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134-479: Blue Mars may refer to: Blue Mars (novel) , the third book in the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson Blue Mars (video game) , 3D massively multiplayer virtual world platform Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Blue Mars . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

268-473: A carefully crafted fake identity as Stephen Lindholm. The newly evolving Martian biosphere is described at great length and with more profound changes mostly aimed at warming up the surface of Mars to the brink of making it habitable, from continent-sized orbital mirrors , another space elevator built (using another anchored asteroid that is dubbed "New Clarke"), to melting the northern polar ice cap, and digging moholes deep enough to form volcanoes . A mainstay of

402-508: A casual misinterpretation between them. Ann undergoes a drastic change toward Blue Mars due to the emergence of something inside of her that she describes as anti-Ann and something else that she can't quite describe. A Japanese expert on biology , agriculture, and ecological systems, it was Ai who smuggled Desmond "Coyote" Hawkins onto the Ares (the two were friends and lovers as students in London). She

536-569: A coma during an attempt to demonstrate to her the beauty of the terraformed world, he arranges for her to be resuscitated and to be treated with the longevity treatment, both against her will. The longevity treatments themselves begin to show weaknesses once those receiving them reach the two-century mark in age. The treatments reduce most aging processes to a negligible rate, but are much less effective when it comes to brain function, and in particular memory. Maya in particular suffers extreme lapses in memory, although she remains high functioning most of

670-408: A concession (in exchange for their support in the congress, as much of their power was broken when they attempted and failed to violently expel remaining UN forces early on after the second revolution of Green Mars; yet they still retained enough power to stymie constitutional negotiations). Vlad, Marina, and Ursula, the original inventors of the longevity treatments, introduce a new economic system that

804-592: A deep-sea sediment drilling program. In September 1963 the new director of NSF Leland Haworth addressed the AMSOC Committee to state that Mohole should consist of two programs, the deep drilling under Brown and Root and a shallow drilling program. Lill expressed similar advice to the leaders of the oceanographic institutions in March 1964, advising the four main institutions to combine their interests into one large drilling project. The principal institutions agreed to form

938-457: A depth of 183 m (601 feet) below the sea floor. While Project Mohole was not successful, the idea led to projects such as NSF's Deep Sea Drilling Project , and attempts to drill to extraordinary depths have continued. The sci-fi novel series Red Mars has several deep holes in the Martian crust called Moholes. They are deep enough that the hole becomes hot from the mantle and provides heat to

1072-544: A disparate variety of proposals (of a miscellaneous nature) for funds in the earth sciences. Hess had approached Lill with the Mohole idea, and they eventually decided that AMSOC should submit a proposal to the National Science Foundation to develop the project. The name of this organization was often viewed as a joke, however, and it would later prove troublesome to the project's success. The initial proposal to NSF

1206-519: A drilling program. Proposals to NSF to support LOCO were not successful, however, and LOCO dissolved in April 1963. The interested institutions began to coordinate and organize themselves for the project, realizing that a large drilling program could not be supported by one organization. In early 1963 an agreement called CORE for a Consortium for Ocean Research and Exploration was signed by Ewing (Lamont), Brackett Hersey (WHOI), and Revelle (SIO) to carry out

1340-507: A drilling site in the Atlantic Ocean or Caribbean , while Scripps in San Diego favored a North Pacific site. Any site had to be near a large port to make the logistics of the large expedition feasible, it had to have a Moho as shallow as possible, it could not be in a geologically active region, and it had to have stable weather conditions. In January 1965 a site north of Maui, Hawaii ,

1474-438: A fate unknown by the conclusion of the book.) The revolution dies and life on Mars returns to a sense of stability under heavy transnat control. The clash over resources on Earth breaks out into a full-blown world war leaving hundreds of millions dead, but cease-fire arrangements are reached when the transnats flee to the safety of the developed nations, which use their huge militaries to restore order, forming police-states . But

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1608-513: A fusion of Eastern and Western lifestyles. In an interview at UCSD, Robinson said that he was looking at a satellite photo of Mars and thought that would be a great place to go backpacking. He said the Mars trilogy grew out of that urge. Mohole Project Mohole was an attempt in the early 1960s to drill through the Earth's crust to obtain samples of the Mohorovičić discontinuity , or Moho,

1742-426: A green politician. Jackie's daughter; she has feline traits (purring) inserted into her genome via the gerontological longevity treatment. In Blue Mars , she travels the solar system running political errands for Jackie, although the two do not get along particularly well. Her character is portrayed as hedonistic and explicitly nihilistic , making sexual satisfaction a priority and seemingly having little regard for

1876-458: A harsh personality that does not win her many friends among the First Hundred and gains particular enmity from Ann Clayborne. As the Mars situation develops, Boyle sides against most of the First Hundred in favor of the increasingly authoritarian United Nations Office of Mars Affairs (UNOMA) and its successor, the corporate /quasi-fascist United Nations Transitional Authority (UNTA). Her influence

2010-498: A large role in the maltreatment of the citizens of Mars. Genetic engineering (GE) is first mentioned in Red Mars ; it takes off when Sax creates an alga to withstand the harsh Martian temperature and convert its atmosphere into breathable air. Eventually this is done on a massive scale, with thousands of types of GE algae, lichen and bacteria being created to terraform the planet. In Green Mars , GE animals began to be created to withstand

2144-813: A long tradition of competition among the four main oceanographic institutions: Lamont Geological Observatory in New York , the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts , the University of Miami in Florida, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California. The competitive nature of these institutions meant that they often refused to cooperate. The East Coast institutions favored

2278-449: A new and larger habitat, and research facility in a nearby canyon. In the later books, she becomes a reluctant politician. Chernyshevski is in love with Bogdanov and is devastated when he is killed in an attack by anti-revolutionary forces associated with UNOMA, the transnationals and Phyllis Boyle during the first Martian revolution. In retaliation for Bogdanov's murder, she activates his hidden weapon system, built into Phobos , which causes

