Friday, 06 September 2013:
I am on Mars. I see black velvet sky with more stars than I have ever seen. I can't make out constellations. The world around me is illuminated by the starlight. I can see the red and blue hues that have become familiar to me from the images returned from the Mars Rovers. I am a little overwhelmed, excited, bewildered, but I maintain my composure. There is a low outcropping ahead with a few exploration tools (I see a rock hammer). I am accompanied by a man, a fellow astronaut, Ron. It is night, and we sleep under the stars. (No, no romance here! It's all business.)
"Ron," I say, "We're on Mars!"
No answer.
When I awake, it is still dark. In the distance to my left, I see the peaks of two shield volcanoes which appear to have been dormant for a very long time. The image is in grayscale, and there is shadow between me and the peaks. The mountains appear to be floating in the inky sky.
"Ron," I say, "We're on Mars!"
No answer.
"It took me a day to get my mind together, but I am ready to get to work. I guess we should start collecting rocks."
I look around. I notice that we are not wearing bulky suits nor helmets. We are breathing the air normally. My mind starts racing with thoughts, How can this be? Where is the oxygen coming from? In front of me, just beyond the rock outcropping with the hammer, I can see daylight and trees through what appears to be a doorway.
"Actually," Ron replies, "before we do this," he indicated the rocks with the hammer, "we need to cut down these bamboo." He walked outside and down the cement steps. "These aren't actually bamboo, but the leaves will harden into shards and fall making it difficult to ..." [accomplish some manual labor task in the wooded grove, I wasn't listening... there are TREES?]
"Yucca," I say. They aren't yucca, but it's the first thing I thought of. The trees are short, only about twelve feet (4 meters) tall, with rough black bark. They taper toward the top with sparse green palms... PALMS! I just figured that out! There are three, maybe four, of these palms growing just inside a wooded grove of trees.
"Do they cut easy?" I ask.
"Not really. There's a machete," Ron gestures toward a small machete in the grass near a.. magnolia?
So, after waking, I'm thinking... if this is Mars, we aren't the first ones here. If it isn't Mars, this is reminiscent of the alleged Moon Landing Hoax* that supposedly took place all on a Hollywood set... This is very Hollywood set...
*Please do not misinterpret that... I am a HUGE supporter of NASA and space exploration, and I firmly accept and believe that Apollo 11 astronauts, and later others, have landed on the moon, and that we have successfully landed unmanned craft on Venus, Mars, and Titan.
I am on Mars. I see black velvet sky with more stars than I have ever seen. I can't make out constellations. The world around me is illuminated by the starlight. I can see the red and blue hues that have become familiar to me from the images returned from the Mars Rovers. I am a little overwhelmed, excited, bewildered, but I maintain my composure. There is a low outcropping ahead with a few exploration tools (I see a rock hammer). I am accompanied by a man, a fellow astronaut, Ron. It is night, and we sleep under the stars. (No, no romance here! It's all business.)
"Ron," I say, "We're on Mars!"
No answer.
When I awake, it is still dark. In the distance to my left, I see the peaks of two shield volcanoes which appear to have been dormant for a very long time. The image is in grayscale, and there is shadow between me and the peaks. The mountains appear to be floating in the inky sky.
"Ron," I say, "We're on Mars!"
No answer.
"It took me a day to get my mind together, but I am ready to get to work. I guess we should start collecting rocks."
I look around. I notice that we are not wearing bulky suits nor helmets. We are breathing the air normally. My mind starts racing with thoughts, How can this be? Where is the oxygen coming from? In front of me, just beyond the rock outcropping with the hammer, I can see daylight and trees through what appears to be a doorway.
"Actually," Ron replies, "before we do this," he indicated the rocks with the hammer, "we need to cut down these bamboo." He walked outside and down the cement steps. "These aren't actually bamboo, but the leaves will harden into shards and fall making it difficult to ..." [accomplish some manual labor task in the wooded grove, I wasn't listening... there are TREES?]
"Yucca," I say. They aren't yucca, but it's the first thing I thought of. The trees are short, only about twelve feet (4 meters) tall, with rough black bark. They taper toward the top with sparse green palms... PALMS! I just figured that out! There are three, maybe four, of these palms growing just inside a wooded grove of trees.
"Do they cut easy?" I ask.
"Not really. There's a machete," Ron gestures toward a small machete in the grass near a.. magnolia?
So, after waking, I'm thinking... if this is Mars, we aren't the first ones here. If it isn't Mars, this is reminiscent of the alleged Moon Landing Hoax* that supposedly took place all on a Hollywood set... This is very Hollywood set...
*Please do not misinterpret that... I am a HUGE supporter of NASA and space exploration, and I firmly accept and believe that Apollo 11 astronauts, and later others, have landed on the moon, and that we have successfully landed unmanned craft on Venus, Mars, and Titan.
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