Red Mars

Mars dramatically differs from Earth, presenting challenges. Nadia is an engineer who takes great pleasure in finding solutions to the problems facing the mission. She thinks about the coldness of Mars and struggles to remember the gravity of her home planet. After recovering a bulldozer, she’s summoned back to the base to help Mata, Vlad, and Sax prepare to get the habitats online. The first day on Mars is a flurry of activity as the 100 colonists find the scattered equipment that either came with them or was sent ahead. Nadia is central to this effort because she deploys the heavy machinery that will allow them to construct a new base and a factory to make new machines and materials. Each person settles into their new role as they adjust to their new Martian schedule. They work hard, which pleases Nadia even though she’s “aching with fatigue” (131).

Nadia is instrumental to constructing a new settlement. She works to exhaustion each day, a marked change from the dull life on the Ares, where she felt useless. Nadia helps Hiroko set up a greenhouse, helps build the small nuclear reactor (ironically named Chernobyl), and communicates with Arkady’s team on

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