2412-602: A new era of longevity. He lives in Acheron on the Great Escarpment in the north of Mars before fleeing to the hidden colony after the First Revolution but later returns to his research, falling victim to "quick decline" late in the events of Blue Mars . For much of his Mars-centric life, Taneev lives in a ménage à trois with Ursula and Marina, the exact nature of which is never resolved. A Christian American geologist with

2546-527: A new generation of humans born on Mars holds the promise of change. In the meantime, the remaining First Hundred —including Russell, Clayborne, Toitovna, and Cherneshevsky— settle into life in Hiroko Ai's refuge called Zygote, hidden under the Martian south pole . Green Mars takes its title from the stage of terraforming that has allowed plants to grow. It picks up the story 50 years after the events of Red Mars in

2680-469: A one-way expedition to an extrasolar planet near Aldebaran . Peter Clayborne is the son of Ann Clayborne and Simon Frazier, being one of the first children born on Mars. Peter holds a position of older brother to all of the following first generation. Many revolutionary and later political decisions of the Mars First movement are influenced by his opinions and judgment. He works part-time as an engineer and

2814-494: A professor of geology at Princeton University , was receptive to the idea. Hess was one of the principal proponents of sea-floor spreading or plate tectonics at the time, and he saw the Mohole Project as a means to test this theory. The project was to exploit the fact that the mantle was much closer to the ocean's floor (5–10 km) than to the surface of land over continents (ca. 30 km), suggesting that drilling to

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2948-454: A result of globalization that they have sufficient economic power to take over or strongly manipulate national governments, initially only relatively small third-world governments, but later, larger developed governments too, effectively running whole countries. In Robinson's future history , the metanational corporations become similar to nation-states in some respects, while continually attempting to take over competitors in order to become

3082-408: A rig that was not tethered to the bottom. As Munk commented in 2010, the success of Phase 1 of Mohole doomed the project. The many factors that proved fatal to Mohole included the human element, differing views of the engineering and scientific goals, political improprieties at the governmental level, complexities of managing such a large project, and escalating costs. D. S. Greenberg, a reporter for

3216-430: A second revolution beginning in the 2120s, from converting moholes to missiles silos or hidden bases, sabotaging orbital mirrors, to propelling Deimos out of Mars' gravity well and out into deep space so it could never be used as a weapons platform as Phobos was. The book follows the characters across the Martian landscape, which is explained in detail. Russell's character infiltrates the transnat terraforming project, with

3350-444: A storm before he nearly froze to death before disappearing once again and is convinced she remains alive, although the question of whether she is actually alive is never resolved. Eventually, the anti-immigration factions of the Martian government provoke massive illegal immigration from Earth, risking another war; however, under the leadership of Ann and Sax, who have fallen in love again following their reconciliation, along with Maya,

3484-487: A team of scientists to develop medicine that will restore memory. The remaining members of the First Hundred, of which there are only 12, congregate in Underhill, and take the medicine. It works so well that Russell remembers his own birth. He and Ann Clayborne finally recall that they had been in love prior to leaving Earth the very first time, but both had been too socially inept and nervous about their chances for selection for

3618-513: Is Arkady Bogdanov of the Russian contingent (possibly named in homage to the Russian polymath and science fiction writer Alexander Bogdanov - it is later revealed in Blue Mars that Alexander Bogdanov is an ancestor of Arkady's.). Bogdanov argues that Mars need not and should not be subject to Earth traditions, limitations, or authority. He is to some extent joined in this position by John Boone, famous as

3752-704: Is a collection of short stories set in the same fictional universe . Red Mars won the BSFA Award in 1992 and Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1993. Green Mars won the Hugo Award for Best Novel and Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1994. Blue Mars also won the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1997. Icehenge (1984), Robinson's first novel about Mars, is not set in this universe but deals with similar themes and plot elements. The trilogy shares some similarities with Robinson's more recent novel 2312 (2012); for instance,

3886-411: Is a hybrid of capitalism, socialism, and environmental conservationism. During a trip to Earth occurring alongside the congress, Nirgal (one of the original children to be born on Mars to the First Hundred, and something of a Mars-wide celebrity), Maya, and Sax negotiate an agreement that allows Earth to send a number of migrants equal to 10% of Mars' population to Mars every year. Following the adoption of

4020-526: Is killed during the first Martian revolution in 2061. An American physicist , he is a brilliant and creative scientist, and is greatly respected for his intellectual gifts. However, he is socially awkward and often finds it difficult to understand and relate to other people. Russell is a leader of the Green movement, the goal of which is to terraform Mars. During Green Mars , Sax suffers a stroke while being tortured by government security forces and fellow member of

4154-422: Is later shown to be a form of self-defense; Chalmers is at least partly driven by a hidden idealistic side. Early in the voyage to Mars, he becomes sexually involved with Maya Toitovna, the leader of the Russian contingent of the mission. During the second half of the voyage, Toitovna becomes involved with Boone. Already bitter that Boone became the first to walk on Mars instead of him as they were both candidates for

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4288-650: Is left unresolved. Ai (愛) is the Japanese word for love. A French psychologist pivotally involved in the early psychological screening of the First Hundred candidates in Antarctica, which he describes as being a collection of double-bind requirements. Duval is assigned to accompany the Mars mission and is treated as an observer rather than as a member of the team during the early events of Red Mars . His aloof personality enforces this ostracism and also subverts his relationships with others, but in time it becomes clear that Duval

4422-415: Is one of the "First Hundred" colonists sent to permanently colonize Mars. His accomplishments and natural charm yield him an informal leadership role. In the first chapter of Red Mars , John Boone is assassinated in a plot instigated by Frank Chalmers. The narrative then steps back to the First Hundred's voyage to Mars aboard the spaceship Ares . His ideas continue as a point of reference for the remainder of

4556-519: Is raised communally by Hiroko and her followers in Zygote. He is a good-natured wanderer who eventually becomes a political leader advocating ties with Earth. He is one of the founders of the Free Mars movement and is famous for his running technique that allows him to run all day for days on end. As Nadia's assistants, he and Art are instrumental in getting the Martian constitutional declaration written. Later he

