Webcomic-The Meridian Way

[lamontagne]

The illustration and design work I have been doing on the "Envisioning Amazing Martian Habitats" page has somehow transformed itself into a web comic.  Probably because new software tools have made it possible for me to include human characters without having to actually draw them.

My idea with this thread is to publish one page at a time and to invite technical comments on the elements of the illustration: for example size of the tanks for the vehicles, function of the various illustrated elements, etc. so for once it might be possible to get the details 'right'  :-)

I will also be publishing support 'documentation' about the various elements seen in the illustrations.  And of course integrating any proposal that improves the accuracy of the technical elements, or even of the story ones!

This first page presents the main vehicle for the story: A large ground based semi truck transporting both containers and a small number of passengers, moving along the Meridian Way, a 2000+ km road between Surya and Arkadia.

The general overview of the Martian settlement can be found in the following Website :
https://sites.google.com/view/foundationcitystate/accueil

Hope you all enjoy this and feel free to comment at will!


A few likes now and then would be a great encouragement to the author 

The entire story is available s a .pdf file at the end of the images bellow.

[lamontagne]

Plan and details of the Landcruiser.

[lamontagne]

Alternate first pages.
More impactful, more illustrative.  Favorites?

[SpeakertoAnimals]

Alternate first pages.
More impactful, more illustrative.  Favorites?

Does the road "Meridian Way" follow a path of least resistance or has there been "road construction". Or an "evolving" combo of both? This would affect design of the vehicle.
Edit: This comes from observing the co-evolution of roads and vehicles.

[lamontagne]

Alternate first pages.
More impactful, more illustrative.  Favorites?

Does the road "Meridian Way" follow a path of least resistance or has there been "road construction". Or an "evolving" combo of both? This would affect design of the vehicle.
Edit: This comes from observing the co-evolution of roads and vehicles.

Follows a path of least resistance.  There has been some road construction, probably a crusher unit with a truck and shovel. Perhaps some sulfur concrete when required. At 100 km/h there has to be a fair amount of road preparation, I expect.  I've worked in mining a part of my career and the vehicle is really evolved mining truck in many ways. 
The road is under competition from parabolic rockets that do the same trip under one hour.  As the two cities are quite distant, 2200 km, with very little in between it's not a 'silk road' type development.  The cities are very self reliant, and produce most things locally.  The road crosses an area that seems quite flat for most of the trip.

[SpeakertoAnimals]

Alternate first pages.
More impactful, more illustrative.  Favorites?

Does the road "Meridian Way" follow a path of least resistance or has there been "road construction". Or an "evolving" combo of both? This would affect design of the vehicle.
Edit: This comes from observing the co-evolution of roads and vehicles.

Follows a path of least resistance.  There has been some road construction, probably a crusher unit with a truck and shovel. Perhaps some sulfur concrete when required. At 100 km/h there has to be a fair amount of road preparation, I expect.  I've worked in mining a part of my career and the vehicle is really evolved mining truck in many ways. 
The road is under competition from parabolic rockets that do the same trip under one hour.  As the two cities are quite distant, 2200 km, with very little in between it's not a 'silk road' type development.  The cities are very self reliant, and produce most things locally.  The road crosses an area that seems quite flat for most of the trip.

Next questions. If rockets are much faster and the 2 cities are mostly self reliant, what is the impetus for the costs and labor of road development and vehicle construction/maintenance? Also, why is there "very little in-between"? Wouldn't there be weather stations, exploration, prospecting, mineral extraction etc? In other words, some resource (perhaps copper/nickle or rare earths deposited by meteor) could justify the road and give story line and other options.

[lamontagne]

Next questions. If rockets are much faster and the 2 cities are mostly self reliant, what is the impetus for the costs and labor of road development and vehicle construction/maintenance? Also, why is there "very little in-between"? Wouldn't there be weather stations, exploration, prospecting, mineral extraction etc? In other words, some resource (perhaps copper/nickel or rare earths deposited by meteor) could justify the road and give story line and other options.

Exactly as you say, some mines, some small cities, some tourism and a bit of trade. But no large cities or populations.
With 48 containers, each Landcruiser carries about 4-5 million $ worth of goods.
There is bound to be some trade as well, as the Southern city has cheaper energy production and the Northern city a longer history of development.
Pressurized containers have been in use for many decades in this future.

[SpeakertoAnimals]

Next questions. If rockets are much faster and the 2 cities are mostly self reliant, what is the impetus for the costs and labor of road development and vehicle construction/maintenance? Also, why is there "very little in-between"? Wouldn't there be weather stations, exploration, prospecting, mineral extraction etc? In other words, some resource (perhaps copper/nickel or rare earths deposited by meteor) could justify the road and give story line and other options.

Exactly as you say, some mines, some small cities, some tourism and a bit of trade. But no large cities or populations.
With 48 containers, each Landcruiser carries about 4-5 million $ worth of goods.
There is bound to be some trade as well, as the Southern city has cheaper energy production and the Northern city a longer history of development.
Pressurized containers have been in use for many decades in this future.

How long have the 2 cities had people? I'm guessing the road was created sometime after Surya was started and that the Landcruiser is a fairly recent development. How does the size of Landcruiser compare to other ground vehicles, past and current. Does Landcruiser have an emergency airlock for EVA repair of breakdowns or to abandon the vehicle?

