[draft][RFC] Helium

[robkelk]

Here's a shot at one of the FenWiki stub pages that I promised to flesh out. It could use a few more ideas. Mind the wiki markup...

---

The [[Pulper] city of '''[[Helium]''' is located on the northern rim of '''Valles Marineris''' near '''Ophir Labes''', on '''[[Mars]'''.

Helium is the most cosmopolitan of the Martian cities, partly because there aren't enough Pulpers to fill an entire city and partly because the Barsoomian subfaction pulled out all the stops in creating ''the'' ultimate fantasy Martian experience.

==History==

Helium was founded in late 2010 by sword-and-sandal [[Pulpers] who saw their chance to live out their dreams in a big way. They took their city's name from the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, but don't limit their lifestyle to just those works - while the city is inhabited by Fen who live the crystals-and-togas lifestyle, it's also inhabited by Fen who dress and act more "normally".

The city was built on the edge of Valles Marineris because the Pulpers hoped the [[Mars Terraforming Project] would flood Valles Marineris and create a "Grand Canal" for them that way. (The Hellas-to-[[Port Lowell|Port-Lowell] Grand Canal project upset the city founders when they found out about it.)

==Neighbourhoods==

Helium is a city composed of soaring towers, the tallest (at 500 m base-to-top) and oldest being the '''Jeddak's Tower''' in the city's center. Originally a multi-use structure, the Jeddak's Tower has become the administrative and commercial hub of the city. Offices of note in the Jeddak's Tower include the Helium City Hall (at the top of the spire), the Helium Police DepartmentThe Helium Police Department works well with the [[Space Patrol]. Its Chief Inspector is [[Natsuko Aki], who is definitely ''not'' a Pulper; the (small) local [[Boskonians|organized-criminal element] go out of their way to avoid drawing her attention., the Helium Opal Exchange (which serves as a broker for [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/29 ... discovery/ Martian opals] mined from the floors and walls of Valles Marineris), Okar Guide Services and Orange Planet (two tour-guide businesses).

West of the Jeddak's Tower foo - need some ideas here, but remember there's the end of a peninsula to worry about

South of the Jeddak's Tower is the main residential and commercial zone, where the majority of the city's inhabitants live, work, and play.

The city's hydroponics farms are located to the east of the Jeddak's Tower, where they have room to expand along the Valles Marineris as the city grows. The city's [[Juvies] tend to live in this part of town, happy to remain "farmers in the sky" and stay out of city politics as much as possible.

The city's light industry is located north of the Jeddak's Tower, the farthest it can be placed from Valles Marineris and still be in the city. Many of the industries cater to the shipbuilding trade - while the companies aren't as big as their counterparts in [[Utopia Planitia] or [[Mos Eisley], they do a good business serving the ships registered out of Helium's aerospace port. Helium is also foo - need some ideas here

Further north is Helium's aerospace port, which is relatively large for a Martian facility and overdeveloped for the city's current needs. As a result, hangar feesTie-down service is also offered, but it is not recommended due to the severity of the Martian sandstorms. are among the lowest on Mars; this attracts Fen with small bank accounts and large shipsSuch as [[Ramona Jackson] and ''[[Avril Arrow]''. It has also attracted Operation [[Great Justice], which maintains a sizable naval depot at Helium.

A light-rail passenger line runs exactly north-south from the aerospace port to the edge of Valles Marineris, with a stop in the base of the Jeddak's Tower. This line has become the base line for the city surveyors' maps of Helium.

The '''Jedwar's Tower''', currently under construction, is located exactly 75 miles due north of the Jeddak's Tower. It is intended to become a twin to the Jeddak's Tower and the hub of "Lesser Helium", with the current city of Helium being renamed "Greater Helium" and the light-industry sector movedPossibly by turning it briefly into Unreal Estate from Greater Helium to Lesser Helium. There are some concerns whether there is any current need for a twin city to Helium, but the city founders have always taken the long view.

==Stories==

Helium is one of the cities mentioned in ''[[Captain's Blog].''

==Notes==

{{places}}
[[Categorylaces in Fenspace]
[[Category:Mars]
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[M Fnord]

The [[Pulper] city of '''[[Helium]''' is located on the northern rim of '''Valles Marineris''' near '''Ophir Labes''', on '''[[Mars]'''.

So I was thinking about this, dicking around with a little quick research on Barsoom, and the thought occurred to me: in Fenspace, authenticity of concept is everything. And that goes double for the Barsoomians, who as a group have been obsessive about ERB's work for longer than any of the Fenspace writers have been alive.