4690-434: Is regarded by many other members of the First Hundred, particularly Boyle, as a troublemaker. He leads the team which establishes an outpost on the moon Phobos , and leads an uprising against the transnational corporation towards the end of first novel. Like Boone (with whom he was good friends), his political ideas (later known as Bogdanovism) weigh heavily on characters later in the series. In love with Nadia Chernyshevski, he

4824-466: Is revealed that late in life, Boone is addicted to omegendorph, a fictional drug that is based on endorphins in the human brain . In addition, it reveals that at least some of his seeming simplicity might simply be an act designed to further his political goals. Overall, Boone is presented as larger-than-life. Head of the American contingent, he is Machiavellian in his use of power. However, his cynicism

4958-490: Is sent on a diplomatic mission to Earth but nearly dies from an infection. His name is ancient Babylonian for Mars (the planet and the war-god ). The granddaughter of Hiroko and John Boone (raised with Nirgal), she emerges as a leader of the Free Mars movement, but is seen to change her platform based on whatever keeps her in power (e.g. changing from banning Earth immigration to allowing almost unlimited immigrants). After her daughter Zo's death, she retires in grief and joins

5092-428: Is shown to be complex, the two of them taking early opposite views but the situation slowly changing as Russell comes to appreciate what has been unleashed and what has indeed been lost as science gives way to commercial exploitation that he cannot control. During the events of Blue Mars , Russell intervenes to save Clayborne's life; later, the two are revealed to have once shared an attraction that went astray because of

5226-471: Is strongest during the later events of Red Mars , where by the 2061 revolution she has been placed in charge of the asteroid Clarke that serves as the counterweight of the First Space Elevator . The events of the revolution send Clarke (and Boyle) spinning off into the outer Solar System at the end of Red Mars ; Green Mars finds her back in the equation, but her influence is greatly reduced against

5360-546: Is struggling with his own psychological issues perhaps more than anyone else from the expedition. During the first disappearance of the farm team, he is invited by Hiroko to flee with the farm team and establish Zygote, the first hidden colony. Duval desperately wants to return to Provence as he remembers it, and after visiting as a part of the Martian diplomatic mission to Earth, he becomes even more homesick. Duval falls in love with Maya Toitovna and guides her through particularly challenging psychological episodes throughout most of

5494-464: Is the charismatic leader of the farm team, one of the important work groups and cliques among the First Hundred. She thus becomes the focus of many of the trilogy's central themes. Most importantly, she teaches the importance of maintaining a respectful relation with one's planet. On Mars, this is called the Areophany. In the secret colony Zygote, which Hiroko established, the first generation of children of

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5628-530: Is the most scarce thing in the known universe, and Ann Clayborne, who stakes out the position that humankind does not have the right to change entire planets at their will. Russell's view is initially purely scientific but in time comes to blend with the views of Hiroko Ai, the chief of the Agricultural Team who assembles a new belief system (the "Areophany") devoted to the appreciation and furthering of life (" viriditas "); these views are collectively known as

5762-435: Is the name for an Alpine plant that grows between stones. An American geologist , Clayborne is one of the first areologists and maintains a stalwart desire to see Mars preserved in the state it holds when humans arrive. Clayborne early on debates Saxifrage Russell over the proper role of humanity on Mars and though initially apolitical, this stance marks her as the original "Red," while Russell's hands-on terraforming reflects

5896-567: The National Science Foundation , the project suffered from political and scientific opposition, mismanagement, and cost overruns . The U.S. House of Representatives defunded it in 1966. By then a program of sediment drilling had branched from Project Mohole to become the Deep Sea Drilling Project of the National Science Foundation . During discussions at the end of a panel reviewing proposals for Earth Sciences at

6030-661: The Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 1 satellite that initiated the Space Race and a revolution in science and education in the United States. The ever-present competition with the Russians provided a positive political background to the Mohole Project, particularly after rumors that the Russians were attempting a similar drilling program. Other aspects favorable to Mohole were that it

6164-475: The oceanographic community and the oil industry . The deeper hole addressed more fundamental questions about the structure of the Earth. Some viewed the more modest initial approach as developing essential engineering and drilling techniques that would later be required for the deep bore hole. Some in the geology and geophysics communities objected to Mohole because, for its enormous cost, they expected that not much would be learned from drilling. They viewed

6298-450: The psychological effects of ultra-longevity, including memory loss, personality change, mental instability, and existential boredom. The initial colonists from the Ares who established a permanent colony. Many of them later become leaders or exemplary figures in the transformation of Mars or its new society. The "First Hundred" actually consisted of 101, with Coyote being smuggled aboard the Ares by Hiroko. An American astronaut , who

6432-562: The "First Man on Mars" from a preceding expedition and rival to Frank Chalmers, the technical leader of the American contingent. Their rivalry is further exacerbated by competing romantic interest in Maya Katarina Toitovna, the leader of the Russian contingent. (In the opening of the book, Chalmers instigates a sequence of events that leads to Boone being assassinated; much of what follows is a retrospective examination of what led to that point.) Earth meanwhile increasingly falls under

6566-483: The "Green" position, while Clayborne's naturalist stance comes to be known as "Red." The actual decision is left to the United Nations Organization of Mars Affairs (UNOMA), which greenlights terraforming, and a series of actions get underway, including the drilling of " moholes " to release subsurface heat; thickening of the atmosphere according to a complicated bio-chemical formula that comes to be known as

6700-413: The "Russell cocktail" after Sax Russell; and the detonation of nuclear explosions deep in the sub-surface permafrost to release water. Additional steps are taken to connect Mars more closely with Earth, including the insertion of an areosynchronous asteroid " Clarke " to which a space elevator cable is tethered. Against the backdrop of this development is another debate, one whose principal instigator

6834-472: The 1940s. Hedberg strongly advocated an initial program for drilling shallower holes, and a second program for drilling to the Moho. Since many members of AMSOC worked for universities or industries developing bids for Mohole, many of the scientists on AMSOC resigned to avoid conflicts of interest . Bascom and his associates formed a corporation, Ocean Science and Engineering, Inc., expecting that they would continue

