Chapter 1506 - Mars Immigration Wave (1/2)

Just as the Himalia outpost was established, the space elevator built at Mar’s equator was finally completed. The 17,000-kilometer-high space elevator was only half the size of the one on Earth. With the engineering experience of the one built in Xin and on the Moon, this space elevator only took ten months to complete.

Abundant carbon resources provided a huge amount of raw materials for the graphene production line. The long and narrow graphene pipeline that protruded from the universe down to the ground was then connected to the square base station and railroad tracks. They connected the colony ten kilometers away, as well as remote observation stations and mining stations.

A rail transit network that extended from the ground to the sky started to unfold. Although this large network still looked a bit small, it would one day spread throughout every corner of this planet as interstellar colonization continued to expand.

At this moment, a Seagull-class transport ship slowly approached the fiery red planet from deep space. The eight mechanical arms used as gangways slowly descended and firmly fixed the hull. Accompanied by a soft reminder sound, the faint blue lights in the hibernation room lit up, and the hibernation chambers placed down began to open up one by one.

People in different costumes woke up from the hibernation chambers and sat up slowly. They followed the instructions of the attendants and headed to the ship exit. Most of them were immigrants from Earth that came to this land of hope for a new start. At least before they got tired of the endless sea of sand, everything here was so fresh.

The man in a suit walked to the gate. While he was waiting for the elevator, he glanced out the window and pursed his lips disapprovingly.

“This is the spaceport on Mars? Much smaller than the one on Celestial City.”

Beside him, a Jewish man also dressed in a suit walked closer. The two met on Earth and once jointly invested in a traditional steel plant, but they were on the verge of bankruptcy under the impact of the space smelting industry. Fortunately, the UA joined the Earth Defense Alliance, and after the two negotiated, they sold the factory and took the remaining capital to the Mars colony to try their luck.

“Small means opportunity. Now the 6X4 specification connection port on Celestial Trade has risen by 1 million Xin New dollars, and at this place, you only need to pay freight from Celestial City to Mars. And I have studied that the price of iron ore here is less than one-third the price on Celestial City…”

“That cheap?!”

“In the future, it will be cheaper! And we will be rich! One day, we will be in Nouveau York… No, in the Central of Penglai, we will buy a 500 square meter office as the headquarters of our group!” The Jewish businessman waved his fist ambitiously, looked at the planet outside the window, and said in excitement. He was indeed a natural in business.

On the other side, there were immigrants in plain clothes.

In addition to the immigrants that applied at their own expense, there were also immigrants sent to Mars in the form of staff. Most of them brought their family. Because of the subsidy policy on the colony, they planned to settle here for a long time.

A gentle woman held onto her four-year-old daughter. While a man with scum on his chin and a head full of black hair held onto his daughter’s left hand. He looked about 30 years old. The man smiled delightfully as his daughter jumped around, then he leaned down and teased her.

“Doudou, remember to hold my hand, don’t get lost. If you run around and get lost, the Devil Worm may eat you.”

His daughter recalled the one she had seen in the museum, and she quickly showed a frightened expression. But then she noticed the smile on her mother’s face and immediately realized that her father was teasing her again. She stuck out her tongue and made a funny face, then turned her head around to look at her mom and ignored her dad.

“Mom, mom, will we live here in the future?”

“That’s right. Dad found a new job here, and there is no need to pay rent or save for a down payment…”

“My dear, why are you telling a kid about this? It’s our turn to go into the elevator.”

The man interrupted his wife, gently squeezed his daughter’s delicate hand, and walked to the elevator door with his family.

There were not only families that decided to settle on Mars, but also tourists that came here for fun.

The ticket to Mars was not cheap at this moment, but it still couldn’t stop people’s enthusiasm for another planet. A traveler with a backpack and a selfie stick in his hand leaned against the floor-to-ceiling window, that revealed Mars and the space elevator as the backdrop, while he posed a peace sign to the phone that recorded.

“Wow! Mars! I’m here!”

…

In the faraway North America, Jiang Chen sunk comfortably in the chair in the office on the top floor of the Empire State Building as he listened to Kelvin’s report on Mars.

To be honest, Jiang Chen was having the time of his life these past few days, but he still managed to be on top of his work.

It was the first time that the Mars flight was made available to the public, and it was the first time the Mars space elevator was used for large-scale transportation of immigrants from Earth since its completion. Prior to this, immigrants landed on Mars mainly through airdrops of one-off colonization units, which was not only wasteful but also inefficient.

“…The second group of immigrants has arrived at the Mars colony.”

“We can give it a name of our Heavenly Palace City.” Jiang Chen leaned back against the chair while he smiled at Kelvin on the other side of the holographic screen, “Counting the one thousand Celestial Trade Marines on the surface, the total population of Mars is already 5,000. The blueprint for Heavenly Palace City has been completed, and we can start on the next step.”

After the completion of the space elevator, the cost of transporting supplies and immigrants to Mars was greatly reduced, and mining of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter was the next step. That region was the most resource-rich region in the entire solar system. Ceres, which possessed abundant water resources, and Vesta, which contained a lot of metal ores, were both located there.

“Are you in such a hurry?” Kelvin hesitated, “There will be a conference of Himalia colony on April 1st. I’m worried that our strides will be too big, and we may not be able to bear it in the end.”