What does this have to do with Helium? Well, for a true and faithful recreation of Helium, the city wouldn't be anywhere near Valles Marineris, it'd be in the southern hemisphere, on or near the edge of the Hellas basin.

Anybody up for moving Helium? I don't think this would cause huge canonical disruption - the city's appearances in the story material are fairly sketchy, and we'd just have to edit a few wiki articles for the location change.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[robkelk]

Important question - how much work would it be to build a canal past Hellas|Helium? The city's location is less important than its access to water, after all...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[M Fnord]

You could probably run a canal north to Isidis or Utopia if you felt so inclined - be tricky though since the water would have to flow uphill through the highlands. Conversely, there's plenty of potential watersheds feeding into Hellas.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Dartz]

It's a few thousand kilometres North to the ocean... if I'm reading the maps right. But Hellas itself is so deep (7km in parts) that rainwater running off the surrounding highlands would probably naturally begin to fill the basin... once it starts raining on Mars anyway. It'd take a while for it to full naturally... mind.

But it'd also take just as long to build a thousand-kilometre long canal deep enough. It'd need to be a couple of kilometres deep at points.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[Black Aeronaut]

But it'd also take just as long to build a thousand-kilometre long canal deep enough. It'd need to be a couple of kilometres deep at points.

This is why locks were invented.  Your canal may not flow in the direction you want, but you can still float traffic a fair distance between locks without having to dig kilometers deep.
Also, using locks presents us the opportunity to have the Martian equivalent to the the Boom Towns of the American West.  These towns started popping up like daisies to support the westward expansion of railway lines - the most famous one of all being the Intercontinental Railroad which joined the growing eastern and western railway networks of the USA.  I can easily imagine a similar undertaking on Mars and the potential for 'Wild West' fen.

[Foxboy]

Well we already have Space Ninja and Space Pirates, why NOT Space Cowboys? (Just don't call them gangsters of love....)
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Dartz]

The thing with locks is that you needs some way to feed a massive quantity of water to the top of the canal. Water only flows down, unless you pump it up to an altitude. The Panama Canal doesn't have this problem because it's fed by Gatun lake, which is filled by a dammed river. A canal would need a source of water at the top somewhere... and even so, it's still going to require massive excavations. Think of the Panama Canal again. It's not all one cut straight through. Most of the Canal is also made up of Gatun lake.

It'd be a bigger job than the actual terraforming.

Could it be build as an underground sea-level tunnel? No need to dig out kilometres of rock to reach the sky. You could also have a whole underground society develop along the way, powered by the water flowing down from the North to the South. Wild West in a tunnel, under an artificial sun?
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[M Fnord]

You'd still be digging out kilometers of rock to make the waterway anything more than a glorified storm drain, though. Either way you're going to have to cut through way more rock (and god only knows what else, like permafrost or aquifers) than might really be worth it. The Hellas-to-Lowell canal has the same problems & might end up being a white elephant, even in the Age of Miracles.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[LynnInDenver]

I suspect that it might've been founded by a group that was trying to be somewhat "practical" in their approach to the material, mostly in the whole idea that anywhere else, they'd have to actually dig the bloody canals. The older timers probably gripe all the time that, just to start with, they're not in the right frakkin' hemisphere, never mind the incredible undertaking of actually digging a canal where it's 'supposed' to be.

It would certainly provide for a generational split within the faction, at least at the extreme edges of opinions.

On the other hand, while I have an 'iron in the fire' for the area, it can be altered to present a settlement there other than Helium itself. ^^
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor

[M Fnord]

I dunno if I buy that. I mean, fen are some of the most pedantic and obsessive-compulsive bastards out there - and that's in real life. Fenspace fen have to be fifty times worse, since they can make (some of) their fantasies reality.

Besides, it's not as if Mars is bereft of water features. There's plenty of dry channels that will turn into rivers once the terraforming's done. Park the town on top of one and call it the Grand Canal.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[robkelk]

and the potential for 'Wild West' fen.

Or "Wild Wild West" Fen, allied with the Sparks. (Yes, I know - late clockpunk, not early steampunk... but at that point there's overlap in the memes.) Maybe they know where Castle Heterodyne is?

why NOT Space Cowboys? (Just don't call them gangsters of love....)

Some people call them "Maurice"...

Besides, it's not as if Mars is bereft of water features. There's plenty of dry channels that will turn into rivers once the terraforming's done. Park the town on top of one and call it the Grand Canal.

Which is exactly why Valles Marineris was chosen in the first place; there's no grander dry channel on Mars.