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6968-509: The Blue Planet, Martian scientists and engineers are soon put to the task of creating asteroid cities; where small planetoids of the Belt are hollowed out, given a spin to produce gravity , and a mini-sun is created to produce light and heat. With a vast increase in sciences, technologies, and spacecraft manufacturing, this begins the "Accelerando"; where humankind spreads its civilization throughout

7102-475: The First Hundred's mission was one of exploration rather than colonization. Buried in the stories are several hints about the eventual fate of the Martian terraforming program. Trans-national Corporations, nicknamed "transnats", are extremely powerful multinational corporations that first emerge in the mid-21st century. Robinson tracks the evolution of the transnats into what he terms "metanats" (metanational). These multinational corporations have grown so large as

7236-426: The First Hundred, Phyllis Boyle (although it is later revealed that she actually opposed Sax's torture). He subsequently suffers from expressive aphasia and has to relearn how to speak and becomes less predictable in his actions. Originally apolitical, this event and a growing attachment to Mars itself leads Russell to become the physical architect of the second revolution. After memory issues become apparent in many of

7370-490: The First Hundred, the ectogenes, are all the product of artificial insemination outside of any human body. Hiroko uses the ova of the female members of the First Hundred as the female genetic material and uses the sperm of the male members of the First Hundred to fertilize the ova. Although Hiroko is seldom at the center of the narrative, her influence is pervasive. She disappears for the final time in Green Mars . Her ultimate fate

7504-761: The House Appropriations Committee and principal supporter of Project Mohole in Congress, died of pancreatic cancer. After his passing Mohole lacked support from the Committee, and Congress discontinued the project in May 1966. Another factor was that by the mid-1960s the Vietnam War was deemed a greater priority for funding. While the termination of Mohole funding brought an end to the Brown and Root contract for drilling to

7638-631: The Joint Oceanographic Institutions Deep Earth Sampling ( JOIDES ) program in May 1964. This event was the formation of the Deep Sea Drilling Project of the National Science Foundation. In October 1964 NSF provided a 2-year contract to the University of Miami to begin planning JOIDES. The first drilling expedition under JOIDES was in spring 1965 to the Blake Plateau off the southeastern United States. The expedition

7772-446: The Mars voyage to reveal this to each other. Their famous argument over terraforming had been a mere continuation of a running conversation they had been having since they still lived on Earth. Through the memory treatment it is also revealed that Phyllis had been lobbying to free Sax from his torturers when she was murdered by Maya. Maya herself declines the treatment. Sax also distinctly recalls Hiroko assisting him in finding his rover in

7906-402: The Martian population unites to reconstitute the government to accept more immigration from Earth, defusing the imminent conflict and ushering in a new golden age of harmony and security on Mars. The Martians is a collection of short stories that takes place over the timespan of the original trilogy of novels, as well as some stories that take place in an alternate version of the novels where

8040-510: The Moho, Congress and the National Science Foundation had already begun to support a separate program of shallow sediment drilling. Well before the termination of Mohole, academic scientists began to work toward establishing drilling programs independent of Mohole. Their interest was drilling in deep-sea sediments, which the CUSS I test had demonstrated to be both feasible and cost effective. Until this test, oceanographers had only been able to sample

8174-403: The Moho. Phase 1 was executed in spring 1961, with innovative ocean engineering culminating in test bore holes. Led by Bascom, Project Mohole contracted with Global Marine of Los Angeles for the use of its oil drill ship CUSS I . The name of the drill ship was derived from the consortium of oil companies that had developed it in 1956, Continental , Union , Superior and Shell Oil. The ship

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8308-628: The Mohole drilling operation. Privately the AMSOC management committee thought the final deep drill to the Moho would cost about $ 40M. Bids were solicited to build the drill ship in March 1965. The bids received in July 1965 requested funds of about $ 125M ($ 1.21 billion in 2023 dollars). The managers of Project Mohole (AMSOC, Brown and Root, and NSF) were shocked by the increased cost, but decided to continue Mohole. National Steel and Shipbuilding in San Diego

8442-464: The Mohole project with a scathing criticism of Mohole purpose and management. He declared, "..this project can readily be one of the greatest and most rewarding scientific ventures ever carried out. I must also say that it can just as readily become instead only a foolish and unjustifiably expensive fiasco if there is not an insistence that it be carried out within a proper concept and in a well-planned, rigorously logical, and scientific manner ...." After

8576-578: The National Science Foundation in March 1957, Walter Munk , a professor of geophysics and oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography , suggested the idea behind the Mohole Project: to drill into the Mohorovicic Discontinuity and obtain a sample of the Earth's mantle . The suggestion, in response to the set of fine, but modest proposals they had just reviewed, was made as a bold new idea and without regard to cost. Harry Hess ,

8710-419: The Russian contingent. The novels hint that she used both wit and seduction to rise through the ranks of the Russian space agency to become the leader of the first colonization mission. After the first revolution, she flees with other members of the First Hundred to the hidden colony in the pole. She becomes a school teacher of the children of the hidden colonists but later becomes a powerful political force. After

8844-566: The Socony Mobil bid the best, calling it "in a class by itself", while further review ranked Global-Aerojet-Shell first, Socony Mobil Oil second, and Brown and Root third. In a decision that was widely viewed as political, NSF selected the construction company Brown and Root as the prime contractor for the project in February 1962. Brown and Root had no experience in drilling, and its home in Houston

8978-741: The Solar System, and eventually beyond. As Venus, the Jovian moons , the Saturnian moons , and eventually Triton are colonized and terraformed in some way, Jackie Boone (the granddaughter of John Boone, the first man to walk on Mars from the first book) takes an interstellar vessel (made out of an asteroid) to another star system twenty light-years away, where they will start to terraform the planets and moons found there. The remaining First Hundred are generally regarded as living legends. Reports of Hiroko's survival are numerous, and purported sightings occur all over

