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The Eburacum Gazetteer of Colonized and Inhabited Worlds

An illustrated catalogue of some of the various worlds found in the civilized galaxy; part of the Orion’s Arm Worldbuilding Project;

These illustrations have been produced using the Celestia Space Simulator.

Mars in the Interplanetary Age

Mars was colonised in the Early Interplanetary Age, and the process of terraforming was started soon after. But it turned out to be much more difficult than first thought; the regolith was salty, and sulphurous; there was little water, and economically important metal ores were relatively rare. A long distance mission to the outer solar system was put together by the NARESA  (North American/Russian/European) space authority in 2165, armed with several powerful nuclear weapons; two small comets were diverted to impact the Martian poles, and this was sufficient to partially melt the reserves of ice already there. By 2300 the atmosphere reached 150 millibars, enough to allow some genetically tweaked humans to dispense with pressurised suits (but they still required basic oxygen masks at that time).

Mars: Hellas Hemisphere

Mars: Port Robinson Hemisphere

Martian Population centers in 300 A.T (After Tranquillity) :

Major settlements include Robinson (site of the first manned base and capital of the new Martian Republic), Xianhongshan (Scarlet Mountain), the future capital Olympia (with breathtaking views of nearby Olympus Mons), Chaos, New Cydonia City, Aresopolis, Liwei,  Schiaparelli City and Lucky Strike.
Tharsis, Mariner City, Tithonius and  Coprates are populous settlements  in the Valles Marineris region (the canyons in this region have an extensive Earthlike pressurised environment).

To import volatiles to the inhabited surface of the Red Planet, and export agricultural products and nanofactured goods to the Asteroid Belt in particular, a beanstalk was built from Deimos to the surface. Here a modular freighter vessel is seen passing near the counterweight.

The other Moon of Mars was allowed to remain in orbit, necessitating occasional adjustments to the space elevator as it passes by. Here Phobos is seen from the pioneering probe Opportunity in 2004 in transit across the Sun; shortly after 2300 Phobos became the Martian Capital, but suffered badly in the Nanoswarms and the capital is now Olympia City. The process of terraforming was never completed, as the genetically tweaked New Martians became dominant on this world; this process has occurred on many other small worlds, as genetic adjustments can cut the cost of terraforming considerably.

The lack of a protective magnetic field has been compensated for by the famous Lagrange Magshield, here seen under construction; this was the first of countless similar structure built to protect terraformed worlds around the Civilised Galaxy.