Tomorrow...

For fifty years, Viking 2 had lain dormant on the surface of Mars, its mission completed, a wealth of scientific data harvested for the benefit of a generation of planetary scientists on Earth. And yet, for every question Viking had answered, it yielded a dozen more, the subject of later unmanned missions. Another is approaching, and dust rolls over the landscape as a second lander makes its way to the surface, carefully guided to come within sight of the venerable probe, while ensuring that no damage will come to it.

The comparison between the two vehicles is stark. Viking 2 was the finest piece of technology that could be constructed in its day, but several generations of spaceship design have come and gone since then, and the ‘Bughouse’, technically Precursor One, looks very different, even though it is accomplishing a similar task – a detailed survey of the local terrain. As soon as the dust settles, solar cells roll out across the soil, and the antenna at its top swings around to lock onto Earth.

Protective panels fall away, hinged at the bottom to provide a quintet of ramps, allowing the ‘Bugs’ to emerge. Sojourner-class rovers, less than ten centimetres in length, begin their journey across the landscape. Four of them begin their primary mission, choosing sites on a very different criteria than the normal. Whereas usually the operators would be seeking sites of maximum interest, they are instead looking for areas of the least interest. Flat and smooth spots, with no sites that might present a danger. The fifth, operated at long range by a man not yet born when Viking launched, drives up to the probe, its camera running across the lines of the veteran lander.

Tomorrow, one of the pictures it takes will be on the front page of every major newspaper on Earth.

Within a week, the primary mission of the probes has been completed, and three of them return to the Bughouse, climbing back into their tiny hangars, detailed telemetry being fed back to Earth to determine which should stay in storage. The two in worst condition have remained on the surface. This time, the geologists have their say, and they begin to roam across the region, taking photographs and readings of sites of special interest, mostly following up on those shots taken by Viking, so long ago.

One of them dies in the first week, misfortune trapping it behind a rock, in sufficient shade that its solar cells cannot charge its batteries. There is a back-up design in the event of solar cell failure, a ‘docking station’ that would allow it to recharge from the Bughouse, but that trapped wheel has pinned it in place. No problem; it will still be of some use, later one. The second survives for three months, before suffering a similar fate, a careless moment sending it tipping onto its side, unable to right itself. Mission Control soon puts it to sleep.

And so it rests, for another two years.

Then, one morning, something changes. One of the stored probe awakens from its long slumber, and rolls out onto the desert once more, heading for one of the sites of no geologic interest identified during the first period of exploration. A tall antenna rises from its back, and a beacon begins to transmit. An hour later, a shadow falls across the desert floor as another lander makes its descent, far larger than even the Bughouse. This is Icarus, and it is the first vehicle to land on Mars with an airlock.

As the lander settles on the surface, the airlock cracks open, a ladder descending to the dust, and a pair of suited figures step out. One of them takes the short walk to the two stranded rovers, putting them back on their wheels. The first will simply need to recharge; the second will require work, but that’s one of his first duties when they get settled in. They’ll have plenty of time – more than a year on the surface before the window of their return to Earth.

The other astronaut walks over to Viking, looks at the lander, a smile on his face, and pats one of the support struts as though petting a dog.

“Hello, old friend,” he says. “Sorry we took so long.”

It is November 7th, 2031, and the greatest adventure in human history is about to begin...