9112-666: The Technical Director for the Mohole Project. The AMSOC Committee, within the National Academy of Sciences, became both advisor and manager for the project. By mid-1959, the NAS Governing Board had given AMSOC authorization to proceed with preliminary studies and Phase 1 of Mohole with a budget of up to $ 2.5M. Project Mohole was to proceed in three phases: Phase 1, an experimental drilling program; Phase 2, an intermediate vessel and drilling program; and Phase 3, drilling to

9246-433: The antithesis of these views. Clayborne is shown to prefer solitude during much of the series, and even her relationship with fellow First Hundred settler Simon (with whom she has a child) is subject to introspective silence in most cases. Simon's death and the estrangement she finds from their son Peter when the latter emerges as a leading moderate "green" drive her to further isolation. Clayborne's relationship with Russell

9380-585: The backdrop of a much-expanded UNTA presence. Boyle engages in a brief sexual relationship with Saxifrage Russell (who despises her) while the latter is living under an assumed identity and is singularly capable of discerning who he really is, turning him over the UNTA. She is later present at a session in Kasei Vallis where Russell is being tortured, and is killed by Maya Toitovna. Later, as his memory recovers, Russell reveals that Boyle had been opposed to his torture and

9514-519: The boundary between the Earth 's crust and mantle . The project was intended to provide an earth science complement to the high-profile Space Race . While such a project was not feasible on land, drilling in the open ocean was more feasible, because the mantle lies much closer to the sea floor . Led by a group of scientists called the American Miscellaneous Society with funding from

9648-458: The colonized solar system, but none are substantiated. Nadia and Art Randolph lead a constitutional congress in which a global system of government is established that leaves most cities and settlements generally autonomous, but subject to a central representative legislature and two systems of courts, one legal and the other environmental. The environmental court is packed with members of the Red faction as

9782-425: The control of transnational corporations (transnats) that come to dominate its governments, particularly smaller nations adopted as "flags of convenience" for extending their influence into Martian affairs. As UNOMA's power erodes, the Mars treaty is renegotiated in a move led by Frank Chalmers; the outcome is impressive but proves short-lived as the transnats find ways around it through loop-holes. Things get worse as

9916-611: The dawn of the 22nd century, following the lives of the remaining First Hundred and their children and grandchildren. Melting ice causes the top of the dome of Hiroko Ai's base under the south pole to collapse, forcing the survivors to escape into a (less literal) underground organization known as the Demimonde. Among the expanded group are the First Hundred's children, the Nisei , a number of whom live in Hiroko's second secret base, Gamete. As unrest in

10050-422: The deaths of Chalmers and Boone, she falls in love with Michel Duval. She suffers heavily from bipolar disorder and from memory-related psychological disorders with growing age, which often lead her to isolate herself from others and sometimes turn violent. Throughout the novels, Maya takes an active political role, helping to keep the surviving First Hundred together during the failed revolution of 2061 and guiding

10184-449: The dominant one at the expense of the goals of Ann's anti-terraforming stance, as Sax and Ann have come to be regarded as the original champions of their respective positions. Sax becomes increasingly preoccupied with seeking forgiveness and approval from Ann, while Ann, depressed and bitter from her many political and personal losses, is suicidal and refuses to accept any more longevity treatments. However, when Sax witnesses Ann collapse into

10318-409: The end of the last novel, humans are taking sub-light colony ships to other stars, taking advantage of the longevity treatments to survive the trip to their destinations. A great portion of Blue Mars is concerned with the effects of extreme longevity on its protagonists, most of whom have lived over two hundred years as a result of repeated longevity treatments. In particular, Robinson speculates on

10452-447: The engineering requirements, while maintaining an arrogance in their management of Mohole. Within two months, Bascom and his Ocean Science and Engineering had such a bad relationship with Brown and Root that they quit the drilling engineering effort. Ocean Science and Engineering had reviewed Brown & Root's "Engineering Plan Report" and declared it "neither a clear plan nor a sound basis for proceeding." The contract made clear that

10586-550: The entire moon (a UNOMA/transnational military base) to decelerate in orbit and destructively aerobrake in Mars' atmosphere, utterly destroying it. In Blue Mars , she falls in love with Art Randolph, with whom she eventually starts a family. After Martian independence, she grudgingly becomes the first president of Mars. A mechanical engineer with anarchist leanings, possibly based on the Russian Machist , Alexander Bogdanov (the character's ancestor) and Arkady Strugatsky , he

10720-406: The ever-changing relationships between the colonists, debates among the colonists regarding both the terraforming of the planet and its future relationship to Earth. The two extreme views on terraforming are personified by Saxifrage "Sax" Russell, who believes their very presence on the planet means some level of terraforming has already begun and that it is humanity's obligation to spread life as it

10854-473: The exploration ship R/V Gulfrex    [ Reasonator search ] , which operated across the globe until 1975, covering some 160,000 miles (140,000 nautical miles; 260,000 kilometers). Phase One proved that both the technology and expertise were available to drill into the Earth's mantle . It was intended as the experimental phase of the project, and, by developing and employing dynamic positioning of ships during drilling, succeeded in drilling to

10988-482: The feelings of others. On the other hand, she apparently has a conscience, risking her life to rescue a man on Mercury and later dying in an attempt to save a distressed flier. The daughter of Nadia and Art. A representative of the Praxis corporation sent to contact the Martian underground movement on a quasi- diplomatic mission in an attempt to create a system of ecological capitalism based on democratic corporations. Like

11122-496: The first generation born on Mars are nisei , and the second-generation Martians are sansei. Third-generation Martians are called yonsei. Kasei is the son of Hiroko and John Boone and the father of Jackie Boone. Kasei is the leader of the Kakaze, a radical Red faction. His name is Japanese for the planet Mars. He dies during the second revolution, after an unsuccessful attack on the second space elevator. The son of Hiroko and Coyote, he