[lamontagne]

How long have the 2 cities had people? I'm guessing the road was created sometime after Surya was started and that the Landcruiser is a fairly recent development. How does the size of Landcruiser compare to other ground vehicles, past and current. Does Landcruiser have an emergency airlock for EVA repair of breakdowns or to abandon the vehicle?

Colonization has gone over the 1 000 000 people mark at this point.  It has been going on for about 70 years.
Yes there are two airlocks.  The steward now has a spacesuit, that will come in useful latter, I believe. (Thanks for the question!)
For the passengers I'm hesitating between rescue balls as for the Space Shuttle, or some kind of futuristic one size fits all suit.  Rescue balls seems more likely.
The land cruiser is quite large.  More typical vehicles are based on the Tesla Semi electric platform, adopted to Mars.  So much smaller.
The Landcruiser roads are perhaps two decades old?  They were much smaller dirt roads before, and way back a first Rover route, that was soon Lidar and 3D scanned for a self driving route.
The origin of the Landcruiser cabin is probably small individual residential or semi mobile habitats, Mars made.  It has a 270 m2 upper deck and about 180 m2 bellow.  It has a double tube structure for more floor space.  (9m x 30m)
In general you do not abandon the vehicle.  Stay with the ship! is the motto.  Mars has a Starlink satellite system and the vehicle is monitored full time.
In case of Emergency, the 'Red hats' fly in at full speed!!
The wheel air pressure is about 80-85 psi

[SpeakertoAnimals]

So, it appears the Landcruiser could act like earth trains, or more like cross-country busses and "deliver the mail", drop/pickup passengers ("Fred will pick me up at milepost 483") or freight ("I ordered a new turboencabulator from Amazon") or restock consumables ("Latitude 38 Outpost would like 1000 kg of O2"). Sounds like Landcruiser is a fairly mature vehicle but I could see breakdowns still occurring out in the sticks, so there could be a spare "cruiser" at "Midway Station" for broken axles or the like. I'm trying to come up with a Mars version of "We had to stop because of a herd of sheep across the road."

[lamontagne]

So, it appears the Landcruiser could act like earth trains, or more like cross-country busses and "deliver the mail", drop/pickup passengers ("Fred will pick me up at milepost 483") or freight ("I ordered a new turboencabulator from Amazon") or restock consumables ("Latitude 38 Outpost would like 1000 kg of O2"). Sounds like Landcruiser is a fairly mature vehicle but I could see breakdowns still occurring out in the sticks, so there could be a spare "cruiser" at "Midway Station" for broken axles or the like. I'm trying to come up with a Mars version of "We had to stop because of a herd of sheep across the road."

We'll have to see, won't we?  There are midway stations, I expect we'll visit at least one.  One major side road exists, off toward Mount Olympus.  There may be others.  There is a Chinese city somewhere, but I don't know where yet and if it will be involved in this story.

[jdon759]

This looks interesting.

What non-SpaceX Earth-Mars transport is there?  I think it would be unusual if Starship is still the only option for that, given that this is set almost a century into the future.

[lamontagne]

This looks interesting.

What non-SpaceX Earth-Mars transport is there?  I think it would be unusual if Starship is still the only option for that, given that this is set almost a century into the future.

Mars has developed it's own ground to orbit rocket, the Albatross, the ferries between Mars surface and Phobos station. 
On the Earth to Mars route, there are chemical rockets that do it 'the old fashioned way' and for a number of decades now nuclear powered electric rockets using high energy density thrusters.  I don't really know how these came about, it's not part of this story at this point.  The chemical rockets use direct orbits with aggressive aerobraking for short transit times.  The nuclear vehicles are used more for cargo and Hohmann transfer orbits.
The nuclear vehicles use pressurized containers for cargo.  These have become ubiquitous and can be found everywhere.  This is the type of container the Landcruiser is hauling.

[libra]

Awesome project... will follow this closely.

[lamontagne]

Here goes, page 1.

The story should be self explanatory, or with just small delays for story telling purposes.
However, the happy author may have failed on that point so don't hesitate to ask or point out things.

For example, the hero is called Lucy, and is a journalist. I know that, but how do say it if you don't have a friendly speaking dog for dialog?
There will probably be many references to Tintin in my comments.

[lamontagne]

Changing the monologue to " Surya  looked its best in the daytime, when the space mirrors flooded the place with sunlight."

Which draws attention to the lights in the sky, I hope, and highlights the fact that things are not as on Earth.
The mirrors are a significant background item in the current situation of the settlement.

[lamontagne]

A typical Surya module, cross sections.

These have evolved from the original 9m Starship placed on their sides that characterized the early settlements.
9-18-40m diameter are the general diameters.

In Arkadia, when (if!) we get to it, the modules will mainly be vertical.

[libra]

There will probably be many references to Tintin in my comments.

Cool.

[lamontagne]

Page 2.
Arkadia and Surya are the two main population poles of Foundation, a Martian City state of about 1 000 000 inhabitants, 60-80 years after colonization starts.

As I am traveling I haven't quite finished the model of the habitats and don't have the required software on my laptop.  So I will eventually repost with more trees and plants in the end park.

[lamontagne]

Updated with trees and slightly different text.