The Little Red Planet Who Could: More Mars

Interesting Planets/Human Space/Sol System/Mars/Mars.md

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+# Mars: Fuelling Humanity
+> "The day of Martian destiny is here, all children of the Red Planet! For liberty, for equality, for Mars!"
+
+For as long as Man has looked at the night sky, he has had a dream; of dominion over more than the land beneath his feet, to pierce the heavens and find new soil to tread. And no jewel of the stars was as tempting as Mars; Earth's closest companion in the void, glimpsed through telescopes and grainy photography for centuries before the first human foot landed on its sandy surface. But as space became the new frontier and thousands took to the void in search of new homes, Mars fell to the wayside; its dusty surface simply being incompatible with any real degree of comfortable living. And yet, that romance that drew the imagination of humans for millenia never faded; companies continued attempts to prospect on Mars, chief amongst them Cybersun Industries, and as terraforming techniques matured, it became clear that Mars was a viable candidate as a testbed for terraforming at a full planetary scale.
+
+Throughout the centuries, Mars was made habitable. It's still quite dusty, and it gets pretty cold at times, but there's oxygen in the air, trees in the cities, and that inhospitable nature that prevented humanity from settling the Red Planet is gone. Which is lucky, because it's also absolutely loaded with mineral wealth, tucked far beneath the surface.
+
+Mars' main source of wealth is its plasma mines, which serve as humanity's primary source of the valuable material. Other minerals important for modern manufacturing are also in relative abundance, which helps to fuel both Mars' own forges and factories, as well as those of other major industrial sites in the Central Core systems. Financial services also make up a large portion of the Martian economy, mostly centred in New Osaka. Tourism was once an important source of revenue, but has fallen as the general romance of the Red Planet has faded and more people venture further afield, in search of nice beaches and exotic locales instead of endless dusty red dunes.
+
+# A Short History of Mars
+### Martian Pioneering
+The initial wave of settlement on Mars came in the form of corporate staking, with a number of corporations making landfall and setting up sealed colonies on the surface to take advantage of the planet's mineral wealth. Chief amongst these corporate pioneers was Cybersun Industries, who set up a network of colonies across the planet's flatter northern regions, particularly in the Amenthes, Elysium and Arabia quadrangles. These early days on Mars were characterised by hard living, which created a hardy pioneering spirit amongst the miners that came to live on the planet. As greater finds were made under Mars' surface, the population slowly but steadily increased, although with more habitable planets being discovered in Alpha Centauri and beyond, Mars was not many colonists' first choice for where to go.
+
+Many of the colonies settled during this period went on to become Mars' largest cities, including New Osaka (Oda), Shu-Kouba (Suwa), Mikage (Asakura) and Argead (Yamana).
+
+### Terraforming
+Mars would remain as an industrial outpost until the advent of terraforming technology. Initially used only on a constrained basis on certain worlds, as the technology matured and developed, it became clear that terraforming a full planet was not only possible, but entirely feasible. Many candidates were explored to become humanity's first terraformed world, but none stood out more than Mars, which had captured the imagination of humanity for millenia and was an important industrial world in its own right. Initial steps included adding water from ice mined from asteroids, the seeding of an artificial atmosphere, and the establishment of a series of forests to act as the planet's "lungs" and sustain the atmosphere. Later, temperature control measures and magnetosphere alterations were put in place. This trial of terraforming on Mars was not only a success, but a stunning one, with a far shorter timeframe than originally anticipated. The lessons learned from this endeavour would go on to inform humanity's geoengineering efforts on numerous other worlds.
+
+In the wake of the terraforming, Mars underwent a significant boom period which has come to be known as the Plasma Century, with incredible profits generated by resource extraction coupled with mass immigration to Mars' burgeoning cities spurred by this prosperity.
+
+### Fires of Rebellion
+With this explosive growth, however, came new challenges. Mars was previously held as essentially a colonial possession under a patchwork of corporate ownership. With the growth in population and general shift away from purely economic exploitation, TerraGov took an interest in uniting the colony and bringing it under federal supervision as a new Federal Territory of Mars, as had already been done with colonies such as Adasta or Astarte. Despite corporate pushback, TerraGov was soon able to achieve this goal (although it required paying large indemnities to the affected corporations), finally admitting Mars as an official territory, and assigning it a number of seats in the Senate based upon its population.
+
+Shortly afterwards, however, this senatorial representation would prove to be a sticking point for Mars. With a rapidly growing population, the number of senate positions quickly became too few to adequately represent the state; Martians began to feel as though they were being dictated to by Earth, with no real ability to exert a voice within the political institutions of the Federation. As their dissatisfaction fell on deaf ears at the senate, it would eventually grow into a revolutionary fervor, with key Martian figures becoming increasingly vocal about how Mars needed better; perhaps it would be better off without TerraGov, to be its own nation. Heavy-handed crackdowns by the Federal authorities did little to help this sentiment, and before long, Mars was in open rebellion against Terran rule.
+
+The first spark of revolution came in 2270, when a protest at the Governor General's office in New Osaka became a riot. The Martian-born troops dispatched to restore order turned against their Terran officers, and joined the rioters in storming the Governor's office and capturing him. This spark grew into a flame across New Osaka, with fighting erupting in the streets, and a schism forming in the military on Mars between those loyal to the Federation and those loyal to their planet. In the coming days, a Provisional Government was set up, declaring a new Martian Republic, free from TerraGov and their tyranny.
+
+This would bring an end to the Plasma Century and lead to the bloody days of the Martian Rebellion, which lasted 8 long years and saw extensive fighting across the Martian landscape. In the end, Mars' fierce resistance was able to bring TerraGov to the negotiating table, wherein a new series of laws regarding the colonies was drafted, granting more proportional representation based on population and the tools for reallocation of senatorial seats in response to large population shifts. The war-weary Martians accepted the deal, rejoining the Terran Federation as the Free State of Mars.
+
+### Mars Today
+Since the Concession, Mars has returned to its position as an industrial powerhouse within the Federation. It remains the largest single source of plasma for the nation, totalling about 25% of all plasma produced.

