Ty began, “Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, my fellow colleagues, it is my extreme honor to stand before you this evening as the team leader of such a fine group of individuals. Each and every one of them was selected for their expertise in not only one field of study, but two, and in some cases, three or more.” He made a sweeping gesture in the direction of Dr. Valerie Thomas, and the room stood to applaud once more. Valerie stood up and nodded to the audience in grateful acceptance, smiling broadly.
Ty continued, “We, the crew of Bolo One, have been honored and blessed to be selected as the first crew to venture beyond Low Earth Orbit and even the Moon, to travel outward to the next planet from the sun, Mars. It is our goal to travel to Mars, study the planet, establish a base of continued exploration, and return safely to our loved ones back here on Earth. A two-and-a-half year roundtrip mission, spent battling the solar radiation of space, the reduced gravity and micro-thin atmosphere of Mars, and the worst of all hazards, the boredom of the six-month transit there and back again.” He smiled broadly and a roar of applause and laughter erupted from the auditorium. “And so with that, I would like to introduce to you the crew of Bolo One. To my immediate right, my second in command and a wonderful mechanical engineer, as well as a top-notch geologist, …”
Ten months later: Friday, May 11, 2018 (Alanday, Sagittarius 25, 0031)
A distant and disembodied voice came over their headsets, “Launch in one minute… 60… 59… 58…” Preparation is underway for the launch of the first manned mission to Mars. On a mission such as this, it is important to keep the overall spacecraft weight to a minimum. To this end the crew will consist of two medical doctors, two geologists, two horticulturists and two chemists, along with one geochemist and three mechanical engineers. All of these duties will be shared by the six-person crew, each possessing multiple talents.