Mars

Mars is John Evans’ home world. Its day is roughly thirty-nine minutes longer than an Earth day, a difference that shapes shifts, meals, irrigation, and off-world communication.

Port Alpha

John lives in Port Alpha, where air returns, water loops, tram lines, and district scrubbers give daily life its rhythm. A retired pressure door becomes a communal dining table; its inspection stamps remain visible beneath the finish.

Places in the story

• Port Alpha — John’s home and departure point.
• Ring Four — an agricultural ring where plant behaviour challenges a controller’s report.
• Sector Seven — a related root-culture incident appears in the records.
• The Valles geothermal districts — part of Paul Evans’ engineering work.
• Hellas Basin — Jennifer Evans surveys abandoned industrial sites south of the basin.

In the book

Chapters One–Three establish everyday life on Mars and the first discrepancies.

Back to places

In The Divide

The Divide focuses on the Valles geothermal plant and the three habitats it serves: Olympus Prime, Renticuluous Alpha and Volallies Beta. Family kitchens, growing spaces, service galleries and control rooms show different parts of the same dependence on working infrastructure.

In The Two-Body Problem

The Two-Body Problem approaches life on Mars through food and cultivation. The Olympus Prime agricultural extension connects greenhouse expertise, family plots and collective dependence on living systems.