11256-411: The first time with the lowest 13 m (44 feet) consisting of basalt . This lowest layer, of volcanic origin, confirmed the properties derived by the seismic studies. This test drilling program was seen by all as a great success, attracting the attention of both the scientific community and the oil industry. The test was completed in a timely manner and under budget, costing $ 1.7M. Bascom reviewed

11390-550: The geologic science behind the Mohole Project, the required drilling engineering, and the Cuss I test drills in his book A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea , published in 1961. Robert Ballard, in a talk at Wayne State University in 1969, stated that as far as he was concerned, the goal of the project was never to drill down to the Moho. It was to develop the technology to drill holes in deep water with

11524-515: The goal of Mohole was to obtain a sample of the Earth's mantle, while many of the AMSOC scientists, such as Hedberg and Ewing, were strongly advocating an intermediate stage of drilling shallow holes in sediments. There were now four managers of Mohole: Brown and Root, AMSOC, the National Science Foundation, and the National Academy of Sciences, and Mohole was suffering from conflicting and poorly-focused engineering and scientific goals. In November 1963, Hedberg testified during congressional hearings on

11658-414: The ice sheet and displacing the fragments into the ocean. The resultant flooding causes global chaos on Earth, creating the perfect moment for the Martian underground to seize control of Martian society from Earth. Following a series of largely bloodless coups, an extremist faction of Reds bombs a dam near Burroughs, the major city where the remaining United Nations forces have concentrated, in order to force

11792-454: The journal Science commented in 1964, "There is a lengthy and unattractive trail of bickering, bitterness, and shortsightedness, involving some of the leading figures of American science and science administration." The drilling that was to occur in the second phase of the project never took place. Scientists involved with Mohole had differing and irreconcilable views as to the scientific goals of Mohole. Part of this disagreement resulted from

11926-482: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Blue_Mars&oldid=875615665 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Blue Mars (novel) The three novels are Red Mars (1992), Green Mars (1993), and Blue Mars (1996). The Martians (1999)

12060-573: The mantle from the ocean would be more feasible. The idea for the project was initially developed by the informal group of scientists known as the American Miscellaneous Society (AMSOC), including Hess, Munk, Gordon Lill, Roger Revelle , Harry Ladd, Joshua Tracey, William Rubey, Maurice Ewing , and Arthur Maxwell. Lill, who headed the Geophysics Branch of the Office of Naval Research , had formed this whimsically-named society to assist in processing

12194-445: The mismanagement and possible political motivations behind the selection of Brown and Root as primary contractor. The committee deemed the construction of the drilling platform "unwise" and urged no further expenditures. Congressman Thomas was able to reverse this recommendation in conference. The possible political influences on the choice of Brown and Root continued to be revealed. In February 1966 Representative Thomas, Chairman of

12328-435: The mission and that he was allowed to join the colonization trip despite his manipulations, Chalmers further despises Boone because of Toitovna's affection. His dislike culminates in his involvement in a plot to assassinate Boone, which ultimately succeeds and allows him to take over handling major affairs on Mars. This ultimately becomes his undoing, as his ruthless governance and aggressive diplomatic work backfire on him during

12462-561: The multinational control over Mars's affairs grows, various groups start to form with different aims and methods. Watching these groups evolve from Earth, the CEO of the Praxis Corporation sends a representative, Arthur Randolph, to organize the resistance movements. This culminates into the Dorsa Brevia agreement, in which nearly all the underground factions take part. Preparations are made for

12596-524: The nations of Earth start to clash over limited resources, expanding debt, and population growth as well as restrictions on access to a new longevity treatment developed by Martian scientists—one that holds the promise of lifespans into the hundreds of years. In 2061, with Boone dead and exploding immigration threatening the fabric of Martian society, Bogdanov launches a revolution against what many now view as occupying transnat troops operating only loosely under an UNOMA rubber-stamp approval. Initially successful,

12730-434: The new constitution, Nadia is elected the first president of Mars and serves competently, although she does not enjoy politics. She and Art work together closely, and eventually fall in love and have a child. Sax Russell devotes himself to various scientific projects, all the while continuing to recover from the effects of his stroke. Since the second revolution, he feels enormous guilt that his pro-terraforming position became

12864-448: The novel is a detailed analysis of philosophical, political, personal, economic, and geological experiences of the characters. The story weaves back and forth from character to character, providing a picture of Mars as seen by them. Sax, alias Stephen, eventually becomes romantically involved with Phyllis, who had survived the events of 2061 from the end of the first novel, but she discovers his true identity and has him arrested. Members of

12998-495: The other metanationals, it takes on intensive economic and political ties with governments, but Praxis aims for partnerships rather than exploitive relationships. Bedouin nomads who originally emigrated from Egypt and respected figures in the Arab Martian community. Zeyk is a close friend of Chalmers. His eidetic memory becomes a minor plot point. The founder of Praxis, one of the huge multinational corporations. He embraces

13132-620: The president of the National Academy of Sciences Frederick Seitz reprimanded him for his testimony, Hedberg resigned from AMSOC. In January 1964, Lill agreed to become the director for Project Mohole at the National Science Foundation, and the American Miscellaneous Society dissolved itself. AMSOC suggested new committees for the scientific aspects of drilling be established at the National Academy of Sciences. Project Mohole attracted criticism that such an expensive project would undermine smaller science projects. The project

13266-427: The project as an engineering stunt of little scientific value. During the CUSS I test and shortly thereafter, the Mohole project was managed by the National Academy of Sciences, with AMSOC acting as an advisor. The informal AMSOC group was insufficient to manage what was expected to be a large project in its next phase, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) took over management of the project in late 1961. AMSOC

13400-405: The quick decline, while attending the wake of another First Hundred member. Russell speculates that Michel's quick decline was brought on by the shock of seeing Maya fail to remember Frank Chalmers (who was killed while escaping security forces in the first revolution) upon looking at a treasured photo of him on her refrigerator. As a result of this and Russell's own problems with memory, he organizes

13534-444: The remaining first hundred including Sax he begins work on an ambitious project to gather the remaining first hundred and have them try an experimental treatment he helped to develop. It is after this that Sax realizes his persistent attempts to please Ann are actually because he is also secretly in love with Ann Clayborne, who cannot stand him at first, but after decades on Mars, eventually reconciles. Saxifrage means "stonebreaker" and