Interesting Planets/Human Space/Sol System/Mars/Martian Culture.md

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+# Martian Culture
+
+## Red Bay Seasoning
+> "250年間火星の味 - MARS' FAVORITE SPICE"
+
+Ask an offworlder what they associate with Martian cuisine, and you're likely to get a few answers: maybe ramen, maybe sushi, probably some mention of fried foods. But for those who truly understand the Red Planet, one answer reigns supreme over the rest, and that is Red Bay Seasoning.
+
+Red Bay first hit the Martian culinary scene in Shu-Kouba's own Bar President, owned and operated by an expat from the city of Baltimore. Originally a house blend for fries, the seasoning became a hit with the local crowds, and was adopted into the local food scene and then by Zanshiro Foods (now a subdivision of APdA), who began to market the spice under the name it is now synonymous with. After the 2310 Martian Grand Slam final brought Mars' masses to Shu-Kouba, it became a planetwide hit.
+
+Red Bay is now a massive product, sold across the Terran Federation (and beyond- the Moths love it!), but no planet has a greater affection for it than its homeworld of Mars. It's a staple seasoning in Martian kitchens, to a degree that ranges from understandable, such as its use in CHAP Musubi or as a topping for ramen, to the frankly baffling, such as the Red Bay latte or Red Bay chocolate. However, its cultural reach is far beyond just its use in food; Red Bay is an iconic symbol of Mars, and for this reason its iconography is very popular in merchandising and art on the Red Planet. Polling suggests that Kani-Chan, Red Bay's delightful chibi snow-crab mascot, is more popular on Mars than the Terran president by a wide margin; indeed, in the early 2400s a parody political party led by a man in a Kani-Chan outfit gained a surprising amount of grassroots support for the Martian Governorship-General before meeting an ignominious end via a major lawsuit from Zanshiro Foods. This stunt did, however, make Kani-Chan a focal point of the Martian counterculture even to this day.