(Speaking of Valles Marineris - if we're going to be true to the Barsoom novels, it'll have to be filled in, and Olympus Mons will have to be leveled. Neither were in the books, after all. )

So... no matter where the city's going to end up, I'd still like some feedback on what I've written about it...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[robkelk]

Y'know, I should never have asked about the water access - because I already had an answer:

(The Hellas-to-[[Port Lowell|Port-Lowell] Grand Canal project upset the city founders when they found out about it.)

That canal's already in the FenWiki, and I didn't put it there...

My concerns about the move are null and void. So, the question shifts from "is there water access?" to "how are they building this canal?"...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[M Fnord]

Which is exactly why Valles Marineris was chosen in the first place; there's no grander dry channel on Mars.

Yeah, but that's like calling the Mediterranean a river, and... oh to hell with it.

I'd still like some feedback on what I've written about it...

I get the idea of the basic layout of the city - the Scarlet Tower as the "castle" in the center of town with the rest of the city arrayed out in a radial pattern. It's a little brief, though, especially in the description of the architecture; if we're calling Helium one of the crown jewels of Fenspace, then we ought to wax lyrical about what the soaring towers look like.

So, the question shifts from "is there water access?" to "how are they building this canal?"...

In the case of the Lowel-to-Hellas canal, the answer is "giant space laser." No, really - I stuck that in as a nod to RGB Mars, in which a Grand Canal is carved using a giant orbiting mirror that melted a channel from Hellas to Isidis, IIRC. The Fen canal is actually a lot dumber, since Airy Crater is way up in the southern highlands with no access to water that isn't underground. So yeah.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[robkelk]

I get the idea of the basic layout of the city - the Scarlet Tower as the "castle" in the center of town with the rest of the city arrayed out in a radial pattern. It's a little brief, though, especially in the description of the architecture; if we're calling Helium one of the crown jewels of Fenspace, then we ought to wax lyrical about what the soaring towers look like.

Okay, so I'm on the right track. Now I can start filling in some of the details - the purple prose comes later, once I know what we're talking about.

(And we'll have to move the Opal Exchange if Helium's leaving Valles Marineris... Need to come up with another high-end business to take its place.)

In the case of the Lowel-to-Hellas canal, the answer is "giant space laser." No, really - I stuck that in as a nod to RGB Mars, in which a Grand Canal is carved using a giant orbiting mirror that melted a channel from Hellas to Isidis, IIRC. The Fen canal is actually a lot dumber, since Airy Crater is way up in the southern highlands with no access to water that isn't underground. So yeah.

We'll just have to use that giant frikkin' laser... er, giant space laser to carve out a few more canals, then.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[robkelk]

Looking at the map, I can't see anybody building anything more than a temporary camp in Hellas - it's going to be under a few kilometers more water than Utopia Planitia will be.

Just north of the northern edge of Hellas Planitia, though, would be a good place to put Greater Helium. Especially if we put Lesser Helium 75 miles north of that, along the canal to Isidis Planitia. (It looks like we're going to have to dig the Isidis/Hellas canal in order to have water to pump from the Hellas Sea into the Hellas/Airy-0 Grand Canal. Good thing the John Carter stories already mention water-pumping stations along all the Barsoomian canals...) Carve the canal from Hellas to Isidis, and build the twin cities of Helium at and near the southern terminus.

This means re-organizing Helium, of course...

I'm thinking that "light industry" is the most that Fen would put on a planet's surface, while "heavy industry" stays out of the gravity wells and away from the ecosystems. For example, Kuat Drive Yards is in Mos Eisley, while Hephaestus Mining and Metalworking is in the Main Belt. I'm also thinking that the Boskone War would have taught the Fen that they can't rely on "factory farming" - they need at least a basic-nutrition food supply that can't be blockaded close to each large population center. (That's the reasoning behind parking Wonderland at L5.) So... residential, commercial, tourism, agricultural, administration, light industry... what am I missing? And exactly what commercial and light-industrial is present?

(As for Marineris/Ophir, how about "New Adelaide"? It could have a large Aussie ex-pat population, serve the Marineris opal miners and the Noctis Labyrinthus colony, and host the New Adelaide Opal Exchange as its largest current business. Undines wouldn't show up en masse until after the flooding of the Marineris Sea, but there's be at least a few small tour companies present even in 2014.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Dartz]

Defense is missing. After the war, I'd say most major population areas would probably be capable of at least making themselves 'distasteful' to any would be raiders. A few Ak-Ak guns, maybe an airbase, and citizen's milicia... enough until whatever other armed forces are on Mars are able to mobilise.

It's funny... running a little on from that, it'd make sense if ground-based factions on Mars have some Common Defence Policy in place.... which some would already claim is the first step on the slippery slope to federalisation under Port Lowell.

