Prologue

Immerse yourself into the world of our future.

It is 2222 A.D. The Earth is still bustling with many life forms, but a rapid growth in human population has made us to find for other habitable places. Even, Oceans have been conquered.

Some heavenly body in space would be a permanent solution to this problem.

Fortunately, for us, scientists have found out an earth-like planet, Icarus, in our own Milky Way galaxy, at a distance of about 13-light years from us. 13-light years, sounds small, but it is actually 76 trillion miles away from us. Human beings have made spacecrafts capable of achieving speeds up to 25% of the speed of light. That means it would take around 52 years to reach Icarus. You would think, it is a very long duration, considering the Human life expectancy in the past, but thanks to Genetic engineering, death is now a topic in our history books.

This planet is Earth-like because of the similarity of its size, and distance from its host star, to that of Earth. Its host star is a red dwarf, about a quarter the mass of our sun, and about 0.2% as bright. Because red dwarfs are small and dim, the habitable zones around them form a tight circle, and any Earth-like planet will orbit very close to it. That implies that such a planet is subjected to intense radiation, and "tidally locked" to its star, with one side always in the dark and the other always in the light. Icarus is a small rocky planet, warm enough to have liquid water on its surface and is a host to alien life. Our powerful space telescopes orbiting around earth have confirmed this. However, to find out about the nature of aliens, is beyond the scope of our telescopes.

Scientists have decided against launching a probe to the planet, given the lack of time and livable place on Earth. Therefore, a manned spacecraft will be launched, without further delay. This spacecraft would reach Icarus in 52 years. This attempt to colonize Icarus, would consist of a team of 10 scientists, who have been trained mentally and physically, according to the conditions that would be found there.

What are the options with us, considering it would take another century to terraform Icarus?   

Meanwhile, colonization of moon or of Mars is the only option left for us.

Colonization of moon would be tougher than that of Mars, due to the scarcity of resources in the former. Mars has more than one-third of the gravity on Earth, while moon has only one-sixth of that on Earth. Considering the fact that gravity plays an important role in our lives, it would be difficult to adapt to the conditions on the moon.

Now, Mars remains the only hope for us, for at least another century.

Author's Note

How is the beginning or would it be best to begin from the middle of the story?
Please review.

Reviews

[byPatKeegan]

I agree with @Allegra - Although this is interesting, I am largely not a fan of prologues. I used to be though but in recent years i've decided against including them. Simply put, they are not needed. I have some lessons learned that i'm publishing as a course - I just updated on why not to prologue if you're interested.

http://www.writerscafe.org/courses/Better-Fiction/6711/To-Prologue-%28or-not%21%29--that-is-the-question./6716/

[Marc Marlon Villaflor]

I like to open this story with the actions and character building or magnification of the main character. Then the backstory can be unfolded in the later course. But I like the idea of Mars and Moon exploration. It's like a long story & unpredictable. It is a good Start! Keep writing.

[Allegra Pescatore]

it's interesting, but more as backstory than an introduction, personally I like to be drawn in to actions, characters or setting that are explored wit the senses. But it's an interesting concept.

[Jade]

The ending sentence really opens up a whole new range of possibilities for the story to go. This would be a good intro.

[Dev]

Thank you for your suggestion.

[Karlong]

An interesting storyline, one which humans actually get off the planet in a crisis rather than every other book ever. Well done

[Dev]

Thank you

[Jonathan Biswell]

sounds great cant wait for the rest

[Dev]

Thank you very much