The Gagarin Ridge is a steep ridge in Melas Chasma, Valles Marineris on Mars, close to the plain where the Helios mission set up their first Mars base in 1995.
History[]
Soon after the first three crewed Mars missions had landed and set up their bases on the Martian surface early 1995, after analyzing orbital scans, Soviet scientists discovered a potentially huge liquid water deposit in the area. The reservoir was assumed to have the size of Lake Tahoe, which could sustain a colony bigger than the size of Houston. The underground deposit was expected below a ridge close to Helios' Mars base, which was named "Gagarin Ridge", in honor of the Soviet cosmonaut and hero Yuri Gagarin.
The Soviets, whose cosmonauts on Mars were part of NASA's Mars mission at that point, after their own ship had malfunctioned during the journey and their crew had to be rescued by the Americans, subsequently approached Dev Ayesa and Karen Baldwin from Helios Aerospace with the wish to use their equipment, namely the Helios MSAM and their "Big Ass Drill" (BAD), to get access to those water deposits.[1]
- Main article: Gagarin Ridge drilling disaster
During the following drilling operation on top of Gagarin Ridge, a malfunction of the drill led to a fatal chain reaction, mainly caused by Danny Stevens not following orders to prevent further escalation due to his drug problem.[2] This finally caused part of the ridge to slide, leading to a catastrophic landslide that buried most of the infrastructure of Helios' base camp at the foot of the ridge and killed 3 persons.[3]
Gallery[]
See also[]
References
- ↑ For All Mankind TV series, season 3, episode 6, "New Eden"
- ↑ For All Mankind TV series, season 3, episode 7, "Bring It Down"
- ↑ For All Mankind TV series, season 3, episode 8, "The Sands of Ares"