Light industry on the whole can be anything from electronics work, to housing fabrication.... or general consumer stuff people need like clothes, skintight marssuits, duct tape, handcuffs... random stuff to serve the needs of people living on the planet that're cheaper to manufacture on the ground, than ship all the way in from Earth.

What about New Sydney instead of New Adelaide... if only because when Marineris floods, it's going to become a coastal city, or near enough to it.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[Star Ranger4]

works for me....
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[M Fnord]

Just north of the northern edge of Hellas Planitia, though, would be a good place to put Greater Helium. Especially if we put Lesser Helium 75 miles north of that, along the canal to Isidis Planitia. (It looks like we're going to have to dig the Isidis/Hellas canal in order to have water to pump from the Hellas Sea into the Hellas/Airy-0 Grand Canal. Good thing the John Carter stories already mention water-pumping stations along all the Barsoomian canals...) Carve the canal from Hellas to Isidis, and build the twin cities of Helium at and near the southern terminus.

This was the general area I was looking at in terms of Helium's location. Bonus that it's within ~100 miles of the "canonical" Helium, and on or near the coast of Hellas:


(Using Franz Blok's Modified Mars map as my default for post-terraforming ecosystems and coastlines)

(It looks like we're going to have to dig the Isidis/Hellas canal in order to have water to pump from the Hellas Sea into the Hellas/Airy-0 Grand Canal. Good thing the John Carter stories already mention water-pumping stations along all the Barsoomian canals...)

Honestly I favor just retconning the Hellas-Airy canal and going with the Hellas-Isidis canal as "the" Grand Canal.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[robkelk]

What about New Sydney instead of New Adelaide... if only because when Marineris floods, it's going to become a coastal city, or near enough to it.

I was thinking New Adelaide because Adelaide is closer to the Australian opal mines than Sydney is. But that's a minor point...

This was the general area I was looking at in terms of Helium's location. Bonus that it's within ~100 miles of the "canonical" Helium, and on or near the coast of Hellas

I'm thinking somewhat east of that, closer to (or possibly on) the smaller impact crater on the northern edge of the Hellas impact crater. That's closer to the relatively-low-lying lands between Hellas and Isidis, which puts it directly on the Canal instead of just near the Canal, and it's still pretty close to the "canonical" Helium.

Honestly I favor just retconning the Hellas-Airy canal and going with the Hellas-Isidis canal as "the" Grand Canal.

The founding fathers of Helium thank Port Lowell for the concession on the name... and on the canal itself.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[robkelk]

Take two, still in draft but with just a bit of poetry... and a brand-new stub page to fill the hole left near the equator.

---

The [[Pulper] city of '''Helium''', perched majestically on the northern rim of '''Hellas Planitia''', guards the southern mouth of the Hellas-to-Isidis '''Grand Canal'''. It is the most cosmopolitan of the Martian cities, partly because there aren't enough Pulpers to fill an entire city and partly because the Barsoomian subfaction pulled out all the stops in creating ''the'' ultimate fantasy Martian experience.

==History==

Helium was founded in late 2010 by sword-and-sandal [[Pulpers] who saw their chance to live out their dreams in a big way. They took their city's name from the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, but don't limit their lifestyle to just those works - while the city is inhabited by Fen who live the crystals-and-togas lifestyle, it's also inhabited by Fen who dress and act more "normally".

The city was built on the edge of Hellas Planitia because the Pulpers knew the [[Mars Terraforming Project] would flood the Hellas Basin, and the Hellas-to-Isidis Grand Canal was the first major artificial waterway planned for the planet.

==Neighbourhoods==

Helium is a city composed of soaring towers, the tallest (currently at 500 m base-to-top, but built to support a "topless" mile-high structure) and oldest being the '''Jeddak's Tower'''or '''Scarlet Tower''' at the mouth of the canal. Originally a marker for the Grand Canal's orbital lasers to aim beside, the Jeddak's Tower has grown to become the administrative and commercial hub of the city. Offices of note in the Jeddak's Tower include the Helium City Hall (currently at the top of the spire), the Helium Police DepartmentThe Helium Police Department works well with the [[Space Patrol]. Its Chief Inspector is [[Natsuko Aki], who is definitely ''not'' a Pulper; the (small) local [[Boskonians|organized-criminal element] go out of their way to avoid drawing her attention., the Helium Hilton (the local branch of the hotel chain), Okar Guide Services and Orange Planet (two tour-guide businesses). The base of the Jeddak's Tower houses the local installations of the [[Mars Terraforming Project], including offices, "atmosphere plants" that help regulate the composition of the surrounding air, and pumps designed to draw water from Hellas into the canal system.

