“Smart man,” Sally observed with a quick grin. She and Tom then went about the business of preparing their snack, arguing good-naturedly about the merits of mayo vs. mustard.
Watching the two of them and perceiving how they interacted, always remaining nearby one another, Brandon’s mind began mulling over the implications of Sally’s somewhat humorless joke. The concept that she and Tom might have contemplated the idea of having a child together was not a problem in his mind. They are two single consenting adults and what they did was their own affair, so to speak. If they are sharing each other’s company… well, why not? So long as they are only sharing each other’s company (or bed to be more precise) and not planning to actually conceive a child on Mars. That could be problematic and possibly life threatening.
Sally is still young enough to potentially becoming pregnant. However, the child would never be able to visit Earth. People visiting Mars from Earth have it easy, going from 1.0 Gee to 0.38 Gee. But, someone born on Mars trying to visit Earth would be going from 1.0 Martian Gee to just over 2.5 Martian Gee. Attempting this would have grave consequences.
A person weighing 70 pounds on Mars would find himself or herself weighing 184 pounds on Earth. This might not sound so bad on Earth, but let’s see it from our Earthly prospective. A person weighing 184 pounds on Earth would find himself or herself weighing 484 pounds on a fictional planet using the same gravity ratios. To take this analogy further, Mars has a very thin and dry atmosphere compared to Earth. So, the atmosphere of that imaginary planet would feel nearly as thick as water to someone from Earth. He or she would have extreme difficulty moving about or even breathing.