The Conquest of Mars

By Ramon Cruz

With a renewed interest in space exploration and a growing fear of climate change and frequent natural disasters, humans have turned their eyes towards Mars. Is traveling to Mars possible? Could we ever start a colony there? The Conquest of Mars posits a potential future in which humans take the plunge and journey to the Red Planet. Both imaginative and scientifically accurate, the book lends an insight into human ingenuity and perseverance, leading humanity to greater and greater heights.

About the Author
Ramon Cruz works in the construction industry but has loved writing as long as he can remember. In addition to writing fiction, Cruz is also a songwriter. He and his wife have one daughter together. They reside in the State of California.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Company
• Release date: Mar 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9798890274991

Book preview

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead; events; or locales is entirely coincidental.

All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2024 by Ramon Cruz

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted, downloaded, distributed, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, including photocopying and recording, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented without permission in writing from the publisher.

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The Conquest of Mars

Science flourished on Earth in the 21st century! Almost anything seemed possible…almost… From battling contagious diseases to preventing diseases. From modern farming to really sophisticated innovative farming. Machines beautifully engineered, and so sophisticated, to study the dark deep oceans where new worlds were discovered. Holding many times more life than on the surface!

To space…the ultimate frontier. Where secrets are still holding on to their bold name, secrets!

Well-advanced and super-smart technology to do things that once only lived in the imagination of a writer or a movie producer. Like surgeries at long, long distances with the means of a robot. And operations miles away out in space! On another planet! With the precision like a human was there doing it with his bare hands! Things that weren’t even in the imagination of the generation before them! Wonders they were called. And they really were!

Out of space humans landed small spacecraft on meteors, to test their capabilities to see if one day they would have to destroy one before it hits Earth and bring what they called Armageddon. Not happening what they believed happened to the dinosaurs. No, no! They even sent one small spacecraft far, far away, to the smallest planet known back then, Pluto. In 2038 they lost Trailblazer, another small spacecraft to Uranus due to its powerful gravity that pulled it into it. Science and technology holding hands helping humans reach the impossible. Reaching the impossible on any kind of ocean, whether that was at war, illnesses, surgeries, the vast dark space or even on the very depths of Earth’s deep oceans.

EARTH

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On Earth, any regular citizen had really high technology at home. Devices to control anything happening at home. All linked together to your super-smart phone. You could control your smart TV, appliances, lights and pretty much everything inside your home to anything outside your home, like your irrigation system.

Smart sensors will activate your irrigation system accordingly with your landscape. No wasting water no more! It will notify your phone which parts of the irrigation system needed repairs, and even if the lawn needed some extra work, as when a section of it was eroded by the rain or other factors.

Technology got so advanced that people could take their physical test by standing in front of a smart mirror and taking one drop of blood on a device attached to it. Then the mirror will send the information to a smart computer that will upload the information to your doctor and print a report on your cholesterol, blood pressure, sugar, triglycerides and anything going on in your immune system and even give you suggestions on how to control it depending on your habits and what your preferences were.

Humans had smart cars, computers, watches, phones, TVs and so many other smart devices that made life easier and more advanced than ever! Big hopes were set for the future! A better future!

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BIG HOPES?

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Science and technology were so awesome that humans had the hope one day they could bring people back from the dead. More and more rich people had frozen themselves after death so when science advanced well enough, they could be brought back from the dead! Imagine that! But felt close enough!

And to be honest, science and technology advanced so much that more and more humans thought they could reach the impossible at any time.

So more and more countries poured money and resources in it. Humans reached levels of great knowledge, power and so many greater things they never ever dreamed of before! Thousands years of humans’ history tells great stories of ancient civilizations reaching great achievements and power, but never achieving what humans reached in the 21st century.

THE 21ST CENTURY

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Don’t get me wrong: What ancient cultures accomplished in the past was simply astonishing, amazing humans until this day! The Babylon, Greeks, Romans, Mayans and other cultures from the past! They built wonders too, making history on their path among the living! It is fascinating just to read about!

But the 21st century was different. Different than the 20th century. It actually started in the 19th century, to be more exact, when humans start mastering the knowledge of engineering sophisticated artifacts never seen before! With the invention of the first car in the 19th century, and then the airplane in the 20th century. And then the Moon!

Then they seemed to get stuck on concentrating their efforts in expanding their knowledge on science and technology capabilities for a different reason: weapons, bigger guns to kill one another. Actually…I might be wrong. Humans seemed to be one step ahead, among other things, on how to kill each other. I might need to do more research on that. But let’s rest this thought for now.

What human progress was made in the 21st century brought huge improvements in communication and transportation—we have to acknowledge—real wonders of the modern world back then! There had never been anything like it! Not even close!

It was then, in the 21st century, that humans got more interested in space. Stopping asteroids from bringing what they feared—Armageddon—or simply curiosity about what’s out there. And how to destroy each other too, of course! It’s then when space programs start getting really popular with most rich nations. Asteroids, the space station, the Moon, Mars…different areas for different reasons.

SPACE WONDERS

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Space became for some rich people like the Everest of the world, so they got into the space race too. And as they made progress, the new Everest became the fantasy for the dreamers and the bold. The rich and the opportunists! Every step they made…one step closer to achieving the next step…and the next! More rich people got really excited about it! And more money went into the space arcade.

Space, a vast dark ocean with planets like luxury jewels with rarest colors and sizes. Planets with different surface compositions. Some with a surface that resembles ice. Others with hot surfaces like fire but no flames. Others…no one still knows…only dense gasses surrounding their surfaces.

And the stars…like fireballs that blink in a vast and never-ending darkness. Different sizes, colors and the way they are made. Some group by the thousands! Others by billions and billions! And some others…by themselves, surrounded by giant jewels, called planets, forming other solar systems. No life on them, though. But amazing and breathless!

Including planets that still go around their star but travel around in the shadows. Yes! In the shadows! After all, not every object out in space has light of its own, nor can it be reached or touched by the light of a very, very distant star where it can go around it and reflect back light so you can