Written By Laksshha Khanna (Grade 9)
Day 1
0915 hours (-7 GMT)
This is my first log since we set foot on Mars around 9 hours ago. We are a team of 150 people who arrived at Mars as a part of the SpaceX program. We boarded this aircraft from Hawthorne, California, United States, the headquarters of SpaceX. The sparse greens are the only sign of life apart from us. Currently, I am in my new pod. And I swear if the Hobbit was a Sci-Fi movie their houses would like our pod. The engineers who designed these houses must have been obsessed with the hobbits for it has the same round doors in dazzling white. There were three black arcs in the exterior of the pod, one containing the door and the other two had a window each which would have provided us with a spectacular view if only the view was worth looking at. Everything here is red. Everything, I won’t be surprised if I turn red too. Now let’s get back to me. My stomach is lurching and it feels like someone replaced my bones with Jell-O. My brain is hammering against my skull and black spots keep dancing in front of my eyes now and then. They said it’s “completely normal” to feel like this. Ugh! I hate people.
Update –
1200 hours (-7 GMT)
The clothes here look horrible. I mean we are on Mars and we still have to wear fitted grey overalls. So uncool. There is nothing to do over here for fun and there is only red for miles. Musk and his team are still trying to set up the cable network to air Earth shows to Mars. Why did I think it would be such a great idea to volunteer to go to Mars? Why couldn’t I just watch Netflix instead of watching space documentaries? Screw 16-year-old me. I hate this place.
1430 hours (-7 GMT)
The food tasted better than I thought it would, I have decided to volunteer in the farming department as it is better than installing cable operators or helping people “beautify” this place. I hate this planet, there are no aliens.
1730 hours (-7 GMT)
T- minus 30 before the dinner party! Let’s take out my best dress from my humongous wardrobe. The blue or the black. Let’s snap back into reality Laksha! There is only a grey overall for me to wear. Wow. Did I say that I hate this place?
Day 2
1000 hours (-7 GMT)
The party was horrible, the wind was blowing wildly and we had steak with a garnish of red dust. I signed up as a volunteer in the agricultural department last night and I start in another hour. The only good news I have received is that we will all be given a free PlayStation for “giving our valuable time to volunteer”.
1200 hours (-7 GMT)
I came back from the ugly glass greenhouses right now and let me warn you, do not eat the potatoes, I repeat do not eat the potatoes. They let me plant a couple of potatoes seeds or whatever you call them and I may or may not have added a ridiculous amount of manure instead of soil. My life is boring.
Day 10
1000 hours (-7 GMT)
I forgot to keep writing down in this, life just got so busy. Since the agricultural department wasn’t very keen on having me ruin all their potatoes I was forced to help with setting up the cable connection TV setup which would air Earth shows on Mars since we do not have an entertainment department yet. This reminds me that as soon as that job opening is available I am totally getting into that industry. I have decided that I will write here once every week because I will be busy binge-watching Netflix. Aaah, it feels good saying those words.
Day 11
1200 hours (-7 GMT)
I binge-watched all Julia Roberts movie yesterday and Celene if you are reading this I am sick. For those of you who do not know Celene is the Head of the Agricultural department. It felt good doing something normal. I am slowly getting used to the okayish food. Also, I found out that plants grow ten times faster in the red Martian soil.
Day 16
1300 hours (-7 GMT)
I got obsessed with the plant fact and so now I have a full-fledged garden growing outside my pod. Celene is looking for ways to kick me out of the Agricultural department because of various reasons. The only other bearable thing is research but that requires a lot of work. Why do you think I was in a hurry to leave Earth? As of now, there is no money or currency here. So far so bad.
Day 25
1900 hours (-7 GMT)
Ok so update! A lot happened since then. We spotted aliens, like actual aliens. And saying ‘we’ is incorrect because I spotted the aliens. While I was busy running away from work I absentmindedly walked a little too far. Typical me, but when the mountains started appearing I thought it would be a good idea to be a little productive and climb one. Yes, me, Laksshha, totally willing to climb a mountain, sounds absurd. They are green and look like if you touch them once, they will disintegrate. They have beetle-like eyes and long, thin curly antennas. Their bodies are like sticks! I guess Hollywood got the somewhat correct image of aliens after all. Now we are digging deeper to see if we find more. Finally, life on Mars is getting interesting!
Day 30
0600 hours (-7 GMT)
You know what is unbelievable, I spent a whole month on Mars. We are having a party again! Excited to see the red dust steak again! :/
2100 hours (-7 GMT)
I just came back from the party and you know what is even more unbelievable, we are all going to die. So, if tonight is the end here is one message from me- “Do not go to Mars unless you want to massacred’. The aliens are apparently ‘mad’ at us and the whole idea seems funny because I cannot believe we are threatened by a stick-like creature. Could this be any weirder? Nevertheless, I assume that they think that we are consuming all their resources and they think we will take over this planet (which is somewhat true). But hey, what they said (I assumed) was right. Elon and his team are not very keen to ship us back to Earth because they will lose “billions of dollars” if they do that. What even, there is no money that can replace our lives. After all, it was all his idea and yes, I am playing the blame game. Ugh, I am too mad to write anymore.
Day I don’t know it’s crazy out here
Some o’clock
Ok, so we need to evacuate Mars ASAP. Last night 5 pods were broken and the 2 agricultural greenhouses were burned down. My pod was so close to the disaster zone. The aliens are angry and if we do not leave then they will ruin all the spacecraft that will take us back to Earth which will cost Musk and his team billions of dollars. They know how to communicate with them now don’t they. Also, if we do not have the spacecraft we cannot leave and we all will be killed. A very pleasant ending isn’t it.
Update –
Markus has to be the smartest guy ever. While the rest of us were busy panicking, he found a way to actually communicate with the aliens. He managed to get the message across that we will only conduct research here and nothing more. He made it clear that we were not invading this planet. The aliens demarcated the land till where we could expand and gave us a six-month extension. I feel bad for all companies who were investing and planning to send people to live on Mars. That’s all for now. I will be seeing my folks on Earth very soon.
Featured Image Courtesy – NASA’s Mars Exploration Program
