[ RF ] After getting support from congress , NASA begins its mission to send a manned mission to mars ... In 1978

I stare out of the window of the *Trisan* transfer capsule. Earth looks beautiful, to think it may be the last time I ever see it is truly devastating. The last 3 missions to mars, MBES ( Mars base Establishment System ) 1, 2 and 3 all perished due to faults, accidents or the crew going insane ( That was MBES 2, its almost like the astronaut horror story now ). Hopefully none of this would happen to us. 
 
 `` Prepare for burn in, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Engine ignition, commencing burn at 4G for 3 minutes to adjust trajectory to bearing 153c-201'' crackled over my radio as Griet controlled the ship, My only view of what was going on is a 10'' wide screen spooling endless green text. My job is to look for faults, which is hard when the text spools past faster than you can read it. Curse this technology, it is probably the best on earth, our ships computer can apparently operate at 4Mhz of processing which almost boggles the mind. ( Note: The average processing as of now is about 2.5Ghz ). 
 
 1:32 seconds into the burn and something is going wrong. The screen is spooling the same message over and over `` * < Coolant tank failure, re-establishing*'' This is not good. I press the button on my helmet to talk to Griet `` Stop the engines! We have massive scale coolant containment failure in tanks 1,2,3 and 4 is currently not responding'' I almost shout into the headset. Griet calmly responds `` Commencing shutdown procedure, hold on'' I feel a small explosion shudder *Trisan* before the engines suddenly cut out. 
 
 `` Its not looking good'' I report, 2 of the engines were rendered un-serviceable by the mini-explosion and 3 of our 4 coolant tanks are completely dry. A small piece of debris was the culprit. `` Roger that Jacob'' Griet calmly responded, par usual `` You can finish the EVA now, there is nothing more you can do'' she continues `` Roger that Shiny'' 
 
 `` Cut that out Jacob if you do n't want a fist sandwich for dinner'' 
 
 `` A fist sandwich sounds better than the crap they give us'' I snicker back 
 
 `` Do n't tempt me'' Griet bluntly responds. 
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 `` So basically we are going to drift into a slingshot with mars and end up being shot towards Jupiter, we will run out of supplies long before that. Great. Just great. Looks like MBES 4 is n't going to be setting up a base. 
 
 `` Well, we need to do something'' I say to the 4 assembled crew. 
 
 `` That we do'' Griet responds `` But what we can do, I do n't know, first off if we ration food to 1500 calories a day it will last 1 month longer'' 
 
 Looks like were in for the long haul.