West of the Jeddak's Tower is the main residential and commercial zone, where the majority of the city's inhabitants live, work, and play. The "Topless Towers of Helium" are not yet truly topless, but have been designed to have their transparent roofs removed once there is sufficient atmosphere to support the ubiquitous rooftop gardens.

Eventually, the area south of the Jeddak's Tower will be home to the city's docks, jutting out into the Hellas Sea, but that development must wait until the Hellas Basin has filled with water. For the nonce, this land is mostly undeveloped, with a small Great Justice training base the largest facility.

East of the Jeddak's Tower, across the Grand Canal from the rest of the city, one can find the city's hydroponics farms. A multitude of spans are planned to cross the Canal to allow food to be brought into the city, but only a mere handful exist currently.

The farms are on the far side of the canal from the Scarlet Tower so that they have room to expand along the canal as the city grows. The city's [[Juvies] tend to live in this part of town, happy to remain "farmers in the sky" and stay out of city politics as much as possible.

The city's light industry is located north of the Jeddak's Tower, the farthest it can be placed from Hellas Planitia and still be in the city. Many of the industries cater to the shipbuilding trade - while the companies aren't as big as their counterparts in [[Utopia Planitia] or [[Mos Eisley], they do a good business serving the ships registered out of Helium's aerospace port. The businesses of Helium also turn a profit customizing survival and colonization gear for those who wish to explore or settle in the southeastern hemisphere of Mars.

Further north is Helium's aerospace port, which is relatively large for a Martian facility and overdeveloped for the city's current needs. As a result, hangar feesTie-down service is also offered, but it is not recommended due to the severity of the Martian sandstorms. are among the lowest on Mars; this attracts Fen with small bank accounts and large shipsSuch as [[Ramona Jackson] and ''[[Avril Arrow]''. It has also attracted Operation [[Great Justice], which maintains a sizable naval depot at Helium.

A light-rail passenger line runs along the canal from the Jeddak's Tower, past the spaceport, to the '''Jedwar's Tower''' exactly 75 miles from the Jeddak's Tower. This tower, currently under construction, is intended to become a twin to the Jeddak's TowerComplete with atmosphere plants, canal-maintenance water pumps in the basements, and a planned "topless" observation deck a mile above the ground. and the hub of "Lesser Helium", with the current city of Helium being renamed "Greater Helium" and the light-industry sector movedPossibly by turning it briefly into Unreal Estate from Greater Helium to Lesser Helium. There are some concerns whether there is any current need for a twin city to Helium, but the city founders have always taken the long view.

==Stories==

Helium is one of the cities mentioned in ''[[Captain's Blog].''

==Notes==

{{places}}
[[Categorylaces in Fenspace]
[[Category:Mars]

---

{{stub}}

The free city of '''New Adelaide''' (name subjet to change) is located on the northern rim of '''Valles Marineris''' near '''Ophir Labes''', on '''[[Mars]'''.

It is best known for the '''New Adelaide Opal Exchange''' (which serves as a broker for [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/29 ... discovery/ Martian opals] mined from the floors and walls of Valles Marineris), the '''Australian Consular Mission''' to Mars (found here beause of the relatively large Australian ex-pat population in New Adelaide), and the overall "wild west" feel to the settlement. Scientific and mining teams that explore Valles Marineris usually use New Adelaide as their home base because of its central location, so the town's Merchants' Quarter caters to these expeditions. As yet, the settlement is too small to support an [[Undine], but a few locals hire themselves out when someone wants a tour guide.

Panzer Gruppe trainees from [[Noctis Labyrinthus] can sometimes be seen visiting New Adelaide, either on their own business or acting as guards for the Opal Exchange. Occasionally a [[Foglios|Spark] or two visit the settlement, leading to some speculation that [[Castle Heterodyne] is somewhere near Valles Marineris.

{{places}}
[[Categorylaces in Fenspace]
[[Category:Mars]
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[robkelk]

Hearing no complaints, the drafts for Helium and New Adelaide are now on the Fenwiki, and the Mars page has been adjusted to match.

I also added this sentence to the writeup of southern Helium: "The Mars Terraforming Project also has a temporary base here, which monitors cometary nuclei as they're dropped into Hellas."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[M Fnord]

Since it's a long weekend, have some sketchy. This is a view of the Scarlet Tower and Grand Canal Park (very much a work in progress):


Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[robkelk]

Real-world tech that simply must be used in Helium's construction: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010 ... nergy.html]colour-changing glass.

I think it won't affect your interior shots, Mal... but I'm sure it'll be a pain to model for the exterior shots.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012