Two cities.
One planet.
Elysium proved people can live on Mars. Promethea will prove they can thrive there. Both were built by Talos crews before the first colonist stepped out of a pod.
Elysium
Humanity's first city on another planet. Elysium was planned for eight hundred. When Pardons for Passports opened the door, more than thirteen hundred people walked through it, and Elysium made room for every one of them.
Elysium from the eastern rise. Three Titan Ships on the landing field at right.Sol —
| Location | Elysium Planitia · 3.0° N 154.7° E |
|---|---|
| First landing | 14 Sep 2029 · Cohort 2 |
| Residents | 1,314 |
| Design capacity | 800 |
| Layout | Hub · 4 spokes · 8 residential zones · industrial annex |
| CO₂ removal | Amine primary · zeolite secondary · LiOH emergency reserve |
| Maintenance | Talos fleet · fixed schedule |
| Mission control | Fully autonomous since 2029 |
| Link to Earth | Ares Link via Houston Communications Hub |
Belt, suspenders, and a spare belt.
Every zone runs two independent regenerative CO₂ systems with different chemistries, so a problem with one can never become a problem with both. Behind them sits a single-use lithium hydroxide reserve. Talos units service every bed on a fixed rotation, so the system is predictable down to the hour.
The first autonomous city.
In 2029 Elysium became the first settlement anywhere to run on fully autonomous mission operations. Freed from routine monitoring, our human controllers moved to the Promethea program, where their judgment matters most.
Promethea
Built over a buried ice sheet in Utopia Planitia. Promethea mines its own water, makes its own air and fuel, and was designed from the first sketch around a public garden at its heart.
The heart of the city is Arcadia: three levels of gardens, orchards and parkland rising floor to dome, with basil and strawberries at your elbow and the Martian sky overhead.
Three-level hydroponic garden and park under the gold dome.
Public dining and a coffee bar with a real espresso machine.
Concerts, lectures, town meetings and movie nights.
Science: labs, nuclear lab, suitlocks for field crews.
Fabrication shop, large-format printers, gym and dojo.
Medical center and the Cohort 3 biohazard team.
| Location | Utopia Planitia · 46.7° N 117.5° E |
|---|---|
| Cohort | 3 · arriving Window 3 |
| Full build-out | 2,160 residents · 6 habitats |
| Water | Heat-pump hydrothermal extraction |
| Ice depth | 80–170 m below surface |
| Power | 4 × 10 MWe fission · 2.2 ha solar |
Why ice changes everything.
Water is the most expensive thing to ship to Mars. At Promethea we don't have to. Closed-loop heat pumps send warm fluid down to the ice sheet and bring water back up, and a single well produces enough each sol for a full habitat. Split it and you have oxygen to breathe. Combine it with carbon dioxide from the air and you have methane for the trip home, whenever there is one.
Site geology for Promethea is led by Dr. Graham McKenzie, whose background in materials science brings an engineer's rigor to the planet's subsurface.
A day at Promethea.
Mars time runs 39 minutes and 35 seconds longer than an Earth day. Here's how the residents of Promethea will spend it.
- 06:30Hub trackA run under the dome
The hub track loops Arcadia. Most people run it once before work. Some run it to think.
- 08:00BeagleShift starts
Geologists sort basalt by hand. Engineers rebuild rover wheels in Endeavor. Field crews dock their suits at the Beagle suitlocks and step straight into the lab.
- 12:30The MessTaco Tuesday, every day
Public tables, fresh herbs from Arcadia, and a rotating menu designed by people who miss home.
- 15:50Coffee barA real latte
We hauled an espresso machine 225 million kilometers. It was worth it.
- 17:00EndeavorKarate, rowing, lifting
The gym in Endeavor runs classes from yoga to karate. At 0.38 g, everyone's deadlift goes up.
- 19:30AmphitheaterBach on Mars
A cellist warms up. People bring dinner. The sky in the dome goes from pink to amber to blue.
Every voice comes home.
Messages, voice and video between Mars and the people you love, with no extra cost to colonists or their families.
Mars is between 3 and 22 light-minutes away. Ares Link queues every message and delivers it the moment the relay window opens, overnight in batches so your inbox is full when you wake up.
Deep-space links drop packets and smear audio. ORACLE rebuilds every message using a model trained on each colonist's own voice, writing and expressions, so the people you love always sound like themselves.
Solar conjunction and relay outages can interrupt any deep-space link. If an outage lasts longer than 72 hours, Continuity Assurance automatically keeps your family's conversations flowing until full service returns. There is nothing you need to do.
Messages are encrypted end to end between the Houston Communications Hub and your device. Colonist personality profiles are created with consent during pre-mission training.
Sunsets on Mars are blue.
Fine dust scatters red light away from the sun and lets blue through. Cohort 4 will see their first one in 2033.