The Martian Lie

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – Exploring the New Frontier - Callie

The landing is nothing like the launch. During the launch, I was losing my mind with fear and second-guessing my decision. Now, with a month to process my actions, placate my parents, and study Earth's situation, elation is all I feel. My emotional state is as different as the physical facts of the landing. The landing is significantly less logistically nerve-wracking. During the launch, we had to blast into the atmosphere on a ball of fire as quickly as possible to escape Mars' grasp.

Planets don't easily give up their inhabitants.

Planets also don't like to let new inhabitants in.

The most difficult part of the landing is entry into Earth's atmosphere. Our spacecraft maneuvers through the gases that make up the atmosphere and we briefly lose possibility of any communication with Mars or Earth. Flames engulf us, and it is disconcerting to see them outside the glass even though I know it is completely heatproof. Then, the hard part is over, and we are inside Earth's safe cocoon. We cross into the atmosphere at speeds nearly 15,000 miles per hour. Incomprehensibly fast. Despite this, the spacecraft resembles a large airplane and flies as such. I am suited up and strapped in, but this time I have a window seat and get to see Earth grow bigger and bigger outside the glass.

I didn't see Mars this closely. By the time I had returned to consciousness and made it to the observation deck, we were hundreds of miles into space and the planet was far enough away that it looked like any satellite picture I had seen of it during my lifetime. Beautiful, yes, but just how I imagined it. Like visiting a historical monument you have already watched a documentary about, then feeling vaguely disappointed it isn't more amazing in real life.

I get to take in every second as Earth grows in my window. At first, I can only make out the blue and green encircled by white weather systems. This is just how pictures look, and how Mars looks from a distance as well since the terraformation. I have imagined this vantage countless times, but there is no letdown as before.

Mars was changed by mankind, for mankind to colonize. From far away, or in a picture, one wouldn't be able to tell the difference. But now I can see that Mars is a cheap, carbon-copy creation that can never measure up to the original.

Earth is exquisite.

It is a vast canvas of blue, green, and white. The colors are more vibrant than any description could capture and there seem to be more hues and shades of them than I have ever seen. As we draw nearer, I can make out mountainous regions. Peaks covered in snow. The blues and greens become continents and oceans. It seems the amount of landforms and water is infinite in comparison to the small planet I come from. The weather systems become whimsical, wispy clouds. I long to be on land and look up at the clouds. Mars is a weak analogy, an artist's rendering created from an inadequate description of Earth.

Passenger breath rate insufficient. Please resume normal respiration rate.

I have forgotten to breathe.

I make a conscious effort to take several long, deep breaths as I continue to marvel at my view.

We are getting near enough now that I can only see one continent and shore in my vision. We are still higher than I have ever been in an aircraft on Mars, but the day is cloudless in this area and I can make out the basic topography of where we will be landing. A white sandy beach stretches as far as the eye can see. On one side is blue water; on the other is flat green plains punctuated by gray areas I can only assume are launch and landing areas.