Contact across the Solar System

Deciding to Contact Again

By the mid 2010's, some Martians were getting alarmed at all the Earther guests that their planet was getting. The Earthers were continuing to talk about sending Earthers to Mars, and even colonizing the planet. It seemed like the Earthers and Martians would eventually run into each other, or even that the Earthers would try to conquer Mars.

Someone got the idea of contacting the Earth, but the idea seemed fraught with difficulty. The last attempts at contact with Earthers, like with George, did not turn out very well, and Earther scientists had become convinced that everywhere in the Solar System but their homeworld was inhospitable to humanity. But that was very well-known to the people of the SSC, and that's why they lived in huge underground cities on their worlds. How would one explain that to the Earther scientists?

There was also the problem of how to make contact. The last time around was very cautious, and apparently too cautious. But a more bold contact initiative was very risky. It risked the Earthers getting a hold of some of the SSC's more advanced technologies. So it was an impasse.

Who would be interested? Nobody, it seemed, not even George's old friends. But one day, Kalna and Ilmuth were visiting Orthon and some friends during a layover on Venus, and the conversation drifted toward the Americans' space shuttles. This was an attempt at creating a space vehicle as reusable as the SSC ones, but it failed miserably, and the Americans had recently shut down their shuttles.

One of Orthon's friends asked "Do those vehicles return in the usual Earther fashion? They seem rather big for that."

Ilmuth said "Yes they do, and the vehicles are covered with insulating tiles that can survive the heat. They don't burn off, unlike what the Earthers usually do. They had to inspect all these tiles before sending the vehicles up again. Among all their other such tasks."

"No wonder they quit."

"The real mystery is why they stuck with it for so long. Sunk costs? Lack of alternatives?"

"Dunno."

"Me neither. I've lived there, and I still find American politics impenetrable."

Kalna said "I think I half-understand it."

Ilmuth responded "You're a better person than I am, Kalna. It gives me a headache when I try."

"Our best guess at this point is that the Shuttle was kept going by its supporters supporting some national councilmembers. In return, the councilmembers deliver the necessary resources. They even have their own name for this practice: 'pork barrel'. A barrel full of pig meat for giving out to farm workers."

Several people laughed.

After some more conversation, the Space Shuttles' return method inspired a contact proposal, a proposal that everybody there modestly credited everybody else with. Dropping small capsules onto the Earth, capsules with messages in them. The capsules would be as dumb as rocks, or else they would have some simple onboard control systems.

How to avoid giving away technology? Use Earther designs. The Earthers were already good at atmosphere crashes, so using their designs solves two problems at once.

How would the Earthers respond to this message? We'd have some of our lunar surveillance systems due the receiving, they decided. For transmitting, we'd set up antennas away from them, so as not to give away the receivers' locations.

Why not use the transmitters for the initial contact? Because there's the problem of attracting the Earthers' attention. Causing interference with Earther broadcasts would work, but it would not be very friendly. With an initial message dropped in capsules, there is no such problem.