13668-459: The revolution of 2061. In the final chapters of Red Mars , Chalmers flees with Toitovna and other members of the First Hundred to join the hidden colonists at the polar ice cap but dies along the way when he is caught outside their vehicle during an aquifer flood in Valles Marineris . An emotional woman who is at the center of a love triangle between Boone and Chalmers, she begins as head of

13802-450: The revolution proves infeasible on the basis of both a greater-than-expected willingness of the Earth troops to use violence and the extreme vulnerability of life on a planet without a habitable atmosphere. A series of exchanges sees the cutting of the space elevator, bombardment of several Martian cities (including the city where Bogdanov is himself organizing the rebellion; he is killed), the destruction of Phobos and its military complex, and

13936-472: The second revolution. As Earth is heavily flooded by the sudden melting of the Antarctic ice cap, the once mighty metanats are brought to their knees; as the Praxis Corporation paves a new way of "democratic businesses". Mars becomes the "Head" of the system, giving universal healthcare, free education, and an abundance of food. However, this sparks illegal immigration from Earth, so to ease the population strain on

14070-419: The security forces to evacuate. The entire city is flooded and the population of the city has to walk a staggeringly long distance in the open Martian atmosphere (which just barely has the temperature, atmospheric pressure, and gas mixture to support human life) to Libya Station, in order to resettle in other locations. With this, control of Mars is finally wrested away from Earth with minimal loss of life, leaving

14204-452: The seismic studies. The layers were of geologic interest in their own right. Five holes were drilled, the deepest to 183 m (601 feet) below the sea floor in 3,600 m (11,700 feet) of water. This drilling was unprecedented: not because of the hole's depth, but because an untethered platform in deep water was able to drill into the sea floor. Also, the core samples proved to be valuable, penetrating through Miocene -age sediments for

14338-470: The series, dying late in Blue Mars of heart arrhythmia when Maya displays signs of very heavy temporary memory loss. Nearly sixty when he arrives on Mars, a Russian biological scientist who is the oldest of the First Hundred. Taneev heads medical treatment and most research projects on Mars, becoming famous as the creator of the gerontological treatment used to regenerate human cellular systems and ushering in

14472-427: The ship within surrounding moorings using acoustic techniques, and guiding the motors by a central joy stick, CUSS I could maintain a position within a radius of 180 m (600 feet). Such unprecedented position keeping enabled the drilling to occur in deep water. With William Riedel as chief scientist, initial test drillings into the sea floor occurred off Guadalupe Island , Mexico in March and April 1961. The event

14606-448: The ship. The mission is a joint American–Russian undertaking, and seventy of the First Hundred are drawn from these countries (except, for example, Michel Duval, a French psychologist assigned to observe their behavior). The book details the trip out, construction of the first settlement on Mars (eventually called Underhill) by Russian engineer Nadia Cherneshevsky, as well as establishing colonies on Mars' hollowed out asteroid-moon Phobos ,

14740-514: The sole controller of the interplanetary market . As the Mars trilogy draws to a close in the mid-23rd century, the metanational corporations are forced by a global catastrophe to concede more democratic powers to their workforces. Although there are many transnational and metanational corporations mentioned, two play an active role in the development of the plotline: Praxis, a largely benevolent and relatively democratic firm, and Subarashī, which plays

14874-503: The successful revolutions that occur decades later, despite her psychological problems. A Russian engineer who started out building nuclear reactors in Siberia , during the voyage and initial exploration of Mars, she does her best to avoid the squabbles of the other members of the First Hundred. Instead, she busies herself by building the first permanent habitation of Mars, Underhill, using programmed automated robots. She also helps to construct

15008-477: The terraforming of Mars and the extreme longevity of the characters in both novels. Red Mars starts in 2026 with the first colonial voyage to Mars aboard the Ares , the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever built and home to a crew who are to be the first hundred Martian colonists. The ship was built from clustered space shuttle external fuel tanks which, instead of reentering Earth's atmosphere, had been boosted into orbit until enough had been amassed to build

15142-565: The thin Martian atmosphere, and to produce a working planetary-biosphere. By Blue Mars , GE is commonly being done on humans, willingly, to help them better adapt to the new worlds; to breathe thinner air (e.g. Russell), or to see better in the dimmer light of the outer planets. The books also speculate on the colonization of other planets and moons in the Solar System , and include descriptions of settlements or terraforming efforts on Callisto , Mercury , Titania , Miranda and Venus . Toward

15276-424: The time. Further, as people age, they begin to show susceptibility to strange, fatal conditions which have no apparent explanation and are resistant to any treatment. Most common is the event that comes to be known as the "quick decline", where a person of extremely advanced age and in apparently good health suffers a sudden fatal heart arrhythmia and dies abruptly. The exact mechanism is never explained. Michel dies of

15410-416: The trilogy. Boone's character portrayal is complex; in one light, Boone is a stereotypically simple, heroic figure, an everyman hero: his first words on his first trip to Mars are "Well, here we are." He is almost uniformly cheerful and good-natured, and approaches everything he undertakes with hale bonhomie. But later in Red Mars , Robinson switches to Boone's point of view , and it is in this section that it

15544-411: The underground and an unofficial coordinator of a developing gift economy . Since the trilogy covers over 200 years of human history, later immigrants and the children and grandchildren of the First Hundred eventually become important characters in their own right. The Martians use the same terminology for different generations as Japanese Americans . People who immigrated from Earth are called issei,

15678-438: The underground launch a daring rescue from the prison facility where Sax suffers torture and interrogation that causes him to have a stroke; Maya kills Phyllis in the process of the rescue. The book ends on a major event which is a sudden catastrophic rise in Earth's global sea levels not caused primarily by any greenhouse effect but by the eruption of a chain of volcanoes underneath the ice of West Antarctica , disintegrating

