050 at a meeting of the United Nations, the parties who committed to the Ares Program, along with some new parties such as Bharat and the USAN, signed into being the Ares Concordat. The Concordat, a modified version of the 2020 Luna Accords, stated that Mars would remain demilitarized in the face of growing human presence and that any nation who expressed interest in Martian colonization must follow the terms of the Concordat. The issue of terraforming Mars was also a big part of the Concordat. First seriously suggested in 2030 at a meeting of the International Astronautical Congress by Ares 1 Uchūnaut Norishige Kanai, the Mars-2100 program called for the Red planet to undergo huge environmental and geophysical changes as a result of human input, with the first visible changes appearing around the end of the 21st century. The program was met with challenges worldwide with the "Keep Mars Red" campaign emerging as the most prominent anti-terraforming group. However, the pro-terraforming camp drew much support from industry and part of the scientific community, particularly the RGB Foundation. The terraforming aspect of the Ares Concordat was hotly debated at the United Nations before just passing during a vote. As per the Concordat, any nation that wishes to colonize Mars must take part in terraforming efforts in some way.

Terraforming efforts began surprisingly quickly. The United States, who had already been working on rudimentary architecture to begin terraforming, sent the first prefabricated facilities aboard the USS-Odysseus in 2052, establishing the first terraforming base on Xanthe Terra in 2053. Other nations and corporations arrived throughout the rest of the 2050s, and by the end of the decade, nearly a dozen bases existed all over the planet. One of the first problems to be tackled was that of Mars' lack of magnetic field. The Aegis program, taken on by the ESA and CNSA, created an artificial magnetic field that was so effective that by the mid-2070s new facilities didn't require being covered in Martian soil to help protect themselves from radiation. By the start of the 2060s, it appeared that would be called the greatest project in human history was well underway.

Until the Fossil Crisis.

In 2063, an excavation team at Chryse Planitia uncovered a series of rocks that contained solid evidence towards the past existence of basic organisms native to Mars. When the news of the discovery reached Earth, it caused a massive global backlash from groups who had opposed large-scale colonization or the end of terraforming efforts altogether. An emergency meeting of the United Nations General Assembly and the UNSA immediately suspended all colonization and terraforming efforts on the planet. While colonization was allowed to continue in the following months, the suspension of terraforming activities was halted while a planet-wide astrobiological survey was conducted, searching every environment from the top of Mount Olympus to the bottom of Hellas Planitia for signs of past of present life. The survey took 8 years and with no signs of present life on Mars, the prohibition on terraforming was lifted in July 2071.

After the end of the Fossil Crisis and the reinstatement of terraforming activities, the progress of terraforming began to speed up. The first naturally-accumulating bodies of water appeared in 2066 at the bottom of Hellas Planitia, and the first parts of the Borealis Sea, the body of water which would serve as Mars' primary ocean, appeared in 2072. Other milestones include the average temperature of the planet reaching above 0 degrees Celsius in 2083 and the sighting of the first upper-atmosphere water-vapor clouds in 2090. Mars' population continued to skyrocket during this time too. Going from 1.269 million in 2075 to over 4 million in 2110. Ths population explosion is expected to keep up until near the end of the 22nd century, at which point Mars is projected to have a population of nearly 30 million.

As of 2110, Mars is a flourishing world. In the coming decades, it will become one of the most important bodies in the solar system, rivaling Luna for the number two spot behind Earth.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Updates:

11/14/2019 - New map & description. Original versions of both can be found here .
7/6/2020 - New map. Previous version found here .
11/15/2020 - Slight changes to map.
5/13/2022 - Added Mangal.