15812-408: The unleashing of a great flood of torrential groundwater freed by nuclear detonations. By the end, most of the First Hundred are dead, and virtually all who remain have fled to a hidden refuge established years earlier by Ai and her followers. (One exception is Phyllis Boyle, who has allied herself with the transnats; she is on Clarke when the space elevator cable is cut and sent flying out of orbit to

15946-454: The upper 10 m of deep-sea sediment. In early 1962 Cesare Emiliani from the University of Miami proposed a drilling vessel and program called "LOCO" for "LOng COres". Scientists from the University of Miami, Lamont, Princeton, Woods Hole, and Scripps agreed that such a program was of great interest and that it should be independent of AMSOC and Project Mohole. During this time Revelle sought to have SIO as prime contractor or administrator of

16080-438: The weary survivors hopeful about the prospects of their newfound political autonomy. Blue Mars takes its title from the stage of terraforming that has allowed atmospheric pressure and temperature to increase so that liquid water can exist on the planet's surface, forming rivers and seas. It follows closely in time from the end of Green Mars and has a much wider scope than the previous two books, covering an entire century after

16214-404: The work demonstrated in the CUSS I test. Gordon Lill resigned from AMSOC, since his employer was Lockheed and was vying to become the prime contractor. Roger Revelle similarly resigned. NSF declined a bid from Scripps as prime contractor, leaving it with bids from Socony Mobil Oil Co., Global-Aerojet-Shell, Brown and Root, Zapata Off-shore Co, and General Electric Co. A review panel at NSF rated

16348-418: Was a separate appropriation from Congress, however, and did not affect existing science programs. After the initial Phase 1 success, at relatively modest cost, the project grew in expense. The Brown and Root bid was for $ 35M plus a fee of $ 1.8M to manage the project and begin organizing the engineering efforts to build the Mohole drilling platform. These costs did not include those for the drilling ship and

16482-565: Was awarded the contract to build the drill ship in September 1965. At the time of the termination of Project Mohole in 1966, the project had spent $ 57M. By 1963, numerous articles ridiculing Mohole and its management troubles had appeared in the popular press. An article in Newsweek was entitled "Project No Hole", while another article in Fortune was entitled "How NSF Got Lost in Mohole." There

16616-478: Was close the congressional district of congressman Albert Thomas , chair of the House Appropriations Committee . Brown and Root was also a major political contributor to vice-president Lyndon Johnson . Brown and Root proved to be troublesome to the existing Mohole scientists and engineers. To those that had been involved with Mohole, Brown and Root lacked understanding of the scientific goals and

16750-406: Was demanding that he be released at the time that Maya's team freed him. A Trinidadian stowaway, he is a friend and supporter of Hiroko, and a fervent anarchist communist . Present in Red Mars only as a stowaway who eventually blends effortlessly into the Martian background, he is not even identified as anything more than Coyote until the beginning of Green Mars . He becomes a leading figure in

16884-482: Was documented by John Steinbeck for an article in Life Magazine . The location was determined based on world-wide seismic refraction studies by George G. Shor and others, and its proximity to San Diego , where CUSS I was located. A recent such study by Shor near Guadalupe Island had showed that the sea floor of the area had interesting layering features, suggesting the drilling could confirm properties derived from

17018-510: Was led by Lamont on a borrowed ship Caldrill. In June 1966 Scripps won the prime contract as the operating institution for NSF's Deep Sea Drilling Project. Construction of new dedicated scientific drill ship Glomar Challenger began in 1967, becoming operational in August 1968. The oil industry was similarly motivated to begin exploration programs of sediments in continental margins. In 1967, on Hedberg's suggestion, Gulf Oil Exploration launched

17152-721: Was little public sympathy for Project Mohole. In 1963, the Congressional Bureau of the Budget wrote to the director of the National Science Foundation Alan Waterman . Highlighting the increasing, uncertain costs, the technical uncertainties, and the "unique administrative problems," the Bureau urged NSF to withhold further financial commitments. In the Fall of 1963 NSF's Senate appropriations committee began hearings on

17286-613: Was rejected because of the informal nature of the originating organization, and it had to be resubmitted as a proposal from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS); several members of AMSOC were also members of NAS. The proposal resulted in a $ 15,000 grant in June 1958 for a feasibility study of Mohole, and Willard N. Bascom , an ocean engineer, oceanographer, and geologist, became the Executive Secretary of AMSOC. On October 4, 1957

17420-480: Was retained as an advisor to NSF. During late 1961 and early 1962, NSF sought bids from universities and private industry for a prime contractor for Mohole. Hollis Hedberg , a geologist from Gulf Oil Corporation and professor of geology at Princeton University , chaired the AMSOC Mohole committee from December 1961 to November 1963. Hedberg had significant experience in drilling in the oil fields of Venezuela in

17554-430: Was selected. A critical dispute was whether Mohole should begin at a modest, conservative pace with a program of drilling shallow bore holes in sediments, or whether it should proceed at once to drill the deep hole to the Moho. The issue was critical since the two approaches required differing engineering, management, and allocation of resources. There was significant interest in a program of shallower holes from those in

17688-754: Was the first big science project in Earth Sciences and that it was a new idea distinct from the many space programs that were underway as a result of the Sputnik crisis ; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established in 1958. With the new funding, AMSOC formed three panels in 1958: the Drilling Panel, the Site Selection Panel, and the Scientific Objectives and Measurements Panel, and in April 1959 Bascom became

17822-403: Was the first human to walk on Mars in the year 2020. He returns a public hero and uses his considerable influence to lobby for a second mission, this time one of colonization . Boone received a large amount of radiation on his first trip to Mars, more than the recommended dosage according to medical regulations. However, his celebrity status allows him to skirt this. On the second voyage, Boone

17956-403: Was to be a technological test bed for the nascent offshore oil industry . CUSS I was one of the first vessels in the world capable of drilling in deep water, though it had been limited to depths of 100 m or a few hundred feet. Project Mohole expanded its operational depth by inventing what is now known as dynamic positioning . By mounting four large outboard motors on the ship, positioning

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